Customizable drag and drop for industrial software applications

• US 20040056896A1
• Filed: 09/25/2002
• Published: 03/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Thurner, Elmar, Doblmayr, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 7,337,409 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop

Abstract

Customizable Drag & Drop enables easy activation of user defined or project specific functions concerning two related objects: A user interface graphically displays objects of a particular module. An extending function extends the drag and drop operation to allow the user to define a new set of semantics that is applied when a drag and drop operation is executed. In this way communication can be established using Customizable Drag & Drop extended by a user defined function. Also definition and modification of the deployment of an industrial automation system and hyperlinking of objects in manufacturing execution systems is achieved by Customizable Drag & Drop.

Claims

1. An apparatus to select and activate user defined or project specific functions via an extensible drag and drop operation, comprising:

a user interface in which objects of a particular module are displayed graphically and can be selected graphically; and

an extensible drag and drop which allows to drag a selected source object and drop it to a target object and which allows to add application and user specific functions which shall be applied to the source object and/or to the target object upon drop.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user specific function to be activated upon drop is selected graphically via a menu which pops up upon selection of the object to be dropped.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extended function defines a relationship between a target and a source object.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the extended function establishes a communication protocol between the source and target.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extended functionality includes a set link target function which establishes a link between the source and the target object.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extended functionality includes an add to deployment function which adds the source object, to the model which describes the deployment of the industrial system software to PCs, Workstations and PLCs.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user interface is a workbench, wherein the user graphically interfaces with objects graphically represented.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the workbench includes a navigation pane that lists applications and associated objects in an hierarchical tree.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a Framework, wherein the user workbench interfaces to the Framework.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the Framework is an Industrial Framework.

11. A method of establishing communication using an extended graphical user interface function comprising the steps of:

extending the functionality of a drag and drop operation to include custom functions; and

executing the extended functionality in response to normal activation of the drag and drop operation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the extended functionality defines a relationship between a target and a source object.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the relationship establishes a communication protocol between the source and target.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein activation of the extended functionality executes an object code program.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the extended functionality includes a set link target function.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the extended functionality includes an add to deployment function.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of coupling to a Framework.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the functionality establishes a communication between servers of the Framework.

19. A computer readable project including computer readable code that drives a computer in accordance with the step of claim 11.