An arrangement for internet shopping in which the appearance of the display is maintained when moving from one site to another

摘要

The invention concerns a method of sharing state information and in particular aims to boost user confidence in internet transactions by providing a degree of similarity between the screen presentations of a referring site and a nominated site. In the method, data presented to a user (1) in an on-line environment from a template file of a referring site (2) of a distributed computer network is presented to the user (1) in a house style dictated by the referring site (2). During interaction between the user and the referring site, user entered data is captured at the referring site (2) where it is used to modify data of the template file as part of an on-line transaction. At a point in the on-line transaction at which it is desired or required to transfer transaction data to a nominated site (3) to further process the transaction, state information comprising both data from the template file and style data concerning the house style of the referring site (2) are transferred by the referring site (2) to the nominated site (3). Thereafter, the nominated site (3) when continuing processing of the transaction utilises the style data of the referring site(2).