mir farooq ali computer science, virginia tech may 9, 2003 building multi-platform user interfaces...
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Mir Farooq AliComputer Science, Virginia
TechMay 9, 2003
Building Multi-platform User Interfaces using UIML
Outline
• Multi-platform User Interface (UI) problem
• User Interface Markup Language (UIML)
• Task Modeling• Future Research
Introduction
• Variety of Hardware
• Variety of target platforms
Netscape 6.1 for HTML
Internet Explorer 6.0 for HTMLJava Swing
Introduction
• Users want access to the same applications and data
• Traditional approaches are geared towards a single platform
• New approach is needed to build multi-platform UIs
Goals for UIML
• Able to describe implementations of UIs that are– Multi-platform– Multi-lingual
• Usable for non-traditional UIs: voice, etc
• Same expressive power as target languages (Java, HTML, WML, …)
UIML
• UIML is an XML-based markup language• Meta-language for UIs• Can be used currently in conjunction
with platform-specific vocabularies to create Uis– A vocabulary is defined to be the set of UI
widgets, their properties and events for one specific platform
UIML (Cont’d…)
• Provides complete description of a UI• Renderers are needed to take UIML
file and render it to UI• Rendering can be done through
– Interpretation– Translation
• Renderers are available for Java, HTML, WML, VoiceXML and PalmOS
Example UI
Widget
s
Events associated with widgets
Look and feel
Separation of Concerns
• UIML considers an UI to be composed of 4 sections– structure– style– behavior– content
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?><!DOCTYPE uiml PUBLIC "-//UIT//DTD UIML 2.0 Draft//EN" "UIML2_0g.dtd">
<uiml> <head>...</head> <interface> <structure>...</structure> <style>...</style> <behavior>...</behavior> <content>...</content> </interface> <peers>...</peers> <template>...</template></uiml>
UIML (Cont’d…)
• Skeleton of UIML document
UIML <structure>
• Structure section indicates the hierarchical relationship between various ‘parts’
<structure>
<part id="BigFrame" class="JFrame">
<part id="label1" class="JLabel"/>
</part>
</structure>
Widget
UIML <style>
• Style section describes “look and feel” of UI using properties for individual parts
<style>
<property part-name="BigFrame" name="title">UIML Example</property>
<property part-name="label1" name="text">Hello World!</property>
</style>
UIML <behavior>
• Behavior section defines what happens when you perform any action on the parts
<behavior> <rule> <condition> <event class="actionPerformed" part-name="topButton"/> </condition> <action> <property part-name="label1" name="text">Top button
pressed.</property> </action> </rule></behavior>
UIML Examples
1. Hello World example• Java Swing• WML• HTML
2. UI with events• UIML with Java Swing vocabulary• Actual Java Swing program
Example: UI for 3 Platforms
Date book:
Java
Palm OS WML
What UIML Is and Is Not
• UIML: is a language for implementing UIs
• UIML: is not a language for UI design
(We assume UIML is generated by a model, specification language, design tool, or even manually)
Example: Vocabularies & Mappings
• Recall:<part class=“Button” name=“submit”> <style><property name=“title”>OK!</property></style></part>
• Vocabulary: class, property, event names (e.g., “Button”)
• Mapping:<d-class name=“Button" … maps-to="javax.swing.JButton">…</d-class>versus<d-class name="Button" … maps-to=“html:input">…</d-class>
How UIML Addresses Multi-Platform UIs
1. Tree structure (cascading):describe a family of UIs as in tree form
2. Generic vocabulary + transformation3. Building block of overall
methodology
1. Tree Structure
Factor out common elements to UIs on all platforms in form of an XML tree– Structure: changes across families– Style: changes across families– Content: may change across families– Behavior: may largely remain intact– Logic: API to logic unchanged– Presentation: differs by family
2. Generic Vocabulary + Transformation
• Vocabulary is defined outside UIML
• Vocabulary represents set of abstractions. Abstractions could be…1. identical to UI toolkit (“Platform-Specific
vocabulary”)2. cross UI toolkits (e.g., generic across Java/HTML,
VoiceXML, WML)3. domain-specific (e.g., abstractions to build UIs for
news articles -- title, abstract, body, navigation)
Sample Generic Vocabulary (#2 in Previous List)
Generic Part UIML Class NameGeneric Top Container
G:TopContainer
Generic Area G:Area
Generic List G:List
Generic Label G:Label
Generic Button G:Button
Generic Icon G:Icon
Generic Radiobutton G:RadioButton
Transformations
• Transformation maps UIML document with generic vocabulary to UIML document with platform-specific vocabulary
<part class=H:html> <part class=H:head>... <part class=H:title>......<part class=body>...
<part class=G:TopContainer>
Transform Engine
HTML Renderer
Java for Swing toolkit
Example of How UIML Is Used
HTML for Web browser
UIML/HTML vocabulary
UIML/Java vocabulary
Java Renderer
UIML describing application with generic vocabulary
3. UIML as Building Block
Task Model
UIML Family Model for desktop platform
UIML Family Model for WML
platform
UIML for Java Swing
UIML for HTML
UIML for VoiceXML
UIML for WML
Model->UIMLTransformation 1
UIML->UIMLTransformation
UIML Family Model for Voice platform
Generic UIML
Platform-Specific UIML
Multi-platform UIs
• Family model is in UIML using generic vocabulary– Generic vocabulary contains UI widgets
like G:TopContainer, G:Label, etc.
Task Model
• Using ConcurTaskTree notation– Developed by Fabio Paterno, CNUCE-
C.N.R., Pisa, Italy
• Hierarchical tree-like structure– Each node in tree indicates a task– Temporal operator exists between
adjacent sibling tasks
Task Types
• Four different task types– User– Interaction– Abstract– Application
• Eight different kinds of temporal operators
Use of Task Model
• Developer builds task model specifying task types and temporal operators
• Transformation done by system to create generic UIML, mapping – tasks to UIML ‘parts’ or widgets– temporal operators to UIML ‘behavior’
Sample Task Model
Interaction design
Task Model-centric Interaction Design
Task Model
Family Model for desktop platform
Family Model for phone platform
UIML for Java Swing
UIML for HTML
UIML for VoiceXML
UIML for WML
Family Model for Voice platform
Task/Domain analysis
Interaction s/w design
Interaction s/w impl.
Traditional Usability Engineering
Future Research
• Accessibility– Treat accessible toolkits as a separate
platform
• TIDE– Enhance the current version– Introduce more platforms
TIDE
Publications
• CADUI’2002 Full Paper• CHI’2002 Short Paper• Book chapter in edited book “Multi-
Device User Interfaces: Engineering and Application Frameworks”
Questions?
top related