Supporting Hierarchical Guided Tours in the World Wide Web

Franz J. Hauck

fjh@cs.vu.nl

Dept. of Math. and Computer Science
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Overview

• Problem Statement

• Tour Structures

• Implementation

• Conclusion

Problem Statement

• Guided Tours
  Sequence of Web Pages with Navigational Support
  Examples: These Slides, WWW 5, Ackland Art Museum, IMMD-IV Web Pages

• Navigational Links are Manually Placed

Problems and Solution

• Problems
  • Efficiency
  • Multiple Tours
  • Non-Local Pages

• Solution
  • Separation of Link Descriptions and Documents
  • Server-Side Support

Tour Structures

• Linear Structures
  

Tour Structures (cont.)

• Hierarchical Structures
  

Implementation

• Advanced Proxy
  
• Proxy Retrieves the Original Document and Adds Navigational Links

• Prototype Implementation Using an Experimental Server (Perplex )

Perplex Server

• Stackable Document File Systems (DFS)
  

DFS Module Internals

• Pre- and Post-Processing of Requests
  

Perplex Server with Tour Support

• Tour Configuration
  
• There is Only One DFS Module to be Implemented, the Tour DFS

Conclusion

• Server-Side Solution to the Guided Tour Problem

• Perplex Server Architecture as Basis for a Prototype Implementation