Patent ID: 7752283

Claim:
A server for engineering an automation system, comprising: a remote client comprising a Web browser; a storage system in the server, in which files are stored in a first format that cannot be processed by the Web browser, the files being needed or created for engineering the automation system; a communications interface in the server via which the remote client accesses the files, wherein the interface comprises first means for converting and transmitting the remote client a copy of selected ones of the files in a second format comprising HTML or DHTML or XML or JavaScript or SVG, that can be processed by the Web browser of the remote client, and the interface comprises second means for receiving files created or modified from each remote client, converting the received files into the first format, and storing the received files into the storage system in the first format; wherein the selected ones of the files in the second format are modified by the remote client; wherein the access management device prioritizes access to the given file by assigning different access priorities to different clients, locks the given file for access by an earliest requesting client until a later requesting client requests the given file, then compares the access priorities of the earliest and later requesting clients, and if the later requesting client has higher access priority than the earliest requesting client, notifies the earliest requesting client that access to the given file will be switched to the later requesting client, otherwise continuing to reserve the given file for the earliest requesting client; and wherein the first format is not HTML and not DHTML and not XML and not SVG and not JavaScript.