Automated end user-centred adaptation of web components through automated description logic-based reasoning

Context: This paper addresses one of t h e major end-user deve lopment (EUD) challenges, namely, h o w to pack today’s EUD suppor t tools wi th composable e lements . This would give end users be t te r access to m o r e componen t s which they can use t o build a solut ion tailored to their o w n needs . The success of later end-user software engineering (EUSE) activities largely depends on h o w m a n y componen t s each tool has and h o w adaptable componen t s a re t o mult iple problem domains . Objective: A sys tem for automatical ly adapt ing he terogeneous componen t s t o a c o m m o n development envi ronment would offer a sizeable saving of t ime and resources wi th in t h e EUD suppor t tool construc-t ion process. This paper presents an au tomated adapta t ion sys tem for transforming EUD componen t s to a s tandard format. Method: This sys tem is based on t h e use of description logic. Based on a generic UML2 data model , th is description logic is able to check whe the r a n enduser componen t can b e t ransformed t o th i s modell ing language through subsumpt ion or a s a n instance of t h e UML2 model . Besides it automatically finds a con-sistent, non-ambiguous and finite set of XSLT mappings t o automatically prepare da ta in order t o leverage t h e componen t as pa r t of a tool t ha t conforms to t h e target UML2 componen t model . Results: The proposed sys tem h a s been successfully applied t o componen t s from four p rominen t EUD tools. These componen t s were automatical ly converted t o a s tandard format. In order t o validate t h e pro-posed system, rich in ternet applications (RIA) used as an operat ional suppor t sys tem for opera tors a t a large services company w e r e developed using automatically adap ted s tandard format components . These RIAs would b e impossible t o develop using each EUD tool separately. Conclusion: The positive resul ts of applying our sys tem for automatically adapt ing componen t s from current tool catalogues a re indicative of t h e system’s effectiveness. Use of this sys tem could foster t h e g rowth of w e b EUD componen t catalogues, leveraging a vast ecosystem of user-centred SaaS t o further current EUSE t rends .