Techniques are provided that allow mobile devices to use database applications without having to specifically design the database applications to support all forms of mobile devices. In particular, techniques are provided in which the data coming out of a database application is formatted into Extended Markup Language (XML). The XML is the same regardless of which client is to receive the data. Prior to supplying the data to a client, the Extended Style Sheet (XSL) is applied to the data to format the data into the format required by the client.