Utilizing abstract Web engineering concepts: an architecture

Presents an open, platform-independent and scalable architecture that implements WebComposition (M. Gaedke, 1998) using an object-oriented approach for design and realization, and an abstract component model as the development platform. A World Wide Web application is introduced as a set of service components, each providing a closed part of the functionality. These service components are designed for reuse in order to achieve an advantage in implementing applications that have similar usage domains. Thus, the evolution of a Web application is supported by the whole architecture. XML is used for the specification of an application and for the configuration of existing services as well as for communication. This improves the flexibility and guarantees the platform independence of the approach. Altogether, the architecture implements a WebComposition framework that provides the basic infrastructure for the design and development of complex and powerful Web applications in less time than usual.