A component object binds business driven services to a graphical user interface (GUI). The object includes a data model, view model and controller. The view model graphically presents, and the controller manipulates data used by the object. The controller includes an event handler that respond to events generated within the GUI and binds data used by the object to a data source which can be another component object or a remotely located source. The event handler can call a local script to calculate the value of a data element within the object. The component object can be instantiated on a client, and can be configured to communicate with a corresponding component object on a server. The client and server component objects can exchange only that data that needs to be exchanged to maintain the current state of a user interface in the client computer.