Worqbench - an Integrated Framework for e-Science Application Development

With the proliferation of Grid computing,potentially vast computational resources are available for solving complex problems in science and engineering. However, writing, deploying, and testing e-Science applications over highly heterogeneous and distributed infrastructure is complex and error prone. Further complicating matters, programmers may need to target a variety of different Grid middleware packages. Worqbench is an integrated,modular and middleware neutral framework for e-Science application development on the Grid. Worqbench can be incorporated into a number of existing Integrated Development Environments, further leveraging the advantages of such systems. We illustrate one such implementation in the Eclipse environment.

This research focuses on the design and implementation of an integrated framework of Grid development tools that bridges the gap between traditional IDEs and Grid middleware.application. Worqbench acts as an intermediary between existing IDEs and Grid middleware, allowing Grid programmers to gain the substantial benefits of using an IDE. It is designed with a layered architecture to make it modular and flexible to accommodate different IDEs and different Grid middleware. It provides adapters that allow programmers to work with Grid resources managed by different middleware. Worqbench provides services for application development such as compiling, debugging, and profiling services that can be used by traditional IDEs through appropriate plug-ins. These Web Services also enable Worqbench to be accessible by other software components that are implemented on different platform and in different languages than the framework.

Worqbench, however, is still under active development. A debugging service support for debugging GT4 applications has been written although it still needs to be further integrated into the Eclipse IDE. Preliminary testing of Worqbench using Eclipse and SSH & GT4 adapters has been performed. Further testing using various Grid middleware adapters and Grid resources need to be conducted to measure how well Worqbench achieves the objectives described.