Configuration diagram which displays a configuration of a system

• US 7,984,423 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2002
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• 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: Shah, Darshan, Kodosky, Jeffrey L., Rogers, Steven W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao; Thuy
• Application Number:
  US10/113,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20030184596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,396 Days
• Field of Search: 717/121, 717/123, 717/113, 717/109, 717/108, 717/105, 717/125, 702/119, 715/810, 715835-839
• US Class Current: 717/113
• 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 displaying a configuration of a system, wherein the system comprises a plurality of devices, wherein the system also comprises a plurality of programs, 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;

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 icon to indicate that the respective program corresponding to the respective program icon is stored on the respective device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each device icon has an appearance which visually indicates a type of the respective device corresponding to the device icon.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each program icon has an appearance which visually indicates a type of the respective program corresponding to the program icon.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically detecting one or more devices present in the system;

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

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

coupling a new device to the system;

automatically detecting the new device coupled to the system;

automatically displaying a new device icon on the display corresponding to the new device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically detecting one or more programs present in the system;

wherein said displaying the program icons includes automatically displaying one or more programs icons corresponding to the one or more programs automatically detected in the system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing a new program on a first device in the system;

automatically detecting the new program installed on the first device;

automatically displaying a new program icon on the display corresponding to the new program.

8. The method of claim 7,

wherein the new program icon is automatically displayed proximate to a first device icon corresponding to the first device.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein said displaying the plurality of device icons includes displaying a first computer system device icon corresponding to the first computer system.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing a new program on the first computer system;

automatically detecting the new program installed on the first computer system;

automatically displaying a new program icon on the display corresponding to the new program.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

wherein said displaying the plurality of device icons includes displaying a first computer system device icon corresponding to the first computer system;

wherein the new program icon is displayed proximate to the first computer system device icon.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically detecting one or more couplings between 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 couplings between devices automatically detected in the system.

13. The method of claim 1,

wherein at least a subset of the plurality of device icons are displayed in response to user input.

14. The method of claim 1, 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.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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 device icons.

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 (e.g., USB or IEEE 1394) or a wireless connection.

18. The method of claim 1,

wherein the displayed connections visually indicate a type of data or material being transferred between the devices.

19. The method of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of programs are configured to execute according to a specified relationship;

wherein said displaying the plurality of program icons on the display comprises displaying the plurality of program icons to visually indicate the specified relationship of the plurality of programs.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

displaying connections between the plurality of program icons to visually indicate the specified relationship of the plurality of programs.

21. The method of claim 19,

wherein the specified relationship comprises one of an object-oriented relationship or a hierarchical relationship.

22. The method of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of programs include one or more graphical programs.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a first program corresponding to a first program icon in response to user input selecting the first program icon.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a first program corresponding to a first program icon in response to user input selecting the first program icon;

receiving user input to edit the first program after said displaying the first program.

25. The method of claim 1,

wherein a first program icon corresponds to a first graphical program;

the method further comprising;

displaying the first graphical program in response to user input selecting the first program icon.

26. The method of claim 25,

wherein the first graphical program comprises a plurality of node icons which are connected to visually indicate operation of the first graphical program;

the method further comprising;

graphically associating one or more program icons with one or more of the node icons in response to user input to specify that one or more programs are invoked by the first graphical program.

27. The method of claim 1,

displaying text information proximate to at least one of the plurality of device icons indicating information regarding the at least one of the plurality of device icons.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying geographic location information proximate to at least one of the plurality of device icons indicating a geographic location of at least one device corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of device icons.

29. The method of claim 1,

wherein a first device is located remotely from other devices in the system, wherein the first device has a first device icon;

the method further comprising;

displaying geographic location information proximate to the first device icon indicating a geographic location of the first device.

30. The method of claim 1,

wherein said displaying program icons comprises displaying program icons proximate to a respective device icon in response to user selection of the respective device icon.

31. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system comprises the first computer system and one or more devices coupled to or comprised in the first computer system.

32. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system comprises the first computer system and one or more devices remotely coupled to the first computer system over a network.

33. The method of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of devices are coupled to each other over a network.

34. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system is a measurement system comprising the first computer system and one or more measurement devices coupled to or comprised in the first computer system.

35. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system is a measurement system, wherein the plurality of devices include at least one measurement device;

wherein the plurality of programs perform a measurement function.

36. The method of claim 35,

the method further comprising executing the plurality of programs in the system, wherein said executing comprises:

a first program executing on the measurement device to acquire a signal;

the measurement device providing the signal to the first computer system; and

a second program executing on the first computer system to analyze and/or display the signal.

37. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system is an automation system, wherein the plurality of devices include at least one automation device;

wherein the plurality of programs perform an automation function.

38. The method of claim 37,

the method further comprising executing the plurality of programs in the system, wherein said executing comprises:

a first program executing on the automation device to acquire a signal;

the automation device providing the signal to the first computer system; and

a second program executing on the first computer system to analyze and/or display the signal.

39. The method of claim 37,

the method further comprising executing the plurality of programs in the system, wherein said executing comprises:

a first program executing on the automation device to generate a control signal.

40. The method of claim 37,

wherein the automation system is a process control system.

41. The method of claim 1,

wherein the system is a simulation system, wherein the plurality of devices include a first device which includes a simulation program;

wherein the first device executes the simulation program to simulate a product being designed.

42. The method of claim 41,

the method further comprising executing the simulation program on the first device, wherein said executing comprises:

the first device acquiring a signal;

the first device providing the signal to the first computer system; and

the first computer system analyzing and/or displaying the signal.

43. The method of claim 1,

wherein said displaying program icons proximate to respective ones of the plurality of device icons includes:

associating a first program icon of the plurality of program icons with a first device icon in response to user input, wherein the first program icon corresponds to a first program and wherein the first device icon corresponds to a first device; and

deploying the first program onto the first device in response to said associating.

44. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the plurality of programs in the system; and

animating one or more of the;

plurality of device icons, the connections, or the program icons, during said executing to visually indicate operation of the system.

45. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the plurality of device icons, the connections, and the program icons compose a configuration diagram;

the method further comprising;

executing the plurality of programs in the system; and

animating the configuration diagram during said executing to visually indicate operation of the system.

46. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first computer system is one of the plurality of devices.

47. A memory medium comprising program instructions for displaying a configuration of a system, wherein the system comprises a plurality of devices, wherein the system also comprises a plurality of programs, wherein the memory medium is comprised in a first computer system, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:

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;

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.

48. A system which displays a configuration diagram, the system comprising:

a first computer system comprising a display;

one or more devices coupled to or comprised in the first computer system;

a plurality of programs, wherein each of the programs is stored in one of the first computer system or one of the devices;

wherein the display of the first computer system is operable to;

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

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

display 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.