dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAn XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit
| Authors | Matthias Clausen, Piotr Bartkiewicz, Alexei Dmitrovski, Albert Kagarmanov, Zoltan Kakucs, Greg White, Hamid Shoaee |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0111057 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0111057 |
| Journal | eConf C011127 (2001) THcT005 |
Abstract
In the past, the features of a user interface were limited by those available in the existing graphical widgets it used. Now, improvements in processor speed have fostered the emergence of interpreted languages, in which the appropriate method to render a given data object can be loaded at runtime. XML can be used to precisely describe the association of data types with their graphical handling (beans), and Java provides an especially rich environment for programming the graphics. We present a graphical user interface builder based on Java Beans and XML, in which the graphical screens are described textually (in files or a database) in terms of their screen components. Each component may be a simple text read back, or a complex plot. The programming model provides for dynamic data pertaining to a component to be forwarded synchronously or asynchronously, to the appropriate handler, which may be a built-in method, or a complex applet. This work was initially motivated by the need to move the legacy VMS display interface of the SLAC Control Program to another platform while preserving all of its existing functionality. However the model allows us a powerful and generic system for adding new kinds of graphics, such as Matlab, data sources, such as EPICS, middleware, such as AIDA[1], and transport, such as XML and SOAP. The system will also include a management console, which will be able to report on the present usage of the system, for instance who is running it where and connected to which channels.
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"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:36.106000Z",
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"abstract": "In the past, the features of a user interface were limited by those available\nin the existing graphical widgets it used. Now, improvements in processor speed\nhave fostered the emergence of interpreted languages, in which the appropriate\nmethod to render a given data object can be loaded at runtime. XML can be used\nto precisely describe the association of data types with their graphical\nhandling (beans), and Java provides an especially rich environment for\nprogramming the graphics. We present a graphical user interface builder based\non Java Beans and XML, in which the graphical screens are described textually\n(in files or a database) in terms of their screen components. Each component\nmay be a simple text read back, or a complex plot. The programming model\nprovides for dynamic data pertaining to a component to be forwarded\nsynchronously or asynchronously, to the appropriate handler, which may be a\nbuilt-in method, or a complex applet. This work was initially motivated by the\nneed to move the legacy VMS display interface of the SLAC Control Program to\nanother platform while preserving all of its existing functionality. However\nthe model allows us a powerful and generic system for adding new kinds of\ngraphics, such as Matlab, data sources, such as EPICS, middleware, such as\nAIDA[1], and transport, such as XML and SOAP. The system will also include a\nmanagement console, which will be able to report on the present usage of the\nsystem, for instance who is running it where and connected to which channels.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0111057",
"authors": [
"Matthias Clausen",
"Piotr Bartkiewicz",
"Alexei Dmitrovski",
"Albert Kagarmanov",
"Zoltan Kakucs",
"Greg White",
"Hamid Shoaee"
],
"categories": [
"physics.ins-det"
],
"journal_ref": "eConf C011127 (2001) THcT005",
"title": "An XML Driven Graphical User Interface and Application Management Toolkit",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0111057"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "2c345849-b6c7-4074-9d18-a90b91cc8aa2",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}