1. A system for configuring I/O networks and devices comprising: a server communicatively coupled to a network; and a configuration editor residing on the server, the configuration editor adapted to be invokable by a client device that is communicatively coupled to the network, the configuration editor adapted to map a logical I/O area of a programmable logic controller to a physical I/O area of the programmable logic controller, the programmable logic controller controlled via programming code adapted to cause the programmable logic controller to control field-based actuators, the configuration editor comprised by an engineering tool adapted to create an XML version of the programming code, the engineering tool residing on the server.