1. In a data processing system having an application program with a data unit having data, a method for enabling dynamic, real-time updates to data of the data unit, said method comprising: associating the data unit to a topic on an event broker on a network, wherein said event broker topic receives updates to said data by an external data source; receiving said updates from said event broker via a message transfer service of the network; and automatically updating data in the data unit in response to receiving said updates, wherein said updating occurs independent of other data units within the application program and said updating replaces one of a null version and an older version of the data within the data unit with a newer version of the data and provides the older version of the data when no update of the data is received.