Abstract-User interface development and maintenance is one of the most time consuming parts of software application development. User interfaces provide numerous graphical visualizations of user data, these are often influenced by multiple factors such as available interface elements, data constraints, layouts, user operating devices or user rights. The complexity of the development and maintenance raises from duplicated and restated information. Duplication occurs multiple times in the application, for example data model already contains data constraints and these are restated in the interface. Not only information but also decisions are duplicated when an interface element is selected and bound to a particular data field. Machine driven code-inspection and its transformation to user interface brings the way to address complex efforts related to user interface. In this paper we present code-inspection approach to automate user interface development and maintenance, we also provide a case study that compares the approach with manual development.

Abstract-User interface development and maintenance presents a burden for many developers. UI development approaches often restate information already captured in the application model such as entity attributes, validation, security, etc. Changes in application model often require many subsequent changes to the UI. Such duplication creates additional maintenance requirements for synchronization (at a minimum) and often is a source for errors (i.e., when model and UI disagree). Adding to the difficulties of creation and maintenance, typical UI implementations often tangle multiple concerns together such as presentation, validation, layout, security, etc. In this paper, we provide an approach that reduces information duplication and untangles mixed concerns. The capability of runtime UI generation can render user-specific UI, reduce conditional evaluation, and integrate third party security frameworks. To evaluate our approach, we provide a case study that demonstrates reduction of maintenance efforts, separation of concerns and performance of runtime UI generation.

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