JP2001331314A - Software supplier center, method of distributing software and recording medium recording software distribution program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a software supplier center and a software distribution method, capable of promoting the distribution of software developed in respective fields and a recording medium recording a software distribution program. SOLUTION: A WWW server 4 receives software, which is to be sold from a selling side client terminal 2A and stores the received software in a software storage part 7. After certifying whether the software to be sold satisfies a prescribed registration condition a distribution processing server 5 registers software information received from the client terminal 2A in a software information DB 6. A purchaser retrieves required software, by utilizing a retrieving function of the WWW server 4 from a client terminal 2B and applies the purchase of the software. The server 5 informs the client terminal 2A of the formation of the transaction, based on the application of purchase and transmits the software to be sold to the client terminal 2B.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a software supplier center for mediating the purchase and sale of software executed by a computer, a software distribution method, and a recording medium on which a software distribution program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a software distribution method executed by a computer is based on the fact that software to be sold is recorded on a recording medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk or a CD-ROM by a developer or a developer. Or the method of mail order was taken.

[0003]

However, in the conventional software distribution method described above, the buyer does not know which store or mail order can obtain the desired software, and needs to search for a plurality of sellers. Also, the software developer did not know which store or mail order to search for a buyer. Also,
When developing new software, software developers who want to reduce development man-hours by using already sold software can obtain purchasable software that meets the development specifications at any store or mail order There were problems such as not knowing whether it could be done.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to provide a software supplier center, a software distribution method, and a software distribution method capable of promoting the distribution of software developed in various fields. It is to provide a recording medium on which a program is recorded.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software supplier center for mediating the purchase and sale of software, and a communication means for communicating with the software supplier center. In a software distribution system comprising: a plurality of client terminals for transmitting and receiving information; a software information storage unit for storing software information of a plurality of software for sale received from the client terminal on the seller side; and a software information storage unit for receiving from the client terminal. A search processing unit for searching for software information stored in the software information storage unit according to a search condition; and a client terminal on the seller side based on a purchase application for the software to be sold received from the client terminal on the buyer side. The software to be sold Characterized by comprising a distribution processing means for notifying the transaction conclusion.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the software supplier center includes software storage means for storing a plurality of software to be sold received from the client terminal on the seller side. And the distribution processing means, based on the purchase application,
The software for sale stored in the software storage unit is transmitted to the client terminal on the buyer side.

[0007] According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the distribution processing means comprises:
It is characterized in that whether or not the software to be sold satisfies predetermined registration conditions is authenticated for registration qualification. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect, the registration condition is that the software to be sold is based on a predetermined interface conversion method.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the software information stored in the software information storage means is broadcast to the plurality of client terminals. It is characterized by having public information processing means. The invention according to claim 6 is
In the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the distribution processing means is configured to perform the following based on the purchase application:
The system is characterized in that a collection process is performed for collecting the price of the software to be sold, which is paid from the buyer side to the seller side.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software distribution method, comprising: receiving and registering software information of software to be sold from a client terminal on the seller side;
Searching for the registered software information, and receiving a purchase application for the software to be sold from a client terminal on the buyer side, and notifying the client terminal on the seller side of the successful purchase and sale of the software for sale. It is characterized by including.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the seventh aspect, the software distribution method includes the steps of receiving and storing the software to be sold from the client terminal on the seller side; And transmitting the stored software to be sold to the client terminal on the buyer side based on According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the seventh or eighth aspect, the software distribution method checks whether or not the software to be sold satisfies predetermined registration conditions, and The method may further include the step of performing authentication.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium storing a software distribution program for performing a distribution process in a software supplier center which mediates the purchase and sale of software via communication means, The distribution program includes a process of receiving and registering software information of the software to be sold from the client terminal on the seller side, a process of searching for the registered software information in accordance with a search condition received from the client terminal, and a process on the client side of the buyer. Receiving a purchase application for the software to be sold from a terminal and notifying the client terminal on the seller side of the completion of the purchase and sale of the software to be sold by a computer.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the tenth aspect of the present invention, the software distribution program receives and stores the software to be sold from the client terminal on the seller side; And transmitting the stored software for sale to the client terminal of the buyer based on the computer. Claim 1
The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 11,
The software distribution program checks whether the software to be sold satisfies a predetermined registration condition, and causes the computer to further execute a process of authenticating a registration qualification. Thus, the above-mentioned software supplier center can be realized using a computer.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the software distribution system according to the embodiment. In this figure, 1 is a software supplier center for mediating the purchase and sale of software executed by a computer (hereinafter simply referred to as software), 2A and 2B are client terminals connected to the software supplier center 1 for transmitting and receiving information, Reference numeral 3 denotes a computer network (hereinafter simply referred to as a network) for connecting the software supplier center 1 and the client terminals 2A and 2B, respectively, and may be the Internet. The software supplier center 1 and the client terminals 2A and 2B are connected to the network 3 by communication lines such as telephone lines. The network 3 has a client terminal 2
A plurality of client terminals (not shown) other than A and 2B are connected, and these client terminals also connect to the software supplier center 1 to transmit and receive information.

In the software supplier center 1, 4
The client has a function to provide a homepage by transmitting homepage display data such as an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file, a function to send and receive e-mail, and a function to send and receive files such as software using a file transfer protocol. A WWW server 5 having a function of transmitting and receiving information to and from a terminal via a network 3 is a distribution processing server that performs distribution processing for selling software to be sold by a seller (hereinafter, referred to as software to be sold) to a buyer. , 6
Is a software information database (hereinafter, software information D) that stores software information of a plurality of software to be sold received from a client terminal on the seller side.
B), and 7 is a software storage unit that stores a plurality of software to be sold received from the client terminal on the seller side. The WWW server 4 has a function of searching for software information stored in the software information DB 6, searches for software information according to search conditions received from the client terminal, and returns a result. This allows the buyer to find the desired software.

The software information DB 6 and the software storage unit 7 include a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk device, a magneto-optical disk device, a flash memory, and the like.
Read-only recording medium such as R-ROM, RAM
(Random Access Memory) or a combination thereof. The software information DB 6 and the software storage unit 7 are each built in the software supplier center 1, but are located in another device (database server) (not shown). May access the software information DB 6 or the software storage unit 7.

The software supplier center 1
It is assumed that an input device, a display device, and the like (both not shown) are connected as peripheral devices. Here, the input device refers to an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse. The display device refers to a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), a liquid crystal display device, or the like.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, an operation in which the software supplier center 1 mediates buying and selling of software in the above-described software distribution system will be described. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of a software trading process in the software distribution system. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of software distribution processing performed by the software supplier center 1. In the following description, it is assumed that the client terminal 2A is a client terminal on the seller side, and the client terminal 2B is a client terminal on the buyer side. Further, a plurality of client terminals such as the software supplier center 1 and the client terminals 2A and 2B are connected to the network 3, respectively, and data and the like are transmitted and received via the network 3 unless otherwise specified. Shall be.
The transmission and reception of the data and the like is performed by one of transmission and reception using a homepage provided by the WWW server 4, transmission and reception using an e-mail, and transmission and reception of a file using a file transfer protocol.

First, the software information DB 6 previously stores registration conditions used for checking whether or not the software to be sold is valid as a distribution target. The registration conditions include a basic condition and a specification condition. The basic conditions are attribute information (corresponding middleware version, etc.) regarding the software to be sold, own version, selling price, function, support condition after sale, etc. This is a condition relating to information for a buyer to determine whether or not the software is qualified to be used. The specification condition refers to an inspection criterion such as whether a program is coded based on a predetermined interface conversion method in software to be sold. By distributing software created based on these specification conditions, software developed in each area will have a unified interface specification, and each software will mutually exchange between software developed separately. Will be available.

These registration conditions (basic conditions and specification conditions) are notified in response to requests from client terminals on the seller and buyer sides.
A and 2B have already been notified, and it is assumed that the seller's software to be sold has been created according to the registration conditions.

First, the seller sends a registration application S10 to the software supplier center 1 using the client terminal 2A. The registration application S10 includes the software to be sold and software information of the software to be sold. This software information is information corresponding to the basic conditions among the above-mentioned registration conditions, and is determined in advance by the software supplier center 1 and the client terminal 2.
A is sent in the format notified to A. This registration application S10
Is received, the WWW server 4 stores the received software information in the software information DB 6, stores the software to be sold in the software storage unit 7, and notifies the distribution processing server 5 (step 100). Upon receiving this notification, the distribution processing server 5 checks whether the stored software information satisfies the basic conditions stored in the software information DB 6 and whether the software to be sold satisfies the specification conditions. Perform (Step 101). As a result of this inspection, if the registration condition is not satisfied, the WWW server 4 notifies the client terminal 2A that registration is impossible.

On the other hand, when the registration condition is satisfied, the distribution processing server 5 gives the software information DB 6 the authentication of the registration qualification for the software to be sold and registers the corresponding software information, and the WWW server 4 Registration fee together with registration notification to client terminal 2A via S
11 is transmitted (step 102). Next, when the distribution processing server 5 confirms the remittance of the registration fee from the seller,
The sale permission is set for the software information registered in the software information DB 6 (step 103). The software information for which this setting has been made becomes a search target of the WWW server 4, and is transmitted to the client terminal by the WWW server 4 when the search information matches the search condition received from the client terminal. The buyer uses the search function of the WWW server 4 to search S20 from the client terminal 2B in order to find necessary software from registered software for sale (step 104).

Next, when the buyer finds the desired software by the search S20, the client terminal 2
B sends a purchase application S21 for the software to be sold. Upon receiving the purchase application S21, the distribution processing server 5 transmits a transaction completion notification S12 to the client terminal 2A via the WWW server 4 along with a transaction fee based on the purchase application S21 (step 10).
5, 106). In addition, the client terminal 2B transmits a sales commission and a billing request S22 for a license fee for using the software to be sold (step 107). The usage license fee collected from this buyer is
Is transmitted from the WWW server 4 to the seller. In addition, the sales commission includes operation management costs such as management costs of the software to be sold.

Next, when the distribution processing server 5 confirms the remittance of the price from the buyer, the distribution processing server 5 transmits the transmission target software S23 stored in the software storage unit 7 to the client terminal 2B based on the purchase application S21 by WWW.
The server 4 is made to perform the process (step 108).

In the above embodiment, the client terminals 2A and 2B and the software supplier center 1
The remittances such as registration fees, trading fees, and usage license fees are respectively performed using online payment via the network 3. This online payment may be a transfer to a bank account or a credit card. The remittance confirmation performed by the distribution processing server 5 is performed based on the completion notification of each online payment received via the network 3.

In the above-described embodiment, the distribution processing server 5 publishes the software information newly registered in the software information DB 6 as the latest information on a homepage provided by the WWW server 4 as the latest information for a certain period of time and publicizes it. Is also good.

In the above-described embodiment, the software supplier center 1 is provided with the software storage unit 7, and the distribution processing server 5 is configured so that the distribution processing server 5 receives the purchase application S21 received from the client terminal 2B on the buyer side. Although the software to be sold stored in the software storage unit 7 is transmitted to the client terminal of the above, the software to be sold may be transmitted and received between the seller and the buyer.

In the above-described embodiment, the predetermined interface conversion method includes the steps of converting each interface of a plurality of software used by the software to be sold into a plurality of predetermined interfaces, and using the converted predetermined interfaces. And interfacing the software to be sold with the plurality of software. In the above-described embodiment, examples of software to be sold are described below.

(1) Core components as a framework function for realizing the interface conversion method (a) Basic core components Java executed on a WWW (World Wide Web) server
It is a convenient core component of a program module written in a language. This convenience core component is a common interface part such as a servlet or database. (B) HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) core component This is a core component of an HTML element which is an interface part that provides a function of handling an HTML tag as an object.

(C) Application common core component This is a core component of an interface part that can be commonly used when developing an application program. (D) Sample core component This is a core component that is not included in the application common class package.

(2) Various software component groups created based on the above interface conversion method

When the software to be sold having the unified interface specifications is registered in the software supplier center 1, the software developer can add the software to be sold to the software supplier when newly developing the software. It can be obtained and used from the center 1. That is, the software distribution system according to the above-described embodiment can provide a distribution environment in which software developed in various fields is mutually used.

In the embodiment described above, the software supplier center 1 provides the developer of the software to be sold with the development method, management method, inspection method, development tool, and know-how of using the development tool of the software to be sold. Present or provide. Thereby, the quality of the software to be sold can be maintained.

In the above-described embodiment, when the seller sells under the brand name of the company that installs the software supplier center 1, the software supplier center 1 further satisfies a certain quality. The quality of the software to be sold is guaranteed by checking whether or not the software is available by a predetermined method. Further, when the sales target software is changed by the business operator, the quality of the sales target software changed by a predetermined quality confirmation test is guaranteed.

In the above-described embodiment, the software to be sold transmitted to the buyer after the conclusion of the sale may include the source program, and the buyer may be given the right to update the source program. As a result, new software to be sold can be easily created, and an effect of further promoting the distribution of software according to the present embodiment can be obtained.

Further, a program for realizing each processing performed by the software supplier center 1 shown in FIG. 1 is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on this recording medium is read by a computer system. , The distribution process may be performed. The “computer system” here means
It includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices. The “computer system” also includes a homepage providing environment (or a display environment) if a WWW system is used. The “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a portable medium such as a floppy disk, a magneto-optical disk, a ROM, a CD-ROM, and a storage device such as a hard disk built in a computer system.

Further, a "computer-readable recording medium" refers to a volatile memory (RAM) in a computer system serving as a server or a client when a program is transmitted through a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. ), A program that holds the program for a certain period of time is also included. Further, the above program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by a transmission wave in the transmission medium. Here, the "transmission medium" for transmitting a program refers to a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line. Further, the program may be for realizing a part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can implement | achieve the function mentioned above in combination with the program already recorded on the computer system, and what is called a difference file (difference program) may be sufficient.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to the embodiments, and includes a design and the like within a range not departing from the gist of the present invention. It is.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Receive and register the software information of the software to be sold from the client terminal on the seller side, search for the registered software information according to the search condition received from the client terminal, and apply for purchase of the software for sale from the client terminal on the buyer side Is received and the seller's client terminal is notified of the conclusion of the purchase and sale of the software to be sold, so that the distribution of software developed in various fields can be encouraged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a software distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing a flow of a software trading process in the software distribution system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the software supplier center 1 shown in FIG.

[Description of Signs] 1 Software supplier center 2A, 2B Client terminal 3 Network 4 WWW server 5 Distribution processing server 6 Software information DB 7 Software storage unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification FI FI Theme Court II (Reference) G06F 17/60 504 G06F 17/60 504 (72) Inventor Toshifumi Erikawa 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masayuki Yamada 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Junichi Shichi 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F Inside NTT Data Creation Corporation (72) Inventor Haruhisa Urano 1-8-8 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo No. 15 W Building 15 F NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Ritsu Higashiyama 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15 F NTT Data Data (72) Inventor Daisuke Kido East 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Kyoto W Building 15F Inside NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kiyoka Ishii 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F N・ TTI Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Daigoro Kameyama 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72 ) Inventor Hiroshi Kimura 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kazunari Hirayama 1-8-1 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo No.15 W Building 15F NTT Data Creation Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takashi Fukuyama 1-8-15 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo W Building 15F NTT Data Creation F Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B049 AA02 BB11 CC05 CC08 CC36 DD01 DD05 EE00 EE05 FF03 FF09 GG02 GG04 GG07 5B076 FB02

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A software distribution system comprising: a software supplier center for mediating the purchase and sale of software; and a plurality of client terminals for transmitting and receiving information to and from the software supplier center via communication means. Software information storage means for storing software information of a plurality of software to be sold received from the client terminal, and according to a search condition received from the client terminal,
Search processing means for searching for software information stored in the software information storage means; and the sales target software to the seller side client terminal based on a purchase application for the sales target software received from the buyer side client terminal. And a distribution processing means for notifying the conclusion of the purchase and sale of the software supplier center. 2. The software supplier center includes software storage means for storing a plurality of software to be sold received from the client terminal on the seller side, and the distribution processing means, based on the purchase application, 2. The software supplier center according to claim 1, wherein the software to be sold stored in the software storage unit is transmitted to a client terminal on the buyer side. 3. The distribution processing unit according to claim 1, wherein the distribution processing unit checks whether the software to be sold satisfies a predetermined registration condition and authenticates a registration qualification. The listed software supplier center. 4. The software supplier center according to claim 3, wherein the registration condition is that the software to be sold is based on a predetermined interface conversion method. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a public information processing unit that publicizes software information stored in the software information storage unit to the plurality of client terminals. Software Supplier Center. 6. The distribution processing means according to claim 1, wherein said distribution processing means performs a collection agent processing of a price of said software to be sold paid from said buyer side to said seller side based on said purchase application. 5. The software supplier center according to any one of the above items 5. 7. A step of receiving and registering software information of software to be sold from a client terminal on the seller side, a step of searching for the registered software information according to a search condition received from the client terminal, Receiving a purchase application for the software to be sold from a client terminal, and notifying the client terminal of the seller of the completion of the purchase and sale of the software to be sold, a software distribution method. 8. The software distribution method, comprising: receiving and storing the software to be sold from the client terminal on the seller side; and storing the stored sales target on the client terminal on the buyer side based on the purchase application. The software distribution method according to claim 7, further comprising: transmitting software. 9. The software distribution method according to claim 7, further comprising a step of checking whether the software to be sold satisfies a predetermined registration condition and authenticating a registration qualification. The software distribution method according to claim 8. 10. A computer-readable recording medium recording a software distribution program for performing distribution processing at a software supplier center that mediates software purchase and sale via communication means, the software distribution program comprising: A process of receiving and registering software information of software to be sold from a client terminal; a process of searching for the registered software information according to a search condition received from the client terminal; and a process of searching for the software to be sold from a client terminal on the buyer side. Receiving a purchase application and notifying the client terminal of the seller of the completion of the purchase and sale of the software to be sold; and causing a computer to execute the processing. 11. The software distribution program receives and stores the software to be sold from the client terminal on the seller side, and stores the stored sales target on the client terminal on the buyer side based on the purchase application. 11. The recording medium according to claim 10, further comprising: causing a computer to execute a process of transmitting software. 12. The software distribution program, further comprising: checking whether the software to be sold satisfies a predetermined registration condition, and causing the computer to further execute a process of authenticating a registration qualification. A recording medium on which the software distribution program according to claim 10 or 11 is recorded.