Patent ID: 8793568

Claim:
A method for guided design of pages for a graphical user interface (GUI) to an application, the method comprising: storing, in a memory: a GUI page; a display group within the GUI page, the display group operable to organize specific GUI elements together under the display group; a standard data object linked to the GUI page that establishes permissible GUI elements with respect to the GUI page as a whole; a custom data object linked to the display group that establishes permissible GUI elements with respect to the display group specifically; and page design logic; displaying the GUI page, the display group in the GUI page, and a GUI selection palette; and executing the page design logic with a processor in communication with the memory to: link a logical table that defines the custom data object to a physical table that defines the display group by updating an association table with a record associating the custom data object and permissible GUI elements with respect to the display group; identify admissible GUI elements for the custom data object for the display group by querying the association table for the permissible GUI elements; populate the GUI selection palette with the admissible GUI elements, the admissible GUI elements comprising: the permissible GUI elements with respect to the GUI page; and the permissible GUI elements with respect to the display group; and constrain customization of the display group to the admissible GUI elements in the GUI selection palette, wherein the standard data object is defined using one or more physical tables, wherein the custom data object is defined using a logical table; wherein the one or more physical tables are extended by one or more extension tables storing values for any extended data for the physical table; and wherein the logical table is implemented as a group of logical columns stored in the one or more extension tables.