Abstractions in Component Compositions and Visual Component Assembly for Distributed Applications

摘要

This paper discusses some abstractions in component compositions for distributed applications in component-based software development (CBSD). This paper suggests that concerns at three levels (architecture, component, and distributed object infrastructure) should be addressed separately in CBSD, yet a transition framework for moving concerns from one level to another should be provided. To achieve component-based software development, however, components must be designed assembly-ready. Assembly-ready components are those that are readily communicate with each other without code-level modification or adaptation. This paper demonstrates how two abstractions, the Ports and the Links, can be used to design and implement assembly-ready components and to compose such components for distributed applications. These abstractions increase component reusability and enable flexible application compositions from components. In addition, Ports and Links are reusable components themselves. An example of component assembly for a distributed application is demonstrated using a visual assembly environment.