Awareness and Control for Inter-Widget Communication: Challenges and Solutions

摘要

Recently, widget-based Web applications, i. e., mashups have gained momentum, as they make it possible to address the "long tail" of software needs. By enabling data and control flow among widgets - inter-widget communication (IWC) - integration of data and functionality can be defined by the end users themselves. However, IWC entails several problems that may reduce the overall user confidence in a system. Based on the results of user studies on the OMELETTE mashup platform, this paper analyzes the problem space and evaluates possible solutions to improve user perception of IWC. Further, a discussion of promising techniques is offered and pending challenges are identified.