Rule-based adaptation of web information systems

Mobile devices provide a variety of ways to access information resources available on the Web and a high level of adaptability to different aspects of the context (such as the device capabilities, the network QoS, the user preferences, and the location) is strongly required in this scenario. In this paper, we present a rule-based approach supporting the automatic adaptation of content delivery in Web Information Systems. The approach relies on the general notions of profile and configuration. The former is used to model a variety of context characteristics in a uniform way. The latter describes, in abstract terms, how to build the various levels of a suitable Web interface (content, navigation and presentation). We propose an original notion of adaptation rule that can be used to specify, in a declarative way, how to build a configuration that satisfies the requirements of adaptation for a profile. The evaluation process defined for these rules supports: (1) the handling of many separately specified adaptation requirements according to different aspects of the context, possibly not fixed in advance, and (2) their integration into one coherent recipe for adaptation. We also describe the architecture and functionality of a prototype implementing the proposed approach and illustrate experimental results supporting its flexibility and efficiency.