Configuration system using security objects in a process plant

A method for controlling access to items capable of being associated with a process plant, comprising:

• providing a user interface to facilitate configuration of a group of items, each item in the group of items capable of representing at least one of:
• a process entity within the process plant and used in a process control routine for controlling or monitoring at least a portion of the process plant, or
• one or more steps to be performed by one or more process entities within the process plant and used in the process control routine or in another process control routine for controlling or monitoring the at least the portion of the process plant;
• receiving via the user interface user input data indicating that access to the group of items is to be limited;
• and
• setting a value of a parameter included in an object corresponding to the each item in the group of items to indicate that access to the group of items by a configuration application is to be limited.

A configuration system for facilitating configuration of a process plant, comprising:

• a computer readable medium;
• a processor in communication with the computer-readable medium;
• a database to store an object capable of being representative of at least one of:
• a process entity used in a process control routine within the process plant, the process control routine used in controlling or monitoring at least a portion of the process plant, or
• one or more steps to be performed by one or more process entities used in the process control routine or in another process control routine within the process plant, the another process control routine used in controlling or monitoring the at least the portion of the process plant;
• and
• a configuration routine stored on the computer-readable medium and configured to be executed by the processor to:
• provide a user interface to facilitate configuration of the object,
• receive via the user interface user input data indicating that access to the object by a viewing or configuration application is to be limited, and
• set a value of a parameter included in the object to indicate that access to the object by a viewing or configuration application is to be limited.

A configuration system for facilitating configuration of a process plant, comprising:

• a computer readable medium;
• a processor in communication with the computer-readable medium;
• a database to store a group of items, each item in the group of items capable of representing at least one of:
• a process entity used in a process control routine within the process plant for controlling or monitoring at least a portion of the process plant, or
• one or more steps to be performed by one or more process entities used in the process control routine or in another process control routine within the process plant for controlling or monitoring the at least the portion of the process plant;
• and
• a configuration routine stored on the computer-readable medium and configured to be executed by the processor to:
• provide a user interface to facilitate configuration of the group of items,
• receive via the user interface user input data indicating that access to the group of items is to be limited, and
• set a value of a parameter included in each object corresponding to each member of the group of items that access to the group of items by a configuration application is to be limited.