Marcos López-Sanz

Modelling of Service-Oriented Architectures with UML

Nowadays, service-oriented architectures are becoming gradually more important. The vast diversity of implementation and support platforms for this kind of architectures (such as Web, Grid or even CORBA) increases the complexity of the development process of service-based systems. With the aim of facilitating the development of service oriented solutions, we propose the specification of an architecture centric model driven development method. To achieve this, we study the architectural properties of the SOA paradigm and follow a development approach based on the MDA proposal. MDA proposes a separation of the development process in abstraction levels. This makes MDA suitable to tackle the development of service-oriented systems. This paper describes a UML profile for the PIM-level service-oriented architectural modelling, as well as its corresponding metamodel. PIM (Platform Independent Model) level is chosen because it does not reflect constraints about any specific platform or implementation technology. To exemplify and validate the profile, a case study is presented in which the proposed profile is used.

Defining Service-Oriented Software Architecture Models for a MDA-based Development Process at the PIM level

Although the development of service-based software has evolved greatly in the last years, there is still a lack of accurate development methodologies applied to service orientation. To solve this, we focus on the model- driven development approach, and more specifically in MDA, the proposal by the OMG, as it is one of the main trends in nowadays software engineering. Accordingly, we propose to define a service-oriented software architecture (SOSA) model within a model-driven methodological framework called MIDAS, for the adaptable and flexible development of modern systems. In the present work we study the concepts and elements that need to be defined at a platform independent and neutral abstraction level. This paper reflects our proposal of PIM-level architecture model for service-oriented software architectures within MIDAS.

UML Profile for the Platform Independent Modelling of Service-Oriented Architectures

The vast diversity of implementation and support platforms for service-oriented architectures (such as Web, Grid or even CORBA) increases the complexity of the development process of service-based systems. To reduce it, both the architectural properties of the SOC paradigm and a development approach based on the MDA proposal can be studied. This work describes a UML profile for the PIM-level service-oriented architectural modelling, as well as the correspondent metamodel. PIM (Platform Independent Model) level is chosen because it does not reflect constraints about any specific platform or implementation technology. The proposal sketched in this article is part of our research of a service-oriented development method (SOD-M) called MIDAS.

ArchiMeDeS: A model-driven framework for the specification of service-oriented architectures

This paper presents a framework for the Model-Driven specification of Software Architectures, which is defined using the concepts behind Service-Orientation. The framework described, denominated as ArchiMeDeS, represents the following: a coherent solution to the problem of architecting the existing gap between the high-level configuration of a software system by describing the business entities and relationships required by a software solution, and its low-level representation, in which the technological aspects determine the final shape of the system, providing technical support to the previously identified business processes and constraints. We also provide a set of transformation rules, which semi-automatically advance in the Architecture specification. These rules allow progress to be made from conceptual architectural models to more technologically dependent ones. The feasibility of the proposed service-oriented framework is validated by showing its usage capabilities in the definition of a software solution in the field of neuroscience research.

A MODEL-DRIVEN APPROACH TO WEAVE ARCHITECTURAL STYLES INTO SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURES

Model-driven development is recognized as one of the most promising approaches in software engineering. Recent research in the area highlights the importance of using an explicit architectural model in this context. Since service-oriented architectures have also demonstrated to be adequate to overcome current software needs, the idea of using the model-driven approach to generate service-oriented architectural models has successfully flourished in the last years. However, the emphasis on the Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) paradigm has led to the design of architectures lacking some desirable features. Knowing the benefits provided by architectural styles, we have found that their use can help us to overcome those needs. Our goal is to obtain a service-oriented model which satisfies the requirements of the concrete architecture and complies with the constraints and vocabulary defined for a specific architectural style. To achieve this, here, we propose to use a weaving model which merges the concrete arc...

Representing Service-Oriented Architectural Models Using Π-ADL

Despite the well-known advantages of applying the MDA proposalto SOA developments, there are still some gaps that need to befilled. At PIM-level, for example, there is no possibility ofhaving an executable version of the system as it solely comprisestechnologically independent models. In order to solve this wepropose to formalize the architectural model at this level withΠ-ADL, an ADL supporting the description of dynamicand evolvable architectures like SOA itself is. Since Π-ADL allows the definition of executable versions of thearchitecture, the specification written embodies a prototype of thesystem at the PIM-level. We illustrate this by describing a realcase study based on the SMPP standard for sending SMS messages.

RE-CMS: a reverse engineering toolkit for the migration to CMS-based web applications

The necessity for evolving existing Web applications has become one of the major problems faced by organizations. Content Management Systems (CMS) have proved to be the best platforms to manage huge amounts of digital content in a reliable manner. Thus, many organizations have experienced the necessity of migrating their legacy Web applications to these CMS platforms which meet their needs better. Model-driven reengineering methods have shown their efficiency in such kind of evolution and migration processes, but they only become effective when they are automated by using appropriate tools. This work presents the RE-CMS toolkit, a toolkit that automates a model-driven reengineering method defined for the migration of traditional Web applications to CMS platforms. The RE-CMS toolkit supports the extraction of knowledge from a Web application and its representation within a CMS domain from which a modern CMS-based Web application may be generated. To validate its usability, we present a case study where a traditional Web application is migrated to Wordpress, one of the most used CMS platforms.

Migrating Traditional Web Applications to CMS-based Web Applications

In recent years, Content Management Systems (CMS) have proven to be the best platforms for maintaining the large amount of digital content managed by Web applications. Thus, many organizations have experienced the necessity to base its Web applications on these CMS platforms. To do this, they start a migration process which is complex and error prone. To support this process, we propose a method based on the principles of Architecture-Driven Modernization (ADM) which automates the migration of Web applications to CMS-based Web applications. This article focuses on the implementation of two artifacts of this method: 1) the DSL ASTM_PHP, a modeling language for defining a model from PHP code (ASTM_PHP model) and 2) the model-to-model transformation rules which generate automatically a KDM model from a ASTM_PHP model. To show the feasibility of this implementation, we use a case study based on a widget implemented in PHP which lists the online users of a Web application.

Reverse Engineering Applied to CMS-Based Web Applications Coded in PHP: A Proposal of Migration

Increasingly, organizations experience the necessity of migrating their legacy Web applications to new platforms which meet better their needs. For these reasons, these organizations demand reengineering processes that enable this migration in an automatic and standardized way minimizing costs. In the last years, Architecture-Driven Modernization (ADM) has acquired great relevance since it solves most of the problems of traditional reengineering. This is specially crucial in the reengineering of CMS-based Web applications. At time of writing there are no methods that could be used in that context. Hence, we defined an ADM-based method for migrating this kind of Web applications composed of three phases: reverse engineering, restructuring and forward engineering. This method is the framework of the work presented in this paper which is focused on its reverse engineering phase defined by three tasks: 1) knowledge extraction, 2) generation of KDM models and 3) generation of the CMS model. In this paper we explain the implementation of these tasks defining text-to-model (T2M) transformations implemented by a model extractor and model-to-model (M2M) transformations defined in ATL. We use a real example of a CMS-based Web application coded in PHP to show the feasibility of the approach.

Formalizing high-level service-oriented architectural models using a dynamic ADL

Despite the well-known advantages of applying the MDA approach, particularly when applied to the development of SOA-based systems, there are still some gaps in the process that need to be filled. Specifically, when modelling the system at the PIM level, we have an architectural description at a high level of abstraction, as it must only comprise technologically independent models. But this architecture cannot be directly validated, as we must transform it into a PSM version before being able to execute it. In order to solve this issue, we propose to formalize the architectural model using Domain Specific Language, an ADL which supports the description of dynamic, adaptive and evolvable architectures, such as SOA itself. Our choice, π-ADL, allows for the definition of executable versions of the architecture; and therefore providing this specification implies having a prototype of the system at the PIM level. This appears as a perfect way of getting an executable yet completely technology neutral version of the architecture. We illustrate this by discussing a real-world case study, in which a service-oriented messaging system is modelled at the PIM level and then specified using its π-ADL counterpart; the result can then be used to validate the architecture at the right abstraction level.