Slicing Web service-based software

Web services offer a brand-new mechanism for program interactions over the Internet. However, the new features such as heterogeneous, loose-coupling and distributed bring great challenge to its comprehension and debugging. In the paper, the method of static slicing BPEL programs in Web service compositions is proposed. At first, an extended control flow graph (ECFG) is constructed through a in-depth analysis on the new activity elements such as flow and pick. Then, the def-use relations between Web service units are computed. Based on the above results, BPEL program dependence graph is built by introducing the concept of synchronized edge. Subsequently, the static (backward / forward) slicing algorithm is discussed in details. While considering the slicing effects on a real-world Web service application, the proposed slicing technique can reduce the number of statements needing to be checked in understanding or debugging activities.