Experiences developing architectures for realizing thin-client diagram editing tools

Diagram-centric applications such as software design tools, project planning tools and business process modelling tools are usually “thick-client” applications running as stand-alone desktop applications. There are several advantages to providing such design tools as web-based or even PDAand mobile phone-based applications. These include ease of access and upgrade, provision of collaborative work support and web-based integration with other applications. However, building such thin-client diagram editing tools is very challenging. We have developed several thin-client diagram editing applications realised as a set of plug-in extensions to a meta-tool for visual design environment development. In this paper, we discuss key user interaction and software architecture issues; illustrate examples of interacting with our thin-client diagram editing tools; describe our design and implementation approaches; and present results of several different evaluations of the resultant applications. Our experiences will be useful for those interested in developing their own thin-client diagram editing architectures and applications.