JP2001134678A - Device and method for data transform - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for transforming data, which can deal with plural kinds of documents by registering format information, can automatically identify the format class of input data and can apply arbitrary format conversion such as removing printer control data corresponding to the set format information. SOLUTION: Print data sent from a host computer 1 are dispatched from a data receiving part 31 to a data analyzing part 32. While referring to document extraction information, the data analyzing part 32 identifies a print format and corresponding to that print format, a data item is extracted according to a definition set to the document extraction information. The extracted data item is dispatched to a data transforming part 33. Corresponding to that print format, the data transforming part 33 edits the dispatched data according to the definition of an output document format 42 and outputs these data to an output data part 43.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a data conversion device and a data conversion method in a computer system. In particular, the present invention relates to a data conversion device and a data conversion method for removing and editing printer control data included in print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a computer system, it may be necessary to output the contents of data to be printed as a form to a file. Specifically, for example, when you want to test a form creation program without actually outputting it to paper, use an editor or browser program before actually printing a large amount of output forms on paper Or when it is desired to take data originally designed for form output into a database or spreadsheet and use it.

[0003]

In such a case, in the prior art, a program is created for each form. The reason is that print data usually includes data for printer control in addition to character and numerical data, and if such control data is included, it can be easily referenced or reused. It is because it is difficult.

However, creating a conversion program for each form in this way requires costs for development and maintenance,
In addition, there is a problem that when a new form needs to be converted, it takes time to add the function.

Although many general data conversion tool programs have been developed and used, it has been difficult to apply these existing data conversion tool programs to print data including printer control data.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can correspond to a plurality of types of forms only by registering format information, and can automatically identify the format type of input data. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data conversion device and a data conversion method capable of performing an arbitrary format conversion such as removing printer control data according to format information to be set.

[0007]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data conversion apparatus for converting input data according to set information and outputting the converted data. An identification information storage unit that stores a condition for identifying a format type of data; an extraction information storage unit that stores an extraction method of an information item to be extracted from the input data according to the format type; An output format storage unit that stores an information editing format for editing using the identification information storage unit and the extraction information storage unit, based on information set in the input data, identifies the format type of the input data. ,
A data analysis unit that extracts the information item from the input file according to the format type; and a data conversion unit that outputs data in a format based on the information editing format using the information item extracted by the data analysis unit. The gist of the present invention is a data conversion device characterized by comprising:

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the input data is print data including a printer control code,
The extracted information storage unit stores the position information of information items not including the printer control code, and the output format storage unit stores the information editing format not including the printer control code. It is characterized by.

[0009] With such a configuration of the present invention, the information item extracted by the data analysis unit does not include a printer control code. Further, since the data conversion unit generates output data using the information item and the information editing format that does not include a printer control code, the output data does not include a printer control code.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the data analysis unit searches the identification information storage unit and does not find the format type corresponding to the input data, it is determined that the format cannot be identified. A response unit that emits a signal representing the signal.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized by comprising a data receiving unit for receiving input data from outside by communication.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a first step of identifying a format type of input data based on format identification information stored in advance and a format type identified in the first step are provided. Accordingly, a second step of extracting information items from the input data based on information item extraction position information stored in advance, and information stored in advance using the information items extracted in the second step. The gist of the present invention is a data conversion method comprising a third step of performing data editing based on an editing format and a fourth step of outputting data edited in the third step.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium on which a data conversion program is recorded, wherein a first process of reading input data from an information medium and an input read in the first process are provided. A second process for identifying the format type of the data based on the format identification information stored in advance, and, based on the information item extraction position information stored in advance, according to the format type identified in the second process. A third process of extracting information items from the input data, a fourth process of editing data based on an information editing format stored in advance by using the information items extracted in the third process, A computer-readable recording recording a data conversion program for executing the fifth processing of outputting the data edited in the fourth processing to the information medium; Body and the spirit.

Here, the information medium for reading the input data and the information medium for outputting the edited data include an information recording medium such as a magnetic means, an electric means, an optical means or an electric means, an electromagnetic means. , An information communication medium by optical means or the like.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the terminal device according to the embodiment. In this figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a host computer, and 2 denotes a terminal (data conversion device) for receiving print data from the host computer.
The terminal 2 includes a data processing unit 3 and a storage unit 4.

The data processing unit 3 includes a host computer 1
A data receiving unit 31 for receiving print data from the printer, a data analyzing unit 32 for analyzing the contents of the print data received by the data receiving unit 31, and extracting necessary data from the print data according to the analysis result of the data analyzing unit 32. And a data conversion unit 33 that converts the data into a file format.

The storage unit 4 includes form extraction information 41 (identification information storage unit and extraction information storage unit) and output form format 42
(Output format storage unit) and an output data unit 43.

The form extraction information 41 contains, for each of a plurality of print formats, information on a format of one page of print data received from the host computer 1 and information on the position of character data extracted from the print data in advance. Has been recorded. The data analysis unit 32 identifies the format of the print data received from the host computer 1 by referring to the form extraction information 41. For identification of this format, for example, a heading character of a print form is used.

The output form 42 holds format information and output position information for outputting character data extracted from print data to a conversion destination file for each print format defined in the form extraction information 41. I have.

The data analysis unit 32 searches the form extraction information 41 based on the print data received from the data reception unit 31, and searches for a print format that matches the format of the print data. If a matching print format is found in the form extraction information 41, the data is extracted while referring to the position information of the character data to be extracted in the print format, and is passed to the data conversion unit 33. If a matching print format cannot be found in the form extraction information 41, the received print data is output as it is to a file of the output data unit 43.

If a print format that matches the format of the received data is found in the form extraction information 41, the data conversion unit 3
3 receives the identification information of the print format and the extracted character data from the data analysis unit 32. Then, format data corresponding to the received print format is selected and read from the output form format 42, the received character data is embedded at a predetermined position in the format data, and output to a file of the output data unit 43.

Next, an operation procedure of the terminal 2 will be described with reference to a flowchart. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the procedure of print data conversion in the present embodiment. First, the data receiving unit 31 receives the print data transmitted from the host computer (Step A in FIG. 2).
1). The print data is passed to the data analysis unit 32, and the data analysis unit 32 searches the form extraction information 41 (step A2) and checks whether a print format that matches the print data is registered (step A3). .

If registered, the data analysis unit 32
Extracts necessary character data in accordance with the form extraction information 41 and passes it to the data conversion unit 33 together with the identification information of the print format of the print data (step A4). The data conversion unit 33 reads output form format data corresponding to the print format of the received print data from the output form format 42, inserts the character data extracted in step A4 into a predetermined position (step A5), and outputs the output data. Output to the file of the unit 43 (step A6).

In step A3, if a matching print format is not registered, the data analysis section 32 outputs the received print data as it is to a file in the output data section 43 (step A7).

Next, a specific example of data conversion will be described. FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of information held by the form extraction information 41. As shown in FIG. 3, this form output information 4
1, each of the slip A, the slip B, and the slip C,
Format information (print format), items to be taken out, and position information of the items are registered.

For example, the format information of the slip B is “the character string of“ slip B ”is in the first line”. The data items to be extracted from the print data of the slip B are item B
1, B2, B3, and B4. Further, the position information of these data items indicates that they are character strings separated by predetermined ruled lines in the third and subsequent lines in the page.

FIG. 4 is a table showing an example of information held by the output form 42. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of print data received by the terminal 2 from the host computer 1. The print data as shown in FIG.
In step A1), when the data is passed from the data receiving unit 31 to the data analyzing unit 32, the data analyzing unit 32 first refers to the form output information 41 (step A2), and displays “Slip B , The data is identified as slip B data (step A3).

Then, in accordance with the form extraction information 41, “Data A1” in the third line of data is data of item B1, “Data A2” is data of item B2, and “Data A3” is data of item B3. "Data A4" is extracted as data of item B4 (step A
4). The data of each item is similarly extracted from the fourth line onward (step A4). FIG. 7 shows the data extracted by the data analysis unit 32 in this manner.

The extracted data shown in FIG.
Passed to 3. The data conversion unit 33 converts the data extracted from this slip B into “[item B1], [item B2], [item B3],
[Item B1], [Item B2], and [Item B4]
[Item B3] and [Item B4] are respectively inserted (Step A5). The data thus converted is output to a file of the output data section 43 (step A).
6).

In the above embodiment, the form extraction information 4
When the print data that does not include the format corresponding to No. 1 is received, the data analysis unit 32 outputs the print data as it is to the output data unit 43 without converting the print data. Not to host computer 1
May be answered. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal (data conversion device) having such a function.

In FIG. 8, the terminal device 2 includes a data processing unit 3 and a storage unit 4. The data processing unit 3 in this figure differs from the data processing unit 3 in FIG. 1 in that the data processing unit 3 includes a response unit 35, the data analysis unit 34 has a notification unit to the response unit 35, and the response unit 35 The provision of the means for notifying the computer 1 is that the data analysis unit 34 does not directly output data to the output data unit 43.

When the data analysis unit 34 receives the print data from the data reception unit 31 and searches for the format information registered in the form extraction information 41, if there is no matching format information, This is notified to the response unit 35. Upon receiving the notification from the data analysis unit 34, the response unit 35 notifies the host computer 1 of the error,
The host computer 1 can recognize that there is an error in the file output.

In the present invention, the conversion is performed in units of one page of the print data. When print data for a plurality of pages is sent from the host computer 1, an output file may be created by one of the following methods.

The first method is to create an output file for each page of the print data received from the host computer 1. In the case of the first method, it is possible to individually confirm the content of each page as in the case of printing on paper. The second method is a method of creating an output file from the data received from the host computer 1 for each form type registered in the form extraction information 41. This second
In the case of the above method, it is possible to refer to the print data of the same format collectively. The third method is to output all data received from the host computer 1 to the same file. In the case of data having a coherent content in a plurality of different types of forms, output by the third method is effective.

The above-mentioned data converter has a computer system inside. The above-described processes of data reception, data analysis, and data output are stored in a recording medium of a computer system in the form of a program, and the computer reads and executes the program to perform the above processing. Here, the recording medium of the computer system refers to a floppy disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a magnetic hard disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like, but is not limited thereto.

In the above embodiment, the data conversion processing is executed on the terminal device. However, the data conversion processing may be executed on the host computer. Further, in a computer system having a client / server structure, the data conversion processing of the present invention may be executed on a client or a server. Further, the data conversion processing may be executed in a stand-alone environment of a personal computer or the like.

The processes of the data processing unit 3 in the above embodiment need not all be executed on the same computer, but may be partially executed on another computer. Further, all the information held by the storage unit 4 in the above embodiment need not necessarily be held on the same computer, and a part thereof may be stored in another computer or a storage device. As described above, when functions or data are distributed, information is exchanged between the devices via a network as necessary.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the condition for identifying the print format of the form is retained as the form extraction information, the form type of the input print data is automatically identified and Data conversion according to the form type can be performed.

Further, according to the present invention, information is extracted from input data according to position information for each registered information item, and the extracted output format information is converted into the registered output format information using the extracted information item data. Since the corresponding data is edited, data conversion in an arbitrary format becomes possible. In addition, by appropriately setting the format, it is possible to remove the printer control data included in the print data and refer to the data in a desired form.

According to the present invention, the response unit is provided, and when the format corresponding to the input print data is not registered in advance, the response unit can emit information to that effect to the outside. Therefore, this problem in data conversion can be recognized even in a remote computer or the like connected via a network or the like.

[0041]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data conversion device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a print data conversion procedure of the data conversion apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of contents of form extraction information of the data conversion device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a warhead showing a content example of an output form format of the data conversion apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of print data received by the data conversion device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of a file output by the data conversion device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of data extracted by the data analysis unit and passed to the data conversion unit in the data conversion device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data conversion device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 host computer 2 terminal 3 data processing unit 4 storage unit 31 data reception unit 32 data analysis unit 33 data conversion unit 34 data analysis unit 35 response unit 41 form extraction information 42 output form format 43 output data unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A data conversion device for converting input data according to set information and outputting the converted data, comprising: an identification information storage unit for storing a condition for identifying a format type of the input data; An extraction information storage unit that stores a method of extracting an information item to be extracted from the input data according to the input data; an output format storage unit that stores an information editing format for editing using the information item; A data analysis unit that identifies the format type of the input data based on information set in the unit and the extraction information storage unit, and extracts the information item from the input file according to the format type; A data conversion unit that outputs data in a format based on the information editing format using the information items extracted by the data analysis unit. 2. The input data is print data including a printer control code, the extraction information storage unit stores the position information of an information item not including the printer control code, and the output format storage unit. 2. The data conversion apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said information editing format does not include said printer control code. 3. A response unit that searches the identification information storage unit when the data analysis unit does not find the format type corresponding to the input data, and issues a signal indicating that format identification is impossible. The data conversion device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: 4. A data receiving unit for receiving input data from outside through communication.
The data conversion device according to any one of the above. 5. A first process for identifying a format type of input data based on format identification information stored in advance, and a format process according to the format type identified in the first process.
A second step of extracting information items from the input data based on information item extraction position information stored in advance, and using the information items extracted in the second step,
A data conversion method, comprising: a third step of editing data based on an information editing format stored in advance; and a fourth step of outputting data edited in the third step. 6. A computer-readable recording medium on which a data conversion program is recorded, wherein a first process for reading input data from an information medium and a format type of the input data read in the first process are stored in advance. A second process for identifying based on the identified format identification information, and a format type identified in the second process.
A third process of extracting information items from the input data based on information item extraction position information stored in advance, and using the information items extracted in the third process,
A fourth process of performing data editing based on the information editing format stored in advance, and a fifth process of outputting data edited in the fourth process to an information medium. Computer readable recording medium.