Abstracted navigational actions for improved hypermedia navigation and maintainance.

This paper discusses the MESH framework, which proposes a fully object-oriented approach to hypermedia. Object-oriented abstractions are not only applied to the conceptual data model, but also to the navigation paradigm. This results in the concept of context-based navigation, which reduces the end user's disorientation problem by means of dynamically generated, context-sensitive guided tours. Moreover, maintainability is greatly improved, as both nodes and links are defined as instances of abstract classes. I this way, single links and entire guided tours are anchored on type level as abstract navigational actions, which are independent of the actual link instances.Marketing; Data; Model;

MESH: an object-oriented approach to hypermedia modeling and navigation.

This paper introduces the MESH approach to hypermedia modeling and navigation, which aims at relieving the typical drawbacks of poor maintainability and user disorientation. The framework builds upon two fundamental concepts. The data model combines established entity-relationship and object-oriented abstractions with proprietary concepts into a formal hypermedia data model. Uniform layout and link typing specifications can be attributed and inherited in a static node typing hierarchy, whereas both nodes and links can be submitted dynamically to multiple complementary classifications. In the context-based navigation paradigm, conventional navigation along static links is complemented by run-time generated guided tours, which are derived dynamically from the context of a user's information requirements. The result is a two-dimensional navigation paradigm, which reconciles complete navigational freedom and flexibility with a measure of linear guidance. These specifications are captured in a high-level, platform independent implementation framework.Data; Model; Specifications; Classification; Information; Requirements;

A model-based approach to hypermedia design.

This paper introduces the MESH approach to hypermedia design, which combines established entity-relationship and object-oriented abstractions with proprietary concepts into a formal hypermedia data model. Uniform layout and link typing specifications can be attributed and inherited in a static node typing hierarchy, whereas both nodes and links can be submitted dynamically to multiple complementary classifications. In addition, the data model's support for a context-based navigation paradigm, as well as a platform-independent implementation framework, are briefly discussed.Data; Model; Specifications; Classification;

Encapsulation and information hiding as the keys to maintainable and reusable hypermedia applications.

This paper presents a solution to the maintenance problem in hypermedia by applying object-oriented techniques to both the hypermedia data model and the hypermedia system's actual implementation. First, the primary concepts of the 'MESH' (Maintainable, End user friendly, Structured Hypermedia) approach are discussed briefly. These consist of a conceptual data model, a navigation paradigm and an implementation framework. Thereafter, it is shown how the object-oriented concepts of encapsulation and information hiding result in a hypermedia system consisting of self-contained, independently coded nodes. Intra node maintenance is separated entirely from inter node maintenance: the hyperbase's link structure can be updated without affecting node content, whereas an individual node's multimedia content can be reorganized without necessitating updates to links or link anchors.Applications; Information; Data; Model; Structure;

Hand-made and Computed Links, Precomputed and Dynamic Links

Introduction This paper surveys the use of hand-made and computed links in hypermedia systems and contrasts precomputation and dynamic computation of those links which are computed. This paper seeks to raise all the issues in one place, so that designers of hypermedia systems can consider the issues together, whether they can afford to ignore some forms of link, which forms are the most suitable to their working environment, and so on. Many hypermedia systems were designed with a rather ad-hoc approach, with new ideas for link creation and maintenance being added as fixes to perceived problems in operational systems. For example, open hypermedia systems introduced externalised links, stored separately from the data they linked, however externalised links highlighted the problem of referential integrity, so dynamic linking approaches were introduced as a fix to that problem (Davis et al., 1992). So we present a comprehensive list of the issues in the creation and maintenance o

Augmenting applications with hyper media, functionality and meta-information

The Dynamic Hypermedia Engine (DHE) enhances analytical applications by adding relationships, semantics and other metadata to the application\u27s output and user interface. DHE also provides additional hypermedia navigational, structural and annotation functionality. These features allow application developers and users to add guided tours, personal links and sharable annotations, among other features, into applications. DHE runs as a middleware between the application user interface and its business logic and processes, in a n-tier architecture, supporting the extra functionalities without altering the original systems by means of application wrappers. DHE automatically generates links at run-time for each of those elements having relationships and metadata. Such elements are previously identified using a Relation Navigation Analysis. DHE also constructs more sophisticated navigation techniques not often found on the Web on top of these links. The metadata, links, navigation and annotation features supplement the application\u27s primary functionality. This research identifies element types, or classes , in the application displays. A mapping rule encodes each relationship found between two elements of interest at the class level . When the user selects a particular element, DHE instantiates the commands included in the rules with the actual instance selected and sends them to the appropriate destination system, which then dynamically generates the resulting virtual (i.e. not previously stored) page. DHE executes concurrently with these applications, providing automated link generation and other hypermedia functionality. DHE uses the extensible Markup Language (XMQ -and related World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets of XML recommendations, like Xlink, XML Schema, and RDF -to encode the semantic information required for the operation of the extra hypermedia features, and for the transmission of messages between the engine modules and applications. DHE is the only approach we know that provides automated linking and metadata services in a generic manner, based on the application semantics, without altering the applications. DHE will also work with non-Web systems. The results of this work could also be extended to other research areas, such as link ranking and filtering, automatic link generation as the result of a search query, metadata collection and support, virtual document management, hypermedia functionality on the Web, adaptive and collaborative hypermedia, web engineering, and the semantic Web

OO-Navigator: un framework para hipermedia : Extendiendo aplicaciones orientadas a objetos con funcionalidad de hipermedia

Las tres primeras secciones de este trabajo plantean el objetivo que se ha perseguido, su motivación y principales contribuciones, las que luego serán fundamentadas en los siguientes capítulos. La cuarta sección presenta el estado del arte con respecto a los conceptos básicos sobre los que se ha trabajado, y al mismo tiempo explica qué faceta de cada uno es la que ha incidido en esta tesis. Cabe destacar que se suponen conocimientos básicos sobre el paradigma de orientación a objetos. La quinta sección caracteriza las aplicaciones que podrán hacer uso de este trabajo a distintos niveles.Tesis digitalizada en SEDICI gracias a la colaboración de la Biblioteca de la Facultad de Informática.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta