Constraints for the Web
Authors: Alan Borning, Richard Lin, and Kim Marriott
In Proceedings of the 1997 ACM Multimedia Conference
Abstract
Constraints can be used to specify the desired layout of a web document,
and also the behaviour of embedded applets. We present a system architecture
in which both the author and the viewer can impose page layout constraints,
some required and some preferential. The final appearance of the web page
is thus the result of negotiation between author and viewer, where this
negotiation is carried out by solving the set of required and preferential
constraints imposed by both parties. We identify two plausible system architectures,
based on different ways of dividing the work of constraint solving between
web server and web client. Finally, we describe an implementation of a
prototype constraint-based web authoring system and viewer, which also
provides constraint-based embedded applets.
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