Adaptive Hypermedia made simple using HTML/XML Style Sheet Selectors

Abstract. This paper addresses enhancing HTML and XML with adap-tation functionalities. The approach consists in using the path selectors of the HTML and XML style sheet languages CSS and XSLT for express-ing content and navigation adaptation. Thus, the necessary extensions of the selector languages are minimal (a few additional constructs suffice), the processors of these languages can be kept almost unchanged, and no new algorithms are needed. In addition, XML is used for expressing the user model data like browsing history, browsing environment (such as device, location, time, etc.), and application data (such as user perfor-mances on exercises). The goal of the research presented here is not to propose novel forms or applications of adaptation, but instead to extend widespread web standards with adaptation functionalities. Essential fea-tures of the proposed approach are its simplicity and both the upwards and downwards compatibility of the extension.