JP5407938B2 - Program management system and program management method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a program management system and a program management method.

  Conventionally, a technique for automatically updating a computer program (referred to as a program in this specification) and a technique for deleting a program installed in a system are known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for inquiring a server device from a client device whether or not a program needs to be updated or deleted according to the attribute of the program, and displaying the inquiry result on the client device to guide the user. Yes.

JP 2001-356912 A

However, the conventional technique has the following problems when deleting a program from a client device according to the convenience of the program provider. For example, even if the program provider notifies the end of the support period to the user, the user may not delete the program, or the support of the program provider ends but the user's trouble is bothered. There was also a problem of end.
The present invention was created in order to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to reliably delete a program from a client device at any time without bothering the user.

  (1) A program management system for achieving the above object includes a server device that stores program attribute information and an address to which an update program is provided in association with each other, and a program connected to the server device via a communication line. A client management apparatus, wherein the client apparatus actively transmits attribute information of the program to the server, and an address acquisition means receives the address from the server apparatus. And, when the address is received from the server device, update program acquisition means for acquiring the update program from the address, and when the update program is acquired from the address, update means for updating the program by the update program; User's finger And deleting means for starting the program in response to and deleting the program, wherein the server device is storage means for associating and storing the attribute information of the program and the address, and the specific attribute of the program The address associated with the information is associated with the attribute information received when receiving the attribute information of the program from the client device, and storage means for storing an address provided with a startup program that actively activates the deleting means Response means for transmitting the stored address to the client device.

  When the installed program has a specific attribute, the client device according to the present invention actively acquires a startup program that actively starts processing for deleting the program as an update program. Therefore, in the client device, the program updated by the activation program as the update program is automatically executed, and the program is deleted. That is, according to the present invention, since the program is deleted as a result of the automatic program update, the program is surely deleted from the client device at any time desired by the program provider without making the user aware of the program deletion. be able to. Note that “active” means that a direct instruction from the user is not required to activate a specific process (transmission, activation of a process by another program, etc.) executed after the program is activated. As a result of the user starting up the program, it is an active transmission that the attribute information of the program is automatically transmitted to the server as a series of autonomous operations accompanying the activation. Moreover, it is an active start that a deletion means is started as a series of autonomous operation | movement accompanying a start as a result of a user starting a program. According to the present invention, the user can also delete the program at any desired time. Since the program can be deleted at any time desired by the provider of the program by using means for deleting the program when the user desires, the management cost of the program can be reduced.

(2) In the program management system for achieving the above object, the program may be a resident program, and the transmission means may transmit the attribute information of the program to the server at a predetermined interval.
In this case, the program can be kept up-to-date even if the program is not activated by the user, and the program can be deleted for the convenience of the program provider even if the program is not activated by the user. The “predetermined intervals” may be equal intervals or unequal intervals.

  In addition to the program management system described above, the present invention can be specified as a program management method, a program management program invention, or a recording medium for the program. Of course, the recording medium may be a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, or any recording medium that will be developed in the future. Further, the order of the operations described in the claims is not limited to the order of description as long as there is no technical obstruction factor, and may be executed at the same time, may be executed in the reverse order of the description order, or may be continuous. It does not have to be executed in order.

It is a block diagram concerning the embodiment of the present invention. It is a sequence chart concerning the embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In each figure, corresponding components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.
1. Outline First, an outline of an embodiment of a program management system according to the present invention will be described. This system is configured to update or delete a program when desired by a program provider. As shown in FIG. 1, a PC (Personal Computer) 1 serving as a client device, an HTTP redirect server 8, and download servers 9, 10 are used. , 11. The program to be managed by this system is a point management program 112 that gives points to the user according to the number of times the printer 5 has been printed. The program provider sets an address of an update program for updating or deleting the program in the HTTP redirect server 8, and updates for updating or deleting the program in any of the download servers 9, 10, 11 corresponding to the address When the program is saved, the program installed in the PC 1 is automatically updated or deleted.

2. Configuration The PC 1 includes a printer driver 111, a point management program 112, an update control program 113, an uninstaller 114, a hard disk device (HDD) 15 in which various computer programs such as an OS are stored, a RAM 110 in which these programs are loaded, A CPU 12 for executing these programs, a ROM 14 for storing a boot program, an interface (I / F) 13 for connecting them, and the like are provided. The interface 13 is connected to peripheral devices such as the printer 5, the display 2 for operating the PC 1 by the user, the mouse 3, the keyboard 4, and the modem 6.

  The point management program 112 is a resident program that works in conjunction with the printer driver 111, and does not require a user instruction to start some processing during execution. The point management program 112 causes the PC 1 to function as transmission means and address acquisition means according to the present invention. The update control program 113 is a program that realizes a function of updating (overwriting) the point management program 112 stored in the HDD 15 with the update programs 112a and 112b. The update control program 113 is also a program that does not require a user instruction to start some processing during execution. The update control program 113 causes the PC 1 to function as an update program acquisition unit and an update unit according to the present invention. The uninstaller 114 is a program that realizes a function of deleting the point management program 112 stored in the HDD when activated by a user instruction. The uninstaller 114 causes the PC 1 to function as deletion means according to the present invention. The uninstaller 114 is a program that does not constitute a GUI that accepts a user instruction until the point management program 112 is completely deleted after being activated.

  The HTTP redirect server 8 is a computer including a CPU, RAM, ROM, I / F, HDD, and the like. An HDD (not shown) stores a version management table 81, a response program 82, an OS, and the like by a program provider.

  The download servers 9, 10, and 11 are computers including a CPU, RAM, ROM, I / F, HDD, and the like. Update programs 112a and 112b of the point management program 112 are stored in the HDD (not shown) of the download servers 9, 10, and 11 by the program provider. The update program 112a is a program for updating the function of the point management program 112, and the update program 112b is a program for deleting the point management program 112. Hereinafter, the update program 112b is referred to as a startup program.

  The version management table 81 holds the program version, the country of use, the OS used as attribute information of the point management program 112 installed in the PC 1 and the URL for accessing and downloading the corresponding update program in association with each other. . That is, the version management table 81 causes the HTTP redirect server 8 to function as a storage unit according to the present invention. This URL is an address for the download servers 9, 10, and 11 storing the update program to provide the update program. Hereinafter, this URL is referred to as a download address. When the response program 82 receives the attribute information, the response program 82 realizes a function of transmitting a download address corresponding to the received attribute information to the PC 1 that is the attribute information transmission source. That is, the response program 82 causes the HTTP redirect server 8 to function as response means according to the present invention.

3. Program Management Method FIG. 2 is a sequence chart showing a program management method by the program management system described above.
The PC 1 transmits attribute information to the HTTP redirect server 8 at a predetermined timing by the point management program 112 that is always in an execution state (S100). The attribute information is information for uniquely specifying the specification of the point management program 112, and includes the version of the point management program 112, the country of use, the OS, and the like. The timing for transmitting the attribute information is set in advance, such as a specific time on a specific day of the week.

  The HTTP redirect server 8 that received the attribute information uses the response program 82 to compare the received attribute information with the attribute information held in the version management table 81. When the version specified by the received attribute information is older than the version specified by the corresponding attribute information held in the version management table 81, the HTTP redirect server 8 associates the received attribute information with the received attribute information. The downloaded download address is acquired from the version management table 81, and the acquired download address is transmitted to the PC 1 that is the attribute information transmission source (S101). If the version specified by the received attribute information matches the version specified by the corresponding attribute information held in the version management table 81, the HTTP redirect server 8 does not need to update the point management program 112. The notification shown is transmitted to the PC 1 that is the transmission source of attribute information.

When receiving the download address from the HTTP redirect server 8, the PC 1 uses the point management program 112 to start the update control program 113 with the download address as an argument (S102).
The PC 1 terminates the point management program 112 by the activated update control program 113 (S103).

  Next, the update control program 113 causes the PC 1 to access the download address delivered from the point management program 112 via the Internet 7, and download the update program from the download servers 9, 10, and 11 (S104).

Next, the update control program 113 causes the PC 1 to update the point management program 112 with the downloaded update program (S105). Specifically, the data file of the point management program 112 stored in the HDD 15 is overwritten with the data file of the downloaded update program.
Next, the update control program 113 causes the PC 1 to restart the updated point management program 112 (S106).

  When the update program downloaded to the PC 1 is a program for updating the function of the point management program 112, when the point management program 112 is restarted after the update, processing for realizing the updated function is executed. The

When the update program downloaded to the PC 1 is an activation program for deleting the point management program 112, the PC 1 operates as follows.
When the point management program 112 is restarted after the update, the PC 1 starts the uninstaller 114 by the point management program 112 (S107).
The PC 1 terminates the update control program 113 by the activated uninstaller 114 (S108).

Next, the PC 1 deletes the update control program 113 from the HDD 15 by the uninstaller 114 (S109).
Next, the PC 1 terminates the point management program 112 by the uninstaller 114 (S110).

Next, the PC 1 deletes the point management program 112 from the HDD 15 by the uninstaller 114 (S111).
Next, the PC 1 deletes the uninstaller 114 from the HDD 15 by the uninstaller 114 (S112).

  As described above, in the series of processing steps executed by the PC 1, in this embodiment, no dialog for accepting a user instruction is displayed. Further, the point management program 112, which is a resident program, autonomously controls its own update and deletion. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the program provider can delete the point management program 112 from any PC 1 without any trouble of the user. Further, according to the present embodiment, a function for automatically deleting the point management program 112 is added by a process that is not different from normal program update. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when the point management program 112 is deleted for the convenience of the program provider, it is possible to reduce the development cost of the program for deletion and the PR cost for prompting the deletion. Also, since the user can activate the uninstaller 114, the point management program 112 can be deleted when the user desires.

3. Other Embodiments Although the present invention has been specifically described with the embodiment, it is needless to say that the technical scope of the present invention is defined by the scope of the claims and is not limited to the above-described embodiment.
For example, instead of sending the download address from the HTTP redirect server 8 to the PC 1, the version management table 81 and the update program are stored in the server device that receives the attribute information, and the update program corresponding to the received attribute information is sent from the server device to the PC 1. You may send it. In this case, what is stored in the version management table 81 in association with the attribute information is not the URL but the address and data file name in the server device that receives the attribute information. That is, the information transmitted from the server device that received the attribute information to acquire the update program to the client device does not need to be a physical address or a logical address, and may be the update program itself, The file name of the update program may be used.

  In addition, in the process of deleting the point management program 112 after starting the uninstaller 114, a user instruction (for example, a deletion continuation instruction, a cancellation instruction, or a deletion completion confirmation) may be received.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... PC, 2 ... Display, 3 ... Mouse, 4 ... Keyboard, 5 ... Printer, 6 ... Modem, 7 ... Internet, 8 ... HTTP redirect server, 9 / 10.11 ... Download server, 11 ... RAM, 12 ... CPU , 13 ... interface, 14 ... ROM, 15 ... HDD, 81 ... version management table, 82 ... response program, 111 ... printer driver, 112 ... point management program, 112a ... update program, 112b ... update program, 113 ... update control program , 114 ... Uninstaller

Claims (3)

A program management system comprising a server device that associates and stores program attribute information and an address to which an update program is provided, and a client device that is connected to the server device via a communication line and executes the program,
The client device is
Transmitting means for actively transmitting the attribute information of the program to the server;
Address acquisition means for receiving the address from the server device;
When receiving the address from the server device, update program acquisition means for acquiring the update program from the address;
When the update program is acquired from the address, update means for updating the program by the update program;
When the update program is a startup program for deleting the program, a deletion unit that is started by the update program and deletes the program;
With
The server device is
Storage means for storing the program attribute information and the address in association with each other, and an activation program for actively starting the deletion means is provided as the address associated with the specific attribute information of the program. Storage means for storing addresses;
Response means for transmitting to the client device the address stored in association with the received attribute information when receiving attribute information of the program from the client device;
Comprising
Program management system. The program is a resident program,
The transmission means transmits attribute information of the program to the server at a predetermined interval;
The program management system according to claim 1. A program management method by a program management system, comprising: a server device that associates and stores attribute information of a program and an address to which an update program is provided; and a client device that is connected to the server device via a communication line and executes the program Because
The client device is
Actively transmitting attribute information of the program to the server device;
Receiving the address from the server device;
When the address is received from the server device, the update program is acquired from a storage location ,
When the update program is acquired from the address, the program is updated by the update program,
When the update program is a startup program for deleting the program, the update program is started to delete the program,
The server device is
As the address associated with the specific attribute information of the program, an address provided with an activation program that actively activates the program deletion process is stored,
When the attribute information of the program is received from the client device, the address stored in association with the received attribute information is transmitted to the client device.
A program management method.

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