Formal-Driven Conceptualization and Prototyping of Hypermedia Applications

In this paper we present an approach that covers the conceptualization and prototyping phases of hypermedia applications development. This approach is based on a formal model, Pipe, adequate to characterize present hypermedia applications. Pipe is used to demonstrate the conceptualization and prototyping phases of the Fraternali/Ginige-Lowe process model, providing a new process model called Plumbing. This model is the basis of PlumbingXJ, where XML is used to represent Pipe structures in a more human-readable manner. The XML descriptions produced are processed by an Automatic Prototypes Generator tool that builds a prototype of the hypermedia application. This prototype is used to evaluate the contents and navigational schema of the final application before large-scale production. As a case study we apply our approach to the whole life cycle of a simple Web application.