Abstract: The present invention provides an effective and highly scalable mechanism for supporting multiple-request operations (including but not limited to transactions) in a stateless environment, such as the web. A server is used to coordinate the overall processing of client requests. The server performs this coordination function in such a way that: (1) state information associated with multiple-request operations is maintained by the clients making the requests; (2) the clients are unaware that they are maintaining operation-specific state information; and (3) the server itself is not required to persistently maintain the state information, thereby remaining stateless.