Constraint-based tool for flexible and adaptive pagination and layout
In the exploding market of commercial
yellow-pages telephone directories, automated logical pagination and
layout play a crucial role. Here the increasing volume and dynamics of
today's business establish strong commercial demands for flexibility,
adaptivity, and interactivity with regard to varying optimization criteria as
well as heterogenious user-specific requirements.
But in practice, the design of an efficient algorithm striving for an
optimal, i.e., compact and harmonious, pagination of
classified ads is a hard computational tasks.
In this respect, there arises a corresponding need for sophisticated tools that support more efficient, effective, and adaptive pagination and layout of multimedia directory information. Advanced pagination systems based on constraint technology enable publishing companies to produce customized and customizable documents easily and allow frequent updates and changes in short time.
The generic yellow-pages pagination system YPPS has been developed as a commercial application of DFKI's constraint-based multimedia layout manager LayLab. YPPS exploits dedicated finite domain constraint processing techniques in combination with a heuristic-search approach. The flexibility of YPPS supports both system designers and the end user in specifying constraints in a high-level language as well as allows them to select design parameters in order to tailor the layout to the specific needs of a certain company or country.
| Customer | Pre Print Inc., Edmonton, Canada and Pre Press GmbH, Dresden, Germany |
|---|---|
| Platforms | Apple Power Macintosh |
| Availability | Available from Pre Print/Pre Press as the kernel of their pagination environment Directory Systems Multi-Platform |
| Contact | Dipl.-Inform. Stefan Neurohr |
|---|---|
| Phone | (+49 681) 302-5264 |
| Fax | (+49 681) 302-5341 |
| neurohr@dfki.de | |
| WWW | http://www.dfki.uni-sb.de/ypps/ |
| Last change: 04.02.1999 | |