Efficient Construction of Presentation Integration for Web-Based and Desktop Development Tools

Abstract

The engineering of software-intensive systems is supported by a variety of development tools. While development tools are traditionally desktop tools, they are more and more complemented and replaced by web-based development tools. The resulting blend of desktop and web-based tools is difficult to integrate into a seamless tool chain, which supports product development by data, control and presentation integration. Moreover, the construction of such tool chains is a significant engineering challenge. We propose an approach for the efficient, automated construction of tool chains, which integrate both web-based and desktop development tools; and provide a proof of concept of the approach in a case study. Our approach suggests that companies can selectively take advantage of hosted web-based development tools, while maintaining a seamless flow of integration with legacy desktop tools.