SMIL State: an architecture and implementation for adaptive time-based web applications

In this paper we examine adaptive time-based web applications (or presentations). These are interactive presentations where time dictates which parts of the application are presented (providing the major structuring paradigm), and that require interactivity and other dynamic adaptation. We investigate the current technologies available to create such presentations and their shortcomings, and suggest a mechanism for addressing these shortcomings. This mechanism, SMIL State, can be used to add user-defined state to declarative time-based languages such as SMIL or SVG animation, thereby enabling the author to create control flows that are difficult to realize within the temporal containment model of the host languages. In addition, SMIL State can be used as a bridging mechanism between languages, enabling easy integration of external components into the web application. Finally, SMIL State enables richer expressions for content control. This paper defines SMIL State in terms of an introductory example, followed by a detailed specification of the State model. Next, the implementation of this model is discussed. We conclude with a set of potential use cases, including dynamic content adaptation and delayed insertion of custom content such as advertisements. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Smart forms: a survey to state and test the most major electronic forms technologies that are based on W3C standards

Smart Forms are efficient and powerful electronic forms that could be used for the interactions between end users and web applications systems. Several electronic forms software products that use W3C technologies are presented to meet the demands of users. This thesis aims to study and test the major electronic forms technologies that are based on W3C standards. It discusses the main electronic forms features and experiments them with some essential applications. This research produces deep understanding of the most electronic forms technologies that are based on W3C standards and their important features, which make an electronic form smart form. In addition, it opens developments prospects for other researchers to develop some applications ideas that could contribute in the electronic forms domain

Adding state to declarative languages to enable web applications

On the web, media tend to be encoded in declarative formats, which facilitate accessibility, reuse, and transformation. Web applications, on the other hand, are created with more procedural technology and do not enjoy these benefits. In this thesis we examine how this can be fixed. We examine a small part of the problem space, adaptive time based applications, and investigate how we can extend existing declarative languages to fa

Software Tool for Validation of Analytical HPLC Procedures

Nii akadeemilised kui tööstusvaldkonnad vajavad pidevalt efektiivseid ja töökindlaid meetodeid erinevate ainete analüüsimiseks kõrgsurve vedelik-kromatograafia (HPLC) abil. Selleks, et olla kindlad, et need meetodid on sobivad selle jaoks, milleks nad on kavandatud ning oleksid nii töökindlad ja laialt kasutatavad kui võimalik, tuleb need meetodid valideerida sobivate valideerimisjuhendite abil. Valideerimisprotsess on tihti aja- ning töömahukas, mis hõlmab endas mitmeid samme: mahuka, kuid sageli üldise valideerimisjuhendi lugemine, parajasti asjakohast valideerimisjuhendi osade kindlaks tegemine, kindlate karakteristikute mõõtmine, kindlate statistiliste arvutuste tegemine kogutud andmete baasil ja viimaks valideerimisraporti koostamine. Kuna seda tööd tehakse käsitsi, siis kulutab see palju väärtuslikku aega ning raha, mida võiks kasutada tegelike analüütiliste protseduuride parendamiseks. Selleks, et eeltoodud olukorda leevendada, loodi käesoleva magistritöö käigus tarkvaralise tööriista töötav prototüüp, mis aitab kasutajatel analüütilise protseduuri valideerimiseks kuluvat aega ning töövaeva kokku hoida. Prototüüp teostab ühe kindla valideerimisjuhendi (The International Conference of Harmonization Harmonized Tripartite Guideline) ja lubab kasutajatel luua valideerimiskirjeid, sisestada kindlate karakteristikute jaoks vajalikke andmeid, sooritada sisestatud andmetega statistilisi arvutusi ja luua eelnevalt sisestatud andmete ja arvutuste baasil lõpparuande. Tööriist on loodud laiendamisvõimalusi silmas pidades. Täpsemalt saab täiendavate konfiguratsioonifailide abil lisada uusi valideerimisjuhendeid ning samuti saab aruande genereerimiseks vajalikke komponente juurde lisada, et muuta tööriist uute nõudmiste jaoks sobivaks. Laiendamisvõimalused on suuresti saavutatud, kasutades ära ideid dünaamiliste vormide genereerimiste mudelitest, mis lubavad väljade nähtavuse ja vormi täitmistingimuste defineerimist nii iga üksiku välja kui väljade grupi jaoks. Kuna käesoleva magistritöö käigus loodud tarkvaralise tööriista järele on olemas reaalne vajadus, siis arendatakse seda edasi, lisades uusi valideerimisjuhendeid, implementeerides uut funktsionaalsust ning parendatakse üldist tarkvara kasutatavust.There is a steady demand, both from academia and industry, for efficient and reliable procedures to analyze various substances by means of High-Performance Liquid Chro- matography (HPLC) equipment. To make sure these procedures are fit for the purpose they were designed for and also as reliable and widely usable as possible, they have to be validated against relevant validation guidelines. This validation process can be time consuming and tedious work, which contains many steps including reading lengthy and often general guidelines, deciding which parts of the guideline are relevant, measuring certain characteristics, performing certain statistical calculations on the gathered data and finally generating a validation report. As this work is done manually, it wastes a lot of valuable time and money which could be spent on improving the actual analytical procedure. To alleviate the current situation a working prototype of a software tool was created during this Master’s thesis which allows end-users to reduce time and effort needed for analytical procedure validation. The prototype implements one specific valida- tion guideline (The International Conference of Harmonization Harmonized Tripartite Guideline), and allows users to create validations, enter correct values for the specific characteristics, perform statistical calculations on the entered data and generate report based on the previously entered data and calculations. The tool has been designed with extensibility in mind. Specifically, additional guidelines can be added via configura- tion files while additional input validation and report generation components can be plugged into the tool in order to cope with additional requirements. Extensibility is to large extent achieved by borrowing ideas from dynamic forms specification models, which allow field visibility and form completion conditions to be defined by at the level of individual fields or groups of fields. As there is an actual need for the software tool that was created during this thesis, it will be developed further by adding new validation guidelines, implementing additional functionality and improving the overall usability of the software

An Advanced, Three-Dimensional Plotting Library for Astronomy

We present a new, three-dimensional (3D) plotting library with advanced features, and support for standard and enhanced display devices. The library - S2PLOT - is written in C and can be used by C, C++ and FORTRAN programs on GNU/Linux and Apple/OSX systems. S2PLOT draws objects in a 3D (x,y,z) Cartesian space and the user interactively controls how this space is rendered at run time. With a PGPLOT inspired interface, S2PLOT provides astronomers with elegant techniques for displaying and exploring 3D data sets directly from their program code, and the potential to use stereoscopic and dome display devices. The S2PLOT architecture supports dynamic geometry and can be used to plot time-evolving data sets, such as might be produced by simulation codes. In this paper, we introduce S2PLOT to the astronomical community, describe its potential applications, and present some example uses of the library.Comment: 12 pages, 10 eps figures (higher resolution versions available from http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/paperfigures). The S2PLOT library is available for download from http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plo

Knowledge Management and Information Systems based on Workflow Technology

Knowledge management is critical for the success of virtual communities, especially in the case of distributed working groups. A representative example of this scenario is the distributed software development, where it is necessary an optimal coordination to avoid common problems such as duplicated work. In this paper the feasibility of using the workflow technology as a knowledge management system is discussed, and a practical use case is presented. This use case is an information system that has been deployed within a banking environment. It combines common workflow technology with a new conception of the interaction among participants through the extension of existing definition languages

Extensions to the SMIL multimedia language

The goal of this work has been to extend the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) to study the capabilities and possibilities of declarative multimedia languages for the World Wide Web (Web). The work has involved design and implementation of several extensions to SMIL. A novel approach to include 3D audio in SMIL was designed and implemented. This involved extending the SMIL 2D spatial model with an extra dimension to support a 3D space. New audio elements and a listening point were positioned in the 3D space. The extension was designed to be modular so that it was possible to use it in conjunction with other XML languages, such as XHTML and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) language. Web forms are one of the key features in the Web, as they offer a way to send user data to a server. A similar feature is therefore desirable in SMIL, which currently lacks forms. The XForms language, due to its modular approach, was used to add this feature to SMIL. An evaluation of this integration was carried out as part of this work. Furthermore, the SMIL player was designed to play out dynamic SMIL documents, which can be modified at run-time and the result is immediately reflected in the presentation. Dynamic SMIL enables execution of scripts to modify the presentation. XML Events and ECMAScript were chosen to provide the scripting functionality. In addition, generic methods to extend SMIL were studied based on the previous extensions. These methods include ways to attach new input and output capabilities to SMIL. To experiment with the extensions, a Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) player was developed. The current final version can play out SMIL 2.0 Basic profile documents with a few additional SMIL modules, such as event timing, basic animations, and brush media modules. The player includes all above-mentioned extensions. The SMIL player has been designed to work within an XML browser called X-Smiles. X-Smiles is intended for various embedded devices, such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), and digital television set-top boxes. Currently, the browser supports XHTML, SMIL, and XForms, which are developed by the current research group. The browser also supports other XML languages developed by 3rd party open-source projects. The SMIL player can also be run as a standalone player without the browser. The standalone player is portable and has been run on a desktop PC, PDA, and digital television set-top box. The core of the SMIL player is platform-independent, only media renderers require platform-dependent implementation.reviewe

XFormsDB - An XForms-Based Framework for Simplifying Web Application Development

WWW:n luonne muuttuu jatkuvasti vastatakseen paremmin käyttäjien kasvavia tarpeita. Vaikka tämä kehitys kohti hyödyllisempiä vuorovaikutteisia palveluita ja sovelluksia on parantanut WWW:n käyttö- ja käyttäjäkokemusta, niin se on myös samalla tehnyt WWW-sovellusten kehittämisestä paljon monimutkaisempaa. Tämän työn päätavoitteena oli tutkia, miten WWW-sovellusten kehittämistä voitaisiin helpottaa deklaratiivisen ohjelmoinnin keinoin. Työssä esitetään laajennus, jonka avulla yleisimmät palvelinpään toiminnallisuudet voidaan saumattomasti liittää osaksi XForms-merkintäkieltä. Myös laajennuksen käyttökelpoisuus ja mahdollisuudet validoidaan prototyyppitoteutuksen, nimeltään XFormsDB-ohjelmistokehys, ja kahden WWW-esimerkkisovelluksen avulla. Tulokset osoittavat, että XFormsDB-ohjelmistokehyksen avulla voidaan kirjoittaa hyödyllisiä, erittäin vuorovaikutteisia monen käyttäjän WWW-sovelluksia nopeasti ja helposti vain yhtä dokumenttia ja yhtä ohjelmointimallia käyttäen.The nature of the World Wide Web is constantly changing to meet the increasing demands of its users. While this trend towards more useful interactive services and applications has improved the utility and the user experience of the Web, it has also made the development of Web applications much more complex. The main objective of this Thesis was to study how Web application development could be simplified by means of declarative programming. An extension that seamlessly integrates common server-side functionalities to the XForms markup language is proposed and its feasibility and capabilities are validated with a proof-of-concept implementation, called the XFormsDB framework, and two sample Web applications. The results show that useful, highly interactive multi-user Web applications can be authored quickly and easily in a single document and under a single programming model using the XFormsDB framework