An architecture for heterogeneous groupware applications

The proliferation of wireless networks and small portable computing devices raises the need for applications that are adaptable to heterogeneous computing and communication environments and the contexts in which they are used. However, most current groupware systems as well as other software applications are not well prepared to handle the heterogeneity. The Manifold framework presented provides a software architecture for synchronous groupware applications to deal with heterogeneity. The framework's main characteristic is data centricity. The users collaborate on and exchange data, and the data is dynamically transformed to adapt to the particular computing/network platform. The design is based on a multi-tier architecture and uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a generic means for information exchange. The resulting design is simple yet very powerful and scalable. Manifold is implemented and tested by developing several complex groupware applications.