Architecture and programming paradigm for a scalable, metamorphic and cloud-collaborative user environment

Abstract

A growing number of enterprise applications on the Internet ranging from banking transactions to business management make use of real-time collaboration. Simultaneous access from any device to any set of applications shared among many users is a hot area of research and development. This thesis designed a thick-client for real-time collaboration supporting the applications development and interoperability. It introduces a new programming paradigm, algorithms and protocols to bring real-time collaboration to a web-based platform. Its component-oriented metamorphic architecture supports a run-time scalable multi-desktop environment connecting client applications through automated remote procedure call and the object request broker pattern while providing new mechanisms for dynamic resource loading. The new architecture supports unsolicited server control actions on the client using an event model to simulate interruptions and sustained user-activity during network failure. Results obtained validate the correctness of the approach and the feasibility of an extensible web-based platform for real-time collaboration.