Rule-Based Application Development using Webdamlog

We present the WebdamLog system for managing distributed data on the Web in a peer-to-peer manner. We demonstrate the main features of the system through an application called Wepic for sharing pictures between attendees of the sigmod conference. Using Wepic, the attendees will be able to share, download, rate and annotate pictures in a highly decentralized manner. We show how WebdamLog handles heterogeneity of the devices and services used to share data in such a Web setting. We exhibit the simple rules that define the Wepic application and show how to easily modify the Wepic application.Comment: SIGMOD - Special Interest Group on Management Of Data (2013

Introducing Access Control in Webdamlog

We survey recent work on the specification of an access control mechanism in a collaborative environment. The work is presented in the context of the WebdamLog language, an extension of datalog to a distributed context. We discuss a fine-grained access control mechanism for intentional data based on provenance as well as a control mechanism for delegation, i.e., for deploying rules at remote peers.Comment: Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Database Programming Languages (DBPL 2013), August 30, 2013, Riva del Garda, Trento, Ital

Towards More Data-Aware Application Integration (extended version)

Although most business application data is stored in relational databases, programming languages and wire formats in integration middleware systems are not table-centric. Due to costly format conversions, data-shipments and faster computation, the trend is to "push-down" the integration operations closer to the storage representation. We address the alternative case of defining declarative, table-centric integration semantics within standard integration systems. For that, we replace the current operator implementations for the well-known Enterprise Integration Patterns by equivalent "in-memory" table processing, and show a practical realization in a conventional integration system for a non-reliable, "data-intensive" messaging example. The results of the runtime analysis show that table-centric processing is promising already in standard, "single-record" message routing and transformations, and can potentially excel the message throughput for "multi-record" table messages.Comment: 18 Pages, extended version of the contribution to British International Conference on Databases (BICOD), 2015, Edinburgh, Scotlan

A Formal Study of Collaborative Access Control in Distributed Datalog

We formalize and study a declaratively specified collaborative access control mechanism for data dissemination in a distributed environment. Data dissemination is specified using distributed datalog. Access control is also defined by datalog-style rules, at the relation level for extensional relations, and at the tuple level for intensional ones, based on the derivation of tuples. The model also includes a mechanism for "declassifying" data, that allows circumventing overly restrictive access control. We consider the complexity of determining whether a peer is allowed to access a given fact, and address the problem of achieving the goal of disseminating certain information under some access control policy. We also investigate the problem of information leakage, which occurs when a peer is able to infer facts to which the peer is not allowed access by the policy. Finally, we consider access control extended to facts equipped with provenance information, motivated by the many applications where such information is required. We provide semantics for access control with provenance, and establish the complexity of determining whether a peer may access a given fact together with its provenance. This work is motivated by the access control of the Webdamlog system, whose core features it formalizes

The Story of Webdamlog

International audienceWe summarize in this paper works about the management of data in a distributed manner based on Webdamlog, a datalog-extension. We point to relevant articles on these works. More references may be found there. 1 The Webdamlog approach Information of interest may be found on the Web in a variety of forms, in many systems, and with different access protocols. Today, the control and management of the diversity of data and tasks in this setting are beyond the skills of casual users [1]. Facing similar issues, companies see the cost of managing and integrating information skyrocketing. We are concerned with the management of Web data in place in a distributed manner, with a possibly large number of autonomous, heterogeneous systems collaborating to support certain tasks. We summarize in this paper works in this setting around Webdamlog and point to the relevant articles on it. The thesis is that managing the richness and diversity of data residing on the Web can be tamed using a holistic approach based on a distributed knowledge base. Our approach is to represent all Web information as logical facts, and Web data management tasks as logical rules. A variety of complex data management tasks that currently require intense work and deep expertise may then greatly benefit from the automatic reasoning provided by inference engines, operating over the distributed Web knowledge base: for instance, information access, access control, knowledge acquisition and dissemination. We propose to express the peers logic in Webdamlog, a datalog-style rule-based language. In Webdamlog, peers exchange facts (for information) and rules (in place of code). The use of declarative rules provides the following advantages. Peers may perform automatic reasoning using the available knowledge. Because the model is formally defined, it becomes possible to prove (or disprove) desirable properties. Because the model is based on a datalog-style language, query processing can benefit from optimization techniques. Because the model represents provenance and time, the quality of data can be better controlled. Because We thank all the researchers who participated in the Webdamlog project and in particular

Gestion des données distribuées avec le langage de règles Webdamlog

Notre but est de permettre à un utilisateur du Web d organiser la gestionde ses données distribuées en place, c est à dire sans l obliger à centraliserses données chez un unique hôte. Par conséquent, notre système diffèrede Facebook et des autres systèmes centralisés, et propose une alternativepermettant aux utilisateurs de lancer leurs propres pairs sur leurs machinesgérant localement leurs données personnelles et collaborant éventuellementavec des services Web externes.Dans ma thèse, je présente Webdamlog, un langage dérivé de datalogpour la gestion de données et de connaissances distribuées. Le langage étenddatalog de plusieurs manières, principalement avec une nouvelle propriété ladélégation, autorisant les pairs à échanger non seulement des faits (les données)mais aussi des règles (la connaissance). J ai ensuite mené une étude utilisateurpour démontrer l utilisation du langage. Enfin je décris le moteur d évaluationde Webdamlog qui étend un moteur d évaluation de datalog distribué nomméBud, en ajoutant le support de la délégation et d autres innovations tellesque la possibilité d avoir des variables pour les noms de pairs et des relations.J aborde de nouvelles techniques d optimisation, notamment basées sur laprovenance des faits et des règles. Je présente des expérimentations quidémontrent que le coût du support des nouvelles propriétés de Webdamlogreste raisonnable même pour de gros volumes de données. Finalement, jeprésente l implémentation d un pair Webdamlog qui fournit l environnementpour le moteur. En particulier, certains adaptateurs permettant aux pairsWebdamlog d échanger des données avec d autres pairs sur Internet. Pourillustrer l utilisation de ces pairs, j ai implémenté une application de partagede photos dans un réseau social en Webdamlog.Our goal is to enable aWeb user to easily specify distributed data managementtasks in place, i.e. without centralizing the data to a single provider. Oursystem is therefore not a replacement for Facebook, or any centralized system,but an alternative that allows users to launch their own peers on their machinesprocessing their own local personal data, and possibly collaborating with Webservices.We introduce Webdamlog, a datalog-style language for managing distributeddata and knowledge. The language extends datalog in a numberof ways, notably with a novel feature, namely delegation, allowing peersto exchange not only facts but also rules. We present a user study thatdemonstrates the usability of the language. We describe a Webdamlog enginethat extends a distributed datalog engine, namely Bud, with the supportof delegation and of a number of other novelties of Webdamlog such as thepossibility to have variables denoting peers or relations. We mention noveloptimization techniques, notably one based on the provenance of facts andrules. We exhibit experiments that demonstrate that the rich features ofWebdamlog can be supported at reasonable cost and that the engine scales tolarge volumes of data. Finally, we discuss the implementation of a Webdamlogpeer system that provides an environment for the engine. In particular, a peersupports wrappers to exchange Webdamlog data with non-Webdamlog peers.We illustrate these peers by presenting a picture management applicationthat we used for demonstration purposes.PARIS11-SCD-Bib. électronique (914719901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Viewing the Web as a Distributed Knowledge Base

International audienceThis papers addresses the challenges faced by everyday Web users, who interact with inherently heterogeneous and distributed information. Managing such data is currently beyond the skills of casual users. We describe ongoing work that has as its goal the development of foundations for declarative distributed data management. In this approach, we see the Web as a knowledge base consisting of distributed logical facts and rules. Our objective is to enable automated reasoning over this knowledge base, ultimately improving the quality of service and of data. For this, we use Webdamlog, a Datalog-style language with rule delegation. We outline ongoing efforts on the WebdamExchange platform that combines Webdamlog evaluation with communication and security protocols

Messages with Implicit Destinations as Mobile Agents

International audienceApplications running over decentralized systems, distribute their computation on nodes/agents, which exchange data and services through messages. In many cases, the provenance of the data or service is not relevant, and applications can be optimized by choosing the most efficient solution to obtain them. We introduce a frameworkwhich allows messages with intensional destination, which can be seen as restricted mobile agents, specifying the desired service but not the exact node that carries it, leaving to the system the task of evaluating the extensional destination, that is an explicit address for that service. The intensional destinations are defined using queries that are evaluated by other agents while routing. We introduce the Questlog language, which allows to reformulate queries, and express complex strategies to pull distributed data. In addition, intensional addresses offer persistency to dynamic systems with nodes/agents leaving the system. We demonstrate the approach with examples taken from sensor networks, and show some experimental results on the QuestMonitor platform

Model-based, event-driven programming paradigm for interactive web applications

Applications are increasingly distributed and event-driven. Advances in web frameworks have made it easier to program standalone servers and their clients, but these applications remain hard to write. A model-based programming paradigm is proposed that allows a programmer to represent a distributed application as if it were a simple sequential program, with atomic actions updating a single, shared global state. A runtime environment executes the program on a collection of clients and servers, automatically handling (and hiding from the programmer) complications such as network communication (including server push), serialization, concurrency and races, persistent storage of data, and queuing and coordination of events.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CCF-1138967)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CCF-1012759)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CCF-0746856