Thesis full text PDF - Politecnico di Milano

The application must have a Login section and with the same style some pop-ups to create anaccount, manage the account and download the generated files of the modeled application.5.6. Software requirements and system architectureThe realization of this tool asks for a software solution which support a set of functionalitiesneeded for a good implementation. We have identified a set of software requirements listedabove.Dinamic creation of the diagram inside the browser (editor)Zoom functionDrag & drop functionPan functionUndo & Redo functionXML supportDynamic editing of objects with windows or dropdown menuPossibility to set objects propertiesPlatform independent and possibility of integration with other solutionsPossibility to manage more than one model, for example database and hypertextPossibility to interact with the backend with java objectsCross-browser compatibilityOpen-source licenseTo fullfill this software requirements we have opted for the software choices and the systemarchitecture illustrated in the following paragraph.The architecture of the application has been based on RIA technologies. A Rich InternetApplication (RIA) is an Internet application that attempts to bridge the usability gap betweennative applications and normal Internet ones. It contains more code on the browser, which offershigher levels of interactivity and an experience similar to native applications. With RIAs, it'spossible to use many technologies, such as Java and ActiveX, but the most important one isJavaScript. Because JavaScript is provided directly by the browser instead of being an add-onlike the other technologies, you can get the most benefit from the least amount of work. One ofthe driving technologies behind RIA in the JavaScript language is a technology called AJAX. AJAXoffers the ability to communicate with your Web server outside of the normal load flow.56