The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 16, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 04, 1997
Murali Parthasarathy, Austin, TX (US);
Omid Sojoodi, Austin, TX (US);
National Instruments Corporation, Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A method for developing an automation client program in a graphical programming environment. The graphical programming environment provides a set of automation nodes and controls which may be dropped and connected together to create a graphical program. The nodes include an automation refnum which references a user-selected automation class from an automation type library exported by an automation server application; an automation open node which instantiates an object from the selected automation class; an automation invoke node which invokes a user-selected method of the automation class; and an automation property node which reads or writes user-selected properties of the automation class. The nodes enable the displaying, manipulating, cataloging, editing or performance other operations, such as may be performed by an automation server, on data acquired or generated by a virtual instrument. The method also performs class propagation and type propagation checking of automation objects in a graphical program. The automation class of a first automation node is propagated from the first node to a second automation node when the two nodes are wired together or when the automation class of the first node is changed to a second class. The automation invoke node and automation property node perform type checking to verify that the user-selected method or property is valid for, or defined by, the automation class of the node.