The goal of this research is to provide hypermedia functionality to all information systems that
interact with people. Hypermedia is a concept involving access to information, embodying the
notions of context-sensitive navigation, annotation and tailored presentation.
We present the architecture of a system-level hypermedia engine, designed both to manage
full hypermedia functionality for an information system and to bind interface-oriented front-end
systems with separate computation-oriented back-end systems. The engine dynamically
superimposes a hypermedia representation over a back-end application's knowledge components
and processes. The hypermedia engine generates this representation using bridge laws, which
capture the internal structure of client systems. Users access the application through its
hypermedia representation.
We also describe a set of minimal requirements for integrating our hypermedia engine with an
information system. We believe these guidelines apply to all integration efforts, not just our own.
Information systems will require some supplementary routines for the engine to manage
hypermedia functionality for them. The more sophisticated and cooperative the information
system, the higher the level of hypermedia support the engine will provide.Information Systems Working Papers Serie