Abstract: A method and apparatus for selecting attachments. When a sender indicates in an e-mail application or applet that an attachment is to be associated with an e-mail message, an attachment chooser window is presented. The attachment chooser window provides a browser-based graphical user interface (GUI) which allows a sender to browse data resources, such as HTML documents and associated links. An attachment mechanism is provided by which a sender can choose a currently displayed data resource for attachment in an e-mail message. In one embodiment, the attachment mechanism allows a user to select whether the attachment is retrieved and attached to an e-mail message as a resource locator (such as a URL) of the chosen data resource, or whether source data of the data resource is retrieved and attached to the e-mail message as one or more source files.

Abstract: A system dynamically constructs a graphical user interface associated with an application. A command class library stores command classes that represent additional functions to be integrated with the application. An execution unit attempts to instantiate the command classes at run-time of the application, determines which of the command classes were instantiated successfully, and constructs the graphical user interface for the application such that the graphical user interface contains the additional functions of the successfully instantiated command classes.