An RMM-Based Methodology for Hypermedia Presentation Design

Due to the rapid growth of the Web, there is an increasing need for methodologies that support the design of Web-based Information Systems (WIS). After investigating the application of existing hypermedia design methodologies in the context of automated hypermedia presentation design we propose a specification framework for this context. The framework considers the possibility of dynamically gathering information from a collection of structured, but also possibly heterogeneous sources (relational or object-oriented databases, XML repositories etc.). The methodology associated with the framework shows two levels of abstraction: the logical level, and the presentation level. At the logical level the application diagram captures the design of slices, thus specifying the content related grouping of data elements and their relationships. At the presentation level, the presentation diagram bridges the logical level and the actual implementation by specifying how the design of slices is translated into hypermedia mechanisms, e.g. hyperlinks.