Patent ID: 7774692

Claim:
A method for generating display control information, on a central server, so as to display documents, on a plurality of remote terminals, in forms adapted to the terminals, each of the terminals having a defined set of display specifications, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining at the central server a database having attributes of each of the terminals; receiving at the central server a display request from one of the terminals for a first display; in response to receiving said display request, the central server determining whether said request belongs to an existing session or a new session; generating on the central server a group of data objects representing contents of a first document to be shown on said one of the terminals, said data objects being independent of the set of display specifications of said one of the terminals, and using said group of data objects and information from said database about an attribute of the one terminal, to generate on the central server a first group of view objects for generating said display control information, said first group of view objects including a root view object and one or more child view objects, and wherein using the data objects to generate the first group of view objects includes using the root view object to generate said one or more child view objects; the central server referring to said information about said attribute of the one terminal, to generate said display control information by said first group of view objects; the root view object including a method for creating the child view objects and a method for generating the first document; the root view object and the children view objects each generating a part of the first document using information about attributes of said one of the terminals, wherein the first group of view objects generate different documents for different ones of the terminals; receiving at the central server another display request from said one of the terminals for a second document to be displayed on said one of the terminals; in response to receiving said another display request from said one of the terminals, the central server determining whether or not to generate a new group of data objects; and if it is determined not to generate said new group of data objects, the central server using one or more of said group of data objects representing contents of the first document and information received in said another request about said one of the terminals, to generate a second group of view objects, different from said first group of view objects, to generate control information to show the second document on said one of the terminals.