SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Sudarshan S. Murthy OGI School of Science & Engineering at OHSU (CSE DOT) mailto: smurthy@cse.ogi.edu Advisor: Prof. David Maier

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Annotating Mark up the paper Place sticky notes on the paper Write on a different medium and leave pointers to relevant portions I don’t always remember the exact point an annotation makes; sometimes I need to examine context to reconnect 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Not Just in the Paper World This mail contains an excerpt The receiver needs to examine context to understand the excerpt better Luckily, the author included the URL 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Observations People often superimpose new interpretations onto existing information They frequently excerpt information They examine contexts to reconnect, better understand They like to combine existing information and the interpretations (in some meaningful way) to get “their” view 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Outline Motivation Overview Superimposed Information, SLIM SPARCE Design, implementation, evaluation Related work Future work Conclusion 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

What is Superimposed Information? Data placed over existing information sources to help organize, access, connect, and reuse information elements in those sources. [Maier 1999, Delcambre 2001] 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts SLIM Superimposed Layer Information Management Architecture to manage superimposed information [Delcambre 2001] A Mark is a reference to a base-layer element Several mark implementations exist Addressing scheme usually depends on the base layer Marks provide uniform interface across base-layer types and access protocols 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Superimposed Applications These are applications that manipulate superimposed information They are free to choose display and data models based on their needs They need to store IDs of marks used A user can activate a mark to navigate to the base layer SLIMPad is a superimposed application 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Excerpts and Contexts SLIM support only creation, retrieval, and resolution operations for marks, but some applications need excerpts and contexts An Excerpt is the content of a marked region Type of an excerpt varies: text, graphics, … Context is information related to a marked region Several kinds of context possible: presentation, placement, sub-structure, topology, … 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Applications Need Contexts <font name=”Times New Roman” size=”3”>Cheatgrass,  <i>Bromus tectorum</i>, grows near many caves in this project area.</font> <font size=”3”>Cheatgrass,  <i>Bromus tectorum</i>, grows near many caves in this project area.</font> Cheatgrass,  <i>Bromus tectorum</i>, grows near many caves in this project area. Three possible HTML markups for the highlighted region 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Objectives Address base information regardless of its type, location, and access protocol Allow superimposed applications to use any display and data model Retrieve excerpts and contexts Use the same programmatic interface to work with any base layer View excerpts and contexts side by side with superimposed information 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Considerations Excerpt type varies, many context kinds possible Contexts can vary between base-layer types Excel mark has row number, PDF mark does not Contexts can vary between marks of same base-layer type Some HTML marks may have a “column heading” Context of a mark may change with time A mark to a figure in MS Word may lose “caption” 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Overview Superimposed Layer Base Layer Acrobat SA 1 SPARCE XML Marks Word SA 2 <mark ID=“…”> <type>…</type> <address>…</address> … </mark> Relations 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Reference Model 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Architecture Diagram (Simplified) An excerpt is a context element 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Implementation Microsoft Windows, ActiveX Base layers currently supported MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Acrobat Kinds of context managed Content, presentation, containment, placement, sub-structure, topology, document, application 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts SPARCE Applications 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

The USDA FS Appeal Process* *With thanks to John Davis, USDA FS The USDA FS Appeal Process* FS routinely makes decisions to solve or prevent problems concerning forests Any FS decision can be appealed An editor reviews issues raised and prepares an appeal packet for a reviewing officer The packet contains a RID letter 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts RID 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts RID Letter Challenges Composing a RID letter requires an editor to maintain large working sets (and several threads of organization) Too many documents (windows) open at once Some appeal packets contain over 100 documents Locating information in large documents can be tedious 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts RIDPad A superimposed application a FS editor might use to collect and organize information for a RID letter A user can view excerpts and contexts from within the application Uses a simple model to store mark IDs and excerpts Similar to SLIMPad 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Groups Items Uses Word Mark

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts *Developed originally by Shawn Bowers Schematics Browser* 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Results Implemented two superimposed applications No app-specific change made to SPARCE Schematics Browser now has access to all features of SPARCE Added support for new base-layer types, context kinds and elements No change made to SPARCE or its applications 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Some Statistics Applications Develop RIDPad: 30 hours Alter Schematics Browser: 6 hours Base layers and contexts MS Word and Excel: 7 hours (combined) Adobe Acrobat: 12 hours (includes six hours research and SDK learning time) 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Related Work 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Visions and Concepts Visions Memex (1945), Evolutionary List File (1965) Hypertext System of preparing information for non-linear media NoteCards, Intermedia, Dexter (1987-1994) Compound document Document composed with information from disparate sources OpenDoc, OLE 2 (1994-95) 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Comparison NoteCards Intermedia Dexter OpenDOC OLE 2 SPARCE Base type 2 3 Any Base location Proprietary FS Base granularity Whole Part Both Dependency Lisp MacDraw None CORBA COM OS Mac Win Context kinds Excerpt Many 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Others Multivalent Document (1996) A base layer document superimposed with behaviors Compound document as an editor (1996) 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Future Work What other operations are possible on marks and contexts? Querying contexts, compare mark containment Can caching contexts help? What to cache, where to cache? Superimposed information sharing Share marks? duplicate marks? Base layers change and move How do we detect change? How do we fix marks? 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Conclusion SPARCE demonstrates feasibility of using architectures to manage excerpts and contexts It allows us to develop new superimposed applications, and to support new base-layer types and contexts with minimal effort It has many qualities desired in software architectures It facilitates further research in superimposed information management 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Demo 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Questions? 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Desiderata Functionality Reusability Modifiability Extensibility Usability Package flexibility Testability 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Mark Creation 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Kinds of Context Content: Text, graphics Presentation: Font name, color Placement: Line number, section Sub-structure: Rows, sentences Topology: Next sentence, next paragraph Container: Containing paragraph, document Application: Options, preferences 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Reusable Viewers Context Browser Browse context hierarchy Context Viewers View any context element Clipboard Viewer Select mark fodder Other user interface elements Property pages and selection dialogs 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE Classes and Interfaces 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE Classes and Interfaces Class/Interface Description Mark A mark to base-layer information. Container The base document (or a portion of document) in which a mark is made. Application The base application in which a mark is made. Context-Aware Object (interface) Interface to any base-layer element that is able to provide its context. The classes Mark, Container, and Application implement this interface. Context Element A single piece of context information about a context-aware object. Context The context of a context-aware object. It is a collection of context elements. Implemented as a property set. Context Agent (interface) Interface to any base-layer. An implementation will retrieve context from a context-aware object. There is usually one implementation per base-layer type. SPARCE Manager Creates, stores, and retrieves marks; associates context-aware objects with appropriate context agents. 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Supporting New Base-Layer Type Study the base layer to understand support for marking This study should include understanding the addressing scheme for the base layer Decide which mark creation scenarios to support Implement mark fodder generation Mark fodder generation is done when mark fodder is copied to the Clipboard Decide what context elements to support Implement a context agent for the base layer The context agent must be packaged in an ActiveX server and registered with the operating system for the current SPARCE implementation 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Evaluation Procedure Evaluation Step Qualities Evaluated Implement SPARCE, support one base-layer type (MS Word) Functionality, usability Implement one superimposed application (RIDPad) Support new base-layer types and new context elements (MS Excel, Adobe Acrobat) Modifiability, reusability, extensibility Implement viewers Functionality, usability, reusability, Testability Implement second superimposed application (Schematics Browser) Functionality, reusability Change deployment scenarios Package flexibility 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

Tools and Technologies MS Visual Studio 6 (C++ and Visual Basic) MS Office MS XML Parser 4.0 Adobe Acrobat 5 SDK ActiveX (Component Object Model) 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Packages Package Type Mark and context management ActiveX EXE Mark fodder generation and Clipboard monitoring Clipboard Viewer ActiveX DLL Clipboard access helpers Regular DLL Context Browser and Viewers Adobe Acrobat plug-in MS Office and PDF context agents MS Office add-in 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts DN, FONSI 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Appeal Letter 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts Appeal Decision 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts SLIM Architecture 18-Feb-19 SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts