US Patent 8972929 Generic user input for GUI framework

A graphical user interface (GUI) environment that can consume generic property descriptions from a third party and generate visual properties to an end user based on a set of interface definitions, wherein said interface definitions include: a property descriptor interface that provides a root interface for a description of any visual property defined by the third party; a property change listener interface that defines a notification listener to listen to specialized property change events; a property interface that defines a visual property having a value that can be set; a property group interface for defining a logical grouping of properties; and a property type interface.