1. A method, comprising steps of: receiving a request for an identified page of content from a client device, through a communication network, at a computer system configured as an application server; identifying a user platform implemented by the client device, from among different user platforms supported by the application server; retrieving, from a View Templates Table in storage accessible to a processor of the computer system, a View Template for the identified user platform, the View Template defining components available for the identified user platform from among a plurality of components, wherein: each component references a respective centrally managed content element maintained independent from code formatting of the respective content element for any of the different user platforms; each component comprises a user interface (UI) component definition including configuration information for formatting the respective referenced content element on a respective user platform; and some number of the available components represent aspects of the identified page of content; processing the retrieved View Template to produce a tailored View including the available components representing aspects of the identified page of content, the tailored View being in a lightweight text-based open standard format and sufficient to produce the identified page of content on the client device for presentation to a user via execution of the identified user platform, wherein each of the available components representing aspects of the identified page of content included in the tailored View comprises: a user interface (UI) component definition including configuration information for formatting the respective referenced content element on the identified user platform; and data associated with the respective referenced content element; and transmitting the tailored View of the identified page of content through the communication network to the client device in the lightweight text-based open standard format.