E-commerce and m-commerce demand for full-fledged, increasingly complex applications which need to offer ubiquitous access in terms of the anytime/anywhere/anymedia paradigma. From a software engineering point of view, the development of such ubiquitous web applications requires proper modeling methods in order to ensure architectural soundness and maintainability. Recently, web modeling methods started recognizing this fact by providing first concepts for dealing with ubiquity. In this paper, two of these modeling methods are compared, identifying their strengths and shortcomings. As a prerequisite, an evaluation framework is introduced, using the notion of customization as the uniform mechanism to enable ubiquity. Customization adapts a web application towards a particular context which reflects the environment the application is running in. To enable a holistic view on the development process of a ubiquitous web application, customization is regarded as a new modeling dimension, influencing all other tasks of ubiquitous web application development.

The web is more and more used as a platform for full-fledged, increasingly complex applications, where a huge amount of change-intensive data is managed by underlying database systems. From a software engineering point of view, the development of web applications requires proper modeling methods in order to ensure architectural soundness and maintainability. Existing modeling methods for web applications, however, fall short on considering a major requirement posed on today's web applications, namely customization. Web applications should be customizable with respect to various context factors comprising different user preferences, device capabilities and locations in mobile scenarios, to mention just a few. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, a framework of requirements, covering the design space of customizable web applications is suggested. Second, on the basis of this framework, existing approaches for developing customizable web applications are surveyed and general shortcomings are identified pointing the way to next-generation modeling methods.

Abstract Conceptual Modelling approaches for the web need extensions to specify dynamic personalization properties in order to design more powerful web applications. Current approaches provide techniques to support dynamic personalization but often these proposals are focused on implementation details. This article presents an extension of the OO-H conceptual modelling approach to address the particulars associated with the design and specification of dynamic personalization. We describe how conventional navigation and presentation diagrams are influenced by personalization properties. To model the variable part of the interface logic OO-H has a personalization architecture that leans on a rule engine. Acquisition rules are defined by means of a User Model and a Reference Model and allows to capture the relevant properties to give dynamic support. Personalization rules are applied to the navigation and presentation level, and are reflected in their corresponding conceptual views. In this way, the interface logic of a web application is viewed as a composition of an stable and a variable part, where the variable part (expressed in XML) is interpreted at execution time. The main benefit is that this specification can be modified without recompile the rest of the application modules. 1

E-commerce and m-commerce have dramatically boosted the demand for services which enable ubiquitous access. Ubiquity with its anytime/anywhere/anymedia nature requiring contextaware computing and personalisation calls for new engineering techniques supporting these kind of services. In this paper, we propose the notion of customisation as the uniform mechanism to provide the necessary flexibility with respect to both contextaware computing and personalisation. Customisation is realised in terms of a reflective architecture consisting of context, profile and customisation rule management. Keywords: Modelling, Goal-oriented Software Engineering, Customisation, Ubiquitous Web Applications

Abstract. E-commerce and m-commerce have dramatically boosted the demand for services which enable ubiquitous access. Ubiquity with its anytime/anywhere/anymedia nature requiring context-aware computing calls for new engineering techniques supporting these kind of services. In this paper, we propose the notion of customisation as the uniform mechanism to deliver ubiquitous web applications providing adaptability with respect to a certain context. As a prerequisite for supporting customisation design, a set of generic models is introduced comprising a context model, a profile model, and a rule model. At the application's side, customisation hooks are provided representing the major hot spots of adaptation. A customisation toolkit in terms of a customisation rule editor and browser supports an integrated modelling process and facilitates reusability on the basis of a repository of customisation rules and patterns. 1

Modelling is an important activity in the development of complex systems. Hypermedia modelling is a relatively new direction of research. Based on achieved results in software systems development, the recognition of importance of hypermedia modelling took relatively short time from the time of widespread adoption of hypermedia systems.

Abstract. Nowadays, new technologies and platforms are emerging and changing constantly, which implies a high effort developing software products. This situation generates different problems related to portability, integration and interoperability. The Object Management Group (OMG) proposes the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), which improves portability of applications by allowing the same model to be realized on multiple platforms. MDA defines an architecture based on platform independent models (PIM) and platform specific models (PSM). In this work we present MIDAS, a model-driven methodology based on MDA for the development of Web Information Systems (WIS). We apply the MDA metamodel to the Web platform using XML and (object-) relational technology. MIDAS proposes different PIMs and PSMs and defines some mapping rules between models. This paper also presents part of a case study to illustrate this proposal.

Today’s web applications are full-fledged, complex software systems for which a methodologically sound engineering approach is crucial. Web engineering has emerged as an independent branch of software engineering and ”comprises the use of systematic and quantifiable approaches in order to accomplish the specification, implementation, operation, and maintenance of high quality web applications ” [Kappel et al.

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to present a framework of requirements to survey design methods for hypermedia systems. Such requirements are taken from software engineering as well as from hypermedia engineering fields. Finally, these requirements are applied to a set of outstanding design methods in order to identify both their good qualities and their lacks. 1

Building a data-intensive web site is a complex task. Ad hoc rapid prototyping approaches easily lead to unsatisfactory results, e.g. poor maintainability and extensibility. To address this problem, a number of model-based approaches have been proposed, which attempt to simplify the design and development of data-intensive web sites. However, these approaches typically lack expressive meta-models and, as a result, suffer from a number of limitations, e.g. the lack of appropriate support for the creation of complex user interfaces, for the specification of layouts and presentation styles, and for customization. In this paper we describe a new software tool OntoWeaver, which uses ontologies to drive the design and development of data-intensive web sites. OntoWeaver overcomes the problems of current approaches by providing a site view ontology, a presentation ontology, and a customization framework. Specifically, the site view ontology provides fine-grained modelling support for the creation of complex user interfaces and navigation structures. The presentation ontology captures the features of layouts and presentation styles of user interface elements. These two explicit meta-models allow the target web site to be represented in a declarative and re-usable format, thus enabling high level support for design, maintenance, and customization. The customization framework exploits this advantage and provides comprehensive customization support for the target web site at design as well as run time.