AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE ELEMENT TO BIND TO A GRAPHICAL PROGRAM

System and methods for configuring communication between a graphical program element (GPE) and a graphical user interface element (GUIE), where the GPE and the GUIE are from different respective graphical program development environments. In response to receiving user input specifying the GPE and GUIE, and a data source/data target association between them, at least one of the GUIE and the GPE are programmatically modified to configure communication between the GPE and the GUIE. The graphical program is then executed, where either the GPE performs a function to generate data, provides the data to the GUIE, and the GUIE displays the received data; or, the GUIE element receives data from the user, provides the data to the GPE, and the GPE receives the data and performs a function based on the data. The user input may be performed via drag-and-drop user interface technique, line-drawing, command-line, menu, dialog box, or wizard, etc.