Advanced Data Driven Visualisation for Geospatial Data

1
Advanced Data Driven Visualisation for
Geo-spatial Data

• Anthony Jones and
• Dan Cornford
• Computer Science _at_ Aston University
• 2004 - 2007

2
Motivation
3
Project Aims

• Main emphasis on producing flexible, extensible
  software architectures
• Focus on application development and subsequent
  flexibility at high levels of abstraction
• Visualisation as example problem domain and proof
  of concept

4
Key Technologies

• Data Driven Programming (DDP)
• one clearly distinguishes code from the data
  structures on which it acts, and designs both so
  that one can make changes to the logic of the
  program by editing not the code but the data
  structure
• Object Oriented Data Driven Programming (OODDP)
• Data drives the logical and behavioural
  composition of a software architecture using
  concepts available to the object oriented
  programming paradigm

5
OODDP
6
OODDP
7
OODDP
8
OODDP
9
OODDP
10
Key Technologies

• Data Driven Programming
• Object-Oriented Data Driven Programming
• Plug-ins (and possibly scripting)
• Use data to drive logical and behavioural
  composition of the software architecture
• Push problem domain specifics into higher levels
  of abstraction

11
Problem Domain

• Developing at a high level of abstraction
• Problem domain agnostic software architectures
• Changes at a high level of abstraction
• Abstract change
• Application capabilities
• Application content

12
Abstract change

• Changes are made at high levels of abstraction
• e.g. Requirements or software design
• Requires modification at lower levels of
  abstraction
• e.g. Program code or application resources
• Theres a (re)implementation gap in the middle
• Usually involves a reinvestment of both time and
  money

13
Example Abstract Change
14
Application capabilities

• Modify or augment software capabilities
• To provide additional support for new input or
  output devices
• To provide change of visualisation or data
  management methods
• To provide implementation tailored to target
  specific users or environments

15
Example Capability Change
16
Application content

• Manipulation of application content objects
• Visible resources (2D images and text, 3D models
  and meshes)
• Behavioural resources (scripts, routines, paths,
  triggers)
• Types and instances
• Manipulation
• Add, remove or modify the visible or behavioural
  aspect of content object instances and types

17
Example Content Change
18
Our Solutions

• Developing at a high level of abstraction
• Generic application framework
• DDP and OODDP, plug-ins and scripting provide
  high-level business logic layer

19
Generic Application Framework

• Core
• Subsystems
• Data

20
Generic Application Framework

• Core
• Abstraction of generic functionality
• No application
• Family of interfaces and communication objects

21
Generic Application Framework

• Subsystems
• Application specific
• Form application capabilities
• Implement core functionality as collection of
  plug-ins
• Interchangeable

22
Generic Application Framework

• Data
• Context specific
• Forms application content
• Provide concrete business logic for problem
  domain
• Provide parameterisation for application content
  and subsystem implementations

23
Our Solutions

• Developing at a high level of abstraction
• Generic application framework
• DDP and OODDP, plug-ins and scripting provide
  high-level business logic layer
• Changes at a high level of abstraction
• Manipulation via DDP and OODDP, plugins and
  scripting
• All high-level stuff

24
Abstract change

• Changes are made at high levels of abstraction
• e.g. Requirements or software design
• Theres a direct mapping to an equivalent
  framework concept
• Everything above the framework core can be added,
  modified or replaced to drive application
  capabilities, content and behaviour

25
Abstract Change Solution
26
Abstract Change Solution
27
Application capabilities

• Modify or augment software capabilities
• Replace desktop subsystem implementation plug-in

28
Application capabilities

• Modify or augment software capabilities
• with simulator subsystem implementation plug-in

29
Application content

• Manipulation
• Add, remove or modify the visible or behavioural
  aspect of content object instances and types
• Manipulate parameterisation of data layer

30
Content Change Solution
31
Content Change Solution
32
Content Change Solution
33
Research Summary

• Introduces a flexible data driven programming
  paradigm that
• Empowers rapid application development at high
  levels of abstraction
• Responds well to change
• Closes the re-implementation gap between design
  and implementation during software refactoring
• Pays for maintenance up front

34
Research Summary

• Positive contributions
• Application design, architecture, and content can
  be manipulated at high level of abstraction
• Provides additional flexibility and extensibility
  without the need to recompile or involve a
  software engineer
• Particularly suited to software with evolving
  requirements and high data content
• Drawbacks and limitations
• Introduces additional data management, parsing
  and processing requirements
• Defers implementation details to later stages in
  the project?

35
Thank youfor listening