0. Design and Implementation of Component-based Adaptive Web Presentations
Zoltán Fiala, Michael Hinz
Technische Universität Dresden
Geert-Jan Houben, Flavius Frasincar
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
{zoltan.fiala,
{g.j.houben,
SAC 2004 WTA, March , Nicosia

1. Structure Motivation A Component-based Document Format
Hera-based Development
Implementation
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

2. Motivation Today‘s WWW AMACONT project [1] Hera project [2]
Personalized ubiquitous medium → Delivery of adapted information needed
Conventional document formats hardly applicable for this challenge
Complex authoring process
AMACONT project [1]
Component-based Development of Adaptive Web Presentations
Composing Web applications from reusable, adaptable document components
Hera project [2]
Structured design methodology for adaptive Web applications
Model driven specification framework based on RDF(S)
Here: Putting it all together
Combining Hera’s modeling power with a flexible AMACONT implementation
Extending Hera with AMACONT’s versatile presentation layer
Automatic transformation from Hera specs. to AMACONT components
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

3. A Component-based Document Format
Based on different abstraction levels
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

4. Describing Adaptive Behavior
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

5. Describing Adaptive Layout
„Layout Managers“
BorderLayout
BoxLayout
OverlayLayout
GridLayout
Transformers for
xHTML
cHTML
WML
Box-Layout
<LayoutProperties>
<alay:LayoutManager>
<alay:BoxLayout orientation="yAxis">
<alay:ComponentRef ratio="30%">
PictureObject1
</alay:ComponentRef>
<alay:ComponentRef ratio="70%">
TextObject1
</alay:BoxLayout>
</alay:LayoutManager>
</LayoutProperties>
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

6. Hera-based Development
Hypermedia Design Models
Identify Crucial phases of Web development
Specify hypermedia applications in an appropriate level of abstraction
Already significant research on design and process models
Aspects of adaptation: Hera [2], OOHDM [3], UWE [4]
Idea
Adoption of existing methods for component-based adaptive Web applications
Focus: Model driven Hera methodology [2]
Benefits
Automatic translation of Hera schemas to a component-based AMACONT implementation
Versatile implementation (presentation) layer for Hera framework
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

7. Conceptual Design Conceptual Model (CM) Component Development
Represents the application domain by concepts and concept attributes
Typed concept attributes (Integer, String, Image, Audio, etc.)
Based on RDFS
Component Development
Creation/retrieval of media instances representing concept attributes
Encapsulating media instances to components
Additional metadata, MPEG7 descriptors
Providing alternative media instances with different quality
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

8. Application Design Application Model Adaptation Design
Logical, structural and navigational aspects
Grouping concept attributes to Slices
Slice: meaningful presentation unit of some media items
Adaptation Design
Targeting different adaptation aspects in the AM
Adjusting the coarse navigational structure
Population of slices with media items
Dynamic Adaptation
Assigning appearance conditions to slice references
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

9. Application Design Realization with AMACONT components
Analogies between Hera slices and components:
Meaningful presentation units bearing some semantic role
Both top-level slices and top-level document components correspond to pages to be shown on the user’s display
Contain adaptation issues
Straightforward mapping process
Concept attributes → Media Components
Slices containing attributes from a single concept → Single Document Components
Slices containing concept attributes and subslices from different concepts → Composite Document Components
Same (recursive) mapping process for each aggregated subslice
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

10. Presentation Design Presentation Model (PM)
Bridges the logical level and the actual implementation
Defines how and where the identified subslices should be displayed
PD: Presentation Diagram
Idea: Adoption of Layout Manager Concept
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

11. Document Generation
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

12. Prototype: Component-based WIS
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

13. Conclusion and Future Work
Construction of adaptive Web presentations from components
Combination of the model-based Hera design methodology and AMACONT’s document formats
Automatic transformation from a high-level specification to a component-based implementation
Future Work
Dynamic coupling of AMACONT and Hera
Support for presentating data being computed at run-time
Specification, acquirement and evaluation of user interactions
Realizing dynamic adptation in the joint system
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

14. Literature
[1] Fiala, Z., Hinz, M., Meissner, K., Wehner, F.: A Component-based Approach for Adaptive, Dynamic Web Documents. Journal of Web Engineering, September 2003
[2] F. Frasincar, G. J. Houben, and R. Vdovjak. Engineering Semantic Web information Systems in Hera.
Journal of Web Engineering, September 2003
[3] D. Schwabe, G. Rossi, R. Guimaraes. Designing personalized web applications. WWW10, Hong Kong, 2001
[4] Koch, N., Kraus, A., Hennicker, R.: The authoring process of the UML-based web engineering approach. First International Workshop on Web-Oriented Software Technology. (2001)
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala

15. Document Generation
SAC2004 WTA, March , Nicosia Zoltán Fiala