1. At a computer hardware system, the computer hardware system including a package generator for generating application packages from application package designs, generated application packages being in a format expected by product deployment software, a method of generating an application package for deploying an application across a plurality of server computers, the method comprising: presenting the structure of an application package through an arrangement of one or more user-interface elements; creating a customized application design by altering the structure of the application package, altering the structure of the application package including altering application package element references corresponding to the one or more user-interface elements; and the package generator generating a customized application package from the customized application design, creation of the customized application package including: creating an application package element manifest by traversing the altered structure of application package in accordance with the application package element references; transforming the application package element manifest into one or more manifest files in a format that is compatible with a packaging schema for the product deployment software by mapping between types and properties in an object model and elements and attributes in the packaging schema; previewing the customized application package by placing the identified application package elements in locations relative to a directory hierarchy on at least one server computer of the plurality of server computers; and using the directory hierarchy to bundle the identified application package elements into one file for deploying the collaborative server application across the plurality of server computers, the one file in a format expected by the product deployment software.