According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a persistent CGI model is used to provide a CGI program extension that captures the advantages of the presently known CGI model but overcomes many of the related disadvantages. The persistent CGI program is executed as a sub-process of the web server. The persistent CGI program receives input from web browsers through standard input and environment variables and provides output through standard output in the same manner as existing CGI programs. However, unlike existing CGI programs, the persistent CGI program is not automatically terminated after output is transmitted to the web browser by the web server application. Instead, the persistent CGI program remains active and waits for additional input from the same web browser. This allows transactions to remain open and, accordingly, state data relating to on-going transactions can be maintained in between web browser requests. Additionally, since the CGI process is persistent and maintains communication with the same web browser for multiple requests, there is no need to instantiate a separate CGI process for each subsequent request from the same web browser for the same transaction. Therefore, the persistent CGI programming model of the present invention can reduce system overhead and streamline system operation.