Patent ID: 7774745

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: selecting, on at least one computer, a plurality of patterns in a visual modeling environment and establishing connections between the plurality of patterns to create a design time graphical representation of a user interface of an end-user application, wherein each pattern performs one or more user interface tasks and different patterns performing different user interface tasks have different graphical representations, and wherein at least one pattern comprises a plurality of nested patterns; configuring the plurality of patterns to specify application specific properties of each pattern to produce configuration data, the configuration data defining the behavior of the one or more user interfaces tasks in the end-user application, wherein each pattern, before configuration, comprises first properties, and wherein each pattern, after configuration, comprises second properties in addition to the first properties, wherein the second properties are specific to the end-user application, wherein the first properties include a location of one or more user interface elements in said user interface, and wherein the second properties include specific properties of the user interface elements when the one or more user interface elements are rendered in said user interface; storing the configuration data in a repository; generating a model of the end-user application using the configuration data, the model of the end-user application comprising a plurality of components, wherein at least one component comprises a plurality of nested components, wherein the model is a platform independent representation of the patterns of the end-user application; and translating the components of the model into a plurality of runtime entities to execute the end-user application, wherein said translating comprises generating platform specific executable code based on the platform-independent model.