Patent ID: 8682945

Claim:
In a computer system providing an application authoring environment, a method of creating and distributing multiple versions of an executable application characterized by: selecting an audience qualifier having a plurality of categories within the audience qualifier; selecting at least a first one and a second one of the plurality of categories for within the selected audience qualifier; in the authoring environment: from a master application template comprising an application representation and template metadata, creating for each of the first one and second one of the plurality of categories at least one executable application instance having a specified appearance and behavior, wherein: the appearance and behavior of each executable application instance are determined at least in part by characteristics of the associated first one or second one of the plurality of categories; and each executable application instance is created by modifying at least one attribute of the master application template within a constraint embodied in the template metadata; and associating application instance metadata with each executable application instance specifying the audience qualifier and category corresponding to the executable application instance; and distributing each executable application instance in accordance with the associated application instance metadata.