Patent ID: 8296394

Claim:
A method, comprising: storing data representing a multidimensional entity using corresponding dimensions for the data; storing a further dimension for the data, the further dimension being a modification timestamp indicating a time when the data was modified; maintaining a database of data for a plurality of multidimensional entities, each of the plurality of multidimensional entities includes corresponding dimensions and a corresponding modification timestamp; generating a multidimensional index of the database to reference at least one of the corresponding dimensions and the corresponding modification timestamp; periodically modifying the multidimensional index to account for changes to at least one of the corresponding dimensions of at least one multidimensional entity; and updating the corresponding modification timestamp of the at least one multidimensional entity to indicate the time when the corresponding dimensions was modified; receiving a request, from a remote client comprising a cache and a viewport, for the data representing the multi-dimensional entity, the request including a request timestamp indicating a further time when a previous request for the data representing the multi-dimensional entity was received; and transmitting, to the remote client, the data only when the modification timestamp is later than the request timestamp.