Jon Davis

A user adaptable user interface model to support ubiquitous user access to EIS style applications

The user interface for computer applications is typically hard coded and offers minimal flexibility for user customisation. In this paper we list and discuss several requirements for application user interfaces that offer widespread application accessibility, access across international boundaries, and that support user interface individualisation by normal users (without the need for specific software customization by developers). We review related works in XML based user interface deployment and identify shortcomings, and present a solution that we name the Web service based adaptable user interface (WAUI). The major features of the WAUI are; the decoupling of the traditional user interface from both the execution platform and the rest of the application layers by the use of Web services, and providing for an automated user interface adaptation capability based on; the users selected cultural and internationalization options, the users preferences for alternative visual display objects, and the preferences that a user defines for modifying the function and layout of application forms and display objects.

Lifecycle and generational application of automated updates to MDA based enterprise information systems

Large scale Enterprise Information Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning style applications present significant costs and issues during upgrades and as a consequence can lead user organisations to defer potential upgrades. An objective of our meta-data EIS application framework is to significantly reduce these concerns to make new EIS features more redaily available. Our meta-data EIS applications model framework seeks to minimise the majority of these upgrade issues by standardising all update procedures to become an updated stream of sequential meta-data changes, rather than compiled code modules. A key attribute of this update process is the embedded support for Variant Logic, any non code-based changes to the core application logic that may have been added by third parties, analogous to customisations. Logic collision detection is greatly simplified as any potential conflict can be fully identified in advance, reducing any compatibility effort for the Variant Logic. This automated update process also removes the need from vendors to produce version specific update programs, and fully automates the end users meta-data EIS application update processes. We show that this process combined with the metadata model methodology can support close to an order of magnitude of lifecycle cost savings through successive software generations.

Merging application models in a MDA based runtime environment for enterprise information systems

The issue of merging source code based applications is very problematic, particularly when involving code from disparate sources, due to the typical unsuitability of available source code for software merging. The relatively recent field of model driven architecture is primely involved in the definition and development of the source model structures for model based applications and in developing transformations from the abstract models to various executable formats. The authors are also involved in these MDA activities in the development of their G2 prototype system targeted at the specific domain of enterprise information system style applications. They have reviewed various methods for merging application models within this domain and describe the fundamentals of three application model integration methods from their G2 system; standard element referencing, virtual data element mapping and element envelopment that can be used to provide practical and simple application model merging at both the design time and runtime of a model based production system, to produce a working integrated merged application.