MDWEnet: a practical approach to achieving interoperability of model-driven web engineering methods

Current model-driven Web Engineering approaches (such as OO-H, UWE or WebML) provide a set of methods and supporting tools for a systematic design and development of Web applications. Each method addresses different concerns using separate models (content, navigation, presentation, business logic, etc.), and provide model compilers that produce most of the logic and Web pages of the application from these models. However, these proposals also have some limitations, especially for exchanging models or representing further modeling concerns, such as architectural styles, technology independence, or distribution. A possible solution to these issues is provided by making model-driven Web Engineering proposals interoperate, being able to complement each other, and to exchange models between the different tools. MDWEnet is a recent initiative started by a small group of researchers working on model-driven Web Engineering (MDWE). Its goal is to improve current practices and tools for the model-driven development of Web applications for better interoperability. The proposal is based on the strengths of current model-driven Web Engineering methods, and the existing experience and knowledge in the field. This paper presents the background, motivation, scope, and objectives of MDWEnet. Furthermore, it reports on the MDWEnet results and achievements so far, and its future plan of actions

25 Years of Model-Driven Web Engineering : What we achieved, what is missing

Model-Driven Web Engineering (MDWE) approaches aim to improve the Web applications development process by focusing on modeling instead of coding, and deriving the running application by transformations from conceptual models to code. The emergence of the Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) has been an important milestone in the evolution of Web modeling languages, indicating not only the maturity of the field but also a final convergence of languages. In this paper we explain the evolution of modeling and design approaches since the early years (the 90’s) detailing the forces which drove that evolution and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of some of those approaches. A brief presentation of IFML is accompanied with a thorough analysis of the most important achievements of the MDWE community as well as the problems and obstacles that hinder the dissemination of model-driven techniques in the Web engineering field.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada (LIFIA

End-user composition of interactive applications through actionable UI components

Developing interactive systems to access and manipulate data is a very tough task. In particular, the development of user interfaces (UIs) is one of the most time-consuming activities in the software lifecycle. This is even more demanding when data have to be retrieved by accessing flexibly different online resources. Indeed, software development is moving more and more toward composite applications that aggregate on the fly specific Web services and APIs. In this article, we present a mashup model that describes the integration, at the presentation layer, of UI components. The goal is to allow non-technical end users to visualize and manipulate (i.e., to perform actions on) the data displayed by the components, which thus become actionable UI components. This article shows how the model has guided the development of a mashup platform through which non-technical end users can create component-based interactive workspaces via the aggregation and manipulation of data fetched from distributed online resources. Due to the abundance of online data sources, facilitating the creation of such interactive workspaces is a very relevant need that emerges in different contexts. A utilization study has been performed in order to assess the benefits of the proposed model and of the Actionable UI Components; participants were required to perform real tasks using the mashup platform. The study results are reported and discussed

25 Years of Model-Driven Web Engineering : What we achieved, what is missing

Model-Driven Web Engineering (MDWE) approaches aim to improve the Web applications development process by focusing on modeling instead of coding, and deriving the running application by transformations from conceptual models to code. The emergence of the Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) has been an important milestone in the evolution of Web modeling languages, indicating not only the maturity of the field but also a final convergence of languages. In this paper we explain the evolution of modeling and design approaches since the early years (the 90’s) detailing the forces which drove that evolution and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of some of those approaches. A brief presentation of IFML is accompanied with a thorough analysis of the most important achievements of the MDWE community as well as the problems and obstacles that hinder the dissemination of model-driven techniques in the Web engineering field.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada (LIFIA

A Model of E-Banking Applications Evolution Issues

As a specific case of E-Commerce, E-Banking is a typical service combining a communication and a distribution channel. E-Banking applications have continuously evolved over the time, from their appearance in a context of innovation in the banking sector to the relative standardisation and convergence of current state. Several players in the banking sector were studied in order to learn specifics of client segments and implementation of requirements. This paper presents a simple model for the core issues of the evolution in E-Commerce applications. The research target is to extrapolate a framework from E-Banking case studies to understand the main business drivers over web-based applications evolution and change management

What lies behind domestic water use? : a review essay on the drivers of domestic water consumption

Water constitutes and essential flow for the reproduction of urban environments. However and differently than other essential flows such as energy, money or materials, water is essentially bounded to local or regional environments for direct uses. Water stressed urban environments (such those in Mediterranean areas) are prone to suffer water scarcity both due to physical variables but also to human and social factors. Thus, understanding which factors lay behind urban water consumption is critical both in theory terms and also in technical and policy related matters. While the economic and technical literature has paid a great deal of attention to the role of price and other socio-economic drivers, the present work reviews other types of research carried out in the field of domestic water consumption drivers, and highlights the potential contributions of studying territorial, demographic and cultural factors, all of them of great interest for Geography

Specification of Complex Logical Expressions for Task Automation: An EUD Approach

The growing availability of smart objects is stimulating researchers in investigating the IoT phenomenon from different perspectives. In the HCI area, and in particular from the EUD perspective, one prominent goal is to enable nontechnical users to be directly involved in configuring smart object behaviour. With this respect, this paper discusses three visual composition techniques to specify logical expressions in Event-Condition-Action rules used for synchronizing the behavior of smart objects

Un método de evaluación de usabilidad de mashups basado en la composicionalidad de sus componentes

[ES] Los Mashups son una nueva generación de aplicaciones Web que integran componentes provistos por terceros desde la Web. La usabilidad en este tipo de aplicaciones es un factor muy importante ya que como en toda aplicación Web, este determina el éxito de la aplicación. Si bien se han planteado métodos de evaluación que permiten evaluar la usabilidad de aplicaciones Web en general, éstos no cubren las características inherentes a la composicionalidad de los Mashups. La presente tesina de máster pretende aportar un método de evaluación de la usabilidad de Mashups acorde con sus características propias de composicionalidad. El método está compuesto de un modelo de usabilidad y un proceso de evaluación que provee guías sobre la forma en la que el modelo de usabilidad puede ser usado para realizar evaluaciones específicas. Tanto el modelo de usabilidad como el proceso de evaluación están alineados con el último estándar ISO/IEC 25000 para la evaluación de la calidad de producto (SQuaRE) y ambos toman en cuenta la naturaleza composicional de los Mashups. El modelo de usabilidad descompone el concepto de usabilidad en sub-características y métricas genéricas. Estas métricas son aplicadas en la composición del producto final y el método de evaluación puede ser aplicado en cualquier estado del ciclo de vida de este tipo de aplicaciones, ya sea en la selección de los componentes, durante el proceso de composición o cuando el producto está listo para ser usado. Para apoyar esta propuesta se ha realizado un profundo estudio del estado del arte. Este estudio comprende dos mapeos sistemáticos: el primero abarca un estudio de la evaluación de la calidad de los Mashups y el segundo cubre las características de la composicionalidad envueltas en los Mashups. Los resultados obtenidos aportaron de una forma significativa en la definición del Modelo de Usabilidad de Mashups y posteriormente en el proceso de evaluación de usabilidad. Finalmente, se desarrollaron tres casos de estudio que muestran la viabilidad de nuestro enfoque. Estos casos de estudio muestran en detalle como el método de evaluación propuesto utiliza nuestro Modelo de Usabilidad para Mashups. Los resultados muestran que nuestra propuesta permite detectar problemas de usabilidad, los cuales una vez corregidos, permiten obtener Mashups más usables[EN] Mashups are the new-generation of Web applications that integrates third-party components from the Web. Usability in these applications is very important since their success depends on this quality factor. Although several methods have been proposed to evaluate the usability of Web applications in general, they do not cover the specific characteristics inherent to the compositionality of Mashups. This master thesis aims to provide a method for evaluating the usability of Mashups according to their specific characteristics of compositionality. The method is composed of a usability model and an evaluation process that provides guidelines on how the usability model can be used to perform specific evaluations. Both the usability model and the evaluation process are aligned with the latest ISO/IEC 25000 standard for software product quality evaluation (SQuaRE), and both take into account the compositional nature of mashups. The usability model breaks down the concept of usability into sub-characteristics, attributes and generic metrics. These metrics are applied to the final product composition and process evaluation method can be applied at any stage of the life cycle of this kind of applications (i.e., during the component selection, the composition process or when the product is ready for use. In order to support the foundation of this proposal, an in-depth study was performed about the state of art. This study comprises two systematic mappings: the first one covers the quality evaluation of Mashups, whereas the second one covers the compositionality features involved in Mashups. The obtained results were used as input in order to define both our Mashups Usability Model, and our usability evaluation process. Finally, we developed three case studies in order to show the feasibility of our approach. These case studies show in detail how the proposed evaluation method was followed by using our Mashup Usability Model. Results showed that our approach was able to detect usability problems, which once corrected, it allows obtaining more usable Mashups.Cedillo Orellana, IP. (2013). Un método de evaluación de usabilidad de mashups basado en la composicionalidad de sus componentes. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37955Archivo delegad

An approach for comparison of architecture level change impact analysis methods and their relevance in web systems evolution

Change impact analysis (CIA) methods have been developed to identify the consequences of making changes to system artifacts and to support decision making with regards to that change. There is a growing body of research on CIA methods that specifically addresses changes and their impacts at a system architecture level. Most of the methods have been developed and validated on software system domain. However, there is little research consensus on: (i) the features that architectural CIA methods should comprehensively address; and (ii) which existing methods are comparatively suitable in a particular system domain such as Web systems. This paper presents a comparison approache that offer guidance on the selection of the most appropriate method for CIA activity and suitability of these methods in the context of Web systems. © 2009 IEEE