Remote UI BOF (rui)

Tuesday, August 2 at 1630-1800
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CHAIR:  Vlad Stirbu <vlad.stirbu@nokia.com>

DESCRIPTION:


The Remote UI is a mechanism that enables user interfaces 
to be rendered on other devices than those that run the 
application logic.

Manufacturers are creating devices that are highly optimised 
for certain environments. Because the devices are intended 
for a diverse range of purposes, their UI capabilities can 
vary considerably; screen size and ratio, color depth, 
windowing system with various widget sets, input methods are 
making the environment highly heterogenous. At the same time, 
application developers and UI designers are trying to create 
user interfaces that are high optimised for the rendering 
platform, so that the user experience is improved by having 
the respective application easy to learn and use.

A user interface may be composed of several widgets, wherein 
a widget is understood as an element of a user interface that 
displays information or provides a specific way for a user to 
interact with an application. Widgets may for instance comprise 
icons, pull-down menus, buttons, selection buttons, progress 
indicators, on-off checkmarks, scrollbars, windows, window 
edges, toggle buttons, forms and any other elements for 
displaying information, inviting, accepting, and responding to 
user actions.

Therefore, when an UI is rendered on another device than the one 
that is running the application logic, provisions need to be made, 
so that the user can percieve the UI as a local application making 
it intuitively usable.

A widget-level Remote UI protocol provides the mechanism which 
enable a client device to generate a UI, received from a server 
device, using the client device's native UI capabilities, and 
keeping the UI synchronised with the application logic. Typically, 
a widget-level Remote UI mechanism has usually three components:

- UI description language: contains the descriptions of the widgets, 
their properties and relationships between the widgets. Typically 
the widget-level UI descriptions are augmented with stylesheets 
containing hints such as preferred colours to use, which layout to 
use, which background picture, etc.

- The UI remoting protocol: is the transport protocol that is 
responsible with communicating (partial) UI updates from the 
server to the client and UI events triggered through changes 
in widget states made by the user from the client to the server.

- Session setup: is responsible with identifying compatible servers 
and clients and initiating the UI remoting session between them. A 
client is compatible with a server when they support the same UI 
remoting protocol and the same UI description language.

GOALS:

The goal of the WG is to create a UI remoting protocol for applications 
that are using UI Description Languages.

AGENDA:

   1.  Agenda Bashing, 5 min
   2. Introduction & Background information, 10 min
   3. W3C Multimodal Interaction Work, Dave Raggett, 10 min
   4. Discussion: Problem Statement, 20 min
   5. Discussion: Possible Solutions, 15 min
      See: LDRP draft
      http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-stirbu-lrdp-00.txt
   6. Discussion: Deliverables, 20 min
      Requirements Doc
      Framework Doc
      Protocol Doc(s)
   7. Next Steps/WG Charter (10 min)

This agenda has also been posted on the UI supplementary web site at:

http://www.softarmor.com/rui/meets/ietf63/agenda.html

Post-publication revisions will be posted to the supplementary web site.


LOGISTICS:

Mailing list: remoteui@ietf.org

Subscriptions: https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/remoteui

Internet-Drafts:

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-stirbu-lrdp-00.txt