Patent ID: 7831556

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for differential rendering on a server and refreshing a portal page comprising a plurality of page elements, the method comprising: storing a complete portal page; providing the complete portal page by the server; receiving, by the server, a request for an update of the portal page, wherein the request reflects user events; for each page element of the portal page: requesting, by the server, a refresh policy of the page element, wherein the refresh policy is determined based on semantics of the page element; if a refresh to the page element is required, writing at least one markup element corresponding to the refreshed page element to a page delta, wherein the page delta is calculated on the server based on the page elements to be updated and the refresh policies for the page elements, and wherein the page delta is provided as a markup document comprising at least one markup element corresponding to the page elements to be updated; and if the refresh to the page element is not required, returning a reference in the markup document of the page delta which points to the page element in the existing portal page; sending the page delta to the existing portal page; detecting at least one partition in the page delta, wherein each partition is a sub-tree in the markup document of the page delta consisting a plurality of references; and merging the page delta with the existing portal page, wherein operations for merging are reduced by the use of at least one partition.