_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Interaction and interest management in a scripting language. Abidin, Sita Zaleha Zainal How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Abidin, Sita Zaleha Zainal (2006) Interaction and interest management in a scripting language.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42324 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Interaction and Interest Management in a Scripting Language Siti Zaleha Zainal Abidin BSc.(Michigan) MSc. (Illinois) A thesis submitted to the University of Wales in candidature for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor Department of Computer Science University of Wales, Swansea August 2006 ProQuest Number: 10798032 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10798032 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 f U8RARY Summary Interaction management is concerned with the protocols that govern interactive activities among multiple users or agents in networked collaborative environments. Interest manage­ ment is concerned with the relevance-based data filtering in networked collaborative envi­ ronments. The main objective of the former is to structure interactive activities according to the requirements of the application concerned, while the main objective of the latter is to provide secured data transmission of a subset of information relevant to each recipient. The research in these two important aspects of networked software has largely been carried out in specific application domains such as online meetings, online groupware and online games. This thesis is concerned with the design and implementation of high-level language con­ structs for interaction and interest management. The work that has been undertaken includes • an abstract study of interactive activities and data transmission in networked collabo­ rative environments through a large number of variations of the noughts and crosses game; • the design Of a set of language constructs for specifying a variety of interaction pro­ tocols; • the design of a set of language constructs for specifying secured data sharing with relevance-based filtering; • the implementation of these language constructs in the form of a major extension of a scripting language JACIE ( Java-based Authoring Language for Collaborative Interactive Environments); • the development of two demonstration applications, namely e-leaming on Simula­ tion of Network Trouble Shooting and online Bridge, using the extended JACIE for demonstrating the technical feasibility and usefulness of the design. These high-level language constructs support a class of complicated software features in networked collaborative applications, such as turn management, interaction timing, group formation, dynamic protocol changes, distributed data sharing, access control, authentica­ tion and information filtering. They enable programmers to implement such features in an intuitive manner without involving low-level system programming directly, which would otherwise require the knowledge and skills of experienced network programmers. Some parts within this thesis have been presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia Software Engineering 2004, Miami, Florida, USA. The parts on interaction management is published in the Elsevier Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Volume 30, Issue 2, April 2007. Declaration This work has not been previously accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed ....................... .j.............................. (candidate) OX-loy I Date Statement 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is ap­ pended. Signed ....................... (candidate) Date Statement 2 I hereby give my consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organi­ sations. Signed ......... ^ ........... (candidate) o z / o c f Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to both of my supervisors, Professor Min Chen and Dr. Phil W. Grant for their patient guidance, encouragement and advice they have pro­ vided throughout my PhD program. Without their guidance, this thesis would not have been possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for their generosity in funding my study and enable my family to stay with me in the UK. Without them, my PhD life would be very difficult. Receiving this scholarship also motivates me to give my very best in achieving my goals. In particular, my appreciation must go to the UiTM management staff whose confidence and willingness to support has helped me to move for­ ward in many aspects. I would like to thank all my family members, here or abroad for the moral support. My special thanks to all my children, Hazirah, Hazmi Afandi and Haidah Dayini, and also to my husband, Mohamad Zailani. Their patience and sacrifices meant a great deal. Last but not least, thanks to all my friends in the postgraduate lab and colleagues in UiTM who constantly give me support and ideas. To all of these people, I am deeply grateful. Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Project Background ............................................................................................ 3 1.2 Aims and O bjectives ......................................................................................... 6 1.3 Thesis Outline ..................................................................................................... 7 1.3.1 Chapter 2: Networked Collaborative S ystem s .................................... 7 1.3.2 Chapter 3: Programming Languages and Tools for Developing Net­ worked Applications ............................................................................ 8 1.3.3 Chapter 4: JACIE Overview and Enhancements ................................. 8 1.3.4 Chapter 5: Interaction M anagem ent .................................................... 8 1.3.5 Chapter 6: Interest M anagement .......................................................... 9 1.3.6 Chapter 7: JACIE Applications ............................................................. 9 1.3.7 Chapter 8: C onclusion .......................................................................... 10 1.3.8 Appendices ............................................................................................ 10 2 Networked Collaborative Systems 11 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Collaborative Environments ............................................................................. 12 2.2.1 Networked Collaboration ....................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Collaborative Management .................................................................... 15 2.2.2.1 Centralised M anagem ent ................................................... 15 2.2.2.2 Distributed Management ................................................... 15 2.2.3 Collaborative Applications ...............................................................■. 17 2.3 Interaction M anagem ent ................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Control M ethods ................................................................................... 21 2.3.2 Management Strategies .......................................................................... 22 2.3.3 Implementation T echniques .......................................................... 24 2.3.3.1 Database System S upport ................................................... 25 2.3.3.2 Agent System Support ......................................................... 25 2.3.3.3 Algorithm Based Design ..................................................