Patent ID: 7155681

Claim:
A data processing method comprising: executing, at a user interface (UI) server, a server-based application configured to process source data items; retrieving a UI form definition stored at said UI server, said UI form definition specifying characteristics of a UI form for said server-based application and said UI form definition corresponding to a platform of a particular client device wherein said UI form definition is selected from a plurality of UI form definitions stored at said UI server corresponding to a plurality of client platforms, and wherein a cached copy of the UI form definition is saved on said client device; instructing said client device to render a particular UI form of a client-resident intermediate UI corresponding to said UI form definition, including instructing the client device to supplement a skeletal UI stored in a first memory location with one or more icons, labels or menu items, or combinations thereof, stored in a second memory location; transmitting, from said UI server, a number of source data items for population in said UI form, said number of source data items being related to said server-based application; receiving a command from said client device, said command being indicative of an offline action performed by said client device; and said UI server processing said command for execution by said server-based application.