Generic framework for enriching services: a multiagent approach

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a detailed description of Agents for Enriching Services (AES), an agent-oriented framework that allows adapting a service in an information system. AES provides an adaptation logic that can be instantiated and extended to be useful in different domains. In previous works, we presented the adaptation mechanism of AES, which considers context aspects such as location, infrastructure; user aspects such as preferences and interests; and device aspects such as hardware and software features.

Design/methodology/approach

The first step was the definition of different profiles, mainly user and context profiles. Then the adaptation mechanism was defined, which considers these profiles. With this mechanism, the adaptation filters to apply them to the initial queries was specified. Finally, feedback was provided, which included implicit and explicit information from the user and the system. AES is an agent-based framework implemented in Java, using the multi-agent platform BESA and a rule-based engine Drools.

Findings

AES can be used as the starting point to adapt services by enriching them considering different stimulus whether they come from the environment, devices or user preferences.

Research limitations/implications

This work was tested in an academic environment and was only applied to enhance queries by using keywords. AES uses the query mechanism implemented in the system that invokes it.

Originality/value

This paper focuses on: an integrated view of AES including its formal description and details about its implementation. Particularly, it includes an exhaustive and formal definition of the filters used to create the adaptation rules and three different scenarios of the application of AES to adapt content according to user and context features. Finally, a comparison analysis is presented to highlight the strengths of our framework, specially its capacity of integration with systems that require providing user- and context-oriented services.

Citation

Carrillo-Ramos, A., Torres-Ribero, L.G., Arias-Báez, M.P., Pomares Quimbaya, A., González, E., Carreño, J., Garzón Ruiz, J.P. and Martin, H. (2015), "Generic framework for enriching services: a multiagent approach", International Journal of Web Information Systems, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 246-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWIS-10-2014-0037