Model-driven development of context-aware Web applications

ABSTRACT

Context-aware, multi-channel Web applications are more and more gaining consensus among both content providers and consumers, but very few proposals exist for their conceptual modeling. This article illustrates a conceptual framework that provides modeling facilities for context-aware, multichannel Web applications; it also shows how high-level modeling constructs can drive the application development process through automatic code generation. Our work stresses the importance of user-independent, context-triggered adaptation actions, in which the context plays the role of a “first class” actor, operating independently of users on the same hypertext the users navigate. Modeling concepts are based on WebML (Web Modeling Language), an already established conceptual model for data-intensive Web applications, which is also accompanied by a development method and a CASE tool. However, given their general validity, the concepts of this article shape up a complete framework that can be adopted independently of the chosen model, method, and tool.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)

  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.4 Hypertext/Hypermedia

General Terms:
Design, Languages

Keywords:
Context, WebML, adaptive hypertext, conceptual modeling, context-aware Web applications, context-awareness