A method and computer program are provided for graphically configuring devices in a control area network that includes providing one or more application programming interfaces (240), creating one or more graphical objects on a computer display using a graphical user interface, and associating one or more functions of an application programming interface with one or more of the devices using the graphical user interface. Each application programming interface corresponds to a class of devices and includes a set of functions. Each class of devices includes one or more devices. At least one of the graphical objects represents one or more of the devices (Figure 2).