Patent ID: 8838679

Claim:
A method executed at least in part by a computing device for providing an online application state service, the method comprising: identifying a user by employing one of an automated identification scheme through device recognition and a manual identification scheme; saving a state of an online application utilized by the user through a first client application in conjunction with the user identification, wherein an online application's state determination algorithm is in a sleep cycle and is awoken by an auto save time out algorithm at a regular time interval; receiving a request for the online application from the user through one of: a subsequent session using the first client application and a new session using a second client application; implementing a state change determination algorithm to determine altered form data, wherein the state change determination algorithm yields one of a negative determination indicating the sleep cycle and a positive determination to gather and send the form data to the web service; presenting an option to the user to restore the saved state of the online application when the user returns to a web form; retrieving the saved state of the online application by accessing the state information of the online application from a state data store; determining one or more updates to the state information at the first client application; saving the one or more updates to the state data store in response to receiving the one or more updates to the state information at predetermined intervals from the first client application based on a schedule set by the first client application; transmitting the state of the online application to one of the first client application and the second client application; determining a recentness of the state within the state data store; and returning the state service to a listening mode awaiting an action from at least one of: the first client application and the second client application in response to a positive determination of the recentness of the state.