Object configuration utilities

A template-based supervisory process control and manufacturing application development platform comprising:

• one or more computers comprising one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer readable media, the non-transitory computer readable media comprising instructions stored thereon that when executed cause the one or more computers to:
• implement, by the one or more processors, a development environment that enables the design, development, and deployment of applications that are executed by process controllers;
• implement, by the one or more processors, an application object template library configured to store a set of previously defined application object templates;
• create, by the one or more processors, one or more application object templates that each include a superset of domain-specific options common to a set of related domain objects;
• and
• specify, by the one or more processors, at least one domain-specific option of the superset and create one or more application object instances to be included in one or more application objects;
• wherein the one or more application object instances are automatically configured with the selected domain-specific options.