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Title: An XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit

Abstract

In the past, the features of a user interface were limited by those available in the existing graphical widgets it used. Now, improvements in processor speed have fostered the emergence of interpreted languages, in which the appropriate method to render a given data object can be loaded at runtime. XML can be used to precisely describe the association of data types with their graphical handling (beans), and Java provides an especially rich environment for programming the graphics. We present a graphical user interface builder based on Java Beans and XML, in which the graphical screens are described textually (in files or a database) in terms of their screen components. Each component may be a simple text read back, or a complex plot. The programming model provides for dynamic data pertaining to a component to be forwarded synchronously or asynchronously, to the appropriate handler, which may be a built-in method, or a complex applet. This work was initially motivated by the need to move the legacy VMS display interface of the SLAC Control Program to another platform while preserving all of its existing functionality. However the model allows us a powerful and generic system for adding new kinds of graphics, suchmore » as Matlab, data sources, such as EPICS, middleware, such as AIDA[1], and transport, such as XML and SOAP. The system will also include a management console, which will be able to report on the present usage of the system, for instance who is running it where and connected to which channels.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
OSTI Identifier:
799779
Report Number(s):
SLAC-PUB-9121
TRN: US0206062
DOE Contract Number:  
AC03-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 18 Jan 2002
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; MANAGEMENT; PROGRAMMING; COMPUTER GRAPHICS; MAN-MACHINE SYSTEMS; STANFORD LINEAR ACCELERATOR CENTER

Citation Formats

White, Greg R. An XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit. United States: N. p., 2002. Web. doi:10.2172/799779.
White, Greg R. An XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/799779
White, Greg R. 2002. "An XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/799779. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/799779.
@article{osti_799779,
title = {An XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit},
author = {White, Greg R},
abstractNote = {In the past, the features of a user interface were limited by those available in the existing graphical widgets it used. Now, improvements in processor speed have fostered the emergence of interpreted languages, in which the appropriate method to render a given data object can be loaded at runtime. XML can be used to precisely describe the association of data types with their graphical handling (beans), and Java provides an especially rich environment for programming the graphics. We present a graphical user interface builder based on Java Beans and XML, in which the graphical screens are described textually (in files or a database) in terms of their screen components. Each component may be a simple text read back, or a complex plot. The programming model provides for dynamic data pertaining to a component to be forwarded synchronously or asynchronously, to the appropriate handler, which may be a built-in method, or a complex applet. This work was initially motivated by the need to move the legacy VMS display interface of the SLAC Control Program to another platform while preserving all of its existing functionality. However the model allows us a powerful and generic system for adding new kinds of graphics, such as Matlab, data sources, such as EPICS, middleware, such as AIDA[1], and transport, such as XML and SOAP. The system will also include a management console, which will be able to report on the present usage of the system, for instance who is running it where and connected to which channels.},
doi = {10.2172/799779},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/799779}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2002},
month = {Fri Jan 18 00:00:00 EST 2002}
}