a descriptor capable of representing modifiable configuration data of a software component in persistent data;

one or more descriptor classes, wherein each of the one or more descriptor classes is capable of maintaining one or more properties corresponding to a portion of the descriptor;

a descriptor class management component capable of:

generating and/or updating the one or more descriptor classes from the descriptor; and

generating and/or updating the descriptor from the one or more descriptor classes; and

a listener registered with the descriptor class capable of:

accepting notification of a proposed change to the descriptor from the descriptor class management component;

determining whether to update the descriptor class with the proposed change; and

updating the descriptor class with the proposed change,

wherein each of the one or more descriptor classes can further comprise:

an annotation capable of:

defining one of the one or more properties; and

defining a getting and/or setting method of one of the one or more properties;

a validator capable of validating the one or more properties based on one or more constraints either at parse time or whenever the descriptor class is modified; and

a customizer capable of implementing and/or extending the implementation of a software interface with a custom logic inserted in the descriptor class; and

generating and/or updating the descriptor class via the following implementations:

a runtime implementation, which is read-only and optimized for efficiency at runtime; and

a edit time implementation, which is modifiable maintains in an XML document.