Patent ID: 7076805

Claim:
A digital data system comprising a server and a client capable of communication with one another over a network, the server including: an item store holding a plurality of data items, each data item comprising a pointer to a source data entity accessible from the network, said source data entities being of a variety of different data formats; and a component for serving copies of data items to the client; and the client including: an item store for holding a copy of one or more of the data items held by the server item store; a component for requesting a copy of a data item from the server and placing it in the client item store; a component for validating copies of data items held by the client item store and initiating a request for an updated copy of a data item from the server if the copy held by the item store is out of date; and a user interface for enabling a user to interact with the data items to access the associated source data entities.