This is a good discussion thread...so far let me summarize the points that we are in agreement on for the UI Server architecture, to push the prototype further 1/ the ui server should have its own module that does not depend upon core or theme framework and introduce its own concepts 2/ testing it in core should be done using a core-uiserver module (temporary) that reuses core + uiserver module and produce a jboss-portal.sar that mixes both 3/ the protocol between the consumer and producer (let's call them like in WSRP) needs to be done really using a protocol modeled under the form of data objects (I am going to describe that in another post). 4/ in the core-uiserver part, the current core controller should be reused with with separate implementation of ResponseHandler that would adapt the current core controller command framework to the ui server protocol. 5/ The consumer and producer exchange data using a protocol, which simply means that the consumer makes a request, the producer perform something and returns back a response that the consumer should handle. 6/ It could be an option, however I would prefer to separate protocol request state from protocol request meta data. On example is that the type of a request is a meta data and I want rather to use a design which use annotations. Point still open for discussion: Hierarchially how broad should the UIServer Object model be. 1/ Should it be slim 2/ Should it be an extensible hierarchy of Objects. IMO- I prefer an extensible hierarchy of Objects as long as this entire hierarchy is not exposed/exploited on the client side of things, making client side integration code quite complex and not so de-coupled What I am suggesting is a simple object based protocol between the Controller layer and the UI Server layer and an extensible hierarchy of UI Objects to be used internally by the UI Server Clarification: when I say client side in this case, I mean the Controller layer which is a consumer to the UIServer. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4061389#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...