Platform-Independence in Model-Driven Development of Graphical User Interfaces for Multiple Devices

We would like to encourage you to list your keywords within Model-driven development of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for multiple devices involves the transformation of the same platform-independent model to several platform-dependent GUI models. A clear definition of which characteristics comprise a platform is important, because the platform definition determines which characteristics must not be considered in platform-independent models. In this chapter we compare the notion of platform and the corresponding implications in two conceptual approaches that support multi-device GUI generation – the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) proposed by OMG and the Cameleon Reference Framework (CRF), a framework that has been developed to classify model-based user interface generation approaches. We discuss the relation between MDA and CRF in the context of multi-device GUI generation and illustrate their correspondence through classifying state-of-the-art GUI generation approaches. This classification also allows us to illustrate three different mechanisms for achieving multi-device GUI generation in practice.