JPH0969057A - Device and method for state totalization - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically and flexibly reflect a function on the totalization result of use states by adding or deleting a line of a table that stores the frequency of actuation of each processing process in each line corresponding to the processing process in response to the addition or deletion of the processing process. SOLUTION: An addition/deletion monitor part 11 monitors a function provision part 10c and reflects the monitor result on the constitution of a management table 14. Namely, the addition/deletion monitor part 11 outputs the state to a use state management part 13 according to whether or not a processing process corresponding to a new function incorporated newly in the function provision part 10c is inserted or when the deleting function for the processing function corresponding to an unnecessary deleting function is present. The use state management part 13 increases the field of a function (actuation event) to be actuated in the management table when there is an additional function and deletes the field of an actuation even in the management table 14 when there is a deleting function.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a status totalizing apparatus and method having a plurality of functions that can be added or deleted and summing the operating status of each function, and more particularly to adding or deleting a function. The present invention relates to a status totalization device and method for automatically specifying a function to be a target for totaling operational status in response.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it is often the case that the usage status of software or hardware of a computer is collected by a user, and charging or maintenance is performed based on the collection result.

For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-134615 (hereinafter referred to as "Prior Art 1"), detailed billing information created each time a command to be billed is received and the number of times the billing command is received. There is disclosed a charging information processing method in which the total charging information created based on the above is stored in the charging information storage means, and the record of the charging information storage means is extracted to calculate the charging amount.

In other words, the prior art 1 captures the number of times the charging target command is received as a measure of the usage status, and does not consider the usage status for each function level such as the command type.

Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-173213 (hereinafter, referred to as "Prior Art 2") uses a use frequency storage means for storing a usable frequency corresponding to a prepaid fee, and uses a computer. A computer system use method is disclosed in which the usage fee for the system hardware and software functions is converted into the usage frequency, and the usage frequency is subtracted and paid.

That is, the prior art 2 captures the frequency of use of the functions of hardware and software as a measure of the usage status, and does not focus on the usage status of the above-mentioned functional units.

As described above, in the above-mentioned two prior arts, since the respective functions of software and hardware are handled collectively, it is possible to reflect the difference in the usage status of the respective functions having different qualities in billing and maintenance. Can not.

For this reason, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-240710 (hereinafter referred to as "Prior Art 3"), the number of times the chargeable commands used for each session are totaled for each command, and the request is made. User billing that is configured to calculate the total billing amount related to the designated billing number within the requested period by aggregating the number of times the billing target commands used within the period are used by command and applying a predetermined fee for each command A system is disclosed.

That is, in the prior art 3, since the number of times the command is used, which is an index of the usage status, is totaled for each command, the difference in each command, that is, each function can be reflected in the billing amount.

Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-336307 (hereinafter referred to as "Prior Art 4"), the operation states of the function realizing means for realizing the use of software are totaled and stored in a secondary storage medium. In addition, there is disclosed a software usage fee calculation method configured to read the operation status of the function realizing means from the secondary storage medium and calculate the usage fee.

That is, since the prior art 4 is configured to collect the operation status for each function realizing means, the difference in function can be reflected in the usage charge.

[0012]

However, in the prior arts 3 and 4, it is necessary to previously specify the functions to be aggregated for billing and incorporate them into the aggregation program. Therefore, the functions are dynamically added or deleted. There is a problem that it cannot be applied to systems that perform

In particular, with the recent progress of information processing technology,
Not only computer software but also copiers, facsimiles, etc. tend to add new functions or delete unused functions, so the usage status is tracked according to the addition or deletion of such functions. Whether you do it or not is an important issue.

That is, in the conventional copying machine and the like, it is extremely rare that a new function is added or deleted later, but recently, for example, N-printing a plurality of pages in a reduced print in one page. In many cases, the UP printing function or the like is incorporated into an existing copying machine as a new function to reduce the cost related to the copying machine.

Therefore, in order to totalize the usage status in such a copying machine, the N-U added later as a new function is used.
It is necessary to newly set the P print function and the like as the target of usage status aggregation.

Further, not only in the case of adding such a new function, but also in the case of deleting an unnecessary function to improve the efficiency, it becomes necessary to exclude the deletion function from the objects of use status aggregation.

Therefore, in the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, when a new function is added or an unused function is deleted, the function is flexibly automatically reflected in the result of totaling the usage status. It is an object of the present invention to provide a utilization status totalizing device and method capable of performing the same.

[0018]

In order to achieve the above object, the first invention is a situation totalizing device having a plurality of functions that can be added or deleted and totalizing the operating status of each function for each function. A management table that manages the function and the number of times the function has been operated for each function, a monitoring unit that monitors addition or deletion of the function, and a function that the management table manages corresponding to the monitoring result of the monitoring unit. And a table management means for adding or deleting.

A second aspect of the present invention is a situation totalization device that includes a plurality of processing processes respectively corresponding to a plurality of functions and totalizes the operating status of each processing process for each function. Corresponding to the processing process and stored in each row, monitoring means for monitoring addition or deletion of a new processing process for the plurality of processing processes, and addition or deletion of processing process monitored by the monitoring means. And table management means for adding or deleting rows in the table.

A third aspect of the present invention is a situation totalizing method that includes a plurality of processing processes respectively corresponding to a plurality of functions, and summarizes the operating status of each processing process for each function. Addition or deletion of a row of a table that monitors the addition or deletion of various processing processes and associates the number of times of activation of each processing process with the processing process and stores in each row in response to the addition or deletion of the new processing process. It is characterized by doing.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment,
It shows a case where the charge amount is calculated by using the usage status aggregating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a utilization status totalizing device according to the present invention.

This utilization status totaling device not only monitors the activation status of the designated function and totalizes the utilization status for each function to be provided, but also when a new function is added to this device or when the existing function is added. When a function is deleted, the status of such addition and deletion is reflected in the aggregation of the usage status.

That is, in the conventional utilization status totalizing device,
Since it was assumed that a predetermined function existed, when a new function was added, it is necessary to reorganize the aggregation routine to add this function to the aggregation target, and when deleting an unnecessary function, this It was necessary to rearrange the aggregation routine to exclude the function from the aggregation target and improve the processing efficiency.

In the case of a system in which the entire device is updated when introducing a new function into the device, the above-mentioned rerouting of the aggregation routine does not become a burden, but in the case where a system for introducing a new function into an existing device is used. In this case, the load required for rearranging the aggregation routine becomes large.

For this reason, the utilization status totaling device according to the present invention is configured to monitor the introduction of new functions or the deletion of unnecessary functions to the existing device, and to automatically reflect the monitoring result in the totalization of the usage conditions. There is.

Specifically, in order to introduce a new function or delete an unnecessary function, a processing process corresponding to such a function is added to or deleted from the function providing unit 10c. The function providing unit 10c is monitored and the monitoring result is reflected in the configuration of the management table 14.

As shown in FIG. 1, the utilization status summarizing device includes a designated function processing unit 10, an addition / deletion monitoring unit 11, an activation status monitoring unit 12, a usage status management unit 13, and a management table 14. It comprises a totalization processing unit 15 and a charging processing unit 16.

The designated function processing unit 10 is a processing unit that provides a function requested by the user via the user interface, and includes a user interface 10a, a user interface library 10b, and a function providing unit 10c.

The user interface 10a is a processing unit that controls the interface between the user and the function provided by the function providing unit 10c, and corresponds to, for example, an icon corresponding to each function unit provided on the window.

The user interface library 10b is composed of a library corresponding to each user interface. For example, when a window icon is selected, a processing program such as an emulator that causes the function executing unit 10c to execute a function corresponding to the icon. Is applicable.

The function providing unit 10c is a processing unit that actually executes a processing routine for providing a function to the user and provides the function. For example, in the case of a copying machine, double-sided copying and stapling are performed. And a selected function among the functions such as N-up printing. Therefore, it can be considered that a plurality of processing routines corresponding to the respective functions coexist in the function providing unit 10c.

Each function provided by the function providing unit 10c is executed when the user activates the user interface library 10b corresponding to the designated function through the user interface 10a.

The addition / deletion monitoring unit 11 includes a function providing unit 10c.
This is a processing unit that monitors the presence or absence of the insertion of a processing process that corresponds to a new function that is newly incorporated in or the deletion of a processing process that corresponds to an unnecessary deletion function. , And outputs the status to the usage status management unit 13. In addition, in the usage status management unit 13, when there is an additional function, a management table 14 described later is used.
Of the function to be activated (hereinafter referred to as "activation event") is increased, and if there is a deletion function, the management table 1
Delete the start event column of 4.

As a monitoring method of the addition / deletion monitoring section 11, an extension manager (extensions manager) of Macintosh (Macintosh) of Apple Computer Inc.
It is possible to use the active monitoring method adopted by r) or the like. It should be noted that in this method, the addition or deletion status of the processing process arranged at a specific address on the file system is constantly monitored by the monitoring software.
Therefore, when such a monitoring method is used, it is not necessary to give special treatment to the processing process to be added or deleted.

However, the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11 is not limited to the above-mentioned monitoring method, and a monitoring method used for inter-application communication (IAC) or message propagation of an object-oriented program may be used. it can.

In this case, the processing process to be added or deleted actively calls the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11 to activate the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11. For this reason, it is necessary to incorporate a mechanism for enabling the processing process to be added or deleted to notify.

Further, when a processing process is deleted, if a plurality of users are referring to the processing module to be deleted in a distributed environment, it is necessary to allow the deletion. Therefore, the concept of the reference counter is introduced, the reference counter is incremented each time the user makes a reference, the reference counter is decremented at the time when the reference is finished, and the reference counter can be deleted only when it is '0'. can do.

The activation status monitoring unit 12 monitors the activation status of the user interface library 10b and increments the activation count (hereinafter referred to as "activation count") of the corresponding activation event in the management table 14.

The utilization status management unit 13 includes a management table 14
Is a management unit that manages the usage status of a function by using, and adds a start event column corresponding to the additional function when a notification indicating that the additional function or the deletion function exists is received from the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11. At the same time, the start event column corresponding to the delete function is deleted.

When the utilization status management unit 13 receives the activation status from the activation status monitoring unit 12, the activation count number of the corresponding activation event is incremented,
The fact that the number of uses of the function has increased is stored.

The management table 14 is a table in which the activation count and the processing process (hereinafter referred to as "entry address") executed by the activation providing unit 10c are set for each function.

As shown in FIG. 2, this management table 14
Is a table composed of a pair of a boot event 20, a boot count 21, and an entry address 22, and here shows a case where double-sided copying, stapling, N-up printing, etc. are registered as boot events.

Further, since the activation count of each activation event is "0", it can be seen that each activation event has never been activated in the past, and each time the activation event is activated, the corresponding activation event is activated. Startup count 21
Is incremented.

Then, for example, when the processing event corresponding to the staple is deleted from the function providing unit 10c because the activation event "staple" is unnecessary,
The usage status management unit 13 receives data indicating that from the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11, and deletes the activation event, activation count, and entry address corresponding to the staple in the management table 14.

Here, when the processing process corresponding to a certain function is deleted, the activation event itself corresponding to the processing process is deleted. However, the entry address 22 corresponding to the activation event is deleted. By doing so, it is possible to recognize that the processing process has been deleted.

When a processing process corresponding to a new function such as "color printing" is newly registered in the function providing unit 10c, the usage status management unit 13 adds and deletes data indicating that fact. Received from management table 1
A start event such as the "color print" is added to 4, and the start count of the start event is initialized and the entry address is set.

The totalization processing unit 15 is based on the management table 14 managed by the usage status management unit 13 and the function providing unit 10c.
It is a processing unit that aggregates the usage statuses of the processing processes owned by and outputs the aggregation result to the billing processing unit 16.

The activation count 2 of the management table 14
Since 1 itself is a result of totalizing the number of activations for each function, the totalization processing unit 15 uses this totalization result when processing it into another format.

For example, when the management table 14 is provided separately for each user, the activation count 21 of each user is added to total the activation count of each group for each function, and the management table 14 is also provided for each day. When it is updated to, the activation count is aggregated for each function for a certain period of time.

If the totalization processing unit 15 does not perform such totalization processing, the charging processing unit 1 uses the activation count 21 for each function in the management table 14 as the totalization result.
6 is output.

The billing processing unit 16 is a processing unit for calculating the billing amount based on the counting result received from the counting processing unit 15 and displaying or printing out the calculation result. Specifically, it corresponds to each function in advance. The charge amount is set in advance, and the charge amount for each function is obtained by multiplying this charge amount with the activation count.

The billing process performed by the billing processing unit 16 may use another billing method as long as it is based on the activation count for each function.

By using the utilization status totalizing device having the above configuration, when a new function is added or an unnecessary function is deleted, such addition or deletion can be automatically reflected in the utilization status totaling. .

Next, a processing procedure of the utilization status totalizing device having the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure of the utilization status totalizing device shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, in the utilization status totaling device, the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11 first confirms whether or not a new function is added to the function providing unit 10c or an unnecessary function is deleted (step 301), if the addition or deletion is performed, the activation event of the management table 14 is corrected (step 302).

Specifically, when the addition / deletion monitoring unit 11 confirms that a new function has been added to the function providing unit 10c or an unnecessary function has been deleted, the usage status management unit 13 is notified of the fact. The data is notified, and the usage status management unit 13 that has received the notification notifies the management table 14 based on the data.
To correct.

When the user uses the user interface 10a to select the function to be activated (step 303), the user interface library corresponding to the function is activated and the processing of the processing process corresponding to the function is started. Therefore, the activation status monitoring unit 12 monitors the activation status of the user interface library.

Then, the activation status monitoring unit 12 outputs this monitoring result to the usage status management unit 13, and the usage status management unit 1
3 increments the activation count of the management table 14 for each function based on this monitoring result (step 30).
4).

Then, the totaling processing unit 15 totals the activation counts of the functional units based on the management status of the management table 14 (step 305), and the charging processing unit 16 calculates the charging amount based on the totaling result. Is performed (step 306).

By performing the series of processes described above, it is possible to automatically grasp the addition / deletion status of the function, collect the activation count for each function, and perform the charging process.

As described above, in the present embodiment,
Addition / deletion of a new processing process to a plurality of processing processes included in the function providing unit 10c is added / deleted monitoring unit 1
1 monitors, and the usage status management unit 13 adds or deletes a row of the management table 14 in response to the addition or deletion of the new processing process. Therefore, a new function is added or an unused function is deleted. When the above is performed, the function can be flexibly automatically reflected in the result of totaling the usage status.

Further, since the result of this aggregation is applied to the billing process, fine billing can be performed according to the function used by the user.

In the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the totalization of the usage status of software has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the total usage status of hardware is not limited to this. It can also be applied to.

[0066]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a plurality of processing processes respectively corresponding to a plurality of functions are provided, and when the operation status of each processing process is summed up for each function, the plurality of processing processes are performed. A row of a table that monitors addition or deletion of a new processing process with respect to a processing process, and stores the number of activations of each processing process in each row in association with the processing process in response to the addition or deletion of the new processing process. Is added or deleted, when a new function is added or an unused function is deleted, the function can be flexibly and automatically reflected in the utilization status totaling result.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a utilization status totalizing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a management table shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the usage status aggregating apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of Codes] 10 ... Designated Function Processing Unit, 10a ... User Interface, 10b ... User Interface Library,
10c ... Function providing section, 11 ... Addition / deletion monitoring section, 12 ...
Activation status monitoring unit, 13 ... Usage status management unit, 14 ... Management table, 15 ... Aggregation processing unit, 16 ... Billing processing unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Having a plurality of functions that can be added or deleted,
In a situation totalization device that aggregates the operating status of each function for each function, a management table that manages the function and the number of times the function has been operated for each function, a monitoring unit that monitors addition or deletion of the function, A status totalizing device comprising: a table management unit that adds or deletes a function managed by the management table in accordance with a monitoring result of the monitoring unit. 2. A status totalization device comprising a plurality of processing processes respectively corresponding to a plurality of functions, and summing up the operating status of each processing process for each function, wherein the number of activations of each processing process corresponds to the processing process. A table additionally stored in each row, a monitoring unit that monitors addition or deletion of a new processing process for the plurality of processing processes, and a table that corresponds to the addition or deletion of the processing process monitored by the monitoring unit. A situation totalization apparatus comprising: a table management unit that adds or deletes rows. 3. A status totalizing method comprising a plurality of processing processes respectively corresponding to a plurality of functions, and totaling the operating status of each processing process for each function, wherein a new processing process is added to the plurality of processing processes or It is characterized in that deletion is monitored, and a row of a table in which each processing process is activated and the number of times of activation is associated with the processing process and the row of the table is added or deleted in response to the addition or deletion of the new processing process. Status aggregation method.