Patent ID: 8321879

Claim:
A system for hosting a computer executable multi-tier application configured for interaction with a user terminal over a communications network, the application representing a remotely located network resource, the system comprising: a physical storage; a direction module of the application stored on the storage, the direction module containing computer code having a plurality of coupled direction elements including at least one function direction element defining a link between an input datum and a function component and for use in invoking the function component during execution, and at least one presentation direction element defining a link between an output datum and a presentation component and for directing the presentation component, wherein the function component when invoked implements a data processing function on the input datum to return the output datum and the presentation component when invoked incorporates the output datum using a presentation instruction to produce result data including a presentation element for display on a user interface of the user terminal, such that the direction module is one of a plurality of the direction modules for the application and each direction module of the plurality of direction modules defines a portion of the application, and the result data including embedded programming constructs to both redirect control flow to a subsequent direction module of the plurality of direction modules and to return a subsequent input datum along with a pointer to the subsequent direction module; and a server configured to receive a data request from the user terminal directed to the remotely located network resource, the input datum being associated with the data request, the server also in communication with the storage and having a processor for executing the computer code in response to receiving the data request to: invoke the function component as identified by the function direction element to process the input datum to return the output datum; invoke the presentation component as identified by the presentation direction element to process the presentation instruction to generate the result data incorporating the output datum with presentation format of the presentation element; and send the result data in response to the data request for subsequent delivery to the user terminal over the communications network and display on a user interface of the user terminal.