Patent ID: 7353221

Claim:
A method for automatic retrieval, in an automation system, of engineering data from a runtime system for an engineering system, and restoring representatives of the automation objects in the engineering system, the automation system including a multiplicity of individual runtime automation objects in the runtime system, the runtime automation objects have no direct reference to any associated engineering objects in the engineering system, the method comprising: supplying, by each of the automation objects, an identifying designation of a type of respective representative to the engineering system; creating, via the engineering system, said representatives for the designated types and, for each of the representatives, entering a reference to the corresponding automation object; reading out each representative read out engineering information from the object into the representative using the reference; and restoring each of the representatives by entering said information into itself; wherein in a first step for the restoration of device representatives in the engineering system, the method further includes, supplying, for devices on which the automation objects run, an identifying designation of a type of respective device representative to the engineering system, creating, via the engineering system, corresponding device representatives for the designated types and entering, for each of the device representatives, a reference to the device, and having, based upon the reference, each device representative read out engineering information from the device, and in a second step for the restoration of representatives of the automation objects in the engineering system, the method further comprises, supplying, via the automation objects, an identifying designation of a type of respective representative to the engineering system, creating, via the engineering system, corresponding representatives for the designated types and, for each of the representatives, entering a reference to the automation object, and having, based upon the reference, each representative read out engineering information from the automation object.