JNet

From MobiComp

The content below is revised from the index.html file of the 'docs' folder in the JNet repository: http://www.piranesi.dyndns.org/svn/jnet/trunk/, as such some expected links have been removed.

About JNet

Recent work into mobile collaborative tools has lead to the creation of the JNet tool, a general purpose graph browsing application. JNet itself extends concepts of previous tools which focused on graph browsing and also archaeological stratigraphy. For a greater understanding of the background to JNet, it's stratigraphic roots and a discussion of the original architecture of the application please see the paper "jnet: a successor to gnet" by Nick Ryan.

The JNet that currently exists in the repository is not exactly conformant with that discussed in the aforementioned paper, however the fundamental design concepts and ideas are to some degree manifested in the current implementation. There exist two main configurations which JNet has been implemented in: that of the Mobile Application configuration and that of the Web Application configuration. The former is the most mature and offers the most interactivity and functionality for users, the JNet Web Application configuration is a newer creation and will attempt to partition the JNet functionality into a series of services offered.

JNet as a Mobile Application

The JNet Mobile Application configuration should be considered the main or de facto configuration for JNet. In this configuration graphs can be visualised in two and if extra information is included three dimensions. Interaction with the graph is realised through a series of menus interacting on specific nodes or the entire graph, these interactions are classified as visualisation alterations; such as orthogonal edge viewing, graph editing (adding or removing constituent nodes and edges), layout functions and algorithmic feature extraction such as node grouping. This brief overview is expanded upon in specific configuration documentation. Note that this documentation somewhat out of date and will be expanded upon soon.

JNet as a Web Application

The web application configuration is the newest development in the JNet tool. The vision of this configuration is to partition the JNet functionality into a service based provision allowing users to access JNet facilities in a restricted style dependent upon the required processing of the graph. Currently the web application provides a single service, that of an imaging service allowing users to visualise JNet graphs in a particular visualisation and, if necessary apply a layout function prior to image production. This service and the web application configuration are documented and discussed in further detail in the relevant documentation section.

JNet and Stratigraphy

One of the original motivations for Jnet being implemented as a mobile application was to aid the recording of archaeological stratigraphy in the field. As such early versions of JNet had many 'stratigraphy only' features hard coded into the application, recent revisions of JNet have recently sought to remove this link and provide a more generic solution, meaning that particular JNet facilities could be providied as and when needed upon the loaded of a particular graph type.

Connectivity

The provision of graphs to JNet is primarily realised in xml based files and xml files play a major role in JNet as configuration settings and persistent storage. Early versions of JNet did include JDBC connectivity however this has been disabled, currently there are no plans to enable this feature as recent graph schemas have frequently changed. Schemas exist as a guide for users and developers for the JNet graph format, JNet layout definition format, and JNet root definition format. Context information is an exception to this rule as formats are defined inside the JNet graph file itself, however there does exist a loose design to follow which is outlined in the relevant documentation section.

Current Activity

Here are some recent ideas that are being implemented/designed/thought-about, discussion and input would be much appreciated.

- Root graph type definition: An xml based graphtype that defines presentation for root node and edge types as well as any generic adjuct types, well on its way

- Maturing Imaging Service: Already fully functionally implemented this service is still in the process of testing and trivial alterations

- Redesign of org.jnet.graph package: A new design including multiple inheritance will be proposed shortly

- Move from AWT 1.1.8 to MIDP(CDC?): Need to be given more thought