A development system for developing application elements of a computer system and controlling a search of the elements, the development system comprising: a development module sensing user development inputs and transforming elements of the computer system based on the user development inputs, wherein the elements of the computer system comprise a plurality of different element types, each element type having a set of properties and methods that define run-time behavior for elements of that element type; a user interface module generating a user interface display with a user input mechanism, and sensing a user search input received through the user input mechanism indicative of a user search query for searching the elements of the computer system, wherein the user search query includes a type-based search parameter and a property-based search parameter; a search component store storing a plurality of search components, each search component corresponding to a given one of the different element types and being configured to search the set of properties and methods for elements of the given element type; a search engine identifying the type-based search parameter from the user search query, the search engine being controlled to activate a type-based search component matching the type-based search parameter, the type-based search component performing an element search to return a set of search results in the user interface display; and wherein the set of search results comprise elements having a particular element type selected from the element types matching the type-based search parameter and property values matching the property-based search parameter. a development module sensing user development inputs and transforming elements of the computer system based on the user development inputs, wherein the elements of the computer system comprise a plurality of different element types, each element type having a set of properties and methods that define run-time behavior for elements of that element type; a user interface module generating a user interface display with a user input mechanism, and sensing a user search input received through the user input mechanism indicative of a user search query for searching the elements of the computer system, wherein the user search query includes a type-based search parameter and a property-based search parameter; a search component store storing a plurality of search components, each search component corresponding to a given one of the different element types and being configured to search the set of properties and methods for elements of the given element type; a search engine identifying the type-based search parameter from the user search query, the search engine being controlled to activate a type-based search component matching the type-based search parameter, the type-based search component performing an element search to return a set of search results in the user interface display; and wherein the set of search results comprise elements having a particular element type selected from the element types matching the type-based search parameter and property values matching the property-based search parameter.