A method for managing contents of a web site. A request to access a web site is received from a requestor, wherein the web site comprises a sparse tree directory comprising elements used to build the web site. The sparse tree directory comprises a web site page hierarchy located at the root directory of a shape hierarchy, wherein the web site page hierarchy comprises a directory structure of the web application and the shape hierarchy defines user shapes accommodated by the web application. The sparse tree directory also comprises a first subdirectory corresponding to a first value of a dimension and a second subdirectory corresponding to a second value of the dimension, wherein the first subdirectory comprises a first element and the second subdirectory comprises a second element. A shape of the requestor is generated, wherein the shape defines elements that can be accommodated by the requestor. The sparse tree directory is cached. The sparse tree directory is searched for elements defined by the shape. A response to the request is created based on the shape.