This book presents a methodology to model and specify the data aspect of Web services, as it is overlooked by current standards for specifying Web services. The formal specification enables verification of service behavior, and the proposed methodology is based on formal methods and design-by-contract techniques. The Web has evolved from an information sharing medium to a wide-scale environment for sharing capabilities or services. Currently, URLs not only point to documents and images, but are also used to invoke services that potentially change the state of the Web. Major online organizations today, such as Amazon, PayPal and FedEx, provide services for users and consumers. They also allow third-party vendors to resell their services. In both cases, this requires precise and complete specification of service offerings. Several online discussions demonstrate the challenges faced by these organizations and others while describing their data-centric Web services. These challenges surrounding data specification can lead consumers to use a service erroneously. Case studies demonstrate how formal methods, and specifically design-by-contract techniques, can be leveraged to address the lack of formal specification of data when it comes to developing Web applications such as Amazon and PayPal.

This book presents a methodology to model and specify the data aspect of Web services, as it is overlooked by current standards for specifying Web services. The formal specification enables verification of service behavior, and the proposed methodology is based on formal methods and design-by-contract techniques. The Web has evolved from an information sharing medium to a wide-scale environment for sharing capabilities or services. Currently, URLs not only point to documents and images, but are also used to invoke services that potentially change the state of the Web. Major online organizations today, such as Amazon, PayPal and FedEx, provide services for users and consumers. They also allow third-party vendors to resell their services. In both cases, this requires precise and complete specification of service offerings. Several online discussions demonstrate the challenges faced by these organizations and others while describing their data-centric Web services. These challenges surrounding data specification can lead consumers to use a service erroneously. Case studies demonstrate how formal methods, and specifically design-by-contract techniques, can be leveraged to address the lack of formal specification of data when it comes to developing Web applications such as Amazon and PayPal.

This book constitutes the revised selected papers of the 12th International Conference on Service-Oriented Computing, ICSOC 2014, held in Paris, France, in November 2014. The conference hosted the following seven workshops: 10th International Workshop in Engineering Service-Oriented Applications, WESOA 2014; First Workshop on Resource Management in Service-Oriented Computing, RMSOC 2014; First International Workshop on Knowledge Aware Service Oriented Applications, Performance Assessment and Auditing in Service Computing, KASA 2014; Workshop on Intelligent Service Clouds, ISC 2014; Third International Workshop on Self-Managing Pervasive Service Systems, SeMaPS 2014; First International Workshop on Formal Modeling and Verification of Service-Based Systems, FOR-MOVES 2014; 4th International Workshop on Cloud Computing and Scientific Applications, CCSA 2014. The papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They address various topics in the service-oriented computing domain and its emerging applications.