|
USENIX Technical Program - Abstract - Internet Technologies & Systems 99
A Document-based Framework for Internet Application Control
Todd D. Hodes and Randy H. Katz, University of California at Berkeley
Abstract
This paper motivates and details a document-based framework for
manipulating the components that comprise distributed Internet
applications. In the framework, XML documents are used to
describe both server-side functionality and the mapping between a
client's applications and the servers it accesses. Our system model
contrasts with explicitly context-aware application
designs, where location information must be explicitly
manipulated by the application to affect change; instead, a
middleware layer is interposed between client applications and
services so that invocations between the two can be transparently
remapped. This approach is useful for a subset of application domains,
including our example domain of ``remote control'' of local
resources (e.g., lights, stereo components, etc.).
We illustrate how the framework allows for
1) remapping of a portion of an existing user interface to
a new service,
2) viewing of arbitrary subsets and combinations of the
available functionality, and
3) mixing dynamically-generated user interfaces with existing user
interfaces.
The use of a document-based framework in addition to a conventional
object-oriented programming language provides a number of key
features. One of the most useful is that it exposes the mappings
between programs/UIs and the objects to which they refer, thereby
providing a standard location for manipulation of this indirection.
|
Need help? Use our Contacts page.
Technical Program