Modularizing RESTful web service management with aspect oriented programming

REST is a style of web services that uses standardized HTTP or similar protocols by constraining the interface to a set of well-known, standard operations (e.g., GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) [1]. In web application, functionalities spread in tiers or layers. Using Object Oriented Programming (OOP), functionalities supporting operations, e.g. authentication, caching, and logging, are not centralized, and spread over main codes. This is called crosscutting concerns. The impact of crosscutting concerns makes the software less reusable which will influence the flexibility and modifiability of the codes. It also makes the codes difficult to read and to understand. To handle this problem, there is a need to centralize the crosscutting concerns into an aspect using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). In this research, we identified, managed and analyzed the crosscutting concerns. We used PHP programming language. The measurement result with reusability metric on REST showed an evidence that REST-OOP+AOP is indicated more reusable than REST-OOP. Our contribution in this study is that we have collected crosscutting concerns into aspects in REST web service, especially in code level using OOP+AOP.