Integrating Component-Based Web Engineering into Content Management Systems

摘要

Popular content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal offer a plug-in mechanism that allows users to extend the platform with additional functionality. However, plug-ins are typically isolated extensions defining their own data structures, application logic and user interface, and are difficult to combine. We address the fact that users may want to configure their applications more freely through the composition of such extensions. We present an approach and model for component-based web engineering based on the concept of components and connectors between them, supporting composition at the level of the schema and data, the application logic and the user interface. We show how our approach can be used to integrate component-based web engineering into platforms such as WordPress. We demonstrate the benefits of the approach by presenting a composition plug-in that showcases component composition through configurable connectors based on an eCommerce application scenario.