Specification-Driven Code Generation for Inter-parameter Dependencies in Web APIs

The generation of code templates from web API specifications is a common practice in the software industry. However, existing tools neglect the dependencies among input parameters (so called inter-parameter dependencies), extremely common in practice and usually described in natural language. As a result, developers are responsible for implementing the corresponding validation logic manually, a tedious and error-prone process. In this paper, we present an approach for the automated generation of code for inter-parameter dependencies in web APIs. Specifically, we exploit the IDL4OAS extension for specifying inter-parameter dependencies as a part of OpenAPI Specification (OAS) files. To make our approach applicable in practice, we present an extension of the popular OpenAPI Generator tool ecosystem, automating the generation of Java and Python code for the management of inter-parameter dependencies in both servers and clients. Evaluation results show the effectiveness of the approach in accelerating the development of APIs, generating up to 9.4 times more code than current generators, while making APIs potentially more reliable.

          @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/icsoc/BarakatRSS22,
author       = {Saman A. Barakat and
                Enrique Barba Roque and
                Ana Bel{\'{e}}n S{\'{a}}nchez and
                Sergio Segura},
editor       = {Javier Troya and
                Raffaela Mirandola and
                Elena Navarro and
                Andrea Delgado and
                Sergio Segura and
                Guadalupe Ortiz and
                Cesare Pautasso and
                Christian Zirpins and
                Pablo Fern{\'{a}}ndez and
                Antonio Ruiz{-}Cort{\'{e}}s},
title        = {Specification-Driven Code Generation for Inter-parameter Dependencies
                in Web APIs},
booktitle    = {Service-Oriented Computing - {ICSOC} 2022 Workshops - ASOCA, AI-PA,
                FMCIoT, {WESOACS} 2022, Sevilla, Spain, November 29 - December 2,
                2022 Proceedings},
series       = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
pages        = {261--273},
publisher    = {Springer},
year         = {2022},
url          = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26507-5\_21},
doi          = {10.1007/978-3-031-26507-5\_21},
timestamp    = {Sun, 16 Apr 2023 20:30:30 +0200},
biburl       = {https://dblp.org/rec/conf/icsoc/BarakatRSS22.bib},
bibsource    = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org}
}
          

Recommended citation: Barakat, S., Barba-Roque, E., Sánchez, A.B., Segura, S. (2022). "Secification-Driven Code Generation for Inter-parameter Dependencies in Web APIs." Service-Oriented Computing – ICSOC 2022 Workshops.
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