Patent ID: 8516442

Claim:
A product comprising: a non-transitory memory; and graphical user interface (GUI) metadata processing logic, executable by a processor coupled to the non-transitory memory, stored in the memory, the GUI metadata processing logic comprising: communication logic executable by the processor that when executed causes the processor to: obtain a GUI element type specification message comprising a GUI element identifier that includes a unique identifier for the GUI element which is being typed and a GUI type identifier that specifies the GUI element type being assigned to the GUI element; and obtain a GUI element mapping specification message comprising a GUI element mapping specification message header and a GUI element mapping specification message terminator; parsing logic executable by the processor that when executed causes the processor to parse: the GUI element type specification message to extract: the GUI element identifier and the GUI type identifier from the GUI element type specification message, and a GUI application (GAP) alias comprising an unique identifier that distinguishes between: 1) GAPs and 2) GAP versions or subsequent version of the same GAP; and the GUI element mapping specification message to extract a source GUI element identifier and a destination GUI element identifier from the GUI element mapping specification message; and type processing logic executable by the processor that when executed causes the processor to create a GUI element type metadata record by storing the extracted GUI element identifier and the extracted GUI type identifier in a GUI element metadata repository, where the GUI element type metadata record is located by the GUI element identifier.