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What Constitutes a Service on the Web?

Towards a Theory of Services

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Book cover Correct Software in Web Applications and Web Services

Part of the book series: Texts & Monographs in Symbolic Computation ((TEXTSMONOGR))

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Abstract

There are many approaches to modelling and development of service-oriented systems, but there is still no convincing answer to what a (software) service is. In this chapter, we discuss the various attempts to develop a theory of services, identify aspects that have already been addressed and extract gaps. This leads us to propose the BDCM2 framework capturing behaviour, description, contracting, monitoring and mediation. For the behavioural model, we refer to the two-layer model of Abstract State Services (AS2s) capturing functional aspects of data-intensive Web services. The model of service mediators permits building complex applications, in which parts are realised by services. Furthermore, we highlight the decisive role of service ontologies for supporting the location of services as well as the capture of contractual aspects by means of service-level agreements (SLAs). Finally, we conclude that a contract is only as good as the means to monitor the agreements. While part of the research has already reached a promising level of maturity, some aspects are still in an infant state.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Softwarepark 21, 4232, Hagenberg, Austria

    Klaus-Dieter Schewe

  2. Christian Doppler Laboratory for Client-Centric Cloud Computing, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Softwarepark 21, 4232, Hagenberg, Austria

    Klaus-Dieter Schewe

  3. Research School of Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Qing Wang

Authors
  1. Klaus-Dieter Schewe
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  2. Qing Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qing Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany

    Bernhard Thalheim

  2. Software Competence Center, Hagenberg, Austria

    Klaus-Dieter Schewe

  3. ICT Department, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Andreas Prinz

  4. RISC, Johannes Kepler University, Hagenberg, Austria

    Bruno Buchberger

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Schewe, KD., Wang, Q. (2015). What Constitutes a Service on the Web?. In: Thalheim, B., Schewe, KD., Prinz, A., Buchberger, B. (eds) Correct Software in Web Applications and Web Services. Texts & Monographs in Symbolic Computation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17112-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17112-8_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17111-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17112-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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