This thesis investigates the design objectives for a collaborative workspace
based on Sun Microsystems' Java programming language and JavaBeans
component architecture.
The feasibility of a collaborative component workspace based on these
objectives is demonstrated by Sieve, a Java-based framework for
collaborative applications.
Sieve allows multiple users to collaboratively add, edit, and connect
components on a shared two-dimensional workspace.
Sieve introduces a technique that leverages standard JavaBeans mechanisms to
support use of ``collaboration-unaware'' software components.
With this technique, components need only conform to basic JavaBeans
conventions in order to be shared across collaborating sessions -- they
need not be programmed specifically for collaboration.
Sieve also allows component developers to provide custom mechanisms
for sharing components.
Sieve is extensible in other ways, allowing developers to introduce
new mechanisms for creating, displaying, editing, and connecting components.
Three collaborative applications built on this framework are presented:
a visualization environment, a circuit simulation, and a set
of tools for composing arbitrary software components.
The visualization environment allows construction of dataflow
networks from an extensible set of modules.
Modules may read data from a variety of sources, filter and transform
the data in various ways, and generate visualizations.
The circuit simulation allows users to collaboratively construct
and analyze simple direct-current circuits.
Finally, the ``BeanBox Emulation'' application reproduces the basic
component-linking functionality of Sun's BeanBox builder tool.
With this application, users may collaboratively edit and link objects
that conform to standard JavaBeans conventions.
