US 7,617,277 B2
Internet object based remote operation of an industrial controller
Jayme Edwards, Mukwonago, Wis. (US)
Assigned to Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc., Mayfield Heights, Ohio (US)
Filed on Sep. 28, 2007, as Appl. No. 11/864,881.
Application 11/864881 is a continuation of application No. 09/904929, filed on Jul. 13, 2001, granted, now 7,290,030.
Prior Publication US 2008/0077253 A1, Mar. 27, 2008
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 13/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 709—203 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer implemented method wherein a first interface program executing on a remote computer provides an interface screen for an industrial controller, the method comprising:
communicating with the remote computer over the Internet and further communicating with an industrial control system controlling an industrial process through input and output data communicated with the industrial process; and
utilizing a protocol for the communication that provides for at least one of: a discovery instruction to be transmitted from the first interface program that causes a second interface program to provide a list of characteristics of the software objects, a constructor instruction creating an instance of a software object on the Web server, a set property instruction setting a property of a software object on the Web server, an invocation instruction for an invocation of a method of a software object on the Web server, an event subscription instruction causing the receipt by the first interface program of event messages from software object on the Web server, or at least one persistence instruction preserving an instance of a software object on the Web server during a cessation of a communication session on the Internet between the remote computer and the Web server so that the first interface program discovers and instances software objects related to the input and output data and stored on the Web server; whereby the first interface program may use pre-written software objects to implement the interface screen;
wherein the protocol provides for the communication of instructions between the first interface program and the second interface program using a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) protocol.