Creating a Reusable Execution Environment for WiKoDa
Case Study: Creating a Reusable Execution Environment for WiKoDa
Authors: Christoph Benjamin Blessing, Sabih Ahmed Khan, and Jan Bernoth
Ensuring research software remains usable over time is a challenge due to evolving system architectures and dependencies. This case study dives into the problem of creating a Reusable Execution Environment (REE) for a specific dashboard (WiKoDa [1]) which investigates ways to support science communciation. The REE is a self-contained system that preserves software functionality and reproducibility.
By leveraging Docker and Guix, the study demonstrates an approach that isolates software dependencies while maintaining long-term accessibility. The developed tool REEuse [2] plays a key role in automating this process, simplifying the setup and execution of research software in a controlled environment.
The findings highlight both the benefits and limitations of this approach, shedding light on how future projects can refine and generalize the REE workflow for broader applications. For further reading, please look into the extended abstract published at the RDMxSE Workshop [3] at the SE 2025:
Blessing, Christoph Benjamin; Khan, Sabih Ahmed; Bernoth, Jan (2025): Case Study: Creating a Reusable Execution Environment for WiKoDa. Software Engineering 2025 – Companion Proceedings. DOI: 10.18420/se2025-ws-27. Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn. ISSN: 2944-7682. EISSN: 2944-7682
- WiKoDa backend: https://gitup.uni-potsdam.de/innohs/rest-api
- Reeuse:https://gitlab.gwdg.de/nfdixcs/a2-reusable-execution-environment/reeuse
- RDMxCS Workshop: https://nfdixcs.org/event/working-workshop-on-research-data-management-for-and-in-software-engineering-rdmxse
Read more in the Extended Abstract here: https://dl.gi.de/items/fa2d9121-1d9a-4589-b2ad-ef7b78e35a91.
