APIUaaS: a reference architecture for facilitating API usage from a data analytics perspective

Source code examples are key resources for software developers to learn application programming interfaces (APIs) and to understand corresponding usage patterns. Developers usually have to utilise, evaluate and understand code examples from multiple sources, which involve heavy manually processing e...

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Veröffentlicht in:IET software Jg. 13; H. 5; S. 466 - 478
Hauptverfasser: Zhao, Jitong, Liu, Yan
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 01.10.2019
Schlagworte:
API code examples
API elements
API queries
API usage as a service
API usage services layer
API usages mining
APIUaaS
application program interfaces
application programming interfaces
cloud computing
clustering algorithm
code example candidates
data analysis
data analytics perspective
data mining
data model & code assets layer
data sources layer
global-level architectural concerns
knowledge discover & intelligent model layer
multiple sources
pattern clustering
ranking algorithm
ranking algorithms
recommendation phase
recommendation systems
recommender systems
reference architecture
Research Article
semiautomatic data analytics
software architecture
software developers
source code (software)
source code examples
source code mining
usage patterns
source code (software)
reference architecture
application program interfaces
data mining
source code mining
application programming interfaces
software developers
API elements
recommendation phase
software architecture
data sources layer
code example candidates
API usages mining
usage patterns
data model & code assets layer
cloud computing
APIUaaS
ranking algorithm
data analysis
API usage as a service
clustering algorithm
global-level architectural concerns
recommendation systems
recommender systems
data analytics perspective
source code examples
multiple sources
pattern clustering
knowledge discover & intelligent model layer
API queries
API usage services layer
API code examples
semiautomatic data analytics
ranking algorithms
ISSN:1751-8806, 1751-8814, 1751-8814
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Source code examples are key resources for software developers to learn application programming interfaces (APIs) and to understand corresponding usage patterns. Developers usually have to utilise, evaluate and understand code examples from multiple sources, which involve heavy manually processing efforts. To reduce such efforts, there has been growing interest in developing source code mining and recommendation systems. This study proposes API usage as a service (APIUaaS), a reference architecture for facilitating API usage, which allows infrastructures to be built for recommending proper API code examples based on semi-automatic data analytics. This reference architecture contains five logical layers and six global-level architectural concerns. API queries are accepted from programmers, and corresponding code example candidates are extracted from the data sources layer. The detailed structural links between API elements and source codes are captured and stored in the data model & code assets layer. During the recommendation phase, API usages mining, clustering and ranking algorithms are enabled in the knowledge discover & intelligent model layer. Services such as code assist and bug detection are assembled in the API usage services layer. Finally, the authors evaluate APIUaaS from three perspectives: rationality, feasibility, and usability.
ISSN:1751-8806
1751-8814
1751-8814
DOI:10.1049/iet-sen.2018.5355