Development of a design model for functionality and content access from rich internet application requirements

Abstract

We have found several methodologies for the development of rich internet applications (RIA); however, they did not give enough attention to the problem of defining both appropriate notations and adequate process for developing the user interface (UI) of functionality and content access (UIFCA). The UIFCA is important, because it concerns with the global organization/behaviour of the UI of a RIA application; the UIFCA is complex in several RIA applications due to the several tasks/workflows/business process that need to be organized/accessed, and the use of single page applications and desktop like UIs. A good model for functionality and content access (MFCA) should be expressive enough, respect some abstraction requirements, and be understandable by the client; a good process to develop a MFCA should consider the creation of parts of the MFCA by the client, its completion by analysts, its early validation by clients, and the refinement of MFCA elements. In this work, we defined a metamodel called RIAFCA for building MFCAs, and a development process involving RIAFCA respecting these requirements. The metamodel and the process are illustrated with the help of an online e-mail application case study.