Bassel Saab and Mohamad Haji, “Toward a Standa rdized XMAN Presentation Layer with Consideration of User Interface Description Languages”, DeSE2011 Conference, Dubai, UAE, Dec 2011

1. Bassel F. Saab
supervised by: Dr. Mohamed S. Hajji
Department of Software Engineering and Information Systems,
Faculty of Information Technology (FIT),
University of Damascus,
Damascus, Syria

2. Agenda
 Introduction
 XMAN REVIEW
 XML UIDLS REVIEW
 CRITERIA AND COMPARISON
 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
PRESENTATION LAYER
 Conclusions & Future Work
XMAN 2

3. Introduction
 Modern Business
 Rapid Application Development (RAD)
 XML
 From Data Structure Exchanging to
Software development
XMAN 3

4. What is XMAN Framework?
 XMAN is a Framework for Rapid
Development of Business Applications
 The developers can specify the required
application using a specific XML
configuration files to describe:
 Application data model
 Application behavior
 XMAN Framework produce the required
application
XMAN 4

5. XMAN Framework
 Is
 Multi-tier
 Open Architecture
 XML-Centric
 Data-Centric
 Descriptive or Declarative
 Semi-MDA Framework
 Supports
 Aspects of Change Management
 Aspects of Security Management
XMAN 5

6. XMAN Framework
 Produced Applications
 Rapid development
 Data-Centric
 Powerful and flexible users’ security
management
 Easy to change
 Support simple process
 Web application
XMAN 6

7. XMAN Main Components
 Developer environment (GUI,XML)
 Engine
 Persistence Management
 Business Management
 Presentation Management
 Privilege Management
XMAN 7

8. Main Components-How they Work?
Mr. Developer
Or
Expert User The Required
Application
Configuration Files Mrs. End User
XMAN Engine
XMAN 8

9. Main Configuration files
 XPO Persistence Management
<XpoElement>
<element_type>integer</element_type> <<DB Table>>
<element_name> ID </element_name> student_profile
”</ "student_idSelector Field_id=>
<XpoElement/> Map •Id
<XpoElement> •Name
<element_type>sting</element_type>
<element_name> First Name</element_name>
•…
</ "Selector Field_id="First_Name>
<XpoElement/>
..…
XMAN 9

10. Main Configuration files
 XView Business Management
<XViewElement>
<Source>
<Selector Selector_id="student_xpo" Field_id="id"/>
</Source>
</XViewElement>
<XViewElement> Used By
<Source> XPO
<Selector Selector_id="student_xpo" Field_id="First Name"/>
</Source>
</XViewElement>
XMAN 10

11. Main Configuration files
 XPrivilege Business Management
<XprivilageElement>
<Action>Update</Action>
</"User Value="Bassel> Define the user
<"ViewComponent Source="Student_reg_view> permissions
<element_name>Acceptance</component_name>
<ViewComponent/> XView
”</"FIT_registrarconstrain rule_ref=>
< XprivilageElement />
XMAN 11

12. Main Configuration files
 XForm & XReport
Presentation Management
 XTemplate
 XRule Rule Management
XMAN 12

13. Architecture - Main Configuration files
Presentation Layer
XReport XTemplate XForm
Business Layer
XView XView
XRule XPrivilege
Persistence Layer
XPO XPO XPO
XMAN 13

14. Architecture - Main Components
Presentation Layer
Presentation Manager
Business Layer
XView Manager
Action Manager
XManager
XRule Manager XPrivilege Manager
Persistence Layer
Persistence Manager
XMAN 14

15. XMAN Enhancement - UIDLs
 Motivation
 UIDLs: User Interface Definition Languages
 Main efforts
 Separating the purpose from the presentation
 AUIML, AAIML, Seescoa XML, Teresa XML,
TADEUS-XML، useML, RIML, DIAL, DISL,
GIML
XMAN 15

16. Selected UIDLs - UIML
 User Interface Markup Language UIML
 Created by Virginia Tech’s Center for Human
Computer Interaction HCI, Harmonia Inc., and
other organizations on uiml.org
(http://www.uiml.org).
 Work on UIML began in 1997
 Last version UIML 4.0 was published in 2008
XMAN 16

17. Selected UIDLs - UIML
Description into six orthogonal pieces, answering six
questions :
What are the parts comprising the UI? (the
<structure>).
What is the presentation (look/feel/sound) used for the
parts? (the <style>).
What is the content (e.g., text, images, sounds) used in
the UI? (the <content>).
What is the behavior of the UI (e.g., when someone clicks
or says something)? (the <behavior>).
What is the mapping of the parts to UI controls in some
toolkit (e.g., Java Swing classes or HTML tags)? (the
<presentation>).
What is the API of the business logic that the UI is
connected to? (the <logic>).
XMAN 17

18. Selected UIDLs - UIML
Downside:
Does not allow the creation of user interfaces for the
different languages or for different devices from a
single description
Not separating user interface elements from their
presentation and lacking an explicit data model
As it just offers a single language to define the
different types of user interfaces, it does not allow the
creation of user interfaces for the different languages
or for different devices from a single description
There is still a need to design separate UIs for each
device
XMAN 18

19. Selected UIDLs - XIML
 The eXtensible Interface Markup Language (XIML)
 The follower of MIMIC
 Provides a way to describe a user interface without
worrying about its implementation.
 It was initially developed by the research
laboratories of RedWhale Software Corp.
 It is now supported by the XIML forum
(http://www.ximl.org), an industrial organization
dedicated to the research, the dissemination, the
adoption, and the standardization of XIML
XMAN 19

20. Selected UIDLs - XIML
XIML divides the definition of an interface into components,
high-level building blocks of an interface:
2.Task (business processes)
3.Domain (defines a hierarchy of components)
4.User (defines a hierarchy of end-users)
5.Presentation, and Dialog (defines actions within the
interface).
Components are then mapped to Elements (concrete
representations such as widgets). Using:
s Relations
Attributes
Statements
Definitions.
XMAN 20

21. Selected UIDLs – XIML
Downside
Gleaning information on XIML from the freely
available sources on the Internet is difficult.
intended to lead to code generation at design time
and code interpretation at runtime, no tool is
available
A possible problem is that it does not support third
party extensions, or synchronization of the UI state
 It is unclear at this time exactly how these objects
interact.
XMAN 21

22. Selected UIDLs – USIXML
 UsiXML (http://www.usixml.org)
 Mainly supported by the Cameleon research project
(http://giove.cnuce.cnr.it/cameleon.html) under
the umbrella of the European Fifth and Sixth
Framework Programme (FP5-2000-IST2, FP6-2002-
IST1) and the SIMILAR network of excellence (
http://www.similar.cc)
 “µ7” concept:
 multi-device, multi-user, multi-linguality, multi-
organisation, multi-context, multi-modality, and
multi-platform
XMAN 22

23. Selected UIDLs – USIXML
development life cycle into four levels of abstraction:
Task and Concepts,
s Abstract UI (AUI),
Concrete UI (CUI)
Final UI (FUI)
XMAN 23

24. Selected UIDLs – USIXML
One of the mostly integrated UIDL that
addresses platform-, modality-, and context-
independence
XMAN 24

25. Selected UIDLs – XForms
 XForms 1.0 Recommendation is the next-generation
Web forms language, designed by the W3C.
 It solves some of the problems found in the HTML forms
by separating the purpose from the presentation and
using declarative markup to describe the most common
operations in form-based applications
 XForms 1.0 (Third Edition) was published on 29 October
2007.
 The original XForms specification was made an official
W3C Recommendation on 14 October 2003, while
XForms 1.1, which introduced a number of
improvements, reached the same status on 20 October
2009.
XMAN 25

26. Selected UIDLs – XForms
 XForms separates the presentation from the data
 Allowing reuse and device independence.
 Integrated into other markup languages, such as XHTML ,
SVG or any suitable markup language
 XForms is an abstract user interface description language.
 XForms 1.0 includes other W3C specifications directly: XML
Events, XPath 1.0, XML Schema Datatypes, and XML 1.0.
XMAN 26

27. Selected UIDLs – XForms
 XForms is a W3C initiative
 Express forms-based UIs at a level that is more abstract than
supposed-to be physical HTML descriptions.
 In some way, this initiative addresses the question of multiple
computing platforms.
 Although XForms is promoted by the W3C, thus giving it the
widest potential audience abroad.
 XForms is basically aimed at expressing forms-based UIs with
presentation and some dialog aspects
XMAN 27

28. UIDLs Comparison – Cretria
a Standardization
p Separation of concern.
n Independency
n Supported XML-Based languages
s Integration
s Available Tools
s XMAN Deployment
XMAN 28

29. UIDLs Comparison – Results
Criteria/ UIDL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total
UIML ++ + + - + - + 2- ,5+
XIML - + + + + - + 2- ,5+
UsiXML - ++ ++ + + + + 1- ,8+
XForms ++ + + ++ ++ ++ ++ 12+
XMAN 29

30. Integration Approaches
 Model-based approach
 Browsers-based approach
 Transcode approach
XMAN 30

31. Available Tools
 Chiba
 http://chiba.sourceforge.net
 Orbeon
 http://www.orbeon.com
 betterFORM
 http://www.betterform.de
XMAN 31

32. Integration Rules
 Playing CRUDS with forms in XMAN applications depends on
XPrivilege which determine every User (or group) - XView (at
elements level) privileges.
 Using betterXForm and XFORMS replacing XMAN-XForm and
XReport configuration files, XTemplate still there with some
additions to its basic rule.
 Then XViews, in XMAN business layer, mapped to the XForms
model in the generated form. A complete XView or part of it
could be mapped to one or more XForms models in the generated
forms.
 Every generated form have to provide CRUDS functions, with
respect to the related XPrivileges. The relations among CRUDS
screens could be configured.
 User Interface in the generated Form configured using
XTemplate.
XMAN 32

33. Integration Rules
 Using dynamic binding, XTemplate configurations can be specified for any
generated form, and could be linked to Context, User or Group (this point
needs extra research).
 Instance data fetched in run time using dynamic binding. BizManager, with
corporation with ActionManager and PrivilegeManager in XMAN business
layer, provide the required instance data.
 Form controls generated from the form model applying the mapping rules
and styles defined in XTemplates.
 To use new widget some configurations needed in the declarative Useragents
in betterFORM.
 Controls validation follows the related business rules defined in the business
layer.
 Controls binding follows Master-Details model and some Validation rules.
 Other possible dynamic behaviors of the form elements could be declared in
the generated forms. Detect these declarations is essential for the change
management.
 The XForms submitting determined dynamically by the BizManager in XMAN
business layer, this allow a dynamic linking, behavior and flow for the forms of
the XMAN developed applications.
XMAN 33

34. Conclusions & Future Work
 Development of applications in full or in part
through the different components
 The XMAN configuration files and components
helps RAD and facilitate change management
 Based on employing and integrating a number of the
most important standards and frameworks currently
known
XMAN 34

35. Conclusions
XMAN 35

36. XMAN
XMAN 36