Platform for Information Applications
The Platform for Information Applications (PIA) is an open source framework
for rapidly developing flexible, dynamic, and easy to maintain information
browser-based applications. Such applications are created without
programming and can be maintained by users and office
administrators.
This framework has been used to build a broad range of applications,
including a "workflow" web server that handles all of the purchase
authorizations, time cards, and other (ex-)paperwork at Ricoh Innovations,
Inc.
The PIA does this by separating an application into a core processing
engine (a shared software engine, akin to a web server) and a task-specific
collection of "active" XML pages, which specify not only the content but also
the behavior of the application (XML is the W3C standard, for eXtensible
Markup Language). So one document, by itself, can include other documents (or
pieces of them), iterate over lists, make decisions, calculate,
search/substitute text, and in general do almost anything a traditional "CGI
script" or document processing program would do.
Application developers can extend the basic set of HTML and PIA elements
("tags") by defining new ones in terms of the existing ones. As a result, a PIA
application can be customized simply by editing a single, familiar-looking
XML page... in contrast to conventional Web applications, where even a simple
change (like adding an input field) might require finding and fixing
Perl CGI scripts or recompiling Java classes in several directories.
We strongly encourage you to try the hackable,
download-free demos/tutorials to learn how much the active-tag
language can do in just a few lines... you'll be running your own PIA
programs/documents minutes from now.
The PIA is Open Source, so it is freely available for use and modification
by anyone. It includes a Java implementation of the core processing engine
and a number of example applications. The processing engine can function
simultaneously as a web server, client, proxy, and command line process.
RiSource.org coordinates contributions to
the PIA software. As the core engine matures, RiSource.org will also support
open source applications based on the PIA.
More detail on the system can be found in the PIA
FAQ, Documentation , the
Linux World 1999
Presentation, or by sending mail to PIA-dev@risource.org.
The source code, documentation, and other materials are released as
Open Source and available for
download from this site under the Ricoh
Source Code Public License:
|
