Technology Supporting Business Solutions, Advances in Computation: Theory & Practice

by Rafael Corchuelo (Editor), Robert Wrembel (Editor), Antonio Ruiz-Cortes (Editor), Robert Wrembel, Antonio Ruiz-Cortes

Overview

Corchuelo, a reader in computer engineering with the University of Seville, presents recent advances in web-based information systems as well as data integration and analysis, offering an overview of various technologies used for building innovative information systems applied to real business solutions. Chapters cover web services, database technologies, data and application integration, and data analysis and knowledge discovery, looking at areas such as conceptual modeling of business applications with dynamic object roles, identification of missing information in integrated database systems, application integration patterns, and electronic contracts. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590338025
Publisher:	Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/28/2003
Series:	Advances in Computation: Theory and Practice Series
Edition description:	Library Edition
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	7.09(w) x 10.24(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	List of Figures	ix
	Contributors	xi
	Reviewers	xiii
	Preface	xv
I	Web Services	1
1	Electronic Contracts	3
1.1	Introduction	3
1.1.1	Electronic contracts in an e-service environment	3
1.1.2	A case study: SLAs for web services	5
1.1.3	Goal and structure	7
1.2	Conceptual Model of the Contracting Process	7
1.2.1	Contracting process phases	7
1.2.2	Contracting function of a service provider	9
1.2.3	Contracting function of a service customer	12
1.3	Document Structures and Formats	13
1.3.1	Information phase documents	14
1.3.2	Negotiation phase documents and contracts	15
1.3.3	Setup phase documents	18
1.4	Issues and Approaches to Automate the Contracting Function	20
1.5	Conclusions	22
2	Web Services Technologies for Outsourcing	25
2.1	Introduction	25
2.2	Web Services Hub Framework	26
2.3	A Working Prototype	28
2.3.1	The service outsourcing manager	30
2.3.2	The central membership portal	32
2.3.3	The advanced web services discovery engine	32
2.3.4	The multi-level security model	34
2.3.5	The purchase order management business process and the intelligent shipping agent	35
2.4	An E-services Delivery Solution	36
2.4.1	Registration and provision	37
2.4.2	Single sign-on	38
2.4.3	Purchase order creation	38
2.4.4	Purchase order details	38
2.4.5	Shipping service providers	39
2.4.6	Results of invoking the transportation web service	39
2.4.7	Updated purchase order	40
2.5	Related Work	41
2.6	Conclusions	43
II	Database Backends	47
3	Conceptual Modelling of Business Applications with Dynamic Object Roles	49
3.1	Introduction	49
3.2	A Business Case Study	50
3.3	Related Work	52
3.4	Prototype of Dynamic Object Roles	54
3.5	The Stack-Based Approach	57
3.5.1	Objects, classes and stores	57
3.5.2	Stacks	58
3.5.3	Binding	59
3.5.4	Query language	60
3.5.5	Query evaluation	61
3.6	Object Store Model with Dynamic Roles	61
3.6.1	Links amongst objects and roles	62
3.6.2	Dynamic roles and object-oriented models	62
3.6.3	A formal model of an object store	64
3.7	Specification of Dynamic Roles in Database Schemata	66
3.7.1	Building an object scheme with dynamic roles	67
3.7.2	Declarations of data structures	69
3.8	Conclusions	70
4	Temporal Versioning in Data Warehouses	73
4.1	Introduction	73
4.1.1	The problem	75
4.1.2	Our contribution	75
4.1.3	Outline	77
4.2	Related Work	77
4.3	A Formal Model for Temporal multi-dimensional Systems	77
4.3.1	Structure versions	80
4.3.2	Structural changes	82
4.3.3	Mappings between structure versions	84
4.4	The COMET Metamodel	89
4.4.1	Goals and features	89
4.4.2	The elements of COMET	90
4.5	Implementation	93
4.6	Conclusions	96
III	Data and Applications Integration	99
5	Identification of Missing Information in Integrated Database Systems	101
5.1	Introduction	101
5.2	Unavailability Cases and Sample Queries	102
5.2.1	Incomplete attributes in selection conditions	102
5.2.2	Incomplete attributes in projections	104
5.2.3	Combined incompleteness	104
5.2.4	Temporary unavailability of data sources	106
5.3	LODA Tools for Data Retrieval	106
5.3.1	Establishing an initial collection	107
5.3.2	Selection using attributes	107
5.3.3	Printing the values	107
5.3.4	Processing relationships	108
5.3.5	Summary of diagram processing	108
5.4	Processing and Analysing Incomplete Queries	109
5.4.1	Processing and generating queries	110
5.4.2	Analysing queries	111
5.4.3	Generating unavailability queries	112
5.4.4	Generation of explanations	112
5.4.5	Creating visual queries in UML-VL	113
5.5	Conclusions	113
6	Application Integration Patterns	115
6.1	Introduction	115
6.2	Application Integration Patterns	116
6.3	The Integration Broker Pattern	117
6.3.1	Context and problem definition	117
6.3.2	Forces	118
6.3.3	Solution	118
6.3.4	Consequences	120
6.4	The Integration Wrapper Pattern	120
6.4.1	Context and problem definition	120
6.4.2	Forces	120
6.4.3	Solution	121
6.4.4	Consequences	121
6.5	The Integration Mediator Pattern	122
6.5.1	Context and problem definition	122
6.5.2	Forces	122
6.5.3	Solution	122
6.5.4	Consequences	123
6.6	The Virtual Component Pattern	124
6.6.1	Context and problem definition	124
6.6.2	Forces	124
6.6.3	Solution	124
6.6.4	Consequences	126
6.7	The Data Mapping Pattern	127
6.7.1	Context and problem definition	127
6.7.2	Forces	127
6.7.3	Solution	127
6.7.4	Consequences	127
6.8	The Process Automator Pattern	128
6.8.1	Context and problem definition	128
6.8.2	Forces	128
6.8.3	Solution	129
6.8.4	Consequences	130
6.9	A Case Study	131
6.9.1	Case study description and analysis	131
6.9.2	Checking authorisation	132
6.9.3	Checking the balance of an account	133
6.10	Conclusions	136
IV	Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery	139
7	Agents, Personalisation, and Intelligent Applications	141
7.1	Introduction	141
7.2	Adaptive Systems in E-commerce	142
7.3	Intelligent, Personalised Web Services	143
7.3.1	Virtual dialoguing agents	143
7.3.2	Personalisation	145
7.3.3	The architecture of COGITO	145
7.3.4	Extracting user profiles	147
7.3.5	Experimental results	151
7.3.6	The retrieval process in COGITO	153
7.4	An Architectural Framework Hypothesis	155
7.5	Related Work	156
7.6	Conclusions	157
8	Discovering Relationships for Effective Target Marketing	161
8.1	Introduction	161
8.2	Warehousing Relationships	163
8.3	Discovering Important Relationships	164
8.3.1	Problem formulation	164
8.3.2	Discussion	165
8.3.3	Algorithm	167
8.4	Visualising the Web of Relationships	168
8.5	Implementation and Deployment	170
8.6	Related Work	172
8.7	Conclusions	173
V	Recommended Bibliography	177
	Bibliography	179
	Index	193