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

2. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

3. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

4. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

5. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Outline
Motivation
Overview
Superimposed Information, SLIM
SPARCE
Design, implementation, evaluation
Related work
Future work
Conclusion
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

6. 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]
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

7. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

8. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

9. 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, …
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

10. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

11. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

12. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

13. 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”
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

14. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

15. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Reference Model
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

16. Architecture Diagram (Simplified)
An excerpt is a context element
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

17. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

18. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
SPARCE Applications
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

19. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

20. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
RID
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21. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

22. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

23. Groups
Items
Uses Word Mark

24. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
*Developed originally by Shawn Bowers
Schematics Browser*
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

25. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

26. 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)
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27. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Related Work
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

28. 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 ( )
Compound document
Document composed with information from disparate sources
OpenDoc, OLE 2 ( )
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

29. 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
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30. 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)
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

31. 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?
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

32. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

33. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Demo
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34. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Questions?
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

35. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Desiderata
Functionality
Reusability
Modifiability
Extensibility
Usability
Package flexibility
Testability
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

36. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Mark Creation
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37. 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
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38. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

39. SPARCE Classes and Interfaces
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40. 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.
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

41. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

42. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

43. 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)
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44. 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
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts

45. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
DN, FONSI
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46. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
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47. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Appeal Letter
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48. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Appeal Decision
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49. SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
SLIM Architecture
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SPARCE: Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts