JPH0895811A - Asynchronous inter-ap communication means - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To release the execution timing of an application on a transmission- side computer from the execution timing of an application on a reception-side computer as to an asynchronous interAP communication. CONSTITUTION: When the CPU 10 of the transmission-side computer 1 generates a transaction by executing the application program, the transaction is delivered to a program for asynchronous transaction exchange interface. This program for asynchronous transaction exchange interface is executed by the CPU 10 and the transaction is stored in data base format on a hard disk storage device 1A. This transaction is transferred to the reception-side computer 2 through a communication interface 13 by the execution of a communication software.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an asynchronous AP-to-AP communication method, and more specifically, two computers connected to an online system environment each execute an application program, and two computers use information used by these application programs. The present invention relates to an asynchronous AP-to-AP communication method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two computers connected via a network execute application programs to exchange information. In this case, on the sending computer, for example,
The information created by the application program is collected in a file and temporarily stored. Then, by linking a support system (program) such as an operation management system and an application program, the file is asynchronously transmitted to the host computer on the receiving side by using the message handshake method. The host computer on the receiving side temporarily stores the received file by the support system, and the stored file information is used by the application program.

Inter-AP communication between heterogeneous systems has become possible, and the international standard OSI (Open Sy)
Basic standards are being established as part of system interconnection (open system interconnection). Its application area (Electron Data
Interchange: Standardization as an electronic data exchange agreement) is being promoted, but it has not been put to practical use on a commercial basis.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Such an asynchronous AP
In the intercommunication method, even if the sending computer finishes the communication-related process itself in the application program, the next process cannot be executed unless the receiving computer responds with a message indicating the end of the process. Therefore, the conventional asynchronous AP-to-AP communication method still has room for improvement in reducing the execution time of the application program.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention described in claim 1 is such that a transaction is sequentially generated by an application program by a transmitting computer, and the transmitting computer and the receiving computer asynchronously execute the transactions. In an asynchronous message exchange communication method, in which a program for a transaction exchange control interface is executed and transferred asynchronously from the sending computer to the receiving computer, and the receiving computer sequentially processes the transaction by an application program , The application program of the sender computer hands over the transaction synchronously and sequentially to the program for the asynchronous transaction exchange control interface of the sender computer The transaction exchange control interface program stores the delivered transaction in the storage device, then transmits the transaction to the receiving computer by the communication program, and the receiving computer side receives the transaction by the communication program and The program for the transaction exchange control interface of the receiving computer is characterized by accumulating in the storage device and then delivering the transaction to the application program of the receiving computer.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first aspect of the invention, the storage form of the transactions of the storage device of the sending computer and the storage device of the receiving computer is a database. .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the second aspect of the present invention, the function (exclusive control) of the database is used so that only one transaction exchange processing process can be executed at a time, and transaction multiplexing is performed. It is characterized by controlling.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the application program of the transmitting computer writes the transaction into the storage device, and the receiving computer performs the process of reading the transaction from the storage device.
Further, the transaction for the transaction exchange control interface reads the transaction from the storage device and sends it to the destination by the communication program.

The program for the transaction exchange control interface of the receiving computer performs only the processing of writing the received transaction in the storage device. This eliminates the need for the application on the sending computer to wait for a response from the receiving computer to execute the next process as in the conventional case. Also, each of the application program and the transaction exchange control interface program is simplified so that transactions can be exchanged in real time independently of each other.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the transaction is stored in the storage device in the form of a database, the risk of loss of accuracy of the stored data is reduced as compared with the storage form of simple addressing.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the application and the transaction exchange control interface program do not access the database at the same time, the transaction on the database is protected.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

Prior to the description of the present invention, a system to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. The computers having known hardware configurations can be used as the computers 1 and 2 used in the present embodiment, and the description thereof will be briefly described.

In FIG. 1, the computer 1 and the computer 2 are connected by a signal cable 3. CP
The U10 uses the system control program stored in the ROM 11 to control each component in the computer 1, and also executes various software programs described later such as an application program, communication software, and an operating system (OS) program. .

In connection with the calculation of the CPU 10, the program to be executed and the calculation result of the program are temporarily stored in the RAM 12. The communication interface 13 exchanges information with the computer 2 according to an instruction from the CPU 10. The input / output interface 14 exchanges read / write information with the hard disk storage device 1A according to an instruction from the CPU 10. The hard disk storage device 1A includes an application program, an asynchronous transaction exchange interface (a program therefor), an OS program, and information exchanged with the computer 2 (hereinafter, collectively referred to as transaction).
Is stored. This transaction is stored in database form. The computer 1 has the above components, but a keyboard and a CRT display device can be connected to the computer 1 as required. The computer 2 can also have the same configuration as the computer 1.

An asynchronous transaction exchange protocol for communication of transactions according to the present invention will be described.

A) Outline of asynchronous transaction exchange protocol A-1. Asynchronous Transaction Exchange Protocol In this embodiment, transaction communication is performed according to the asynchronous AP communication processing procedure (protocol) shown in FIG. In this asynchronous inter-AP communication processing procedure, the transaction exchange agreement defined between the logic modules (UTPs) for exchanging and controlling transactions is called an asynchronous transaction exchange protocol. This corresponds to the transaction exchange contract of the hierarchical logical model of asynchronous AP communication, and does not depend on the type of communication protocol defined in the lower layer. The transaction exchange unit is one passive UAP to activation UAP It is called a “partner” and has the characteristic that it can be performed independently in units of the minimum request for asynchronous AP-to-AP communication processing. The asynchronous inter-AP processing support system of the present embodiment uses this protocol to maintain transaction consistency (prevention of data loss and duplication, order guarantee, etc.) and realize transaction exchange processing between UAPs. There is.

Asynchronous AP executing the protocol of FIG.
In order to perform inter-communication, each of the computers 1 and 2 in FIG. 1 has the following software in the hard disk storage device. That is, the communication protocol interface allows transaction exchange using different communication protocols and provides a common interface function for selection of communication protocols. The communication protocol interface operates as a communication program of the invention of claim 1 together with communication software.

The UAP interface consists of a number of different U
It provides a common interface for transaction exchange requests from APs.

The asynchronous transaction exchange control interface integrates and manages transaction exchange requests from a plurality of UAPs and provides a function of reliably transferring the counterpart UAP transaction while maintaining transaction consistency. It also provides the function of storing and queuing transactions.

The database interface provides a function of accessing the transaction database and the system management database and maintaining / managing the database such as exclusive control, synchronization point processing, and recovery processing.

The resource management / execution management OS is composed of a plurality of UAs.
It provides the function of managing the system resources used by P and managing the processing scheduling and task control.

The above-mentioned functions are the operating system, communication software, DCMS (D
ata Communication Management
ent System), DBMS (Data Bas)
e Management System) and the like largely depend on the function and structure, but in order to realize the asynchronous AP-to-AP communication processing, it is necessary to clarify and standardize the function allocation of each software. The logical model is organized as a hierarchical structure, and the areas to be standardized are determined based on this. as a result,
The standardized area is divided into four layers, and the rules that each layer should bear and the interfaces between layers are set to prevent the influence of changes, modifications, and extensions in each layer from spreading to other layers to the minimum. To

Note that the business processing rules of FIG. 2 are the rules for the applied business to operate the inter-AP communication processing business, and are user application programs (UAP) installed in the hard disk devices of the computers 1 and 2. Realized as.

The AP operation contract defines the interface with the transaction exchange processing and the system operation service function when the user application program (UAP) exchanges the transaction.

The transaction exchange agreement is an additional agreement for performing transaction exchange according to the communication protocol, and defines a function addition / interpolation portion on the information transfer agreement.

The information transfer protocol is a range for guaranteeing the interoperability between the systems, and based on what communication protocol is used to communicate between the systems, what service of the communication protocol is used. Specify the specific scope and method of use such as whether to use.

If each system is built on the basis of these rules, asynchronous A can be used between any systems.
It becomes possible to realize the inter-P communication processing.

B) Functional Outline of Asynchronous AP-to-AP Communication The functional outline of asynchronous AP-to-AP communication according to the present invention will be briefly described below with reference to FIG.

UAP (User Application)
n Program): A program that constitutes an application system that uses the asynchronous inter-AP communication processing system.

API (Application Pro)
gram Interface): API performs data transfer between UAP and UTP. In UAP, API
Can be called easily by calling
Data can be exchanged between APs. The API calls a Kanji code conversion of a message or a format conversion routine for AP creation as needed, and performs data conversion processing according to the use of the AP.

UTP (User Transaction)
n exchange processing): UT
P is a part that performs transaction exchange, which is a basic function of the asynchronous AP-to-AP communication processing system, and is a DBMS (Dat) for guaranteeing the data passed from the UAP.
a Base Management System)
This database is used by queuing to control data loss and duplication prevention, and order guarantee. Also, UT
Even when the partner system is stopped, P allows the UAP to perform data exchange processing without being aware of the partner's state (this is called operational independence). Furthermore, UTP
Handles transaction control such as pacing control, security management, and logging. It is called an element program “control UTP” that constitutes these functions, and there are a plurality of types of control UTP in processing units such as transmission / reception.

NPI (Network Protocol)
l Interface): NPI is an asynchronous inter-AP communication processing system and DCMS (Data Communi).
(Cation Management System)
Data transfer is performed according to the type of communication protocol that the DCMS has. By using NPI,
Even if a new communication protocol that can be used in the future is added, it can be handled without modifying the processing structure of the basic part.

OPI (OPtortorfa)
ce): The asynchronous AP-to-AP communication processing system has information for controlling transaction exchange in the management database, and the user has an OPI (OPrator Interface).
By using (ce), it is possible to add and change the unit for transaction exchange (this is called a partner), check the status of transaction exchange, and perform resend processing.

Test support service: The test support service supports the test (transaction transmission / reception) of a new UAP using the asynchronous AP communication processing system environment. By using the test support service utility, the actual UTP Transaction exchange with can be simulated (optional feature).

Operation support service: The operation support service (asynchronous AP processing support system) has roughly five functions.

When the DBMS / DCMS is stopped, the UAP in the middle of data exchange is found and automatically restarted.

A partner in a stopped state is found in a specific cycle, and the operator is notified of the partner name in a stopped state.

The connection state between the asynchronous AP-to-AP communication processing systems is checked in a specific cycle, and if an abnormality is found, the operator is notified of the transaction name of the abnormal partner.

An abnormal termination of the passive UAP is detected, and a warning message is notified to the operator.

Issue the start / end request in batch mode.

C) System Operation When the computers 1 and 2 in FIG. 1 perform asynchronous AP-to-AP communication based on the functions described above, the following system operation is performed.

The CPU 10 of the computer 1 on the starting side is
When the application program for the application system is executed to create the information (transaction) to be transferred to the computer 2, the CPU 10 uses the user application program (UAP) interface,
Pass the transaction to the asynchronous transaction exchange control interface. When the asynchronous transaction exchange control interface (software program) is executed by the CPU 10, a sequential number is added to the transaction, and the transaction is stored in a queue on the database of the hard disk storage device 1A. After this, a sync point response is returned via the application program interface. The CPU 10, which has received the response of this synchronization point by the application program,
The application program executes the process for creating the next transaction without waiting for the response from the receiving computer. Hereinafter, the above processing is repeated until the application program ends.

The CPI 10 functioning as an asynchronous transaction exchange control interface reads transactions on the queue in synchronization with message exchange or the like in accordance with the processing capacity of the receiving computer 2 and provides a communication protocol interface and communication software. To the receiving computer 2 continuously. At this time, when a communication abnormality such as a transaction loss or transaction overtaking is detected by a method similar to the conventional one, the CPU 10 returns to the previous synchronization point and retransmits.

On the other hand, the CPU on the receiving computer side stores the received transaction in the queue on the database of the hard disk storage device by the asynchronous transaction exchange control interface by the communication software. Then, the received transaction is delivered to the application program via the application program interface. The CPU 10 processes the received transaction by this application program.

Thereafter, the receiving side computer 2 repeats the above-mentioned processing until the end of the application program.

As described above, according to the present invention, the application program on the transmission side does not synchronize with the application program on the reception side as in the prior art, but only synchronizes with the storage timing in the queue on the transmission side.
There is no need to wait for a response from the application program as in the past. By omitting this waiting time, the processing time of the application program is shortened compared to the conventional case.

In addition to this embodiment, the following example can be carried out.

1) When a plurality of processes access the same resource, the processes can be controlled so that only one process is allowed access at the same time. To do this, the application database and the asynchronous transaction exchange interface process synchronization management information are stored in a management database (DB), and the exclusive control function of the database is used, and only one transaction exchange processing process is available at a time. Multiplicity control (serialization processing) is performed on the application program and asynchronous transaction exchange interface so that they cannot be executed.

2) In the two processes, one is responsible for producing and sending information, and the other is for communicating (starting) programs that interact with each other in different roles of receiving and consuming information. it can. In this case, the DBMS / DCM in which the application program runs
Since S has a transaction activation function,
With this feature, one process triggers the activation of the other process.

3) In order for a plurality of processes to share specific information, the information storage area is shared. Therefore, make sure that the application program and the asynchronous transaction exchange interface run in separate storage,
Stored and shared in the management information database of application program transactions and processes. As a result, it is possible to prevent the information in the shared storage from being lost due to a failure of the OS (operation system) (due to the DB recovery processing function) and to centrally manage the information.

[0052]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the application program of the sending computer does not need to be synchronized with the application program of the receiving computer, so that the application program is simplified and the application is The overall processing time of the program is reduced.

In the second and third aspects of the invention, the transaction temporarily stored in the storage device is protected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of an information processing system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the positioning of an asynchronous transaction exchange protocol.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a functional configuration of a basic transaction exchange unit and a data flow.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 sending side computer 2 receiving side computer 3 signal cable 10 CPU 11 ROM 12 RAM 13 communication interface 14 input / output interface 1A hard disk storage device

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Atsushi Morimura 1-28 Kitahonmachi-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo Within Kawatetsu System Development Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tetsuzo Akamine Mizushima Kawasaki-dori, Kurashiki-shi, Okayama 1 chome (no street number) Kawatetsu System Development Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Transactions sequentially generated by an application program by a sending computer,
The sending computer and the receiving computer each execute a program for the asynchronous transaction exchange control interface, asynchronously transfer from the sending computer to the receiving computer, and the receiving computer sequentially executes the transaction by the application program. In the asynchronous message exchange communication method for processing information, the application program of the sending side computer delivers the transaction to the program for the asynchronous transaction exchange control interface of the sending side computer sequentially in synchronization, and the transaction exchange control interface program is After the delivered transaction is stored in the storage device, the transaction is executed by the receiving computer by the communication program. And the transaction on the receiving computer side is received by the communication program by the communication program, the program for the transaction exchange control interface of the receiving computer stores the transaction in the storage device, and then the transaction is applied to the application program of the receiving computer. An asynchronous inter-AP communication method, characterized in that 2. The asynchronous inter-AP communication method according to claim 1, wherein the storage forms of transactions in the storage device of the transmission side computer and the storage device of the reception side computer are used as a database. 3. The asynchronous AP according to claim 2, wherein multiple transactions are controlled by using a function (exclusive control) of the database so that only one transaction exchange processing process can be executed at one time.
Communication method.