Cross Platform Mobile and Web Widgets installation - Thesis Example

re has been a need of a framework that could allow for client-based cross-platform widgets or application, thus removing restrictions imposed by server and allowing for more powerful web applications or widgets to be used by a website user. In this research, an attempt has been made to develop a client-based framework that can allow a web widget to be installed and run on any client platform, thus allowing the web widget to modify and display the information sent by the web server in a way that is more comprehensible and productive to the user.

As part of this research, a prototype framework has been successfully developed for Android operating system. This framework consists of three components which are the micro engine, the Event Hook and the browser plug-in. Dalvik VM for the Android operating system has been modified to run on an x86 architecture system. It is then utilized to run the web widget or application making it accessible for the user from within the browser. The successfully development and demonstration of the framework shows that client-based multi-platform applications or widgets are certainly possible.

The framework itself is a first, since no attempts to develop such type of framework were made. Hence, it is expected that this research will open up a new area for web widget development and form the basis of a large number of future researches. Computer-mediated communication and decision-making applications for teams are extremely varied and ubiquitous, ranging from e-mail to shared bulletin boards for classrooms to remote conferencing. As the potential to put these applications onto the Web becomes better exploited, computer-mediated communication and coordination of teams of individuals will become even more widespread.

Although the Web is normally thought of as an individual-to-mass form of communication, it actually has a great deal of potential to serve team collaboration. This is largely due to the cross-platform nature of Web design.