Disclosed is
software architecture and method for sharing
data objects among
multiple applications in a
client device. The architecture includes a
server process in the
client device for
processing a template, such as a SHTML template for the Extended Markup Language (
XML), based on a template identifier value received from a user application. Each of
multiple applications has a template. Each template identifies a series of objects identified by tag values, such as
XML entities, that are to be incorporated into a display page. A
database of objects, such as a
database of
XML entities identified by tag values, is maintained that contains
data objects for the applications. An update process periodically establishes a
communication link with a remote
server and requests download of a data document containing content data corresponding to at least a portion of several of the templates. The data document is parsed into the
database of objects based on the structure of the data document, which generally conforms to a
data type definition. When the
server process processes different templates that reference the same data object, it will retrieve the data object from the database. Each template may then be rendered into a page of output data for display to a user. The architecture and method according to the present invention thus permit
data objects to be shared by
multiple applications and to be automatically updated. Each time a data object is updated, the data will be current for each user application that references the data object.