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Basic foilset Shared Places on the Web

Given by Geoffrey C. Fox at Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland on May 24-25 99. Foils prepared May 18 99
Outside Index Summary of Material

Describes Shared Places Concept and the XML Language SPDL

Table of Contents for full HTML of Shared Places on the Web

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1 Tango Interactive Done Right ...... Shared Places on the Web
2 Motivation
3 Shared Places and SPDL - Overview
4 Shared Places - Technology Components I
5 Shared Places - Technology Components II
6 What does SPDL Document Define
7 What SPDL Document Defines- continued
8 Shared Place Components
9 Relationships among Shared Place Components
10 Shared Place Architecture
11 Shared Place Architecture - continued
12 References

Outside Index Summary of Material

HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 1 Tango Interactive Done Right ...... Shared Places on the Web

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
May 15 1999
Lukasz Beca with additions from Geoffrey Fox
NPAC, Syracuse University
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 2 Motivation

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
HTML is excellent for presentation of information but it does not offer any support for synchronous collaboration
Current Web-based collaboration systems are not well integrated with Web content.
  • Usually they imitate plain, standalone applications. They launch separate windows and tools.
  • They implement rigid collaboration policies and are not easily customizable
Another approach is needed: the objects that offer collaboration functionality must be treated as any other content in the Web page. This approach will enable creation of pure Web-based collaboration - Shared Places on the Web -- where one can share any part of a web page
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 3 Shared Places and SPDL - Overview

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Shared Place - the virtual place on the Web where people can meet and work together. They can use provided content and tools for collaboration and possibly creating new content. Basically, it is a ordinary Web page with collaboration functionality added
Shared Place Definition Language (SPDL) is an XML based application that implements the idea of collaboration as a Web page content. It enables creation of Shared Places. SPDL does not replace HTML, but enhances it
  • HTML includes Java Applets Active X etc.
SPDL offers:
  • syntax for defining collaboration functionality of Web page content
  • mechanisms for merging seamlessly collaboration content with the regular Web page content
  • constructs to customize behavior of collaboration content depending on required policy
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 4 Shared Places - Technology Components I

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
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Shared Place Definition Language is a language for defining properties of shared places. SPDL conforms to XML specification
Shared Object is a piece of software that can be embedded as a part of a Web page content. Shared Objects offer collaboration functionality using mechanisms provided by SP framework. To interact with SP framework, Shared Objects must implement specific SP interface. Examples: Java Applets, Plug-ins, ActiveX objects, JavaScript Applications
SP Framework is a set of mechanisms that implement collaboration services and expose them to Shared Objects using SP interfaces (roughly equivalent to Tango server)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 5 Shared Places - Technology Components II

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
SP Interfaces are the entry points for accessing collaboration functionality provided by SP Framework (major extension of functionality provided by Tango API in Java applet, application, C++ and JavaScript):
  • Configuration interface enables initialization of Shared Objects based on the content of SPDL document
  • Data sharing interface offers data passing and synchronization services to the Shared Objects
  • Control interface provides means for accessing and manipulation of collaboration state
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 6 What does SPDL Document Define

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Collaboration functionality:
Session management: Defines how the Shared Objects initiate or join collaborative sessions
Synchronization: Describes mechanisms for assuring the consistence of data observed by collaborating users
Control mechanisms: Defines how the behavior of Shared Objects can be controlled and how the state of the collaboration session can be accessed
Shared Object data:
Initial state: Defines how the Shared Object are initialized when they start running
Persistence: Describes whether and how the content of the collaborative session is stored
Content: Describes the data to be processed by Shared Objects during collaboration session
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 7 What SPDL Document Defines- continued

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
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Users:
Grouping: Defines user groups with possibility of assigning roles
User identity based configuration: It is possible to define different behavior of Shared Object depending on the user, user group or user role
Referencing Shared Objects:
Shared Object ID: SPDL uses Shared Object ID to define properties for specific Shared Object
Granularity: It is possible to define different behavior for individual Shared Objects, classes of Shared Objects or for the whole Shared Place
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 8 Shared Place Components

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
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HTML documents containing:
  • ordinary content: text, pictures, etc.
  • collaborative content: Shared Objects embedded using SPDL tags
  • reference to valid SPDL document
SPDL XML document defining collaboration functionality of Shared Objects embedded in the HTML document
Style Sheet for SPDL XML file defining applet that interprets page
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 9 Relationships among Shared Place Components

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Shared Places exploits very powerful DOM in W3C proposals with support for well defined sub-pages
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 10 Shared Place Architecture

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Shared Objects
  • Offer high-level collaboration functionality to the users
  • Communicate with Shared Place Framework
Shared Place Framework
  • SP Agent
    • Interprets SPDL document for specific Shared Place
    • Initializes Shared Objects
    • Exposes collaboration services to Shared Objects
    • Communicates with Collaboration Framework
  • Collaboration Framework offers low-level collaboration services to SP Agent (messaging and event service shared between collaborating clients as in current Tango Server)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 11 Shared Place Architecture - continued

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Web browser
Collaboration Framework
SP Agent
Shared Object
Web page
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared May 18 99

Foil 12 References

From Shared Places on the Web Gateway Workshop aberdeen Maryland -- May 24-25 99. *
Full HTML Index
Shared Places might be seen as a specific implementation of `Shippable Places' presented in "Client/Server Survival Guide" by Robert Orfali, Dan Harkey, and Jeri Edwards
XML related resources can be found at http://www.w3c.org/XML/
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