Many aspect-oriented middleware platforms support run-time aspect weaving, but do not support coordinating distributed changes to a set of aspects at run-time. A distributed change entails weaving or unweaving multiple inter-dependent aspects that are logically or physically distributed. Coordinating such multiple weavings inside the application layer is a complex and difficult task for the application developer, because global state consistency, structural integrity and other safety properties have to be preserved. In this paper, we present the DyReS framework that offers the required coordination support on top of existing aspect-oriented middleware platforms. The framework is customizable towards application-specific requirements to achieve improved performance and reconfiguration semantics. We have validated our approach by delivering and examining two implementations of the DyReS framework: one on top of JBoss AOP and a second one for Spring AOP.

Abstract. In this paper, we define a conceptual model that describes the relevant information about interactions between concerns that needs to be captured. We have developed a prototype system that, starting from this model, can automatically generate a set of rules that enables software developers to improve their understanding of concerns in middleware and their interactions. This rule-base is the basis for an expert system that can be queried about particular concern interactions and a software engineering tool to support an application development team.

The majority of aspect-oriented middlewares supporting dynamic aspect weaving fail to preserve important safety properties while weaving or unweaving a distributed aspect at runtime. This position paper looks in particular at the safety properties of structural integrity and global state consistency.Preserving these two safety properties in the presence of dynamic change has already been extensively addressed in the space of dynamic reconfiguration of component-based distributed systems. As will be argued in this position paper, existing coordination protocols developed in this space can be largely reused for distributed aspect weaving provided that some small adaptations are made to account for the aspect-oriented composition mechanisms.To demonstrate results and as a proof-of-concept, we describe how we have ported the NeCoMan dynamic reconfiguration support on top of the JBoss AOP framework. As a result, system-wide consistency can be preserved in JBoss when weaving or unweaving a distributed aspect at runtime.

The topics on aspects, dependencies and interactions are among the key remaining challenges to be tackled by the Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) community to enable a wide adoption of AOSD technology. This second workshop, organized and supported by the AOSD-Europe project, aimed to continue the wide discussion on aspects, dependencies and interactions started at ADI 2006.

The topics on aspects, dependencies and interactions are among the key remaining challenges to be tackled by the Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) community to enable a wide adoption of AOSD technology. This second workshop, organized and supported by the AOSD-Europe project, aimed to continue the wide discussion on aspects, dependencies and interactions started at ADI 2006.