Extending Server-Driven UI: Enabling Dynamic Multi-Service Integration in Unified Mobile Applications

Abstract

The agile and scalable deployment of services within a decentralized infrastructure is currently hindered by challenges of traditional mobile application development, which results in fragmented user experiences and unsustainable development overhead for service providers. This master’s thesis investigates a novel Service-Driven User Interface (SVDUI) approach, extending the traditional Server-Driven User Interface (SDUI) paradigm, to solve these problems in a multi-service environment. This thesis follows a design-and-implement methodology. First, a comprehensive SVDUI concept was designed, outlining a high-level architecture and dynamic User Interface (UI) structure for integration with the Administrative Interface for In-house Data Access (AIIDA) which is part of the European Distributed Data Infrastructure for Energy (EDDIE). Next, a proof of concept (PoC) environment was implemented using technologies such as Flutter, Spring, GraphQL, and RabbitMQ. For simplicity, this PoC did not integrate with a live AIIDA instance. Instead, the Marketplace was configured to handle its responsibilities, and a single Addon served as both the Service Provider and the Addon. The PoC implementation successfully validated the SVDUI concept by demonstrating how multiple services can be integrated into one unified application. A key finding was the effectiveness of the Stac framework for UI rendering using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) as a User Interface Description Language (UIDL) was a key finding, although manually generating the JSON structure proved to be a significant challenge. This thesis concludes that the SVDUI approach is a viable solution for agile service deployment. The successful PoC provides a solid foundation for future work, including full integration with AIIDA and the development of a user-friendly drag-and-drop UI tool.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Marc Kurz (Supervisor)