JP2002041387A - System for collecting and distributing information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow even a user who does not have a server to fast transmit/ receive a transmission/reception data file at a low cast by utilizing a network. SOLUTION: A plurality of data collecting and distributing engines 11, 12 and 13 for transmitting and receiving a data file are connected to a message exchange engine 40 for controlling the distribution of the data file through the network, and a user A accesses an access point 31 through a public line 21 by using the 1st data collecting and distributing engine 11 and transmits the data file to be transmitted to the engine 40 managed by a distribution provider 30. Meanwhile, a user C accesses an access point 32 through a public line 23 by using the 2nd data collecting and distributing engine 13 to access the engine 40 and receives the data file transmitted by the user A.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an information collection and distribution system for collecting and distributing data files using a network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the transmission and reception of information using a computer has been remarkably developed, and a system in which many personal computers are connected to a server for managing information by a LAN or the like is actively used in government offices and companies. In addition, these personal computers are also actively connected to an external server or personal computer via a network such as the Internet to transmit and receive information. On the other hand, network systems that use servers and personal computers require high-performance personal computers and sophisticated network management as information transmission and reception become more sophisticated and efficient, resulting in higher equipment and management costs. Therefore, it is difficult for small and medium-sized businesses and sole proprietors to introduce it, and information transmission is still centered on telephone and facsimile.

[0003]

The means of transmitting information by telephone or facsimile is easy, but it is difficult to digitize information and data.
Since the secondary use of information is also difficult, it is difficult to manage the history of information storage and transmission / reception, and there is a tendency for information transmission costs and management costs to increase.

[0004] The present invention solves these problems, and an information collection / distribution in which a user who does not have a server can transmit / receive a transmission / reception data file easily, at a low cost, and at a high speed using a network. The purpose is to provide a system. It is another object of the present invention to provide an information collection / distribution system that can easily store and manage transmission / reception information and secondary use by digitizing and storing transmission / reception data.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information collection and distribution system according to the present invention, wherein a plurality of data collection and distribution engines for transmitting and receiving data files and a message exchange engine for controlling distribution of the data files are connected to a network. A data file to be transmitted by the first data collection and distribution engine to the message exchange engine and transmitted by accessing the message exchange engine by the second data collection and distribution engine. Is received. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the information collection and distribution system according to the first aspect, wherein transmission and reception of the data file are performed using ftp. Claim 3
The information collection and distribution system of the present invention according to claim 1, wherein in the information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, the data collection and distribution engine includes at least a header of a data file to be transmitted and received;
It has means for managing logs and command sets. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the information collection and distribution system according to the first aspect, wherein the message exchange engine is dedicated to storing the data file transmitted by the first data collection and distribution engine. It has a data folder. Claim 5
The information collection and distribution system according to the present invention is characterized in that, in the information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, the message exchange engine operates on a server of a distributor that manages the collection and distribution of data files. An information collection and distribution system according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is the information collection and distribution system according to the first aspect, wherein a plurality of data files are transmitted and received by one capsule.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An information collection and distribution system according to a first embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of data collection and distribution engines for transmitting and receiving data files and a message exchange engine for controlling distribution of the data files via a network. And transmitting the data file to be transmitted by the first data collection and distribution engine to the message exchange engine, and accessing the message exchange engine by the second data collection and distribution engine to receive the transmitted data file. Thus, even a user who does not have a server can transmit and receive data files easily, at low cost, and at high speed using a network.

In the information collection and distribution system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the transmission and reception of data files are performed using ftp in the information collection and distribution system of the first embodiment. Standard communication protocols used on the Internet can be used as they are.

An information collection and distribution system according to a third embodiment of the present invention is the information collection and distribution system according to the first embodiment, wherein the data collection and distribution engine includes at least a header, a log, and a command set of a data file to be transmitted and received. , The data file to be transmitted and received can be stored as digitized data.

An information collection and distribution system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention is the information collection and distribution system according to the first embodiment, wherein the message exchange engine includes a data file transmitted by the first data collection and distribution engine. Has a dedicated data folder for storing the transmitted data file, the receiver can quickly receive the transmitted data file.

An information collection and distribution system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention is the information collection and distribution system according to the first embodiment, wherein the message exchange engine is provided on a server of a distributor that manages the collection and distribution of data files. It works,
Even a user without a server can transmit and receive data files using the network.

The information collection and distribution system according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention is different from the information collection and distribution system of the first embodiment in that a plurality of data files are transmitted and received by one capsule. Time can be greatly reduced. .

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the information collection and distribution system of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information collection and distribution system according to the present invention. Users who transmit and receive information have data collection / distribution engines 11, 12, and 13 using personal computers or the like. The data collection / distribution engines 11, 12, and 13 are connected to access points 31, 32 of a distributor 30 by public networks 21, 22, and 23, respectively. The distributor 30 manages the message exchange engine 40.

Each data collection / distribution engine 11, 12, 13
As shown in FIG. 2, the control unit 51, the header management unit 52, the command set management unit 53, and the distribution management unit 5
4. It is composed of subsystems of a log management unit 55 and an error management unit 56. Each subsystem has an optimal configuration so as to provide an interface with an application program for an application created by a user using the data collection / distribution engine 11, 12, and 13. The performance of the data collection / distribution engines 11, 12, and 13 is performed while the processing is being performed. The interface of each subsystem is handled by calling it functionally, and all subsystems are provided as DLL modules.

As shown in FIG. 3, the message exchange engine 40 includes a control unit 61, a header management unit 62, a message exchange management unit 63, a folder management unit 64, a queue management unit 65, a log management unit 66, and an error management unit 67. It consists of each subsystem. Folder management unit 64
Stores data files sent from multiple users in a dedicated data folder and manages the folders so that recipients can quickly receive them when connected to any of the access points 31, 32, and 33 I do.
The message exchange engine 40 is configured to operate at high speed on the server of the distributor 30. The interface of each subsystem is performed by asynchronous processing using a message queue. Therefore, the data file can be transmitted even when the data collection / distribution engine of the partner is stopped. By starting a plurality of subsystems with a large load, a reduction in processing speed can be suppressed. As the communication protocol, ftp, which is a standard protocol on the Internet, is used. Also, security can be enhanced by encrypting data at the transmission / reception stage.

Next, the operation will be described by taking as an example the case where user A transmits a data file to user C. When the user A creates data to be transmitted by the data collection / distribution engine 11 and instructs data distribution, the header of the created data is transmitted to the header management unit 52, the content of the message is transmitted to the log management unit 55, and the transmission command is transmitted. Is the command set management unit 53
Is stored in The file data to be transmitted is stored in the data collection and distribution engine 11 in the form of electronic data. Next, the access point 31 via the public line 21
Is accessed, the service screen provided by the distributor 30 is read from the message exchange engine 40 and displayed. When the user A designates the address of the user C as the transmission destination while instructing the transmission while viewing the service screen, the transmission data file is transmitted to the message exchange engine 40 together with the transmission command and the address of the user C by the distribution management unit 54. Is done. When there is a transmission error, the error is managed by the error management unit 56 in the data collection / distribution engine 11 and is notified to the user A by the error management unit 67 in the message exchange engine 40. In the message exchange engine 40, the header part of the transmitted data file is the header management part 62, and the content of the message part is the log management part 66.
Is stored in the folder specified by the folder management unit 64 under the management of the user, and is notified to the message exchange management unit 63 to wait for the access of the user C. When the user C accesses the access point 32 by the data collection / distribution engine 13, the message screen is displayed from the message exchange management unit 63 on the service screen provided by the distributor 30. When the user C sees the message and instructs to receive the message, the delivery management unit 54 of the data collection and delivery engine 13 transfers the transmission data stored in the folder in the message exchange engine 40 to the data collection and delivery engine 1.
3 and the transmitted message can be viewed. At this time, the transmitted message data includes a header part in the header management part 52, a message part in the log management part 55, and a transmission command in the command set management part 53.
Is stored in The transmitted file data is stored in the data collection and distribution engine 13 in the form of electronic data. If there is a reception error, the error management unit 56
, And is notified to the user C. As for the file data to be transmitted, when a plurality of files are transmitted as one capsule, the processing time can be greatly reduced as compared with the case where one file is transmitted by one capsule. Similarly,
When there are a plurality of transmission destinations, the processing time can be reduced by designating a plurality of transmission destinations. As described above, the data collection and distribution engine running on the user side can transmit a data file on the computer by providing an interface with the application program (application) created by the user. The information that users can use is various information between head office and branch, such as daily sales of the company, salary of employees and parts, shipping instructions from the head office, reports from the branch, etc. Data exchange can be handled as in the case. Further, the present invention can be used not only for in-house communication but also for data communication such as quotation between companies, ordering and ordering work, financial settlement, provision of product information to users, and receiving orders. In addition, by performing variable-length data in a single format and encapsulation, and using the standard protocol ftp, data transmission and reception in both directions,
And necessary commands can be transmitted. In addition, one-to-n collection and distribution are possible, and linked processing between personal computers that does not require a server can be performed. Further, encryption at the stage of encapsulation is also possible, and security on the Internet can be enhanced.

[0016]

As described above, according to the information collection / distribution system according to the present invention, even a user without a server can easily transmit / receive a transmission / reception data file using a network such as the Internet at a low cost and at a high speed. You can do it. In addition, since transmission / reception data can be digitized and stored, transmission / reception information storage, history management, and secondary use can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an information collection and distribution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data collection and distribution engine of the information collection and distribution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a message exchange engine of the information collection and distribution system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 12, 13 Data collection / distribution engine 21, 22, 23 Public line network 30 Distributor 31, 32 Access point 40 Message exchange engine 51 Control unit 52 Header management unit 53 Command set management unit 54 Distribution management unit 55 Log management unit 56 Error management unit 61 Control unit 62 Header management unit 63 Message exchange management unit 64 Folder management unit 65 Queue management unit 66 Log management unit 67 Error management unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of data collection / distribution engines for transmitting / receiving data files and a message exchange engine for controlling distribution of the data files are connected via a network, and data to be transmitted by a first data collection / distribution engine is provided. An information collection and distribution system, wherein a file is transmitted to the message exchange engine, and a data file transmitted by accessing the message exchange engine by a second data collection and distribution engine is received. 2. The information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein transmission and reception of the data file are performed using ftp. 3. The information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the data collection and distribution engine has means for managing at least a header, a log, and a command set of a data file to be transmitted and received. 4. The information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the message exchange engine has a dedicated data folder for storing a data file transmitted by the first data collection and distribution engine. 5. The information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the message exchange engine operates on a server of a distribution company that manages the collection and distribution of the data files. 6. The information collection and distribution system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of data files are transmitted and received by one capsule.