SCARCE: An Adaptive Hypermedia Environment Based on Virtual Documents and Semantic Web

Abstract

This chapter presents SCARCE, a flexible adaptive hypermedia environment based on virtual document and the semantic Web. After a short state of the art, the authors describe the design principles and the environment, which relies on three composition engines according to the three views of a document (semantic, logical, and layout). It also relies on the four stages of virtual documents: selection, organisation and filtering specified at a semantic level, and assembly. These specifications are parameters of the composition engine. Thus, this approach leads to a composition engine which has great flexibility. Consequently, it becomes easier to maintain and design an adaptive virtual document because it is possible to specify its main mechanisms. Such engine is obviously limited by core principles underlying the specification and which cannot be overcome.