A communications application that acts as a data server between one or more industrial devices and a client-side application is capable of detecting and uploading device description files from the industrial devices themselves. Upon discovery of an industrial device communicatively connected to a client device's communication port, the communications application determines whether a device description file for the discovered device is registered. If no device description file is registered for the industrial device, or if the discovered file is newer than a previously registered file, the communications application initiates an upload of the device description file from the industrial device if the file is stored on the device. Upon completion of the upload, the device description file is registered, thereby allowing the communications application to display information about the device and to manage data exchange between the industrial device and the client-side application.

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing an icon for display by a user interface from an automation device that the icon depicts. Specifically, present embodiments are directed to methods and systems capable of detecting, with processing circuitry of an automation device, a shell program on a workstation via an automation control network. Further, embodiments are capable of providing icon configuration data to the shell program from the automation device, wherein the configuration data controls characteristics of an icon representative of the automation device for display in a visualization of the workstation.

A system and method of connecting remotely located machine tools over the Internet. An agent-adapter architecture is used to transform the machine tools into IoT devices in a connected group that communicates with each other for exchanging their status information and executing operations remotely over the Internet.

A communications application that acts as a data server between one or more industrial devices and a client-side application is capable of detecting and uploading device description files from the industrial devices themselves. Upon discovery of an industrial device communicatively connected to a client device's communication port, the communications application determines whether a device description file for the discovered device is registered. If no device description file is registered for the industrial device, or if the discovered file is newer than a previously registered file, the communications application initiates an upload of the device description file from the industrial device if the file is stored on the device. Upon completion of the upload, the device description file is registered, thereby allowing the communications application to display information about the device and to manage data exchange between the industrial device and the client-side application.