Modeling the dynamic behavior of hypermedia applications

Hypermedia applications can be defined as collections of interactive and multimedia documents that are organized as a hypertext net. The development of hypermedia applications poses specific problems, such as the need for modeling sophisticated navigational structures, interactive behaviors, and harmonic presentations involving the synchronization of contents. Moreover, the increasing popularity of Internet-based systems has put stress on the lack of mechanisms to formally specify security policies when designing hypermedia applications. Traditional design models and methodologies are not suitable for hypermedia applications and the up-to-now developed hypermedia-oriented models do not cover the whole set of design needs. In this context, we present Labyrinth, a hypermedia-oriented model providing formal elements to describe the static structure and dynamic behavior of this kind of nonlinear, multisensory, and interactive applications.