Design and generation of adaptable Web information systems with KIWIS

Web-based information systems (WIS) are now widely used for diffusing and processing information over the network. Methodological guidelines which assist WIS developers in their task must take into account the specificities of WIS (hypermedia structured information, navigation features, etc.). This paper presents KIWIS, a generator of WIS, which addresses the issue of designing and automatically deploying such WIS. Using KIWIS, designers can specify, at a conceptual level, the features of the WIS to be generated. The features are made operational by KIWIS by instantiating different models dedicated to the description of the application domain, the expected functionalities, and some features concerning adaptability. Any WIS described and generated with KIWIS can be considered adaptable since users can progressively access the content of information while the presentation of information respects the graphical charters selected or defined by users.