JP2006072396A - Apparatus maintenance device, and screen generation method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce works by collectively generating the setting screen of an apparatus to be used in apparatus maintenance. <P>SOLUTION: A setting screen document corresponding to the setting item of the apparatus is collectively generated in response to screen constituting information through the use of an apparatus profile for indicating the model of the apparatus, screen display message information, and transition information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a device maintenance device that performs setting and management of various devices from a user terminal via a network, and a screen creation method for the device maintenance device.

Conventionally, when creating a screen for executing remote maintenance, a screen for setting items is created one by one using a document that describes device setting items, a document that defines screen display messages, and an HTML template. Was. However, when there are a large number of setting items, there is a problem that man-hours and cost for work for screen creation increase because screens are created for each item. Also, creating a large number of screens one by one increases the rate at which creation errors occur. Furthermore, when a device different from the conventional one is subject to maintenance, the screen must be recreated or modified, and a large cost is incurred for the recreation, correction point investigation, and modification.

Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for automatically generating a monitoring screen from information defining variable elements.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-351756

In the invention described in Patent Document 1, information regarding screen transition is not included. For example, when the setting item A is set, the setting item B must be set next. There is a problem that it is difficult to generate. Also, since the message to be displayed on the screen is described in the HTML template, if you want to create a screen in a different language, you need to change the HTML template one by one, the same problem as when creating the screen one by one Will occur.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and by automatically generating a large number of setting screens including transition information between the screens, the screen of the device maintenance apparatus can be created with less work. An object of the present invention is to provide a device maintenance device and a device maintenance device screen creation method capable of easily changing a display message and a device to be maintained.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is as follows.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, a user terminal, a plurality of devices to be subjected to maintenance such as setting and adjustment, and a device maintenance device that performs setting and adjustment of the device in response to an instruction from the user terminal are a network. In the method of creating a screen of the device maintenance apparatus in the remote device maintenance system connected via the device, the screen generation unit of the device maintenance apparatus takes out the setting item of the device from the device profile describing the device, and displays from the display message information Taking out screen display messages, constructing screens based on screen configuration information, connecting screens based on transition information describing screen transitions, and automatically creating setting screen groups for the target devices It is.

The invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that the screen generation unit generates an HTML document group as a setting screen group.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device maintenance apparatus that receives an instruction from a user terminal via a network and performs parameter setting, adjustment, etc. of a maintenance target device. In the device maintenance apparatus including a screen generation unit that collectively creates a plurality of setting screen documents, the screen generation unit includes a screen generation unit, a device profile interpretation unit, a screen display message information interpretation unit, a transition information interpretation unit, The screen generation means reads screen configuration information, and based on the read screen configuration information, the device profile interpretation means reads and interprets a device profile, and the screen generation means The setting item is output, and the screen display message information interpretation means reads and interprets the screen display message information. Outputting a screen display message to the screen generation unit, the transition information interpreting means performs reading and interpretation of the transition information, and is characterized in that the linking between the plurality of setting screens.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the screen configuration information includes the device profile designation information, the screen display message information designation information, the transition information designation information, and the plurality of setting screen documents. Output destination information, call destination information of the setting screen document at the time of setting execution, and a template of the setting screen are included.

In the invention according to claim 5, the device profile includes a name of a setting parameter of the maintenance target device, a type of the parameter, a settable value of the parameter, a unit of the parameter, And an address.

The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that the setting screen document is an HTML document.

According to the first, third, fourth, and fifth aspects of the invention, information necessary for screen construction is extracted from the device profile and display message information, and a screen having setting value input fields and message arrangement information is obtained. A large number of setting screens can be generated at once according to the transition information that connects the configuration information and the screens, greatly reducing the amount of work and the cost of creating the setting screens for equipment maintenance devices, and avoiding screen creation errors. Can also be reduced.

According to the invention described in claim 2 or claim 6, since an HTML document is generated as the setting screen, a general-purpose web browser can be used on the user terminal side. No need to develop and introduce

Hereinafter, specific examples of the method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus maintenance system according to the present invention and an internal block diagram of the apparatus maintenance apparatus. Each device and device is connected by a network (intranet 20 in this embodiment). In order to perform maintenance of the maintenance target devices 21a and 21b, the user terminal 25 is connected to the WWW server 23 in the device maintenance device 22 by using client software (in this embodiment, a web browser) 26, and reads the screen document 10. Then, the WWW server 23 executes a script (jsp or the like) described in the screen document using the jsp engine or the servlet engine 24, reads the parameters of the maintenance target devices 21a and 21b, and puts them in a predetermined location of the screen document 10. Embedded and transmitted to the user terminal 25. Further, when a parameter setting request for the maintenance target devices 21a and 21b is acquired from the user terminal 25, parameters are set in the maintenance target devices 21a and 21b using a servlet engine. The setting screen generation method of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a device maintenance apparatus that implements the method of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a screen generation unit for executing the screen generation method of the present invention. The screen generation unit 1 has a device profile interpretation function (device profile interpretation means) 3, a screen display message information interpretation function (screen display message information interpretation means) 4, and a transition information interpretation function (transition information interpretation means) 5. . Here, the device profile interpretation function 3 controls the operation of the screen generation unit, performs a screen generation function for generating a setting screen for each setting item, and reads and interprets a device profile 7 to be described later. According to the information acquisition request, information on the setting item of the device is provided. The screen display message information interpretation function 4 reads and interprets screen display message information 8 to be described later, and further provides screen display message information corresponding to the device profile and setting items according to the information acquisition request from the screen generation function 2. . The transition information interpretation function 5 reads and interprets transition information 9 described later, and returns transition information from the setting screen according to an information acquisition request from the screen generation function 2.

Reference numeral 6 denotes screen configuration information that is read by the screen generation function 2, and includes specification information for the device profile 7 used for screen generation, specification information for the screen display message information 8, specification information for transition information 9, and a screen document 10 to be generated (described later). Output destination information, screen document call destination information at the time of setting execution (setting function name, URL in the case of Web), and setting screen template are described. 7 is a device profile that describes information about the target device, and has each parameter of the device as a setting item. Each setting item includes the name and parameter type of the corresponding parameter (parameter data length and data). Type), settable value, unit, parameter address, and the like. Reference numeral 8 denotes screen display message information, which describes a setting item name and a setting value displayed on the setting screen corresponding to each setting item. 9 is transition information in which link information for connecting setting screens is described. In the transition information, a link to the next screen of each setting screen and a return destination link from the setting screen are described. Reference numeral 10 denotes a plurality of setting screen documents that are finally created by the screen generation function 2 using each information. In this embodiment, the document is an HTML document. Reference numeral 11 denotes a storage device in which the screen configuration information 6, the device profile 7, the screen display message information 8, and the transition information 9 are stored, and the generated screen document 10 is stored, and many are external storage devices such as a hard disk. .

The device profile 7, the screen display message information 8, the transition information 9, and the screen configuration information 6 may be described by any method as long as the information can be described, for example, using XML (Extensible Markup Language). These cases are shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. In addition, the description amount of the device profile 7 and the screen display message information 8 increases as the parameters that are the setting items of the device increase. However, since these pieces of information are included in the design specification of the device, It is possible to reduce or eliminate the work created by conversion or by using the design specification itself.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the processing procedure of the screen generation method of the present invention. The operation of the screen generation unit 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
First, the screen generation function 2 is activated and screen configuration information 6 is given (sequence A). The screen generation function 2 reads information (a file name, such as a profile element in FIG. 6) specifying a device profile to be used described in the screen configuration information 6 (sequence B), and notifies the device profile interpretation function 3 ( Sequence C). The device profile interpretation function 3 reads the designated device profile 7 (sequence D), and arranges information related to the setting items described in the device profile 7 when requested by the screen generation function 2. Next, the screen generation function 2 notifies the screen message information interpretation function 4 of information specifying the screen message information to be used described in the screen configuration information 6 (similarly, the file name, etc., messageFile element in FIG. 6). (Sequence E). The screen message information interpretation function 4 reads the screen message information 8 (sequence F) in the same manner as the sequence D, and arranges the information. Furthermore, the screen generation function 2 notifies the transition information 9 (linkInfoFile element in FIG. 6) to be used to the transition information interpretation function 5 described in the screen configuration information 6 (sequence G). The transition information interpretation function 5 reads the transition information 9 in the same manner as the sequence D (sequence H) and arranges the information.
Note that the procedures of sequences C to H do not have to be executed in the above order, and may be arbitrary. However, the sequence D needs to be executed after the sequence C, the sequence F after the sequence E, and the sequence H after the sequence G, but “after” here does not necessarily need to be “immediately”. .

Next, the screen generation function 2 requests the device profile interpretation function 3 for a list of setting items for which a setting screen needs to be created (a list of pid attributes of the Param element in FIG. 3) (sequence J), and acquires it. . Next, one setting item (for example, Pn000) is extracted from the setting item list (hereinafter, setting item 1). Next, information on setting item 1 (in FIG. 3, for example, a descendant element of a Param element having an attribute of pid = Pn000) is requested to the device profile interpretation function 3 (sequence K) and acquired (sequence L). Next, whether the setting item 1 is a numerical value setting (for example, simple) or a bit setting (for example, complex in FIG. 3) from the parameter type (type attribute of the Param element in FIG. 3) described in the setting item 1 information. Is selected, and a screen document template described in the screen configuration information 6 is selected (pageTemplate element in FIG. 6) (sequence M). Then, as preparation for creating a setting field for the user to input a setting value, setting value information such as a range of settable values and possible values (numerical value represented by a selectable value element in FIG. 3) from the information of setting item 1 Is obtained from the profile interpretation function 3 (sequence N).

Next, the screen generation function 2 provides the screen display message information interpretation function 4 with display message information related to the setting item 1 (for example, the basic function selection switch of the Description element in FIG. 4) and the title of the display page (similarly PageTitle element). Request (sequence P) and obtain (sequence Q). From the acquired display message information of the setting item 1, the setting item name (parameter name in the device, for example, the rotation direction selection in FIG. 4 and the like) and the expression of the setting value (for example, “0” in FIG. The CCW direction is “forward”, etc.), a sentence attached to the link (such as “return” as a simple example) is acquired, and the acquired display message information and the settable value are combined in the screen configuration information 6 A setting field is created by applying to the template (sequence R). For example, input item information is created from the device profile 7 and the screen display message information 8 and replaced with $ COMPLEX_INPUT in the screen configuration information 6 (FIG. 6), and the parameter value of the screen document 10 as shown in FIG. Create a configuration form.

Next, the screen generation function 2 requests the transition information interpretation function 5 for transition information related to the setting item 1 (sequence S), and after acquisition (sequence T), the template of the screen document 10 that has created the setting form and the like. (Sequence U). For example, $ PAGEGETLE in the pageTemplate element in FIG. 6 is replaced with the value represented by the PageTitle element in FIG. 4, and $ ACTION_URL is replaced with the contents of the defaultActionURL element in the transition information 9 (FIG. 5). As described above, the screen generation function 2 completes the setting screen document of the setting item 1 as shown in FIG. The screen document shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on the web browser as shown in FIG.

Finally, the screen generation function 2 outputs the screen document 10 to the storage device 11 to the place described in the transition information 5 (StorePath element in FIG. 5) (sequence V), and saves it.
In the same procedure as described above, creation and storage of setting screens are repeated for all the installation items described in the setting list acquired by the screen generation function 2, and the setting screens of the devices to be maintained are collectively generated.

As described above, since the device profile 7 and the screen display message information 8 describe the device model, they are created according to the device model. The description format of these information is unified, and the screen configuration information 6 By specifying, it is possible to generate different device setting screens without changing the screen generation function 2, the device profile interpretation function 3, the screen message information interpretation function 4, and the transition information interpretation function 5.

The block diagram which shows the internal structure of the apparatus maintenance apparatus which enforces the method of this invention The sequence diagram showing the processing procedure of the screen generation method of this invention The figure which shows an example of the apparatus profile of this invention The figure which shows an example of the screen display message information of this invention The figure which shows an example of the transition information of this invention The figure which shows an example of the screen structure information of this invention An example of a screen document generated by the screen generation method according to the present invention Display example of the screen document in Fig. 7 on a web browser Part of parameter value setting form generated by screen generation function 2 Configuration diagram of equipment maintenance system and internal block diagram of equipment maintenance apparatus according to screen generation method of present invention

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Screen generation part 2 Screen generation function 3 Device profile interpretation function 4 Screen display message information interpretation function 5 Transition information interpretation function 6 Screen configuration information 7 Device profile 8 Screen display message information 9 Transition information 10 Screen document 11 Storage device 20 Intranet 21a, 21b Maintenance target device 22 Device maintenance device 23 WWW server 24 jsp, servlet engine 25 User terminal 26 Client software (web browser)

Claims (6)

Remote device maintenance in which a user terminal, a plurality of devices subject to maintenance such as setting and adjustment, and a device maintenance device that performs setting and adjustment of the device in response to an instruction from the user terminal are connected via a network In the system maintenance device screen creation method in the system,
The screen generation unit of the device maintenance apparatus extracts the setting item of the device from the device profile describing the device, extracts the screen display message from the display message information, constructs a screen based on the screen configuration information, and changes the screen. A screen creation method for a device maintenance apparatus, wherein screens are linked to each other based on the described transition information and the setting screen group of the device is automatically created. 2. The screen creation method for a device maintenance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screen generation unit generates an HTML document group as the setting screen group. A device maintenance device that receives an instruction from a user terminal via a network and performs parameter setting and adjustment of a maintenance target device according to the instruction,
In a device maintenance apparatus comprising a screen generation unit that collectively creates a plurality of setting screen documents for performing parameter setting and adjustment of the maintenance target device,
The screen generation unit includes screen generation means, device profile interpretation means, screen display message information interpretation means, and transition information interpretation means,
The screen generation means reads screen configuration information,
Based on the read screen configuration information,
The device profile interpretation means reads and interprets the device profile, and outputs setting items of maintenance target devices to the screen generation means,
The screen display message information interpretation means reads and interprets screen display message information, and outputs a screen display message to the screen generation means,
The transition information interpreting unit reads and interprets transition information, and connects the plurality of setting screens. The screen configuration information is
The device profile designation information;
Designation information of the screen display message information;
Designation information of the transition information;
Output destination information of the plurality of setting screen documents;
Call destination information of the setting screen document at the time of setting execution,
The apparatus maintenance apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: a template for the setting screen. The device profile is
The name of the setting parameter of the maintenance target device;
The type of parameter;
A configurable value of the parameter;
A unit of the parameter;
The address of the parameter;
The apparatus maintenance apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the apparatus maintenance apparatus includes: 6. The apparatus maintenance apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the setting screen document is an HTML document.

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