A highly configurable query-oriented portal for a co-operative environment

Web portals and “my” portals are now commonplace but they are constructed along familiar lines with hierarchical management structure. Typically one or more owners of data will allow a larger group of people to view data in rigid, pre-planned ways. Historically data on the web was presented on static pages. Nowadays the data is likely to be drawn from a database, but it still tends to be presented in a layout defined by the supplier. This suggests that it might be fruitful to consider what designs might be natural or possible in a cooperative, trusting, egalitarian environment. Although this ideal situation is rarely, if ever, truly found in real life it may be that some of the ideas will be appealing and find application even in an imperfect environment

Before-Commit Client State Management Services for AJAX Applications

Heavily script-based browser applications change the manner in which users interact with Web browsers. Instead of downloading a succession of HTML pages, users download a single application and use that application for a long period of time. The application is not a set of HTML pages, but rather a single page that can possible modify its own presentation based on data exchanged with a server. In such an environment, it is necessary to provide some means for the client to manage its own state. We describe the initial results of our work in providing client-side state management services for these script-based applications. We focus on browser-based services that can help the user before any data is committed on the server. Our services include state checkpointing, property binding, operation logging, operational replay, ATOM/RSS data updates, and application-controlled persistence

Requirements elicitation and planning of a knowledge portal : case study of a property management division in a housing organization

Author name used in this manuscript: Patrick S. W. Fong2011-2012 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAuthor’s OriginalPublishe

Portal da saúde: uma alternativa usando tecnologias open source

A investigação realizada propõe um modelo concetual de um portal de saúde centrado no utente que assenta num interface baseado num calendário. O estudo começa com uma revisão da literatura sobre os conceitos associados à implementação das tecnologias de portal nas organizações e sobre a sua importância como agregador de conteúdos e de porta de entrada para as organizações. Para sustentar as necessidades e desejos dos utilizadores recorreu-se a uma análise de stakeholders com a identificação das suas ações sobre o Portal. Em seguida, e de modo a dar forma ao conceito proposto, fez-se uma análise do estado da arte de portais de saúde e das suas funcionalidades principais. Destes estudos iniciais resultou uma proposta de de um modelo concetual de um portal de saúde centrado no utente e nas suas necessidades. A implementação do modelo concetual foi realizada usando o Drupal, que é uma ferramenta de gestão de conteúdos (CMS) baseada em software open source. Este estudo inclui também os resultados preliminares de uma pesquisa realizada junto de um grupo de utilizadores.The research proposes a Conceptual Model of an health portal user-centered with a core interface calendar. The study begins with the literature review of the related concepts with the implementation of portal technologies in organizations and its importance as content aggregator and gateway to organizations. To evaluate the users' wants and needs a stakeholder analysis was developed, identifying their type of action on the Portal. Then, in order to shape the proposed concept, it was made an analysis of the state of the art health portals and their main features. These initial studies resulted in a Conceptual Model proposal of an health portal focused on the users' needs. The implementation of the Conceptual Model was performed using Drupal, which is a content management system tool (CMS) based on open source software. This study also includes the preliminary results of a conducted survey in a group of users

An Engineering Method for Adaptive, Context-aware Web Applications

Users of Web-based software encounter growing complexity of the software resulting from the increasing amount of information and service offering. As a consequence, the likelihood that users employ the software in a manner compatible with the provider's interest decreases. Depending on the purpose of the Web application, a provider's goal can be to guide and influence user choices in information and service selection, or to assure user productivity. An approach at addressing these goals is to adapt the software's behavior during operation to the context in which it is being used. The term context-awareness originates in mobile computing, where research projects have studied context recognition and adaptation in specific scenarios. Context-awareness is now being studied in a variety of systems, including Web applications. However, how to account for context in a Web Engineering process is not yet established, nor is a generic means of using context in a Web software architecture. This dissertation addresses the question of how context-awareness can be applied in a general-purpose, systematic process for Web application development: that is, in a Web Engineering process. A model for representing an application's context factors in ontologies is presented. A general-purpose methodology for Web Engineering is extended to account for context, by putting in relation context ontologies with elements of the application domain. The application model is extended with adaptation specifications, defining at which places in the application adaptation to context is to occur, and according to what strategy. Application and context models are system interpretable, in order to support automatic adaptation of a system's behavior during its operation, that is, consequently to user requests. Requirements for a corresponding Web software architecture for context are established first at the conceptual level, then specifically in a content-based architecture based on an XML stack. The CATWALK software framework, an implementation of an architecture enabling adaptation to context is described. The framework provides mechanisms for interpreting application and context models to generate an adaptive application, meaning to generate responses to user requests, where the generation process makes decisions based on context information. For this purpose, the framework contains default implementations for context recognition and adaptation mechanisms. The approach presented supports a model-based development of Web applications which adapt to context. The CATWALK framework is an mplementation for model interpretation in a run-time system and thus simplifies the development of Web applications which adapt to context. As the framework is component-based and follows a strict separation of concerns, the default mechanisms can be extended or replaced, allowing to reduce the amount of custom code required to implement specific context-aware Web applications or to study alternative context inference or adaptation strategies. The use of the framework is illustrated in a case study, in which models are defined for a prototypical application, and this application is generated by the framework. The purpose of the case study is to illustrate effects of adaptation to context, based on context description and adaptation specifications in the application model