1. A method for graphically configuring devices in a control area network, comprising: providing one or more application programming interfaces, wherein at least one of the application programming interfaces corresponds to a class of devices and comprises a set of functions, and each class of devices includes one or more devices; creating one or more graphical objects using a graphical user interface, wherein at least one of the graphical objects represents one or more of the devices; and associating one or more of the functions of at least one of the application programming interfaces with one or more of the devices using the graphical user interface.