Citation
Lizcano Casas, David and Alonso Amo, Fernando and Soriano Camino, Francisco Javier and López Gómez, Genoveva
(2014).
A component- and connector-based approach for end-user composite web applications development.
"Journal of Systems and Software", v. 94
(n. null);
pp. 108-128.
ISSN 0164-1212.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2014.03.039.
Abstract
Enabling real end-user development is the next logical stage in the evolution of Internet-wide service-based applications. Successful composite applications rely on heavyweight service orchestration technologies that raise the bar far above end-user skills. This weakness can be attributed to the fact that the composition model does not satisfy end-user needs rather than to the actual infrastructure technologies. In our opinion, the best way to overcome this weakness is to offer end-to-end composition from the user interface to service invocation, plus an understandable abstraction of building blocks and a visual composition technique empowering end users to develop their own applications. In this paper, we present a visual framework for end users, called FAST, which fulfils this objective. FAST implements a novel composition model designed to empower non-programmer end users to create and share their own self-service composite applications in a fully visual fashion. We projected the development environment implementing this model as part of the European FP7 FAST Project, which was used to validate the rationale behind our approach.