PLATFORM-INDEPENDENT UNIVERSAL DATA ACCESS SYSTEM AND METHOD IN A CLIENT-SERVER ENVIRONMENT

摘要

A data access system (100) and method provides platform independent access from a client module (101) to a variety of data sources (108) stored in a variety of data formats on a variety of computer systems, including database sources and electronic mail sources (112). The system includes a desktop client module (104) that is a Java applet (105) that runs within a Java-compliant browser (104) located on a client computer (101). The desktop client module provides access to any one of a plurality of data sources, each represented as a book (200) on the client desktop. Access of the data associated with a book is implemented using a data access service application running on a server computer (102) in communication with the desktop client. The data access service application (106) includes a data source interface (107) that stores metadata associated with each book. Accessed data is presented in a customized viewing format as (127) as specified by various views (204) and forms associated with each book.