Patent ID: 7272782

Claim:
A method for providing offline access to application content in a networked or Internet environment, comprising the steps of: accessing a web-based application at a web page or portal on behalf of a user; navigating an online version of the web-based application in accordance with any configuration information defined for the user; acquiring application content from the web-based application to create an acquired content, including reading markup tags in the web-based application that specify which portions of the web-based application are to be made available offline: packaging the acquired content for use offline, including replacing links in the portions to be made available offline, with offline-specific links, as specified by the markup tags, to create an offline version that substantially emulates the appearance of the online version; sending the offline version of the application content to the client for offline access; allowing the user of the client to read and update the offline version of the application content while offline, and to then upload the updates the user has made to the application content after going back online; receiving the updates, and converting the updates to match the online version of the web-based application; and, submitting the updates to the application content to the web-based application, including unloading the updates made to the offline-specific links with the corresponding links in the web-based application, on behalf of the user, as if the user was online.