Internationalization of objects executable in a supervisory process control and manufacturing information system

• US 20020198971A1
• Filed: 06/24/2002
• Published: 12/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Software, LLC (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Wonderware Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Mody, Pankaj H., Kasajian, Kenneth, Resnick, Robert M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0421 Multiprocessor system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

An application object for a supervisory process control and manufacturing information system application distributable to a plurality of networked computer devices and having a layered architecture, the application object comprising a set of text entries listed in a first language, a dictionary within each object drafted to enable the set of text entries to be translated into a plurality of multiple languages, and a set of one or more translation fields for storing text in each of the plurality of languages corresponding to the set of text entries listed in the first language.

Claims

1. An application object for a supervisory process control and manufacturing information system application distributable to a plurality of networked computer devices and having a layered architecture, the application object comprising:

a set of text entries listed in a first language;

a set of dictionaries within each object drafted to enable the set of text entries to be translated into a plurality of languages; and

a set of one or more translation fields for storing text in each of the plurality of languages corresponding to the set of text entries listed in the first language.

2. The application object of claim 1 wherein the supervisory process control and manufacturing system further comprises engine objects that host execution of the application objects in a run-time environment and platform objects that host one or more engine objects.

3. The application object of claim 2 wherein the platform objects correspond to a physical computer system component for executing the engine objects and associated application objects.

4. The application object of claim 1 wherein the application object communicates with other application objects on the same computing device through engine objects and communications across a network of computing devices are supported by the platform objects, thereby insulating communications between application objects from the topology of a computer system within which the application objects execute.

5. The application object of claim 1 wherein the supervisory process control and manufacturing information system application comprises a plurality of application objects, and wherein the plurality of application objects are associated to particular physical computing devices.

6. The application object of claim 5, wherein a view of the distribution of the plurality of application objects is provided.

7. The application object of claim 1, wherein the object is derived from at least one template and wherein the templates specify containment of at least one other template.

8. The application object of claim 7, wherein the at least one other template is capable of specifying a parent template from which the at least one other template inherit characteristics including subsequent changes to a parent template after specifying a child template.

9. The application object of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of fields.

10. The application object of claim 9, wherein the plurality of fields comprise a name, an executable, a set of attributes and a dictionary.

11. The application object of claim 9, wherein the plurality of fields correspond to primitives that are specific to the application object and contain-the business specific logic unique to the application object.

12. The application object of claim 1, wherein the information system application further comprises a language setting selectable by end users.

13. The application object of claim 12, wherein the language setting can be selected at runtime.

14. The application object of claim 1, wherein the set of first text entries comprises a context definition.

15. The application object of claim 1, wherein the set of first text entries comprises a maximum characters declaration.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the dictionary comprises one or more types of information selected from the group consisting of standard menus, editors, dialog boxes, user applications and operator messages.

16. A method of constructing an application object comprising:

creating an object shape comprising a plurality of files;

forming and modifying a dictionary;

appending the dictionary to the files within the object shape; and

generating a custom editor comprising one or more editor controls.