System and method for extending capabilities and execution efficiency of script based applications

Scripting Language based applications can be limited in their ability to supply and execute sophisticated logic and complex processing. More traditional programming languages contain explicit function and/or procedure calls to implement more complex functionality, however, these languages use more complicated syntax and traditionally require mosophisticated programming knowledge to use. There are provided systems and methods for extending the capabilities of an application program for execution by a terminal. The application includes a script based workflow and non-executable content. One such method comprises loading the workflow for interpretation by a script interpreter, such that the workflow is configured for having a plurality of executable elements. This method also provides a global symbol structure for reference by the executable elements, the global symbol structure including addressing for coupling selected ones of the executable elements to corresponding external components. The external components are provided by a native runtime environment of the terminal for performing the action specified by the selected executable elements. This method also executes the executable elements in sequence such that execution of the selected ones of the execution elements are redirected to the respective external components through the corresponding global symbols of the global symbol structure. Predefined knowledge of the contents of the global symbol structure is shared by the runtime environment and the workflow of the application.