1. A method for posting a message to a given group, said method comprising the steps of: defining properties of at least one software component, including at least one input port and at least one output port; registering said at least one software component with said given group, wherein said registering comprises transmitting a property file that includes (i) identification of the at least one software component, (ii) identification of said given group, and (iii) a register command; and multicasting a message to each of the at least one software components registered with said given group, wherein said multicasting comprises (i) posting the message for the given group and (ii) automatically distributing the posted message to each of the at least one software components registered with said given group; wherein said defining said registering, and said multicasting are carried out by a computing device.