A portal application implemented on a multipurpose computer provides access from a client to a multimedia service. The portal application comprises a plurality of services respectively structured according to a model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern and respectively comprising at least one model containing data, a controller and at least one view for the presentation of data of the model. The services are designed to communicate with each other by way of the controller. Therefore, services can be dynamically installed and removed. Due to the presence of a plurality of uses associated with a single controller, the various services are supported to produce different kinds of mark-up languages for each of a plurality of different devices.