Creation of a graphical program through graphical association of a data point element with the graphical program

• US 20030035009A1
• Filed: 04/16/2002
• Published: 02/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Kodosky, Jeffrey L., Rogers, Steven W., Shah, Darshan
• Application Number:
  US10/123,570
• Publication Number:
  US 20030035009A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/771
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/23258 GUI graphical user interface, icon, function bloc editor, labview
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25067 Graphic configuration control system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/967 Visual or iconic programming
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/97 Instrumentation and component modelling, e.g. interactive control panel

Abstract

A system and method for creating and using configuration diagrams for configuring distributed systems. The methods described herein may be used for various types of operations in configuring distributed systems, including creating programs, managing programs in the distributed system, deploying programs to various distributed devices, configuring remote execution or inter-operation of distributed programs, and executing distributed applications. Embodiments of the invention utilize graphical iconic-based techniques for performing the above operations. The configuration diagram may include device icons which represent devices and program icons which represent programs. Device icons and program icons may be associated with each other to accomplish various program creation and deployment operations. Device icons and program icons may also interact with graphical program nodes or icons. Context sensitive device connections and/or program connections are displayed. An asynchronous data flow node may be used to facilitate asynchronous data flow between two graphical programs. The distributed system may also support distributed graphical debugging.

Claims

1. A method for creating a graphical program, the method comprising:

displaying a data point icon on a computer system, wherein the data point icon corresponds to a data point associated with a first device;

displaying a block diagram of the graphical program on the computer system, wherein the graphical program is stored on a second device;

associating the data point icon with the block diagram in response to user input;

programmatically creating code in the graphical program in response to said associating, wherein, during execution of the graphical program on the second device, the programmatically created code in the graphical program is executable to provide programmatic access to the data point associated with the first device.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the programmatically created code comprises program instructions.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the programmatically created code comprises at least one node in the graphical program.

4. The method of claim 3,

wherein the at least one node has an appearance of the data point icon.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a type of the first device;

wherein said programmatically creating code comprises creating an appearance for the at least one node based on the type of device.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a data type of the data point;

wherein said programmatically creating code comprises creating an output terminal for the at least one node, wherein the output terminal has the data type of the data point.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a data type of the data point;

wherein said programmatically creating code comprises creating an input terminal for the at least one node, wherein the input terminal has the data type of the data point.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein said programmatically creating code in the graphical program comprises:

programmatically creating a graphical program element in the block diagram in response to said associating, wherein the graphical program element corresponds to the data point icon;

programmatically creating program instructions and/or data structures corresponding to the graphical program element, wherein the program instructions and/or data structures are executable to access the data point during graphical program execution

9. The method of claim 8,

wherein the data point icon has a first appearance;

wherein the graphical program element has the first appearance

10. The method of claim 8,

wherein the data point icon has a first appearance;

wherein the graphical program element has the first appearance of the data point icon.

11. The method of claim 8,

wherein the graphical program element has an appearance corresponding to a type of the first device.

12. The method of claim 8,

wherein the graphical program element is operable to perform at least one of:

read values of the data point during graphical program execution or write values to the data point during graphical program execution.

13. The method of claim 8,

wherein the block diagram comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicate functionality of the graphical program;

the method further comprising connecting the graphical program element to at least one node present in the graphical program.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a configuration diagram on the display of the computer system, wherein the configuration diagram represents a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the configuration diagram includes a first device icon corresponding to the first device and a second device icon corresponding to the second device;

wherein the configuration diagram includes the data point icon corresponding to the data point.

15. The method of claim 14,

wherein the data point icon is displayed proximate to the first device icon to visually indicate that the data point is associated with the first device.

16. The method of claim 14,

wherein the block diagram is displayed proximate to the second device icon to visually indicate that the block diagram is stored on the second device.

17. The method of claim 14,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon corresponding to the graphical program;

wherein the method further comprises receiving user input selecting the program icon, wherein said displaying the block diagram of the graphical program is performed in response to said user input selecting the program icon.

18. The method of claim 17,

wherein the program icon corresponding to the graphical program is displayed proximate to the second device icon to visually indicate that the graphical program is associated with the second device.

19. The method of claim 14,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon corresponding to the graphical program;

wherein said associating the data point icon with the block diagram comprises;

associating the data point icon with the program icon;

wherein said displaying the block diagram of the graphical program is performed in response to said associating the data point icon with the program icon; and

graphically positioning the data point icon within the block diagram.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

positioning the data point icon at a first location in the block diagram;

wherein said positioning comprises positioning the first device icon as a node in the block diagram.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the block diagram comprises a plurality of nodes interconnected by wires;

wherein said positioning comprises positioning the data point icon at a first location on a wire in the block diagram proximate to an existing node in the block diagram;

the method further comprising displaying the data point icon in the block diagram connected through the wire to the existing node in the block diagram.

22. The method of claim 1,

wherein said associating the data point icon with the block diagram comprises dragging and dropping the data point icon to the block diagram.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the data point icon in the block diagram in response to said associating.

24. The method of claim 23,

wherein said programmatically creating code in the graphical program comprises creating program instructions corresponding to the data point icon in the graphical program, wherein the program instructions are executable to provide programmatic access to the data point.

25. The method of claim 1,

wherein the graphical program performs a measurement function;

wherein the data point corresponds to a unit under test being measured.

26. The method of claim 1,

wherein the graphical program performs an automation function;

wherein the data point corresponds to a system being controlled.

27. The method of claim 1,

wherein the graphical program performs a simulation function;

wherein the data point corresponds to a system that interacts with the simulation graphical program.

28. The method of claim 1,

wherein the data point corresponds to an I/O channel.

29. The method of claim 1,

wherein the data point is a calculated value produced by a program executing on the first device.

30. The method of claim 1,

wherein the data point corresponds to a data tag.

31. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first device is the computer system.

32. The method of claim 1,

wherein the second device is the computer system.

33. A method for creating a graphical program, the method comprising:

displaying a data point icon on a computer system, wherein the data point icon corresponds to a data point produced by a first device;

displaying the graphical program on the computer system, wherein the graphical program is stored on a second device, wherein the graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicate functionality of the graphical program;

associating the data point icon with the graphical program in response to user input;

programmatically creating a first node in the graphical program in response to said associating;

wherein, during graphical program execution on the second device, the first node is operable to access the data point produced by the first device.

34. The method of claim 33,

wherein the first node has an appearance of the data point icon.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

determining a type of the first device;

wherein said programmatically creating the first node comprises creating an appearance for the first node based on the type of device.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

determining a data type of the data point;

wherein said programmatically creating the first node comprises creating an output terminal for the first node, wherein the output terminal has the data type of the data point.

37. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

determining a data type of the data point;

wherein said programmatically creating the first node comprises creating an input terminal for the first node, wherein the input terminal has the data type of the data point.

38. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

displaying a configuration diagram on the display of the computer system, wherein the configuration diagram represents a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the configuration diagram includes a first device icon corresponding to the first device and a second device icon corresponding to the second device;

wherein the configuration diagram includes the data point icon corresponding to the data point.

39. The method of claim 38,

wherein the data point icon is displayed proximate to the first device icon to visually indicate that the data point is associated with the first device.

40. The method of claim 38,

wherein the graphical program is displayed proximate to the second device icon to visually indicate that the graphical program is associated with the second device.

41. The method of claim 38,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon corresponding to the graphical program;

wherein the method further comprises receiving user input selecting the program icon, wherein said displaying the graphical program is performed in response to said user input selecting the program icon.

42. The method of claim 41,

wherein the program icon corresponding to the graphical program is displayed proximate to the second device icon to visually indicate that the graphical program is associated with the second device.

43. The method of claim 38,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon corresponding to the graphical program;

wherein said associating the data point icon with the graphical program comprises;

associating the data point icon with the program icon;

wherein said displaying the graphical program is performed in response to said associating the data point icon with the program icon; and

graphically positioning the data point icon within the graphical program.

44. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

connecting the first node to one or more other nodes in the graphical program.

45. The method of claim 33,

wherein the graphical program includes a block diagram and a user interface;

wherein said associating comprises associating the data point icon into the block diagram of the graphical program.

46. The method of claim 33,

wherein the data point corresponds to an I/O channel.

47. The method of claim 33,

wherein the data point is a calculated value produced by a program executing on the first device.

48. The method of claim 33,

wherein the data point corresponds to a data tag.

49. A method for creating a graphical program, the method comprising:

displaying a data point icon on a computer system, wherein the data point icon corresponds to a data point associated with a first device;

displaying a block diagram of the graphical program on the computer system, wherein the graphical program is stored on a second device;

associating the data point icon with the block diagram in response to user input;

programmatically creating a graphical program element in the graphical program in response to said associating, wherein the graphical program element is executable to provide programmatic access to the data point during execution of the graphical program on the second device.

50. A method for creating a graphical program, the method comprising:

displaying a data point icon on a computer system, wherein the data point icon corresponds to a data point associated with a first device;

displaying a block diagram of the graphical program on the computer system, wherein the graphical program is stored on a second device;

associating the data point icon with the block diagram;

displaying the first data point icon in the graphical program in response to said associating, wherein, during execution of the graphical program on the second device, the data point icon is executable to provide programmatic access to the data point associated with the first device.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising:

configuring the data point icon as a node in the graphical program.

52. The method of claim 50,

wherein said configuring the first icon as a node in the graphical program comprises creating one or more input terminals and one or more output terminals on the first icon based on at least one of:

parameters of the data point and parameters of the graphical program.

53. The method of claim 52,

connecting at least one of the input terminals and output terminals of the first icon to an existing node in the graphical program.

54. A method for configuring a graphical program, wherein the method executes on a computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration diagram on the display of the computer system, wherein the configuration diagram represents a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the configuration diagram includes a first device icon corresponding to a first device, wherein the configuration diagram includes a data point icon that corresponds to a data point of the first device, wherein the configuration diagram includes a second device icon corresponding to a second device, wherein the second device icon stores a graphical program;

displaying the graphical program on the display of the computer system;

associating the data point icon with the graphical program in response to user input;

displaying the data point icon in the graphical program in response to said associating, wherein the data point icon is operable to provide programmatic access to the data point during execution of the graphical program.

55. The method of claim 54,

wherein the data point icon is displayed proximate to the first device icon in the configuration diagram to visually indicate that the data point is associated with the first device.

56. The method of claim 54,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon corresponding to the graphical program;

wherein the method further comprises receiving user input selecting the program icon, wherein said displaying the block diagram of the graphical program is performed in response to said user input selecting the program icon.

57. The method of claim 54,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon corresponding to the graphical program;

wherein said associating the data point icon with the graphical program comprises;

associating the data point icon with the program icon;

wherein said displaying the graphical program is performed in response to said associating the data point icon with the program icon; and

graphically positioning the data point icon within the graphical program.

58. The method of claim 54, wherein said associating comprises dragging and dropping the data point icon into the graphical program.

59. The method of claim 54, wherein the graphical program comprises a block diagram, wherein the block diagram comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicate functionality of the graphical program;

wherein said displaying the graphical program comprises displaying the block diagram;

wherein said associating comprises positioning the data point icon at a first location in the block diagram of the graphical program;

60. The method of claim 59, further comprising:

wherein said positioning comprises positioning the data point icon as a node in the block diagram.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the block diagram comprises a plurality of nodes interconnected by wires;

wherein said positioning comprises positioning the data point icon at a first location on a wire in the graphical program proximate to an existing node in the graphical program;

the method further comprising displaying the data point icon in the graphical program connected by the wire to the existing node in the graphical program.

62. The method of claim 54, further comprising:

modifying the graphical program to include program instructions and/or data structures that are executable to read and/or write data from/to the first data point during execution of the graphical program, wherein said modifying is performed after said associating;

wherein the data point icon represents the program instructions and/or data structures that are executable to read and/or write data from/to the first data point.

63. The method of claim 62, further comprising:

executing the graphical program after said modifying, wherein said executing the graphical program includes performing at least one of reading data from the first data point or writing data to the first data point.

64. The method of claim 54,

wherein the graphical program includes a first node which visually indicates that associated operations are repetitively performed;

the method further comprising positioning the data point icon proximate to the first node in the graphical program to configure repetitive operation of accessing the first data point in the graphical program.

65. The method of claim 64,

wherein the first node is a loop structure node;

wherein said positioning comprises positioning the data point icon within the loop structure node to visually indicate that data point icon is to repetitively operate in the graphical program.

66. A computer-implemented method for creating a graphical program, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration diagram on the display of the computer system, wherein the configuration diagram includes a data point icon corresponding to a data point;

displaying a block diagram of the graphical program;

associating the data point icon to a location within the block diagram in response to user input;

programmatically creating code in the graphical program which is executable to provide programmatic access to the data point, wherein said programmatically creating is performed in response to said associating.

67. The method of claim 66,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a device icon corresponding to a device, wherein the data point icon is displayed proximate to the device icon, wherein the data point is associated with the device.

68. The method of claim 66,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a plurality of device icons each corresponding to one of a plurality of devices.

69. The method of claim 66,

wherein the configuration diagram includes a program icon, wherein the program icon corresponds to the graphical program;

the method further comprising;

associating the data point icon with the program icon in response to user input;

wherein said displaying the graphical program on the display of the first computer system is automatically performed in response to said associating the data point icon with the program icon in the configuration diagram.

70. A method for creating a program, the method comprising:

displaying a data point icon on a display of a computer system, wherein the data point icon corresponds to a data point associated with a first device;

displaying source code of the program on the display, wherein the program is stored on a second device;

associating the icon with the source code of the program in response to user input; and

programmatically creating code in the program in response to said associating, wherein, during execution of the program on the second device, the programmatically created code in the program is executable to provide programmatic access to the data point associated with the first device.

71. The method of claim 70,

wherein the code is executable to perform at least one of:

read values of the data point during program execution or write values to the data point during graphical program execution.

72. The method of claim 70,

wherein the program is written in a text-based programming language and comprises textual source code;

wherein said associating comprises positioning the icon at a first location within the textual source code;

wherein said programmatically creating comprises creating code in the text-based programming language at the first location to perform at least one of;

read values of the data point during program execution or write values to the data point during program execution.

73. A memory medium comprising program instructions for creating a graphical program, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:

displaying a data point icon on a computer system, wherein the data point icon corresponds to a data point associated with a first device;

displaying a block diagram of the graphical program on the computer system, wherein the graphical program is stored on a second device;

associating the data point icon with the block diagram in response to user input;

programmatically creating code in the graphical program in response to said associating, wherein, during execution of the graphical program on the second device, the programmatically created code in the graphical program is executable to provide programmatic access to the data point associated with the first device.

74. A memory medium comprising program instructions for creating a graphical program, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:

displaying a configuration diagram on the display of the computer system, wherein the configuration diagram represents a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the configuration diagram includes a first device icon corresponding to a first device, wherein the configuration diagram includes a data point icon that corresponds to a data point of the first device, wherein the configuration diagram includes a second device icon corresponding to a second device, wherein the second device icon stores a graphical program;

displaying the graphical program on the display of the computer system;

associating the data point icon with the graphical program in response to user input;

displaying the data point icon in the graphical program in response to said associating;

programmatically creating program instructions and/or data structures associated with the data point icon in the graphical program;

wherein, during execution of the graphical program, the program instructions and/or data structures are executable to provide programmatic access to the data point.

75. A system for configuring a graphical program, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising a memory medium and a display;

one or more devices coupled to or comprised in the computer system, wherein the one or more devices include a first device;

wherein the display displays a configuration diagram, wherein the configuration diagram includes a plurality of device icons corresponding to the computer system and the one or more devices, wherein the configuration diagram includes a first device icon corresponding to the first device, wherein the configuration diagram includes a data point icon that corresponds to a data point of the first device;

wherein the display also displays the graphical program, wherein the graphical program is stored on one of computer system or a second device different than the first device;

wherein the memory medium stores a software program, wherein the software program is executable to;

associate the data point icon with the graphical program in response to user input;

display the data point icon in the graphical program in response to said associating;

programmatically create program instructions and/or data structures associated with the data point icon in the graphical program;

wherein, during execution of the graphical program, the data point icon is operable to provide programmatic access to the data point.