Software Customization Based on Model-Driven Architecture Over SaaS Platforms

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is changing the way enterprises develop and deploy information systems. With the rapid development and successful implementations of the model-driven architecure(MDA) and service-oriented architecture (SOA), SaaS has become the focus of research. This paper describes the design and implementation of a service template markup language (STML) and its integrated development tools, which provide a comprehensive solution to the customization of applications over SaaS platforms for individual users on an as-needed basis. In the paper, we first analyze and point out the limitations of current software customization approaches in SaaS platforms, then propose a framework for a MDA-based approach to software customization in a SaaS platform, next present a series of SaaS service models and an XML-based service template markup language, finally conclude by an example showing the practicability of the STML tools.