Engineering the presentation layer of adaptable web information systems

Abstract

Engineering adaptable Web Information Systems (WIS) requires systematic design models and specification frameworks. A complete model-driven methodology like Hera distinguishes between the conceptual, navigational, and presentational aspects of WIS design and identifies different adaptation “hot-spots” in each design step. This paper concentrates on adaptation in the presentation layer and combines the modeling power of Hera with the versatile presentation capabilities of the AMACONT project. After discussing different aspects of presentation layer adaptation, the layout manager mechanism of AMACONT for describing the adaptable layout of ubiquitous Web presentations is introduced. Then the RDFS-based Hera schema for presentation models is presented, allowing to assign AMACONT layout descriptors to Hera slices. According to this formalization, Hera application model instances are automatically transformed to a component-based AMACONT implementation that can be adjusted to different end devices and output formats. The XML-based transformation process is explained in detail, and the resulting methodology is exemplified by a prototype application.