The use of mediation and ontology technologies for software component information retrieval

Abstract

Component Based Developed aims at constructing software through the inter-relationship between pre-existing components. However, these components should be bound to a specific application domain in order to be effectively reused. Reusable domain components and Their related documentation are usually stored in a great variety of data sources. Thus, a possible solution for accessing this information is to use a software layer that integrates different component information sources. We present a component information integration data layer, based on mediators. Through mediators, domain ontology acts as a technique/formalism for specifying ontological commitments or agreements between component users and providers, enabling more accurate software component information search.