What is SWM?

SWM is a framework to create HTML pages with rich graphic elements as if they simply were extra HTML elements. The additional components are wrapped versions of the GWT widgets or can be created using GWT or SWM itself.

Scripting and user interface modifications are done completely client side using the usual javascript DOM model modification paradigm.

Simple SWM components are in general client side only (e.g. a button, a tab etc), but they can have a server side counterpart. As SWM is based on top of GWT, it inherits its power: to create "native" widgets, Java is used consistently both at server and at client side.

The Simple Semantic Web Widget Markup (SSWWM = SWM22 ) is library for SWM which provides a set of data aware SWM components and client side JS libraries that work on a backend Semantic Web database.  By transparently using a backend database, all the limitations of JS are avoided (e.g. accessing an arbitrary semantic web source on the web without modifications of the browser security settings) while the typical AJAX responsiveness and flexibility is mostly retained.

Thanks to the power of SWM, Semantic Web user interfaces can be created also by non programmers: domain experts,rather than programmers, are directly empowered to create and modify data views and scripted actions.

FAQ

1) How does SWM compare with other Ajax toolkits

• It sits on top of GWT, thus inheriting all its power. A new GWT widget can be wrapped in a tag in minutes. Complex new widgets can be written in GWT thus consistently in Java both server and client side. As such SWM is meant to appeal to the GWT community as it provides a way to quickly create GWT applications with no programming.
• Its a very thin layer, a true HTML "addon". SWM is not at all a complex library and the SWM language is nothing more than an addition to the HTML DOM tree rather than being a completely different XML language

2) You guys usually do Semantic Web research, why this AJAX GUI project?

Have you seen a decent RDF editor? a decent way to visualize RDF? we haven't :-).
The reason for this is that RDF can be used to model any relationship or property of any kind of entity. Amazingly powerful! but difficult to visualize in practice.
We believe that one way out of this is provide the end user with:

• A collection of generic visualizers following classic and or innovative paradigms, e.g. ranging from a simple tree, table, to map viewers, timelines etc.
• simple but powerful ways to configure them, visually mash them (aggregation, nesting), and script them

People:

• Giovanni Tummarello (DERI Galway)
• Fabrizio Giancola (Semedia, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona)
• Danh Le Phuoc (DERI Galway)
• Christian Morbidoni (Semedia, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona)