Abstract Recently, the technology of Web Services emerge in the main focus as a new way to develop distributed serviceoriented or resource-oriented application. This paper studies the architecture of web services which is built on internet standards that simplify the exchange and integration of large amounts of data over the Internet, and as such they make it easier to conduct work... Recently, the technology of Web Services emerge in the main focus as a new way to develop distributed serviceoriented or resource-oriented application. This paper studies the architecture of web services which is built on internet standards that simplify the exchange and integration of large amounts of data over the Internet, and as such they make it easier to conduct work across organizations regardless of the types of programming platform, operating systems, hardware/ software, and database management systems that are being used. To better understand the architecture of Web Services, we will provide analysis of the core protocols and the process of modeling the Orchestration of web services in a specific case study. Composition is the process of defining the communication actions and the internal actions in which a service engages. To integrate data exchanged by web services, the interconnection of web services with databases is needed, with intention to provide backup and better management of data. While we execute a query we need to analyze the performance and estimation of the SQL operations. One of the best methods is to view the query execution plan, which provides information on how a specific DBMS query optimizer runs a specific query. This information is very valuable when we want to find out why a specific query is running slow and determine the cost estimations. The section of the Query Optimizer will help readers to improve the performance of the databases and applications, meaning that they can write better queries, provide the Query Optimizer with the information it requires to produce high execution plans. Read More Read Less

Abstract Entreprise collaboration is being enhanced by virtual communities that leverage social linking and tagging tools (like tools for social networking, social book marking and social search), user-contributed content management platforms (like entreprise Wikis, blogs and forums,) tools that leverage user opinions, etc. In this paper, we envisage a combination of Software agents and Web 2.0 technologies within a platform of... Entreprise collaboration is being enhanced by virtual communities that leverage social linking and tagging tools (like tools for social networking, social book marking and social search), user-contributed content management platforms (like entreprise Wikis, blogs and forums,) tools that leverage user opinions, etc. In this paper, we envisage a combination of Software agents and Web 2.0 technologies within a platform of a Web-Based Decision Support System. This paper develops a simple framework to help understand the collaboration that is afforded by Web 2.0 applications. The proposed framework is used to examine how production agents can create, share and exchange experiences on diagnosis and resources failures with each other to have new ideas or useful information for the decision-making process. ALFATRON electronics industry is selected as an application domain in this study. Read More Read Less

Abstract Web information is too heterogeneous that users have difficulties to retrieve their needed information: text, image orvideo. In this context, the collaborative work presents one solution proposed to solve this problem. Collaborative retrieval enables the retrieval histories’ sharing between users having the same profile across multiple tools such as annotations. We propose in this paper to improve collaborative retrieval performance,... Web information is too heterogeneous that users have difficulties to retrieve their needed information: text, image orvideo. In this context, the collaborative work presents one solution proposed to solve this problem. Collaborative retrieval enables the retrieval histories’ sharing between users having the same profile across multiple tools such as annotations. We propose in this paper to improve collaborative retrieval performance, considering the annotations as a new source of information describing documents. In our contribution, we propose to apply the relevance feedback to extend the user’s query. So we use a possibilistic approach to extract the relevant terms from annotations given in semi-structured documents returned by collaborative retrieval systems. Read More Read Less

Abstract Unit testing has been widely recognized as an important and valuable means of improving software reliability, as it exposes bugs early in the software development life cycle. However, manual unit testing is often tedious and insufficient. Testing tools can be used to enable economical use of resources by reducing manual effort. Recently the use of parameters in unit testing has... Unit testing has been widely recognized as an important and valuable means of improving software reliability, as it exposes bugs early in the software development life cycle. However, manual unit testing is often tedious and insufficient. Testing tools can be used to enable economical use of resources by reducing manual effort. Recently the use of parameters in unit testing has emerged as a very promising and effective methodology to allow the separation of two testing concerns or tasks: the specification of external, black-box behavior (i.e., assertions or specifications) by developers and the generation and selection of internal, white-box test inputs (i.e., high-code-covering test inputs) by tools. The Unit Testing Tool produced in this research is based on a parameterized test method that takes parameters, calls the code under test, and states assertions. Read More Read Less

Abstract This paper presents the development process of a web-based student teachers’ ePortfolio system for the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Literature shows that at a higher educational level, a student ePortfolio is becoming an important tool as it is being used to enhance the learning process through constant tutor and peer feedback, self-regulation and reflection. Many ePortfolio... This paper presents the development process of a web-based student teachers’ ePortfolio system for the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Literature shows that at a higher educational level, a student ePortfolio is becoming an important tool as it is being used to enhance the learning process through constant tutor and peer feedback, self-regulation and reflection. Many ePortfolio applications exist that may help university faculties to collaborate with their students. However, these existing applications concentrate on general ePortfolio content and allow limited flexibility to be tailored to specific structured ePortfolios that is actually needed by the demanding faculty. In our opinion a new tailor-made structured ePortfolio is needed specifically to replace the manual professional development portfolio system. The proposed system will be the official ePortfolio for the Faculty of Education to be used compulsory by students that are reading a bachelors degree in Education with a secondary track at the University of Malta. Therefore we proposed the full lifecycle development of a new web-based student teachers’ ePortfolio which we call STeP. A sample of fifteen selected participants, which include the chairperson of the Professional Development Portfolio, an administrator, tutors and students have taken part in different stages of the software development and played an important role in its success. We show all the stages involved that led to the successful implementation of the proposed tailor-made ePortfolio system. We evaluate our system and present a qualitative outcome for its implementation. Read More Read Less