An extensible base process control and manufacturing information
application development and execution software suite is disclosed that
facilitates streamlined third party (e.g., OEM) development of derivative
applications for particular vertical markets. The suite includes an
object design toolkit that provides object template derivation tools for
accessing and editing a set of base object templates. The objects
derivable from the base templates include at least application objects
deployed upon lower level hosting component objects of a supervisory
process control and manufacturing information application. The toolkit
also includes development tools for creating new base object templates
that are added as extensions of the set of base object templates.In
addition to the toolkit, the suite includes a set of marketing package
customization tools facilitating seamlessly integrating changes by
developers to the extensible base development and execution software
suite. The marketing package customization tools include electronically
editable base user documentation.