The Development of the Multi-Agent Classification System (MACS) in Compliance with FIPA Specifications
The paper investigates the feasibility of constructing a software multi-agent based monitoring and classification system and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. The agents function autonomously to provide continuous and periodic monitoring of excels spreadsheet workbooks. Resulting in, the development of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) that is in compliance with the specifications of the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA). However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies that are Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). The Microsoft's .NET widows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW that is in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. ODM was used to automate the classification phase of MACS.
[1] Bullen, S., Bovey, R. & Green, J. (2009) Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel and VBA, Upper Saddle River, Addison-Wesley.
[2] Codasyl end-user facilities committee status report. Information
Management Two,North Holland. 1979, 137-163.
[3] Cotterman, W. & Kummar, K. (1989) User Cube: A Taxonomy of End
Users. Communication of the ACM, 32, 1313-1320.
[4] Fausto, G., John, M. & Perini, A. (2002) The Tropos software development methodology: Processes, models and diagrams. In Third International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering.
[5] FIPA (2002) FIPA Abstract Architecture Specification.
[6] FIPA (2004) FIPA Agent Management Specification.
[7] FIPA Agent Message Transport Service Specification,
http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00067/, (last visited 2010).
[8] Govindarajulu, C. (2003) End Users: Who are They? Communication
of the ACM, 46, 152-159.
[9] Hasan, J. & Duran, M. (2006) Expert service-oriented architecture in
C# 2005, Apress.
[10] Hole, S. & Mcphee, D. (2006a) Building a .NET Agent Software
Agent to Facilitate Automatic collection of End-User Data. 2nd International Conference on Computer Science and Information
Systems. Athens, Greece, Athens Institute for Education and Research.
[11] Hole, S. & Mcphee, D. (2006b) Constructing a Windows Service
Based Agent to Facilitate the Automatic Collection of End User Desk-
Top Data. 3rd International Conference on elecommunications and
Computer Networks. Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
[12] Introduction to Windows Service Applications, MSDN,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d56de412(VS.80).aspx, (last
visited, 2010).
[13] Khanh, H. D. & Michael, W. (2003) Comparing agent-oriented
methodologies. IN Paolo, G. & Michael, W. (Eds.) Proceedings of the
Fifth International Bi-Conference Workshop on Agent-Oriented
Information Systems. Melbourne, Australia.
[14] Khanh, H. D. (2003) Evaluating agent-oriented software engineering
methodologies, Master-s thesis, School of Computer Science and
Information Technology. Melbourne, Australia, RMIT University,
(supervisors: Michael Winikoff and Lin Padgham).
[15] Krafzig, D., Banke, K. & Slama, D. (2005) Enterprise SOA: Serviceoriented
Architecture Best Practices, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall
PTR.
[16] LIN, P. & Michael, W. (2002) Prometheus: A methodology for
developing intelligent agents. Third International Workshop on Agent-
Oriented Software Engineering.
[17] LIN, P. & Michael, W. (2002) Prometheus: A pragmatic methodology
for engineering intelligent agents. In Proceedings of the OOPSLA
2002 Workshop on Agent-Oriented Methodologies.
[18] LIN, P. & Michael, W. (2004) The Prometheus Methodology.
[19] Mclean, E. R. (1979) End-users as application developers. MIS
Quarterly, 10(4), 37-46.
[20] Michael, L., Peter, M. & Chris, P. (2003) Agent technology: Enabling
next generation computing: A roadmap for agent-based computing.
AgentLink report, vailable from www.agentlink.org/roadmap, ISBN
0854 327886.
[21] Paolo, B., Paolo, G., Fausto, G., Mylopoulos;, J. & Perini, A. (2002)
Tropos: An agent-oriented software development methodology,
Technical Report DIT-02-0015. University of Trento, Department of
Information and Communication Technology.
[22] Peiris, C., Mulder, D., Cicoria, S., Bahree, A. & Pathak, N. (2007) Pro
WCF: practical Microsoft SOA implementation, Apress.
[23] Price Waterhouse and Coopers. (2004) The Use of Spreadsheets:
Considerations for Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Price,
Waterhouse, Coopers.
[24] REA, S. (2005) Building Intelligent .NET Applications, Chichester,
Great Britain, Wiley.
[25] Rockart, J. F. & Flannery, L. S. (1983) The management of end-user
computing. Commun. ACM, 26(10), 776-764.
[26] Scott, A. & Deloach (2001) Analysis and design using MaSE and
agent Tool. In Proceedings of the 12th Midwest Articial Intelligence
and Cognitive Science Conference (MAICS 2001).
[27] Scott, D., Mark, W. & Clint, S. (2001) Multiagent systems
engineering, International Journal of Software Engineering and
Knowledge Engineering, 11(3), 231-258.
[28] Vasters, C. (2005) Introduction to Building WCF Services ,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480190.aspx, MSDN (last
visited 2010).
[29] Windows Communication Foundation Reliable Sessions,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733136.aspx, MSDN,
(Last Visited 2010).
[30] Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N. R. & Kinny, D. (2000) The Gaia
methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. Autonomous
Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 3(3).
[1] Bullen, S., Bovey, R. & Green, J. (2009) Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel and VBA, Upper Saddle River, Addison-Wesley.
[2] Codasyl end-user facilities committee status report. Information
Management Two,North Holland. 1979, 137-163.
[3] Cotterman, W. & Kummar, K. (1989) User Cube: A Taxonomy of End
Users. Communication of the ACM, 32, 1313-1320.
[4] Fausto, G., John, M. & Perini, A. (2002) The Tropos software development methodology: Processes, models and diagrams. In Third International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering.
[5] FIPA (2002) FIPA Abstract Architecture Specification.
[6] FIPA (2004) FIPA Agent Management Specification.
[7] FIPA Agent Message Transport Service Specification,
http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00067/, (last visited 2010).
[8] Govindarajulu, C. (2003) End Users: Who are They? Communication
of the ACM, 46, 152-159.
[9] Hasan, J. & Duran, M. (2006) Expert service-oriented architecture in
C# 2005, Apress.
[10] Hole, S. & Mcphee, D. (2006a) Building a .NET Agent Software
Agent to Facilitate Automatic collection of End-User Data. 2nd International Conference on Computer Science and Information
Systems. Athens, Greece, Athens Institute for Education and Research.
[11] Hole, S. & Mcphee, D. (2006b) Constructing a Windows Service
Based Agent to Facilitate the Automatic Collection of End User Desk-
Top Data. 3rd International Conference on elecommunications and
Computer Networks. Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
[12] Introduction to Windows Service Applications, MSDN,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d56de412(VS.80).aspx, (last
visited, 2010).
[13] Khanh, H. D. & Michael, W. (2003) Comparing agent-oriented
methodologies. IN Paolo, G. & Michael, W. (Eds.) Proceedings of the
Fifth International Bi-Conference Workshop on Agent-Oriented
Information Systems. Melbourne, Australia.
[14] Khanh, H. D. (2003) Evaluating agent-oriented software engineering
methodologies, Master-s thesis, School of Computer Science and
Information Technology. Melbourne, Australia, RMIT University,
(supervisors: Michael Winikoff and Lin Padgham).
[15] Krafzig, D., Banke, K. & Slama, D. (2005) Enterprise SOA: Serviceoriented
Architecture Best Practices, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall
PTR.
[16] LIN, P. & Michael, W. (2002) Prometheus: A methodology for
developing intelligent agents. Third International Workshop on Agent-
Oriented Software Engineering.
[17] LIN, P. & Michael, W. (2002) Prometheus: A pragmatic methodology
for engineering intelligent agents. In Proceedings of the OOPSLA
2002 Workshop on Agent-Oriented Methodologies.
[18] LIN, P. & Michael, W. (2004) The Prometheus Methodology.
[19] Mclean, E. R. (1979) End-users as application developers. MIS
Quarterly, 10(4), 37-46.
[20] Michael, L., Peter, M. & Chris, P. (2003) Agent technology: Enabling
next generation computing: A roadmap for agent-based computing.
AgentLink report, vailable from www.agentlink.org/roadmap, ISBN
0854 327886.
[21] Paolo, B., Paolo, G., Fausto, G., Mylopoulos;, J. & Perini, A. (2002)
Tropos: An agent-oriented software development methodology,
Technical Report DIT-02-0015. University of Trento, Department of
Information and Communication Technology.
[22] Peiris, C., Mulder, D., Cicoria, S., Bahree, A. & Pathak, N. (2007) Pro
WCF: practical Microsoft SOA implementation, Apress.
[23] Price Waterhouse and Coopers. (2004) The Use of Spreadsheets:
Considerations for Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Price,
Waterhouse, Coopers.
[24] REA, S. (2005) Building Intelligent .NET Applications, Chichester,
Great Britain, Wiley.
[25] Rockart, J. F. & Flannery, L. S. (1983) The management of end-user
computing. Commun. ACM, 26(10), 776-764.
[26] Scott, A. & Deloach (2001) Analysis and design using MaSE and
agent Tool. In Proceedings of the 12th Midwest Articial Intelligence
and Cognitive Science Conference (MAICS 2001).
[27] Scott, D., Mark, W. & Clint, S. (2001) Multiagent systems
engineering, International Journal of Software Engineering and
Knowledge Engineering, 11(3), 231-258.
[28] Vasters, C. (2005) Introduction to Building WCF Services ,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480190.aspx, MSDN (last
visited 2010).
[29] Windows Communication Foundation Reliable Sessions,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733136.aspx, MSDN,
(Last Visited 2010).
[30] Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N. R. & Kinny, D. (2000) The Gaia
methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. Autonomous
Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 3(3).
@article{"International Journal of Information, Control and Computer Sciences:58029", author = "Mohamed R. Mhereeg", title = "The Development of the Multi-Agent Classification System (MACS) in Compliance with FIPA Specifications", abstract = "The paper investigates the feasibility of constructing a software multi-agent based monitoring and classification system and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. The agents function autonomously to provide continuous and periodic monitoring of excels spreadsheet workbooks. Resulting in, the development of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) that is in compliance with the specifications of the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA). However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies that are Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). The Microsoft's .NET widows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW that is in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. ODM was used to automate the classification phase of MACS.
", keywords = "Autonomous, Classification, MACS, Multi-Agent, SOA, WCF.", volume = "6", number = "11", pages = "1383-7", }
