master's thesis

A Dynamic Client-Server Platform for Mashup Applications

Task

In the last years, the idea of In the last years, the idea of mashups, the goal-oriented combination of web-based resources to build a new application, has gained momentum as an innovative approach for the development of web applications without writing any source code. The research project CRUISe focuses on the model-driven development process of such composite web applications. It incorporates a universal component model defining the "building blocks" of an application, i.e., backend and UI components, a composition model describing applications as a composition of such components (including the layout, communication links, etc.), and, finally, a runtime environment for integrating components and the application execution.

In the course of several student theses, a client-side runtime - the Thin Server Runtime (TSR) - has been developed, running completely within the browser on top of a JavaScript framework. Hence, to run an application, the composition model first needs to be transformed to JavaScript and handed to the browser. This approach implies certain limitations, e.g., when it comes to remote service access from the client (need for a proxy), or simply because the execution is not anymore backed by a model instance, i.e., model changes cannot be propagated to the application.

Consequently, this thesis shall evaluate the possibilities of a client-server distribution of the CRUISe Runtime and its components. More specifically, the synchronization of server-side and client-side part shall be evaluated based on a state-of-the-art analysis and previous student works. On the server side, the composition model shall be interpreted dynamically, eliminating the need for static model-to-code transformations. Finally, the concept shall be realized as a server-side extension of the "Thin-Server-Runtime" and validated with a suitable sample application.

The sub tasks implied are:

Discussion of platforms and architectures for component-based web applications and mashups. In this regard, the synchronization of a server-side model and the client, the binding of backend services, and the dynamic migration of runtime components are of special interest.
Analysis of the existing Thin-Server-Runtime of CRUISe and the initial concepts for a client-server distribution from previous student works. Deduction of requirements for a new concept and for the corresponding changes to the overall CRUISe infrastructure.
Development of a concept of a Client-Server-Runtime for CRUISe, taking into consideration the dynamic model interpretation and manipulation on the server. Discussion of possibilities for the dynamic, context-aware distribution of certain parts of the runtime architecture between client and server.
Prototypical realization of the server part using the Thin-Server-Runtime as client-side frontend. Evaluation and validation of the concepts using a suitable sample application.

Further information

Author(s):	Marat Safin
Duration:	02/14/2011 - 08/13/2011
University teacher:	Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Meißner
Supervisor(s):	Dr.-Ing. Stefan Pietschmann
Institute, Chair:	SMT, Multimedia Technology
Related Projects:	CRUISe EDYRA