RiPLE-HC: javascript systems meets spl composition

Context. Software Product Lines (SPL) engineering is increasingly being applied to handle variability in industrial software systems. Problem. The research community has pointed out a series of benefits which modularity brings to software composition, a key aspect in SPL engineering. However, in practice, the reuse in Javascript-based systems relies on the use of package managers (e.g., npm, jam, bower, requireJS), but these approaches do not allow the management of project features. Method. This paper presents the RiPLE-HC, a strategy aimed at blending compositional and annotative approaches to implement variability in Javascript-based systems. Results. We applied the approach in an industrial environment and conducted an academic case study with six open-source systems to evaluate its robustness and scalability. Additionally, we carried a controlled experiment to analyze the impact of the RiPLE-HC code organization on the feature location maintenance tasks. Conclusion. The empirical evaluations yielded evidence of reduced effort in feature location, and positive benefits when introducing systematic reuse aspects in Javascript-based systems.