Patent ID: 7805669

Claim:
A method for form template pre-configuration, comprising: retrieving a form template from a data store, the form template specifying a plurality of form elements; parsing the form template to identify one or more configurable form elements from the plurality of form elements; presenting to a user via a user interface one or more selectable options specifying configuration settings to govern modifications of the one or more identified configurable form elements; receiving from the user interface a selection of the one or more options provided by the user; generating a descriptor identifying the selected options provided by the user; associating the descriptor with the form template; storing the form template and associated descriptor in the data store; retrieving the stored form template and associated descriptor from the data store, parsing the associated descriptor to identify the selected options provided by the user, providing a run time configuration user interface to allow modifications to the one or more configurable form elements of the form template in accordance with the user-selected options identified in the descriptor, receiving from the run time configuration user interface modifications to the one or more configurable form elements of the form template in accordance with the user-selected options identified in the descriptor, applying the modifications to the form template, and storing the modified form template in the data store.