HCI and CSCW in DigitalLibrary Environments

Alessio MaliziaPictorial Computing Lab.Computer Science Dept.

Univ. “La Sapienza” of Rome

malizia@di.uniroma1.it

23/10/2006 Madrid

Outline

• Problem• Approach• MetaModel• Generative System• Demo session• Case Studies• Conclusion and Future Work

23/10/2006 Madrid

Problems

• Hot research topic but lack of general models for Digital Libraries (DLs)

• Little focus on simplifying the process of modeling and building DL services

• Divergent DL architectures– Monolithic: Tightly integrated and generally inflexible– Componentized: A network of interoperable

components aggregated without a design methodology

23/10/2006 Madrid

Problems (contd.)

• Lack of DL-specific modeling languages, software toolkits, prototyping and CASE tools

• Lack of a scenario-based requirements analysis and design approach to DLs

• Implication: Problems with• Interoperability• Customizability

23/10/2006 Madrid

Related works

• Taxonomies– Fox et al. Digital libraries: Introduction, Commun. ACM 44 (2001), no. 5, 30–32.

• Collaboration– Reyes-Farfán, N. and Sánchez, J. A. 2003. Personal spaces in the context of OAI.

In Proceedings of the 3rd ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries(Houston, Texas, May 27 - 31, 2003). International Conference on DigitalLibraries. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, 182-183.

• Formal Modeling– Gonçalves, M. A., Fox, E. A., Watson, L. T., and Kipp, N. A. 2004. Streams,

structures, spaces, scenarios, societies (5s): A formal model for digital libraries. ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. 22, 2 (Apr. 2004)

• Graph Transformation and Code Generation– Karsten Ehrig, Claudia Ermel, Stefan Hänsgen, Gabriele Taentzer: Towards Graph

Transformation Based Generation of Visual Editors Using Eclipse. Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 127(4): 127-143 (2005)

23/10/2006 Madrid

Approach

• Based on a formal meta-model

• Use of – Domain-specific declarative languages – Society-based analysis and design – Componentized architectures

• Automatic transformations/mappings from models to code

• Special attention paid to issues of flexibility, reusability, and extensibility

23/10/2006 Madrid

Approach: CRADLE

• We aim to help – Digital libraries experts, such as:

• librarians• Information architects• domain experts

• CRADLE is a digital library systems generator– Generative and based on visual modeling

• Based on a formal meta-model– No programming effort required

• Automatic transformations/mappings from models to code– Componentized architectures

• Domain-specific declarative languages • Template based

23/10/2006 Madrid

ACTOR

Role, Status, Events

SERVICE

Name,Sync,Events,Responses

STRUCT

Document,Id,Type,Values

DOCUMENT

Label,Structure

COLLECTION

Name,Documents

Node

Link TypeKind_of

Contains

Returncollection

Operationget, add,del

Seq

InfSeqbuffer

ConcInfConcbuffer

BehaviourEvent,Status

onEventevent

onResponseresponse

TaskEvent,Alert

CRADLEMeta-Model

23/10/2006 Madrid

Overview Architecture for DL Modeling and Generation

CradleMeta

ModelAtom3

DL Expert

DL Designer

CradleDL

Models

CradleGen

Practitioner

Researcher

TailoredDL

Services

Teacher

componentpool

Search,Browse,Index,…….

23/10/2006 Madrid

CRADLE: ArchitectureDL

Designer

CRADLELibGen

SocietyModel

Societiesconverter

JavaClassesModel

UMLSynthesizedStatechart

JavaController

Class

import

import

ComponentPool

Browse Service

Java

Wrapping

SerachService

Java

WrappingXULUser

InterfaceView

WebDesigner

DLServices Implementation

23/10/2006 Madrid

ATOM3

• AToM3 is a tool for multi-paradigm modellingunder development at the Modelling, Simulationand Design Lab (MSDL) in the School of Computer Science of McGill University.

• AToM3 stands for ``A Tool for Multi-formalismand Meta-Modelling''.

• The two main tasks of AToM3 are meta-modellingand model-transforming.

• http://moncs.cs.mcgill.ca/MSDL/research/projects/AToM3/

23/10/2006 Madrid

XUL

• XUL is a powerful language that lets you quickly develop client software

• XUL is used by Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and other software projects.

23/10/2006 Madrid

XUL features

• XML Syntax• Flexible Box Model• Wide array of application controls• Data binding• Rich set of platform services• Development supported across numerous platforms• Scripting and flexibility with implementation language• Tools for section 508 accessibility compliance• Localizability• Tested and deployed to millions of people

23/10/2006 Madrid

Demo session

23/10/2006 Madrid

Multimodal Applications

23/10/2006 Madrid

Conference Model

23/10/2006 Madrid

23/10/2006 Madrid

M3G

• Modeling Mobile Graphics– Advantages

• Scene Graph• Automatic code generation

– Limitations• Visual Editors

23/10/2006 Madrid

Evolution: VisMODLE

23/10/2006 Madrid

Re-defining the ModelingEnvironment

1. Complete VisMODLE Metamodel

2. VisMODLE dimensions (viewpoints)

consistency

3. Structural dimension

23/10/2006 Madrid

The Modeling Environment

23/10/2006 Madrid

The Modeling Environment

23/10/2006 Madrid

The Modeling Environment

23/10/2006 Madrid

The Modeling Environment

23/10/2006 Madrid

The Modeling Environment

23/10/2006 Madrid

Conclusion

• Introduced a society-based approach to the generation of componentized DLs

• Applied the CRADLE Framework for generation of DLs

• Demonstrated that complex DLs can be built on the basis of a formal theory

• Adherence to open standards (XUL, XML, UML) and established design patterns ensures relevance and extensibility of our work.

23/10/2006 Madrid

Future Work

• Improvements to CRADLE Framework architecture– Scalability of the generated DLs and DL

services– Support for transaction scoping and error

handling– XDoclet (Attribute-Oriented Programming)– Introduction of Awareness

23/10/2006 Madrid

Acknowledgments

• ATOM3

• Paolo Bottoni• Juan de Lara and Esther Guerra• EC's Human Potential Programme under contract HPRN-

CT-2002-00275, SegraVis, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education, projects MD2 (TIC200303654) and MOSAIC (TSI2005-08225-C07-06)

23/10/2006 Madrid

Q & A