Apply MDA to E-Business: MDA Based Workflow Solution as an Example

This paper introduces how to apply OMG’s Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) to develop a cross-platform workflow solution. A workflow solution first is modeled as a PIM Platform Independent Model model. The PIM model will be translated into a PSM (Platform Specific Model) model according to the selected workflow platform and then the corresponding process definition is automatically generated. In this paper the result shows MDA can help preserve the knowledge of an application as a PIM model. The quality of the application also can be dramatically increased since the translations from PIM model to PSM model and from PSM model to the final production codes are automatically performed

Experiences of generating COTS components when automating medicinal product evaluations

This paper reports on experiences of generating COTS components when designing and deploying component based software architecture for automation and interoperation of medicinal product evaluations across different countries in the world. Our generic architectural model renders two sets of software components that are candidates for COTS components. We identify which role such COTS components may play and outline our approach of generating them. We advocate that such COTS components are developed with a specific component platform in mind and must adhere to constraints of our software architecture

Automating Integration of Heterogeneous COTS Components

Abstract. Mismatches make COTS components difficult to be incorporated. In this paper, an approach is presented to eliminate mismatches among COTS components, which can truly consider COTS components as black boxes. In the approach, only the assembly description of components is required, based on which adaptors for resolving mismatches can be generated automatically. This paper also described an agent-based GUI implementation of the approach.

A Query-Centric Approach to Supporting the Development of Context-Aware Applications for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Doctoral Dissertation, August 2006

The wide-spread use of mobile computing devices has led to an increased demand for applications that operate dependably in opportunistically formed networks. A promising approach to supporting software development for such dynamic settings is to rely on the context-aware computing paradigm, in which an application views the state of the surrounding ad hoc network as a valuable source of contextual information that can be used to adapt its behavior. Collecting context information distributed across a constantly changing network remains a significant technical challenge. This dissertation presents a query-centered approach to simplifying context interactions in mobile ad hoc networks. Using such an approach, an application programmer views the surrounding world asa single data repository over which descriptive queries can be issued. Distributed context information appears to be locally available, effectively hiding the complex networking tasks required to acquire context in an open and dynamic setting. This dissertation identifies the research issues associated with developing a query-centric approach and discusses solutions to providing query-centric support to application developers. To promote rapid and dependable software development, a query-centric middleware is provided to the application programmer. These solutions provide the means to reason about the correctness of an application\u27s design and potentially to reduce programmer effort and error

A holistic semantic based approach to component specification and retrieval

Component-Based Development (CBD) has been broadly used in software development as it enhances the productivity and reduces the costs and risks involved in systems development. It has become a well-understood and widely used technology for developing not only large enterprise applications, but also a whole spectrum of software applications, as it offers fast and flexible development. However, driven by the continuous expansions of software applications, the increase in component varieties and sizes and the evolution from local to global component repositories, the so-called component mismatch problem has become an even more severe hurdle for component specification and retrieval. This problem not only prevents CBD from reaching its full potential, but also hinders the acceptance of many existing component repository. To overcome the above problem, existing approaches engaged a variety of technologies to support better component specification and retrieval. The existing approaches range from the early syntax-based (traditional) approaches to the recent semantic-based approaches. Although the different technologies are proposed to achieve accurate description of the component specification and/or user query in their specification and retrieval, the existing semantic-based approaches still fail to achieve the following goals which are desired for present component reuse: precise, automated, semantic-based and domain capable. This thesis proposes an approach, namely MVICS-based approach, aimed at achieving holistic, semantic-based and adaptation-aware component specification and retrieval. As the foundation, a Multiple-Viewed and Interrelated Component Specification ontology model (MVICS) is first developed for component specification and repository building. The MVICS model provides an ontology-based architecture to specify components from a range of perspectives; it integrates the knowledge of Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE), and supports ontology evolution to reflect the continuous developments in CBD and components. A formal definition of the MVICS model is presented, which ensures the rigorousness of the model and supports the high level of automation of the retrieval. Furthermore, the MVICS model has a smooth mechanism to integrate with domain related software system ontology. Such integration enhances the function and application scope of the MVICS model by bringing more domain semantics into component specification and retrieval. Another improved feature of the proposed approach is that the effect of possible component adaptation is extended to the related components. Finally a comprehensive profile of the result components shows the search results to the user from a summary to satisfied and unsatisfied discrepancy details. The above features of the approach are well integrated, which enables a holistic view in semantic-based component specification and retrieval. A prototype tool was developed to exert the power of the MVICS model in expressing semantics and process automation in component specification and retrieval. The tool implements the complete process of component search. Three case studies have been undertaken to illustrate and evaluate the usability and correctness of the approach, in terms of supporting accurate component specification and retrieval, seamless linkage with a domain ontology, adaptive component suggestion and comprehensive result component profile. A conclusion is drawn based on an analysis of the feedback from the case studies, which shows that the proposed approach can be deployed in real life industrial development. The benefits of MVICS include not only the improvement of the component search precision and recall, reducing the development time and the repository maintenance effort, but also the decrease of human intervention on CBD.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A holistic semantic based approach to component specification and retrieval

Component-Based Development (CBD) has been broadly used in software development as it enhances the productivity and reduces the costs and risks involved in systems development. It has become a well-understood and widely used technology for developing not only large enterprise applications, but also a whole spectrum of software applications, as it offers fast and flexible development. However, driven by the continuous expansions of software applications, the increase in component varieties and sizes and the evolution from local to global component repositories, the so-called component mismatch problem has become an even more severe hurdle for component specification and retrieval. This problem not only prevents CBD from reaching its full potential, but also hinders the acceptance of many existing component repository. To overcome the above problem, existing approaches engaged a variety of technologies to support better component specification and retrieval. The existing approaches range from the early syntax-based (traditional) approaches to the recent semantic-based approaches. Although the different technologies are proposed to achieve accurate description of the component specification and/or user query in their specification and retrieval, the existing semantic-based approaches still fail to achieve the following goals which are desired for present component reuse: precise, automated, semantic-based and domain capable.This thesis proposes an approach, namely MVICS-based approach, aimed at achieving holistic, semantic-based and adaptation-aware component specification and retrieval. As the foundation, a Multiple-Viewed and Interrelated Component Specification ontology model (MVICS) is first developed for component specification and repository building. The MVICS model provides an ontology-based architecture to specify components from a range of perspectives; it integrates the knowledge of Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE), and supports ontology evolution to reflect the continuous developments in CBD and components. A formal definition of the MVICS model is presented, which ensures the rigorousness of the model and supports the high level of automation of the retrieval. Furthermore, the MVICS model has a smooth mechanism to integrate with domain related software system ontology. Such integration enhances the function and application scope of the MVICS model by bringing more domain semantics into component specification and retrieval. Another improved feature of the proposed approach is that the effect of possible component adaptation is extended to the related components. Finally a comprehensive profile of the result components shows the search results to the user from a summary to satisfied and unsatisfied discrepancy details. The above features of the approach are well integrated, which enables a holistic view in semantic-based component specification and retrieval.A prototype tool was developed to exert the power of the MVICS model in expressing semantics and process automation in component specification and retrieval. The tool implements the complete process of component search. Three case studies have been undertaken to illustrate and evaluate the usability and correctness of the approach, in terms of supporting accurate component specification and retrieval, seamless linkage with a domain ontology, adaptive component suggestion and comprehensive result component profile.A conclusion is drawn based on an analysis of the feedback from the case studies, which shows that the proposed approach can be deployed in real life industrial development. The benefits of MVICS include not only the improvement of the component search precision and recall, reducing the development time and the repository maintenance effort, but also the decrease of human intervention on CBD

Design time detection of architectural mismatches in service oriented architectures

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software component paradigm that has the potential to allow for exible systems that are loosely coupled to each other. They are discoverable entities that may be bound to at run time by a client who is able to use the service correctly by referring to the service's description documents. Assumptions often have to be made in any design process if the problem domain is not fully speci ed. If those decisions are about the software architecture of that component and it is inserted into a system with di ering and incompatible assumptions then we say that an architectural mismatch exists. Architectural styles are a form of software reuse. They can simply be used by referring to a name such as \client-server" or \pipe and lter", where these names may conjure up topologies and expected properties in the architects mind. They can also however be more rigorously de ned given the right software environment. This can lead to a vocabulary of elements in the system, de ned properties of those elements along with rules and analysis to either show correctness of an implementation or reveal some emergent property of the whole. SOA includes a requirement that the service components make available descriptions of themselves, indicating how they are to be used. With this in mind and assuming we have a suitable description of the client application it should be the case that we can detect architectural mismatches when designing a new system. Here designing can range from organising a set of existing components into a novel con guration through to devising an entirely new set of components for an SOA. This work investigates the above statement using Web Services as the SOA implementation and found that, to a degree, the above statement is true. The only element of description required for a web service is the Web Service Description Language (WSDL) document and this does indeed allow the detection of a small number of mismatches when represented using our minimal web service architectural style. However from the literature we nd that the above mismatches are only a subset of those that we argue should be detectable. In response to this we produce an enhanced web service architectural style containing properties and analysis supporting the detection of this more complete set of mismatches and demonstrate its e ectiveness against a number of case studies.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo