Patent ID: 7207034

Claim:
In a computer system that supports a visual user interface designer and a serialization engine capable of saving state for user interface objects created within the visual user interface designer, a method of automatically generating and tracking undo information for changes made to a user interface object within the visual user interface designer so that a developer of the user interface object need not be responsible for generating and tracking the undo information, the method comprising acts of: receiving one or more change notifications generated in response to one or more changes to the user interface object within the visual user interface designer; calling the serialization engine to serialize at least a portion of the user interface object into a serialized format that is suitable for representing the one or more changes; using a transaction to fabricate an undo unit from the serialized format of the one or more changes to the user interface object, the transaction spanning the one or more changes and the one or more change notifications; and adding the undo unit to an undo stack such that the undo unit can subsequently be accessed to perform at least one of undoing and redoing any of the one or more changes.