A computer operated apparatus for generating a visual information system is disclosed.
A virtual world associated with an application is built using building blocks such
as scenes, data sources, global parameters, and resources. A scene is a visual
display of information much like a presentation slide, except that the information
may be linked to data stored in a database or other data storage systems. Within
a scene, values resulting from a data source are represented graphically as user-defined
data elements. Data sources are built with a block diagramming tool which generates
one or more database queries. The queries may be SQL queries. Scenes are created
with a drawing editor which transparently binds data sources to the graphical elements
of the scenes. When the virtual world is completed, an execution image of the virtual
world may be represented as byte code. The byte code representing the virtual world
may be executed by a runtime control to provide desired information to users.
