Designing a Framework for End User Applications

Abstract

of a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Software and Information Technology Designing a Framework for End User Applications by Yanbo DengEnd user developers (i.e. non-professional developers) often create database applications to meet their immediate needs. However, these applications can often be difficult to generalise or adapt when requirements inevitably change. As part of this thesis, we visited several research institutions to investigate the issues of end user developed databases. We found that different user groups in the same organisation might require similar, but different, data management applications. However, the very specific designs used in most of these systems meant it was difficult to adapt them for other similar uses.In this thesis we propose a set of guidelines for supporting end user developers to create more flexible and adaptable data management applications. Our approach involves professional and end user developers working together to find a "middle way" between very specific and very generic designs. We propose a framework solution that allows the data model to have several co-existing variations which can satisfy the requirements of different user groups in a common domain. A "framework provider" (IT professional) will create the initial framework and data model. Configuration tools are then provided for a "framework manager" to easily customise the model to the specific needs of various user groups. The system also provides client toolkits and application generators to help end user developers (EUDs) to quickly create and customise applications based on the framework.The framework approach was applied to a case study involving a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for data on research experiments. We demonstrated that the framework developed could be successfully applied to several groups working in the same domain and could be extended to include new or changed requirements.We also evaluated the framework through software trials at several research organisations. All participants successfully used the configuration tools to extend the LIMS framework within an average of 40 minutes. EUDs were also able to easily create basic applications within an average of 25 minutes. The overall feedback was that the framework approach was a useful and efficient way to create adaptable data management applications. More importantly, ii participants were able to immediately see how the framework could be applied to their own laboratory data.

Designing and Using a MySQL Database for Human Resource Management

“…Sadly, developing a database most likely requires knowledge on database technology and how it works, as well as its syntax and other information that is quite exclusive to the technological world [18][19][20][21]. But fortunately, as technology develops, studies and experts have come up with approaches that allow even people who are unfamiliar with database programming to create web applications and their databases easily.…”

AmI-Solertis

“…To that end, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) [104] in such environment gets reformed by replacing traditional explicit interaction technologies that are difficult or unnatural for residents, with more human-life communication capabilities and implicit actions [95 cook2009]. Various mature and well-established technologies, including motion tracking, gesture recognition [96], facial expression recognition [97] and emotion recognition [98], speech processing [99], and even whistle processing [100] facilitate natural interactions with AmI environments. Additionally, diverse interface mechanisms are combined to form multi-modal [12,14,67] and distributed interfaces [317], without the need of devices foreign to the environment or unfamiliar to the target user group (e.g., elderly) [83].…”

“…The benefits of using a framework approach to help end user developers create a variety of adaptable applications with differing requirements are discussed in [99]. A web service and development toolkit provides a simple programming interface for interacting with an unknown database, while user trials showed that end users were able to use the system to quickly adapt and create applications.…”