Configuration programming system for a life safety network

There is provided a configuration programming system for a life safety network in which a remote computer system downloads one or more module databases to a panel subsystem connected to various input and output devices. The panel subsystem includes interconnected target modules having a processor and a memory portion. The memory portion of each target module stores an executable code and a particular module database. For each target module, the computer system generates a source code of descriptive labels and rules, converts the source code to the module database, and downloads the module database to the target module. The module database provides the executable code with module-specific information for controlling the input devices and said plurality of output devices. In addition, the computer system may generate primary module code and secondary module code so that, when downloading both codes to a particular target module, the particular target module may retain the primary module code and forwards the secondary module code to a secondary module.