On the Design and Implementation of Interactive XML Applications

Abstract

This paper describes issues and challenges in the design and implementation of interactive client-server applications where program logic is expressed in terms of an extensible markup language (XML) document. Although the technique was originally developed for creating interactive short message service (SMS) applications, it has expanded and is used for developing interactive web applications. XML-Interactive (or XML-I) defines the program states and corresponding actions. Because many interactive applications require sustained communication between the client and the underlying information service, XML-I has support for session management. This allows state information to be managed in a dynamic way. The paper describes several applications that are implemented using XML-I and discusses design issues. The software framework has been implemented in a Java environment.