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Web Modeling Language, (WebML) is a visual notation and methodology for the design of a data-intensive web applications. [1] It provides a graphical means to define the specifics of web application design within a structured design process. This process can be enhanced with the assistance of visual design tools.
In 2013, WebML was expanded to encompass a broader range of front-end interfaces, leading to the development of the Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML). IFML has since been recognized as a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG).
This approach involves the development of five distinct models: structure, derivation, composition, navigation, and presentation. These models are refined through an iterative process.
WebML enables designers to express the core features of a site at a high level without committing to detailed architectural details. WebML concepts are associated with a graphic representation, which can be supported by CASE tools and communicated to non-technical members of a site development team (e.g., with graphic designers and content producers). WebML also supports an XML syntax, which can be fed to software generators for automatically producing the implementation of a website. The specification of a site in WebML consists of four orthogonal perspectives:
A typical design process using WebML consists of the following steps for each design cycle:
The fundamental elements of WebML structure model are entities, which are containers of data elements, and relationships, which enable the semantic connection of entities. Entities have named attributes, with an associated type; properties with multiple occurrences can be organized by means of multi-valued components, which corresponds to the classical part-of relationship. Entities can be organized in generalization hierarchies. Relationships may be given cardinality constraints and role names.
The purpose of composition modeling is to define which nodes make up the hypertext contained in the Web site. More precisely, composition modeling specifies content units (units for short), i.e., the atomic information elements that may appear in the Web site, and pages, i.e., containers by means of which information is actually clustered for delivery to the user. In a concrete setting, e.g., an HTML or WML implementation of a WebML site, pages and units are mapped to suitable constructs in the delivery language, e.g., units may map to HTML files and pages to HTML frames organizing such files on the screen.
WebML supports six types of unit to compose a hypertext:
Units and pages do not exist in isolation, but must be connected to form a hypertext structure. The purpose of navigation modeling is to specify the way in which the units and pages are linked to form a hypertext. To this purpose, WebML provides the notion of link. There are two variants of links:
Personalization is the definition of content or presentation style based on user profile data. In WebML, units, pages, their presentation styles, and site views can be defined so to take user- or group-specific data into account. This can be done in two complementary ways:
Presentation modeling is concerned with the look and feel of the pages identified by composition modeling. WebML pages are rendered according to a style sheet. A style sheet dictates the layout of pages and the content elements to be inserted into such layout, and is independent of the actual language used for page rendition. For better reusability, two categories of style sheets are provided: untyped style sheets (also called models) describe the page layout independently of its content, and thus can be applied regardless of the mapping of the page to a given concept; typed style sheets are specified at a finer granularity and thus apply only to pages describing specific concepts.
This article contains content that is written like
an advertisement. (January 2011) |
Web Modeling Language, (WebML) is a visual notation and methodology for the design of a data-intensive web applications. [1] It provides a graphical means to define the specifics of web application design within a structured design process. This process can be enhanced with the assistance of visual design tools.
In 2013, WebML was expanded to encompass a broader range of front-end interfaces, leading to the development of the Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML). IFML has since been recognized as a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG).
This approach involves the development of five distinct models: structure, derivation, composition, navigation, and presentation. These models are refined through an iterative process.
WebML enables designers to express the core features of a site at a high level without committing to detailed architectural details. WebML concepts are associated with a graphic representation, which can be supported by CASE tools and communicated to non-technical members of a site development team (e.g., with graphic designers and content producers). WebML also supports an XML syntax, which can be fed to software generators for automatically producing the implementation of a website. The specification of a site in WebML consists of four orthogonal perspectives:
A typical design process using WebML consists of the following steps for each design cycle:
The fundamental elements of WebML structure model are entities, which are containers of data elements, and relationships, which enable the semantic connection of entities. Entities have named attributes, with an associated type; properties with multiple occurrences can be organized by means of multi-valued components, which corresponds to the classical part-of relationship. Entities can be organized in generalization hierarchies. Relationships may be given cardinality constraints and role names.
The purpose of composition modeling is to define which nodes make up the hypertext contained in the Web site. More precisely, composition modeling specifies content units (units for short), i.e., the atomic information elements that may appear in the Web site, and pages, i.e., containers by means of which information is actually clustered for delivery to the user. In a concrete setting, e.g., an HTML or WML implementation of a WebML site, pages and units are mapped to suitable constructs in the delivery language, e.g., units may map to HTML files and pages to HTML frames organizing such files on the screen.
WebML supports six types of unit to compose a hypertext:
Units and pages do not exist in isolation, but must be connected to form a hypertext structure. The purpose of navigation modeling is to specify the way in which the units and pages are linked to form a hypertext. To this purpose, WebML provides the notion of link. There are two variants of links:
Personalization is the definition of content or presentation style based on user profile data. In WebML, units, pages, their presentation styles, and site views can be defined so to take user- or group-specific data into account. This can be done in two complementary ways:
Presentation modeling is concerned with the look and feel of the pages identified by composition modeling. WebML pages are rendered according to a style sheet. A style sheet dictates the layout of pages and the content elements to be inserted into such layout, and is independent of the actual language used for page rendition. For better reusability, two categories of style sheets are provided: untyped style sheets (also called models) describe the page layout independently of its content, and thus can be applied regardless of the mapping of the page to a given concept; typed style sheets are specified at a finer granularity and thus apply only to pages describing specific concepts.