Abstract: A visual editing system for creating commercial online computer services. The visual editing system creates online services that consist of a number of subservices. Each subservice is a program that provides a particular type of functionality to the online service. Different subservices exist for displaying hypermedia documents, searching directories and databases, displaying classified advertisements, providing a bulletin board system, etc. Each subservice has an associated database of information and a collection of scripts that handle events such as input from a user. The visual editing system of the present invention features a fee setting tool that allows the developer to develop a fee structure for an online service. The fee structure can handle both fees levied against users and third party content providers. For example, users can be levied fees for logging onto an online service, performing searches, or downloading information.

Abstract: A client/server system for authoring an on-line service uses a server machine accessed a client machine which performs authoring operations on information stored on the server machine comprising the on-line service. Requests for authoring operations to be performed on information on the server machine, for authoring the online service, are translated on the client machine into at least one message which is sent to the server machine. The server machine receives the at least one message from the client machine and performs authoring operations identified in the received at least one message so as to author the online service. This information on the server machine is then made accessible by the server machine to other client systems that can be used to access the information without modifying the information, such as a browser.

Abstract: A client/server computer system for remote editing of document objects stored on the server includes a client computer connected to a server computer via a communication channel over which messages are sent in a communication protocol. Typically, the client computer has an operating system with a first file name space and the server computer has an operating system with a second file name space and the first file name space does not include names of files which map to names of files in the second file name space. The connection is preferably a TCP/IP connection providing data transport according to TCP/IP. Messages in the HTTP protocol are preferably used. The client computer sends request messages to the server. A request message may indicate a request for either retrieval or storage of a document object, such as an HTML document or script program.