Abstract |
Service-Oriented Architecture has emerged in recent years as a prominent design style that enables an IT infrastructure to allow different applications to exchange data and participate in business processes, regardless of the underlying complexity of the applications, such as the exact implementation or the operating systems or the programming languages used to develop them. SOAs can be implemented using Web Services, software systems that are designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. In order to effectively find and invoke a Web Service, its provider must provide a complete specification for it. Devising such complete Web Service specifications comes with many issues that need to be solved.
This thesis explores the frame problem and its effects in devising Web Service specifications. The frame problem encompasses the issues raised when trying to concisely state in a specification that nothing changes except when explicitly mentioned otherwise. The argument that Web Services are in fact affected by the frame problem is supported by a multi-faceted motivating example that covers both atomic and composite service specifications.
A solution approach for the frame problem in Web Service specifications is proposed, based on knowledge gained from related research in procedure specifications and an algorithm for the automatic application of the solution to preexisting Web Service specifications. The solution schema and the algorithm are adapted and integrated in the OWL-S Semantic Web service framework. Moreover, an implementation of the algorithm is offered, which takes existing OWL-S Web Service specifications as input and modifies them accordingly, so that they are ridden of all issues related to the frame problem.
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