Patent ID: 8731895

Claim:
A method comprising: determining whether a device manager for a field device in a process control system is available, the device manager configured to define a configuration of the field device; and in response to determining that the device manager for the field device is unavailable: generating a user interface based on a device description and configuration parameters associated with the field device, the device description for the field device including a device description or electronic device description (DD/EDD) file, the DD/EDD file including the configuration parameters for the field device; receiving, via the user interface, a request associated with the field device; providing the request to an emulator, the emulator emulating the device manager for the field device; and providing the request from the emulator to a communication device type manager (DTM) using an emulated device DTM, wherein the communication DTM is configured to communicate the request to the field device over a communication link using a specified protocol.