Configuration diagram with context sensitive connectivity

• US 20030037316A1
• Filed: 06/21/2002
• Published: 02/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• 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
• Granted Patent: US 7,594,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/127
• 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

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 displaying a configuration of a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the method executes on a first computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of device icons corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of devices in the system;

displaying connections between the plurality of device icons, wherein the displayed connections correspond to couplings between the plurality of devices;

wherein one or more of the connections displayed between respective device icons have an appearance to visually indicate a type of connection between the respective devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the appearance of the one or more of the connections comprises one or more of color, thickness or shading to indicate the type of connection.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of connection comprises one or more of a network connection, internal bus connection, external parallel bus connection, external serial bus connection, or a wireless connection.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the appearance of each of the connections comprises one or more of color, thickness or shading to indicate the type of connection.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system is a measurement system;

wherein at least a subset of the plurality of device icons correspond to measurement devices in the measurement system;

wherein at least a first subset of the plurality of connections correspond to couplings between the measurement devices;

wherein the first subset of the plurality of connections each has an appearance to visually indicate a type of connection between the respective measurement devices.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the type of connection comprises one or more of a GPIB connection, PXI connection, or VXI connection.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the device icons corresponds to an analog sensor for measuring a phenomena and providing analog measurement data;

wherein at least one of the connections indicates an analog data connection between the analog sensor and another device.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein one or more of the connections displayed between respective device icons have an appearance to visually indicate a type of material flow between the respective devices.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein one or more of the connections displayed between respective device icons have an appearance to visually indicate a type of data flow between the respective devices.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein each of the device icons has an appearance that visually indicates a type of its corresponding device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically detecting one or more couplings between devices present in the distributed system;

automatically detecting types of the one or more couplings between devices present in the distributed system;

wherein said displaying connections between the plurality of device icons includes automatically displaying the one or more connections corresponding to the one or more one or more couplings between devices automatically detected in the distributed system, wherein said automatically displaying one or more connections includes automatically displaying the one or more connections with an appearance to visually indicate the detected type of coupling between the respective devices.

12. A method for displaying a configuration of a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the method executes on a first computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of device icons corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of devices in the system;

receiving user input indicating a desire to connect a first device icon to a second device icon;

displaying a first connection between the first device icon and the second device icon after the user input, wherein the first connection has an appearance which visually indicates a type of connection between the first and second device icons.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the appearance of the first connection comprises one or more of color, thickness or shading to indicate the type of connection.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the type of connection comprises one or more of a network connection, internal bus connection, external parallel bus connection, external serial bus connection, or a wireless connection.

15. A method for displaying a configuration of a system comprising a plurality of devices, wherein the method executes on a first computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration diagram on a display of the first computer system, wherein the configuration diagram includes a plurality of device icons corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of devices in the system, wherein the configuration diagram also includes connections between the plurality of device icons, wherein the connections correspond to couplings between the plurality of devices;

wherein one or more of the connections displayed between respective device icons have an appearance to visually indicate a type of connection between the respective devices.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the appearance of the one or more of the connections comprises one or more of color, thickness or shading to indicate the type of connection.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the type of connection comprises one or more of a network connection, internal bus connection, external parallel bus connection, external serial bus connection, or a wireless connection.

18. The method of claim 15,

wherein the system is a measurement system;

wherein at least a subset of the plurality of device icons correspond to measurement devices in the measurement system;

wherein at least a first subset of the plurality of connections correspond to couplings between the measurement devices;

wherein the first subset of the plurality of connections each has an appearance to visually indicate a type of connection between the respective measurement devices.

19. A method for displaying a configuration of a measurement system comprising a plurality of measurement devices, wherein the method executes on a first computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of device icons corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of measurement devices in the system;

displaying connections between the plurality of device icons, wherein the displayed connections correspond to couplings between the plurality of measurement devices;

wherein one or more of the connections displayed between respective device icons have an appearance to visually indicate a type of connection between the respective measurement devices.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the appearance of the one or more of the connections comprises one or more of color, thickness or shading to indicate the type of connection.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the connections comprises a GPIB connection, PXI connection, or VXI connection.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the connections comprises a GPIB connection, wherein the GPIB connection comprises a first appearance to visually indicate that it is a GPIB connection

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the appearance of each of the connections comprises one or more of color, thickness or shading to indicate the type of connection.

24. The method of claim 19,

displaying program icons proximate to respective ones of the plurality of device icons, wherein each of the program icons corresponds to one of the plurality of programs, wherein each respective program icon is displayed proximate to a respective device to indicate that the respective program corresponding to the respective program icon is stored on the respective device.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

automatically detecting one or more couplings between the measurement devices present in the system;

wherein said displaying connections between the plurality of device icons includes automatically displaying one or more connections corresponding to the one or more one or more couplings between devices automatically detected in the distributed system.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

wherein said displaying connections between the plurality of device icons includes displaying one or more connections between the device icons in response to user input drawing the connection on the display.