Towards "WYDIWYS" for MIMI using concept analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a novel software engineering approach for developing a dynamic web interface that meets the quality criterion of "WYDIWYS" - What You Do Is What You See. This approach establishes an engineering procedure for applying Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) [3] in user requirement analysis, system design and implementation. The FCA lattice diagrams facilitate the design of a role-based web interface by contributing to the analysis of relationships between roles, functionalities, and database access actions. As a result, they help identifying privileges that are needed by each role to perform required functionalities and page partials and views as web interface components. Additionally, the relabeled FCA lattices direct developers in adding privilege checks in the page partial or view components to help implement the desired access control architecture. The FCA based approach is demonstrated in the development of MIMI, a Multi-modality, Multi-resource, Information Integration environment for the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC). We present the resulting hierarchical lattice diagrams and show that the FCA-based approach benefits the life-cycle development process for MIMI's complex web interface.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
formal concept analysis, software engineering methodology, web interface development