Patent ID: 7844911

Claim:
A method for configuring a graphical program, the method comprising: receiving user input prior to execution of the graphical program specifying a remote data source external to the graphical program, wherein the graphical program comprises a block diagram, wherein the block diagram comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually represents functionality of the graphical program, and wherein the block diagram is created in an application development environment program; in response to the user input specifying the remote data source, the application development environment program performing: automatically connecting to the remote data source and receiving data from the remote data source; examining the data received from the remote data source in order to determine a type of the data; automatically determining a particular type of GUI element from the application development environment program that is able to display the type of data received from the remote data source; automatically including a GUI element of the particular type from the application development environment program in the graphical program; and automatically configuring the GUI element to connect to the remote data source, and to receive and display data from the remote data source, wherein the GUI element is automatically configured without user programming; wherein the method further comprises executing the graphical program after automatically configuring the GUI element, wherein said executing comprises: displaying the GUI element on a display; and the GUI element connecting to the remote data source, and receiving and displaying data from the remote data source.