Patent ID: 8332746

Claim:
A method in a computing device for transforming forms defining a user interface of a first version of an application to pages defining the user interface of a second version of the application, the forms specifying both a logical and a physical layout of the user interface, the pages specifying a logical layout of the user interface, the method comprising: providing the forms in an XML format that define a user interface, the XML format being in compliance with a form schema; providing code rules defining a transformation of code of forms to code of pages, wherein each of the code rules specifies a code pattern of a form that includes location information specifying location of an element on the form and replacement code of a page that omits location information that specifies location of the element of the form; providing a control input defining forms of the provided forms to be transformed and modifications to the defined forms; receiving customizations to the control input, the customizations indicating transformations that are specific to the defined forms; and transforming the defined forms to pages by applying the code rules to the defined forms to replace the code patterns within the defined forms with the replacement code of the pages to generate pages specifying a logical layout but not a physical layout of the user interface; and modifying the defined forms in accordance with the control input as customized wherein the transformed forms are pages in an XML format in compliance with a page schema for defining a logical layout but not a physical layout of a user interface.