Supporting EndUser Tailoring: ComponentBased Approaches

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Supporting End-User Tailoring Component-Based
Approaches
Markus Won and Volker Wulf Institut für
Angewandte Informationstechnologie der Fraunhofer
Gesellschaft (FhG-FIT) and ProSEC, University of
Bonn
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Institutional Setting (1)

• GMD-FIT (Since early 1990s)
• Adaptivity vs. Adaptability
• Researchers Reinhard Oppermann, Michael Paetau,
  Helmut Simm, Marcus Specht, Markus Eisenhauer
• Publication
• Oppermann, R. (ed.) Adaptive User Support
  Ergonomic Design of Manually and Automatically
  Adaptable Software, LEA, Hillsdale, NJ 1994
• New focus on adaptive and situation-aware
  systems, especially in learning and mobility

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Institutional Setting (2)

• ProSEC at the University of Bonn (since 1994)
• Tailorability (of groupware)
• Researchers Helge Kahler, Volkmar Pipek, Oliver
  Stiemerling, Gunnar Stevens, Markus Won, Volker
  Wulf
• Publications
• Volker Wulf Design of Tailorable Groupware
  Habilitation Thesis, University of Hamburg 2000
• Helge Kahler Supporting Collaborative Tailoring,
  PhD-Thesis at Roskilde University, Denmark, 2001
• Oliver Stiemerling Component-based
  Tailorability, PhD-Thesis, University of Bonn
  2000
• ...
• Organizational Rearrangements
• Fraunhofer FIT
• University of Siegen
• University of Bonn

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Tailorability

• Fields of application are differentiated and
  dynamically changing
• Current tasks
• Individual qualifications
• Collaborative context
• Tailorability is defined
• changing aspects of an applications
  functionality
• in a persistent way (by means of tailored
  artefacts)
• during the use of an application (at runtime)
• by users or local experts
• Technical flexibility beyond
• modifications of parameters
• (re-)programming

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Tailorability Research Challenges (1)

• Flexible Architecture
• Rule based architectures
• Component based architectures (simple and
  compound components)
• Appropriate Interfaces
• Vizualizing and manipulating tailored artefacts
  2D and 3D Interfaces
• Describing tailored artefacts Annotations,
  attaching examples
• Understanding tailored artefacts Exploration
  Environments
• Providing support for tailoring Integrity
  checking
• Accessing tailoring functions Direct Activation

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Tailorability Research Challenges (2)

• Collaborative Tailoring
• Technical infrastructure Shared repository
• Finding tailored artifacts Naming and
  classifying
• Localizing tailored artifacts Access rights and
  views
• Quality insurance of tailored artifacts
  Identifying creators, (Collective) histories of
  use

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Tailorability Flexible Architectures

• Rule based architectures
• Component based architectures
• Different tailoring modes
• Architecture
• Simple and Compound Components

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Component-Based Architectures

• Properties of components
• Independently developed parts of software
• Independently exchangeable
• Several components interact as one application or
  system

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The FREEVOLVE Platform An architectural overview
(1)
List of Applications
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The FREEVOLVE Platform An architectural overview
(2)
Server
Client
Run-Time (Server)
Run-Time (Client)
Client

• Tailor one application on the Clients or the
  Servers side
• Client Direct impact
• Server Next start
• Save changes for next use

Run-Time (Client)
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Tailorability Appropriate Interfaces

• Vizualizing and manipulating tailored artefacts
  2D and 3D Interfaces
• Describing tailored artefacts Annotations,
  attaching examples
• Providing support for tailoring Integrity
  checking
• Understanding tailored artefacts Exploration
  Environments
• Accessing tailoring functions Direct Activation

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Manipulating Tailored Artifacts 2D-Environments

• Search Tool for Groupware as an example
• Tailoring mode very similar to the run-time mode
• Abstract (compound) components prevent form too
  much complexity

run-time
Design
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Manipulating Tailored Artifacts 3D-Environments
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Tailorability Appropriate Interfaces

• Vizualizing and manipulating tailored artifacts
  2D and 3D Interfaces
• Describing tailored artifacts Annotations,
  attaching examples
• Providing support for tailoring Integrity
  checking
• Understanding tailored artifacts Exploration
  Environments
• Accessing tailoring functions Direct Activation

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Integrity Checking Ease Learning and prevention
of failures

• Additional Information (in XML) to
• Components
• Component Sets
• Application templates
• Tests on
• Event Flows
• Is all that is needed produced and bound?
• Constraints
• Are there dependencies between components
  parameters?
• Possible Results
• Warnings
• Help Texts and Improving Suggestions
• Semi-automatic correction of failures (future
  work)

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Integrity Checking Event Flow Integrity
Differentiation between required and optional
bindings
Taking into account the Transitivity of
Connections

• Some Events (Tokens) have to be created or used
  (Producer vs. Consumer)
• Transitivity of connections
• Typed components
• Tokens can be transformed (re-typing) within a
  component
• Token types can be orthogonally to the existing
  class hierarchy  
• Idea Petri-Net-based analysis

Petri-Net-based analysis
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Integrity Checking Dependent Parameters and
Application Templates

• Parameters can be directly or functionally
  dependent (within one component as well as
  between components)
• Same Lookn Feel (c.f. Java Swing)
• Same input scale of serialized audio filter
• In single components this can be done by typing
  (sub-typing) or in the source code (complex
  dependencies) But
• Changing constraints in changing domain contexts
  (Special semantic of a standard component)
• Explicit description eases tailoring and
  understanding
• Templates are
• Helpful if designing a special kind of
  application
• Partly pre-defined components and their
  parameters
• Existence of particular Components (Boolean
  logic, according to class hierarchy)
• Some connections are pre-defined

Constraints and Triggers
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FREEVOLVE The IntegrityTailoringClient

• Easily tailoring and support by interactive
  integrity check
• Different tailoring view modes (fully
  synchronized)
• Binding are visualized
• Properties of components or compound components
• Schematical WYSIWIG view of the client
  application

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Tailorability Appropriate Interfaces

• Vizualizing and manipulating tailored artifacts
  2D and 3D Interfaces
• Describing tailored artifacts Annotations,
  attaching examples
• Providing support for tailoring Integrity
  checking
• Understanding tailored artifacts Exploration
  Environments
• Accessing tailoring functions Direct Activation

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Exploration Environments
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Direct Activation
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Collaborative Tailoring

• Technical infrastructure Shared repository
• Finding tailored artifacts Naming and
  classifying
• Localizing tailored artifacts Access rights and
  views
• Quality insurance of tailored artifacts
  Identifying creators, (Collective) histories of
  use

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Naming and classifyingtailored artifacts

• Problems in a field study
• names of the elementary components hardly
  indicated their meaning
• appropriate components difficult to identify
• Design Approach
• more meaningful names for the elementary
  components
• additional icons vizualizing elementary
  components in the menu
• classification schemes for elementary and
  compound components
• Experiences from the field test
• hierarchy of the elementary components difficult
  to understand
• lacking naming conventions for compound
  components
• requirements for context specific display of
  components

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Quality insurance Identifying creators
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Conclusion and Future Work

• FreEvolve Platform for component-based
  tailorability
• Platform Research prototype
• Applications Search tool, access control, chat
  tool, ...
• Research challenges
• Decomposition into understandable components
• Handling of complex compositions
• Consistency of distributed tailoing activities
• ...
• Development of new applications with industry
  (research)

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End User Development

• End User Development
• Kick off Network of Excellence
• Examples for adaptive situation-aware systems
• CRUMPET
• SAiMotion

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Crumpet

• CRUMPET
• CReation of User-friendly Mobile services
  PErsonalised for Tourism

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CRUMPET Consortium

• Queen Mary University of London, UK (CO),
• Emorphia Ltd (Nortel Networks), UK
• European Media Lab, Germany
• Fraunhofer FIT Inst. for Applied Information
  Technology, Germany
• PTIN, Portugal
• Sonera Ltd, Finland
• University of Helsinki, Finland
• CRUMPET is an EU-funded IST 5th framework project
• Timeframe 1. Oct 2000 30. Sept 2002 2 months

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Idea adaptive, nomadic information system for
tourism

• CRUMPET has two main objectives
• To implement and trial tourism-related
  value-added services for nomadic users across
  mobile and fixed networks
• To evaluate agent technology in terms of
  user-acceptability, performance and
  best-practice as a suitable approach for fast
  creation of robust, scalable, seamlessly
  accessible nomadic services

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Combined technologies
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Vision

• Trustworthy and ambient agencies for user's
  world-wide, wireless access to local services
• Personalised support for mobile users
• Location-aware support
• Exploitation of heterogeneous legacy services,
  which
• cover a wide range of locations,
• supply a wide range of supplementary,
  complementary, or even competitive services,
• may differ in service features and qualities.

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SAiMotion

• Situation Awareness in Motion
• next generation of mobile information guide system

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Partners in SAiMotion

• Fraunhofer FIT, Sankt Augustin (Coordination)
• Fraunhofer IGD, Rostock
• Fraunhofer IAO, Stuttgart
• Fraunhofer IZM, Berlin
• Fraunhofer IIS, Erlangen
• Fraunhofer IPSI, Darmstadt
• SAiMotion is a BMBF project
• Timeframe 1. April 2001 31. March 2004

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Idea adaptive, nomadic information system for
events (conference, fair...)
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SAiMotion-system

• general support for visitors
• quick overview
• proactive information presentation
• individual tours
• references on exhibits/ exhibitors of personal
  interest

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Example of an interactive, annotated exhibition
center
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Example Informations on the mobile device
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Example Maps on the mobile device
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Performance features situation-adapted services
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Situation awareness and Context

• Context modeling is useful to reduce information
  overload and to adapt content and interaction
• What should be taken into account?
• Limitation of the system (boundaries of context
  (Lieberman Selker 2002) / purpose of system)
• Metaphor
• Location
• Task
• Social situation
• Physical environment
• History (of interaction/ of tasks/ knowledge)
• User and system adapt to each other to share a
  common context