Integrating an applet into a multi-page or multi-tasking web application to enable applet state to be automatically saved and restored

1. A method for saving and restoring state data comprising:

identifying a Web page of at least one of a multi-page and a multi-tasking application, wherein said identified Web page contains an applet;

dynamically modifying Web page code of the Web page to include logic to automatically save applet state before the applet terminates;

detecting a navigation action from the identified Web page to another Web page;

automatically saving a state of the applet, wherein the navigation action triggers an event that causes the applet of the Web page to terminate, wherein the saving of the state of the applet is responsive to the event detection by executing the logic as modified;

navigating to the another Web page responsive to the navigation action;

navigating back to the identified Web page;

automatically retrieving the saved state of the applet; and

automatically applying the retrieved state to the identified Web page,

wherein saving the state and restoring the state occur without a user explicitly selecting Web interface controls specific to saving and restoring data and without activities associated with the applet being fully completed before the navigation action is detected.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining elements of the application containing the identified Web page that if selected cause the applet to terminate before serving a different Web page to a client;

modifying programmatic logic of each determined element of the identified Web page to cause a saving of the applet state before the applet terminates; and

serving the Web page to the client, wherein the identified navigation action is an action triggering the modified programmatic logic.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the automatic saving and restoring of applet state is performed by a combination of programmatic logic in a SERVLET and in the applet.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting a navigation action to navigate away from the another Web page, wherein the another Web page contains another applet;

automatically saving a state of the another applet; and

navigating from the another Web page after saving the state of the another applet.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

navigating to the another Web page after having navigated from the another Web page;

automatically retrieving the saved state of the another applet; and

automatically applying the retrieved state to the another Web page.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

performing an arbitrary number of navigation actions not related to the identified Web page after navigating to the another Web page and before navigating to the identified Web page, wherein the arbitrary number of navigation actions comprise at least one navigation action to a Web page other than the another Web page and other than the identified Web page.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identified Web page contains a plurality of applets, wherein said plurality contains said applet, wherein said automatic saving saves the state of the plurality of applets, wherein the automatic retrieving retrieves the saved state of the plurality of applets, wherein the automatic applying applies the retrieved state to each of the plurality of applets of the identified Web page.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a request for the Web page, when navigating back to the Web page, wherein the applying of the save data occurs when rendering the Web page responsive to the request.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein thee Web page is a page of a multi-page Web application, wherein the saving and the retrieving of the sate data occur within a single interactive session with the multi-page Web application, and wherein the Web page contains a plurality of applets, wherein the logic is configured to automatically save applet state of each of the plurality of applets before terminating instances of the applets, and wherein the retrieving and applying of the applet state data applies to each of the plurality of applets of the Web page.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is performed by a system for automatically having and restoring applet state, wherein said saving of the state of the applet saves the state information in a savepoint repository configured to maintain a plurality of savepoints, wherein at least a portion of said savepoints comprise at least one application savepoint for the application.