Master's Thesis; workload: 30% theoretical/70%practical.
Demonstrate that generic visualisation and animation of XML documents is feasible in practise.
Implement a generic XML structure and transformation visualiser.
An XML document is a generic data structure that may be used to represent various concrete artefacts, like UML diagrams, project plans, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, etc.
XML documents can be visualised as trees or nested shapes, and individual nodes may be represented by different shapes or level of detail (e.g., unfolded/folded).
<graph g1="y3">
<edges>
<edge id="e1"/>
<edge id="e2"/>
</edges>
<root l1="y1" l2="y2">
<K b1="e3" f1="y2" f2="e2">
<L b1="e4" f1="y3">
<site id="0" x1="e1"/>
<site id="1" x2="e3"/>
<M f1="e4"/>
<M f1="y3"/>
</L>
</K>
</root>
<root>
<M f1="e2"/>
<M f1="e2"/>
</root>
<innerface x="e1"/>
</graph>
Further, a transformation of a part of an XML structure may be visualised as an animation in an XML visualisation. Given parameterised transformations, e.g. deleting/adding/moving/copying XML subtrees between different XML nodes, specific and illustrative animations may be possible.
Such a visualisation engine can be parameterised over CSS-like style specifications, and can allow real-time manipulation, like unfolding/folding parts of the visualised XML.
The visualisation itself may be implemented in any appropriate framework, like SVG and JavaScript for web browsers, a plugin for Eclipse, plain Java application/applet, etc.