METHOD OF DYNAMICALLY CREATING A WEB PAGE ACCORDING TO USER PREFERENCES

Previously, multiple versions of web sites such as web-based software applications have had to be created in different languages such as French, German and English, or with different content/format for users with different preferences. This is complex, time consuming, expensive and can lead to errors when the different version are created. The present invention avoids the need for different versions of web sites to be created by dynamically creating web pages in a required language or format or to suit particular user preference. User cultural preferences are automatically detected, for example, by analysing locale values in URLs or cookies sent from the user's web browser or by analysing the domain name of the user's client computer. This preference information is used to select one of a plurality of resource files using a selection algorithm. One resource file is provided for each preference type that it is desired to support and contains a plurality of strings of text that are required for display in the web site. Once a resource file has been selected this is used to dynamically create a web page which is then sent to the client computer. Manual input of preference information by the user is also possible.