Aspect-Oriented Adaptation Specification in Web Information Systems: a Semantics-based Approach

By tailoring content access, presentation, and functionality to the user's location, device, personal
preferences and needs, Web Information Systems have become increasingly user- and context
dependent. In order to realize such adaptive behavior, Web engineers are thus faced with an additional
challenge: engineering the required adaptation concerns. In this article, we present, in the context of a
Web Information System design method, an adaptation engineering process that is separated from the
regular Web design process. Our approach is based on the use of two key elements: (i) aspect-oriented
techniques to achieve the separation of (adaptation) concerns, and (ii) the exploitation of semantic
information and meta-data associated with the content, for enhanced expressivity and flexibility. By
combining these key elements, we demonstrate a robust, rich, consistent and flexible way to specify
adaptation in Web Information Systems.