WSMO-Lite and hRESTS: lightweight semantic annotations for Web services and RESTful APIs

Service-oriented computing has brought special attention to service description, especially in connection with semantic technologies. The expected proliferation of publicly accessible services can benefit greatly from tool support and automation, both of which are the focus of Semantic Web Service (SWS) frameworks that especially address service discovery, composition and execution. As the first SWS standard, in 2007 the World Wide Web Consortium produced a lightweight bottom-up specification called SAWSDL for adding semantic annotations to WSDL service descriptions. Building on SAWSDL, this article presents WSMO-Lite, a lightweight ontology of Web service semantics that distinguishes four semantic aspects of services: function, behavior, information model, and nonfunctional properties, which together form a basis for semantic automation. With the WSMO-Lite ontology, SAWSDL descriptions enable semantic automation beyond simple input/output matchmaking that is supported by SAWSDL itself. Further, to broaden the reach of WSMO-Lite and SAWSDL tools to the increasingly common RESTful services, the article adds hRESTS and MicroWSMO, two HTML microformats that mirror WSDL and SAWSDL in the documentation of RESTful services, enabling combining RESTful services with WSDL-based ones in a single semantic framework. To demonstrate the feasibility and versatility of this approach, the article presents common algorithms for Web service discovery and composition adapted to WSMO-Lite

A generic query model for the unified discovery of heterogeneous services

In this paper, we propose Proteus, a generic query model for the discovery of operations offered by heterogeneous services. We demonstrate the need for such a model, and show how it unifies the task of service discovery through abstractions, which allow for the technology-independent formulation of service advertisements, queries, and query responses. On top of these generic elements, we build an intuitive, fuzzy-based query evaluation mechanism that supports the service matchmaking process by employing and appropriately combining existing similarity metrics. Thanks to the generality of Proteus, it is possible to seamlessly accommodate the discovery of operations provided by various types of services without the need of changing the existing service infrastructure. Thus, our approach is applicable to a variety of settings ranging from traditional web services to service-oriented grids, peer-to-peer networks, geospatial information systems, and so on. Overall, compared to the existing query models supported by standard service discovery technologies, our approach is marked by openness, flexibility, and improved performance in terms of precision and recall. The feasibility and efficiency of Proteus are verified by a series of experiments. © 2008-2012 IEEE

Development of a language and its enacting engine for the unified discovery of heterogeneous services

This dissertation proposes a new approach to address the interoperability challenges at the level of heterogeneous services discovery. Specifically, it contributes a framework supporting the unified discovery of heterogeneous web services, peer-to-peer services, and grid services, which comprises (a) a unified service query language named USQL, and (b) an open service discovery engine called Proteus. Overall, the proposed framework is characterized by flexibility, which is ensured by appropriate extension mechanisms. The USQL language supports the formulation of comprehensive queries, which capture both functional and non-functional user requirements in a service technology-agnostic manner. Besides, by implementing and combining renowned matching algorithms, the Proteus engine produces accurate results that correspond to the user-specified search criteria. Further, thanks to its architecture and scalability potential, the Proteus engine constitutes a well performing solution in the discovery of heterogeneous services. Viability and performance effectiveness of the proposed approach are asserted by experimental measurements.Η παρούσα διατριβή προτείνει μια νέα προσέγγιση στην αντιμετώπιση των προκλήσεων διαλειτουργικότητας στο επίπεδο της αναζήτησης ετερογενών υπηρεσιών. Συγκεκριμένα, συνεισφέρει ένα πλαίσιο ενιαίας αναζήτησης ετερογενών υπηρεσιών, με έμφαση στις υπηρεσίες ιστού, υπηρεσίες ομότιμου-προς-ομότιμο και υπηρεσίες πλέγματος, αποτελούμενο από (α) μια γλώσσα ενιαίων επερωτήσεων για υπηρεσίες, την USQL, και (β) μια ανοικτή μηχανή αναζήτησης υπηρεσιών, με την ονομασία Proteus. Συνολικά, το προτεινόμενο πλαίσιο χαρακτηρίζεται από ευελιξία, μέσω κατάλληλων μηχανισμών επεκτάσεων. Η γλώσσα USQL υποστηρίζει τη σύνταξη περιεκτικών επερωτήσεων, στις οποίες καταγράφονται οι λειτουργικές και μη λειτουργικές απαιτήσεις των χρηστών, με τρόπο ανεξάρτητο από τις διάφορες υπηρεσιοστρεφείς τεχνολογίες. Εξάλλου, υλοποιώντας και συνδυάζοντας διαδεδομένους αλγορίθμους αντιστοίχισης, η μηχανή Proteus παράγει ακριβή αποτελέσματα, ως προς τα κριτήρια αναζήτησης του χρήστη. Επιπλέον, χάρη στην αρχιτεκτονική και τις δυνατότητες κλιμάκωσης που διαθέτει, η μηχανή Proteus αποτελεί μια αποδοτική λύση στην αναζήτηση ετερογενών υπηρεσιών, γεγονός που επιβεβαιώνεται από τα αποτελέσματα πειραματικών μετρήσεων

Semantically Enhanced Discovery of Heterogeneous Services

Abstract: Industrial application development approaches are striving for solutions that promote the rapid development of flexible and adaptable systems and the exploitation of legacy systems and resources. The Service-oriented Development (SOD) paradigm, a current trend in software development, could be beneficial to industrial application development approaches. However, the heterogeneity in existing standards and protocols for the discovery of the various service types is an obstacle for the use of SOD in industry. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a solution that supports the unified discovery of heterogeneous services and thus supporting the use of SOD in industry. The proposed solution comprises a generic service model (GeSMO), which facilitates the specification of heterogeneous services, a query language called Unified Service Query Language (USQL), based on GeSMO, which facilitates the unified discovery of heterogeneous services within heterogeneous service registries and a query engine called USQL Engine, that enables the execution of queries described in terms of the USQL, upon heterogeneous service registries

Semantically enhanced discovery of heterogeneous services

Industrial application development approaches are striving for solutions that promote the rapid development of flexible and adaptable systems and the exploitation of legacy systems and resources. The Service-oriented Development (SOD) paradigm, a current trend in software development, could be beneficial to industrial application development approaches. However, the heterogeneity in existing standards and protocols for the discovery of the various service types is an obstacle for the use of SOD in industry. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a solution that supports the unified discovery of heterogeneous services and thus supporting the use of SOD in industry. The proposed solution comprises a generic service model (GeSMO), which facilitates the specification of heterogeneous services, a query language called Unified Service Query Language (USQL), based on GeSMO, which facilitates the unified discovery of heterogeneous services within heterogeneous service registries and a query engine called USQL Engine, that enables the execution of queries described in terms of the USQL, upon heterogeneous service registries