Abstracted display building method and system

A method for providing a user viewable screen comprising:

• accessing a plurality of software objects an industrial automation component, each software object having properties including a visual representation and a functionality, the software objects being accessed by an access module that prompts each software object to send an image defining its visual representation to a memory display context for inclusion in the user viewable screen without reference to the respective functionality of the respective software object, wherein the access module is configured to prompt collection of property data from the software objects defining aspects of the respective visual representation;
• and
• serving the user viewable screen including the visual representations from the industrial automation component to a device for viewing.

A configurable human machine interface system comprising:

• a machine readable medium, and
• programming code stored on the machine readable medium defining instructions for accessing a plurality of device elements, each device element having properties including a visual representation and a state engine defining functionality of the respective device element, wherein each of the device elements comprises a software object, the device elements being accessed and prompted by an access module configured to prompt collection of property data from each device element defining aspects of the respective visual representation and to send an image defining its visual representation to a memory display context for inclusion in the user viewable screen without reference to the respective functionality of the respective device element, and for serving the user viewable screen including the visual representations from the configurable interface device to a configuration station for viewing in a general purpose viewer via a server module in response to receipt of a query for the user viewable screen.