Graphical deployment of a program to a device which displays the program connected to the device

• US 8,185,832 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2007
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• 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., Shah, Darshan, Rogers, Steven W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Doon
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHIAU, SHEN C
• Application Number:
  US11/953,932
• Publication Number:
  US 20080141174A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• Field of Search: 715/763, 715/764, 715/765, 715/771, 715/835, 715/839, 715/847, 715/967, 715/970
• US Class Current: 715/763
• 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 computer-implemented method for deploying a program in a system, wherein the method executes on a first computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of program icons on a display of the first computer system, wherein each of the program icons corresponds to a respective at least one program of a plurality of programs;

displaying a device icon on the display of the first computer system, wherein the device icon corresponds to a device in the system, wherein the device is coupled to the first computer system;

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

wherein the first program and one or more second programs are configured to execute according to a specified relationship, wherein the first program is configured to call the one or more second programs according to the specified relationship, and wherein the one or more second programs have corresponding one or more second program icons;

deploying the first program onto the device in response to said associating, wherein said deploying comprises deploying the one or more second programs onto the device in response to said associating and in response to the specified relationship;

displaying the first program icon connected to the device icon in response to said associating, wherein the first program icon displayed connected to the device icon visually indicates that the first program is deployed on the device; and

displaying the first program icon and the one or more second program icons proximate to the device icon in response to said associating, wherein the first program icon and the one or more second program icons displayed proximate to the device icon visually indicates that the first program and the one or more second programs are deployed on the device.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein said displaying the first program icon comprises modifying the first program icon to visually indicate that the first program is deployed on the device and will be executing on the device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein said displaying the first program icon and the one or more second program icons comprises displaying the one or more second program icons connected to the first program icon.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of programs are comprised in an application;

wherein, when the application executes, the application is operable to invoke the first program on the device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of programs comprise an application, the method further comprising:

modifying the application to invoke the first program on the device in response to said associating;

executing the application after said deploying;

the application invoking the first program on the device during said executing; and

the first program executing on the device.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein said associating the first program icon of the plurality of program icons with the device icon in response to user input comprises dragging and dropping the first program icon onto the device icon.

7. The method of claim 1,

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

8. A non-transitory computer-accessible memory medium comprising program instructions for distributing an application among devices in a system, wherein the application comprises a plurality of programs, wherein the system comprises a plurality of devices, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to implement:

displaying a plurality of program icons on a display of a first computer system, wherein each of the program icons corresponds to a respective at least one program in the application;

displaying a plurality of device icons on the display of the first computer system, wherein each of the device icons corresponds to a device in the system;

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

wherein the first program and one or more second programs are configured to execute according to a specified relationship, wherein the first program is configured to call the one or more second programs according to the specified relationship, and wherein the one or more second programs have corresponding one or more second program icons;

deploying the first program onto the device in response to said associating, wherein said deploying comprises deploying the one or more second programs onto the device in response to said associating and in response to the specified relationship;

displaying the first program icon connected to the device icon in response to said associating the first program icon with the device icon, wherein the first program icon displayed connected to the device icon visually indicates that the first program is deployed on the device; and

displaying the first program icon and the one or more second program icons proximate to the device icon in response to said associating, wherein the first program icon and the one or more second program icons displayed proximate to the device icon visually indicates that the first program and the one or more second programs are deployed on the device.

9. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

modifying one or more of an appearance or a position of the first program icon to visually indicate that the first program is deployed on the device and is executable on the device, wherein said modifying is performed in response to said associating.

10. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

displaying the first program icon proximate to the device icon in response to said associating;

wherein the first program icon displayed proximate to the device icon visually indicates that the first program is deployed on the device.

11. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8,

wherein said displaying the plurality of device icons further comprises displaying connections between the plurality of device icons, wherein the displayed connections indicate physical couplings between the devices.

12. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8,

wherein, when the application executes, the application is operable to invoke the first program on the device.

13. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

modifying the application to invoke the first program on the device in response to said associating; and

executing the application after said deploying, including the application invoking the first program on the device during said executing, and the first program executing on the device.

14. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8,

wherein said associating the first program icon of the plurality of program icons with the device icon in response to user input comprises dragging and dropping the first program icon onto the device icon.

15. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 8,

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