Using document-oriented GUIs in dynamic software product lines

Abstract

Dynamic Software Product Line (DSPL) Engineering has gained interest through its promise of being able to unify software adaptation whereby software adaptation can be realised at compile time and runtime. While previous work has enabled program logic adaptation by the use of language extensions and platform support, little attention has been placed on Graphical User Interface (GUI) variability. Different design patterns including the Model View Controller are commonly used in GUI implementation, with GUI documents being used for declaring the GUI. To handle dynamic GUI variability currently, the developer needs to implement GUI refinements using multiple techniques. This paper proposes a solution for dealing with GUI document variability, statically and dynamically, in a unified way. In our approach, we currently use a compile time method for producing GUI variants, and code transformations to handle these variants within the application at runtime. To avoid GUI duplicates, only GUI variants that are unique, and related to a valid product configuration, are produced. To validate our approach, we implemented tool support to enable this for Android based applications.

Engineering context-aware systems and applications: A survey

“…In mobile computing, Marinho et al [153] show a SPL for mobile and context-aware applications, along with the approach used to build it and a verification mechanism [154]. Kramer et al [155] present an approach to support static and dynamic variability of a single code base of GUI documents within features, providing tool support. They also present a generic context acquisition engine for mobile devices [156].…”

Connecting domain-specific features to source code: towards the automatization of dashboard generation

“…The SPL paradigm is a powerful approach to leverage solutions framed within a specific domain [5,6]. It has been used in several contexts [7][8][9][10][11][12] and achieved significant results, decreasing development times, and time-to-market. This paradigm is organized into two phases: domain engineering and application engineering [5,6].…”

Peer Review #2 of "Taking advantage of the software product line paradigm to generate customized user interfaces for decision-making processes: a case study on university employability (v0.1)"

“…DSPLs provide a useful paradigm for adapting code at run-time, obtaining adaptive GUIs. Kramer et al (2013) proposed document-oriented GUIs with run-time variations through XML documents (Kramer et al 2013). This context-adaptable feature has also been achieved by Sboui et al (2018), by developing a mobile application that is also runtime adaptable through MBUID models and reusable artifacts.…”