Patent ID: 7305679

Claim:
A portal application, embodied in a computer storage medium, comprising instructions which when executed by a processor causes the processor based device to provide access through a network from a client to a multimedia service provider via a portal, the portal application comprising instructions for: a portal core service to perform administrative services; a user management core service to perform client related services; and a plurality of special services distributed over the network, each of said special services structured according to a model-view-controller architecture, each of said special services comprising: at least one model containing data; a controller for the special service; at least one view for a presentation of the data of a model to the client; each of the plurality of special services communicates with each of a remaining plurality of special services using a direct communication, via the controller of the special service, the portal core service and the user management core service are located at the portal and the plurality of special services are located at the multimedia service provider, the portal core service and the user management core service are configured to forward a request from the client to a first special service of the special services, the first special service is configured to forward the request from the client to a second special service of the plurality of special services when the second special service has more specific information than the first special service, and a direct communication link is established between the client and the second special service to provide service to the client.