A language for the end-user development of mobile context-aware applications

This paper presents the IVOML language, the foundation of the IVO (Integrated Virtual Operator) platform which enables the creation, deployment and execution of context-aware mobile applications by end-users without programming skills. We use an event-driven workflow model to describe the behaviour of the applications. Thus, whenever the defined context occurs, the corresponding work-flow immediately starts reproducing the desired behaviour without the need of user intervention. The IVO platform comprises two composite tools that provide a visual programming environment for editing IVOML files. IVOML can be used at runtime in mobile devices, by providing interpreters that run the applications written with the composite tools. This allows any created application to be distributed and executed on mobile devices based on various platforms without the need for main-taining separate versions. To test the whole platform, an Android and an iPhone runtime were created which provide the necessary support for the execution of the applications developed using IVO.