Patent ID: 8770982

Claim:
A self-contained demonstration system, wherein the components of the self-contained demonstration system are installed and executed on a single device, the system comprising: an electronic display that is associated with the single device and that displays a graphical user interface configured to receive input from users and provide output to users; and a processor associated with the single device, the processor configured to execute computer program modules, the computer program modules comprising: an application module configured (i) to receive, via the graphical user interface associated with the single device, user requests to access and/or manipulate information within an external database server hosting an external database, (ii) to generate requests for the external database server that request the external database server to provide access to the information within the external database and/or manipulate the information within the external database in accordance with the requests received from the user through the graphical user interface, and (iii) to convey, to the user through the graphical user interface, responses of the external database server to the requests generated by the application module, wherein the external database server is logically and physically separate and discrete from the self-contained demonstration system and the single device, and is located remotely from the single device; an interface module configured to format the requests generated by the application module into a format that is understandable to the external database server, and to format the response of the external database server to the requests into a format that is understandable to the application module, thereby enabling interaction between the application module and the external database server; and a local information source that is located locally on the single device, the local information source being a scaled down version of the external database such that the organization and/or a type of information provided by the local information source is similar to the organization and/or a type of information included in the external database and the information provided by the local information source is limited relative to the information included in the external database, wherein the interface module is further configured to format requests generated by the application module and responses of the local information source to the requests such that the application module and the local information source are enabled to interact in substantially the same manner as the application module would interact with the external database server, thereby providing the user with a self-contained demonstration of the operation of the application module with the external database server embodied in the single device.