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In this paper we present an approach for oblivious composition of Web user interfaces, particularly for volatile functionality. Our approach, which is inspired on well-known techniques for advanced separation of concerns such as aspect-oriented software design, allows to clearly separate the design of the core's interface from the one corresponding to more volatile services, i.e. those that are offered for short periods of time. Both interfaces are oblivious from each other and can be seamlessly composed using a transformation language. We show that in this way we simplify the application's evolution by preventing intrusive edition of the interface code. Using some illustrative examples we focus both on design and implementation issues, presenting an extension of the OOHDM design model which support modular design of volatile functionality

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One of the main characteristics of most Web applications is their high dynamism. Once implemented and deployed for the first time, new functionalities are added to meet new or changed requirements. Some of these functionalities may appear on the Web in response to an unexpected event, or phenomena (such as a natural calamity) after which they are removed. Some others are activated periodically, to coincide with a particular date, or period of the year (such as, return to school, Christmas holidays, etc.). Implementing such volatile functionalities usually impacts on a number of aspects of a Web application, including content, navigation, presentation, business processes, and user operations. Their cyclic activation/deactivation, which requires repetitive changes in the application code, may be the cause of waste of effort and application quality deterioration, up to incorrect functioning.In this paper, we present an approach to decouple the design and implementation of volatile functionalities from that of stable ones, i.e. the core functionalities of the application. The approach is instantiated in the context of the Object-Oriented Hypermedia Design Method (OOHDM), but its principles and related techniques are generally applicable to any other Web engineering method. We show how our approach enables the deployment and removal of these functionalities in a cost-effective and safe way and at runtime, thus providing business agility. A framework to classify volatile functionalities and a number of examples are also reported.

In this chapter, we present a design approach for the interface of rich Internet applications, that is, those Web applications in which the conventional hypermedia paradigm has been improved with rich interaction styles. Our approach combines well-known techniques for advanced separation of concerns such as aspect-oriented software design, with the object oriented hypermedia design method (OOHDM) design model allowing to express in a high level way the structure and behaviours of the user interface as oblivious compositions of simpler interface atoms. Using simple illustrative examples we present the rationale of our approach, its core stages and the way it is integrated into the OOHDM. Some implementation issues are finally analyzed.