Manuel Llavador

Document product lines: variability-driven document generation

In this paper, we propose a process model, which we call Document Product Lines, for the intensive generation of documents with variable content. Unlike current approaches, we identify the variability sources at the requirements level, including an explicit representation and management of these sources. The process model provides a methodological guidance to the (semi)automated generation of customized editors following the principles, techniques, and available technologies of Software Product Line Engineering. We illustrate our proposal with its application to the intensive generation of Emergency Plans.

A framework for variable content document generation with multiple actors

Abstract Context Advances in customization have highlighted the need for tools supporting variable content document management and generation in many domains. Current tools allow the generation of highly customized documents that are variable in both content and layout. However, most frameworks are technology-oriented, and their use requires advanced skills in implementation-related tools, which means their use by end users (i.e. document designers) is severely limited. Objective Starting from past and current trends for customized document authoring, our goal is to provide a document generation alternative in which variants are specified at a high level of abstraction and content reuse can be maximized in high variability scenarios. Method Based on our experience in Document Engineering, we identified areas in the variable content document management and generation field open to further improvement. We first classified the primary sources of variability in document composition processes and then developed a methodology, which we called DPL – based on Software Product Lines principles – to support document generation in high variability scenarios. Results In order to validate the applicability of our methodology we implemented a tool – DPL fw – to carry out DPL processes. After using this in different scenarios, we compared our proposal with other state-of-the-art tools for variable content document management and generation. Conclusion The DPL fw showed a good capacity for the automatic generation of variable content documents equal to or in some cases surpassing other currently available approaches. To the best of our knowledge, DPL fw is the only framework that combines variable content and document workflow facilities, easing the generation of variable content documents in which multiple actors play different roles.

DPLfw: a framework for variable content document generation

Variable Data Printing solutions provide means to generate documents whose content varies according to some criteria. Since the early Mail Merge-like applications that generated letters with destination data taken from databases, different languages and frameworks have been developed with increasing levels of sophistication. Current tools allow the generation of highly customized documents that are variable not only in content, but also in layout. However, most frameworks are technology-oriented, and their use requires high skills in implementation-related tools (XML, XPATH, and others), which do not include support for domain-related tasks like identification of document content variability. In this paper, we introduce DPLfw, a framework for variable content document generation based on Software Product Line Engineering principles. It is an implementation of the Document Product Lines (DPL) approach, which was defined with the aim of supporting variable content document generation from a domain-oriented point of view. DPL models document content variability in terms of features, and product line-like processes support the generation of documents. We define the DPLfw architecture, and illustrate its use in the definition of variable-content emergency plans.

An approach for teaching software engineering through reverse engineering

As the number of existing software systems increases, it also does the number of software engineers involved in the maintenance of large existing systems. Maintenance projects are becoming more usual than new software developments. For this reason, Computer Science education should also consider the development of abilities to deal with large existing software systems. This paper describes an approach to teach software engineering by using existing real-life software systems, through reverse software engineering techniques. The approach introduces the student into a medium-sized team which has to perform a set of modifications over an unknown large software system. The learning process is directed towards the improvement of abstraction skills, a key skill for software engineers.

SliDL: a slide digital library supporting content reuse in presentations

Presentation building applications lack good support to slide reuse. In this paper, we introduce SliDL, a digital library that facilitates slide reuse by flattening the presentation-based structure of current systems and providing slide retrieval facilities. The service-oriented architecture of SliDL enables slide sharing between different applications. We have developed clients for Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 and OpenOffice.org Impress.

A framework for the generation of transformation templates

This demo shows a set of tools for managing and performing document transformations. These tools share a common infrastructure consisting on a set of Web Services and programming libraries to define semantic mappings and generate the corresponding transformation template automatically. The framework is currently being used on the Bibshare project to support the conversion between metadata formats, as well as in other domains related to Digital Libraries and Software Engineering.

XWebMapper: a web-based tool for transforming XML documents

Interoperability has been one of the most challenging issues of last decade. Different solutions with various levels of sophistication have been proposed, such as wrappers, mediators, and other types of middleware. In most solutions, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been accepted as the de facto standard for the interchange of information due to its simplicity and flexibility.

Coordination in Software Architectures: an Aspect-Oriented Approach

Currently, software architecture is presented as a solution for the design and development of complex and large software systems. One of the main advantages of the use of software architectures is reuse [1]. Software architectures allow us to reuse software at different levels of abstraction (simple components, architectural styles, etc.) for different purposes (general and domainspecific). Reuse improves the time and cost invested in the development and maintenance processes of software.

A voice-oriented image cataloguing environment

VOICE is a tool for cataloguing digital images using a voice-based user interface. The goal of VOICE is to ease the introduction of descriptive metadata associated to single images or collections of pictures, so that the data entered can be used later for keyword-based image retrieval. We have developed two versions of the tool, standalone VOICE and VOICE4Picasa. The latter is and add-in to Picasa which calls the former without need to switch from one application to the other one. In our demonstration, we will show the features of both systems, adding metadata to pictures and using Picasas retrieval features to find images in our collections.

Strong vs. weak links: making processes prevail over structure in navigational design

We introduce a process-based approach to navigational design of hypermedia applications. Unlike most current methods, which use the information structure as the basis for building the navigational structure, we start from a workflow-like process model to create a two-level navigational model. On one hand, the strong navigational schema is composed of nodes called activity views and links derived from control flow relationships of the process model. On the other hand, a weak navigational schema is developed for each activity view based on the information a given actor has to use to perform the associated activity. Our approach allows designers to solve in a natural way the problems where the business processes prevail over the information structure.