Grid-enabled Workflows for Industrial Product Design

This paper presents a generic approach for developing and using Grid-based workflow technology for enabling cross-organizational engineering applications. Using industrial product design examples from the automotive and aerospace industries we highlight the main requirements and challenges addressed by our approach and describe how it can be used for enabling interoperability between heterogeneous workflow engines

SOA: MASHUPS and composite applications

An explanation of the current methods used in Web service composition within a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is presented. We found that composite business applications can be formed by Web service orchestration using the BPEL programming language, which permits the execution of business process logic. Mashups, simple composite applications that are usually used for ad hoc situations, do not need to be orchestrated, and could be composed using lightweight Web services. Such Web services are aggregated using current tools that are simple to use. Our study was based on a theoretical literature review, and is useful in understanding ways that different business users can build applications within the SOA, according to their needs and their technical competences

Coordinating Heterogeneous Web Services through Handhelds using SyD’s Wrapper Framework

Tying web services together to build large, distributed, collaborative applications has gathered noticeable momentum and a lot of research is being put in it. Along with composition of the web services, coordination is one key aspect that has been considered keenly. Many frameworks, languages and protocols have been proposed for web service composition and coordination. With the advancement in wireless technology and rapid deployment of mobile services, collaborative application development for small devices using such composed web services finds a new research area. Much less work has been done in the area of web service coordination for mobile environment. In this thesis, we propose a new distributed approach in service composition and coordination and show that our approach works well in an environment containing mobile heterogeneous devices. We discuss a novel approach of SyD (System on Devices)wrapper framework for dynamically creating and executing web bonds among various heterogeneous web services. The wrapper is a lightweight SyD application object that encapsulates composition and coordination logic and provides higher level of coordination among bonded entities. The wrapper framework gives small devices full capability to run distributed collaborative applications that use heterogeneous web services. We have also developed and analyzed experiments to showcase the performance of SyD Wrapper Framework

Integrating Protein Data Resources through Semantic Web Services

Understanding the function of every protein is one major objective of bioinformatics. Currently, a large amount of information (e.g., sequence, structure and dynamics) is being produced by experiments and predictions that are associated with protein function. Integrating these diverse data about protein sequence, structure, dynamics and other protein features allows further exploration and establishment of the relationships between protein sequence, structure, dynamics and function, and thereby controlling the function of target proteins. However, information integration in protein data resources faces challenges at technology level for interfacing heterogeneous data formats and standards and at application level for semantic interpretation of dissimilar data and queries. In this research, a semantic web services infrastructure, called Web Services for Protein data resources (WSP), for flexible and user-oriented integration of protein data resources, is proposed. This infrastructure includes a method for modeling protein web services, a service publication algorithm, an efficient service discovery (matching) algorithm, and an optimal service chaining algorithm. Rather than relying on syntactic matching, the matching algorithm discovers services based on their similarity to the requested service. Therefore, users can locate services that semantically match their data requirements even if they are syntactically distinctive. Furthermore, WSP supports a workflow-based approach for service integration. The chaining algorithm is used to select and chain services, based on the criteria of service accuracy and data interoperability. The algorithm generates a web services workflow which automatically integrates the results from individual services.A number of experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the matching algorithm. The results reveal that the algorithm can discover services with reasonable performance. Also, a composite service, which integrates protein dynamics and conservation, is experimented using the WSP infrastructure

Abschlussbericht des Verbundprojekts Tools4BPEL

Unternehmensübergreifende Geschäftsprozesse werden zunehmend nach dem Paradigma der Services organisiert. Dabei stellen sich Fragen nach der Komponierbarkeit, Fehlerbehandlung, sowie der Rücksetzbarkeit (Kompensation) im Fehlerfall. In diesem Vorhaben werden Methoden und Werkzeuge zum Umgang mit solchen Fragen entwickelt und am Beispiel der Geschäftsprozess-Modellierungssprache BPEL und im Modellierungswerkzeug der Firma MEGA international erprobt. Es wurde zum einen der Übersetzer BPEL2oWFN entwickelt, der anhand einer Petrinetzsemantik für BPEL einen BPEL-Prozess in ein (offenes) Petrinetz transformiert. Zum anderen wurden Korrektheitskriterien (wie Bedienbarkeit und Verhaltenskompatibilität) für Services erarbeitet, Algorithmen zu ihrer Überprüfung entworfen und in Fiona implementiert. Die Algorithmen sind Petrinetz-basiert. Damit spielen Übersetzung und Analyse eng zusammen und ein vorhandener BPEL-Prozess kann auf bspw. Bedienbarkeit hin untersucht werden. In diesem Vorhaben wurden die Modellierungssprache BPEL4Chor, Choreographie-Erweiterungen für BPMN entwickelt, sowie die Transformation von BPMN nach BPEL angepasst, um den Weg von BPMN nach BPEL4Chor zu unterstützen. Weiterhin wurden Konzepte entwickelt, wie sich partner-übergreifende Fehlerbehandlung, Rücksetzbarkeit, sowie die Autonomie der Partner mittels BPEL4Chor darstellen lassen. BPEL4Chor kann als Standardsprache zur Spezifikation von Protokollen, die zwischen mehreren Partnern ablaufen, verwendet werden. Durch seine enge Verbindung mit BPEL kann BPEL4Chor sehr gut als Startpunkt für eine Webservice-Lösung verwendet werden

Distributed Web Service Coordination for Collaboration Applications and Biological Workflows

In this dissertation work, we have investigated the main research thrust of decentralized coordination of workflows over web services. To address distributed workflow coordination, first we have developed “Web Coordination Bonds” as a capable set of dependency modeling primitives that enable each web service to manage its own dependencies. Web bond primitives are as powerful as extended Petri nets and have sufficient modeling and expressive capabilities to model workflow dependencies. We have designed and prototyped our “Web Service Coordination Management Middleware” (WSCMM) system that enhances current web services infrastructure to accommodate web bond enabled web services. Finally, based on core concepts of web coordination bonds and WSCMM, we have developed the “BondFlow” system that allows easy configuration distributed coordination of workflows. The footprint of the BonFlow runtime is 24KB and the additional third party software packages, SOAP client and XML parser, account for 115KB

Vers une médiation de composition dynamique de Services Web dans des environnements ubiquitaires.

Nowadays, high market pressure stimulates service providers to be more competitive in order to attract more subscribers. The user-centric approach, which aims to provide adapted services to user’s needs, is attracting a great attention thanks to the emergence of ubiquitous environment. The interoperability, either that between users and services or that among services, is favored by the adoption of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), as a development model as well as the Web services that combine the advantages of this model with the language and development technologies devoted to Internet-based applications. In particular, the dynamic Web service composition is currently the main practice which allows achieving enhanced services, as an answer to increasing complex requests by users for various types of services, by combining functionalities of multiple services within a single and personalized service session. Indeed, already available services are numerous and of various natures, similar services can be provided by heterogeneous platforms. In a ubiquitous environment, users are mobile, either by changing the access network or by changing the terminal, or even both of them. This leads in turn to potential needs on mobility of services, both in terms of the (physical) server and in terms of the (equivalent) services. It is in this dynamic and ubiquitous context that we have conducted our research. In particular, we focused on the particular topic of mediation of dynamic composition of web services. We proposed a mediation approach which consists in identifying and organizing various concrete services (both SOAP and RESTful) to form a set of abstract services, and, from this knowledge base, to provide users the possibility to realize personalized service session according to their needs through dynamic composition of some of the abstract services and their mapping to best suited concrete services. We considered three types of service composition (SOAP/SOAP, SOAP/RESTful, RESTful/RESTful) in our mediation. Depending on the user’s will, this composition (Mashup on the side of the mediator) can be returned to him/her, so that he/she can invoke it autonomously; or the mediator can ensure the realization of the composed services and provide only the final result to the user. In the latter case, the mediator can handle the aforementioned different mobility. This feature is achieved by exploring the mechanism of the virtual community to select the most appropriate concrete service corresponding to the abstract service and maintain the continuity of service while respecting its requested QoS. The virtual community has been developed within the ANR/UBIS project (to which part of this thesis is related).De nos jours, l’ouverture à la concurrence stimule les fournisseurs de services à être de plus en plus compétitifs et à attirer de plus en plus d’abonnés afin de faire face aux fortes pressions du marché. L’approche user-centric, qui consiste à fournir le plus rapidement possible des services adaptés aux besoins de l’usager, attire de plus en plus d’attention suite à l’émergence de l’environnement ubiquitaire. L’interopérabilité, aussi bien celle entre utilisateur et service que celle entre les services, est favorisée par l’adoption de SOA (architecture orientée service) comme modèle de développement, ainsi que les services Web qui combinent les avantages de ce modèle avec les langages et technologies développés pour Internet.Notamment, la composition dynamique de service Web est considérée comme un atout majeur, qui permet de répondre à des requêtes complexes en combinant les fonctionnalités de plusieurs services au sein d’une session personnalisée. Les services sont divers et variés et des services similaires pourraient être fournis depuis des plateformes hétérogènes. Dans un environnement ubiquitaire, les utilisateurs sont mobiles, cette mobilité se manifeste aussi bien à travers les réseaux empruntés que les terminaux utilisés. Ceci entraine une possible mobilité de services (aussi bien en termes de serveur effectif qu’en termes de services équivalents). C’est dans ce contexte dynamique et ubiquitaire, qui est celui choisi par le projet ANR/UBIS (dont cette thèse est partiellement issue), que nous avons mené nos recherches sur le thème particulier de la médiation de composition dynamique de services web. Plus précisément, nous proposons une approche de médiation qui consiste à recenser puis organiser de divers services concrets (aussi bien SOAP que RESTFul) pour constituer une panoplie des services abstraits d’une part, puis, à partir desquels, à offrir aux usagers les possibilités de réaliser des services personnalisés selon leur besoins (logique métier) par composition dynamiquement de ces services abstraits et de leur association avec le service concret le plus approprié. Nous avons considéré les trois types de composition de services (SOAP/SOAP, SOAP/RESTful, RESTful/RESTful) dans notre médiation. Selon le souhait de l’usager, cette composition (Mashup du coté de médiateur) peut lui être retournée et que l’usager peut invoquer de manière autonome, ou bien le médiateur peut assurer la réalisation du service composé et fournir seulement le résultat final à l’usager. Dans ce dernier cas, les différentes mobilités peuvent être prises en compte par le médiateur, qui s’appuie sur les mécanismes de la communauté virtuelle préconisés par le projet UBIS pour activer les services concrets les plus appropriés correspondant à un servic

Sistemas de recomendación para webs de información sobre la salud

La presente tesis de máster representa un estado del arte de los sistemas de recomendación en el hábito computacional. Mediante un profundo estudio de la literatura se ha desarrollado un análisis de los diferentes sistemas de recomendación existentes así como su clasificación, bondades y defectos. Este estudio del estado del arte de los sistemas de recomendación se ha llevado a cabo con el fin de obtener una idea clara de las posibles soluciones (sistemas de recomendación) a implementar para un proyecto del “Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo (CYTED)” llamado “Calidad en los sitios del área de la salud”. El proyecto “calidad en los sitios del área de la salud” consiste en la creación de una aplicación web dedicada a temas de salud

Sistemas de recomendación para webs de información sobre la salud

La presente tesis de máster representa un estado del arte de los sistemas de recomendación en el hábito computacional. Mediante un profundo estudio de la literatura se ha desarrollado un análisis de los diferentes sistemas de recomendación existentes así como su clasificación, bondades y defectos. Este estudio del estado del arte de los sistemas de recomendación se ha llevado a cabo con el fin de obtener una idea clara de las posibles soluciones (sistemas de recomendación) a implementar para un proyecto del “Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo (CYTED)” llamado “Calidad en los sitios del área de la salud”. El proyecto “calidad en los sitios del área de la salud” consiste en la creación de una aplicación web dedicada a temas de salud