Data socket system and method for accessing data sources using URLs

(54) DATA SOCKET SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACCESSING DATA SOURCES USING URLS

(75) Inventor: Paul F. Austin, Austin, TX (US)

(73) Assignee: National Instruments Corporation,

Austin, TX (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term ol this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/185,161

(22) Filed: Nov. 3, 1998

Related U.S. Application Data

(60) Provisional application No. 60/065,557, filed on Nov. 14, 1997.

(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 15/16

(52) U.S. CI 709/217; 709/218; 709/219

(58) Field of Search 709/217, 218,

709/219

(56) References Cited

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OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Instrumentation Relerence and Catalogue 1997, Test and Measurement Industrial Automation Internet-Ready Software Development, pp 2-91-2-92.

* cited by examiner

Primary Examiner—Krisna Lim

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Conley, Rose & Tayon PC; Jeffrey C. Hood

(57) ABSTRACT

AData Socket client and associated applications and/or tools which provide programs with access to data from various sources and having various types or formats, wherein the access is provided invisibly to the user. The Data Socket client allows the user or program to access any data source available on the user's machine as well as data anywhere on a network, such as a LAN, WAN or the Internet. In the prelerred embodiment, the Data Socket client addresses data sources or I/O sources using a URL (uniform resource locator), much the way that a URL is used to address web pages anywhere in the world. The present invention also includes new Data Socket URLs which allow the user to access I/O sources.

110 Claims, 17 Drawing Sheets