On enriching ajax with semantics: The web personalization use case

Abstract

With the dawn of Ajax the capabilities of tracking user behavior multiplied. The same holds for the capabilities of adapting the user interface in a Web browser. To provide meaningful adaptation, the events, context and elements of an Ajaxified Portal must be given meaning. We show the use of ontologies as a model for user-related context and portal-related content. Content-related concepts are used to annotate Ajax widgets to associate them with meaning. As a user navigates a portal and fires events related to the widgets, a semantically rich user model is built, enabling suitable adaptation. Both the user model and the adaptation are based on ontologies and logic rules. Since user tracking and portal adaptation in the era of Ajax, now takes place on the client-side we present a resource-saving approach to executing adaptation rules in the browser. The approach is applied in an e-Government case study. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.