Patent ID: 7401336

Claim:
A method for converting items for exchange between heterogeneous applications, the method comprising: storing metadata for performing one or more conversion operations on a particular item when the particular item is received from at least a first application in a plurality of applications; receiving the item transmitted from the first application for delivery to one or more other applications in the plurality of applications; in response to receiving the item, performing one or more conversion operations on the particular item to convert the particular item from a format of the first application to one or more intermediate formats and then to a format of each of the one or more other applications; and while the particular item is in at least one of the one or more intermediate formats, allowing a user to perform at least one of the following actions: (a) altering particular data contained in the particular item; (b) modifying the particular item; and (c) initiating one or more operations using the particular data contained in the particular item; wherein the at least one action is independent of converting the particular item from the format of the first application to the format of each of the one or more other applications; after the one or more conversion operations, delivering the particular item to the one or more other applications.