FORWARD: Data-Centric UIs using Declarative Templates that Efficiently Wrap Third-Party JavaScript Components∗

While Ajax programming and the plethora of JavaScript component libraries enable high-quality UIs in web appli-cations, integrating them with page data is laborious and error-prone as a developer has to handcode incremental modifications with trigger-based programming and manual coordination of data dependencies. The FORWARD web framework simplifies the development of Ajax applications through declarative, state-based templates. This declara-tive, data-centric approach is characterized by the principle of logical/physical independence, which the database com-munity has often deployed successfully. It enables FOR-WARD to leverage database techniques, such as incremental view maintenance, updatable views, capability-based com-ponent wrappers and cost-based optimization to automate efficient live visualizations. We demonstrate an end-to-end system implementation, including a web-based IDE (itself built in FORWARD), academic and commercial applications built in FORWARD and a wide variety of JavaScript com-ponents supported by the declarative templates. 1