Patent ID: 8056056

Claim:
An apparatus for configuring a process control system, the apparatus comprising: a database containing an object, referred to herein as an “ancestor object ,” in a program adapted to execute on a digital data processing device, the ancestor object representing an entity in any of a controlled process, process control system, control level hierarchy, and apparatus for configuring the control system, the ancestor object including parameters, referred to herein as “ancestor object parameters,” reflective of one or more entities that compose an entity represented by the ancestor object, the program facilitating (i) any of creation and modification of a configuration of any of a control system and a system controlled thereby and (ii) display of at least a portion of such a configuration, the configuration including: one or more other objects, referred to herein as “descendant objects,” derived from the ancestor object, the one or more descendant objects being associated with parameters, referred to herein as “descendant object parameters,” derived from the parameters of the ancestor object, the descendant object parameters being reflective of one or more entities that compose an entity represented by the respective descendant object, at least one of the descendant object parameters including any of a function and a display characteristic for the one or more entities that compose the entity represented by the ancestor object; wherein the program facilitates tracking a change history of the ancestor object.