System and method for automatically configuring program data exchange

• US 20020070965A1
• Filed: 12/13/2000
• Published: 06/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Austin, Paul F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,134,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A system and method for enabling a program to subscribe to data and/or publish data, e.g., in order to receive and display data from a data source in a graphical user interface (GUI) element or in order to write data associated with a GUI element to a data target. In one embodiment, a developer of a program may specify a data source and/or data target during development of the program, e.g., via a URL. If a data source is specified, the method may operate to automatically determine a GUI element operable to display (or otherwise indicate) data received from the data source and may automatically include the GUI element in the program'"'"'s graphical user interface (GUI) and automatically configure the GUI element to receive and display data from the specified data source during execution of the program. In the preferred embodiment, the developer is not required to specify any source code for the program in performing this configuration. Many programs require data to be exchanged with various types of data sources and targets, but this data exchange is often a difficult task for developers. Thus, various embodiments of the invention may greatly benefit users by enabling complicated exchange of data to be performed by simply specifying a data source and/or target to associate with a GUI element. Another embodiment of the invention enables the implementation of a data viewer program which, when executed, enables an end user to specify a data source, e.g., via a URL, and view data received from the data source, wherein the end user may specify any of various types of data sources, any of various types of data may be received from the data sources, and any of various types of GUI elements may be dynamically displayed to allow the end user to view the received data.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a graphical user interface (GUI) element to publish or subscribe to a data target or data source, respectively, the method comprising:

receiving user input specifying at least one of a data source or data target;

automatically displaying a GUI element in response to the user input;

automatically configuring the GUI element to perform at least one of;

     1) receiving and displaying data from the specified data source; and

/or

     2) publishing data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically displaying and configuring the GUI element comprise programmatically displaying and configuring the GUI element.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI element is automatically configured without user programming.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI element is automatically configured without user input specifying source code for this operation.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the GUI element performing one or more of;

     1) receiving and displaying data from the specified data source;

or

     2) publishing data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target, wherein said performing is performed after said automatically configuring.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input specifying whether to perform at least one of subscribing to data from or publishing data to the specified data source or data target, respectively.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein said receiving user input specifying at least one of a data source or data target comprises receiving user input specifying a uniform resource locator (URL) of the data source or data target.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically determining an appropriate GUI element to display, based on the specified data source or data target;

wherein said automatically displaying a GUI element comprises automatically displaying the determined GUI element.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the user input specifies a data source, the method further comprising:

receiving data from the data source;

wherein said automatically determining an appropriate GUI element to display comprises automatically analyzing the received data and automatically determining a GUI element operable to indicate the received data.

10. The method of claim 8,

wherein said receiving user input specifying at least one of a data source or data target comprises receiving user input specifying a uniform resource locator (URL) of the data source or data target;

wherein said automatically determining an appropriate GUI element to display comprises automatically determining the GUI element based on one or more of;

     1) a protocol specified by the URL; and

     2) a file extension specified by the URL.

11. The method of claim 1,

wherein the method executes on a first computer;

wherein the at least one of the data source or data target is comprised in a second computer remotely located from the first computer, wherein the first computer is operable to connect to the second computer over a network;

wherein said automatically configuring the GUI element comprises automatically configuring the GUI element to connect to the second computer and perform at least one of;

     1) receive and display data from the specified data source; and

/or

     2) publish data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI element is associated with a first computer program;

wherein said user input specifying at least one of a data source or data target is received during development of the first computer program;

wherein said automatically displaying the GUI element comprises automatically including the GUI element in a user interface associated with the first computer program.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

executing the first computer program after said automatically configuring, wherein said executing the first computer program includes the GUI element performing one or more of;

     1) receiving and displaying data from the specified data source;

or

     2) publishing data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

14. The method of claim 12,

wherein the first computer program is a graphical program.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the data source or data target is one from the group consisting of:

an HTTP server;

an FTP server;

an OPC server;

an SNMP server;

a DataSocket server; and

a file.

16. The method of claim 1,

wherein said user input specifies a first data source with which to associate the GUI element;

wherein said automatically configuring comprises automatically configuring the GUI element to receive and display data from the first data source.

17. The method of claim 1,

wherein said user input specifies a first data target with which to associate the GUI element;

wherein said automatically configuring comprises automatically configuring the GUI element to publish data associated with the GUI element to the first data target.

18. The method of claim 1,

wherein said user input specifies both a data source and a data target with which to associate the GUI element;

wherein said automatically configuring comprises automatically configuring the GUI element to;

     1) receive and display data from the specified data source; and

     2) publish data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the specified data source is the same as the specified data target.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is live data.

21. The method of claim 20,

wherein the data comprises measurement data.

22. A method for configuring a graphical user interface (GUI) element to display data, the method comprising:

receiving user input specifying a data source;

automatically displaying a GUI element in response to the user input; and

automatically configuring the GUI element to receive and indicate data from the specified data source.

23. The method of claim 22,

wherein said automatically displaying and configuring the GUI element comprise programmatically displaying and configuring the GUI element.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the GUI element is automatically configured to receive and indicate data from the specified data source without user programming.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

automatically determining an appropriate GUI element to display, based on the specified data source;

wherein said automatically displaying a GUI element comprises automatically displaying the determined GUI element.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving data from the data source in response to the user input specifying the data source;

wherein said determining an appropriate GUI element to display comprises automatically analyzing the received data and automatically determining a GUI element operable to indicate the received data.

27. The method of claim 26,

wherein the data is received in a self-describing format;

wherein said automatically determining a GUI element operable to indicate the received data comprises automatically determining a GUI element operable to indicate data of the self-described format.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the GUI element is associated with a first computer program;

wherein said automatically displaying the GUI element comprises automatically including the GUI element in a user interface associated with the first computer program;

wherein the user input specifying the data source is received during development of the first computer program.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said receiving user input specifying the data source does not include receiving user input specifying source code for the first computer program.

30. The method of claim 22,

wherein said indicating the data comprises displaying the data.

31. A method for configuring a first computer program to display data, the method comprising:

receiving user input during development of the first computer program specifying a data source;

automatically determining a graphical user interface (GUI) element operable to display data from the specified data source, in response to the user input;

automatically including the GUI element in a graphical user interface of the first computer program;

automatically configuring the first computer program to receive and display data from the specified data source in the GUI element during program execution.

32. The method of claim 31,

wherein the first computer program is a graphical program.

33. A method for configuring a graphical user interface (GUI) element to publish and subscribe to data, the method comprising:

receiving user input specifying a data source and data target, wherein the data source and data target are the same;

automatically displaying a GUI element in response to the user input; and

automatically configuring the GUI element to receive and display data from the specified data source and publish data to the specified data target.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the GUI element is automatically configured without user programming.

36. The system of claim 34, wherein the processor is further operable to execute the first program to:

automatically determine an appropriate GUI element to display, based on the specified data source or data target;

wherein said automatically displaying a GUI element comprises automatically displaying the determined GUI element.

37. The system of claim 34, wherein the processor and memory are comprised in a first computer system, the system further comprising:

a second computer system coupled to the first computer system via a network;

wherein the at least one of the data source or data target is comprised in the second computer system;

wherein the processor is operable to execute the first program to automatically configure the GUI element to connect to the second computer system and perform at least one of;

     1) receiving and displaying data from the specified data source; and

/or

     2) publishing data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

40. The method of claim 39,

wherein said automatically determining the GUI element comprises programmatically determining the GUI element;

wherein said automatically displaying and configuring the GUI element comprise programmatically displaying and configuring the GUI element.

41. The method of claim 39,

wherein the data received from the data source comprises live data.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein the data source is one from the group consisting of:

an HTTP server;

an FTP server;

an OPC server;

a DataSocket server; and

a file.

34. A system for configuring a graphical user interface (GUI) element to publish or subscribe to a data target or data source, respectively, the system comprising:

a display device;

a processor;

a memory medium coupled to the processor, wherein the memory medium stores a first program;

wherein the processor is operable to execute the first program to;

receive user input specifying at least one of a data source or data target;

automatically display a GUI element in response to the user input;

automatically configure the GUI element to perform at least one of;

     1) receiving and displaying data from the specified data source; and

/or

     2) publishing data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

38. A memory medium for configuring a graphical user interface (GUI) element to publish or subscribe to a data target or data source, respectively, the memory medium comprising program instructions executable to:

receive user input specifying at least one of a data source or data target;

automatically display a GUI element in response to the user input;

automatically configure the GUI element to perform at least one of;

     1) receiving and displaying data from the specified data source; and

/or

     2) publishing data associated with the GUI element to the specified data target.

39. A method for viewing data, the method comprising:

executing a data viewer program;

the data viewer program receiving user input specifying a data source;

the data viewer program automatically determining a graphical user interface (GUI) element operable to view data from the specified data source;

the data viewer program automatically displaying the GUI element and automatically configuring the GUI element to receive and display data from the specified data source; and

the GUI element receiving data from the specified data source and displaying the received data.