Research

SunTREC Salzburg's research activities include applied research in the area of web-based information systems. Within that realm we focus on
- Engineering of Web-based Information Systems
- Hypermedia Middleware Infrastructures
- Recommender Systems

Projects and Demos:

BPEL: Graphical Editor for modelling Web Services (2003/2004)
Based on WSDL 1.1 and BPEL 1.1, a graphical editor for modelling Web Services based business processes was developed. This first version of the BPEL-Editor supports the modelling of, for example, a Web Services based loan approval or ticket ordering service employing up to approximately 5 Web Service partners. The editor uses two types of WSDL files as input. The first one is the WSDL description of the Web Service partners, and the second one is the WSDL file of the BPEL process itself. They are both represented as annotated rectangles. The output is the XML-BPEL process file. Calls of or information passing between the BPEL process and its web service partners are represented by directed edges. On a formal level the implementation is based on the mathematical theory of directed graphs, implemented by the underlying JGraph-Framework (see chapter "IDE, Tools, APIs").
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/projects/bpeleditor.pdf]

ComponentWeb: Component Models for Web-Applications (2004)
In this diploma thesis, Christian Osterrieder compares several defacto standards of component based software development concepts and tools and analyses them with respect to Web applications. The fundamentals of component based models are described and the systems CORBA, Enterprise JavaBeans, the .NET framework and Web-Services are investigated.
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/projects/componentWeb]

BenBU: User model for people with disabilities (2003)
This work is concerned with developing a user model, which has been particularly designed to support users with disabilities. The conceptual framework is based on know-how about different disabilities, present personalisation and user modeling concepts and on the WAI guidelines (Web Accessibility Initiative). (2002 - 2003)
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/projects/benbu]

XML SchemaEditor
GC-XML-Schema-Editor is a prototype of a Java application which can be used to depict a component-composition. The user of the program can compose vertices and edges of a graph and shows dependences between them.
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/projects/gcXmlSchemaEditor]

Latch Browser (2003)
Wurman (Information Anxiety 2, QUE Publishing 2001) argues for Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy as the key means to structure information. Following that idea, in this student project we have developed a conceptual architecture and browser that prototypes this principle.
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/projects/LATCHBrowser]

Stickster - A P2P Platform for Image Trade (2002-2003)
Following on to the idea of collector's books, we propose a software platform for trading images: "Stickster". Stickster strictly follows the Peer-to-Peer approach.
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/projects/stickster]

Trailist - An Open Framework for Supporting Trail-based Information Access (2001-2002)
The name "Trailist" indicates that, similar to the way "Tour-ists" travel on tours, "Trail-ists" make their ways through vast information spaces. Within Trailist we developed an open framework that supports the construction of trail-based applications. Trailist is a 2 year project funded by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) under grant No. P14006-INF.
[more at trailist.salzburgresearch.at]

NGOMS - Next Generation Information Systems (2001-2003)
Multimedia presentations and displays are increasingly part of our everyday lifes, e.g. at airports, train stations, etc. NGOMS (Next Generation Open Management System) provides a service-based middleware infrastructure which allows for applications of multimedia information delivery to be developed and configured more easily. The project is in performed in cooperation with the ASCOM Center of Competence, Salzburg.
[more at ngoms.salzburgresearch.at]

Schmunzel (2000 - 2001)
Schmunzel is a SMIL 1.0 (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) compliant multimedia player developed by SunTREC-Salzburg.
The name 'Schmunzel' (pronounced "shmoontsle") is German for "a little smile".
Some outstanding features of Schmunzel are:
  - entirely implemented in Java
  - virtual desktop anchors in images and videos
  - nested SMIL presentations.
[more at suntrec.salzburgresearch.at/schmunzel and www.w3c.org/AudioVideo/]