Patent ID: 7689669

Claim:
A method for accessing a process control automation device from a network client, comprising: sending a call over a data network from a first data processing device to a second processing device using an Internet Protocol Universal Resource Locator (URL) comprising first and second address components, the first address component representing an IP address of the second data processing device, the second address component comprising address data identifying the process control device; in the second data processing device, extracting the address data; and the second data processing device accessing information of the process control automation device via the field bus interface using the address data extracted from the URL in the second data processing device, then formatting the information as a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML) document, and transmitting this document to the network client over the data network; wherein the URL further contains parameters which are provided for controlling the content and/or the format of the output of the information to be retrieved from the process control automation device.