Abstracted display building method and system

摘要

A technique is provided for configuring an interface device. The interface device (26) includes a plurality of device elements (18), each having visual representation (168) and a state engine (330) defining a functionality. A server module (42) in the interface device receives a query from a user viewable screen that includes the visual representations (168). The server module (42) serves the user viewable screen to a general purpose viewer or browser (48), which may include a design-time environment (16). An access module (106), then, prompts each device to send an image (168) defining its visual representation (168) to a memory display context for inclusion in the user viewable screen. The access module (106) works without reference to the respective functionality of the device elements (18).