MoReCOTS: a specialized search engine for COTS components on the Web

A typical process for COTS-based development consists in five main steps including identifying COTS products candidates, selecting the most appropriate one and integrating it with the other components. Results of the identification step are fundamental for the buy versus develop decision. Many potential COTS components are available on the Web. Finding an adequate component involves searching among heterogeneous descriptions of the components within a broad search space. Thus, the use of search systems is required to enhance the COTS components location and retrieval effectiveness and efficiency. However, our study of current search systems including directories, generic search engines, metasearch engines, and even components search engines revealed their inadequacy for the COTS components identification. That's why we propose "MoReCOTS", a specialized search engine for COTS components marketed on the Web. MoReCOTS is based on meta-searching online specialized databases maintained by publishers of COTS components catalogues. It provides (i) a directory containing a comprehensive list of COTS components categories, and (ii) a specialized search interface with specific search fields related to COTS components characteristics.