Web services property sequence chart monitor: A tool chain for monitoring BPEL-based web service composition with scenario-based specifications

Abstract

Web service composition is a new paradigm to develop distributed and reactive software-intensive systems. Owing to the autonomous nature of basic services, the validation of composite service must be extended from design-time to run-time. Here, the authors describe a novel tool chain called web services property sequence chart monitor to monitor temporal, timing and probabilistic properties in composite service based on scenario-based property specifications called property sequence chart, timed property sequence chart and probabilistic timed property sequence chart, respectively. The tool chain provides a completely graphical front-end that eliminates the need to deal with any particular textual and logical formalism. Furthermore, the framework and implementation detail of the tool chain are also presented. Finally, the feasibility and usability of the tool have been validated by the case studies and performance measurement. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2013.