High-level scripting approach for building component-based applications on the Grid

In this paper, we describe a top-down approach to solution of the problem of component composition on the Grid. The proposed method is based on the use of a dynamic scripting language. It enables designing a simple API to define component composition in an elegant and concise way. GScript [17] provides constructs to create component instances (deployment), connect their ports (composition) and invoke the component methods with the minimum amount of code. As GScript is based on Ruby [26], it also provides the full flexibility of a programming language, with a rich set of control constructs of component applications (workflows). GScript hides all the details of the underlying Grid infrastructure, so the programmer may focus on the application logic, while the process of resource selection and component deployment is performed automatically. We describe the architecture of the runtime library needed to support the high-level features, and propose a set of development tools, based on the Eclipse platform. We report on a prototype which demonstrates the applicability of the approach to construct applications from both MOCCA (CCA) and ProActive (GCM) components.