{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,16]],"date-time":"2025-09-16T18:48:54Z","timestamp":1758048534076,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,22]],"date-time":"2025-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1753142400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,22]],"date-time":"2025-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1753142400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2104337","2232565"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2104337","2232565"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Research Initiation and Development Grants of UMDearborn"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Empir Software Eng"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <jats:p>Despite the widespread adoption of Web services in modern computing applications, there remains a lack of a systematic approach that can guide service developers in creating appealing services. This article addresses this gap by presenting findings from a comprehensive study of RapidAPI web services, the largest service marketplace, and their integration into GitHub-hosted applications. We collected data on over 16K RapidAPI services and 19K corresponding GitHub repositories invoking these services, evaluating each service based on metrics such as latency, reliability, pricing, followers, aggregate ratings community support, and provider support. Our analysis examines how these metrics influence service popularity and usage patterns on GitHub. We manually analyzed 800 GitHub repositories and identified developers\u2019 service selection preferences and integration patterns, considering alternative services and their features. We then classified GitHub developers based on proficiency levels to understand how developers\u2019 levels of proficiency impact their service selection and integration strategies. Moreover, we examined the metrics influence for matured set of repositories by excluding those intended solely for practice purposes. Our findings offer insights for service marketplaces to recommend integration-friendly services and for service developers to create offerings tailored to real-world application needs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-025-10647-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,22]],"date-time":"2025-07-22T11:42:39Z","timestamp":1753184559000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Towards a comprehensive understanding of web service integration: a large-scale empirical study from the developers\u2019 perspective"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Siddhi","family":"Baravkar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Pratiksha","family":"Gaikwad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-5213-2754","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhengquan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Eli","family":"Tilevich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Long","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Zheng","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"10647_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Azmy MR, Suhardi, Muhamad W (2020) Advanced technologies to support service discovery in service-oriented systems. In: 2020 International conference on information technology systems and innovation (ICITSI), pp 300\u2013305. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/ICITSI50517.2020.9264978","DOI":"10.1109\/ICITSI50517.2020.9264978"},{"key":"10647_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bano M, Zowghi D (2014) Users\u2019 voice and service selection: An empirical study. In: 2014 IEEE 4th International workshop on empirical requirements engineering (EmpiRE), pp 76\u201379. IEEE","DOI":"10.1109\/EmpiRE.2014.6890120"},{"key":"10647_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baravkar S, Pellegrini O, Gaikwad P, Tilevich E, Song Z (2024) \u201cHow Can I Be of Service?\u201d\u2014a comprehensive analysis of web service integration practices. In: IEEE International conference on web services (ICWS)","DOI":"10.1109\/ICWS62655.2024.00144"},{"issue":"1","key":"10647_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"83","DOI":"10.1016\/0020-7373(92)90092-Y","volume":"37","author":"D Batra","year":"1992","unstructured":"Batra D, Davis JG (1992) Conceptual data modelling in database design: similarities and differences between expert and novice designers. Int J Man-Mach Stud 37(1):83\u2013101. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/0020-7373(92)90092-Y","journal-title":"Int J Man-Mach Stud"},{"key":"10647_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Binzagr F, Labbaci H, Medjahed B (2019) Fame: An influencer model for service-oriented environments. In: Service-oriented computing: 17th international conference, ICSOC 2019, Toulouse, France, October 28\u201331, 2019, Proceedings 17, pp 216\u2013230. Springer","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-33702-5_16"},{"issue":"7","key":"10647_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1913","DOI":"10.1109\/TPDS.2013.308","volume":"25","author":"X Chen","year":"2014","unstructured":"Chen X, Zheng Z, Yu Q, Lyu MR (2014) Web service recommendation via exploiting location and qos information. IEEE Trans Parallel Distrib Syst 25(7):1913\u20131924. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TPDS.2013.308","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Parallel Distrib Syst"},{"issue":"1","key":"10647_CR7","first-page":"1","volume":"22","author":"M Daaji","year":"2021","unstructured":"Daaji M, Ouni A, Gammoudi MM, Bouktif S, Mkaouer MW (2021) Multi-criteria web services selection: Balancing the quality of design and quality of service. ACM Trans Int Technol (TOIT) 22(1):1\u201331","journal-title":"ACM Trans Int Technol (TOIT)"},{"issue":"2","key":"10647_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"794","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2020.3583","volume":"67","author":"G Gu","year":"2021","unstructured":"Gu G, Zhu F (2021) Trust and disintermediation: Evidence from an online freelance marketplace. Manage Sci 67(2):794\u2013807","journal-title":"Manage Sci"},{"issue":"3","key":"10647_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"467","DOI":"10.1109\/TSC.2014.2338851","volume":"8","author":"S-Y Hwang","year":"2014","unstructured":"Hwang S-Y, Hsu C-C, Lee C-H (2014) Service selection for web services with probabilistic qos. IEEE Trans Serv Comput 8(3):467\u2013480","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Serv Comput"},{"key":"10647_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jawabreh E, Taweel A (2023) Time-aware qos web service selection using collaborative filtering: A literature review. In: European conference on service-oriented and cloud computing, pp 55\u201369. Springer","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-46235-1_4"},{"key":"10647_CR11","unstructured":"Khankhoje R (2023) Web page element identification using selenium and cnn: A novel approach. J Softw 1(1)"},{"key":"10647_CR12","first-page":"365","volume-title":"The real estate api","author":"SA Kingaby","year":"2022","unstructured":"Kingaby SA, Kingaby SA (2022) The real estate api. Voice Access to Rich Data Sources for Enterprise Applications, Data-Driven Alexa Skills, pp 365\u2013385"},{"key":"10647_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liao S, Cheng L, Luo X, Song Z, Cai H, Yao D, Hu H (2024) A first look at security and privacy risks in the rapidapi ecosystem. In: Proceedings of the 2024 on ACM SIGSAC conference on computer and communications security, pp 1626\u20131640","DOI":"10.1145\/3658644.3690294"},{"key":"10647_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"82","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-31671-5_6","volume-title":"Enterprise Applications, Markets and Services in the Finance Industry","author":"C Manchanda","year":"2023","unstructured":"Manchanda C, Hussain W, Rabhi L, Rabhi F (2023) Towards an api marketplace for an e-invoicing ecosystem. In: Hillegersberg J, Osterrieder J, Rabhi F, Abhishta A, Marisetty V, Huang X (eds) Enterprise Applications, Markets and Services in the Finance Industry. Springer, Cham, pp 82\u201396"},{"key":"10647_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Ma Y, Wang S, Yang F, Chang RN (2015) Predicting qos values via multi-dimensional qos data for web service recommendations. In: 2015 IEEE International conference on web services, pp 249\u2013256. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/ICWS.2015.42","DOI":"10.1109\/ICWS.2015.42"},{"issue":"8","key":"10647_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1346","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2007.11.002","volume":"81","author":"NC Mendonca","year":"2008","unstructured":"Mendonca NC, Silva JAF, Anido RO (2008) Client-side selection of replicated web services: An empirical assessment. J Syst Softw 81(8):1346\u20131363","journal-title":"J Syst Softw"},{"key":"10647_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Menychtas A, Gomez SG, Giessmann A, Gatzioura A, Stanoevska K, Vogel J, Moulos V (2012) A marketplace framework for trading cloud-based services. In: Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services: 8th International Workshop, GECON 2011, Paphos, Cyprus, December 5, 2011, Revised Selected Papers 8, pp 76\u201389. Springer","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-28675-9_6"},{"key":"10647_CR18","unstructured":"Olu AA (2016) Modelling the performance of web services in cloud e-marketplaces based on consumer waiting time and provider cost. PhD thesis, University of Zululand"},{"key":"10647_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Owrak A, Namoun A, Mehandjiev N (2012) Quality evaluation within service-oriented software: a multi-perspective approach. In: 2012 IEEE Ninth international conference on services computing, pp 594\u2013601. IEEE","DOI":"10.1109\/SCC.2012.86"},{"key":"10647_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1057\/978-1-349-95121-5_669-1","author":"JC Panzar","year":"2016","unstructured":"Panzar JC (2016) Competition and Efficiency, pp 1\u20134. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1057\/978-1-349-95121-5_669-1","journal-title":"Palgrave Macmillan UK, London."},{"key":"10647_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Pudasaini D, Ding C (2017) Service selection in a cloud marketplace: A multi-perspective solution. In: 2017 IEEE 10th International conference on cloud computing (CLOUD), pp 576\u2013583. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/CLOUD.2017.79","DOI":"10.1109\/CLOUD.2017.79"},{"key":"10647_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pudasaini D, Ding C (2017) Service selection in a cloud marketplace: a multi-perspective solution. In: 2017 IEEE 10th International conference on cloud computing (CLOUD), pp 576\u2013583. IEEE","DOI":"10.1109\/CLOUD.2017.79"},{"key":"10647_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ramacher R, M\u00f6nch L (2012) Cost-minimizing service selection in the presence of end-to-end qos constraints and complex charging models. In: 2012 IEEE Ninth international conference on services computing, pp 154\u2013161. IEEE","DOI":"10.1109\/SCC.2012.18"},{"key":"10647_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Song Z, Rowader O, Li Z, Tello M, Tilevich E (2022) Quality of information matters: Recommending web services for performance and utility. In: 2022 IEEE International conference on cloud computing technology and science (CloudCom), pp 41\u201348. IEEE","DOI":"10.1109\/CloudCom55334.2022.00016"},{"key":"10647_CR25","unstructured":"Talebzadeh\u00a0Bardsiri A, Rasoolzadegan A (2024) Evaluating developers\u2019 expertise in serverless functions by mining activities from multiple platforms. Computer and Knowledge Engineering"},{"key":"10647_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang Y, Zhang J, Vassileva J (2010) Effective web service selection via communities formed by super-agents. In: 2010 IEEE\/WIC\/ACM International conference on web intelligence and intelligent agent technology, vol 1, pp 549\u2013556. IEEE","DOI":"10.1109\/WI-IAT.2010.221"},{"key":"10647_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Zeydan E, Blanco L, Barrachina-Mu\u00f1oz S, Rezazadeh F, Vettori L, Mangues J (2023) A marketplace solution for distributed network management and orchestration of slices. In: 2023 19th International conference on network and service management (CNSM), pp 1\u20136. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.23919\/CNSM59352.2023.10327832","DOI":"10.23919\/CNSM59352.2023.10327832"}],"container-title":["Empirical Software Engineering"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s10664-025-10647-9.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s10664-025-10647-9\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s10664-025-10647-9.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,13]],"date-time":"2025-09-13T08:54:35Z","timestamp":1757753675000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s10664-025-10647-9"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,22]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9]]}},"alternative-id":["10647"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10664-025-10647-9","relation":{},"ISSN":["1382-3256","1573-7616"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"1382-3256"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1573-7616"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,22]]},"assertion":[{"value":"21 March 2025","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"22 July 2025","order":2,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not Applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Conflict of Interest"}},{"value":"Not Applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethical approval"}},{"value":"Not Applicable.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Informed Consent"}},{"value":"Not Applicable.","order":5,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Clinical Trial Number"}}],"article-number":"144"}}