Abstract: A computer system includes an object oriented framework that provides a set of application integration interfaces that support programmatic updating operations for maintaining locally stored copies of resources such as hypertext document pages from remote servers on a computer network. The updating operations continually check for updates to the data at the remote server and download updated versions of the resources to maintain concurrency of the locally stored copy. The updating operations are performed while a connection to the remote network is left idle, to maximize usage of on-line connection time. The updating operations also can be programmatically scheduled by a client program of the updating operations. The updating operations include updating the contents of a folder or directory in a local file system as specified in a file at a remote server on the network, and providing automatically updating and populating groups of sites or document pages organized by category.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: A computer system includes an object oriented framework that provides a set of application integration interfaces that support programmatic updating operations for maintaining locally stored copies of resources such as hypertext document pages from remote servers on a computer network. The updating operations continually check for updates to the data at the remote server and download updated versions of the resources to maintain concurrency of the locally stored copy. The updating operations are performed while a connection to the remote network is left idle, to maximize usage of on-line connection time. The updating operations also can be programmatically scheduled by a client program of the updating operations. The updating operations include updating the contents of a folder or directory in a local file system as specified in a file at a remote server on the network, and providing automatically updating and populating groups of sites or document pages organized by category.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: A computer system includes an object oriented framework that provides a set of application integration interfaces that support programmatic updating operations for maintaining locally stored copies of resources such as hypertext document pages from remote servers on a computer network. The updating operations continually check for updates to the data at the remote server and download updated versions of the resources to maintain concurrency of the locally stored copy. The updating operations are performed while a connection to the remote network is left idle, to maximize usage of on-line connection time. The updating operations also can be programmatically scheduled by a client program of the updating operations. The updating operations include updating the contents of a folder or directory in a local file system as specified in a file at a remote server on the network, and providing automatically updating and populating groups of sites or document pages organized by category.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database.

Abstract: A computer system includes an object oriented framework that provides a set of application integration interfaces that support programmatic updating operations for maintaining locally stored copies of resources such as hypertext document pages from remote servers on a computer network. The updating operations continually check for updates to the data at the remote server and download updated versions of the resources to maintain concurrency of the locally stored copy. The updating operations are performed while a connection to the remote network is left idle, to maximize usage of on-line connection time. The updating operations also can be programmatically scheduled by a client program of the updating operations. The updating operations include updating the contents of a folder or directory in a local file system as specified in a file at a remote server on the network, and providing automatically updating and populating groups of sites or document pages organized by category.

Abstract: A computer system includes an object oriented framework that provides a set of application integration interfaces that support programmatic updating operations for maintaining locally stored copies of resources such as hypertext document pages from remote servers on a computer network. The updating operations continually check for updates to the data at the remote server and download updated versions of the resources to maintain concurrency of the locally stored copy. The updating operations are performed while a connection to the remote network is left idle, to maximize usage of on-line connection time. The updating operations also can be programmatically scheduled by a client program of the updating operations. The updating operations include updating the contents of a folder or directory in a local file system as specified in a file at a remote server on the network, and providing automatically updating and populating groups of sites or document pages organized by category.

Abstract: A theme provides a group of multi-media resources for enhancing displays in a graphical user interface to an operating system of a computer according to a topic of the theme. The theme's resources are periodically updated by retrieving updating resources from a remote computer at which the updating resources are stored by a theme provider, so as to provide continually updating enhancements to the graphical user interface display consistent with the theme's topic. The theme's resources can include hypertext templates which define the graphical user interface displays as hypertext pages, allowing the theme to provide a wide variety of enhancements to the displays including text, graphics, hyperlinks, and software components, among others. The theme also enhances a graphical user interface with a view port that plays live or locally cached information from the Internet in each of a plurality of categories, by adding a category for the theme so as to play information from the theme's provider in the view port.

Abstract: A theme provides a group of multi-media resources for enhancing displays in a graphical user interface to an operating system of a computer according to a topic of the theme. The theme's resources are periodically updated by retrieving updating resources from a remote computer at which the updating resources are stored by a theme provider, so as to provide continually updating enhancements to the graphical user interface display consistent with the theme's topic. The theme's resources can include hypertext templates which define the graphical user interface displays as hypertext pages, allowing the theme to provide a wide variety of enhancements to the displays including text, graphics, hyperlinks, and software components, among others. The theme also enhances a graphical user interface with a view port that plays live or locally cached information from the Internet in each of a plurality of categories, by adding a category for the theme so as to play information from the theme's provider in the view port.