A Study of Mashup as a Software Application Development Technique with Examples from an End-User Programming Perspective

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The purpose of this study is to present, introduce and explain the principles, concepts and techniques of mashups through an analysis of mashup tools from End-user Development (EuD) software engineering perspectives, since it is a new program ming paradigm. Problem statement: Although mashup tools supporting the creation of mashups rel y heavily on data integration, they still require users to have reasonable programming skills, rather than simply enabling the integration of content in a template approach. Mashup tools also have their lif espan in a fast moving technology-driven world which requires meta-application handling. Some developers have discontinued their mashup tools but others are still available in the mashup space. It has been noted that there is a steady increase of n ew mashups on a daily basis with a concomitant increas e of new Application Programming Interface (APIs) to support meta-mashup application EuD. Approach: Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have been utilized. After introducing the b asic principles, concepts and techniques of mashups, we develop and present a categorization of mashups and mashup tools and summarize the ten most popular currently used mashup tools against se ven indictors from end-user software engineering perspectives ranging from programming skill require ment, prompt suggestion of features use, operability, 'share-ability' and reuse, service, ty pe and target user, in order to evaluate how these mashup tools support end-user development. To perform the evaluation and produce the final results, the selected indicators' features have been horizon tally compared and comprehensively analyzed. Results: The philosophy of mashup is aimed at providing simple rapid program development by end- users with minimum programming skills. However, we observe that mashup tools typically follow four data processing styles: Webpage customization, wire paradigm, spreadsheet and programming by demonstration. These mashup tools are supposed to seamlessly and effortlessly assist end-users programming but this is not the case. Conclusion: From our research we concluded that some mashup tools are not really simple enough to handle and st ill require end-users to have a computer programmin g background to learn and understand its platform inf rastructures and mechanisms. These might all change in the near future. There are some companies that are now involved with mashup development which provide huge opportunities to both individual and organizational customers. Mashup have now become a commercial opportunity rather than a simple way of integrating data from Web 2.0 platforms.