Query-by-object interface for dynamic access and information requirement elicitation

Information requirement elicitation (IRE) is essential in wireless Web service to elicit information requirements through interactive choice prompts. We present a high-level user interface for an IRE-enabled information system, in the context of database queries by a mobile Web user. The prototype is based on the notion of a query-by-object (QBO) approach of building a query using multiple user-level steps. The test prototype system uses the mobile information devices profile (MIDP) of the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), for a wireless front end, and a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application server and an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) at the back end. A sample set of dynamic queries demonstrates ease of use by the users.