Web Application Orchestration Using Excel

Abstract

Form-based Web applications described in HTML can be easily used by end-users. In order to enable end-users to define a series of tasks by combining multiple Web resources, it is necessary to provide an orchestration environment for Web applications. A spreadsheet is one of the most popular applications for office workers. It provides an end- user programming environment. In this paper, we propose a spreadsheet-based environment for end-users to orchestrate multiple Web applications. First, we provide a method for embedding various Web resources in spreadsheet cells as visual components in order to reuse them on the spreadsheet. Second, we propose an access method for embedded components using the special function in the formula language. Our approach enables users to define the complex coordination of multiple Web applications on the spreadsheet using the formula language.