Notification Service Extension For WebCQ
Sponsor Ling Liu / Wei Tang
lingliu@cc.gatech.edu, wtang@cc.gatech.edu
223 CCB /225b CCB
Area Systems and Databases
Problem
The rapid growth of the Web has changed the way in which information is
delivered and disseminated. The mode of data transfer is shifting from a
``pull-only'' model to a ``push-pull'' model. Instead of having users
track when to visit Web pages of interest and identify what and how the
page of interest has been changed, the push delivery enables changes to
be delivered while they are still fresh.
WebCQ is an automated change detection and notification service for Web
pages, developed at Georgia Tech. It can monitor and track various types
of changes to static and dynamic web pages, provide personalized delivery
of information change notifications, and personalized summarization and
prioritization of web pages being monitored. You may play with WebCQ at
www.cc.gatech.edu/projects/disl/WebCQ/.
Currently, all the notifications are sent to users by email or displayed in Web
pages. One of the useful additions to the WebCQ is to build a versatile change
notification service that incorporates other means of notification, such as cell
phone messages, instant messaging, fax, pager, or remote computer screen ticker.
The challenge for the notification service is to adapt to various clients'
capabilities. For example, we cannot display full color-graphics on a pager or a
gray-scale PDA (e.g., Palm 500).
Your objective in this project is to design and implement a notification service
extension for WebCQ,
which includes two parts:
- an adapter/proxy for receiving normal WebCQ notifications
- a client program that sits at the receiving side to interpret
messages from the adapter/proxy and display them
The goal of this project is to
build an active channel between WebCQ and various kinds of notification
consumers.
Practical applications include monitoring weathers or airplane ticket
price for travelers (see an example:
Flight tracking),
monitoring product information for e-consumers, or
tracking how specific stocks are doing and notifying users by cell phone
messages or changing a on-screen ticker when
the change to their stocks reaches certain thresholds. You are
encouraged to put your own insight into the design and
implementation. It is possible that you want to further take the challenge
to design and implement a change difference display program on various client
platforms.
Background
You are expected to have a solid grasp of Java/Servlet programming. Java
will be the desired programming language. Sockets programming is not
required but useful. Familiarity with the development on Palm Pilot
platform is a plus but not required. Understanding of basic XML/WML
technology will be useful in the project. A sister project is described here.
Links
Here are some links to help you get started (be sure to read the
licensing documents before you download the software packages):
Deliverables
A report, describing your application, the insights in your project, and
future improvements/extensions.
The source code for the adapter and client programs. Target application needs to
be tested on the PalmOS Emulator.
Evaluation
You will be graded on the novelty and quality of your report and implementation.