A system and method is provided for converting a page-based application, expressed as a series of presentation pages having embedded data and messaging elements for interaction with a user interface, to a component based application configured for execution on a device, configured for communication over a network with a schema-defined service of a data source Page metadata representing at least a portion of a selected page is assembled and expressed in a first structured definition language. Embedded message elements and data elements are respectively converted into an operatively coupled message component and a data component, the message and data components respectively containing message descriptors and data descriptors expressed in a selected structured definition language of the component based application. A dependency link associated with an event corresponding to the embedded elements is generated for describing a workflow of the components in respect to operation of the component based application when executed on a user interface of the device.