JPH06187172A - Electronic mail driven type job operation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute a job execute operation in the configuration of an electronic mail even by a user without any knowledge of a host computer by making the user input necessary items, and transmitting it to the host computer. CONSTITUTION:An electronic mail driving type job operation program 5 is equipped with a mail communication control 6 which operates a mail communication with an electronic mail system 2 and a content analysis, authorization inspection 7 which inspects whether or not an electronic mail user and the request content can be accepted, user authorization management information 8 which stores authorization information to be inspected by the authorization inspection 7, and job execution control 9 which controls the input of a job or the cancel of the execution. At the time of the job execution request, the designated job is read from a JCL file 10, and inputted to a host computer system 1. Then, when the execution start request time of the job is designated, a job input time when the job is inputted is decided, and when the time comes, the control of the input of the job is operated. The job execution request is stored in an execution waiting state until the input time comes.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail drive type job execution control system for requesting a host computer to execute a business job from an electronic mail terminal. Concerning the method of operating.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a host computer is requested to execute a business job from a remote location, remote batch or TSS is used.
Was using. In either case, job execution request, job status display / change, job result confirmation, etc. must be performed using the command of the connected host computer.

On the other hand, personal computers such as personal computers and word processors have become widespread in recent years, and a so-called electronic mail system for connecting these computers organically to make contact has appeared. It has become possible for non-specialized users to request the host computer to execute business jobs. A known example of a method of requesting a host computer to execute a business job via this electronic mail system is described in JP-A-1-67672.

[0004]

In the prior art as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-67672, only a job can be requested and the execution result can be confirmed.

However, the user is not limited to simply submitting the result and obtaining the result. When submitting a job, the user does not want to execute until what time, wants to finish it, and so on. A fine-grained job execution service is required, such as wanting to cancel the execution request if it is hanging, or increasing the priority when the job requested by himself is waiting for a long time.

In such a case, since the user is not an expert of the host computer system, these job execution service requests need to take the form of instructions by e-mail.

It is an object of the present invention to specify a job execution start / completion request time and to execute a job execution operation such as cancellation of a requested job in an electronic mail driven job execution system.
It is to provide a user who does not have knowledge of a host computer with a means for executing in the form of electronic mail.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a job execution request bibliography for an electronic mail terminal,
It comprises a bibliography for changing the time information of a requested job, a bibliography for canceling a job execution request, and a bibliography for changing a job execution priority, and a means for allowing a user to input necessary information and transmitting it to a host computer.

Further, the host computer is provided with means for decoding the contents of the bibliography transmitted from the electronic mail terminal. Further, it is provided with user authority management information, and means for checking the authority as to whether or not the requested contents of the user and the bibliography are permitted, and further, job input, job time information change,
E-mail job execution control means for controlling job execution cancellation, job execution priority change, and job execution result transmission is provided.

In addition, the host computer has a JCL (Job Control) that describes the execution contents of the job specified by e-mail.
l Language) storage means, which is read by the e-mail job execution control means, changed as necessary, and input to the host computer.

The e-mail terminal user fills in the job execution request bibliography with the necessary items for job execution and sends it to the host computer. At this time, the execution start request time and the execution completion request time are specified in addition to the items such as the name and input parameter of the business job executed by the host computer. The e-mail job execution control program of the host computer is a means for analyzing the contents of the job execution request bibliography from the e-mail terminal, an authority checking means for checking whether the user and the request can be accepted, and inputting the requested job to the host computer. And means for transmitting the execution result bibliography to the electronic mail terminal. Also,
Job execution request If the execution start / completion request time is specified in the bibliography, determine the time at which the job should be entered, wait for the job execution request until that time, and enter the job at the time to enter A waiting control means is provided.

[0012]

In the e-mail driven job operation system of the present invention, the user creates a job execution request bibliography from the e-mail terminal and sends it to the host computer. In the host computer, first, the user authority checking means refers to the contents of the user registry to check whether or not the request can be accepted based on the user's usage authority information.

If the request can be accepted, the electronic mail job execution control means performs the following processing according to the request.

(1) In the case of a job execution request, the designated job is read from the JCL storage means and input to the host computer. If the job execution start request time or the execution completion request time is specified, the job input time when the e-mail job execution control means should enter the job is determined, and when that time is reached Performs control to input a job. The job execution request is stored as an execution waiting state until the job input time.

(2) In the case of a request to change the execution start time or the execution completion time of the requested job, it is realized by changing the information stored in the execution waiting state in (1).

(3) In the case of an urgent execution request, a job is input after the initiator is activated so that the OS can immediately execute the job even if the initiator for executing the job does not have a free space.

(4) In the case of the execution cancellation request, when the job is stored in the execution waiting state, the execution request is invalidated. If the job has already been input, the OS command is issued to cancel the execution of the job.

(5) In the case of the execution priority change request, when the job is stored in the execution waiting state, the specified execution order is recorded, and the JCL at the time of job input is entered.
To reflect the input. O if the job has already been entered
Issue the S execution priority change command.

As described above, the job execution control instruction bibliography from the electronic mail terminal is interpreted and controlled by the electronic mail job execution control program of the host computer so that a user who has no knowledge of the host computer can access the electronic mail terminal. It is possible to instruct job execution request and execution control with a simple operation.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a constitutional example showing the features of the electronic mail driven type job operation system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a host computer system, 2 is an electronic mail system, 3 is an electronic mail terminal, 4 is an operating system (OS), and 5 is an electronic mail driven job operation program for realizing the present invention. is there. The e-mail driven job operation program is an e-mail communication control that performs e-mail communication with the e-mail system and content analysis 6, an authority inspection 7 that inspects whether the e-mail user and the requested content can be accepted, an authority inspection User authority management information 8 that stores authority information for inspection, job execution control 9 that controls job input and execution cancellation, and job control statements that job execution control 9 uses when inputting a job ( Job Control Language: JCL)
And a JCL file 10 for storing a job execution control table (JCT) 11.

The electronic mail system 2 includes an OS 13 for controlling the operation of the electronic mail system 2 and an electronic mail terminal 3.
There are a mail exchange 14 for receiving and distributing mails from, a request bibliography 15 such as a job execution request, and a mail box 16 for storing the request bibliography 15.

First, the outline of the operation of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The user activates the e-mail system from the e-mail terminal 3, writes the necessary information such as the job name and the execution start request time in the request bibliography 15 which is the operation request form for the job, and then the host computer system 1 Send.

In the host computer system 1, when the request bibliography is transmitted to the mail communication control 6 via the OS 4, the authority check 7 first operates to read the user authority management information 8 and request the transmitted request. Check whether the original user is permitted.

If permitted, job execution control 9
Performs the following processing depending on the content of the request.

(1) In the case of a job execution request, the designated job is read from the JCL file 10 and input to the host computer. If the job execution start request time or the job execution completion request time is specified, the job input time when the email job execution control means should input the job is determined, and when the time comes, the job input is performed. Control. For this reason, the job execution request is stored in the JCT 11 until the job input time arrives, a timer is set, and the job is input when the job input time comes.

(2) In the case of a request for changing the execution start time or the execution completion time of the requested job, it is realized by changing the information stored in the JCT 11 and resetting the timer.

(3) In the case of an urgent execution request, a job is input after the initiator is activated so that the OS4 can immediately execute the job even if the initiator for executing the job does not have a free space.

(4) In the case of the execution cancellation request, when the job is stored in the JCT 11 as the execution waiting state, the execution request is invalidated. If the job has already been input, the OS command is issued to cancel the execution of the job.

(5) In the case of the execution priority change request, when the job is stored in the JCT 11 as an execution waiting state, the specified execution order is recorded and reflected in the JCL at the time of job input. To do. If the job has already been input, the OS4 execution priority change command is issued.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an operation request bibliography relating to jobs stored in the mailbox 16 connected to the electronic mail terminal 3.

20a is a job execution request form, which is a job name,
Input parameters, execution start request time, execution completion request time,
Enter the execution priority.

Reference numeral 20b denotes a requested job time information change request form in which the job name, the changed execution start request time, and the changed execution completion request time are entered.

Reference numeral 20c is a job execution cancellation request form in which the job name is entered.

Reference numeral 20d is a job execution priority change request form in which the job name and the changed job execution priority are entered.

Requested job time information change request form 20b
The job execution priority order change request form 20d can be made into one bibliography as a requested job information change request form.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the contents of the user authority management information 8. The following information is stored for users who use the e-mail driven job operation method of the present invention.

(1) Executable job name (30a) (2) Execution start request time designation / change possibility (30b) (3) Execution completion request time designation / change possibility (30c) (4) Execution priority order designation / Allowability (30d) (5) Urgent job designation availability (30e) In (2), (3), and (4), designation availability and changeability are separated as separate information, and designation is possible. However, it is possible to set such that the change is denied.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the contents of JCT11. The following information is stored for users who use the e-mail driven job operation method of the present invention.

(1) Execution request job name (40a) (2) Execution start request time (40b) (3) Execution completion request time (40c) (4) Execution priority (40d) (5) Presence or absence of urgent job designation (40e) (6) Whether or not the job has been input (40f) (7) Timer id of the timer set at the time when the job should be input (40g) These information are the contents specified by the user in the job execution request form. It is created based on and is held until the job execution start request time arrives. In the meantime, the requested job time change request form 20b and the job execution cancellation request form 2 from the same requester
0c, when the job execution priority change request form 20c is transmitted, the contents of the JCT 11 are updated according to the contents specified in the bibliography. Particularly, in the case of a request for changing the execution start request time, a process of resetting the timer until the execution start set for each job is performed.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of the mail communication control 6. The email communication control 6 is provided by the email terminal 3
Processing for receiving the job request from the user and returning the acceptance result and the job execution result to the electronic mail terminal 3. First, in process 6a, the job request from the electronic mail terminal 3, the reply notification from the job execution control, and the end notification of the electronic mail driven job operation program 5 are waited. In the case of the job request from the electronic mail terminal in the determination 6b, the job execution control 9 is notified in the processing 6c. If it is not a job request in the determination 6b, it is checked in the determination 6d whether it is a reply notification from the job execution control 9. If it is, a reply bibliography is created in the process 6e and returned to the electronic mail terminal 3 in the process 6f. Finally judged 6g
Check whether the termination of the e-mail drive type job operation program 5 is requested, and if it is required, it is terminated. If the end is not requested, the process returns to the process 6a and waits for the next notification.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart of the job execution control 9. The job execution control 9 is a program that executes the main processing of the email-driven job operation program, manages the creation, modification, and deletion of the JCT 11 based on the job request notified from the email communication control 6, and inputs the job. The job execution completion processing is performed, and the mail communication control 6 is notified of the reply of the result to the job request.

First, in process 701, a job request from the mail communication control 6, a timer elapse, and an end notification of the requested job are waited for. In the determination 702, any one of the job execution request, the job change request, and the job cancellation request from the mail communication control 6 is checked, and if yes, a process 703 executes the authority check. In the determination 704, the inspection result of the process 703 is checked, and if there is no authority, a reply notification of no authority is sent to the mail communication control in the process 705. If the user has the authority, it is determined in the determination 706 whether or not it is a job execution request.

First, in step 707, the JCT 11 is created. At decision 708, refer to 40e of JCT11 to check whether it is an urgent job request, and if so, in step 709, start the initiator and prepare an environment for the job to start immediately, then in step 710, input the job and At 711, a reply notification of job input completion is sent to the mail communication control 6.
If it is not an urgent job in the judgment 708, the time to input the job is determined in the process 712, the timer is set using the timer function of the OS in the process 713, and the timer id returned from the OS is stored in 40 g of JCT11. After that, process 7
At 14, the mail communication control 6 is notified of a reply notice of acceptance of the request.

If it is judged at 706 that the job is not a job execution request, JCT 11 is checked at step 715 to find an entry of the requested job. If there is no entry in the determination 716, a reply notification indicating that the requested job does not exist is sent to the mail communication control 6 in processing 717.

If there is an entry in decision 716, decision 7
At step 18, it is checked whether the job change request is made. If so, the job status is checked with reference to 40f of JCT11 of the job in judgment 719, and it is judged whether or not the job is in the non-input status. In the case of no input, J according to the change contents requested in the process 720
The entry of the job in CT11 is updated. After that, the processing after the determination 708 is executed in order to execute the processing of the updated contents. If it is not in the uninput state in the determination 719, it has already been input and only the execution priority order can be changed. In the determination 721, it is checked whether or not it is a request for changing the execution priority order, and if not, a reply notification of addition of change is sent to the mail communication control 6 in processing 722. In the case of a request for changing the execution priority order in the determination 721, an OS command for changing the execution priority order of the input job is input in process 724, and a reply completion notification is sent to the mail communication control 6 in process 724. If the job change request is not made in the determination 718, the request is a job cancel request, and therefore the process 725 is performed. Process 725
Then, 40f of JCT 11 is checked, and if it is not input, the JCT entry of the job is deleted, and if it is input, an OS command for canceling the execution of the job is input.

If the processing request is neither a job execution request, a job change request, nor a job cancellation request in the decision 702, it means that either the timer has elapsed or the job has ended.

First, in step 727, the job entry in JCT 11 is searched. At this time, if it is a timer elapse notification, 40 g of JCT 11 is searched based on the notified timer id, and the entry of the job is obtained. In the case of a job end notification, 40a of JCT11 is searched for the job entry based on the notified job name. Next, at decision 728, it is checked whether or not the notification indicates that the timer has elapsed. If yes, a job input process is executed at step 729, and at step 730 a reply notification indicating that the job input is completed is sent to the mail communication control.

If it is judged in the decision 728 that the timer has not passed, it is a job end notification. In this case, in decision 731, refer to 40e of JCT11 to check if it is an urgent job, and if so, stop the initiator used in the job ended in process 732 and delete the job entry of JCT11 in process 733. Then, in processing 734, a reply notification of job completion is sent to the mail communication control.

As described above, the processing for one request of the job execution control 9 is completed, and it is checked in the decision 735 whether the termination of the electronic mail drive type job operation program is requested. If it is demanded, the processing is terminated. If the end is not requested, the process returns to step 701 to wait for the next notification.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart of the authority check 7. The authority check 7 operates by being called from the job execution control 9 in the process 703 of FIG. First, in process 7a, the entry in the user authority management information is read based on the user name. After that, in the determination 7b, it is checked whether or not there is an entry of the corresponding user, and if there is, the processing 7c checks whether or not the requested content is permitted by the contents of 30a to 30e in the entry. The result is checked in decision 7d, and if it is authorized, processing 7e sets return information with authorization and returns to the calling source. If there is no user entry in decision 7b,
If there is no authority in the determination 7d, the return information without authority is set in the processing 7f and the process returns to the calling source.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the job input process. The job input processing is processing 710 and processing 72 of FIG.
In 9 the job execution control 9 calls and operates.

In process 710a, the corresponding member is read from the JCL file based on the job name passed from the job execution control 9. Next, in process 710b, the execution priority passed from the job execution control 9 and the parameters for the job are added to the JCL. Finally, in processing 711c, JCL is set to O
Job input processing is performed by passing it to S, and JC is executed in processing 711d.
The input information is stored in 40f of the entry in T11, and the process ends.

By the above processing, the user of the electronic mail terminal can not only request the execution of the job to the host computer by the simple operation of sending the mail, but also specify or change the execution start request time or the execution completion request time. Also, it becomes possible to cancel the requested job.

[0055]

According to the present invention, the user of the electronic mail terminal can request the job execution by a simple operation of mail transmission without the knowledge of the host computer, and further, the execution start request time and the execution completion request time. It is also possible to specify a detailed job schedule such as an emergency job that you want to execute immediately. In addition, since the result of the request from the user is returned by email, it is not necessary to constantly monitor the request result, and it can be confirmed by referring to the reply email at any time, improving the operability of the user. To do.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, various requests from the user of the electronic mail terminal are checked for authority on the host computer, so that the integrity of the unauthorized user or the unauthorized request can be secured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration for realizing an electronic mail driven job operation method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an operation request bibliography related to jobs stored in a mailbox 16 connected to the electronic mail terminal 2.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of contents of user authority management information 8.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a job execution control table JCT11 for controlling job execution based on the contents requested from the electronic mail terminal 2 in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of mail communication control.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart of job execution control.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart of authority inspection.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of job input processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Host computer system, 2 ... E-mail system,
3 ... E-mail terminal, 4 ... Operating system,
5 ... E-mail driven job operation program, 6 ... Mail communication control, 7 ... Authority check, 8 ... User authority management information,
9 ... Job execution control, 10 ... JCL file, 11 ... Job execution control table, 12 ... Job, 13 ... Operating system for controlling operation of electronic mail system 2, 14 ... Mail exchange, 15 ... Request bibliography for job execution request, etc. , 16 ... Mailbox.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Yoshikazu Ichikawa 6-81 Onoue-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tadashi Yamagishi 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Inside the Hitachi, Ltd. Software Development Headquarters (72) Inventor Fujio Fujita 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Stock Company Inside Hitachi Software Development Headquarters (72) Ina Masahiko Ishimaru 6 Onoue-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi 81-chome Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hideki Namba 504-2 Shinanomachi, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Niitsu Denshi Service Co., Ltd. (72) Tsutomu Ito 1-280, Higashi Koikeku, Kokubunji, Tokyo Address Central research of Hitachi, Ltd. In-house (72) Michio Hirano 6-81 Onoe-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kaoru Uezuma 6-81, Onoue-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Hitachi Software Engineering Stock Association In-house (72) Inventor Toshio Hirosawa 1-280 Higashi Koikeku, Kokubunji, Tokyo Inside Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Motohide Kuniishi 1-280 Higashi Koikeku, Kokubunji, Tokyo Hitachi Central Research Co., Ltd. In-house (72) Koji Ueoka 1-280, Higashi Koigokubo, Kokubunji, Tokyo Inside Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigeru Sasaki 6-81, Onoue-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Hitachi Software Engineering Stock Association In-house ( 72) Inventor Noriyuki Nakamura 6-81 Onoe-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. In-house

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A first computer system for executing a job, and a first electronic mail terminal which is connected to the first computer system and operates an electronic mail system. From the first electronic mail terminal. In the email-driven job execution system for requesting the first computer system to execute a job, the execution start request time information is specified when the job execution is requested from the first electronic mail terminal, and the specified time is specified. An electronic mail driven job operation method comprising means for suspending execution of a job until a specified time based on information and starting execution when the specified time is reached. 2. The first use according to claim 1, wherein the first computer system stores a name of a user who uses the first electronic mail terminal and acceptance / rejection information for each request content regarding job execution. An e-mail driven job operation method having first-person authority checking means for denying an illegal user or an illegal request, having personal authority management information. 3. The electronic mail driven job operation method according to claim 2, further comprising means for changing execution start request time information of the already requested job. 4. The means according to claim 2, further comprising means for guaranteeing the completion of execution of the job by the designated time by designating the execution completion request time when requesting the job execution from the first electronic mail terminal. E-mail driven job operation method. 5. The electronic mail driven job operation method according to claim 4, further comprising means for changing execution completion request time information of the already requested job. 6. In claim 2, the job execution request is designated when an urgent execution is required, so that the job is executed immediately after the request without waiting for execution like a normal job, and the turnaround time is minimized. E-mail drive type job operation system equipped with a means for controlling. 7. The electronic mail driven job operation method according to claim 2, further comprising means for requesting cancellation of execution of a job whose execution has been requested by electronic mail. 8. The electronic mail driven job operation method according to claim 2, further comprising means for changing the execution priority order of the execution-requested jobs by electronic mail.