Patent ID: 7448042

Claim:
A method for a first application process to access a user interface element, the method comprising: obtaining, at the first application process, a representation of the user interface element; retrieving, at the first application process and from a second application process, a list of attributes of the user interface element; the first application process calling a first function of the user interface element provided by the second application process to determine whether a particular attribute selected from the list of the attributes is modifiable; in response to a result returned from the first function, the first application examining the result to determine whether the particular attribute selected from the list of the attributes is modifiable; and if it is determined that the particular attribute is modifiable based on the examination of the result of calling the first function, the first application process calling a second function of the user interface element to set the particular attribute to a value to modify a behavior of a user interface item displayed at a display supported by the user interface element.