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A formal framework for service modeling and prototyping

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Formal Aspects of Computing

Abstract

Service-oriented Computing is rapidly gaining importance across several application domains due to its capability of composing autonomous and loosely-coupled services. In order to support the engineering of service-oriented software applications, foundational theories, service modeling notations, evaluation techniques fully integrated in a pragmatic software engineering approach are required. This article introduces a framework for modeling and prototyping service-oriented applications. The framework consists of a precise and executable language, SCA-ASM, for model-based design, and of a tool for early and quick design evaluation of service assemblies. The language combines the OASIS/OSOA standard Service Component Architecture (SCA) capability of modeling and assembling heterogeneous service-oriented components in a technology agnostic way, with the rigor of the Abstract State Machine (ASM) formal method able to model notions of service behavior, interactions, orchestration, compensation and context-awareness in an abstract but executable way. The tool is based on existing execution environments for ASM models and SCA applications. An SCA-ASM model of a service-oriented component, possibly not yet implemented in code or available as off-the-shelf, can be (i) simulated and evaluated offline, i.e. in isolation from the other components; or (ii) executed as abstract implementation (or prototype) together with the other components implementations according to the chosen SCA assembly. As proof of concept, a case study taken from EU research projects has been considered to show the functionalities and potentialities of the proposed framework.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Bramante 65, 26013, Crema, CR, Italy

    Elvinia Riccobene

  2. Engineering Department, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Dalmine, BG, Italy

    Patrizia Scandurra

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  1. Elvinia Riccobene
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  2. Patrizia Scandurra
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Correspondence to Elvinia Riccobene.

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M.J. Butler

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Riccobene, E., Scandurra, P. A formal framework for service modeling and prototyping. Form Asp Comp 26, 1077–1113 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00165-013-0289-0

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