Systems, methods and articles of manufacture to provide a search service to a process control system

A method to provide a search service to users of a process control system, the method comprising:

• collecting information from the process control system at a field device integration (FDI) server, the collected information including searchable items associated with a plurality of field devices of the process control system;
• publishing the collected information to a search database maintained by the FDI server;
• requesting an update service via the FDI server in response to receiving a search request, the search request including a user search profile and a search query of the searchable items in the search database;
• collecting updated information from the process control system at the FDI server in response to the requested update service;
• publishing the updated collected information to the search database;
• modifying the search query via the FDI server based on the user search profile;
• searching the searchable items via the FDI server based on the modified search query;
• filtering results of the search via the FDI server based on a filter condition included in the user search profile;
• and
• returning at least a portion of the collected information and the updated collected information via the FDI server based on the user search profile and the filter condition.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause a field device integration (FDI) server to at least:

• collect information from a process control system, the collected information including searchable items associated with a plurality of field devices of the process control system;
• publish the collected information to a search database maintained by the FDI server;
• request an update service in response to receiving a search request, the search request including a user search profile and a search query of the searchable items in the search database;
• collect updated information from the process control system in response to the requested update service;
• publish the updated collected information to the search database;
• modify the search query based on the user search profile;
• search the searchable items based on the modified search query;
• filter results of the search based on a filter condition included in the user search profile;
• and
• return at least a portion of the collected information and the updated collected information based on the user search profile and the filter condition.