Patent ID: 8108784

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: utilizing a computer to perform: displaying a first node icon and a second node icon in a graphical data flow program, wherein the graphical data flow program comprises a plurality of interconnected node icons which visually indicate functionality of the graphical data flow program; displaying a third icon in the graphical data flow program, wherein the third icon is a data transfer icon; associating the third icon with the first node icon and the second node icon in the graphical data flow program; displaying a graphical user interface for specifying data transfer functionality for the third icon, wherein the data transfer functionality comprises one or more of: a data transfer protocol, data buffering semantics, or a data transport medium; receiving user input to the graphical user interface specifying particular data transfer functionality for the third icon; configuring the third icon with the particular data transfer functionality specified by the user input, wherein said configuring the data transfer third icon configures the graphical data flow program to transfer data from the first node icon to the second node icon according to the particular data transfer functionality; and executing the graphical data flow program, wherein first data is transferred from the first node icon to the second node icon according to the particular data transfer functionality during execution of the graphical data flow program.