Time stamp methods for unified plant model

• US 20060020578A1
• Filed: 07/21/2004
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Software Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Software Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hood, Gavan W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,904,488 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4493 Object persistence

Abstract

A system that facilitates generation of a unique identifier comprises a random number generator. A unique identifier creator receives a number generated by the random number generator and object instance data associated with an object. The unique identifier creator utilizes the object instance data and the random number to generate a unique identifier for an object associated with the object instance data.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates generation of a unique identifier, comprising:

a random number generator; and

a unique identifier creator that receives a number generated by the random number generator and object instance data associated with an object, the unique identifier creator utilizes the object instance data and the random number to generate a unique identifier for an object associated with the object instance data.

2. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier creator further employing one or more of object type, machine identity, object structure, object name, object version number, node identity, and MAC address to generate the unique identifier.

3. The system of claim 1, the number generated by the random number generator is pseudo-random.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that associates the unique identifier with the object associated with the object instance data.

5. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier generated in accordance with UUID standards.

6. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier has a size of 128 bits.

7. The system of claim 1, the object is generated in a manufacturing environment.

8. The system of claim 1, the object one of a plurality of objects in an enterprise system.

9. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier creator employs a common set of algorithms to generate the unique identifier regardless of type of whether the object instance data is one or more of a time-stamp and a sequence number.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interrogation component that extracts the object instance data from the generated unique identifier.

11. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier generated at time of creation of the object associated with the object instance data.

12. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier generated at time of creation of the object instance data.

13. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier creator employs archived object instance data to generate the unique identifier.

14. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier is employed in connection with indexing the object associated with the object instance data.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising an extraction component that extracts information from the unique identifier and stores the information within separate fields in a database.

16. The system of claim 1, the object instance data comprises time formatted according to Universal Coordinated Time.

17. The system of claim 1, the object instance data comprises time formatted according to FILETIME.

18. The system of claim 1, the unique identifier creator comprises a conversion component that converts time from a localized time standard to a global time standard.

19. The system of claim 1, the object instance data comprises time formatted according to Greenwich Mean Time.

20. The system of claim 1, the object instance data comprises one or more of a time-stamp, time-related data, a sequence number, and series-related data.

21. A portable computing component device employing the system of claim 1.

22. The system of claim 1, the random number is a pseudo-random number that includes indicia relating to one or more of time of creation of the object and location of creation of the object.

23. The system of claim 1, the random number is a pseudo-random number that includes indicia relating to one or more of class identification, type identification, and inheritance information relating to the object.

24. A method for uniquely identifying an object, comprising:

receiving one or more of a time-stamp and a sequence number that are associated with an object;

receiving a random number; and

employing a combination of the one or more of the time stamp and the sequence number and the random number to generate a unique identifier that uniquely identifies the object.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising embedding the unique identifier within the object.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising linking the unique identifier with the object.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising, receiving a directory call for the object, wherein the unique identifier is generated in response to the directory call.

28. The method of claim 24, the generated unique identifier is in a format in accordance with UUID standards.

29. The method of claim 24, the generated unique identifier has a size of 128 bits.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising utilizing one or more of object name, MAC address, machine identity, node identity, class identity, version type, node identity, and location of creation of the object in connection with generating the unique identifier.

31. The method of claim 24, further comprising indexing the object according to the generated unique identifier.

32. The method of claim 24, further comprising locating the object by extracting information from the generated unique identifier.

33. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

partitioning the unique identifier into a plurality of separate identifying indicia; and

storing such identifying indicia within separate fields of a database.

34. The method of claim 24, further comprising hashing the one or more of the time-stamp and the sequence number.

35. A system for uniquely identifying an object, comprising:

means for obtaining object instance data associated with the object;

means for obtaining a pseudorandom number; and

means for packaging the object instance data with the pseudorandom number to uniquely identify the object.

36. The system of claim 35, further comprising means for interrogating the packaged object instance data and the pseudorandom number.

37. The system of claim 36, further comprising means for extracting the object instance data from the package.

38. The system of claim 35, the package formatted according to UUID standards.

39. The system of claim 35, further comprising means for indexing the object based at least in part upon the package.

40. The system of claim 35, further comprising means for embedding the package within the object.

41. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, comprising a unique identifier embedded within an object, the unique identifier comprises object instance data and a pseudorandom number and uniquely identifies the object.

42. A signal having one or more data packets, comprising:

an object utilized in a manufacturing environment; and

a unique identifier embedded within the object, the unique identifier comprises one or more of a time-stamp, time-related data, a sequence number, and sequence-related data.

43. An enterprise system that utilizes a plurality of objects, comprising:

two or more databases located at two or more disparate locations, the two or more databases comprise a plurality of objects;

a unique identifier creator that generates unique identifiers for the plurality of objects, the unique identifiers comprise object instance data and pseudorandom data; and

a central database that receives objects from the two or more databases and indexes the objects based at least in part upon the generated unique identifiers.

44. The system of claim 43, the unique identifiers generated according to UUID standards.

45. The system of claim 43, the unique identifiers further comprise machine identity, node identity, object type, version number, class type, MAC address, and object name.

46. The system of claim 43, the unique identifier creator generates the unique identifiers based at least in part upon archived object instance data.

47. The system of claim 43, the unique identifier creator generates the unique identifiers at time of creation of the object instance data.

48. The system of claim 43, the unique identifier creator generates the unique identifiers at time of creation of the object.

49. The system of claim 43, the unique identifiers embedded within the plurality of objects.

50. A system that facilitates retrieval of an object in an enterprise environment, comprising:

a central directory that comprises a plurality of unique identifiers, the unique identifiers employed to identify a plurality of objects;

a database that comprises a plurality of objects, the objects associated with unique identifiers that identify the objects, wherein a subset of the unique identifiers comprise object instance data and a pseudo-random number, the database receives a call from the central directory for retrieval of an object based at least in part upon a unique identifier.

51. The system of claim 50, a subset of the unique identifiers are globally unique identifiers.

52. The system of claim 50, further comprising a unique identifier creator that generates the subset of the unique identifiers after the database receives the call from the central directory.

53. The system of claim 50, the unique identifiers are embedded within the plurality of objects.

54. The system of claim 50, the unique identifiers are linked to the plurality of objects.

55. The system of claim 50, the subset of unique identifiers further comprise at least one of MAC address of an object, class type of an object, version number of an object, node identity associated with an object, machine identity associated with an object, and location associated with an object.

56. A system that facilitates searching and indexing of a plurality of objects, comprising:

a database that comprises one or more fields, the one or more fields of the database comprise object instance data; and

a unique identifier creator that utilizes contents of the one or more fields of the database to generate a unique identifier, the unique identifier identifies one of the plurality of objects.

57. The system of claim 56, contents of the one or more fields is replaced within the database by the unique identifier.

58. The system of claim 56, the one or more fields further comprising at least one of a MAC address, an object name, a machine identity, a node identity, an object type, a class type, a version number, and a location.

59. The system of claim 58, fields comprising the at least one of the MAC address, the object name, the machine identity, the node identity, the object type, the class type, the version number, and the location are removed from the database, and the unique identifier is added to the database.

60. A system that facilitates searching and indexing of a plurality of objects, comprising:

a database that comprises a unique identifier, the unique identifier employs object instance data and a pseudorandom number to identifies an object; and

a data expansion component that extracts the object instance data and the pseudorandom number and stores the object instance data and the pseudorandom number in separate fields of the database.

61. The system of claim 60, the unique identifier further employing identifying indicia comprising one or more of a MAC address associated with the object, an object name, a machine identity associated with the object, a node identity associated with the object, an object type associated with the object, a class type associated with the object, a version number associated with the object, and a location associated with the object to identify the object, and the data expansion component extracts the identifying indicia and stores the identifying indicia in separate fields of the database.

62. A method that facilitates data rollup, comprising:

providing two or more databases, the two or more databases comprise a plurality of objects;

associating the plurality of objects within the two or more databases with unique identifiers, the unique identifiers employ at least object instance data and a pseudorandom number to identify the plurality of objects; and

delivering the plurality of objects within the two or more databases to a single database.

63. The method of claim 62, further comprising:

receiving a request to combine contents of the two or more databases into the single database; and

generating the unique identifiers upon receipt of the request.

64. The method of claim 62, the unique identifiers formatted according to UUID standards.

65. The method of claim 62, the unique identifiers being 128 bits in size.

66. A method for indexing objects within an enterprise environment, comprising:

providing a plurality of databases that include a plurality of objects;

providing a central directory that includes an indexation of the plurality of objects based upon unique identifiers, the unique identifiers generated based at least in part upon a pseudorandom number and one or more of a time-stamp and sequence number; and

requesting an object based at least in part upon a unique identifier corresponding to the object.

67. A method for maintaining data persistence within a database, comprising:

providing a database with a plurality of fields;

storing object instance data within at least one of the fields;

generating a unique identifier for an object based at least in part upon the object instance data and a pseudorandom number;

storing the unique identifier in a field within the database; and

erasing the field that previously comprised the object instance data.

68. A method for maintaining data persistence within a database, comprising:

storing a unique identifier within a field of a database, the unique identifier comprising object instance data, pseudorandom data, and one or more of a MAC address, an object name, a machine identity, a node identity, an object type, a class type, a version number, and a location;

partitioning the unique identifier into plurality of portions, the portions corresponding to the object instance data, the pseudorandom data, and the one or more of the MAC address, the object name, the machine identity, the node identity, the object type, the class type, the version number, and the location;

storing the plurality of portions in disparate fields within the database; and

eliminating the field utilized to store the unique identifier.