Derivation of a general purpose architecture for automatic user interface generation

Kennard, RD

Derivation of a general purpose architecture for automatic user interface generation

Kennard, RD

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2011

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Kennard, RD
dc.date.accessioned	2012-04-20T02:42:59Z
dc.date.accessioned	2012-12-15T03:53:42Z
dc.date.available	2012-04-20T02:42:59Z
dc.date.available	2012-12-15T03:53:42Z
dc.date.issued	2011
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/20405
dc.description	University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.	en
dc.description	Winner of the John Makepeace Bennett Award - Australasian Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation 2013
dc.description.abstract	Many software projects spend a significant proportion of their time developing the User Interface (UI), therefore any degree of automation in this area has clear benefits. Research projects to date generally take one of three approaches: interactive graphical specification tools, model-based generation tools, or language-based tools. The first two have proven popular in industry but are labour intensive and error-prone. The third is more automated but has practical problems which have led to a lack of industry adoption. This thesis set out to understand and address these limitations. It studied the issues of UI generation in practice using Action Research cycles guided by interviews, adoption studies, case studies and close collaboration with industry practitioners. It further applied the emerging field of software mining to address some of these issues. Software mining is used to collate multiple inspections of an application's artefacts into a detailed model, which can then be used to drive UI generation. Finally, this thesis explicitly defined bounds to the generation, such that it can usefully automate some parts of the UI development process without restricting the practitioner's freedom in other parts. It proposed UI generation as a way to augment manual UI construction rather than replace it. To verify the research, this thesis built an Open Source project using successive generations of Iterative Development, and released and promoted it to organisations and practitioners. It tracked and validated the project's reception and adoption within the community, with an ultimate goal of mainstream industry acceptance. This goal was achieved on a number of levels, including when the project was recognised by Red Hat, an industry leader in enterprise middleware. Red Hat acknowledged the applicability and potential of the research within industry and integrated it into their next generation products.	en
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/20405/10/02Whole.pdf
dc.relation.replaces	http://hdl.handle.net/2100/1305
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.subject	User interface.	en
dc.subject	Software mining.	en
dc.subject	Automation.	en
dc.title	Derivation of a general purpose architecture for automatic user interface generation	en
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

Many software projects spend a significant proportion of their time developing the User Interface (UI), therefore any degree of automation in this area has clear benefits. Research projects to date generally take one of three approaches: interactive graphical specification tools, model-based generation tools, or language-based tools. The first two have proven popular in industry but are labour intensive and error-prone. The third is more automated but has practical problems which have led to a lack of industry adoption. This thesis set out to understand and address these limitations. It studied the issues of UI generation in practice using Action Research cycles guided by interviews, adoption studies, case studies and close collaboration with industry practitioners. It further applied the emerging field of software mining to address some of these issues. Software mining is used to collate multiple inspections of an application's artefacts into a detailed model, which can then be used to drive UI generation. Finally, this thesis explicitly defined bounds to the generation, such that it can usefully automate some parts of the UI development process without restricting the practitioner's freedom in other parts. It proposed UI generation as a way to augment manual UI construction rather than replace it. To verify the research, this thesis built an Open Source project using successive generations of Iterative Development, and released and promoted it to organisations and practitioners. It tracked and validated the project's reception and adoption within the community, with an ultimate goal of mainstream industry acceptance. This goal was achieved on a number of levels, including when the project was recognised by Red Hat, an industry leader in enterprise middleware. Red Hat acknowledged the applicability and potential of the research within industry and integrated it into their next generation products.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/20405