step-framework

A modular Java framework providing reusable infrastructure components for building robust, production-grade applications. Originally developed at exense to power the Step automation platform, the framework is open for external use and contributions.

For full documentation, architecture details, and getting started guides, see the main repository: github.com/exense/step

Overview

step-framework abstracts away common application server concerns — persistence, REST APIs, authentication, access control, audit logging, and time series metrics — so that teams can focus on business logic rather than infrastructure plumbing.

Modules

Module	Artifact ID	Description
Core	step-framework-core	Foundational utilities: async execution, plugin system, classpath scanning, and authentication abstractions
Model	step-framework-model	Shared data model: entity definitions, accessors, collection filters, and object enrichers
Collections	step-framework-collections	Database-agnostic collection API with in-memory and filesystem implementations, a query language (QL), and schema migration support
Collections – MongoDB	step-framework-collections-mongodb	MongoDB backend for the collections API (via MongoJack)
Collections – PostgreSQL	step-framework-collections-postgresql	PostgreSQL backend for the collections API (via HikariCP + JDBC)
Server	step-framework-server	RESTful server framework built on Jersey/Jetty with Swagger/OpenAPI, access control, security, and audit logging
Server Plugins	step-framework-server-plugins	Plugin and version management infrastructure for server extensions
Time Series	step-framework-timeseries	Time series engine: metric definitions, time bucketing, data ingestion, aggregation, and querying

Requirements

• Java 11 or later
• Maven 3.6 or later

Getting Started

Add the BOM (Bill of Materials) to your project to manage dependency versions consistently:

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>ch.exense.step</groupId>
      <artifactId>step-framework</artifactId>
      <version>VERSION</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

Then add only the modules you need:

<!-- Core utilities -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>ch.exense.step</groupId>
  <artifactId>step-framework-core</artifactId>
</dependency>

<!-- Collections with MongoDB backend -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>ch.exense.step</groupId>
  <artifactId>step-framework-collections-mongodb</artifactId>
</dependency>

<!-- REST server -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>ch.exense.step</groupId>
  <artifactId>step-framework-server</artifactId>
</dependency>

Replace VERSION with the latest release available on Maven Central.

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/exense/step-framework.git
cd step-framework
mvn clean install

To skip tests during the build:

mvn clean install -DskipTests

Step Ecosystem

step-framework is part of the Step open-source automation platform. Related repositories:

Repository	Description
step	Core backend — the main Step orchestration platform built on top of this framework
step-grid	Distributed execution grid for agent-based keyword execution
step-api	Java API for writing Step Keywords

For platform-level documentation see the Step knowledgebase.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss a bug or feature request before submitting a pull request. All submissions are expected to include appropriate test coverage.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.