According to one aspect of the present invention, a system is provided to support a web-based application. The system comprising a set of server-side objects managed by an object manager (OM), the set of server-side objects including a global session object providing access to a repository, a server-side business object, and server-side business components contained in the server-side business object. The system further comprises a set of browser-side objects running on a browser, the set of browser-side objects including a browser-side application object that exists throughout a user-session to manage other browser-side objects. The system also comprises a remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism and a notification mechanism to facilitate communication and synchronization between the browser-side objects and the server-side objects.