A method for obtaining a representation of an environment includes requesting device context information from a user device. The request is sent to the user device from a virtual machine environment established by a database processor. The virtual machine environment is established by the database processor in response to a request received from the user device over a network for a representation of an environment. User preference information is requested and the device context information and the user preference information are received in the virtual machine environment. Based on the device context information, an environmental data set (EDS) is identified that includes information reflective of the environment. The EDS is received in the virtual machine environment and the EDS is modified based at least in part on the user preference information. Executable computer code is constructed for generating a representation from the modified EDS and sent to the user device.