Patent ID: 7404176

Claim:
A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause a data processing apparatus to: establish a model for an application, the model including multiple model elements; establish at least one view for presenting data from the model, the view including multiple user interface (UI) elements; establish at least one controller for manipulating the model and the view; establish a structure for storing application data according to a predetermined structure for at least one storage area relating to the controller, the predetermined structure including multiple design-time context elements arranged in a hierarchy having a plurality of levels and directed relationships connecting the design-time context elements, the directed relationships forming at least one cycle between the design-time context elements, the cycle including at least a first design-time context element on a first level and a second design-time context element on a second level; establish at least one binding between one of the UI elements and one of the design-time context elements and creating an instance of the storage area according to the predetermined structure, the instance of the storage area including multiple runtime context elements, each runtime context element corresponding to one of the design-time context elements, wherein at least a first and a second of the runtime context elements correspond to the first design-time context element, and wherein the second runtime context element is nested within the first runtime context element; wherein the design-time context elements include nodes, the nodes being arranged in a hierarchy by the predetermined structure, and wherein the instance of the storage area includes multiple levels corresponding to the hierarchy, the first runtime context element and the second runtime context element being arranged on distinct levels in the multiple levels.