Patent ID: 7953767

Claim:
A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device, the computer program product being operable to cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising: developing a pattern-based application that matches the functionality of a preexisting application by: receiving user instructions to select a pattern from a set of application development patterns, the selected pattern comprising prearranged user interface elements; importing database structure from a database used by the pre-existing application; receiving user instructions to generate a visual model of a query performed on the database, the visually modeled query having input fields processed by the query to generate an output, the input fields corresponding to sets of values; generating code for the visually modeled query based on the visual model; receiving user instructions specifying a subset of the input fields of the visually modeled query for display in the user interface elements of the selected pattern; and configuring the selected pattern based on the imported database structure to: display the specified subset of input fields of the visually modeled query in the user interface elements of the selected pattern; and use the visually modeled query for accessing the database used by the pre-existing application, the database having sets of values corresponding to the specified subset of input fields of the visually modeled query.