Search-based Tier Assignment for Optimising Offline Availability in Multi-tier Web Applications

Philips, Laure; Koster, Joeri De; Meuter, Wolfgang De; Roover, Coen De

doi:10.22152/programming-journal.org/2018/2/3

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…ScalaLoci [142] Supports generic distributed systems, not only web applications, thanks to placement types; features remote procedures and reactive programming abstractions for remote communication. StiP.js [103,104] Allows developers to annotate the code that belongs to the client or to the server; slicing detects the dependencies between the annotated fragment and the rest of the code. Gavial [113,114] Domain-specific language embedded into Scala that provides reactive programming abstractions for cross-tier communication.…”

Section: An Overview Of Multitier Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the placement specification is incomplete there is room for alternative placement choices, in which case slicing [144] detects the dependencies between the fragments manually assigned by developers and the rest of the code base, ultimately determining the splitting border. For example, in StiP.js [103,104], code fragments are assigned to a tier based on annotations, then slicing uncovers the dependencies. This solution allows developing MT web applications in existing general-purpose languages as well as retaining compatibility with development tools.…”

Section: Placementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Granularity. On a different axis, existing MT approaches cover a wide granularity spectrum regarding the abstractions for which programmers can define placement: files (e.g., GWT [68]), classes (e.g., Volta [87], J-Orchestra [131]), top-level code blocks (e.g., Stip.js [103]), top-level bindings (e.g., Links [34]), (potentially nested) blocks (e.g., Meteor [128]), bindings (e.g., Opa [111]) and (sub)expressions (e.g., Eliom [110], ML5 [96]). Specification granularities supported by a language are not mutually exclusive, e.g., ScalaLoci [142] supports placed top-level bindings and nested remote blocks.…”

Section: Placementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A significant limitation of most existing MT research languages (e.g., [30,34,103,110,111,114,119]) is that they do not address generic distributed systems but consider only the clientśserver architecture with clients of the same kind, mostly in the limited setting of web applications. Yet, many distributed systems require more complex architectures and configurations with different kinds of components ś different types of clients, coordinators (e.g., in a masterśworker scheme), backup nodes and logging services.…”

Section: Generic Distributed Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Survey of Multitier Programming

2020

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Multitier programming deals with developing the components that pertain to different tiers in the system (e.g., client and server), mixing them in the same compilation unit. In this paradigm, the code for different tiers is then either generated at run time or it results from the compiler splitting the codebase into components that belong to different tiers based on user annotations, static analysis, types, or a combination of these. In the Web context, multitier languages aim at reducing the distinction between client and server code, by translating the code that is to be executed on the clients to JavaScript or by executing JavaScript on the server, too. Ultimately, the goal of the multitier approach is to improve program comprehension, simplify maintenance and enable formal reasoning about the properties of the whole distributed application. A number of multitier research languages have been proposed over the last decade, which support various degrees of multitier programming and explore different design tradeoffs. In this article, we provide an overview of the existing solutions, discuss their positioning in the design space, and outline open research problems.

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Section: An Overview Of Multitier Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Placementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Placementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Generic Distributed Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Survey of Multitier Programming

2020

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“…Both languages also follow the client-server 17:21 model and feature a static type system. In StiP.js [43,44], annotations assign code fragments to the client or the server. Slicing detects the dependencies between each fragment and the rest of the program.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing a Language for Distributed Systems: Choices and Experiences with Type Level and Macro Programming in Scala

Weisenburger

Salvaneschi

2020

Programming

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Multitier programming languages reduce the complexity of developing distributed software by developing the distributed system within a single coherent code base. In multitier languages, the compiler or the runtime takes care of separating the code into the components of the distributed system. This approach enables abstraction over low level implementation details such as data representation, serialization and network protocols. The ScalaLoci programming language allows developers to declare the components of the system and their architectural relation at the type level, enabling static reasoning about distribution and remote communication and guaranteeing static type safety for data transfer across components. As the compiler automatically generates the communication boilerplate among components, data transfer among components can be modeled declaratively, by specifying the data flows in the reactive programming style.In this paper, we report on the ScalaLoci implementation and on our experience with embedding ScalaLoci's language features into Scala as a host language. We show how a combination of Scala's advanced type level programming and of Scala's macro system enable enriching the language with new abstractions for distributed systems. We describe the challenges we encountered for the implementation and report on the solutions we developed. Finally, we outline suggestions for improving the Scala macro system to better support embedding domain-specific abstractions. ACM CCS 2012The design of ScalaLoci unfolds around three major ideas. First, the distributed topology (i.e., separate locations that execute code) is explicit and specified by the programmer, who assigns code to each system component. Second, remote communication within the distributed system (i.e., with performance and failure characteristics different from local communication) is explicit and supports event-based interaction between components. Third, ScalaLoci abstractions are embedded as domain-specific features into an existing general purpose language. We lay out the design space for our language implementation and derive concrete design requirements.Explicit Specification of Distribution and Topology Some languages for distributed systems abstract over the topology, i.e., code is agnostic to the system's components and their connections. Such approach is often chosen for highly specialized programming models, e.g., streaming systems [16,62], intentionally hiding distribution. On the other end lie approaches where developers specify the topology. Distribution unavoidably becomes apparent when implementing different components, e.g., in actor systems [1]. While actor systems encapsulate components into actors, topological information is not encoded at the language level but managed explicitly by the developer.Clearly, a multitier programming model for developing generic distributed systems -similar to what the actor model offers -cannot abstract over distribution completely. To decide on the component that executes a specific part of the cod...

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