Semantics-enriched Web APIs selection for Enterprise mashup development

Collaboration inside and among enterprises often relies on mashup as a new development style for non-mission-critical Web applications, which are created to satisfy a business need and that often are used only for short periods of time, while the need exists. Examples of such Web applications are enterprise dashboards, that are used to improve decision making and locating contents. Mashup applications are built from independently developed software components, called Web APIs, collected in suitable registries or catalogs and linked through programmatic coupling. Ideally, mashups require a lower development effort with respect to traditional applications. To this purpose, we propose Web API selection patterns that are able to assist a mashup designer in selecting and aggregating Web APIs and we discuss their application to mashup development in enterprises. A prototype implementation of a Graphical User Interface to support Web API selection patterns is also described.