Patent ID: 7360170

Claim:
A method of creating a reference with the assistance of a graphical user interface comprising: reading program code from a memory and processing said program code with a processing unit to perform the following: displaying a window having a first item, said first item representing a part of a software application program, said part being one of the following: a first software component; a page; a servlet; in response to a user selecting a first feature on said graphical user interface that expressly identifies a particular type of software component interface, displaying a second window containing features that pertain to a reference to be created after said part is selected by said user, said reference to be directed from said selected part to a second software component through an interface of said expressly identified type; in response to said user identifying through at least one of said features a particular type of software component for said second software component, searching through deployment descriptors contained in an archive file to identify software components of said software component type and displaying said identified software components on said graphical user interface; and, after said user selects said second software component from amongst said identified and displayed software components, automatically creating said reference.