For leveraging the advantages of cloud computing to improve the computing and storage capability shortage problem and to reduce the cost of traditional EMSs, our research team has constructed a cloud computing-based equipment monitoring system (CCEMS) for the CNC machine tool industry. In the CCEMS, Graphical User Interface (GUI) plays an important role that allows users to interact with the system for controlling and operating equipment, monitoring equipment performance and statuses, detecting and diagnosing equipment faults, conjecturing production quality and precision of equipment, and so on. Traditional GUIs have some limitations. For example, application-based GUIs are not ubiquitous, and traditional Web-based GUIs are inadequate in the capabilities of computing, communication, and interaction, have slower response, and lack vivid GUIs. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional GUIs, this thesis proposes a novel Web application implementation framework for CCEMSs, called NWAIF, by using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology. Specifically, a Web GUI Framework is designed for systematically building friendly RIA-based GUIs for CCEMSs. Furthermore, a service management mechanism based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) is developed to facilitate the GUIs to dynamically look up and bind various cloud services. Finally, a CCEMS for monitoring CNC machine tools is constructed and used to evaluate the efficacy of the NWAIF. Testing results show that the GUI, created by using the proposed NWAIF, is superior to traditional Web-based GUIs in terms of smaller data volume transmitted between the client GUI and the consumed service and less responsive times.

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