Accessing and updating a configuration database from distributed physical locat ons within a process control system

摘要

A process control system distributed between a first and second physical location which are geographically separated has a database storing configuration data at each of the locations. The locations are coupled, by a slow communication link eg a low bandwidth network. A configuration application adapted to perform a configuration activity communicates with the first database to retrieve a first item of data and with the second database to retrieve a second item of data. The control system may include subscription software associated with the first database that automatically detects changes made to items of data in the first configuration database and sends a note to the configuration application when the application is using the changed item of data. The configuration application may be associated with the second database to subscribe to the first database. The elements of the databases may be textual strings in different languages and the configuration application may include a software for converting the languages. The data elements may include numeric values that identify the string which is used to convert the language of the text and the elements may be stored in a unicode format.