Application development involving instant protoyping

Abstract

A system for developing software provides a graphical user interface on a display of a client device, the graphical user interface displaying features from a library of features for a custom software application, implements simulations of a plurality of the features available for demonstration through the graphical user interface, stores blocks of source code for each feature in a source code repository wherein the blocks are adapted to provide an actual application when compiled by developers, receives from the client device, by a server running a software building component, one or more selected features for the software application, automatically integrates, by the software building component, the one or more selected features to generate an integrated feature set based on attributes of each of the selected features and an inter-feature rules set, and generates an interactive visualization of a navigable prototype of the software application based on the integrated feature set.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for developing software comprising:
 at least one processor; and   at least one memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to acquire computer readable instructions stored in the at least one memory and execute the instructions comprising instructions to cause the system to:
 receive information specifying at least one first feature which was selected by a user of a client device from a plurality of user-selectable features; 
 automatically identify at least one second feature of the plurality of user-selectable features based on an inter-feature rules set defining associations between the user-selectable features; 
 automatically integrate the at least one first feature and the at least one second feature to generate an integrated feature set based on the inter-features rules and attributes of each of the at least one first feature and the at least one second feature; 
 automatically generate an interactive visualization of a navigable prototype of the software application based on the integrated feature set; and 
 controlling a virtual platform to provide a user of a remote device with access to the interactive visualization via a graphical user interface. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one second feature is configured to invoke the at least one first feature or be called by the at least one first feature. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein that at least one first or second feature comprises a display screen viewing area with an interactive region. 
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to determine whether a link to another feature should be placed in the interactive region of the display screen viewing area based on the attributes of the at least one first feature and attributes of the at least one second feature. 
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 4 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to determine a form that the link should have in the interactive region based on the attributes of the at least one first feature and attributes of the at least one second feature. 
     
     
         6 . The system according to  claim 5 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to populate the interactive region with a widget in accordance with the form that was determined for the link. 
     
     
         7 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the interactive visualization comprises (1) a plurality of screens representing features of the integrated feature set and (2) a plurality of connectors indicating interactions between the plurality of screens. 
     
     
         8 . The system according to  claim 7 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to receive a first user-software interaction for modifying at least one of the plurality of connectors of the interactive visualization or a second user-software interaction for adding a new connector to the interactive visualization. 
     
     
         9 . The system according to  claim 8 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to prevent an addition of the new connector to the interactive visualization based on the attributes of the at least one first feature and attributes of the at least one second feature. 
     
     
         10 . The system according to  claim 8 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to automatically replace an interface element of one of the plurality of screens with another interface element of a different type in response to the first or second user-software interaction. 
     
     
         11 . The system according to  claim 8 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the system to automatically modify at least one rule of the inter-feature rules set based on the first or second user-software interaction. 
     
     
         12 . A computer-implemented method of a developing a software application, comprising:
 receiving, by a server, information specifying at least one first feature which was selected by a user of a client device from a plurality of user-selectable features;   automatically identifying, by the server, at least one second feature of the plurality of user-selectable features based on an inter-feature rules set defining associations between the user-selectable features;   automatically integrating, by the server, the at least one first feature and the at least one second feature to generate an integrated feature set based on the inter-features rules and attributes of each of the at least one first feature and the at least one second feature;   automatically generating, by the server, an interactive visualization of a navigable prototype of the software application based on the integrated feature set; and   controlling a virtual platform to provide a user of a remote device with access to the interactive visualization via a graphical user interface.   
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the at least one second feature is configured to invoke the at least one first feature or be called by the at least one first feature. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein that at least one first or second feature comprises a display screen viewing area with an interactive region. 
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the automatically integrating comprises determining whether a link to another feature should be placed in the interactive region of the display screen viewing area based on the attributes of the at least one first feature and attributes of the at least one second feature. 
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 15 , wherein the automatically integrating further comprises determining a form that the link should have in the interactive region based on the attributes of the at least one first feature and attributes of the at least one second feature. 
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein automatically integrating further comprises populating the interactive region with a widget in accordance with the form that was determined for the link. 
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the interactive visualization comprises (1) a plurality of screens representing features of the integrated feature set and (2) a plurality of connectors indicating interactions between the plurality of screens. 
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 18 , further comprising receiving, by the server, a first user-software interaction for modifying at least one of the plurality of connectors of the interactive visualization or a second user-software interaction for adding a new connector to the interactive visualization. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 19 , further comprising preventing an addition of the new connector to the interactive visualization based on the attributes of the at least one first feature and attributes of the at least one second feature. 
     
     
         21 . The method according to  claim 19 , further comprising automatically replacing an interface element of one of the plurality of screens with another interface element of a different type in response to the first or second user-software interaction. 
     
     
         22 . The method according to  claim 19 , further comprising automatically modifying at least one rule of the inter-feature rules set based on the first or second user-software interaction. 
     
     
         23 . A computer-implemented method of a developing software comprising:
 receiving, by a server, information specifying a user input facilitated by a graphical user interface that is configured to display information identifying a plurality of features stored in a library of user-selectable features for a custom software application;   translating, by the server, the user input into one or more features that are to be used to form a target software application;   generating, by the server, an integrated feature set based on attributes of each of the one or more features and an inter-feature rules set;   generating, by the server, an interactive visualization of the target software application based on the integrated feature set; and   controlling a virtual platform to provide a user of a remote device with access to the interactive visualization of the target software application via the graphical user interface.