Session 2.3:  Web Applications

Scan Objects: Adding Steering Wheels to Search Engines
Iaakov Exman (Israel) and Alex Shnayder (Israel)
Search Engines are so powerful that they create the expectation that search will always succeed. But interactive search is a complex activity with significant human involvement, and very difficult to automate. A Steering Wheel software architecture is proposed to automate search, based upon composable and reusable entities called ScanObjects. This architecture keeps intact the search engine power, while adding an engine client functioning as a steering wheel. Steering functions embodied in the ScanObjects cause search to be convergent to desired result sets, as they obey definite convergence criteria. The approach was demonstrated by actual implementation of the architecture within a peer-community system, and several case studies with well-known commercial search engines.

SOA for services or UML for objects: Reconciliation of the battle of giants with Object-Process Methodology
Dov Dori (Israel)
Two software system lifecycle development paradigms have been competing on the minds and hearts of software developers and executives: The traditional Object-Oriented approach and the emerging Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) or SO Development of Application (SODA). While OO puts objects and their encapsulated behavior at the center stage, emphasizing primarily rigid structure, SODA hails services as the prime players to cater primarily to behavior. We discuss the new SOA technologies from the extended enterprise and the service network all the way to the atomic service level and show that Object-Process Methodology (OPM), which strikes a unique balance between structure and behavior, is most suitable as the underlying SOA-based lifecycle engineering approach. Using OPCAT, the OPM-supporting systems modeling software environment, we construct the top level diagram of a model of SODA and simulate it using animation in order to show how OPM conveniently serves as an ideal overarching comprehensive methodology that encompasses the entire spectrum of service-oriented enterprise systems development.