End-User Service Computing: Spreadsheets as a Service Composition Tool

Abstract

Abstract-In this paper, we show how spreadsheets, an end-user development paradigm proven to be highly productive and simple to learn and use, can be used for complex service compositions. We identify the requirements for spreadsheet-based service composition and present our framework that implements these requirements. Our framework enables spreadsheets to send requests and retrieve results from various local and remote services. We show how our tools support different composition patterns and how the style of declarative dependencies of spreadsheets can facilitate service composition. We also discuss novel issues identified by using the framework in several projects and education.Index Terms-Online information services end-user development and service-oriented computing, information systems applications office automation and spreadsheets, software engineering distribution, maintenance, and enhancement.

Supporting End-User Service Composition: A Systematic Review of Current Activities and Tools

“…For example, AMICO:CALC [8], Mashroom [27], MashSheet [30], DataSheets [31], and the platform proposed by Kongdenfha et al [29] all allow users to compose services in a spreadsheet manner.…”

“…Moreover, other platforms, such as AMICO:CALC [8], MashSheet [30], DataSheets [31], and the mashup platform proposed by Kongdenfha et al [29], leverage the power of spreadsheet systems to constrain what services and data processing procedures can be composed together by using the predefined spreadsheet formulas. Also, the "WireIt" approach 3 has been utilized in DISC [22] and SoCo [23] to provide domain constraints.…”

“…For example, in METERO-S [43], the service templates allow users to either bind to a known Web service or specify a semantic description of the Web service for their purposes. In AMICO:CALC [8], a group of services and their configurations can be abstracted as a "middleware" (i.e. a template) to be reused and modified in other mashup projects.…”

“…To address this issue, a widely adopted solution in service composition platforms is to immediate feedback about the values of a workflow returns. For example, in the SMS system [40], Triana [3], METERO-S [43], Synthy IDE [32], and AMICO:CALC [8], users are able to review the immediate feedbacks of their composite services with the help of GUIs when defining the corresponding workflows. Similarly, Web2Exchange [16], iMashup [35], Baya [24], and the automated service composition approach proposed by Liu et al [11] also provide immediate feedback mechanisms to help users to get more objective and accurate level of confidence.…”

Engineering the authoring of usable service front ends

“…In one case (Obrenovic and Gasevic, 2008), the authors show how spreadsheets can be used for complex service compositions. In particular, they present their end user-oriented framework enabling spreadsheets to send requests and retrieve results from different heterogeneous software services.…”