Prototyping Multi-platform Software Using the UsiXML4ALL Tool

In the development of multi-platform applications, one of the most challenging problems is the prototyping of the user interface (UI), e.g. the support to rapidly build different final look and feel possibilities among the available platforms. This paper presents UsiXML4ALL, a software tool developed to facilitate the creation of multi-platform applications prototypes. UsiXML4LL acts as a renderer, mapping concrete UI's described in UsiXML to multiple platforms, and also as a connector, linking the rendered UI to application logic code developed possibly in multiple programming languages. The goal is to allow a consistent look and feel and full functionality of an application over various different platforms. UsiXML4ALL is intended to support not only the prototyping of new (multi-platform) applications but also the migration of existent applications to a multi-platform environment.