JP2002244950A - Method and program for increasing efficiency of file transfer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the efficiency of a file transfer in such a network environment as is used on a user level. SOLUTION: When a terminal requests the other terminal to transfer a file (S1), before transfer, a file transfer monitoring means at a transfer side determines whether or not a file depression means is installed in a terminal at a transferred side (S2 to S4). When the means determines that the depression means is installed in the transferred side, the file is compressed by a file compression means at the transferred side and transferred to the transferred side (S6 to S8). When the means determines that the depression means is not installed in the transferred side, the file not compressed is transmitted to the transferred side (B1, 2), whereby, since the possibility of compression of the file at the transfer side can be determined without troubling an end user, the file can be transferred efficiently, and since the education of file transfer system must not be given to the end user by an administrator, loads on both the administrator and the end user can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for efficiently transferring files between terminals connected via a network and a program for improving the efficiency of the transfer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a file is transferred between terminals connected to a network, the file is compressed at a transfer source by a predetermined compression method for the purpose of shortening the transfer time and reducing the load on the network. The compressed file is transferred to a transfer destination, and the transfer destination decompresses the file by a decompression method that is compatible with the above-described compression method, and performs normal processing.

[0003] Particularly in a network used at the user level, when a file is transferred between terminals, it is conventionally necessary for a human to properly calculate the file type, file size, network transfer speed, etc., and send it after compressing it. Often judge.

[0004]

However, given the recent tendency of network environment users to become more generalized, it is difficult to say that all users understand, judge and execute it. This is one of the reasons why the purpose of reducing the load on the computer cannot be sufficiently achieved.

Therefore, when transferring a file, it is necessary for the user to understand when to compress and when to decompress the file. The work is performed by both the administrator and the end user. It is a heavy burden.
To understand that, for example, when transferring a large file, the sender should determine whether the file has already been compressed (jpeg, gif, mpeg, etc.) and also learn the work of compression. , They also know how to transfer. In addition, the receiving side needs to be judged whether the file is compressed, and whether the file needs to be decompressed needs to be educated, and the work is troublesome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and eliminates the need for end-user education and end-user work, thereby enabling a file transfer efficiency method for efficiently transferring files between terminals. And a transfer efficiency improvement program.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for improving file transfer efficiency, comprising the steps of: receiving a request to transfer a file from a terminal to another terminal in a network to which a plurality of terminals are connected; Prior to the transfer, the file transfer monitoring means provided in the transfer source terminal determines whether or not the transfer destination terminal is provided with decompression means for decompressing the file, and the transfer destination is provided with the decompression means. When it is determined that, after compressing the file by the file compression means provided at the transfer source, the compressed file is transferred to the transfer destination, the compressed file at the transfer destination should be decompressed by the decompression means, When the file transfer monitoring means determines that the transfer destination is not provided with the decompression means, the file is transferred to the transfer destination without compression. And wherein the Rukoto.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a network in which a plurality of terminals are connected, a transfer source terminal is provided prior to transfer when a request is made to transfer a file from one terminal to another terminal. The file transfer monitoring means determines whether or not the terminal at the transfer destination is provided with decompression means for decompressing the file. When it is determined that the transfer destination is provided with the decompression means, under certain conditions, After compressing the file by file compression means provided at the transfer source, transfer the compressed file to the transfer destination, and decompress the compressed file at the transfer destination by the decompression means. If it is determined that the destination does not have the decompression means or if the above conditions are not satisfied, the file is transferred to the destination without compression. Characterized by a thing.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the file transfer efficiency improving method according to the second aspect, wherein the predetermined condition is based on at least one of a type, a size, and a network environment of the file to be transferred. It is characterized in that it is determined whether or not to be compressed and transferred without compression.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a file transfer efficiency program decompresses a file to a transfer destination when a request is made from a terminal computer connected to a network to transfer the file to another terminal. Means to determine whether or not the file is provided, and if it is determined that the transfer destination is provided with the decompression means, the file is compressed unconditionally or under certain conditions and transferred to the transfer destination, and the transfer is performed. When it is determined that there is no means for decompressing the file first, and when the above-mentioned certain condition is not satisfied, a procedure for transferring the file to the destination without compressing the file is executed.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the file transfer efficiency program according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when a predetermined compressed file is transferred from another terminal to the terminal computer connected to the network, It is characterized by decompressing a file.

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when there is a request to transfer a file between terminals, the file transfer monitoring means determines whether or not decompression can be performed at the transfer destination, and transfers the file based on the result. It is determined whether to compress and transfer the original. Also, since compression and decompression are performed by the compression means and decompression means in each terminal, the file can be efficiently transferred without bothering the end user.

In particular, the present invention is suitable for monitoring a file exchange process in a network environment generally used at a user level, and appropriately compressing and decompressing the file to improve the transfer time.

In the present invention, the type of the network to which the terminal is connected is not particularly limited.
N, ISDN, a general telephone line, a mobile telephone network, or any other appropriate transmission network, or a combination of these may be used. As a terminal connected to this network, a general-purpose computer is exemplified, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be a portable computer, a data terminal, or the like.
Further, a plurality of types of terminals may be mixed in a network.

As the file transfer monitoring means, a means for operating a terminal computer by software installed in the terminal is exemplified. The file transfer monitoring means determines whether or not there is a decompression means for decompressing the file at the transfer destination terminal via the network. The file transfer monitoring means obtains the presence and type information of the decompression means from the management information of the transfer destination terminal or server, and if the existence is recognized, the decompression means conforms to the compression method of the transfer source. It is determined whether or not the desired decompression means exists at the transfer destination. The method for acquiring the information is not particularly limited as the present invention.

The file compression means provided at the transfer source is:
An example is one in which a transfer source terminal computer is operated by software installed in a transfer source terminal and a target file is compressed by a predetermined method. The compression method in the compression means is not particularly limited as the present invention, and an appropriate method can be selected. Also, the method need not be unique, for example,
The compression method may be changed depending on the type and size of the file.

On the other hand, the file decompression means provided at the transfer destination is exemplified by means for operating the transfer destination terminal computer by software installed in the transfer destination terminal to decompress the transferred compressed file. The software is usually recorded on recording means connected to the terminal, and is activated as needed. The decompression means must be capable of decompressing at least the file compressed by the compressed file.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when determining whether or not to compress and transfer, in addition to the determination as to whether or not decompression can be performed at the transfer destination as set forth in claim 1, the determination is made by adding certain conditions. And more efficient transfer becomes possible.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is determined whether or not to compress and transfer the file based on the type and size of the file to be transferred and the network environment as the above conditions.
More efficient transfer becomes possible.

As the file type in the above, it is mainly important whether or not the file is already compressed. In file formats such as jpeg, gif, and mpeg, the amount of information is reduced, that is, the compression process is irreversible in order to reduce the file size. Not very useful for efficiency. Therefore, it is desirable to exclude such a compressed file from the compression processing in the present invention. Also, if the file size is not so large, the efficiency of transfer by compression is small, and it may be necessary to simply increase the number of processing procedures.Therefore, only files exceeding a certain size are compressed. It is desirable to transfer the following files uncompressed. It is also desirable to select compression or uncompression depending on the network environment. As the network environment, the effective transmission speed and transmission time are used as judgment factors. Specifically, assuming a required time when data is transmitted between terminals without being compressed, compression is performed when the required time is longer than a set time, and uncompressed when the required time is not reached. The set time can be calculated from the time required for compression, the time required for transmitting the compressed file, and the time required for decompression. That is, the processing time required when the file is compressed, transmitted, and decompressed is compared with the processing time when the file is transferred without being compressed, and a method that can process the file in a shorter time is selected. The time required for the transfer can be calculated from the relationship with the file size if the effective transmission speed in the network is known. The effective transmission rate can be known by associating the effective transmission rate with a specific terminal in advance in a database or the like and reading this from the transfer source terminal. In addition, when transferring, send the test file from the transfer source to the transfer destination in advance,
The effective transmission rate can be known from the required transfer time and used for the above determination.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when a request to transfer a file from a terminal to another terminal is made, the compressed file can be decompressed at the transfer destination in cooperation with the terminal computer. It is determined whether or not there is, and it is determined whether or not to compress and transfer at the transfer source based on the result. In the case of performing compression, the terminal computer compresses the file and then transfers the file to the transfer destination terminal. On the other hand, if compression is not performed, the file is immediately transferred by the terminal computer in an uncompressed state. Thus, the file can be efficiently transferred without bothering the end user.

As described above, according to the program of the present invention, whether or not compression transfer is possible is mechanically processed. Therefore, the subject of the present invention can be solved by installing this program in each terminal.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the operation of the fourth aspect, when a predetermined compressed file is transferred, the terminal computer is made to decompress the file. By providing the terminal with the program, file transfer can be made more efficient.

The above-mentioned predetermined compressed file is a file which can be decompressed by the program, and usually is a file compressed by the same method as the compression method performed by the program.

[0025]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network to which the present invention is applied. A plurality of terminals (terminals 1 to 4 are shown in the figure) and a server 5 are connected by a network 6 such as a LAN. Each of the terminals 1 to 4 comprises a terminal computer, and each terminal has a file recording device 11, 21, 31, 4
1 so that a file can be appropriately taken out and recorded by operation of the terminal. In addition, each terminal has a file transfer function of extracting a file from the file recording device 11 provided therein and transferring the file to another terminal. Has the function of detecting

The terminals 1, 2, and 4 except the terminal 3 are provided with file transfer efficiency improving programs 12, 22, and 42 for operating the terminal computer. The file transfer efficiency program is a program that, when a file transfer request to another terminal is made at the terminal, detects the request and causes a computer to perform a process described below prior to file transfer. The computer can perform a process of compressing a file by a predetermined method and a process of decompressing (returning to a state before compression) the compressed file compressed by the method.

The processing based on the file transfer monitoring program will be described below with reference to FIGS. (Operation 1) First, when an end user requests a file transfer by input means (not shown) such as a keyboard at a terminal, or from a specific terminal (here, terminal 1) to another terminal by a terminal computer or server. (Step S1), the terminal 1 functions as a file transfer monitoring unit by the file transfer efficiency improving program provided in the terminal 1 and the transfer request is detected (step S2). A file transfer request is hooked (step S3). (Operation 2) Next, by the file transfer efficiency program, the terminal 1 as a file transfer monitoring unit determines whether or not the transfer destination terminal has the file transfer efficiency program (step S4). (Operation 3) Here, assuming that the transfer destination is the terminal 3, the terminal 3 does not have the program, and thus it is determined in the step that the transfer destination program does not exist. In this determination, the file transfer hook described above is released (step B1), and the terminal 1 performs file transfer processing. Specifically, the terminal 1 reads a predetermined file from the recording device 11 and transfers the file to the terminal 3 through the network 6. The terminal 3 receives the file and performs normal processing such as storing the file in the recording device 31 (step B2). (Operation 4) On the other hand, if the transfer destination of the file is the terminal 2, the existence of the program is recognized in the above determination (step S4), and the process proceeds to the next process. In the next process,
The type of file you are trying to transfer, the size of the file,
It is determined whether or not to compress the file under certain conditions regarding the network environment. If the condition is not satisfied, the file is transferred without compression (step S5). Under this condition, if the file type is already compressed, it is excluded from the compression processing. Also, only files having a certain size or more are subjected to compression processing. Whether the file is compressed or uncompressed and the size of the file can be known from the file information added to the file, and the type of compression can be known from the compressed file.

As the determination of the network environment, the effective transmission speed between the transfer source and the transfer destination is read out from a database registered in advance and the transfer process is performed without compression. Is calculated, and a method that can perform processing in a shorter time is selected. In other words, if the data is compressed and transferred and decompressed at the transfer destination can be processed in a short time, it is set as a target of compression, and the others are excluded from targets of compression processing. (Operation 5) Under these conditions, if the conditions are not satisfied in step S5, the file is not compressed, and the process proceeds to steps B1 and B2 to release the hook and transfer the file without compression. I do. At this time, the terminal 2 is notified of the hook release. In terminal 2,
An uncompressed file is received (step SF1), and file information added to the file is read by a routine included in the file transfer efficiency program 22 provided in the terminal 2 to determine whether the file is a compressed file. (Step SF2) After determining that the file is an uncompressed file, normal processing such as saving to the recording device 21 (SF)
4) is performed. (Operation 6) On the other hand, if it is determined in step S5 that the condition is satisfied, the procedure moves to the next procedure. In the next step,
Terminal 1 by file transfer efficiency program at transfer source
Then, a predetermined file is read from the recording device 11 and is compressed by the terminal 1 by a predetermined method (Step S).
6) Release the file transfer hook (step S)
7) The compressed file is transferred to the terminal 2 through the network 6 (step S8). Terminal 2
Then, the compressed file is received (step SF1),
First, the file information added to the file is read by a routine included in the file transfer efficiency improvement program 22 provided in the terminal 2, and it is determined whether or not the file is a compressed file (step SF2). Then, the compressed file is decompressed (step SF3), and normal processing such as storage in the recording device 21 is performed (step SF4). Therefore, when the compressed file arrives at the terminal 2, the decompression can be performed without notifying the end user, and it is not necessary to determine whether the file is a compressed file.

In this embodiment, when transferring a file, the file is taken out from the recording device connected to the terminal, transferred, and then recorded on the recording device of the transfer destination. The location of the file is not particularly limited to the processing method at the transfer destination described above, and may be obtained from a removable recording medium such as an FD or from the memory of the terminal. The file may be recorded on a recording medium such as an FD, or may be loaded into the memory of the transfer destination terminal.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is determined whether or not the file can be decompressed at the destination of the file, and whether or not the file can be compressed at the source is automatically determined. The file can be efficiently transferred without bothering the user. In addition, the efficiency of the network can be improved by making the file an appropriate size.

Furthermore, if the type, size, network environment, and the like of the file to be transferred are added as conditions for file compression in determining whether or not compression is possible at the transfer source, the file is compressed and transferred when necessary or effective. And the file transfer is made more efficient.

Therefore, the administrator does not need to educate the end user about the file transfer mechanism.
The load is reduced for both administrators and end users.

[0034]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure (transfer source) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure (transfer destination) in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an operation in one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 terminal 2 terminal 3 terminal 4 terminal 5 server 6 network 11 recording means 12 file transfer efficiency program 21 recording means 22 file transfer efficiency program 31 recording means 41 recording means 42 file transfer efficiency program

Claims (5)

[Claims] When a file is requested to be transferred from a terminal to another terminal in a network in which a plurality of terminals are connected, prior to the transfer, the transfer destination terminal is provided by file transfer monitoring means provided in the transfer source terminal. It is determined whether or not decompression means for decompressing the file is provided. If it is determined that the transfer destination is provided with decompression means, the file is compressed by the file compression means provided at the transfer source. Thereafter, the compressed file is transferred to the transfer destination, and the compressed file is decompressed by the decompression means at the transfer destination, and when the file transfer monitoring means determines that the decompression means is not provided at the transfer destination, Wherein the file is transferred to the transfer destination without compressing the file. 2. In a network in which a plurality of terminals are connected, when there is a request to transfer a file from a terminal to another terminal, prior to the transfer, the transfer destination terminal is provided by file transfer monitoring means provided in the transfer source terminal. It is determined whether or not decompression means for decompressing a file is provided. If it is determined that the decompression means is provided at the transfer destination, the file compression means provided at the transfer source under certain conditions is determined. After compressing the file, the compressed file is transferred to the transfer destination, and the compressed file is decompressed at the transfer destination by the decompression means. The transfer destination is provided with the decompression means by the file transfer monitoring means. The file transfer method is characterized in that the file is transferred to the transfer destination without compression if it is determined that the file has not been compressed or the above conditions are not satisfied. Transmission efficiency method 3. The predetermined condition determines whether the file is compressed and transferred or not transferred based on at least one of the type, size and network environment of the file to be transferred. 3. The method for improving file transfer efficiency according to claim 2, wherein 4. When a terminal computer connected to a network receives a request to transfer a file from the terminal computer to another terminal, it is determined whether or not the transfer destination has means for decompressing the file. If it is determined that the transfer destination is provided with the decompression means, the transfer destination is provided with means for compressing the file under unconditional or certain conditions and transferring the file to the transfer destination, and decompressing the file at the transfer destination. A file transfer efficiency program for executing a procedure for transferring a file to a transfer destination without compressing a file when it is determined that the file is not present and when the above-described certain condition is not satisfied. 5. The file transfer efficiency according to claim 4, wherein when a predetermined compressed file is transferred from another terminal to the terminal computer connected to the network, the compressed file is decompressed. program