Behavior Model Based Component Search: An Initial Assessment

We focus on the problem of searching components based on semantic queries on their provided interface. Although semantics-based search has long been advocated as a key enabler in the context of component-based software development and, more recently, service-oriented computing, no practical and scalable approach has been proposed yet. This paper presents a promising model-based search technique for interface behaviors based on operational specifications, called behavioral equivalence models (Bems). Semantic queries are expressed equationally, following an algebraic specification style. The search engine tries to match specifications against queries. This can be done quite efficiently by encoding Bems into relational models and queries into relational logic formulae, whose satisfiability is checked with the SAT-based constraint solver KodKod. We can report on an initial very promising assessment of the proposed technique, which has been applied to searching components in Java libraries providing container functionalities.