Abstract: Software architectures, platforms, and data constructs are disclosed which provide a system for enabling a non-technical or lay user to perform discrete technical tasks necessary to build a complete network-based, multiuser application. The system also allows the user to have a uniform user experience throughout development of the application. For example, the platform can be used to construct and maintain an Internet or online Web site capable of handling e-commerce transactions or can be used to develop a customer relationship management system. A software architecture is described that enables many users to perform a variety of tasks via a wide-area network, such as an enterprise network or the Internet. The architecture has several services, systems, and an extensible database for storing data objects. The database has an underlying structure referred to as a schema that can be extended with previously undefined attributes without having to alter the basic format of the schema.

Abstract: Data constructs and architectures are disclosed for providing a foundation for an application-building system for enabling a non-technical user to perform discrete tasks to build a complete network-based application and maintain the same user experience throughout the application development. A data model having an extensible underlying structure that can be used in a user-oriented application development system having a task-based architecture is defined. The data model is capable of allowing for extensible attributes such that the addition of a new data attribute can be made without changing the underlying structure of the data model. Multiple applications making up the user-oriented application development system can access data from the data model. Data stored in a database having the data model as an underlying structure can be reused by the task-based architecture for various applications.