1. A method for retrieving information through interactive elements on a browser for subsequent processing by a business application, the method comprising: storing layout data with interactive elements in a first document while designing a visual document appearance; processing the first document by adding customer specific data from the business application, thereby providing a second document in markup language, the second document having representations for the interactive elements; receiving customer input data from a customer in a third document from a browser, wherein the browser has presented the visual document appearance of the second document to the customer and has prompted the customer through the interactive elements to return customer input data; and relating customer input data with customer specific data in the business application.