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User Interface

The user interface is divided in an administrator part and an anonymous user part. The interface used for administering the system and adding content to the database is part of the executable. It uses the $Microsoft$ $Foundation$ $Classes$ as basis. The codebase for this interface is very small, since all actions occur in the other modules.

The user interface developed for searching and browsing the network is geared especially towards the everyday user. The anonymous surfer will not need any knowledge of the underlying network. Using standard webtechnology gives our network the look and feel of a standard webserver. The added benefit of this is that how data is displayed can be altered by the administrator of the webserver. Any node in the network can thus be seen as a portal, seamlessly coupling its local static website to the dynamic content of the p2p net. This way we mix static and dynamic data, websites and clientnode local files into one seemingly homogeneous environment that can be accessed with everyday technology.

Exporting raw data to an networked environment using XML and thus separating information from visualization is considered the next step in networking. In the last year a de facto standard has emerged called Web Services. This model, based on XML and a transport protocol called SOAP, is being backed by such influential companies as Microsoft and Sun. Web Service communication is in the process of being standardized by the World Wide Web consortium in the Web Services Description Language (15). Since Web Services are only beginning to emerge and few tools currently exist I've use a proprietary format based upon the same principles for my testcase. I do urge future developers to adopt WDSL as their product environment as soon as the details have been worked out.


next up previous contents
Next: Results Up: Testprogram Implementation Previous: Networking Module   Contents
2002-08-28