Delivery of data and formatting information to allow client-side manipulation

A method of receiving, presenting and allowing client-side manipulation of data, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a transfer of data from a server, a first portion of the data comprising first data structures and instructions for generating second data structures from the first data structures;
• interpreting the first portion of the data so as to generate the second data structures, an object oriented environment, and instances of objects on the object oriented environment;
• generating a presentation of a second portion of the data using the objects;
• and
• allowing manipulation of the presentation through the objects,
• wherein the interpreting and generating steps are performed by a browser, and wherein the browser comprises:
• a language interpreter that interprets the first portion of the data, wherein the language interpreter is operable to interpret the object definition files received at the client in order for the client browser to generate the second data structures and instantiations of the application objects at the client;
• and
• a parser for the structured data, wherein the parser for structured data is operable to parse the first data structures in order for the client browser to generate the second data structures.

A method of sending data to allow presentation and client-side manipulation of the data, comprising the steps of:

• transferring data from a server, a first portion of the data comprising first data structures and instructions for generating second data structures from the first data structures, wherein the first portion of the data can be received at a client browser and interpreted within the client browser such that the second data structures, an object oriented environment, and instances of objects in the object oriented environment are generated at the client browser, a second portion of the data using the objects are presented at the client browser, and to allow manipulation of the presentation through the objects, and wherein the client browser comprises:
• a script language interpreter, wherein the script language interpreter is operable to interpret the object definition files received at the client in order for the client browser to generate the second data structures and instantiations of the application objects at the client,
• a parser for structured data, wherein the parser for structured data is operable to parse the first data structures in order for the client browser to generate the second data structures, and
• an element for communication with the server and for presenting data.