CONFIGURING A TEXTUAL LANGUAGE PROGRAM ON A FIRST DEVICE TO INVOKE A GRAPHICAL PROGRAM ON A SECOND DEVICE

• US 20090259972A1
• Filed: 06/24/2009
• Published: 10/15/2009
• 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 8,397,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/810
• 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 graphically configuring a program, wherein the method executes on a first computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a first program icon on a display of the first computer system, wherein the first program icon corresponds to a first graphical program, wherein the first graphical program is stored on a first device, wherein the first graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicates functionality of the first graphical program;

displaying source code of a second program on the display of the first computer system, wherein the source code of the second program is of a text-based programming language, wherein the second program is stored on a second device;

associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program at a first location in response to user input; and

inserting new source code into the second program at the first location, wherein the new source code is executable on the second device to invoke execution of the first graphical program on the first device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a second program icon on the display, wherein the second program icon corresponds to the second program; and

associating the first program icon with the second program icon in response to user input;

wherein said displaying the source code of the second program on the display of the first computer system is automatically performed in response to said associating the first program icon with the second program icon.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein said associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program comprises positioning the first program icon at the first location in the source code of the second program in response to user input.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein said associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program comprises:

displaying the first program icon in the source code of the second program; and

positioning the first program icon in the source code of the second program at the first location in response to user input.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the new source code comprises a function call to the first graphical program.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein, when the second program executes on the second device, the new source code executes to invoke execution of the first graphical program on the first device.

7. A computer accessible memory medium that stores program instructions for graphically configuring a program, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor to:

display a first program icon on a display of the first computer system, wherein the first program icon corresponds to a first graphical program, wherein the first graphical program is stored on a first device, wherein the first graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicates functionality of the first graphical program;

display source code of a second program on the display of the first computer system, wherein the source code of the second program is of a text-based programming language, wherein the second program is stored on a second device;

associate the first program icon into the source code of the second program at a first location in response to user input; and

insert new source code into the second program at the first location, wherein the new source code is executable on the second device to invoke execution of the first graphical program on the first device.

8. The computer accessible memory medium of claim 7, wherein the program instructions are further executable to:

display a second program icon on the display, wherein the second program icon corresponds to the second program; and

associate the first program icon with the second program icon in response to user input;

wherein said displaying the source code of the second program on the display of the first computer system is automatically performed in response to said associating the first program icon with the second program icon.

9. The computer accessible memory medium of claim 7,

wherein said associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program comprises positioning the first program icon at the first location in the source code of the second program in response to user input.

10. The computer accessible memory medium of claim 7,

wherein the program instructions executable to associate the first program icon into the source code of the second program comprise program instructions executable to:

display the first program icon in the source code of the second program; and

position the first program icon in the source code of the second program at the first location in response to user input.

11. The computer accessible memory medium of claim 7,

wherein the new source code comprises a function call to the first graphical program.

12. The computer accessible memory medium of claim 7,

wherein, when the second program executes on the second device, the new source code executes to invoke execution of the first graphical program on the first device.

13. A system for graphically configuring a program, comprising:

means for displaying a first program icon, wherein the first program icon corresponds to a first graphical program, wherein the first graphical program is stored on a first device, wherein the first graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually indicates functionality of the first graphical program;

means for displaying source code of a second program, wherein the source code of the second program is of a text-based programming language, wherein the second program is stored on a second device;

means for associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program at a first location in response to user input; and

means for inserting new source code into the second program at the first location, wherein the new source code is executable on the second device to invoke execution of the first graphical program on the first device.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for displaying a second program icon, wherein the second program icon corresponds to the second program; and

means for associating the first program icon with the second program icon in response to user input;

wherein said means for displaying the source code of the second program automatically performs said displaying the source code of the second program in response to association of the first program icon with the second program icon.

15. The system of claim 13,

wherein said associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program comprises positioning the first program icon at the first location in the source code of the second program in response to user input.

16. The system of claim 13,

wherein said means for associating the first program icon into the source code of the second program comprise:

means for displaying the first program icon in the source code of the second program; and

means for positioning the first program icon in the source code of the second program at the first location in response to user input.

17. The system of claim 13,

wherein the new source code comprises a function call to the first graphical program.

18. The system of claim 13,

wherein, when the second program executes on the second device, the new source code executes to invoke execution of the first graphical program on the first device.