Patent ID: 8250458

Claim:
A method of emulating a portal application on a client system that includes a client platform executing a rich client application capable of displaying views contributed by plug-in components registered with the client platform, the method comprising: providing a user interface for eliciting user inputs for creating a new portal application on the client platform; providing a user interface for eliciting user inputs for creating one or more views for each cell of a page layout, said user interface including an option for generating a new unique view and corresponding code that does not exist elsewhere; detecting user selection of the portal page layout, and the one or more views for each cell of the page layout; generating a description of a client page representing the portal application; running the rich client application on the client platform and directing it to build a client page using the generated description; providing a user interface for eliciting user inputs for editing the new portal application on the client platform, wherein said user interface includes a visual editor configured to allow a user to modify, add, and change a parameter of the one or more views, and to simultaneously display program code for the view being manipulated; and detecting edits made to the portal application by the user via the user interface that elicits user inputs for editing the new portal application on the client platform; wherein said client system is not connected to a server.