Method and apparatus for communicating transactions between an industrial controller and a programming interface

A computer-implemented method configuring an industrial controller while executing an object-oriented control program interfacing with a controlled process, wherein the control program includes a plurality of objects, comprising:

• (a) communicating a transaction to the industrial controller, the transaction including a grouped plurality of operations, each operation instantiates, deletes, or modifies at least one of the objects of the control program followed by a commit transaction command for the group;
• (b) preprocessing the plurality of operations wherein, for each operation, the preprocessing includes executing the plurality of operations up to a point before any modification of objects that would affect current execution of the control program, then cease preprocessing until the commit transaction command is received, wherein the preprocessing includes the step of checking that the plurality of operations for the multiple objects are within the capabilities of the industrial controller, wherein checking further includes at least one of the steps of:
• checking the state of the existing object, and instantiating a pending object;
• (c) if any of the plurality of operations is not within the capability of the industrial controller, roll back the steps of preprocessing of the operation of all of the multiple objects to return the industrial controller substantially to a state before the preprocessing of the operations;
• (d) only if each of the plurality of operations is within the capability of the industrial controller, complete processing of all of the operations upon receipt of the commit transaction command to change current execution of the control program;
• whereby partial modification of the control program objects during execution of the control program is prevented.

An industrial controller, comprising:

• a memory configured to store an object-oriented application for interfacing with a controlled process, wherein the application includes an object table for storing the state of each object;
• a processing device configured to receive a transaction, the transaction including a grouped plurality of operations affecting multiple objects of the object-oriented application, followed by a commit transaction command for the group,
• wherein, upon receipt of the transaction and while executing the object-oriented application, the processing device is operable to
• (a) preprocess the plurality of operations wherein, for each operation, the preprocessing includes executing the plurality of operations up to a point before any modification of objects that would affect current execution of the control program, then cease preprocessing until the commit transaction command is received, wherein the preprocessing includes the step of checking that the plurality of operations for the multiple objects are within the capabilities of the industrial controller, wherein checking further includes at least one of the steps of:
• checking the state of the existing object, and instantiating a pending object;
• (b) if any of the plurality of operations is not within the capability of the industrial controller, roll back the steps of preprocessing of the operation of all of the multiple objects to return the industrial controller substantially to a state before the preprocessing of the operations;
• (c) only if each of the plurality of operations is within the capability of the industrial controller, complete processing of all of the operations upon receipt of the commit transaction command to change current execution of the control program;
• whereby partial modification of the control program objects during execution of the control program is prevented.