A method for rendering a portal graphical user interface (GUI), comprising providing for the representation of a GUI desktop, a GUI look and feel, and a GUI book as a set of controls wherein the controls can be organized in a logical hierarchy, traversing the representation, wherein the traversing comprises associating a theme with a first control in the set of controls, rendering the first control according to the theme, rendering any descendents of the first control according to the theme, wherein any descendents of the first control can override the theme, and wherein one of the set of controls can communicate with another of the set of controls.