Patent ID: 7076786

Claim:
A method executed on a computer system for managing a state of a server-side control object corresponding to a client-side user interface element incorporated in a web page displayed on a client, the method comprising: creating the server-side control object to process the client-side user interface element; receiving from the client a transportable state structure including state information indicating a state value for at least the one server-side control object; loading the state value from the state information into a property of the server-side control object, if the state value is associated with the server-side control object; initializing a property of the server-side control object to have an initial state; setting an indication to represent that the state of the property of the server-side control object is unchanged from the initial state; changing the indication to represent that the property of the server-side control object has changed from the initial state, if the property was loaded with the state value from the transportable state structure; traversing each server-side control object in a control object hierarchy; and storing the state information of the server-side control object into the transportable state structure for transmission back to the client, if the indication represents that the state information of the server-side control object has changed from its initial state.