Installing supervisory process control and manufacturing softwar from a remote location and maintaining configuration data links in a run-time enviroment

• US 20030009754A1
• Filed: 06/24/2002
• Published: 01/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Software, LLC (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Wonderware Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Mody, Pankaj H., Clinton, Greg C., Rowley, Kevin, Jones, Derrick C., Brandenburg, Dale P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,496,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

A method is disclosed, in a supervisory process control system environment, for installing supervisory process control software from a central software deployment server. The software distribution method includes the step of first specifying a software component for a supervisory process control application to be deployed to a remote location and a destination for the software component based upon a distributed application configuration. A software component is conditionally transmitted to the remote supervisory control computer, after the determining step, if the the software component for the supervisory process control application is not present at the remote location.

In accordance with another deployment aspect of the present invention, a method for maintaining a communication link to an object, in a supervisory process control and manufacturing information application distributed among a plurality of locations, enables a target of client object requests to be moved to a new location within the system without notifying the client objects of the target'"'"'s new location. The method is carried out within a system including a naming service that is accessed by the application and includes a namespace that correlates object location-independent names corresponding to object location-dependent handles.

Claims

1. A method for installing supervisory process control and management information system software from a central software deployment server to a remote supervisory control computer comprising the steps of:

first specifying a software component for a supervisory process control application to be deployed to a remote location;

second specifying a destination for transmitting the software component in accordance with the software configuration;

determining whether the software component is already present at the remote location; and

transmitting to the remote supervisory control computer, after the determining step, the software component for the supervisory process control application that is not present at the remote location.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

comparing, after the transmitting step, by the central deployment server, the actual deployed configuration at the remote supervisory control computer to a specified software configuration.

3. A method for maintaining a communication link to an object, in a supervisory process control and manufacturing information application distributed among a plurality of locations, wherein a naming service accessed by the application includes a namespace that correlates object location-independent names corresponding to object location-dependent handles and wherein the object is capable of being redeployed to another one of the plurality of locations, the method comprising the steps of:

first establishing a first handle for the object executing at a first location of the plurality of locations occupied by the application, the first handle corresponding to a name utilized by clients to reference a resource of the object;

first storing the first handle in the namespace;

notifying a caller, in response to a name binding request, of the first handle corresponding to the name;

second establishing a second handle for the object differing from the first handle, based upon a second location of the plurality of locations to which the object has been relocated, the second handle corresponding to the name utilized by clients to reference a resource of the object;

second storing the second handle in the namespace; and

notifying a caller, in response to a name binding request received after the second storing step, of the second handle corresponding to the name.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the resource is an attribute of the object.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the caller is a host of an application object.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the caller is an application engine.