Patent ID: 7600199

Claim:
A system for supporting the rendering of a display associated with a control panel user interface, comprising: a computer processor that is a functional component of a computer; a data file containing a plurality of entries, wherein each entry in the data file identifies a task, and wherein each task corresponds to a computing device setting; a system database containing a plurality of entries, wherein each entry in the system database affiliates an applet to a task category; at least one pointer that links the data file to the system database so as to support a parsing of the data file by the computer processor that is a functional component of a computer, wherein said parsing includes a determination of which tasks represented by the plurality of entries in the data file are affiliated with which applets represented by the plurality of entries in the system database; an authoring tool that enables a developer to add information to the data file so as to add a new entry indicative of a new task, and wherein the authoring tool also enables the developer to associate the new task with a first particular applet represented by an entry in the system database such that the new task is identified as being affiliated to the first particular applet as part of said determination, and wherein the authoring tool prohibits the developer from associating the new task with at least a second particular applet represented by an entry in the system database such that the new task is prohibited from being identified as being affiliated to the second particular applet as part of said determination; and wherein at least one of said plurality of entries in the data file includes an indication of a command to run when a corresponding task is invoked.