Patent ID: 6964034

Claim:
An application development server, comprising: a storage unit for storing a plurality of working definitions for a plurality of computing environments; an interface for receiving requests for one of the plurality of computing environments from and transferring the requested one of the plurality of computing environments to a client over a communications line; each one of said plurality of computing environments including a set of first working definitions that define a plurality of applications and a second working definition that defines said each one of said plurality of computing environments, said set of first working definitions and said second working definition being included in said plurality of working definitions; each one of said set of first working definitions including platform independent definitions that define characteristics of one of said plurality of applications that are necessary to construct a valid runtime image of said one of said plurality of applications, said characteristics including state, settings, and structures required to build said runtime image of said one of said plurality of applications; and said second working definition including platform independent definitions that define characteristics of said each one of said plurality of computing environments that are necessary to construct a valid runtime image of said each one of said plurality of computing environments, said characteristics including state, settings, and structures required to build said runtime image of said each one of said plurality of computing environments.