JP2002278663A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor capable of displaying a proper error picture according to the situations changing from time to time. SOLUTION: This information processor is provided with an obtaining means 21 for obtaining data from a server device connected to a network, a display means 22 for displaying the data obtained by the obtaining means 21, an analyzing means 23 for analyzing the data obtained by the obtaining means 21, and for extracting error display control information included in the obtained data, a holding means 24 for holding the error display control information extracted by the analyzing means 23, and an error display control means 25 for allowing the display means 22 to display an error picture based on the error display control information held by the holding means 24 when any error is generated at the time of connecting this information processor to the server device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for acquiring and displaying data from a server device on a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of the Internet technology, a Web server has come to be mounted on all devices due to its versatility and high network transparency. For example, in the technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-200399, a management device for managing devices on a network is
By installing a server, unified operability from a general-purpose browser is realized. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-20
Japanese Patent Application No. 0270 describes a technique in which a Web server is installed in a printer device to directly manage the printer device from a general-purpose browser.

The technologies described in the above two publications minimize the development of dedicated software by using a Web server and a browser as a method of realizing a so-called user interface such as operation of devices and display of status. What you want to do. On the other hand, JP-A-11-5
According to the technology described in Japanese Patent No. 3277, a plurality of modules
A single device is configured with a Web server, and these servers are accessed from dedicated and general-purpose browsers, thereby realizing a highly functionally scalable device.

[0004]

By using a Web server and a browser as the user interface section of the device, the man-hour for developing the device can be reduced, and the expandability and versatility can be improved. However, on the other hand, there is a problem that display is restricted when a communication error occurs with the server. That is, in the conventional information processing apparatus, an operation of an input device such as a mouse or a touch panel becomes a data transmission request to the server, and the data transmitted from the server is obtained and displayed in response to the request. At this time, if an error occurs during data acquisition, the data transmitted from the server or an error screen previously stored on the browser side is displayed.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a general Web browser mounted on an information processing apparatus. First, it waits for a data acquisition request instruction (step S
1) In this instruction waiting state, when a data acquisition request is made by a user operation, a data transmission request is made to a designated server device (step S2).

Next, the process waits for data transmission from the server device (step S3). When data transmission from the server device is actually confirmed, the transmitted data is obtained (step S4) and displayed (step S4). S5).

[0007] Communication with the server device (step S
If an HTTP error occurs (waiting for data transmission in step 3) (YES in step S6), “error display control processing 1” is performed (step S7).

Here, when a communication error occurs with the server device, usually, a status code and error notification data are transmitted from the server device to the device that has requested data transmission. For example, if the HTTP status code is "40
If it is “0”, it means “Bad request from client” and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Lan
guage) file is sent. If the power of the server device is off or the network cable is disconnected, a communication timeout error is detected.

Therefore, in the "error display control process 1" in step S7, as shown in FIG. 20, it is checked whether the type of error is a communication error (step S70).
1) If it is a communication error, after acquiring error notification data transmitted from the server device, an error screen is displayed using the error notification data (step S70).
1, S703). If the type of error is a communication timeout error (YES in step S704), an error screen is displayed in advance using timeout error data held by the Web browser (step S705). If the error does not correspond to any of the communication error and the communication timeout error, an error screen is displayed using the data for the internal error (step S706).

[0010] Here, it is desirable that an error screen to be displayed is selected according to the current display contents and the data to be obtained for a user who uses the information processing apparatus. For example, in the case of an error when shifting to another screen display by a certain screen operation, it is necessary to display what kind of operation should be performed thereafter (guidance display). However, in the processing flow of the general browser shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, except for the communication error notified by the server device, only the error screen fixedly held by the browser is displayed. The display of an appropriate error screen according to (operation status, device status, network status, etc.) has not been realized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus capable of displaying an appropriate error screen according to the situation at each time. It is in.

[0012]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: acquiring means for acquiring data from a server device connected to a network; display means for displaying the data acquired by the acquiring means; and acquiring means. Analyzing means for extracting the error display control information included in the obtained data by analyzing the data obtained in the step S, and holding means for holding the error display control information extracted by the analyzing means; And an error display control means for displaying an error screen based on the error display control information held by the holding means on the display means when an error occurs.

In the information processing apparatus having the above configuration, when data is obtained by the obtaining means from the server connected to the network, the obtained data is analyzed by the analyzing means. At this time, if the acquired data includes the error display control information, the error display control information is extracted by the analysis unit, and the extracted error display control information is held by the holding unit. If an error occurs when connecting to the server device, an error screen based on the error display control information held in the holding means is displayed on the display means by the error display control means.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated information processing apparatus 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 2 and a ROM (Read-On).
ly Memory) 3, RAM (Random Access Memory) 4, H
It is provided with a DD (hard disk drive) 5, a network interface 6, an input unit 7, a display unit 8, and the like.

The CPU 2 executes various processes according to a control program of the information processing device stored in the ROM 3. The RAM 4 stores work data when the CPU 2 executes a process according to the control program stored in the ROM 3. The HDD 5 stores (holds) various data. The network interface 6 implements data communication via a network. This network interface 6
The data received through the HDD 5 is stored in the HDD 5. The input unit 7 includes, for example, a touch panel switch, a dedicated button, and the like, and performs various information inputs such as a setting input of the own device and an input of a control instruction. The display unit 8 includes, for example, a display, a display panel, and the like, and performs various information displays such as a status display of the own device.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of an information processing system using the information processing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG.
, The information processing apparatus 1 is configured by, for example, a digital copying machine having a network communication function. The information processing device 1 includes a Web server 11 and a W
An eb browser 12 is provided as a display function. The information processing apparatus 1 is, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network).
ork).

On the network 13, in addition to the information processing apparatus 1 described above, an external device 15 such as a personal computer or a workstation equipped with a Web server 14.
And an external device 17 such as a digital copier equipped with a Web server 16. The user of the information processing apparatus 1 operates the Web browser 12 to operate the Web servers 14 and 1 of the plurality of external apparatuses 15 and 17.
6 is acquired and the Web browser 12
Can be displayed. Therefore, a single system operation combining a plurality of devices existing on the network 13 can be provided to this user.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. Each of the functional units (21 to 25) shown in the functional block diagram is realized by the hardware configuration shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, an obtaining unit 21 obtains data from a server device connected to a network.
Indicates the data acquired by the acquisition means 21. The analyzing unit 23 analyzes the display data acquired by the acquiring unit 21 to extract error display control information included in the acquired data. The error display control information includes an error display condition and error display data corresponding to the error display condition or a storage location of the error display data. The holding unit 24 holds the error display control information extracted by the analyzing unit 23. The error display control means 25 causes the display means 22 to display an error screen based on the error display control information held by the holding means 24. Hereinafter, a processing procedure of the information processing apparatus performed by these functional units will be described.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. First, it waits for an instruction for a data acquisition request (step S11). If an instruction from the user is detected by an input unit such as a mouse, a touch panel switch or a dedicated button in this instruction waiting state, it is determined that a data acquisition request is present. (Step S1
1 is determined to be YES), and a data transmission request is made to the designated server device (step S12). Here, the location of the server device that is the data transmission source is specified as an Internet address, for example, “server1@xxxx.co.jp”. The location of the data to be acquired is specified on the server device specified as described above, for example, as “/dir1/document1.htm”.

Generally, HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is used as a communication protocol between a Web browser and a Web server. In this case, the above-described data transmission request is transmitted to “server1@xxxx.co.jp” as a method “GET / dir1 / document1.htm”, for example.

On the other hand, the server device that has received the data transmission request from the information processing device transmits (replies) the electronic data at the designated location as response data to the data transmission request. On the other hand, on the image processing device (Web browser) side, after making a data transmission request as described above,
Wait for data transmission from the server device (step S1
3) When the data transmission from the server device is actually confirmed, the transmitted data is obtained (step S1).
4).

Next, after analyzing the data acquired in the previous step S14 (step S15), "error display control information extraction processing" is performed based on the analysis result (step S16). Thereafter, the data acquired in the previous step S14 is displayed (step S17). The “error display control information extraction process” in step S16 will be described in detail later.

On the other hand, communication with the server device (step S
If an HTTP error occurs (waiting for data transmission in step S13) (YES in step S18), "error display control processing 2" is performed (step S19). The “error display control processing 2” in step S19 will be described later in detail.

FIG. 5 shows "extraction processing of error display control information".
6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of FIG. First, it is determined whether or not an error display condition is specified based on the data analysis result in the previous step S15 (step S21).

The error display condition is transmitted by being included in the header information of the data in the data transmitted from the server device in response to the data transmission request from the information processing device. In addition, the error display data corresponding to the error display condition or the storage location of the error display data is also
It is transmitted together with the error display condition in the header information of the transmission data from the server device. These error display conditions and the corresponding error display data or the storage location of the error display data are included in transmission data from the server device as error display control information.

In such a case, in step S21, referring to the header information of the data transmitted from the server device,
It is determined whether an error display condition is specified in the header information. If the error display condition is specified, the error display condition is extracted from the header information of the data (step S22), and this is stored (stored) (step S23).

Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the storage location of the error display data has been designated based on the result of the data analysis in step S15 (step S2).
4) If specified, the storage location of the error display data is extracted (step S25), and this is stored in association with the error display condition extracted in the previous step S22 (step S26).

If the storage location of the error display data has not been specified, the error display data itself is extracted from the header information of the data (step S27), and the extracted error display data corresponds to the error display condition extracted in the previous step S22. Attach and hold (step S28). As described above, by including the error display data itself in the error display control information, extracting the error display data and holding the error display data in the own device, when displaying an error screen using the error display data, There is no need to acquire error display data from an external device (server device). Therefore, it is possible to quickly and appropriately display the error screen.

FIGS. 6 to 9 show specific examples of specifying the error display control information. In each of the examples, it is assumed that the data obtained from the server device is described in HTML format.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, an error display condition and its value are specified in the META tag at the head of the data. The error display condition includes a first condition that defines an error type (Error-Type) and other conditions, that is, a server device name (Sequence).
rver-Name), address information identifying the server device (w
ww.sample.co.jp), the number of accesses to the server device (A
ccess-Num), display area of display target data (Display-Wid
th, Display-Height), the type of data to be acquired (Content
-Type), storage location of the target data (Content-Path)
And the second condition that defines Second
May be specified using one of the above-described various items, or may be specified using a plurality of items. Also, the storage location of the error display data is http: // ser
URL (Uniform Resource Id) like ver2 / error1.htm
entifier). Here, it is shown that the error display data is stored on an external server device. Incidentally, the acquisition target data refers to data for which the information processing device has made a transmission request to the server device before a communication error occurs with the server device.

In the example shown in FIG. 7, similar to the case of FIG.
Error display conditions are specified in the META tag at the beginning of the data. However, instead of the storage location of the error display data, the error display data itself is described between <BODY> and </ BODY>.

The example shown in FIG. 8 shows a method of specifying an error display condition in the definition of a FRAME tag for displaying a screen including a plurality of data files. This is shown in FIG.
0, a plurality of (three in the example in the figure) data 1, 2, 2,
In the data configuration when data 0 is constructed by 3, it corresponds to data 0. These data 0, 1, 2,
3 is a plurality of server devices N connected to the network
o.1, No.2 and No.3 are distributed and held. Therefore, this error display condition is the data 1 described in the data 0,
This can be applied to the occurrence of an error when acquiring 2 and 3. The type of error is described by ERROR = “xxx”, and the storage location of the error display message is described by CONTENT = “xxx”.

In the example shown in FIG. 9, similar to the case of FIG.
It shows how to specify error display conditions in the definition of a FRAME tag that displays a screen consisting of multiple data files. However, instead of the storage location of the error display data, the error display data itself is described between <BODY> and </ BODY>.

The error display conditions and error display data as described above are registered in association with an error display management table as shown in FIG. The “number” in the error display management table is a management number that summarizes a plurality of error display conditions, and is assigned at the time of registration. “Condition type” and “value” correspond to the above-described error display conditions. The “Error-Type” stored in the “Condition type” column corresponds to the first condition that specifies the type of error, and other values (Access-Num, Display-Wi
dth) corresponds to the second condition. The "location of error display data" is, for example, a URL character string indicating that it exists in the server device on the network, and if it is an address value in the memory or a file name on the hard disk, it is already stored in its own device. Indicates that it is. “Access count” indicates the current access count value when the error display condition is the number of accesses to the server device. The access count value stored in this column is counted every time the server device is accessed. Will be up. "Display area" indicates the display area allocated to the data to be acquired when the error display condition is the display width or the display height, and specific display area data is stored in this column. You.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the "error display control process 2". First, it is determined whether or not the error display condition is held (step S31).
When it is determined that the error is held, it is determined whether or not there is an error display condition that matches the content of the error detected in the previous step S18 among the held error display conditions (step S32). If it is determined in step S31 that the error display condition is not held, or if it is determined in step S32 that there is no matching error display condition, “error display control processing 1” is performed (step S3).
3). This “error display control process 1” is the same as the process of step S7 in FIG. 19 (error display control process 1), and thus detailed description is omitted.

Here, the judgment processing in step S31 is as follows.
This is performed by comparing the registered contents of the error display management table shown in FIG. 11 with the contents of the actually generated error. For example, if the type of error that occurred is a communication timeout with the server device, the first condition, Erro
Reference is made to r-Type = Timeout as a comparison item, and if it matches another condition (access count, display area in the example of FIG. 11) belonging to this comparison item, the storage location of the error display data corresponding to the error display condition Is extracted.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S32 that there is an error display condition that matches, it is determined whether or not error display data corresponding to the error display condition is held in the own device (step S34). . Here, the storage location of the error display data corresponding to the error display condition is, as described above, an address (memory address value or the like) indicating the data storage location in the own device, or the data storage location in the server device existing on the network. The location is specified by one of addresses (URL character string or the like). Therefore, if the former format is specified, it is determined that the error display data is stored in the own device.If the latter format is specified, the error display data is stored in the own device. Judge that you have not.

If it is determined in step S34 that the error display data is held, the error display data is read from the designated data storage location (step S35), and the error screen is displayed using the error display data. It is displayed (step S36). If it is determined in step S34 that the error display data is not stored, a request for transmitting the error display data is made to the server device designated as the storage location of the error display data (step S37). Next, the server waits for data transmission from the server device (step S38), and when the data transmission is confirmed, acquires the data (step S39) and uses the transmission data (error display data transmitted from the server device) to display an error screen. Is displayed (step S36).

As described above, the server device on the network is designated as the storage location of the error display data, and the error display data is obtained from this server device.
Even when the information processing device (own device) does not hold error display data that matches an actually generated error, the error display data is acquired from the designated server device when the error display data becomes necessary. be able to.

If the error display data acquired from the server device is stored in the own device, the error screen is displayed using the error display data thereafter.
The trouble of acquiring the error display data from the designated server device can be omitted.

In the error display control information included in the transmission data from a certain server device, the storage location of the error display data is determined by the address information (U) in another server device.
RL), it is possible to adopt a configuration in which error display data is acquired from a server device other than the server device in which the error actually occurred. In such a configuration, even when an error occurs due to a failure of the connection destination server device or the like, error display data matching the content of the error can be obtained from another server device. Can be displayed. Therefore, the reliability of the entire network system can be improved.

FIGS. 13 to 17 show display examples of an error screen realized by the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The example of FIG. 13 illustrates a case where the error display is distinguished according to the server device name (or address information specifying the server device). Case 1
For example, this is an error screen displayed when a failure occurs in a server device that manages the entire system. In this case, since no further continuation operation is possible, a message to that effect is displayed. Case 2 is an error screen displayed when an error occurs when a plurality of server devices are accessed from a server device that manages the entire system. In this case, there is a possibility that the operation can be continued by selecting another server device. Therefore, a message for prompting the user to select another server device is displayed together with the selection button of the server device. In case 2, the error display data can be obtained from the server device that manages the entire system, so that an error screen can be displayed even if another server device is out of order. As a result, even if the same type of error occurs, the error screen can be appropriately switched according to the server device to be accessed.

The example of FIG. 14 shows a case where the error display is distinguished according to the number of accesses to the server device. Case 1 is an error screen displayed when the number of accesses is “1”, that is, an error at the time of the first access to the server device after the power is turned on. In this case, it is necessary to consider a change in the settings of the server device or the information processing device other than the simple device failure. Case 2 is an error screen displayed when the number of accesses is “2” or more, that is, when there is no problem in the settings on the information processing device side and some trouble occurs on the server device side. In this case, a message to that effect is displayed because there is an error in the server device. As a result, for example, it is possible to appropriately switch the error screen between the access to the server device immediately after the power is turned on and the subsequent access to the server device.

The example of FIG. 15 shows a case where the error display is distinguished according to the display area of the data to be obtained. In case 1, as a response to a case where the display area is small, only a necessary minimum message with a limited display area is displayed as an error screen. On the other hand, Case 2 displays a message for continuing operation and a reset button as an error screen in addition to the same message as in Case 1 as a measure to cope with a case where the display area has room. As a result, even if the errors are of the same type, it is possible to appropriately switch the error screen according to the difference in the display area of the acquisition target data.

FIG. 16 shows an example in which the error display is distinguished according to the type of the data to be acquired. In case 1, the data that was attempted to be obtained from the server
o If the file is a file, this is an error screen displayed when an error occurs, for example, the data cannot be processed by the own device. Case 2 is an error screen displayed when the type of data to be acquired cannot be specified. Screen.
As a result, even if the errors are of the same type, it is possible to appropriately switch the error screen according to the type of the data to be acquired.

The example of FIG. 17 shows a case where the error display is distinguished according to the storage location of the acquisition target data. In case 1 and case 2, an error message corresponding to the current state of the server device designated as the data storage location is displayed as an error screen. As a result, even if the errors are of the same type, it is possible to appropriately switch the error screen according to the difference in the storage location of the acquisition target data.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing another procedure of the "error display control information extracting process". First, it is determined whether or not an error display condition is specified based on the data analysis result in step S15 in FIG. 4 (step S41). If so, the error display condition is extracted (step S42). ) And hold it (step S43).

Subsequently, based on the result of the data analysis in step S15, it is determined whether or not the storage location of the error display data is designated (step S4).
4) If specified, a request for transmission of the error display data is made to the server device specified as the storage location of the error display data (step S45). Next, it waits for data transmission from the server device (step S4).
6) When the data transmission is confirmed, the data transmission is acquired (step S47) and stored in the own device (step S4).
8).

If the storage location of the error display data is not specified, the error display data itself is extracted from the header information of the data to be obtained (step S4).
9) This is stored in association with the error display condition extracted in the previous step S42 (step S50).

When the "extraction process of error display control information" shown in FIG. 18 is employed, when the storage location of the error display data corresponding to the error display condition is specified, the storage location is designated as the storage location. In order to immediately acquire and hold the error display data from the server device on the network, it is necessary to acquire the error display data from the designated server device each time the error screen is displayed in step S36 shown in FIG. Step S3
7 to S39).

[0052]

As described above, according to the present invention, the acquiring means analyzes the data acquired from the server device by the analyzing means, thereby extracting and holding the error display control information contained in the acquired data. In the event that an error occurs during connection to the server device, the error display control means causes the display means to display an error screen based on the error display control information held by the holding means. Thus, an appropriate error screen can be displayed. As a result, it is possible to appropriately guide the user's operation and how to respond when an error occurs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an example of an information processing system using the information processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of “error display control information extraction processing” according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating a specific designation example of error display control information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram (part 2) illustrating a specific designation example of the error display control information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram (part 3) showing a specific example of specifying error display control information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram (part 4) illustrating a specific designation example of the error display control information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration in a network.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an error display management table.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of “error display control processing 2” according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating a display example of an error screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram (part 2) illustrating a display example of an error screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram (part 3) illustrating a display example of an error screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram (part 4) illustrating a display example of an error screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram (part 5) illustrating a display example of an error screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating another procedure of “error display control information extraction processing” according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a general Web browser.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an “error display control process”.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 ... acquisition means, 22 ... display means, 23 ... analysis means, 2
4 ... holding means, 25 ... error display control means

Claims (6)

[Claims] An acquisition unit for acquiring data from a server device connected to a network; a display unit for displaying the data acquired by the acquisition unit; and analyzing the data acquired by the acquisition unit.
Analysis means for extracting error display control information included in the obtained data; holding means for holding the error display control information extracted by the analysis means; and holding when an error occurs during connection to the server device. And an error display control means for displaying an error screen based on the error display control information held by the means on the display means. 2. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the error display control information includes an error display condition and error display data corresponding to the error display condition or a storage location of the error display data. apparatus. 3. An error display control means, when an error occurs during connection to the server device, displaying an error screen on the display means using error display data corresponding to an error display condition corresponding to the content of the error. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information processing apparatus displays the information. 4. The error display condition includes a first condition that specifies an error type, a server device name, address information for specifying the server device, the number of accesses to the server device, a display area of data to be obtained, The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information processing apparatus is determined by a second condition that defines at least one of a type of the target data and a storage location of the acquisition target data. 5. The information according to claim 2, wherein the error display control unit acquires the error display data from a server device designated as a storage location of the error display data included in the error control information. Processing equipment. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the error display control means acquires the error display data from a server device other than the server device in which the error has occurred.