Evaluating architectural openness in mobile software platforms

Anvaari, Mohsen; Jansen, Slinger

doi:10.1145/1842752.1842775

Cited by 43 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Ecosystem platforms have different degrees of openness [9]. We define openness as the extent of technical support for consumers to freely use assets from an ecosystem in their instances-that is, their product instances or installations.…”

Section: Architectural Opennessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both cases, users can use assets from the ecosystem; however, in closed platforms, these must be integrated into the platform first. In other words, openness "is the degree to which a platform supplier allows [and supports] the platform users to interact with the platform, view, extend or change its components" [9].…”

Section: Architectural Opennessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anvaari et al [9] have studied architectural openness of ecosystem platforms before. They analyze the five mobile application platforms Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and iPhone using a literature review and developer interviews.…”

Section: Architectural Opennessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research has addressed software ecosystems, but focused on economic, strategic, and organizational aspects [6,7,8], less on technology [9]. What mechanisms are effective in practice, and in what context?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What are their core characteristics? While variability mechanisms in software product lines are reasonably well researched [10,11], their role in supporting a software ecosystem is much less understood [9]. In fact, developing models that describe ecosystems [12] and defining theories that explain concepts and causalities [13], are key research challenges in this field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variability mechanisms in software ecosystems

Berger

Pfeiffer

Tartler

et al. 2014

Information and Software Technology

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Context: Software ecosystems are increasingly popular for their economic, strategic, and technical advantages. Application platforms such as Android or iOS allow users to highly customize a system by selecting desired functionality from a large variety of assets. This customization is achieved using variability mechanisms. Objective: Variability mechanisms are well-researched in the context of software product lines. Although software ecosystems are often seen as conceptual successors, the technology that sustains their success and growth is much less understood. Our objective is to improve the empirical understanding of variability mechanisms used in successful software ecosystems. Method: We analyze five ecosystems, ranging from the Linux kernel through Eclipse to Android. A qualitative analysis identifies and characterizes variability mechanisms together with their organizational context. This analysis leads to a conceptual framework that unifies ecosystem-specific aspects using a common terminology. A quantitative analysis investigates scales, growth rates, and-most importantly-dependency structures of the ecosystems. Results: In all the studied ecosystems, we identify rich dependency languages and variability descriptions that declare many direct and indirect dependencies. Indirect dependencies to abstract capabilities, as opposed to concrete variability units, are used predominantly in fast-growing ecosystems. We also find that variability models-while providing systemwide abstractions over code-work best in centralized variability management and are, thus, absent in ecosystems with large free markets. These latter ecosystems tend to emphasize maintaining capabilities and common vocabularies, dynamic discovery, and binding with strong encapsulation of contributions, together with uniform distribution channels. Conclusion:The use of specialized mechanisms in software ecosystems with large free markets, as opposed to software product lines, calls for recognition of a new discipline-variability encouragement.

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Section: Architectural Opennessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Architectural Opennessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Architectural Opennessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variability mechanisms in software ecosystems

Berger

Pfeiffer

Tartler

et al. 2014

Information and Software Technology

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An MDD‐based method for building context‐aware applications with high reusability

Paspallis

2019

J Software Evolu Process

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Adding context -awareness capabilities to modern mobile and pervasive computing applications (apps) is becoming a mainstream activity in the software engineering community. In this respect, many context models and middleware architectures have been proposed with the aim to provide the developers with tools and abstractions that make it easier to produce context-aware applications. However, current solutions suffer from relatively low reusability and lack ease-of-use. In this paper, we propose a two-layer approach based on model-driven development: At the higher layer, we introduce the design of reusable context plug-ins, which can be used to monitor low-level context data and to infer higher-level information about the users, their computing infrastructure, and their interaction. At the lower layer, the plug-ins themselves are synthesized using more elementary, reusable components. We argue that this development approach provides significant advantages to the developers, as it enables them to design, implement, reuse, and maintain the codebase of context-aware apps more efficiently.To evaluate this approach, we demonstrate it in the context of a two-part example application and assess it both qualitatively and quantitatively. KEYWORDScode generation, context awareness, MDD, middleware, plug-in, reusability INTRODUCTIONContext awareness is one of the most sought-after features for modern mobile and pervasive computing applications. Understanding and using context allows applications to identify and predict intention, thus allowing for better and richer human-computer interaction.Researchers have proposed various approaches to ease the task of designing and implementing applications that are context-aware and self-adaptive. At their core, many of these build on reusable code, ranging from the early works of Dey 1 to more recent, plug-in-based architectures such as those described in the previous studies. 2-5 These approaches are designed to allow the applications, which are using them to inquire and access arbitrary context data types. In this respect, the context-awareness and context-inferring parts are separated from the functional logic of the applications by means of reusable context plug-ins (ie, individually deployable units, which provide mechanisms for collecting and processing context data, and inferring higher-level context information). At the same time, many context models and middleware architectures were proposed and documented in the literature. 6,7 Software reuse is at the core of many of those approaches. At a higher level, reuse covers all software engineering phases and ''can be supported by different types of methods, including ad hoc, opportunistic, adaptive, systematic, black-box, whitebox, etc.'' 8 A common drawback in these approaches is that the developers are required to invest a significant amount of time to develop customized components, which are used for collecting, processing, inferring, storing, querying, and accessing context data. Moreover, the developed components are then harder...

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How Consumers Utilize Healthcare Apps? – Focusing on Samsung Health

Suk

Deng

et al. 2020

Communications in Computer and Information Science

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Evaluating architectural openness in mobile software platforms

Cited by 43 publications

References 9 publications

Variability mechanisms in software ecosystems

Variability mechanisms in software ecosystems

An MDD‐based method for building context‐aware applications with high reusability

How Consumers Utilize Healthcare Apps? – Focusing on Samsung Health

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