Semantic annotation, publication, and discovery of Java software components: an integrated approach

Component-based software development has matured into standard practice in software engineering. Among the advantages of reusing software modules are lower costs, faster development, more manageable code, increased productivity, and improved software quality. As the number of available software components has grown, so has the need for effective component search and retrieval. Traditional search approaches, such as keyword matching, have proved ineffective when applied to software components. Applying a semantically- enhanced approach to component classification, publication, and discovery can greatly increase the efficiency of searching and retrieving software components. This has been already applied in the context of Web technologies, and Web services in particular, in the frame of Semantic Web Services research. This paper examines the similarities between software components and Web services and adapts an existing Semantic Web Service publication and discovery solution into a software component annotation and discovery tool which is implemented as an Eclipse plug-in

Run-time verification of behavioural conformance for conversational web services

Web services exposing run-time behaviour that deviates from their behavioural specifications represent a major threat to the sustainability of a service-oriented ecosystem. It is therefore critical to verify the behavioural conformance of services during run-time. This paper discusses a novel approach for run-time verification of Web services. It proposes the utilisation of Stream X-machines for constructing formal behavioural specifications of Web services which can be exploited for verifying that a service’s run-time behaviour does not deviate from what is defined in the specification. Our approach allows for checking both the control flow of a Web service and the values of the data in the generated responses. The paper also proposes a classification of Web services and discusses how different types of services can be verified at run-time. Finally, it presents a run-time monitoring and verification architecture and discusses how it can be integrated into different types of service-oriented infrastructures

Increased reliability in SOA environments through registry-based conformance testing of Web services

Organisations wishing to engage in industrial collaborative networks will typically seek some guarantees concerning the reliability of their prospective partners before committing to cooperation. Evaluating reliability can encompass several aspects, but one of the most crucial things to consider from a cooperation perspective is whether the software systems that support the business processes of some collaborator actually behave as expected. For organisations that rely on a service-oriented computing infrastructure, this amounts to checking whether the functionality of the respective services is conformant to a given behavioural specification. Today’s state of the art lacks standardised methods for creating behavioural specifications of Web services, and also lacks tools for automating the process of behavioural conformance checking through testing. This paper presents a concrete method for creating formal specifications of Web service behaviour and utilising them within service registries for automated testing of service implementations in order to verify and certify their conformance

Dranidis D. StudentUML: An Educational Tool Supporting Object-Oriented Analysis and Design

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is commonly used in Computer Science curriculum in order to teach object oriented analysis, design and programming. In this context, UML CASE tools are useful to assist in modeling and automating routine tasks. However, available tools are generally intended for use by professional developers to improve productivity and are not suitable for educational purposes. Tools are generally difficult to learn and use, are confusing to beginners, and ignore educational aspects. Existing educational tools also have shortcomings, which are discussed in detail. Finally, we present a new UML tool, StudentUML, which specifically addresses these issues. Emphasis is placed on the educational nature, simplicity, and ability of the tool to ensure correctness and consistency of the models