GIS geoprocessing services search based on breadth-first reverse share pruning AND/OR tree algorithm

GIS geoprocessing service is the inevitable result of the combination of Geographical Information System and Web service technology, which is widely used for the interoperating of geoprocessing operations in distributed platform-independent and language-independent environments. Since function limited single GIS geoprocessing service cannot satisfy the demands of internet users anymore, it is necessary to dynamically mashup those existing GIS geoprocessing services to implement more complex tasks. However, the application of the research for GIS geoprocessing services mashup is still infancy with the following limitations: An efficient search method is not available to help user quickly find the required services within vast GIS geoprocessing services with multiple inputs and multiple outputs. In order to solve the problem mentioned above, Breadth-first Reverse Share Pruning AND/OR Tree algorithm has been proposed in this research. This algorithm proposes a reverse AND/OR tree to simplify the search by converting mesh AND/OR graph to AND/OR tree. This research also has developed a rule for converting complex types of services into a combination of two simple types of services. Furthermore, shared tree has been introduced and search efficiency has been improved by deleting the AND sub-tree.