Patent ID: 8799353

Claim:
A method of implementing a customized control surface, the method comprising: automatically retrieving, by a server computing system, a base definition file, the base definition file comprising a first hierarchical set of elements, the first hierarchical set of elements defining a default control surface, the default control surface comprising a plurality of user-selectable controls, wherein the first hierarchical set of elements defines the default control surface such that the default control surface comprises a plurality of tabs, each tab in the plurality of tabs comprising a tab title and a control area containing a plurality of controls, the plurality of controls being divided into a plurality of control groups, each control group comprising a visual grouping of logically associated controls, the logically associated controls comprising button controls, drop-down box controls, check box controls and menu controls, the plurality of controls in a first tab in the plurality of tabs comprising controls for managing one or more posts in the default control surface, the plurality of controls in a second tab in the plurality of tabs comprising controls for managing one or more comments in the default control surface; automatically retrieving, by the server computing system, an extension definition file, the extension definition file comprising a second hierarchical set of elements, the second hierarchical set of elements defining a customized control surface based on the default control surface; automatically generating, by the server computing system, a modified version of the base definition file in which each element in the base definition file having an identifier corresponding to an identifier of an element in the extension definition file is modified in a way indicated by the element in the extension definition file; automatically using, by the server computing system, the modified version of the base definition file to generate a requested control surface resource; and automatically sending, by the server computing system, the control surface resource to a client computing system, the client computing system configured to use the control surface resource to present the customizable control surface in a user interface.