A Framework for Rapid Integration of Presentation Components

The development of user interfaces (UIs) is one of the most time-consuming aspects in software development. In this context, the lack of proper reuse mechanisms for UIs is increasingly becoming manifest, especially as software development is more and more moving toward composite applications. In this paper we propose a framework for the integration of stand-alone modules or applications, where integration occurs at the presentation layer. Hence, the final goal is to reduce the effort required for UI development by maximizing reuse. The design of the framework is inspired by lessons learned from application integration, appropriately modified to account for the specificity of the UI integration problem. We provide an abstract component model to specify characteristics and behaviors of presentation components and propose an event-based composition model to specify the composition logic. Components and composition are described by means of a simple XML-based language, which is interpreted by a runtime middleware for the execution of the resulting composite application. A proof-of-concept prototype allows us to show that the proposed component model can also easily be applied to existing presentation components, built with different languages and/or component technologies.