Imen Tounsi

A refinement-based approach for building valid SOA design patterns

Although design patterns have become increasingly popular, most of them are presented in an informal way, which can give rise to ambiguity and may lead to their incorrect usage. Patterns proposed by the SOA design pattern community are described with informal visual notations. Modelling SOA design patterns with a standard formal notation contributes to avoid misunderstanding by software architects and helps endowing design methods with refinement approaches for mastering system architectures complexity. In this paper, we present a formal refinement-based approach that aims, first, to model message-oriented SOA design patterns with the SoaML standard language, and second to formally specify these patterns at a high level of abstraction using the Event-B method. These two steps are performed before undertaking the effective coding of a design pattern providing correct by construction pattern-based software architectures. Our approach is experimented through an example we present in this paper. We implemented our approach under the Rodin platform, which we use to prove model consistency.

Building correct by construction SOA design patterns: modeling and refinement

Modeling SOA design patterns with a standard formal notation avoids misunderstanding by software architects and helps endow design methods with refinement approaches for mastering system architectures complexity. In this paper, we propose a formal architecture-centric approach that aims to model message-oriented SOA design patterns with the SoaML standard language. Pattern models are developed in a stepwise manner which are then automatically translated into Event-B specifications that can be proved using the Rodin theorem prover. These two steps are performed before undertaking the effective coding of a design pattern providing correct by construction solutions. Our approach is experimented through pattern examples.

Towards an approach for modeling and formalizing SOA design patterns with Event-B

This paper introduces a formal architecture-centric approach, which allows first to model message-oriented SOA design patterns with the SoaML standard language, and second to formally specify these patterns at a high level of abstraction using the Event-B method. These two steps are performed before undertaking the effective coding of a design pattern providing correct by construction pattern-based software architectures. We implement our approach under the Rodin platform which we use to prove model consistency.

An Approach for SOA Design Patterns Composition

Software design patterns provide architects and developers with reusable software elements helping them to master building complex software systems. Nevertheless, presented in an informal way, software design patterns may give rise to ambiguity and may lead to their incorrect usage as well as incorrect compositions. We focus here on SOA design patterns composition and we propose a precise definition of the composition process with the semi-formal SoaML standard language. In this paper, we present an approach for composing SOA design patterns. The notion of patterns composition is defined based on two operators. The application of composition rules and the concretization of merging operators lead to the final description of the resulting compound pattern. Our approach covers both structural and behavioral features of composed patterns. To help non-specialists understanding the proposed approach, we illustrate it in details through the compound Service Broker pattern.

An Approach for Modeling and Formalizing SOA Design Patterns

In this paper, we present a formal architecture-centric approach that aims, first, to model message-oriented SOA design patterns with the SoaML standard language, and second to formally specify these patterns at a high level of abstraction using the Event-B method. These two steps are performed before undertaking the effective coding of a design pattern providing correct by construction pattern-based software architectures. Our approach is experimented through an example we present in this paper. We implemented our approach under the Rodin platform, which we use to prove model consistency.

Transformation of compound SOA Design Patterns

Abstract: Software Design Patterns provide architects and developers with reusable software elements helping them to master building complex software systems. In real applications, problems are complex and their solutions can be represented by compound patterns that require the combination and reuse of two or more design patterns. In this paper, we propose a transformation approach of compound SOA design patterns based on two types of transformations. The first type, is an M2M (Model to Model) transformation. It allows to transform SOA design patterns modeled with the semi-formal SoaML language and linked together with composition operators to a compound pattern. The second type, is an M2T (Model to Text) transformation. It allows to transform compound pattern model to Event-B specifications. So, the compound pattern will have a graphic representation and a formal description.

A formal approach for SOA design patterns composition

Software Design Patterns provide architects and developers with reusable software elements helping them to master building complex software systems. Nevertheless, presented in an informal way, software design patterns may give rise to ambiguity and may lead to their incorrect usage as well as incorrect compositions. In this paper we focus on SOA design patterns composition and we propose a rigorous composition method based on two steps. Firstly, we outline a precise definition of the composition process with the semi-formal SoaML standard language. Secondly, we outline a formal composition process using Event-B method. Our approach covers both structural and behavioral features of composed patterns.

A refinement-based approach for specifying multi-scale software architectures: application to SoS

Specifying correct software-intensive Systems of Systems architectures is a challenging research direction requiring new modeling abstractions and techniques. For this purpose, we provide a refinement-based approach for multi-scale description of software architectures. We define an incremental process starting from a coarse-grained description, and leading to a fine-grained description. The refinement process involves both system-independent structural features ensuring the model correctness, and specific features related to the expected behavior of the modeled domain. In this paper, we propose a formal method to represent structural as well as behavioral features of multi-scale architectures. We elaborate a set of refinement rules to build correct-by-design architectures. Features and rules are specified formally in Event-B specifications. We implement these specifications under the Rodin platform and we use the ProB theorem prover to prove specification consistency. In order to illustrate and validate our solution, we experiment our approach with a case study dedicated to the Smart Home System of Systems (SoS).