OmniDesk and OmniFlows: Platform-Independent Executable and User-ReconfigurableDesktops and Workflows on the Internet

摘要

Today, web browsers provide a convenient access to the Internet while (1)increasing the number of useful desktop functions, and, (2) reducing the platform dependence on the operating system of the host. This paper introduces OmniDesk, implemented as an applet, that creates a user configurable desktop within the web browser window. The user can place any number of objects onto the OmniDesk, ranging from windows that display the contents of a directory or a file on a remote host, to OmniFlow applets that can execute any sequence of user defined and data dependent tasks. Identical versions of OmniDesk and a variety of OmniFlow class libraries can be mirrored on several web sites or can be installed locally for faster access and execution. An OmniFlow is a user created directed dependency graph of data, program, decision, and OmniFlow nodes. Data and program nodes may reside anywhere on the Internet. The proposed approach has a number of advantages over the current html form based execution of CGI programs and applets. Most significantly, the OmniFlow captures, hierarchically, any number of user defined and data dependent task sequences, including ones that have cycles; a feature that would be impractical to implement with current html form based approaches. The data and program node configurations consist of one time only form entries which can be used and re-used in any number of OmniFlows.