Template-based mapping of application data to interactive displays

Abstract

This paper describes a template-based method for constructing interactive displays with the building-blocks (widgets) provided in a user interface toolkit. Templates specify how to break down complex application objects into smaller pieces, specify the graphical components (widgets) to be used for displaying each piece, and specify their layout. Complex interfaces are constructed by recursively applying templates, thus constructing a tree of widgets to display a complex application object. The template-based method is more general than the interactive, WYSIWYG interface builders in that it can specify dynamic displays for application data that changes at run time. The template-based method also leads to more consistent, extendable and modifiable interfaces.