What is an Exemplar?

Exemplars are full-fledged enterprise example (reference) applications that are intended to show best practices using Infragistics tools & technologies as well as the platforms they're built upon such as .NET and Java. "Exemplar" is defined in the following way by dictionary.com:

exemplar \ig-ZEM-plar; -pluhr\, noun:
1. A model or pattern to be copied or imitated.
2. A typical or standard specimen.
3. An ideal model or type.
4. A copy of a book or text.

We feel that “exemplar” better describes the purpose of these solutions than, say, the more common term of “reference application” or “reference implementation” because we intend for our exemplars to be just that—both a model of the ideal that you can copy from and an example of a typical application. The other terms commonly used make it sound like the application is some boring, exhaustive tome that you stick on your book shelf to collect dust and occasionally grab to look something up in. Exemplars are not that!

On the surface, these two concepts in exemplar of "ideal" and "typical" can seem at odds because the ideal is rarely realized in typical implementations, but there is actually a synthesis of the two if you consider that part of the ideal is in meeting particular requirements under the constraints of budgets, resources, and time. In other words, it is a realistic ideal, an example of an application that is not perfect in a universal sense but rather an example of how it seems best to address the given problems in a particular situation. We’re not saying our solutions are perfect or the end-all of all solutions, but we do think it is a good example or model that can be both imitated as well as literally copied/reused in your own solutions.

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