Arquitetura de software para reuso de componentes.

Abstract

The thesis deals with software reuse. In this context, it studies the problem of developing applications from preexisting software components. White box components are considered here. White box components may contain template methods, that demand an implementation, when the components are used. The components considered in this work are part of the problem domain layer of an application. The thesis presents a technique that allows specification of the desired relation between the application classes in construction and a set of preexisting components. This specification technique is based on an existing technique, called reuse contracts, It is supported by a graphical notation The thesis presents two new types of reuse contracts in order to model the relation between application and components. These contracts are called use and implementation contracts. To allow the implementation of reuse contracts, an integration architecture is proposed. In this software architecture there are three layers: the components layer, the integration layer and the application layer. The integration layer implements the relations between components and application. This layer can be generated automatically from the specification of the relation between application and components, made through reuse contracts. On the basis of design patterns that appear in literature, the thesis presents two design patterns, oriented to implement reuse contracts. These design patterns contain the rules through which the integration layer must be constructed. Finally, an assistant software is presented which automatically generates the classes of the integration layer. The assistant software offers an interface that allows the definition of the the reuse contracts that specify the relation one intends to implement between his application and a set of existing components. The components are stored in a repository.