Towards a unified benchmarking framework for web-based mashup tools

Abstract

End-user mashup development is an emerging software engineering paradigm aligned with the trend towards the programmable Web. Mashup composition tools are at the core of this paradigm attracting increasing attentions from both academic research and industry. The ever increasing number of mashup tools bespeaks an urgent need for a comprehensive evaluation and comparison mechanism. This is needed not just because it helps identify the strengths and weaknesses of a mashup tool against the others, but also because it can guide future research and development efforts. To address this need, benchmarking is a promising approach providing a strong evaluation mechanism based on quantitative and reproducible measurements. The goal of this position paper is to delimit the scope and discuss the feasibility of a unified benchmarking framework targeted for Web-based mashup tools.