The FAST Platform: An Open and Semantically-Enriched Platform for Designing Multi-channel and Enterprise-Class Gadgets

Abstract

Abstract. The transfer of the mashup paradigm in corporate environments needs additional capabilities beyond those typically associated with consumer mashups. In this paper, we present the architecture of the FAST platform which allows creating enterprise-class and multi-channel visual building blocks (so called gadgets) in an ad-hoc manner. The design of complex enterprise-class gadgets is supported by an integrated semantic concept which hides the complexity from the actual users. The architectural components of the platform, a technical life cycle model for enterprise mashups, and the FAST gadget ontology are presented. By means of a cross-organizational real-world scenario from the marketing/ promotion event area, we demonstrate the value and potential of the FAST platform.

A Goal Decomposition Approach for Automatic Mashup Development

“…However, as the authors claim that this approach is proposed to be applied in flowbased information processing systems. The flow planning based goal refinement mechanism is limited for other mashup scenarios, such as event-triggered mashup which contains no evident data flows or logic flows but glues mashlets together through a set of discrete events in a "wiring [18]" manner (Compared with the "wiring" manner, there is a "piping [18]" manner which means mashlets are linked with a explicit data flow or logic flow). Furthermore, the navigation from high-level goals to lower level goals lacks of necessary guidance and depends totally on users' own subjective experience.…”

“…In [18,19], the authors present an enterprise mashup stack like "resource-page-component-mashup" from the point of view of programming. However, as the authors state, the "page" designers should be "characterized by basic programming skills in order to bind the resources to user interfaces".…”

Towards Ontology Matching for Intelligent Gadgets

“…The main goal of the FAST Project [1] is to develop a web-based visual programming environment allowing users to build enterprise-class mashups (see Fig. 1 for a screenshot exemplifying the composition of so-called screens to build such a gadget).…”

“…The gadget life cycle in FAST has several phases and roles associated, as detailed in [1]. Here, we list the ones relevant for the ontology matching tasks, in decreasing order of the measure in which knowledge about ontologies is required.…”

“…FAST (Fast and Advanced Storyboard Tools) [1] is a visual programming platform allowing business users to build enterprise-class mashups, employing various underlying services and generating new ones. Resources in FAST are described semantically using different ontologies and vocabularies, and can therefore be combined to what we can call "intelligent gadgets".…”