JP2001067230A - Store system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a store system capable of ending the program update of each terminal equipment in a short time. SOLUTION: This store system is provided with plural terminal equipments 20 for operating various task processing and a store controller 10 for managing the terminal equipments 20. Especially, the store controller 10 is provided with a memory part 12 for holding plural terminal programs for respectively controlling one corresponding task processing among the plural task processing, and a processing part 14 for selectively distributing the plural terminal programs held by the memory part 12 to the plural terminal equipment 20 according to the combination of the task processing assigned to each terminal equipment and updating the terminal programs for controlling the specific task processing in all the terminal equipment 20 for commonly operating the specific task processing arbitrarily specified among the various task processing at the time of program update.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a store system for managing a plurality of terminal devices for performing various business processes by a store controller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, many stores use a store system to streamline operations. A general store system is configured by a plurality of terminal devices arranged in a store section for performing various business processes, and a store controller arranged in a store office or the like to manage these terminal devices. You.

For example, in a store system of a bookstore, a portable terminal device for ordering and a portable terminal device for inspection are used as these terminal devices, and are connected to a store controller via a wireless line, for example. The ordering portable terminal device has an ordering terminal program, and performs an ordering operation, an inventory operation, a shelf position registration operation, and the like under the control of the ordering terminal program. On the other hand, the inspection portable terminal device has an inspection terminal program, and performs inspection business processing, inventory business processing, magazine return business processing, and the like under the control of the inspection terminal program.

The order terminal program of the portable terminal device for ordering and the inspection terminal program of the portable terminal device for inspection can be updated to change the specifications of business processes or to correct bugs. That is, each of the ordering portable terminal device and the inspection portable terminal device inquires whether the update ordering terminal program or the updating inspection terminal program is prepared in the store controller. Receive and update.

[0005]

However, in the conventional store system as described above, for example, when the specification of the inventory processing is changed, it is necessary to correct both the order terminal program and the inspection terminal program. Further, even if the specification is changed only for the stocktaking business process, the entire program for controlling other business processes must be updated, so that a huge amount of program data is transmitted from the store controller. Therefore, a significantly long time is required for updating the program, and other processing may not be performed during this time depending on the processing capability of the store controller.

[0006] It is an object of the present invention to provide a store system which can end a program update of each terminal device in a short time.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there are provided a plurality of terminal devices for performing various business processes, and a store controller for managing these terminal devices. Memory means for storing a plurality of terminal programs for controlling a corresponding one of the business processes, and selectively storing the plurality of terminal programs stored in the memory means in accordance with a business process assigned to each terminal device. Control means for distributing to a plurality of terminal devices and updating a terminal program for controlling the specific business process in all terminal devices which commonly perform a specific business process arbitrarily specified from various business processes when updating the program Are provided.

In this store system, the memory means holds a plurality of terminal programs each for controlling a corresponding one of a plurality of business processes, and the control means stores the plurality of terminal programs held in the memory means. In all terminal devices which selectively distribute to a plurality of terminal devices according to a combination of business processes assigned to the terminal devices and which commonly perform a specific business process arbitrarily specified from various business processes at the time of program update, Update the terminal program that controls the specific business process. That is, the store controller can independently update the terminal program controlling the specific business process in each terminal device without changing the terminal program controlling the remaining business process.
Therefore, the program update time can be reduced. Further, since the program update is performed for all the terminal devices that perform the specific task processing in common, it is possible to reduce the difference in the program update timing that occurs between the plurality of terminal devices.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect is provided.
In the store system described in the above, the control means holds the version information of the plurality of terminal programs distributed to the plurality of terminal devices, and controls the specific business process. The version information of the distributed terminal program and the version information of the distributed terminal program. A store system is provided that includes a confirmation unit that confirms that the update terminal program is newer than the distributed terminal program by comparing the version information of the terminal program prepared for update with the version information.

[0010] In this store system, since the confirming means confirms that the update terminal program is newer than the distributed terminal program, for example, among the update terminal programs taken into the store controller from the outside, the update is already performed on the terminal device. A program update based on a non-new update terminal program that has already been distributed is omitted. Therefore, the update time can be reduced as compared with the case where the program update is repeated without this omission.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a store system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the store system.
The store system includes, for example, a store controller 10 arranged in an office of a store such as a bookstore, and a plurality of portable terminal devices 20 used by moving through various sales floors and connected to the store controller 10 by, for example, a wireless line. Prepare.
These mobile terminal devices 20 are, for example, an ordering mobile terminal device 20A that performs ordering business processing, inventory business processing, and shelf position registration business processing, and an inspection mobile terminal that performs inspection business processing, inventory business processing, and magazine return business processing. Device 20B
including. In the portable terminal device for ordering 20A, ordering business processing, stocktaking business processing, and shelf position registration business processing are performed under the control of the terminal programs PG1, PG2, and PG3, respectively. In the inspection portable terminal device 20B, the inspection business process, the inventory business process, and the magazine return business process are performed under the control of the terminal programs PG4, PG2, and PG5, respectively.

The store controller 10 controls all terminal programs PG1, PG2, PG3, PG4, PG5, P
And a memory unit 12 for storing these version information files, and a processing unit 14 for performing various control processes including a terminal program acquisition process and a terminal program transmission process. Further, the processing unit 14 includes a work memory 14A for temporarily storing data input / output in the control processing.
And connected to an external floppy drive 16 for accessing a floppy disk FD for storing, for example, a terminal program PG1, PG2, PG3, PG4 prepared for updating and a version information file composed of these version information FV. Is done.

Each of the portable terminal devices 20 stores a plurality of terminal programs and a memory 22 for storing a version information file composed of the version information TV and a store controller 10 according to a combination of business processes assigned to the terminal device 20. And a processing unit 24 for storing in the memory 22 terminal programs selectively distributed from the server 22 and executing the terminal programs by executing the terminal programs.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the version information file. As shown in FIG. 2, the version information file includes one or more version information, and each version information includes a combination of a program name of the terminal program and a version of the terminal program. In FIG. 1, FV
Represents the version information constituting the version information file stored in the floppy disk FD, MV represents the version information constituting the version information file stored in the memory section 12 of the store controller 10, and T
V represents version information constituting a version information file stored in the memory 22 of each terminal device 20.

The terminal programs stored in the portable terminal device for ordering 20A and the portable terminal device for inspection 20B can be updated in order to change specifications of business processes or to correct bugs.

Here, the operation of the store controller 10 will be further described. The processing unit 14 fetches the terminal program from the floppy disk FD to the memory unit 12 by performing the terminal program fetching process shown in FIG. In this terminal program loading process, the version information FV of the updating terminal program is read from the floppy disk FD in the first step ST1, and the version information MV of the terminal program having the same name as this terminal program is stored in the step ST1.
2 is read from the memory unit 12. In step ST3,
If it is confirmed by comparing these that the version information FV is newer than the version information MV, the terminal program for updating of the new version is read from the floppy disk FD in step ST4 and stored in the memory unit 12. The terminal program is updated by the updating terminal program. In step ST5,
The version information MV stored in the memory unit 12 for the updated terminal program is updated with the version information FV. Subsequently, it is determined in step S that the version information FV has not been read and remains on the floppy disk FD.
The confirmation is made in T6, and the terminal program fetch process ends.

If the version information FV is not newer than the version information MV in step ST3, step ST6 is executed following step ST3.

If the version information FV is not read and remains on the floppy disk FD in step ST6, the reading of this version information FV is performed in step ST6.
1 is performed.

The processing unit 14 further transmits the terminal program from the memory unit 12 to each terminal device 20 by performing the terminal program transmission processing shown in FIG. This terminal program transmission process is started with an argument indicating either the initial transmission or the version upgrade transmission. For this reason,
This argument is obtained in step ST10, and
At 11, it is confirmed whether it is an initial transmission. If it is an initial transmission, an initial transmission process is performed in step ST12. On the other hand, if the transmission is not the initial transmission, an upgrade transmission process is performed in step ST13. The terminal program transmission process ends after executing step ST12 or step ST13.

FIG. 5 specifically shows the above-mentioned initial transmission process. In this initial transmission process, the processing unit 14 performs step ST
At 20, a terminal program is read from the memory unit 12 and transmitted to each terminal device 20 that performs business operations controlled by the terminal program. Subsequently, it is checked in step ST21 whether transmission of all terminal programs has been completed. If any terminal program remains without being transmitted, the processing unit 14 proceeds to steps ST20 and S20.
T21 is repeated, and the initial transmission process ends after transmission of all terminal programs. As a result of the initial transmission process, a plurality of terminal programs each controlling a corresponding one of the plurality of business processes are selectively transmitted from the store controller 10 to the plurality of terminals in accordance with a combination of business processes assigned to each terminal device 20. It is distributed to the device 20.

FIG. 6 specifically shows the above-described version upgrade transmission processing. In this version-up transmission processing, the processing unit 14 inquires of the version information TV of all terminal programs held in the terminal device 20 in step ST30, and in step ST31, the processing unit 14 responds to version information TV of any of these terminal programs. The version information MV of the terminal program to be read is read from the memory unit 12. If it is confirmed in step ST32 that the version information MV is newer than the version information TV by comparing them, the terminal program of the new version is read from the memory unit 12 in step ST33 and transmitted to the terminal device 20. You. In step ST34, it is determined whether or not the version information TV remains without being compared with the version information MV of the corresponding terminal program.
Checked at T34. If so, step ST31 is executed again for the remaining version information TV. If it is determined in step ST32 that the version information MV is not newer than the version information TV, step ST34 is executed following step ST32.

At step 34, the remaining version information TV
When it is confirmed that there is no version information, the transmitted version information MV of all terminal programs is transmitted to the terminal device 20 in step ST35, and the version upgrade transmission processing ends.

The above-described upgrade transmission processing is performed for each of all the terminal devices 20, and the processing unit 24 of each terminal device 20 stores the terminal program and version information transmitted from the store controller 10 in the memory 22. As a result, the terminal programs that control the specific business process are updated in all the terminal devices 20 that commonly perform the specific business process.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a process of updating the terminal program held in the portable terminal device for ordering 20A. here,
The floppy disks FD are 002, 002, 0
01 and 001, and the store controller 10 stores the update terminal programs PG1, PG2, PG3 and PG4.
01,001,001,001 terminal program PG1, PG2, PG3, PG4, PG5
PG6,... And the portable terminal device for ordering 20A holds terminal programs PG1, PG2, PG3 of versions 001, 001, 001, respectively.

The store controller 10 converts the new terminal program PG2, which has not been fetched, of the terminal programs PG1, PG2, PG3, PG4 in the floppy desk FD into the version information by the terminal program fetching process shown in FIG. Confirm based on this terminal program PG2
Take in. That is, the version information of each terminal program in the floppy disk FD is stored in the store controller 1.
0 as a result of the comparison with the version information of the corresponding terminal program in the floppy disk FD.
2 is only the store controller 1
Version information 00 of the corresponding terminal program PG2 in 0
Since the value is larger than 1, it is determined that this is a new terminal program.

Further, the store controller 10 further fetches the terminal programs PG1, PG2, PG3, PG4, PG5, PG6 which have been fetched in the version upgrade transmission processing shown in FIG. 6 which is performed in the terminal program transmission processing shown in FIG.
.., The untransmitted terminal programs PG1 and PG2 are confirmed based on the version information.
G1 and PG2 are transmitted to the ordering portable terminal device 20A.
That is, as a result of comparing the version information of each terminal program in the ordering portable terminal device 20A with the version information of the corresponding terminal program in the store controller 10, the terminal programs PG1, PG
2 is larger than the version information 001 and 001 of the corresponding terminal programs PG1 and PG2 in the portable terminal device for ordering 20A.
These are determined to be new terminal programs.

In the store controller 10 of the store system according to the present embodiment, the memory unit 12 holds a plurality of terminal programs for controlling a corresponding one of a plurality of business processes, and the processing unit 14 A plurality of terminal programs stored in a plurality of terminal devices 20 are selectively stored in accordance with a combination of business processes assigned to each terminal device 20.
To all the terminal devices 20 that commonly perform a specific business process arbitrarily specified from among various business processes at the time of updating the program. That is, the store controller 10 can independently update the terminal program controlling the specific business process in each terminal device 20 without changing the terminal program controlling the remaining business process. Therefore, the program update time can be reduced. Furthermore, since the program update is performed for all the terminal devices 20 that commonly perform this specific business process, it is possible to reduce the difference in the program update timing that occurs among the plurality of terminal devices 20.

Further, the processing unit 14 confirms that the terminal program stored in the memory unit 12 is newer than the terminal program distributed to the terminal device 20. For this reason, for example, among the update terminal programs taken into the store controller 10 from the outside, the update of the terminal program distributed to the terminal device is omitted. Therefore, the program update time can be reduced as compared with the case where the update of the distributed terminal program is repeated without omission.

That is, instead of distributing a single terminal program for controlling various business processes to each terminal device as in the prior art, the store system uses the single terminal program for controlling each of these business processes. Are selectively distributed to each terminal device. For this reason, when the business specification is changed, the transmission time can be reduced by transmitting only the terminal program corresponding to the specification change from the store controller to the terminal device. Further, the version information of the terminal program stored in the store controller is compared with the version information of the terminal program stored in the terminal device, and the latest terminal program is always distributed to the terminal device. Therefore, the operator does not need to check whether the terminal program stored in the terminal device is the latest.

[0031]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the memory means holds a plurality of terminal programs each controlling a corresponding one of the plurality of business processes, and the control means stores the plurality of terminal programs. A plurality of terminal programs held in the means are selectively distributed to the plurality of terminal devices according to a combination of business processes assigned to each terminal device, and a specification arbitrarily specified from among the various business processes when the program is updated A terminal program that controls this specific business process is updated in all terminal devices that commonly perform business processes.
That is, the store controller can independently update the terminal program that controls the specific business process in each terminal device without changing the terminal programs that control the remaining business processes. Therefore, the program update time can be reduced. Further, since the program update is performed for all the terminal devices that perform the specific task processing in common, it is possible to reduce the difference in the program update timing that occurs between the plurality of terminal devices.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since it is confirmed by the confirmation means that the updating terminal program is newer than the distributed terminal program, for example, the updating terminal program among the updating terminal programs taken into the store controller from outside. A program update based on a non-new update terminal program that has already been distributed to the terminal device is omitted. Therefore, the update time can be reduced as compared with the case where the program update is repeated without this omission.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a store system that can end the program update of each terminal device in a short time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a store system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a version information file shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a terminal program fetching process performed by a processing unit of the store controller shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a terminal program transmission process performed by a processing unit of the store controller shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an initial transmission process shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a version upgrade transmission process shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an update process of a terminal program held in the mobile terminal device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Store controller 12 ... Memory part 14 ... Processing part 14A ... Work memory 16 ... Floppy disk drive 20 ... Portable terminal device 20A ... Ordering portable terminal device 20B ... Inspection portable terminal device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A computer system comprising: a plurality of terminal devices for performing various business processes; and a store controller for managing these terminal devices, wherein the store controller controls a corresponding one of the plurality of business processes. Memory means for holding a plurality of terminal programs, and selectively distributing the plurality of terminal programs held in the memory means to the plurality of terminal devices according to a combination of business processes assigned to each terminal device and updating the program A storage system comprising: a control unit that updates a terminal program that controls a specific business process in all terminal devices that commonly perform a specific business process arbitrarily specified from among the various business processes. 2. The distributed control device according to claim 2, wherein said control means retains version information of said plurality of terminal programs distributed to said plurality of terminal devices and version information of a distributed terminal program for controlling said specific business process, and said distributed terminal. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a confirmation unit for confirming that the update terminal program is newer than the distributed terminal program by comparing version information of the terminal program prepared for updating the program. The store system described.