An object editor capable of displaying a set of application software objects, which may include objects with a dynamic reflection capability ("reflective objects"), includes an object oriented configuration model instance (CMI), a generic adapter, and a UI framework. The CMI is particular to the set of application objects to be edited and defines a particular view of these objects to be provided by the editor. The CMI is external to the generic adapter and includes settings that control which application objects will be accessed and the manner of access. The generic adapter reads the de-serialized CMI's current settings, selectively accesses the set of application objects to be edited and their attributes as dictated by the CMI settings, and passes the accessed information to the UI framework for display.