A Tool Support for Web Applications Adaptation Using Navigation History

Currently the Web is a platform for performing complex tasks which involve dealing with different Web applications. However users still have to face these tasks in a handcrafted way. In this paper we present a novel approach that combines concern-sensitive adaptation and navigation history to improve the user experience while performing a task. We have developed some simple though powerful tools for applying this approach to some typical tasks such as trip planning and house rental. We illustrate the paper with a simple though realistic case study and compare our work with others in the same field.Publicado en Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (vol. 6949).Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

A Tool Support for Web Applications Adaptation Using Navigation History

Currently the Web is a platform for performing complex tasks which involve dealing with different Web applications. However users still have to face these tasks in a handcrafted way. In this paper we present a novel approach that combines concern-sensitive adaptation and navigation history to improve the user experience while performing a task. We have developed some simple though powerful tools for applying this approach to some typical tasks such as trip planning and house rental. We illustrate the paper with a simple though realistic case study and compare our work with others in the same field.Publicado en Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (vol. 6949).Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Un método de evaluación de usabilidad de mashups basado en la composicionalidad de sus componentes

[ES] Los Mashups son una nueva generación de aplicaciones Web que integran componentes provistos por terceros desde la Web. La usabilidad en este tipo de aplicaciones es un factor muy importante ya que como en toda aplicación Web, este determina el éxito de la aplicación. Si bien se han planteado métodos de evaluación que permiten evaluar la usabilidad de aplicaciones Web en general, éstos no cubren las características inherentes a la composicionalidad de los Mashups. La presente tesina de máster pretende aportar un método de evaluación de la usabilidad de Mashups acorde con sus características propias de composicionalidad. El método está compuesto de un modelo de usabilidad y un proceso de evaluación que provee guías sobre la forma en la que el modelo de usabilidad puede ser usado para realizar evaluaciones específicas. Tanto el modelo de usabilidad como el proceso de evaluación están alineados con el último estándar ISO/IEC 25000 para la evaluación de la calidad de producto (SQuaRE) y ambos toman en cuenta la naturaleza composicional de los Mashups. El modelo de usabilidad descompone el concepto de usabilidad en sub-características y métricas genéricas. Estas métricas son aplicadas en la composición del producto final y el método de evaluación puede ser aplicado en cualquier estado del ciclo de vida de este tipo de aplicaciones, ya sea en la selección de los componentes, durante el proceso de composición o cuando el producto está listo para ser usado. Para apoyar esta propuesta se ha realizado un profundo estudio del estado del arte. Este estudio comprende dos mapeos sistemáticos: el primero abarca un estudio de la evaluación de la calidad de los Mashups y el segundo cubre las características de la composicionalidad envueltas en los Mashups. Los resultados obtenidos aportaron de una forma significativa en la definición del Modelo de Usabilidad de Mashups y posteriormente en el proceso de evaluación de usabilidad. Finalmente, se desarrollaron tres casos de estudio que muestran la viabilidad de nuestro enfoque. Estos casos de estudio muestran en detalle como el método de evaluación propuesto utiliza nuestro Modelo de Usabilidad para Mashups. Los resultados muestran que nuestra propuesta permite detectar problemas de usabilidad, los cuales una vez corregidos, permiten obtener Mashups más usables[EN] Mashups are the new-generation of Web applications that integrates third-party components from the Web. Usability in these applications is very important since their success depends on this quality factor. Although several methods have been proposed to evaluate the usability of Web applications in general, they do not cover the specific characteristics inherent to the compositionality of Mashups. This master thesis aims to provide a method for evaluating the usability of Mashups according to their specific characteristics of compositionality. The method is composed of a usability model and an evaluation process that provides guidelines on how the usability model can be used to perform specific evaluations. Both the usability model and the evaluation process are aligned with the latest ISO/IEC 25000 standard for software product quality evaluation (SQuaRE), and both take into account the compositional nature of mashups. The usability model breaks down the concept of usability into sub-characteristics, attributes and generic metrics. These metrics are applied to the final product composition and process evaluation method can be applied at any stage of the life cycle of this kind of applications (i.e., during the component selection, the composition process or when the product is ready for use. In order to support the foundation of this proposal, an in-depth study was performed about the state of art. This study comprises two systematic mappings: the first one covers the quality evaluation of Mashups, whereas the second one covers the compositionality features involved in Mashups. The obtained results were used as input in order to define both our Mashups Usability Model, and our usability evaluation process. Finally, we developed three case studies in order to show the feasibility of our approach. These case studies show in detail how the proposed evaluation method was followed by using our Mashup Usability Model. Results showed that our approach was able to detect usability problems, which once corrected, it allows obtaining more usable Mashups.Cedillo Orellana, IP. (2013). Un método de evaluación de usabilidad de mashups basado en la composicionalidad de sus componentes. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37955Archivo delegad

Application Framework with Demand-Driven Mashup for Selective Browsing

We are developing a new mashup framework for creating flexible applications in which users can selectively browse through mashup items. The framework provides GUI components called widgets through which users can browse mashed-up data selectively, and the system processes demand-driven creation of mashed-up data upon receiving access requests through widgets. The application developer has to only prepare a configuration file that specifies how to combine web services and how to display mashed-up data. This paper proposes a revised widget model for effective data display, and introduces practical applications that allow selective browsing. The revision of the widget model is to accept various GUI components, process user interactions, and provide cooperative widgets. To avoid conflict with lazy data creation, we introduce properties into widgets that are automatically maintained by the system and can be monitored by other widgets. The case study through the applications shows the situations where the initially browsed data helps users to terminate redundant searches, set effective filter settings, or change the importance of the criteria. Some applications display synoptic information through columns, maps, or distribution charts; such information is useful for selective browsing

Mashup Ecosystems: Integrating Web Resources on Desktop and Mobile Devices

The Web is increasingly used as an application platform, and recent development of it has introduced software ecosystems where different actors collaborate. This collaboration is international from day one, and it evolves and grows rapidly. In web ecosystems applications are provided as services, and interdependencies between ecosystem parts can vary from very strong and obvious to loose and recondite. Mashups -- web application hybrids that combine resources from different services into an integrated system that has increased value from user perspective -- are exploiting services of the Web and creating ecosystems where end-users, mashup authors, and service providers collaborate. The term "resources" is used here in a broad sense, and it can refer to user's local data, infinite content of the Web, and even executable code. This dissertation presents mashups as a new breed of web applications that are intended for parsing the web content into an easily accessed form on both regular desktop computers as well as on mobile devices. Constantly evolving web technologies and new web services open up unforeseen possibilities for mashup development. However, developing mashups with current methods and tools for existing deployment environments is challenging. First, the Web as an application platform faces numerous shortcomings, second, web application development practices in general are still immature, and third, development of mashups has additional requirements that need to be addressed. In addition, mobility sets even more challenges for mashup authoring. This dissertation describes and addresses numerous issues regarding mashup ecosystems and client-side mashup development. To achieve this, we have implemented technical research artifacts including mashup ecosystems and different kinds of mashup compositions. The artifacts are developed with numerous runtime environments and tools and targeted at different end-user platforms. This has allowed us to evaluate methods, tools, and practises used during the implementation. As result, this dissertation identifies the fundamental challenges of mashup ecosystems and describes how service providers and mashup ecosystem authors can address these challenges in practice. In addition, example implementation of a specialized multimedia mashup ecosystem for mobile devices is described. To address mashup development issues, this dissertation introduces practical guidelines and a reference architecture that can be applied when mashups are created with traditional web development tools. Moreover, environments that can be used on mobile devices to create mashups that have access to both web and local resources are introduced. Finally, a novel approach to web software development -- creating software as a mashup -- is introduced, and a realization of such concept is described