2022 Software Engineering:

Component-based software engineering

Prof Neeraj Bhargava

Vaibhav Khanna
Department of Computer Science
School of Engineering and Systems Sciences
Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University Ajmer
 Topics covered
• Components and component models
• CBSE processes
• Component composition
 Component-based development
• Component-based software engineering (CBSE) is
an approach to software development that relies
on the reuse of entities called ‘software
components’.
• It emerged from the failure of object-oriented
development to support effective reuse. Single
object classes are too detailed and specific.
• Components are more abstract than object
classes and can be considered to be stand-alone
service providers. They can exist as stand-alone
entities.
 CBSE essentials
• Independent components specified by their
interfaces.
• Component standards to facilitate component
integration.
• Middleware that provides support for
component inter-operability.
• A development process that is geared to
reuse.
 CBSE and design principles
• Apart from the benefits of reuse, CBSE is
based on sound software engineering design
principles:
– Components are independent so do not interfere
with each other;
– Component implementations are hidden;
– Communication is through well-defined interfaces;
– One components can be replaced by another if its
interface is maintained;
– Component infrastructures offer a range of
standard services.
 Component standards
• Standards need to be established so that
components can communicate with each other
and inter-operate.
• Several component standards were established:
– Sun’s Enterprise Java Beans
– Microsoft’s COM and .NET
– CORBA’s CCM
• In practice, these multiple standards have
hindered the uptake of CBSE. It is impossible for
components developed using different
approaches to work together.
Service-oriented software engineering
• An executable service is a type of independent
component. It has a ‘provides’ interface but not a
‘requires’ interface.
• From the outset, services have been based
around standards so there are no problems in
communicating between services offered by
different vendors.
• System performance may be slower with services
but this approach is replacing CBSE in many
systems.
• 44. Explain Component-based development
and its design principles
1. Components and component
models
 Components
• Components provide a service without regard
to where the component is executing or its
programming language
– A component is an independent executable
entity that can be made up of one or more
executable objects;
– The component interface is published and all
interactions are through the published interface;
 Component definitions
• Councill and Heinmann:
– A software component is a software element that conforms to a
component model and can be independently deployed and composed
without modification according to a composition standard.
• Szyperski:
– A software component is a unit of composition with contractually
specified interfaces and explicit context dependencies only. A software
component can be deployed independently and is subject to
composition by third-parties.
 Component characteristics

Component Description
characteristic
Composable For a component to be composable, all external interactions must
take place through publicly defined interfaces. In addition, it must
provide external access to information about itself, such as its
methods and attributes.
Deployable To be deployable, a component has to be self-contained. It must be
able to operate as a stand-alone entity on a component platform that
provides an implementation of the component model. This usually
means that the component is binary and does not have to be
compiled before it is deployed. If a component is implemented as a
service, it does not have to be deployed by a user of a component.
Rather, it is deployed by the service provider.
 Component characteristics

Component Description
characteristic
Documented Components have to be fully documented so that potential users can
decide whether or not the components meet their needs. The syntax
and, ideally, the semantics of all component interfaces should be
specified.
Independent A component should be independent—it should be possible to
compose and deploy it without having to use other specific
components. In situations where the component needs externally
provided services, these should be explicitly set out in a ‘requires’
interface specification.
Standardized Component standardization means that a component used in a CBSE
process has to conform to a standard component model. This model
may define component interfaces, component metadata,
documentation, composition, and deployment.
 Component as a service provider
• The component is an independent, executable
entity. It does not have to be compiled before it is
used with other components.
• The services offered by a component are made
available through an interface and all component
interactions take place through that interface.
• The component interface is expressed in terms of
parameterized operations and its internal state is
never exposed.
 Component interfaces
• Provides interface
– Defines the services that are provided by the component
to other components.
– This interface, essentially, is the component API. It defines
the methods that can be called by a user of the
component.
• Requires interface
– Defines the services that specifies what services must be
made available for the component to execute as specified.
– This does not compromise the independence or
deployability of a component because the ‘requires’
interface does not define how these services should be
provided.
 Component interfaces

Note UML notation. Ball and sockets can fit together.

A model of a data collector component
 Assignment
• 45. What is a component. Briefly explain
component characteristics
 Component access
• Components are accessed using remote
procedure calls (RPCs).
• Each component has a unique identifier
(usually a URL) and can be referenced from
any networked computer.
• Therefore it can be called in a similar way as a
procedure or method running on a local
computer.
 Component models
• A component model is a definition of standards for
component implementation, documentation and deployment.
• Examples of component models
– EJB model (Enterprise Java Beans)
– COM+ model (.NET model)
– Corba Component Model
• The component model specifies how interfaces should be
defined and the elements that should be included in an
interface definition.
Basic elements of a component model
 Elements of a component model
• Interfaces
– Components are defined by specifying their interfaces. The
component model specifies how the interfaces should be
defined and the elements, such as operation names, parameters
and exceptions, which should be included in the interface
definition.
• Usage
– In order for components to be distributed and accessed
remotely, they need to have a unique name or handle
associated with them. This has to be globally unique.
• Deployment
– The component model includes a specification of how
components should be packaged for deployment as
independent, executable entities.
 Middleware support
• Component models are the basis for middleware that
provides support for executing components.
• Component model implementations provide:
– Platform services that allow components written according to the
model to communicate;
– Support services that are application-independent services used by
different components.
• To use services provided by a model, components are
deployed in a container. This is a set of interfaces used to
access the service implementations.
Middleware services defined in a
component model
 Assignment
• 46. Explain the Basic elements of a component
model
2 CBSE processes
 CBSE processes
• CBSE processes are software processes that support
component-based software engineering.
– They take into account the possibilities of reuse and the
different process activities involved in developing and
using reusable components.
• Development for reuse
– This process is concerned with developing components or
services that will be reused in other applications. It usually
involves generalizing existing components.
• Development with reuse
– This process is the process of developing new applications
using existing components and services.
CBSE processes
 Supporting processes
• Component acquisition is the process of acquiring
components for reuse or development into a reusable
component.
– It may involve accessing locally- developed components or
services or finding these components from an external
source.
• Component management is concerned with managing
a company’s reusable components, ensuring that they
are properly catalogued, stored and made available for
reuse.
• Component certification is the process of checking a
component and certifying that it meets its
specification.
 CBSE for reuse
• CBSE for reuse focuses on component
development.
• Components developed for a specific application
usually have to be generalised to make them
reusable.
• A component is most likely to be reusable if it
associated with a stable domain abstraction
(business object).
• For example, in a hospital stable domain
abstractions are associated with the fundamental
purpose - nurses, patients, treatments, etc.
 Component development for reuse
• Components for reuse may be specially constructed by generalising
existing components.
• Component reusability
– Should reflect stable domain abstractions;
– Should hide state representation;
– Should be as independent as possible;
– Should publish exceptions through the component interface.
• There is a trade-off between reusability and usability
– The more general the interface, the greater the reusability but it is
then more complex and hence less usable.
 Changes for reusability
• Remove application-specific methods.
• Change names to make them general.
• Add methods to broaden coverage.
• Make exception handling consistent.
• Add a configuration interface for component
adaptation.
• Integrate required components to reduce
dependencies.
 Exception handling
• Components should not handle exceptions themselves,
because each application will have its own
requirements for exception handling.
– Rather, the component should define what exceptions can
arise and should publish these as part of the interface.
• In practice, however, there are two problems with this:
– Publishing all exceptions leads to bloated interfaces that
are harder to understand. This may put off potential users
of the component.
– The operation of the component may depend on local
exception handling, and changing this may have serious
implications for the functionality of the component.
 Legacy system components
• Existing legacy systems that fulfil a useful
business function can be re-packaged as
components for reuse.
• This involves writing a wrapper component
that implements provides and requires
interfaces then accesses the legacy system.
• Although costly, this can be much less
expensive than rewriting the legacy system.
 Reusable components
• The development cost of reusable
components may be higher than the cost of
specific equivalents. This extra reusability
enhancement cost should be an organization
rather than a project cost.
• Generic components may be less space-
efficient and may have longer execution times
than their specific equivalents.
 Component management
• Component management involves deciding how
to classify the component so that it can be
discovered, making the component available
either in a repository or as a service, maintaining
information about the use of the component and
keeping track of different component versions.
• A company with a reuse program may carry out
some form of component certification before the
component is made available for reuse.
– Certification means that someone apart from the
developer checks the quality of the component.
 CBSE with reuse
• CBSE with reuse process has to find and integrate
reusable components.
• When reusing components, it is essential to make
trade-offs between ideal requirements and the
services actually provided by available
components.
• This involves:
– Developing outline requirements;
– Searching for components then modifying
requirements according to available functionality.
– Searching again to find if there are better components
that meet the revised requirements.
– Composing components to create the system.
CBSE with reuse
The component identification process
 Component identification issues
• Trust. You need to be able to trust the supplier of a
component. At best, an untrusted component may not
operate as advertised; at worst, it can breach your security.
• Requirements. Different groups of components will satisfy
different requirements.
• Validation.
– The component specification may not be detailed enough to allow
comprehensive tests to be developed.
– Components may have unwanted functionality. How can you test this
will not interfere with your application?
 Component validation
• Component validation involves developing a set of test
cases for a component (or, possibly, extending test
cases supplied with that component) and developing a
test harness to run component tests.
– The major problem with component validation is that the
component specification may not be sufficiently detailed
to allow you to develop a complete set of component
tests.
• As well as testing that a component for reuse does
what you require, you may also have to check that the
component does not include any malicious code or
functionality that you don’t need.
 Ariane launcher failure – validation
failure?
• In 1996, the 1st test flight of the Ariane 5 rocket ended in
disaster when the launcher went out of control 37 seconds
after take off.
• The problem was due to a reused component from a previous
version of the launcher (the Inertial Navigation System) that
failed because assumptions made when that component was
developed did not hold for Ariane 5.
• The functionality that failed in this component was not
required in Ariane 5.
 Assignment
• 47. Explain the prime CBSE processes. Also
Explain the supporting processes
• 48. Explain component Identification process
and related issues.
3. Component composition
 Component composition
• The process of assembling components to
create a system.
• Composition involves integrating components
with each other and with the component
infrastructure.
• Normally you have to write ‘glue code’ to
integrate components.
 Types of composition
• Sequential composition (1) where the composed components
are executed in sequence. This involves composing the
provides interfaces of each component.
• Hierarchical composition (2) where one component calls on
the services of another. The provides interface of one
component is composed with the requires interface of
another.
• Additive composition (3) where the interfaces of two
components are put together to create a new component.
Provides and requires interfaces of integrated
component is a combination of interfaces of
constituent components.
Types of component composition
 Glue code
• Code that allows components to work
together
• If A and B are composed sequentially, then
glue code has to call A, collect its results then
call B using these results, transforming them
into the format required by B.
• Glue code may be used to resolve interface
incompatibilities.
 Interface incompatibility
• Parameter incompatibility where operations
have the same name but are of different
types.
• Operation incompatibility where the names of
operations in the composed interfaces are
different.
• Operation incompleteness where the provides
interface of one component is a subset of the
requires interface of another.
Components with incompatible
interfaces
 Adaptor components
• Address the problem of component
incompatibility by reconciling the interfaces of
the components that are composed.
• Different types of adaptor are required
depending on the type of composition.
• An addressFinder and a mapper component
may be composed through an adaptor that
strips the postal code from an address and
passes this to the mapper component.
 Composition through an adaptor
• The component postCodeStripper is the
adaptor that facilitates the sequential
composition of addressFinder and mapper
components.
An adaptor linking a data collector and
a sensor
 The Object Constraint Language
• The Object Constraint Language (OCL) has
been designed to define constraints that are
associated with UML models.
• It is based around the notion of pre and post
condition specification – common to many
formal methods.
 Photo library conditions
• As specified, the OCL associated with the Photo Library
component states that:
– There must not be a photograph in the library with the same identifier
as the photograph to be entered;
– The library must exist - assume that creating a library adds a single
item to it;
– Each new entry increases the size of the library by 1;
– If you retrieve using the same identifier then you get back the photo
that you added;
– If you look up the catalogue using that identifier, then you get back the
catalogue entry that you made.
 Composition trade-offs
• When composing components, you may find conflicts
between functional and non-functional requirements, and
conflicts between the need for rapid delivery and system
evolution.
• You need to make decisions such as:
– What composition of components is effective for delivering the
functional requirements?
– What composition of components allows for future change?
– What will be the emergent properties of the composed system?
Data collection and report generation
components
 Assignment
• 49. What do you understand by component
composition. Explain Types of composition
• 50. Explain the key composition trade-offs
 Key points
• CBSE is a reuse-based approach to defining and implementing
loosely coupled components into systems.
• A component is a software unit whose functionality and
dependencies are completely defined by its interfaces.
• Components may be implemented as
executable elements included in a system or
as external services.
• A component model defines a set of standards that
component providers and composers should follow.
• The key CBSE processes are CBSE for reuse
and CBSE with reuse.
 Key points
• During the CBSE process, the processes of
requirements engineering and system design are
interleaved.
• Component composition is the process of ‘wiring’
components together to create a system.
• When composing reusable components, you
normally have to write adaptors to reconcile
different component interfaces.
• When choosing compositions, you have to
consider required functionality, non-functional
requirements and system evolution.