Patent ID: 8042049

Claim:
A graphical user interface for managing a plurality of system components within a controlled environment, comprising: a first set of control objects configured for selecting a system component within the controlled environment, wherein, activation of a control object from said first set denotes said selected system component and populates the user interface with control options, each control option is associated with a sequence of commands that, if executed, sends instructions to control the operations or functions of said selected system component; a second set of control objects displayed concurrently with said control options associated with said selected system component, wherein, each control object within said second set of control objects is configured to allow viewing of the respective control object on the user interface and represents an affiliate system component and is configured to allow providing of an input to said selected system component, activation of a control object from said second set populates the user interface with control options for an affiliate system component associated with the activated control object from the second set, each control option for said affiliate system component is associated with a sequence of commands that, when executed, sends instructions to control operations or functions of said affiliate system component, and said control options for said affiliate system component are displayed concurrently with said second set of control objects on the user interface; a third set of control objects representing one or more affiliate system components, the one or more affiliate system components configured to provide an input to said selected system component, and wherein the third set of control objects are configured to be pre-configured by a user to be hidden from display on the user interface; and device definition device configured to specify associations among one or more affiliate system components and a primary system component, and thereby establishing a chain of system components including said primary system component and said one or more affiliate system components, wherein said primary system component is associated with a primary control object from said first set, wherein activation of said primary control object populates the user interface with control options for executing commands to send instructions to control operations or functions of said chain of system components.