END-USER DEVELOPMENT IN A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE SETTING

Martin Auer, Johannes Pölz, Stefan Biffl

2009

Abstract

In many areas, software applications must be highly configurable - using a pre-defined set of options or preferences is not flexible enough. One way to improve an application’s flexibility is to allow users to change parts of the source code - and thus the application’s behavior - on-the-fly; modern languages like Java greatly facilitate this by providing reflection features. Such an approach, however, is often limited to user-defined mathematical formulas, e.g., in software like cash flow engines, reporting tools etc. This paper applies the concept to a more generic area: the graphical representation of diagrams in a UML tool. Users can create new types of graphical elements by directly programming how the elements are drawn, all within the UML tool, and at run time. The approach is flexible, and the user-defined extensions are consistent with the tool’s core source code.

References

  1. Auer, M., Meyer, L., and Biffl, S. (2007). Explorative UML modeling: Comparing the usability of UML tools. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS'07), pages 466-474, Madeira.
  2. Auer, M., Tschurtschenthaler, T., and Biffl, S. (2003). A flyweight UML modeling tool for software development in heterogeneous environments. In Proceedings of the 29th EUROMICRO Conference, pages 267-272, Antalya.
  3. Beringer, J. (2004). Reducing expertise tension. Communications of the ACM, 47(9):39-40.
  4. Beringer, J., Fischer, G., Mussio, P., Myers, B., Patern, F., and Ruyter, B. d. (2008). The next challenge: From easy-to-use to easy-to-develop. Are you ready? In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'08), pages 2257-2260, Florence.
  5. Berti, S., Patern, F., and Santoro, C. (2006). Natural development of nomadic interfaces based on conceptual descriptions. In End-User Development, pages 143- 160. Springer.
  6. Booch, G., Rumbaugh, J., and Jacobson, I. (2005). The Unified Modeling Language User Guide. Addison Wesley, 2. edition.
  7. Cazzola, W., Stroud, R., and Tisato, F. (2000). Reflection and Software Engineering. Springer.
  8. Costabile, M., Mussio, P., Provenza, L., and Piccinno, A. (2008). End users as unwitting software developers.
  9. In Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on End-User Software Engineering (WEUSE'08), pages 6-10, Leipzig.
  10. Evans, A. and Wellings, A. (1999). UML and the formal development of safety-critical real-time systems. In IEE Colloquium on Applicable Modelling, Verification and Analysis Techniques for Real-Time Systems, pages 2/1-2/4.
  11. Fischer, G., Giaccardi, E., Ye, Y., Sutcliffe, A., and Mehandjiev, N. (2004). Meta-design: A manifesto for end-user development. Communications of the ACM, 47(9):33-37.
  12. Fischer, G. and Scharff, E. (2000). Meta-design: Design for designers. In Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS'00), pages 396- 405, New York.
  13. Heng, M. (2003). Beyond end user computing. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS'03), pages 594- 598, Angers.
  14. Ko, A. and Myers, B. (2005). A framework and methodology for studying the causes of software errors in programming systems. Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 16(1-2):41-84.
  15. Kohler, H., Nickel, U., Niere, J., and Zndorf, A. (2000). Integrating UML diagrams for production control systems. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'00), pages 241-251, Limerick.
  16. Martin, J. (1984). An Information Systems Manifesto. Prentice Hall, 1. edition.
  17. Ruyter, B. d. and Sluis, R. v. d. (2006). Challenges for enduser development in intelligent environments. In EndUser Development, pages 243-250. Springer.
  18. Segal, J. (2007). Some problems of professional end-user developers. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC'07), pages 111-118, Coeur d'Alne.
  19. Smith, H. (2004). On tool selection for illustrating the use of UML in system development. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 19(5):53-63.
  20. Sutcliffe, A. (2005). Evaluating the costs and benefits of end-user development. SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 30(4):1-4.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Auer M., Pölz J. and Biffl S. (2009). END-USER DEVELOPMENT IN A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE SETTING . In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS, ISBN 978-989-8111-88-3, pages 5-14. DOI: 10.5220/0001809800050014


in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis09,
author={Martin Auer and Johannes Pölz and Stefan Biffl},
title={END-USER DEVELOPMENT IN A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE SETTING},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS,},
year={2009},
pages={5-14},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0001809800050014},
isbn={978-989-8111-88-3},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS,
TI - END-USER DEVELOPMENT IN A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE SETTING
SN - 978-989-8111-88-3
AU - Auer M.
AU - Pölz J.
AU - Biffl S.
PY - 2009
SP - 5
EP - 14
DO - 10.5220/0001809800050014