Visually modelling data intensive web applications to assist end-user development

This paper addresses conceptual modeling and automatic code generation for search engine integration with data intensive Web applications. We have analyzed the similarities (and differences) between IR and database systems to extend an existing domain specific language for data-driven Web applications. The extended Web modeling language specifies the search engine’s index schemas based on the data schema of the Web application and uniquely designs the interaction between the database, the Web application, the search engine and users. We also provide an implementation of a CASE tool extension for visual modeling and code generation. Experimentation of the proposed approach has been successfully applied in the context of the COOPER project.

One of the advantages of following a MDA-based approach in the development of interactive applications is the possibility of generating multiple platform-specific user interfaces (UI) from the same platform independent UI model. However, the effort required to create the UI model may be significant. In the case of data-intensive applications, a large part of the UI structure and functionality is closely related with the structure and functionality of the domain entities described in the domain model, and the access rules specified in the use case model. This paper presents an approach to reduce the effort required to create platform independent UI models for data intensive applications, by automatically generating an initial UI model from domain and use case models. For that purpose, UML-aligned metamodels for domain and use case models are defined, together with a MOF-based metamodel for user interface models. The transformation rules that drive the UI model generation are introduced. It is also proposed a MDA-based process for the development of data intensive interactive applications based on the proposed model architecture and transformations.

Significant effort is currently invested in application integration, enabling business processes of different companies to interact and form complex multiparty processes. Web service standards, based on WSDL (Web Service Definition Language), have been adopted as process-to-process communication paradigms. However, the conceptual modeling of applications using Web services has not yet been addressed. Interaction with Web services is often specified at the level of the source code; thus, Web service interfaces are buried within a programmatic specification.In this article, we argue that Web services should be considered first-class citizens in the specification of Web applications. Thus, service-enabled Web applications should benefit from the high-level modeling and automatic code generation techniques that have long been advocated for Web application design and implementation. To this end, we extend a declarative model for specifying data-intensive Web applications in two directions: (i) high-level modeling of Web services and their interactions with the Web applications which use them, and (ii) modeling and specification of Web applications implementing new, complex Web services.Our approach is fully implemented within a CASE tool allowing the high-level modeling and automatic deployment of service-enabled Web applications.

ABSTRACTUser Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) are two crucial factors in the success of information systems, especially web-based applications and mobile applications. Design elements in web or mobile applications can be made more atrractive, by applying several elements in human-computer interaction theory based on user segmentation, product knowledge, consumer behavior, latest marketing theories, both in terms of visuals, after-effects, display sets, content, multimedia, lay-out menus on the web or mobile applications. In the recent state development of tourism in Bali, tourism transactions and promotions are already based on E-Tourism using web media and mobile applications. Making it easier for tourists to access information and services related to ticketing, transportation, accommodation and even travel packages. This study uses the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) methods to view usability and web-quality from a web-based E-Tourism websites that promotes tourism in Bali.Keywords: User Interface, User Experience, E-Tourism, Informastion System, Bali Tourism.ABSTRAKUser Interface (UI) dan User Experience (UX) adalah dua faktor krusial dalam keberhasilan sistem informasi, terutama aplikasi berbasis web dan aplikasi mobile. Elemen desain dalam web dapat dibuat lebih menarik, dengan menerapkan beberapa elemen dalam teori interaksi manusia-komputer berdasarkan segmentasi user, pengetahuan produk, perilaku konsumen, teori pemasaran terbaru, baik dari segi visual, after-effect, display set, konten, multimedia, lay-out menu di web atau aplikasi mobile. Dalam perkembangan pariwisata di Bali saat ini, transaksi dan promosi pariwisata sudah berbasis E-Tourism dengan menggunakan media web dan aplikasi mobile. Sehingga mempermudah wisatawan dalam mengakses informasi dan layanan terkait dengan ticketing, transportasi, akomodasi bahkan paket perjalanan wisata. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode User Interface (UI) dan User Experience (UX) untuk melihat usability dan web-quality dari website layanan E-Tourism yang berbasis web yangmempromosikan pariwisata di Bali.Kata kunci: User Interface, User Experience, E-Tourism, Sistem Informasi, Pariwisata Bali.

The development of Web applications should be supported by business professionals themselves since Web applications must be modified frequently based on their needs. This paper describes the end-user-initiative development of Web applications based on two approaches. The first approach uses domain-specific frameworks which are effective for UI-driven systems. The second approach uses visual modeling tools which are useful for model-driven systems such as workflow systems. Both approaches suppose the three-tier architecture of user interface, business logic and database. After these approaches were applied to the development of some applications, the composite approach was considered for a typical application which should be easily developed and frequently modified by end-users.

Web application development from simple web pages to complex interactive platforms (including social networks, e-commerce systems, corporate portals) requires new approaches, tools and technologies. JavaScript libraries and frameworks play a special role in developing web applications, simplifying the creation of effective, scalable, and convenient interfaces. The purpose of the article is to research the problems and prospects of using React in combination with Redux when creating web applications with a complex structure, to assess the advantages of their joint use in comparison with similar tools and to develop the web application “FarmerProducts”. The research methodology consists of the main methodological approaches and technological tools for developing web applications. Such methods, in particular, are: system and comparative analysis – to identify the features of creating web applications; method of expert assessments, which involves the study of literary sources and information resources, conducting interviews and surveys of experts, as well as the processes of developing and testing scalable and high-performance web applications based on the use of React and Redux. The scientific novelty of the research is the analysis of modern tools (React, Angular, Vue. js) for developing web applications, identifying problems and prospects for their use, creating an author’s web application (using React and Redux), which includes an intuitive interface, a flexible database, simplifying the process of working with the application by using a stack of modern technologies. Conclusions. The paper analyses the problems and prospects of using modern web application development tools; focuses on React, which is suitable for different projects; conducts a comparative analysis of React with Angular, Vue. js and Svelte, identifies their main characteristics, advantages, disadvantages; demonstrates the dependence of the choice of tools on the project context (React in combination with Redux can provide an optimal balance between performance, flexibility and scalability); describes the author’s web application – the FarmerProducts online store; identifies further ways to improve this web application.

End-user development is proposed as a solution to the issues business people have when getting web applications developed. In this paper, we have presented a meta-model for web based information systems to support End-user Development. End-users can actively participate in web application development using tools to populate and instantiate the meta-model. The meta-model we created is based on three abstraction levels: Shell, Application, and Function. At Shell Level, we model aspects common to all business web applications such as navigation and access control. At Application Level, we model aspects common to specific web applications such as workflows. At Function Level, we model requirements specific to the identified use cases. Inheritance and Overriding properties of the meta-model provide a balance between ease and flexibility when developing business information systems. The key aspect that underpinned this research work is the view- “software is a medium to capture knowledge rather than a product”. Meta-model will help end-users to participate in web application development activities.

End-user development is proposed as a solution to the issues business organisations face when developing web applications to support their business processes. We are proposing a meta-model based development approach to support End-User Development. End-users can actively participate in web application development using tools to populate and instantiate the meta-model. The meta-model has three abstraction levels: Shell, Application and Function. At Shell Level, we model aspects common to all business web applications such as navigation and access control. At Application Level, we model aspects common to specific web applications such as workflows. At Function Level, we model requirements specific to the identified use cases. In this paper we discuss how we have solved the issues in application development for business end-users such as need for central repository of data, common log in, optimizing user model, application portability and balance between “Do it Yourself” (DIY) and professional developers in hierarchical meta-model approach. These solutions are being incorporated into Component based EApplication Development and Deployment Shell (CBEADS) version 4, supporting meta-model implementation. We believe that these solutions will help end-users to efficiently and effectively develop web applications using meta-model based development approach.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) such as the World Wide Web (WWW) has increasingly become embedded in everyday life and is progressively becoming indispensable for public, business, personal efficiency or even improvement of livelihoods [1]. Web users including People with Disabilities (PWDs) can conveniently undertake a number of tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. But many Web applications such as e-learning, e-commerce and e-government are not accessible to PWDs including the blind. Through Web accessibility guidelines, Web developers can develop Web applications that are accessible to PWDs. However, majority of the available accessibility guidelines are difficult to integrate into existing developer workflows and rarely offer specific suggestions that are developer oriented. In this paper, we propose a Web Design Framework for Improved Accessibility for People with Disabilities (WDFAD). The WDFAD provides precise guidelines on how to develop Web applications that are accessible to PWDs particularly the blind. These are packaged according to the three components of Web applications namely; content, navigation and user interface. Using constructs of the Non Functional Requirements (NFR) Framework, Web accessibility design objectives are represented as primary goals and sub goals. The primary goals represent the high level accessibility design objectives, while the sub goals represent the requirements that need to be met in the Web development process in order to meet each primary goal. WDFAD also illustrates the overlaps between the process of meeting each primary goal. This unveils the optimal ways of achieving Web accessibility during Web design. The precise nature of WDFAD and its packaging according to the main components of Web applications makes Web accessibility requirements potentially easier to understand and apply by Web developers. Web Developers prefer precise and familiar tools due to their busy work life and daily interface and expression in formal instructions. In addition, the global versus local classification of Web accessibility requirements in WDFAD modularizes the web accessibility guidelines hence making them easier to understand, apply and update.

The goal of disseminating and manipulating spatial knowledge over the Internet, has led to the development of Web applications, known as Web Geographic Information Systems (Web GIS). Web GIS can be considered as a particular class of data-intensive Web applications, since they are mainly devoted to handle (spatial) information to and from the user. The success of WebML (Web Modeling Language) for designing traditional data-intensive web applications suggested use to extend this visual formalism to model relevant interaction and navigation operations typical of Web GIS. In the paper, we describe the proposed extension and provide an example of its application.

A Metadata Approach for Building Web Application User Interface

A number of Web design problems continue to arise, such as: (1) decoupling the various aspects of Web applications (for example, business logic, the user interface, navigation and information architecture; and (2) isolating platform specifics from the concerns common to all Web applications. In the context of a proposal for a model-driven architecture for Web applications, this paper identifies an extensive list of models aimed at providing a pool of proven solutions to these problems. The models span several levels of abstraction such as business, task, dialog, presentation and layout models. The proposed architecture will show how several individual models can be combined at different levels of abstraction into heterogeneous structures, which can be used as building blocks in the development of Web applications.

The article discusses technologies for developing the web application designed to accompany the process of conducting an intellectual game in the format of an interactive quiz. An analysis of similar applications was carried out, which showed that none of them satisfies all the criteria essential in this situation. Requirements for the web application have been determined: the ability to create a library of quizzes, various types of questions, edit ready-made quizzes, participants enter answers through their devices online, award points for the correctness and speed of answers, display questions on the presenter's screen and on team devices, view intermediate and final results in the form of a list, returning participants to the game if necessary, saving the points received. The process of developing an optimized user interface using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, which allows users to interact with the web application, is described, the structure of the web application, the main forms of the administrator and game participants are presented. The server side of the application was developed using Node.JS technologies, including the Socket.io library, and the MongoDB database, the resulting collection of non-relational database is shown. To implement the functionality of the application pages, JavaScript was used; examples of codes are presented that implement the mechanism for connecting the presenter to the game, retrieving information from the database, recording the team's response, and awarding points for the correctness and speed of the response. The web application allows you to reduce the time spent by event organizers and participants and makes it possible to improve the organization of work in general. The presented web application for accompanying intellectual games was successfully approbated during events at the Nizhny Tagil State Social-Pedagogical Institute (branch) of the Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University. The materials of the article can serve as practical recommendations for the development of such web applications to accompany intellectual games held in the format of interactive quizzes.

Since the emergence of web 2.0, the architecture of web applications has been transformed significantly and its complexity has grown enormously. In such web applications, the user interface (UI) is an important ingredient and with the increased complexity, its testing is getting increasingly complex and cost/time-consuming process. Recently introduced, interaction flow modeling language (IFML) is an object management group (OMG) standard. IFML is gaining popularity for developing web applications, primarily, because of its excellent features for modeling UI elements, their content, and their interaction capturing capabilities. However, despite its superior UI modeling features, its UI testing is accomplished through traditional time-consuming techniques, which are employed after implementing the UI code. Hence, to overcome these limitations, this paper introduces a novel model-based testing approach for IFML UI elements. The proposed approach provides complete navigation testing using formal models. Moreover, the approach transforms the IFML models to all necessary UI testing artifacts by generating state transition matrix plus detailed UI test case document. As a part of a research, model-based user interface test case (MBUITC) generator tool is implemented to automatically generate navigation model for formal verification, test case document, and transition matrices from IFML models. The applicability of the proposed approach is validated through two benchmark case studies. The results have shown that the proposed approach provides test cases at the early stages of development, i.e., specification and analysis, which eventually helps in building a right product at the right time at a comparatively lower cost.

In the development and design of Web application, the choice of framework development is very important. A good framework development can speed up the development of Web application, reduce development costs and the workload of developers. Meanwhile, Web application has good expansibility and portability. The framework based on SpringMVC + Spring + Mybatis (SSM) has good performance and rapid development efficiency, gradually becoming a mainstream development framework of Web application.