A Model-driven Approach for Integration of Interactive Applications and Web Services: A Case Study in Interactive Digital TV Platform Raoni Kulesza, Silvio R. L. Meira Informatics Center (CIn), UFPE Recife, Brazil [rk,srlm]@cin.ufpe.br Thales P. Ferreira, Eduardo S. M. Alexandre, Guido L. S. Filho Informatics Center (CI), UFPB João Pessoa, Brazil [thales,edu,guido]@lavid.ufpb.br Manoel C Marques Neto Celso A. S. Santos DMCC/UFBA Salvador, Brazil manoelnetom@ifba.edu.br saibel@ufba.br Abstract—This work proposed a model-driven development approach related to interactive multimedia applications and Web services integration. It is based on extension of an existing modeling language, which integrates modeling concepts for interactive applications and adds support for Web Services. Three Interactive Digital TV applications were modeled and developed. As we show, the evaluation of the approach brought benefits not supported by related works, like requirements structuring and reducing amount of work needed to finalize the code generated. Keywords: Model-Driven Development, Template-based Authoring, Digital TV, Broadband TV, Web Services. I. INTRODUCTION Digital convergence is a process that can be seen from two different points of view:(i) as a marriage of technologies or industries (Internet, telecoms and digital television networks, for example) and (ii) the union of different types of media through an unique technology (multimedia services and applications access using a Web browser). On the other hand, parallel to the evolution of interactive multimedia applications, Web applications come with "mashups" that aggregate content or functionalities from Web services. Such scenario can also be observed recently in the field of interactive multimedia applications, through TVs with direct access to the Internet, the so called Broadband TV [1]. An interactive multimedia application can be defined as software that has a GUI with at least one media object (audio, video, image or text) and that are closely linked to the application logic. This implies that the relationship between the media objects may include: (i) creation, deletion, alteration of media objects from the application’s logic at runtime, and (ii) generating events of media objects propagated for the application logic. Moreover, the design of these applications must also involve a process of media production [5]. The development of interactive multimedia applications is still a challenge. In addition to business logic, multimedia applications typically offer a graphical interface that is both sophisticated and integrated with media objects (images, 3D graphics, audio and video). Consequently, the process of developing this type of application should consider the involvement of specialists in (i) software design, (ii) interface design and (iii) graphics and media production. Currently, it is possible to identify a gap in the definition of processes, methods and tools to help the systematic development of multimedia applications integrating these three aspects [12]. The Model Driven Development (MDD) is one of the approaches that seek to reduce the complexity of building interactive multimedia applications [10]. The MDD allows the transformation of a high-level model design into a description of an abstract set of elements that compose it and then, the transformation of these elements into code for a specific platform. The main benefits of this approach are: (i) inclusion of an intermediate phase (project) between the requirements specification and implementation, (ii) improvement of development team communication due to the existence of representations of the system at various levels and (iii) automation of code generation through the use of transformation engines between the models and tools for editing the models. However, using this approach in the field of multimedia applications is still limited [14]. Applying concepts of MDD to design interactive multimedia applications, StoryToCode model [9] has proposed an approach with focus on component reuse, however, it leaves open a classic problem of systems engineering: the requirements structuring for reducing the gap between media design professionals and software on the making of high-level models. The main consequence is the increase of rework (by the software team) in adjustments to the model before its final approval (by the media production team). Another StoryToCode related problem is the amount of rework needed to finalize the code generated from the created elements diagram. This occurs because the elements diagram which represents an abstraction of the modeled application requirements does not include instance information. This diagram describes only the information structure that must be present in an application and not the instance values of this structure. The StoryToCode also does not model features on the latest applications, which use, for example, Web services, since their model focuses on the information’s structure and not on treating dependencies or external behaviours that may affect such a structure. 2012 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo Workshops 978-0-7695-4729-9/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICMEW.2012.52 266