Component-Based Development Environment for Grid Systems: Design and Implementation

Component-oriented development is a software design method which enables users to build large scale Grid systems by integrating independent and possibly distributed software modules (components), via well defined interfaces, into higher level components. The main benefit from such an approach is improved productivity. Firstly, due to abstracting away network level functionalities, thus reducing the technical demands on the developer. Secondly, by combining components into higher level components, component libraries can be built up incrementally and made available for reuse. In this paper, we share our initial experiences in designing and developing an integrated development environment for Grids to support component-oriented development, deployment, monitoring, and steering of large-scale Grid applications. The development platform, which is tightly integrated with Eclipse software framework, was designed to empower the developer with all the tools necessary to compose, deploy, monitor, and steer Grid applications. We also discuss the overall functionality, design aspects, and initial implementation issues.