Reusable Hypermedia Applications for Tourism

Transcription

1 Reusable Hypermedia Applications for Tourism Authors: Mario Bochicchio Telemedia Lab, University of Lecce, Italy Via per Monteroni Lecce - Italy tel fax: bomal@ingle01.unile.it Roberto Paiano Telemedia Lab, University of Lecce, Italy Via per Monteroni Lecce - Italy tel rpaiano@ingle01.unile.it

2 Reusable Hypermedia Applications for Tourism Mario Bochicchio Roberto Paiano SET-Lab, University of Lecce, Via Per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy. Tel , Fax Abstract. The development of multimedia applications is evolving from an "art" to a more structured activity, with the aim to have a more ordered development cycle and to effectively manage the project team. Among others structured approaches, developed for that purpose, the HDM (Hypermedia Design Model) methodology, with its modeling formalism, is particularly useful for complex hypermedia projects. With HDM, for example, we can estimate the quality and the cost of an application well before its actual implementation. HDM has been adopted, in the last years, by our and others project teams, to design, to develop, to maintain and to evolve a number of advanced hypermedia applications, both on line or off line, in various application fields. What emerged is that, more and more, modern multimedia projects exploit various channels (kiosks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, the Web, intranets, extranets, wireless devices, ) to deploy a set of multimedia contents to various kind of users (customers, resellers, curious users, commercial partners, ) for different purposes (points of sales, fairs, commercial promotions, Web marketing, info points, ). This kind of projects are communication effective, but they are also expensive and difficult to manage, because of the needs to produce for each channel, for each purpose and for each kind of user, a specific application variant. To cope with this scenario we conceived JWeb, an experimental development system for hypermedia applications based on HDM, to support complex multi-application projects. In JWeb, multimedia contents are organized in an editorial repository, so that they can be easily maintained

3 and reused to generate several different outcomes like Web sites, CD/DVD ROMs and kiosks. Also the application software supporting the various deployment platforms is highly reusable, in fact it is designed to be portable and independent from the specific application. In the paper we describe JWeb and its application to RINTUR, a real project about the tourism growth in our site, the Salento, in the south-east of the Italy. RINTUR dealt with the marketing of our natural and cultural resources, and it is based on the integration between hypermedia applications and tourist information system. 1 Introduction and Background. The design of Hypermedia application has been a concern since the very beginning of the development of Hypertext. The focus of research was more, at the beginning, on the authoring environments, rather than on the conceptual aspects of design. The Dexter Model [1], HyDev [2], HyTime [3], AHM [4-6], SMIL [7], HDM [8-12] and other models, took into serious consideration the conceptual problem of designing complex hypermedia applications, borrowing many concepts from Data Base Design and introducing concepts specific to hypermedia modeling. It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss the specific aspects of each model, but, in our opinion, HDM [8-12], OOHDM [13], RMM [14], HDMlite [15], Araneus [16] and other similar models, based on the separation of the structural and navigational aspects from the visual aspects, are particularly effective and useful. With these kind of structured approaches, in fact, a number of project management activities can be supported by software, and the implementation process can be greatly automated. Following this idea, several research projects, such as HYTEA[17], MINERS [18] and HIFI [19], have built up supporting systems to speed up the development process and to improve the product quality. More recent projects, such as CMIF [6], RMM [14], Autoweb [20] and Araneus [16], have a similar goal.

4 These approaches are particularly relevant when large amount of (more or less) rapidly changing information must be managed, and therefore a supporting database is needed. In the following it will be defined the architecture of JWeb [26], an HDM-based environment to support design and prototyping of complex WWW sites. Referring to the previous HDM-based projects [13,17-20], JWeb is innovative for two main reasons: it is reusable over different application fields 1 and deployment channels (kiosks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, the Web, intranets, extranets, wireless devices, ), and it supports the complete range of HDM primitives and constructs, so that high quality applications based on sophisticated HDM features can be implemented. In particular, we remark that the first reason, i.e. the reusability, is a very key point for hypermedia applications [25]. In the paper we describe JWeb and its application to RINTUR, a real project about the tourism growth in our site, the Salento, in the south-east of the Italy. RINTUR dealt with the marketing of our natural and cultural resources, and it is based on the integration between hypermedia applications and tourist information system. The overall architecture and the main features of JWeb are illustrated in section 2. In section 3 we describe the general structure of RINTUR and the application of JWeb to the RINTUR project; section 4 is for conclusions and future work; in section 5, finally, the bibliography is presented. 2 JWEB Architecture. Before describing the actual architecture of the JWeb design and prototyping environment, a few words about the design model and the methodology are needed. 1 At now JWeb as been successfully used for fashion e-catalogs, for cultural applications, for tourism applications and for E-Business.

5 In a nutshell, the HDM methodology [8-12] requires that after a requirement analysis 2 phase, a schema of the application be defined. The schema is organized in two different parts: the hyperbase schema describes the basic navigational capabilities offered by the application, while the access schema describes the organizations of the access structures (collections in the HDM terminology). An hyperbase schema is organized into entity types, defining the structure of the objects managed by the application, and link types, defining the basic navigation capabilities 3. An access schema defines, instead, the basic indexes (possibly hierarchically organized), guided tours, etc., that allow one to start browsing within the application. For both the hyperbase schema and the access schema there is a sharp distinction between design in-the-large, where the general features of the design are defined, and design in-the-small, where the details are provided. This distinction is useful in methodological sense for a number of different reasons [8-9], and also it plays an important role in terms of shaping up the supporting environment. The hyperbase schema, on its own, can be examined, discussed and revised. Moreover, starting from this schema, it is possible to develop a sample of actual data, to visualize the outcome of the design being developed. At this stage different options are possible: In terms of visual communication (interface), a functional interface (i.e. an interface simply holding the different information items, the buttons, etc, without any pretense of visual impact) could be developed, leaving for the future the development of an actual interface. Another possibility is to plug in the prototype and to test several different high quality interfaces options. In terms of access structures and hyperbase, different alternatives can be tried, in order to compare different solutions, and to choose the most appropriate ones. 2 For which the W5 methodology has been defined. 3 As an example, the fact that from a Fabric, it is possible to navigate to the description of the Material, which the Fabric is made of, it is a typical entry of an hyperbase schema.

6 In terms of detailed design, the individual information items could be completely identified, or they could be just sketched, leaving their specification to a later stage. The combination of the different options actually defines a number of different scenarios; we are convinced that an effective supporting environment should not enforce a specific way of proceeding, assuming that the best practice exists, but rather it should allows a great level of flexibility. It is our experience, in fact, that in different situations, for different projects, we have used different strategies and different tactics. The JWeb system is a design environment with fast prototyping capabilities, based upon the HDM methodology, with the following features: it supports design of the hyperbase and of the access structures; it supports a clean separation between design in-the-large and design in-the-small; it allows to build an environment repository, based on a relational DB to hold the multimedia contents; it allows to try several configurations, both for the hyperbase and the access structures; it allows the use of a purely functional visual-interface, but it is also possible to test several high quality pre-defined visual-interfaces; it allows to execute the application (using a small example of actual data, or fictitious data) in order to visualize the implications of the design. The overall picture of JWeb is shown in Fig. 1. JWedit: allows to designer to define the HDM schema of the application, providing design inthe-large, and providing a full design in-the-small, if felt necessary, or just a sketch, if full details are felt not necessary; JWdata (in-the-small mapper): it translates the detailed design into a relational Data base schema;

7 MODELING JWEdit create/modify Schema Repository Environment Schema JWData Repository Interface DEVELOPMENT Environment Repository create/modify insert/edit/delete JWFeed media objects presentation objects read/modify JWXport JWXdef import/export Application repository Application schema DELIVERY Run-Time Repository JW Engine USERS Fig 1 JWeb environment JWfeed: it allows the insertion of a sample of actual data, or of a simplified version of them, in order to create an instance of the application; JWxdef: it allows a number of alterations of the original schema in order to test possible different hyperviews of the application originally designed; its output is an executable schema and an executable data Base, obtained by filtering and reorganizing the original Data Base. JWxport: it creates a runtime DB, if necessary, physically building the hyperview to have better performance for on-line application (with few changes during the time) or for off-line application. JWengine: it allows to plug-in different high quality templates for the interface.

8 The overall environment is modular and flexible. The designer, therefore, does not need to use all the available features. If the different design alternatives are not needed, the Configurator (JWxdef) does not need to be used. One of the relevant features of the JWeb environment, in order to keep modular and flexible, is that all the exchange of information among the different tools is based upon XML [21]. XML is used to exchange schemas, parameters and also instance data. This technical choice allows a very easy strategy of enhancement, addition, substitution or replacement of all the different tools. It could be also envisioned the exchange of information (export and import) with other design and development environments. From the technical point of view, JWedit, the JWdata, the JWfeed, the JWxdef and JWxport has been designed using UML [22]. 3 RINTUR Project (Research - INnovation for ToURism). The pervasive diffusion of communication technologies and the continuous growth of Internet, compel the various kinds of tourist operators to work together. The tourist destination, in fact, is influenced by a number of aspects (accommodation, services, events, attractions, ) that represent the key factor of traveler's motivation when planning a vacation and that cannot be controlled, in general, by a single tourist operator. [23,24]. The RINTUR project takes in consideration Salento Region, situated in the South East of Italy, with 97 towns and about 1 million people. The region is particularly attractive as tourist destination because the beauty of nature related to a gentle climate suitable for vacation also out of the regular vacation season. Salento has about 240 Km. of wild coast characterized by alternation of beaches and rocky headlands, suggestive bays and cave of specific archeological and anthropological interest. In the region there are also many wildlife reserves in which is possible to do bird watching.

9 Particularly relevant and suggestive is the artistic and cultural heritage. Lecce, named also "The Florence of South, provides an effective example of Baroque architecture with medieval and renaissance elements. In the region there are about 150 beautiful churches, 30 monuments and 30 historical down town. Several different handicraft products, like wrought iron, earthenware, papier-mâché, genuine loom products, and a typical Mediterranean cuisine complete the attractive picture of Salento. The tourist infrastructure is made of about 150 hotels (for people), 20 camping and tourist villages ( people), 250 restaurant and 60 local tourism organizations. In line with international trend, Salento tourist industry makes only a little use of technological innovations and above all the tourist industry actors are unlinked each other. The collaborations among these actors are occasional and not well structured, so that the Region is not able, at this time, to offer effective services and a coherent image. The goal of RINTUR project is to create a Virtual Agency for tourist marketing of Salento region oriented to different potential users: Local public administration: to harmonize the territory and town planning policy with a sustainable development of tourist industry Local tourist organizations: to fully enhance all the local resource as components of a diversified range of tourist products or destination. Tourist consumer: to find attractive the region understanding the real value of this tourist destination. The aim of RINTUR is the development of the system shown in Fig. 2. The core sub-system is the Region Management (RM) which acquires information from any source, either from outer world or the Region Control Panel, and decides the actions on the territory. It also uses the Promotional Multimedia Showcase to inform and to solicit the target customers about the possible events and opportunities.

10 Multimedia Showcase Multimedia Promotional DB Regional Management Regional Resources DB ACTION ON TERRITORY Regional Control Panel Market demand and actual use of resources DB OUTER WORLD Fig.2 RINTUR Information System The Region Control Panel (RCP in the following) is a decision support tool that acquires information from the two main DBs described below. RCP is designed to allow enhanced hypermedia navigation, and to be innovative in term of usability and effectiveness. The Region Resources DB (RRDB) stores all information for the consumers: accommodations, events, cultural heritages, beaches, landscapes, handicrafts, entertainment places, etc The Market Demand and Actual Use of Resources DB stores all information about the profile of tourist categories that demand something and the profile of tourists that "use" something.

11 These kinds of information are very critical because they are very difficult to capture, but they represent the innovative aspect of RINTUR. An innovative methodology has been developed, for the purpose, from the CCII Center of University of Lecce. The completeness, the detail level and the updating of this information are fundamental to make effective the Region Control Panel. The Multimedia Promotional DB (MPDB) is a complex software environment based on JWeb. It stores multimedia information, related to the tourism environment of Salento region, from which it is possible to build several different hypermedia applications. The Multimedia Showcase (MS) consists of different multimedia applications for different channels (kiosks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, the Web, Intranets, extranets, wireless devices, ) and different kind of users, that it is possible to build by using JWeb. From the methodological point of view, the critical aspects of this project are: the full integration among the input data (both multimedia and traditional), the decision support system and the multimedia showcase the identification of the data to collect and the opportune database design. 4 Conclusions and future work. The RINTUR project, has been shaped and detailed in the first half of Its operational phase will be started in march 2000; in two years of project life we foresee to put up four main hypermedia systems (accommodations, entertainment events, places & tours, cultural heritages) to be delivered on various channels, and a number of minor hypermedia applications. The hypermedia part (conceptual design and development) of the project will be based on JWeb. JWeb is a development system for hypermedia application based on the HDM methodology. JWeb has been designed to be project-independent, i.e. it is reusable on different hypermedia projects in

12 different application fields, so that its costs are shared on a large number of different projects. Moreover, hypermedia applications generated with JWeb are easily portables on a number of different deployment channels, i.e. kiosks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, the Web, Intranets, extranets, wireless devices etc. 5 References. [1] Halasz F. and Swartz M., "The Dexter Hypertext reference Model", Communications of ACM 37, 2, Feb [2] Pausen P. and Voss J., "The HyDev Approach to Model Based Development of Hypermedia Applications", 1st International Workshop on Hypermedia Development, held in conjunction with ACM Hypertext '98. [3] Newcomb S.R., Kipp N.A. and Newcomb V.T., "HyTime: The Hypermedia/Time based Document Structuring Language", Communications of ACM, 34(11), 67-83, [4] Hardman L., "Modeling and Authoring Hypermedia Documents", PhD Thesis, Amsterdam, [5] Hardman L., Bulterman D. and van Rossum G., "The Amsterdam Hypermedia Model: Extending Hypertext to Support Real Multimedia", Hypermedia Journal 5(1), July 93, [6] Hardman L., Bulterman D. and van Rossum G., "Authoring Multimedia in the CMIF environment", Visual presentation at InterCHI 93, Apr. 93. [7] Hoschaka P., "Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language 1.0 Spec.", W3C Recommendation 15 June 98. [8] F.Garzotto, P.Paolini and D.Schwabe, HDM - A Model Based Approach to Hypermedia Application Design, ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 11, 1 (Jan. 1993), 1-26 [9] F.Garzotto, L.Mainetti and P.Paolini, Hypermedia Application Design: A Structured Approach, In J.W.Schuler, N.Hannemann and N.Streitz Eds., Designing User Interfaces for Hypermedia, Springer Verlag, [10] F.Garzotto, L.Mainetti, P.Paolini, Adding Multimedia Collections to the Dexter Model. ECHT 1994: [11] F.Garzotto, L.Mainetti and P.Paolini, Navigation in Hypermedia Applications: Modeling and Semantics, Journal of Organizational Computing (in press) [12] Franca Garzotto, Luca Mainetti, Paolo Paolini: Designing Modal Hypermedia Applications. Hypertext 1997: [13] D.Schwabe, G.Rossi, The Object-Oriented Hypermedia Design Model, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38, N. 8, pp.45-46, Aug. 1995

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