Methods and apparatus for process, factory-floor, environmental, computer aided manufacturing-based or other control system with unified messaging interface
First Claim
1. In a method of process, factory-floor, environmental, computer aided manufacturing-based or other (collectively, “
- process”
) control, the improvement comprising;
A. executing one or more control applications that interface with an operator and/or control equipment for the process;
B. transmitting to one or more selected ones of the control application, a message for presentation to the operator, the message being formatted in a markup language;
C. with each of the selected control applications, presenting content of the message to the operator by applying the message along with a style sheet to an operator interface.
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Abstract
The invention provides improved methods and apparatus for workflow editing. Such methods and apparatus permit, for example, user-defined and/or other tasks to be combined in any combination or combinations to specify a workflow. The tasks can be linked for direct, serial processing and/or for conditional processing that includes branching and/or looping. The invention also improved methods and apparatus of workflow definition and processing with extensible actions. The invention provides, further, improved methods and apparatus for workflow definition and processing which utilize workflow variables for communication of data and control information among tasks within a workflow. The invention provides, still further, improved methods and apparatus of workflow definition and processing with enhanced messaging. The invention provides, still yet further, improved methods and apparatus for workflow definition and processing which permit definition of hierarchically enumerated data types and for for definition of “plans” to collect, e.g., for storage, data such as the aforementioned hierarchical data types.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. In a method of process, factory-floor, environmental, computer aided manufacturing-based or other (collectively, “
- process”
) control, the improvement comprising;
A. executing one or more control applications that interface with an operator and/or control equipment for the process;
B. transmitting to one or more selected ones of the control application, a message for presentation to the operator, the message being formatted in a markup language;
C. with each of the selected control applications, presenting content of the message to the operator by applying the message along with a style sheet to an operator interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- process”
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9. A system for process, factory-floor, environmental, computer aided manufacturing-based or other (collectively, “
- process”
) control comprising;
A. a plurality of control applications that interface with an operator and/or control equipment for the process, B. a workflow processing engine in communications coupling with the plurality of control applications, the workflow processing engine processing one or more workflows, each defining one or more actions to be taken in response to events occurring with respect to the process and/or control applications, C. the workflow processing engine executing a user interface action included in one of the workflows by formatting in XML a message for presentation to the operator and transmitting that to one or more selected ones of the control applications. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 14, 15)
- process”
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16. In a method of process, factory-floor, environmental, computer aided manufacturing-based or other (collectively, “
- process”
) control, the improvement comprising;
A. executing one or more workflows, each defining one or more actions to be taken in response to events occurring with respect to the process and/or one or more control applications, the one or more control applications interfacing with an operator and/or control equipment for the process, B. monitoring the process and/or control applications and responding to detected events by selectively executing a messaging action associated with one or more of the workflows, the execution of the messaging action including transmitting, to one or more selected ones of the control applications, a message for presentation to the operator, the message being formatted in a markup language;
C. with each of the selected control applications, presenting content of the message to the operator by applying the message to an operator interface. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23)
- process”
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21. In the method of claim 21, the further improvement comprising initializing a further instantiation of interface component using the formatted message.
Specification