Patent ID: 7971151

Claim:
An integrated graphical user interface for a process control environment, the integrated graphical user interface comprising: a configuration environment; a plurality of graphical element objects included in the configuration environment, each graphical element object corresponding to a data source in the process control environment and including: a visualization defining a visual property of a graphical element corresponding to the each graphical element object when the each graphical element object is implemented in a run-time environment, and at least one element binding defining an element interface between the each graphical element object and the data source in the run-time environment; a plurality of graphical display objects included in the configuration environment, each graphical display object corresponding to a display view presented in the run-time environment and including: an indication of one or more connecting graphical element objects, and one or more display bindings defining a display interface between the each graphical display object and the display view in the run-time environment; a resolution table including: an indication of connections between element bindings and data sources in the process control environment, and an indication of connections between display bindings and display views in the process control environment; the runtime environment including a real-time interface to two or more functional areas of a process plant, the functional areas including operations, maintenance, configuration, and simulation; two or more real-time displays provided by the real-time interface, each of the two or more real-time displays corresponding to a different functional area of the process plant, each of the two or more real-time displays being bound, using the resolution table and a respective display binding, to a respective graphical display object, and each respective graphical display object corresponding to the each of the two or more real-time displays including an indication of a same graphical element object from the plurality of graphical element objects; and a same graphical element corresponding to the same graphical element object, the same graphical element presented on each of the two or more real-time displays and bound, using the resolution table and a respective element binding, to a same data source in the run-time environment.