JP2000010796A - Method for obtaining utilizing data of application on information processor, its information processor and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for efficiently obtaining sufficient utilizing data required for executing utilization trend investigation, effect measurement and advertizing medium value evaluation concerning various kinds of applications on an information processor. SOLUTION: At the time of starting an application 20 being the monitoring object of a monitoring process 10 resident in the information processor, the process 10 inserts a library only for monitoring 20L, event information generated at the application 20 is obtained by the library 20L, and this obtained event information is transmitted to the process 10. Based on event information obtained by the process 10, the process 10 prepares utilization data and stores this prepared utilization data in a file.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for acquiring usage data of an application on an information processing apparatus.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method, a device, and a recording medium for acquiring usage data of an application on an information processing device such as a computer in order to apply to usage trend research, Internet media effect measurement, and advertising media value evaluation technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the W
Network services such as WW and e-mail have also penetrated ordinary households. Along with this, personal computers with a network communication function have spread, and general home appliances such as televisions with a network communication function have been integrated with computers.

[0003] In a server-client type network communication service in which an information server provides a service in accordance with a request from an information terminal, when the use status of the service is to be obtained, a method of recording the information server side at present is the mainstream. It is. Each time an information terminal makes a request to the information server, the content of the provided service, user information,
Usage data such as time is recorded in the corresponding information server.

[0004] On the other hand, the operating system on the information terminal side may have a function of recording the usage status of the service, but the usage data for each application is highly dependent on the application, so that the error data and the like are extremely limited. Only information can be obtained. FIG.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional method when an application operating on an information terminal acquires usage data.

[0005] Conventionally, when an application operating on an information terminal acquires usage data, the application shown in FIG.
The three methods of the inter-process communication method, the library replacement method, and the application modification method shown in (3) are adopted. In the inter-process communication method illustrated in FIG. 1A, a plurality of monitoring processes 1 perform data communication with each other via an operating system, and the state of a predetermined application 2 in the predetermined monitoring process 1 is changed by another monitoring process. 1 is a method that can be known.

For example, Microsoft Windows
In the sOS, an inter-process communication method called an OLE method or a DDE method can be realized. When a WWW browser is used as an application, acquiring page address information or the like being displayed by making an inquiry from an external process. Can be. The library replacement method shown in FIG. 1 (2) replaces a library, which is a group of functions called from the application 2a, with a library 2aL having a monitoring function.
In this method, the history of function calls from the application 2a can be known on the library 2aL side.

[0007] For example, Microsoft Windows
sOS Wsock32. dll is replaced with a communication library having a monitoring function with the same name as a communication library having a monitoring function. By this replacement, a history of calling various functions of the library from a WWW browser can be acquired. The application remodeling method shown in FIG. 1 (3) is a method of recording usage data necessary for the application 2b itself in the usage history file 3 by using the remodeled application 2b.

[0008]

However, FIG.
In the case of the conventional inter-process communication method shown in (1), recording and publishing of the use history generally does not directly benefit the user, so that it is difficult to implement the function as an original function of the application and only obtain limited data. There is a problem that it is often impossible.

In the case of the conventional application modification system shown in FIG. 1 (3) or the conventional library replacement system shown in FIG. 1 (2), modification must be made for each application or library. There is no problem. In addition, since a modification must be made for each application or library and then redistributed, a large cost is required. In particular, recently, since the version of the application is frequently updated, the above-mentioned problems have become remarkable.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is necessary and sufficient for conducting a usage trend survey, effect measurement, and advertising medium value evaluation for various applications on an information processing apparatus including an information terminal. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of acquiring usage data of an application on an information processing apparatus capable of efficiently acquiring various usage data, and a recording medium on which the information processing apparatus and the program are recorded.

[0011] Efficient acquisition of usage data is to acquire usage data for any application without modifying the application itself.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is configured as follows. The present invention relates to a method for acquiring usage data of an application on an information processing apparatus, wherein when an application to be monitored by a monitoring process resident in the information processing apparatus is started, a library dedicated to monitoring is executed based on an instruction of the monitoring process. A monitoring-dedicated library inserting step, wherein the monitoring-dedicated library acquires event information generated by the application, and an event information transmitting step of transmitting the acquired event information to the monitoring process; and Based on the event information thus obtained, the monitoring process has a usage data storage step of creating usage data and saving the created usage data in a file.

According to the present invention, a monitoring-only library is inserted into an application and event information is intercepted.
Detailed usage data can be obtained. In the above configuration, in the event information transmission step, the monitoring-only library interrupts between the application and the operating system or between the application and the library, and acquires event information generated in the application in a manner intercepted on the way. Then, the interpretation and selection of the event may be performed based on the application-specific processing.

According to the present invention, detailed usage data can be obtained only by changing the application-specific processing without modifying the application. Further, in the above configuration, when one monitoring process monitors a plurality of applications, the monitoring-dedicated library inserted in each application aggregates usage data generated by the application into the one monitoring process. It may be.

According to the present invention, usage data of a plurality of applications can be efficiently acquired. Also,
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention may be configured as follows. The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for acquiring usage data of an application, wherein a monitoring-dedicated library is inserted based on an instruction of the monitoring process when starting an application to be monitored by a monitoring process resident in the information processing apparatus. Monitoring dedicated library inserting means, event information generated by the application, the monitoring dedicated library acquires the event information, and event information transmitting means for transmitting the acquired event information to the monitoring process; and the event information acquired by the monitoring process On the basis of the,
The monitoring process has usage data storage means for generating usage data and storing the generated usage data in a file.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention may be configured as follows. The present invention is a computer-readable recording medium recording a program for obtaining application usage data on an information processing apparatus, the program being used to start an application which is a monitoring target of a monitoring process resident in the information processing apparatus. Occasionally, the monitoring-dedicated library inserts a monitoring-dedicated library based on an instruction of the monitoring process, and the monitoring-dedicated library acquires event information generated by the application, and transmits the acquired event information to the monitoring process. The monitoring process creates usage data based on the event information transmitted by the monitoring process, and the usage data saving procedure of saving the created usage data in a file based on the event information acquired by the monitoring process. Let it run.

In these inventions, the same effects as described above can be obtained.

[0018]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an information processing apparatus 101 for acquiring application use data according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This figure also
3 shows a state (initial processing) of the information processing apparatus 101 when an application is started. In this embodiment, the information processing apparatus 101 is, for example, a personal computer PC1. An application in the information processing apparatus 101 acquires usage data. Monitoring process 10 resident in information processing apparatus 101
However, when the application 20 to be monitored is started,
Issue an instruction to load the monitoring dedicated library 20L,
In response to this command, the application 20 loads the monitoring-only library 20L.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a state (monitoring state) of the information processing apparatus 101 when an application is executed. The monitoring-dedicated library 20L transmits event information (information such as contents of provided services, user information, time, etc.) necessary for collecting usage data among events generated in the operating system OS between the application 20 and the operating system OS. , Interrupt,
It is acquired in a form intercepted (between the application 20 and the operating system OS) on the way, and the event is selected based on the application-specific processing described later, and the selected event is interpreted. The information is transmitted to the sequential monitoring process 10. The monitoring process 10 creates usage data based on the acquired event information, and saves the created usage data in the usage history file 30.

Here, the application-specific processing will be described. 1 that can be used to monitor 20L
There are various types of next information (event information). For example, if it is a WWW browser application,
As the event between the S-browser, for example, (event name) (meaning) WM_COMMAND {pressing the button of the browser WM_DDE_EXECUTE} ... instruction from another application WM_KEYDOWN {input from the keyboard WM_SETTEXT}多数 A lot of information such as changes in character strings such as file addresses can be obtained.

However, since the data to be used is only a part of the data, information for selecting the data is required, and a process of converting the information into data required as the usage data is required. become. This is called application-specific processing. For example, among the above, when only the file address is necessary as the use data, a procedure of “extracting only the WM_SETTEXT event from a large number of events, extracting its argument, and recording it as a file address” is application-specific processing. .

Note that instead of interrupting between the application 20 and the operating system OS to acquire event information (referred to as a first method), instead of interrupting between the application 20 and the library 25, interception is performed on the way. May be used to acquire event information (referred to as a second method). These methods will be described with reference to FIG.

The first method is represented by steps A1 and A2. In step A1, event information generated by the operating system OS is stored in the monitoring-only library 20L.
Then, the event information is passed to the application 20 as step A2. The second method is a method represented by steps B1 and B2. By rewriting the first few bytes of a function such as the send function in the library 25 (step B1), the processing is jumped to the monitoring-dedicated library (step B2).
The monitoring-dedicated library acquires the arguments of functions such as the nd function.

In the library 25 shown in FIG. 3, various functions necessary for the operation of the application are shared as functions, and are stored in a file separate from the application. Therefore, the functions are not particularly limited. All of the basic processing such as reading and writing of files, transmission and reception via a network, and various screen displays is realized by the library 25.

The target of the embodiment is wsock
32. dll is a library for network communication. This library contains functions for data communication on the Internet. Email, WW
Most Internet applications, such as W browsers and file transfers, use this library. As a function, send @ send data to the destination computer recv @ receive data from the destination computer gethostname ... find the destination computer connect @ create a connection state, etc. , About 50 types are included.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an information processing apparatus 102 according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and shows a state (monitoring state) when a plurality of applications are executed. The information processing apparatus 102 is configured by, for example, a personal computer PC2. As shown in the figure, one monitoring process 1
0 monitors a plurality of applications 21, 22, and 23, the monitoring dedicated libraries 21 L, 22 L, and 23 L inserted in each application 21 to 23 use the usage data generated by the applications 21 to 23 in one monitoring process. Consolidate to 10.

Next, the above-described embodiment will be described by taking as an example a case where a WWW browser is used as an application. WWW browser is a WW on the Internet
An application that obtains information stored in the W server through a network and browses the obtained information. In this case, the unit of information to be browsed is a page, and the “page” is a set of information mainly composed of one or more elements described in the HTML language. Each element constituting the above information set is provided with an address indicating a position in an information space called a URL.

A user uses a WWW browser to access a URL
You can view information by using and specifying the desired page. In addition, pages can be associated with each other by hyperlinks, and when a user presses a hyperlink displayed on the page, related information can be traced one after another. WWW is a service of a server client system, and the basic operation at the time of referring to a page is as follows.

(1) A request is sent from a browser as a client to a server. (2) The server receives the request from the client,
A page corresponding to this request is sent back as a response. (3) The browser receives the response and displays it on the screen.
This series of transmission / reception procedures is defined as the HTTP protocol.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of usage data in each of the above embodiments, and is a diagram showing items useful as usage data of a WWW browser. FIG. 6A shows information that can be obtained by the inter-process communication method, but FIG.
(D) is information that cannot be obtained. According to the above embodiment, the monitoring-dedicated libraries 21L to 23L are loaded into the applications 21 to 23, and the monitoring-dedicated libraries 20L to 23L monitor various input events transmitted from the OS to the WWW browser. ),
Information resulting from the input operation as shown in (C) can be obtained.

The "input event" is, for example, mouse click of a button, character input into an input field, use of a menu bar, or the like. In addition, applications 21 to 23
The monitoring-dedicated libraries 21L to 23L loaded in
By monitoring function call events relating to network transmission and reception exchanged between the WWW browser main body and the communication library, operation information inside the applications 21 to 23 as shown in FIG. 6D can be obtained.

Next, in the above embodiment, the browser shown in FIG. 6 (D) transmits the file address (URL) to the server.
And the address (UR) of the requested file.
7 is a block diagram showing an information processing apparatus 103 according to a third embodiment of the present invention, in which the request file history is monitored by a WWW browser. FIG.

The information processing device 103 is, for example, a personal computer P
C3. As shown in FIG.
0, a WWW browser 50, and a usage history file 30. The WWW browser 50 is a browser body 51
, Communication library 52, and monitoring-only library 20L
And FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation of monitoring the requested file history by the WWW browser in the information processing apparatus 103. The operation will be described with reference to FIG.

The monitoring process 10 resident in the information processing apparatus 103 waits until the WWW browser 50 starts. Then, the WWW browser 50 is operated by the user.
Is started (S1), the communication library 52 (for example, Wsoc in the case of Microsoft Windows OS)
k32.dll) are sequentially loaded. When the control thread 11 of the monitoring process 10 knows that the WWW browser 50 has been started (S2), it requests the WWW browser 50 to load the monitoring dedicated library 20L (S3).

The loaded monitoring library 20L is stored in the communication library 52 in the runtime memory space.
Rewrite the program at the beginning of the browser body 51
Between the monitoring library 2 and the communication library 52
0L itself is inserted (S4). When the control thread 11
The monitoring thread 12 for receiving event information from the monitoring dedicated library 20L in the WW browser 50 is activated.

When the user specifies a target page, the WWW browser 50 issues a file request to an external server using a network transmission function (usually a send function) in the communication library. This function call event is sent to the communication library 52 after passing through the monitoring dedicated library 20L (S5). Specifically, when the function processing in the communication library 52 ends, a function end event passes through the monitoring dedicated library 20L,
It is transmitted to the browser main body 51.

Then, when the function call event or the function end event passes, the monitoring library 20L selects a function based on the browser-specific information and holds necessary argument information (S6). To get the requested file address, use the network send function (usually sen
d function), the protocol name (eg, http) and the host name (eg, ww) included in its arguments
w. company. com) and a file name (for example, index.html).

Then, the monitoring library 20L sends the held information to the monitoring thread 12 (S7). Specifically, the monitoring thread 12 adds and processes information as needed based on the obtained primary information, and creates usage data. In this case, the obtained protocol name, host name,
Enter the file name in a URL format (eg, http: // www
w. company. com / index. html)
And adds the window identifier information and the request time information. The monitoring thread 12 sends the created usage data to the writing thread 13 (S8), and the writing thread 13
Writes the obtained usage data into the usage history file 30 (S9).

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an information processing apparatus 104 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention, showing an operation of monitoring a requested file history of the WWW browser 50. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an operation when a plurality of WWW browsers 50 are executed. The information processing device 104 includes, for example, a personal computer PC4. As shown in the figure, the information processing apparatus 104 has a monitoring process 10a, a usage history file 30, WWW browsers 50a, 50b, 50c, and an operating system OS. Monitoring process 10a
Has a monitoring thread 12a, 12b, 12c and a writing thread 13. WWW browsers 50a, 50
b and 50c are monitoring-only libraries 50a, respectively.
L, 50bL and 50cL.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a usage data file obtained in the usage data obtaining apparatus 104 for an application. When a plurality of browsers 50a to 50c are executed in one information terminal, the processing of steps S2 to S5 is performed for each browser, and the same number of monitoring threads 12a as the number of WWW browsers 50a to 50c are performed.
To 12c are activated. Each monitoring thread 12a
12c transmits usage data to one writing thread 13.

According to each of the above embodiments, the monitoring-specific library is inserted into the application, the event information is intercepted, the application-specific processing is changed, and only the first few bytes of the function in the communication library are rewritten. Detailed usage data can be obtained without modifying the application. Specifically, the application-specific processing in the above embodiment is (1) w
This is a process of selecting only the send function from about 50 types of functions included in sock32 · dll, and (2) a process of retaining a protocol name, a host name, and a file name among arguments of the send function.

As described above, the information processing apparatus of the present invention
The present invention can be realized by a personal computer equipped with a program for performing the processing described above. Further, the information processing apparatus of the present invention can be realized by a general computer system other than the personal computer. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of such a computer system. As shown in FIG. 1, the computer system includes a CPU 200 for executing processing according to a program, a memory 201 for storing data and programs, an external storage device 202 for storing data and programs, a display 203, a keyboard 204, and a network such as the Internet. And a communication processing device 205 that enables connection with the communication device. The computer system can be used as the information processing apparatus of the present invention by installing the program for performing the processing described above in the computer system.

Further, the present invention can be applied to an information processing apparatus other than a computer system, and can efficiently use data of the information processing apparatus. Next, the computer-readable recording medium of the present invention will be described. The computer-readable recording medium of the present invention is as follows in this embodiment. That is, when the WWW browser is started by the user, the control thread of the monitoring process detects this, and the control thread requests the WWW browser to load the monitoring dedicated library. A procedure of rewriting the program at the head of the communication library by the loaded monitoring-only library, and inserting the monitoring-only library itself between the browser main body and the communication library; The control thread starts a monitoring thread for receiving event information from the monitoring dedicated library, and the started monitoring thread establishes a connection with the communication library. If specified, use the network transmission function in the communication library,
A procedure in which the WWW browser issues a file request to a server and sends the function call event to the communication library via the monitoring-dedicated library;
A procedure in which the communication library selects a function based on browser-specific information when a function call event or a function end event passes, and retains necessary argument information, and the communication library monitors the retained information. The monitoring thread adds and processes information, if necessary, based on the procedure for sending to the thread and the obtained primary information, and creates the usage data. Is a recording medium storing a program having a procedure for sending to a writing thread and a procedure for writing the obtained usage data to a usage history file by the writing thread.

By loading a program recorded on the recording medium into a general-purpose computer system as shown in FIG. 11, for example, the computer system can be used as the information processing apparatus of the present invention. This recording medium can be realized by a CD-ROM, a magnetic disk, a hard disk, an electronic memory, and the like. Further, the memory 201 and the external storage device 202 shown in FIG. 11 are also examples of the recording medium of the present invention.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, a WWW browser is taken as an example of an application.
In addition, the present invention is applicable to, for example, word processing software and spreadsheet software. Also, Windows is taken as an example of the OS of the computer.
The present invention is of course applicable to IX and the like.

[0046]

According to the present invention, by inserting a monitoring-only library into an application and intercepting event information, it is possible to obtain detailed usage data only by changing application-specific processing without modifying the application. It has the effect of being able to do so.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional method when an application operating on an information terminal acquires usage data.

FIG. 2 is an information processing apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a state 1 when an application is activated (initial processing).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a state when an application is executed (monitoring state) in the information processing apparatus 101.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method in which a monitoring dedicated library interrupts;

FIG. 5 is an information processing apparatus 10 according to a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second example.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of usage data in each of the above embodiments, showing items useful as usage data of a WWW browser.

FIG. 7 is an information processing apparatus 10 according to a third embodiment of the present invention;
3 is a block diagram illustrating an operation of monitoring a requested file history by a WWW browser. FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation of monitoring a requested file history by a WWW browser in the information processing apparatus 103.

FIG. 9 is an information processing apparatus 10 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;
FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a usage data file obtained in the information processing apparatus 104.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a computer system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 monitoring process 2 application 3 usage history file 101 to 104 information processing device 10, 10a monitoring process 11 control thread 12 monitoring thread 13 writing thread 20 to 23 application 20L to 23L monitoring dedicated library 25 library 30 usage history file 40 input device 50 WWW Browser 51 Browser main body 52 Communication library 200 CPU 201 Memory 202 External storage device 203 Display 204 Keyboard 205 Communication processing device

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method for acquiring usage data of an application on an information processing apparatus, the method comprising: when starting an application to be monitored by a monitoring process resident in the information processing apparatus; A monitoring-dedicated library insertion stage in which a library is inserted; an event information transmission stage in which the monitoring-dedicated library acquires event information generated in an application; and the acquired event information is transmitted to the monitoring process. Based on the obtained event information, the monitoring process includes creating usage data and storing the created usage data in a file. 2. The event information transmitting step includes the step of intercepting the event information generated in the application or the operating system by interrupting the monitoring-only library between the application and the operating system or between the application and the library. The method of claim 1, further comprising: interpreting and selecting events based on application-specific processing. 3. When one monitoring process monitors a plurality of applications, a monitoring-dedicated library inserted into each application collects usage data generated by the application or the operating system into the one monitoring process. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises: 4. An information processing apparatus for acquiring usage data of an application, wherein a monitoring-dedicated library is inserted based on an instruction of the monitoring process when starting an application to be monitored by a monitoring process resident in the information processing apparatus. Monitoring dedicated library inserting means, event information generated by an application or an operating system, the monitoring dedicated library acquires the event information, and event information transmitting means for transmitting the acquired event information to the monitoring process. An information processing apparatus, wherein the monitoring process has usage data storage means for generating usage data based on the acquired event information, and storing the generated usage data in a file. 5. The event information transmitting means intercepts event information generated in the application or the operating system in the middle by interruption of the monitoring-only library between the application and the operating system or between the application and the library. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the information processing apparatus is a means for performing interpretation and selection of an event based on application-specific processing. 6. When one monitoring process monitors a plurality of applications, a monitoring-dedicated library inserted into each of the applications aggregates usage data generated by the application or the operating system into the one monitoring process. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the information processing is performed. 7. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for acquiring usage data of an application on an information processing apparatus is recorded, wherein the program is a monitoring target of a monitoring process resident in the information processing apparatus. At the time of startup, the monitoring-dedicated library acquires the monitoring-dedicated library insertion procedure in which the monitoring-dedicated library is inserted based on the instruction of the monitoring process, and the event information generated by the application or the operating system. An event information transmitting procedure to be transmitted to the monitoring process, and the monitoring process creates usage data based on the event information acquired by the monitoring process, and stores the created usage data in a file. Steps and the computer A recording medium characterized by being executed by a computer. 8. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for acquiring usage data of a WWW browser on an information processing apparatus, the program comprising: a monitoring process when a user activates the WWW browser. And the control thread requests the WWW browser to load the monitoring-dedicated library by detecting this. The program at the beginning of the communication library is loaded on the runtime memory space. A procedure for rewriting the monitoring-dedicated library and inserting the monitoring-dedicated library itself between the browser body and the communication library, and a monitoring thread for receiving event information from the monitoring-dedicated library in the WWW browser, The control thread is activated and the activated monitoring thread The procedure for establishing a connection with the communication library described above, and when the user designates a target page, the network transmission function in the communication library is used to transmit the W to the server.
A procedure in which a WW browser issues a file request and sends the function call event to the communication library via the monitoring dedicated library, and based on the browser-specific information at the time of passing a function call event or a function end event, A procedure in which the communication library selects functions and retains necessary argument information; a procedure in which the communication library sends the retained information to the monitoring thread; and, if necessary, based on the obtained primary information. A procedure in which the monitoring thread adds and processes information and creates usage data; a procedure in which the monitoring thread sends the created usage data to a writing thread; A computer that records a program for causing a computer to execute the procedure for writing to the usage history file and Over data-readable recording medium.