Method and apparatus for customizing a marketing campaign system using client and server plug-in components

1. A method of customizing a marketing campaign system running on a computer system, the method comprising:

providing a client-side plug-in component;

providing a server-side plug-in component, wherein a reference to at least one of the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component is included in a campaign object for a marketing campaign, wherein the campaign object is capable of being saved, recalled, and edited;

associating the client-side plug-in component with the server-side plug-in component;

operating the server-side plug-in component in response to the client-side plug-in component, wherein the operating comprises communicating between the server-side plug-in component and the client-side plug-in component by persisting properties, wherein the persisting properties include at least one property whose value and contextual information may be written to and read from a persistent storage medium, where the contextual information includes a name of an item for which the property is an attribute;

associating the server-side plug-in component with an operation of a marketing campaign system; and

configuring the server-side plug-in component into the campaign object using an interface associated with the operation;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is classified during one of a time of creation or a time of configuration as performing pre-processing, post-processing or override processing.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: building the campaign object.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying whether the server-side plug-in component performs the pre-processing, the post-processing or the override processing.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein: the computer system comprises a client machine and a server machine; and the method further comprises:

executing the client-side plug-in component on the client machine; and

executing the server-side plug-in component on the server machine.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client-side plug-in component allows information to be input, and the server-side plug-in component performs selection of customer records in a database based on the input information.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client-side plug-in component communicates a request, and a dispatcher forwards the request to the server-side plug-in component according to at least one rule.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the at least one rule is utilized to determine the server-side plug-in component from a plurality of server-side plug-in components for handling a request.

8. A customizable marketing campaign system having at least a processor, comprising:

means for associating a client-side plug-in component with a server-side plug-in component, wherein a reference to at least one of the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component is included in a campaign object for a marketing campaign, wherein the campaign object is capable of being saved, recalled, and edited;

means for operating the server-side plug-in component in response to the client-side plug-in component, wherein the operating comprises communicating between the server-side plug-in component and the client-side plug-in component by persisting properties, wherein the persisting properties include at least one property whose value and contextual information may be written to and read from a persistent storage medium, where the contextual information includes a name of an item for which the property is an attribute;

means for associating the server-side plug-in component with an operation of a marketing campaign system; and

means for configuring the server-side plug-in component into the campaign object using an interface associated with the operation;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is classified during one of a time of creation or a time of configuration as performing pre-processing, post-processing or override processing.

9. A method of customizing a marketing campaign system running on a computer system, the method comprising:

providing a client-side plug-in component;

providing a server-side plug-in component, wherein a reference to at least one of the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component is included in a campaign object for a marketing campaign, wherein the campaign object is capable of being saved, recalled, and edited;

communicating between the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component using persisting properties, wherein the persisting properties include at least one property whose value and contextual information may be written to and read from a persistent storage medium, where the contextual information includes a name of an item for which the property is an attribute;

associating the server-side plug-in component with an operation of a marketing campaign system; and

configuring the server-side plug-in component into the campaign object using an interface associated with the operation;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is classified during one of a time of creation or a time of configuration as performing pre-processing, post-processing or override processing.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein: the computer system comprises a client machine and a server machine; and the method further comprises:

executing the client-side plug-in component on the client machine; and

executing the server-side plug-in component on the server machine.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising identifying whether the server-side plug-in component performs the pre-processing, the post-processing or the override processing.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

building the campaign object.

13. A method of customizing a marketing campaign application running on a computer system, the method comprising:

providing a client-side plug-in component;

providing a server-side plug-in component, wherein a reference to at least one of the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component is included in a campaign object for a marketing campaign, wherein the campaign object is capable of being saved, recalled, and edited;

configuring the client-side plug-in component into the application;

configuring the server-side plug-in component into the application;

communicating between the client-side plug-in component and the sewer-side plug-in component by persistent properties, wherein the persisting properties include at least one property whose value and contextual information may be written to and read from a persistent storage medium, where the contextual information includes a name of an item for which the property is an attribute;

associating the server-side plug-in component with an operation of a marketing campaign system; and

configuring the server-side plug-in component into the campaign object using an interface associated with the operation;

wherein the sewer-side plug-in component is classified during one of a time of creation or a time of configuration as performing pre-processing, post-processing or override processing.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein:

the computer system comprises a client machine and a server machine; and the method further comprises:

executing the client-side plug-in component on the client machine; and

executing the server-side plug-in component on the server machine.

15. A computer readable media including code executable by a processor for customizing a marketing campaign system, the computer readable media comprising:

a client-side plug-in component stored on the readable media, the client-side plug-in component being adapted to communicate with a server-side plug-in component using persisting properties, wherein the persisting properties include at least one property whose value and contextual information may be written to and read from a persistent storage medium, where the contextual information includes a name of an item for which the property is an attribute;

wherein a reference to at least one of the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component is included in a campaign object for a marketing campaign, wherein the campaign object is capable of being saved, recalled, and edited;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is associated with an operation of a marketing campaign system;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is configured into the campaign object using an interface associated with the operation;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is classified during one of a time of creation or a time of configuration as performing pre-processing, post-processing or override processing.

16. A computer readable media including code executable by a processor for customizing a marketing campaign system, the computer readable media comprising:

a server-side plug-in component stored on the readable-media, the server-side plug-in component being adapted to operate in response to data provided by a client-side plug-in component;

wherein a reference to at least one of the client-side plug-in component and the server-side plug-in component is included in a campaign object for a marketing campaign, wherein the campaign object is capable of being saved, recalled, and edited;

wherein the server-side plug-in component and the client-side plug-in component communicate by persisting properties, wherein the persisting properties include at least one property whose value and contextual information may be written to and read from a persistent storage medium, where the contextual information includes a name of an item for which the property is an attribute;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is associated with an operation of a marketing campaign system;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is configured into the campaign object using an interface associated with the operation;

wherein the server-side plug-in component is classified during one of a time of creation or a time of configuration as performing pre-processing, post-processing or override processing.

17. The computer readable media of claim 16 , wherein the server-side plug-in component includes a specification of an association with the operation of an original marketing campaign system.

18. A computer readable media of claim 17 , wherein the specification includes a designation specifying a function selected from the group consisting of the pre-processing, the post-processing and the override processing.