JP2006085308A - Material transfer system, its providing method, and account management method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the burden on a file system manager who performs the maintenance of an account to be used between a plurality of users. <P>SOLUTION: This material transfer system transmits/receives information to/from a browser through LANs 116 and 118 and the Internet 104 by using a computer system having a Web server function in order to enable a person in charge to perform the preparation and erasures of account to perform access to a file system 114 by input/output to a file system 114 and an account information file 115 and the processing of recorded information under the control of a control part 107. Also, the information of the file system 114 and the account information file 115 is maintained to be the latest based on the operation of the control part 107. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a material sharing means using Internet communication technology, and relates to a control method for a many-to-many material transfer system used by many users.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for sharing materials and providing materials to each other between a customer and a manufacturer of software products, there is a method in which materials are stored and passed on a medium. Also, using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server or HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) server with network communication function, store the material in a specific file system, then notify the receiving side from the sending side and send the material There is a way to extract from the file system. As an example of sharing materials and providing materials to each other, when a product running on the customer system fails, provide the data collected by the customer system to the manufacturer's investigator for investigation, or For example, a manufacturer can provide a customer with a correction module for a software product.

As another prior art, like the technique disclosed in JP-T-2003-515199,
There is a way to provide automatic notification to a predefined user when data is uploaded or downloaded to the file system.

Further, as a conventional technique for managing an access account for a specific file system and providing file sharing to a plurality of users, as in a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-91818, an account registered in advance and the account There is known a method for realizing file sharing by providing a specific user with a file system space that can be used by a user.

Special table 2003-515199 gazette JP 2002-91818 A

If the partner who shares the document or the party that provides the document varies depending on the situation, the failure of the product running on the system will be taken as an example. Different for each project. In addition, it is inevitable that user accounts for accessing a file system that provides a service for uploading / downloading materials are increased or decreased irregularly. In addition, there is no method of mechanically maintaining the storage period of the transferred material and the validity period of the account with flexibility.

In the prior art disclosed in the above Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-91818, the control of the attribute and access authority of each account provides a function that can be changed by the user, but it is necessary to register the account ID and password in advance. When the number of trouble cases increases, maintenance of an account used by many users becomes a burden on the file system administrator.

In addition, the conventional technique disclosed in the above Japanese translation of PCT publication No. 2003-515199 has a function of notifying a related person after storing a document in a file system. However, a file system administrator defines a notification destination in advance. This is necessary, so if the responders and related parties for each failure case are different, the file system administrator cannot define the notification destination for each material.

An object of the present invention is to reduce the workload of a file system administrator who performs maintenance of accounts used among a large number of users.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce the burden on the file system administrator who deletes shared files that are no longer needed.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce the work burden on the file system manager who manages the notification destinations to the parties concerned.

Another object of the present invention is to perform mechanical maintenance with flexibility according to the attributes defined by the person in charge who created the account, the storage period of the transferred material and the validity period of the account.

In order to solve the above problems, a computer system having an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) server function, which includes an “external user authentication unit”, a “user authentication unit”, a “material storage / extraction unit”, and a “notification mail” It consists of “Create Department”, “Account Create Department”, “Account Delete Department”, and “Control Section”, which use “File System” and “Account Information File” input / output, “Client” and “Person in charge” The “web server” that provides the communication service to “” may be controlled. The file described here means data stored in a database. In addition, here, when a product running on the customer system has a problem, the situation where the customer who is the “client” and the person in charge of the trouble investigation who is the “person in charge” provide each other with investigation materials and correction modules is used. I will explain.
(1) When the “external user authentication unit” requests a logon from the client to the website running on the above-mentioned web server, it collates with the information in the account information file and matches the UID.
If there is a password, obtain account information and provide an operation guide to the client.
(2) The “User Authentication Department” uses the LDA via the LAN when a person in charge makes a logon request to a website running on a web server using an employee-dedicated account for employee identification.
Employee information in the directory service is acquired by P (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) communication and logon authentication is performed.
(3) When the file storage / extraction unit uploads the file from the client or the person in charge to the web server, the “file storage / extraction unit” stores the uploaded file in the file system based on the access directory information acquired from the account information file. Store in some appropriate directory. When a file download request is received, the corresponding file is searched for in the appropriate directory in the file system based on the access directory information acquired from the account information file, and is provided.
(4) The “notification mail creation unit” creates and transmits a mail to be transmitted to the notification destination acquired from the account information file, using the processing of the above-described “material storage / extraction unit” as a trigger.
(5) The “account creation unit” updates the contents of the account information file when a person in charge requests to create or edit a client account.
(6) The “account deletion unit” deletes the contents of the account information file when the person in charge requests to delete the account for the client. Also, the account creation time stamp and the validity period information in the contents of the account information file are confirmed, and the information on the account to be deleted is deleted.
(7) The “control unit” includes “external user authentication unit”, “user authentication unit”, “material storage / extraction unit”, “notification mail creation unit”, “account creation unit”, and “account deletion unit”. Control the behavior.

As described above, when the present invention is used, since the work of creating and changing accounts that can use a service for transferring materials is distributed among a large number of users using Internet technology, Regardless of how much data is transferred, the burden on the file system administrator's account and file system maintenance can be reduced.

In addition, the notification address for promptly notifying the person in charge that the trouble investigation data is ready can be defined by the person in charge at the site who can grasp the address to be notified for each case. The burden can be reduced.

Also, depending on the attributes defined by the person in charge, the transferred material and account can be deleted as soon as the material is transferred, or mechanically controlled so that it can be used for a certain period of time.

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

By using the present invention, it is possible to create a user account that can log on to the dedicated website via the Internet with attributes defined by the person in charge who logs on to the dedicated website (here, an employee who handles the failure). Then, when a client provided with the created user account (which is assumed to be a customer who has a failure in the business system) logs on to the dedicated website, file upload or download is controlled with the defined attributes. In addition, when uploading or downloading a file, information on upload or download is notified to the notification destination defined by the defined account attribute by e-mail.

Furthermore, it is possible to mechanize controlling the deletion operation of the material stored in the file system and the validity period of the created account by the attribute defined in the account.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a material transfer system 105 is a many-to-many material transfer system used by many users proposed in the present invention, and the material transfer system 105 performs the operation of the invention with a web server 106 that provides a dedicated website function. A control unit 107, a file system 114 for storing materials, and an account information file 115 having account information for accessing a dedicated website via the Internet. Client 101 ~
The authentication when accessing the web server 106 from 103 is performed by the external user authentication unit 108 in the control unit 107.
Control. Authentication when accessing the web server 106 from the persons in charge 119 to 121 is controlled by the user authentication unit 109 in the control unit 107 with reference to information of the directory service 117 via the LAN 116 using LDAP. The file system 114 stores or extracts the upload request or download request material from the web server 106 by the operation of the material storage / extraction unit 110. The account information file 115 is referenced / generated / updated by the operations of the notification mail creation unit 111, the account creation unit 112, and the account deletion unit 113. In this account information file 115, as shown in FIG. 2, the account information UID 201 for accessing the web server via the Internet, the encrypted password 202, the access directory 203 that the corresponding account can access, and the access authority range of the account. Authority type 2 to indicate
04, post-processing flag 205 indicating processing after the file is uploaded or downloaded
, An account creation time stamp 206 that records the time when the account was created, a validity period 207 that indicates the validity period of the account, a notification destination 208 that sends a notification email, and an identification registered in the directory service of the person who created the account Record the number 209. The authority type 204 attribute can be set to either PUT or GET, or both. PUT indicates the authority to upload a file, and GET indicates the authority to download a file. The post-processing flag is the number of days left in the file system 114 after the file is downloaded. When the post-processing flag is defined as 0, the file is controlled to be deleted from the immediate file system 114 when downloaded. When the valid period 2070 is defined, the account is also deleted when all the data in the directory defined in the access directory 203 is downloaded and deleted.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIG. 1 and FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process for creating a new account so that a customer can access a dedicated website in order to receive or provide materials from a customer when a failure occurs. Person in charge (corresponding to 119, 120 or 121 shown in Fig. 1) is LAN11
8, log on to the web server 106 with an employee-dedicated account (step 301). The user authentication unit 109 of the material transfer system 105 acquires user information from the directory service 117 via the LAN 116 and performs authentication (steps 302 and 303). If the user exists, the list information of the account created by the person in charge who has logged on is extracted from the account information file 115, and an operation guide page for creating, changing, or deleting the account is displayed on the browser (steps 304 and 305). . The person in charge selects an item for creating an account by operating the screen, inputs each attribute of the account shown in the account information file 114 of FIG. 2, and transmits it to the web server (step 306). Appropriateness of the information received by the account creation unit 112 in the document transfer system 105 is checked, and if there is an error in the input content, an error page is returned to the browser (steps 307, 308, and 309). If the entered information is correct, the account creation unit 112 receives the attribute access directory of the received account on the file system 114.
If the same directory as 203 does not exist, a new access directory is created, and each attribute of the account is added to the account information file 114 (steps 310, 311, 312 and 313). Then, display a page to notify the contact ’s browser that the account has been added (
Step 314). If the person in charge creates a new account, or modifies or deletes an existing account, steps 304 to 313 are repeated. If there is no further operation, the process ends (steps 315 and 316).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining processing for changing the definition of the created account. The person in charge logs on with an employee account as in the process described in Figure 3,
An operation guide page for account creation, attribute change or deletion is displayed (steps 401, 402, 403, 404, 405). The person in charge selects an account whose definition is to be corrected by operating the screen (step 406). Then, the account creation unit 112 extracts the specified account information from the account information file 115, and collates the ID of the logged-on user with the information of the creator 209 of the account information file 115 (steps 407 and 408). If they do n’t match,
Return the error page to the browser (step 409). If they match, a page providing account information and a correction operation interface is displayed (step 410). Then, the person in charge modifies the account attribute and sends a change request to the web server (step 411). The account creation unit 112 checks the appropriateness of the information received, and if the logged-on user ID matches the information of the creator 209 of the account information file 115 and the correction content is appropriate, each attribute of the account is set. Update to account information file 114 (steps 412, 413, 414, 41)
Five). A page is then displayed to notify the person in charge of the browser that the account information has been edited (step 416). If the person in charge creates a new account, or modifies or deletes an account, steps 404 to 416 are repeated. If there is no further operation, the process ends (steps 417 and 418).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining processing for deleting an existing account. The person in charge logs on with the employee-dedicated account and displays an operation guide page for account creation, attribute change, or deletion, as in the process described in FIG. 3 (steps 501, 502).
, 503, 504, 505). The person in charge selects an account to be deleted by operating the screen (step 506). Then, the account deletion unit 113 extracts information of the specified account from the account information file 115, and collates the ID of the logged-on user with the information of the creator 209 of the account information file 115 (steps 507 and 508). If they do not match, the error page is returned to the browser (step 509). If they match, the corresponding account information is deleted from the account information file 114, and the directory registered in the corresponding account is deleted from the file system 114 (steps 510 and 511). Then, a page is displayed to notify the browser of the person in charge (step 512). Steps 504 to 511 are repeated when the person in charge performs an operation for creating a new account, modifying or deleting an account, and if there is no further operation, the process ends (steps 517 and 518).

FIG. 6 illustrates the process of transferring the material by accessing the material transfer system from the customer (corresponding to the clients 101, 102, and 103 shown in FIG. 1) using the account created in the description of FIG. It is a flowchart to do. In FIG. 6, the customer is connected to the Internet line 104.
To log on to the dedicated web server 106 (step 601). Document transfer system 105
The external user authentication unit 108 checks whether there is a UID 201 and a password 202 that match the account of the logon request from the account information file 114, grants access if there is, and uses the information of the authority type 204 to log on to the client that logs on A page corresponding to the service to be provided is displayed (steps 602, 603, 604, 605). Then, file transfer processing is performed between the client and the material transfer system (606, 607, 608). If a plurality of file transfer processes are to be executed, steps 605, 606, and 607 may be repeated. If the operation is to be ended, the process ends (steps 608 and 609). Since the service to be provided varies depending on the page where the file can be uploaded and the page where the file can be downloaded, the processing in step 606 and step 607 will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that in the case of an account that has both file upload and download permissions, the provided service includes both the processes of FIGS.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation flow after logging on with an account authorized to upload a file. The attribute of the account that the external user authentication unit 108 has logged on is referred to from the account information file 115, and if the PUT attribute is defined in the authority type 204, a page that provides a function interface for uploading the file is displayed on the client browser. (Steps 701 and 702). The transferred material is uploaded from the local machine via the browser by operating the page displayed by the client (step 703). When the web server 106 receives the uploaded file, the control unit 107
The material storage / extraction unit 110 stores the file in a directory on the file system 114 defined in the access directory 203 in the account information file 115 (step 704).
705). When the storage of the file is completed, the notification mail creation unit 111 displays the account information file.
An e-mail for notifying information on the uploaded file, upload source, comment, etc. is transmitted to the destination defined in 115 notification destination 208 (steps 706 and 707). Then, the processing result is displayed on the browser of the client in order to notify the client that the upload processing is finished (steps 708 and 709).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation flow after logging on with an account authorized to download a file. If the attribute of the account logged on by the external user authentication unit 108 is referred to from the account information file 115 and the GET attribute is defined in the authority type 204, the material storage / extraction unit 110 can access the access directory 203 in the account information file 115. The file information list stored in the directory on the file system 114 defined in the above is acquired, and a page providing a function interface for downloading the file is displayed on the browser of the client (steps 801, 802, 803, and 804). The client requests to download the material to be acquired via the browser by operating the displayed page (step 805). When the web server 106 receives the file download request, the material storage / extraction unit 110 of the control unit 107 acquires the file from the file system 114 and transfers it to the client browser (steps 806 and 807). When the data received by the client is saved as a file on the local disk, a notification of the end of saving is sent to the web server, and the account deletion unit 113 refers to the attribute of the post-processing flag 205 in the account information file 115 to set the post-processing flag. If it is defined as 0, the downloaded file is deleted from the file system 114 (steps 809, 810, 811 and 812). Then, the destination information defined in the notification destination 208 of the account information file 115 and the information on the validity period 207 are acquired.
(Step 813). If the value of the validity period 207 is 0 and the file does not exist in the directory, the entry for the account is deleted from the account information file 115 and the directory is deleted from the file system 114 (steps 814 and 815). Then, the notification mail creation unit 111 transmits a mail for notifying the notification destination acquired in step 813 of information on the downloaded file, download destination, comment, and the like (step 816). In order to notify the client of the end of the download process and the notification process, the process result is displayed on the browser of the client and the process ends (steps 817 and 818).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining processing periodically performed by the control unit 107 of the material transfer system 105. Note that the cycle for performing this process may be set by the system administrator such as every hour or every day. First, the account deletion unit 113 of the control unit 105 acquires an account entry list from the account information file 115 (steps 901 and 902). The following operation is performed until all entries are processed one by one from the acquired entry list in sequence (steps 903 and 904). The account deletion unit 113 refers to the value of the account creation time stamp 206 and the validity period 207 that are the account attributes of the entry, and determines whether the validity period of the account is created other than 0 and before the validity period. (Step 905). If the account has expired, the account information is deleted from the account information file 114, and the access directory 203 is deleted from the file system 114 (steps 914 and 915). If the account has not expired, the file list in the access directory 203 is acquired (step 906).
). The account deletion unit 113 acquires the creation time of each file from the file attribute, and calculates the time that has passed since the file creation (steps 907, 908, and 909). Then, the account deletion unit 113 deletes a file created at a time older than the value of the post-processing flag 205 compared with the value defined in the post-processing flag 205 of the account information file 114 and the time elapsed since the creation of the file. (Steps 910, 911, 912). If the value of the account validity period 207 is 0 and the access directory 203 is empty after performing the process of deleting the file to be deleted in the directory, the account information is deleted from the account information file 114. The access directory 203 is deleted from the file system 114 (Steps 913 and 9
14). When all entries in the entry list acquired in step 902 have been processed, the process ends (
Steps 915, 916).

It is a block diagram of invention. It is a figure explaining the content of an account information file. It is a flowchart explaining the process which creates the new account by this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the process which corrects the definition of the created account by this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the process which deletes the created account by this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the process which transfers material using the created account. It is a flowchart explaining the operation flow which uploads a file. It is a flowchart explaining the operation flow which downloads a file. It is a flowchart explaining the process which a control part performs periodically.

Explanation of symbols

101 ... Client, 102 ... Client, 103 ... Client, 104 ... Internet,
105 ... Material transfer system, 106 ... Web server, 107 ... Control unit, 108 ... External user authentication unit, 10
9 ... User authentication unit, 110 ... Data storage / extraction unit, 111 ... Notification mail creation unit, 112 ... Account creation unit, 113 ... Account deletion unit, 114 ... File system, 115 ... Account information file, 116 ... LAN, 117 ... Directory service, 118 ... LAN, 119 ... Person in charge, 120 ... Person in charge, 121
... person in charge, 201 ... UID, 202 ... password, 203 ... access directory, 204 ... authority type, 205 ... post-processing flag, 206 ... account creation time stamp, 207 ... validity period, 208 ... notification destination, 209 ... creator.

Claims (5)

A system for transferring materials among a large number of users, an “external user authentication unit” for controlling authentication of an account for logging on as an external user to a dedicated website using an account information file, and the website Using a dedicated account that can be referenced by
"User authentication unit" that controls the authentication of users who log on to the website, and the update of the account information file and the website can be referred to when performing operations to transfer files between the users to the web server Sent to the notification destination obtained from the account information file, triggered by the processing of the “material storage / extraction unit” that controls the storage of files to be shared in various file systems, and the above-mentioned “material storage / extraction unit” A material transfer system including a “control unit” configured from a “notification mail generation unit” that generates and transmits a mail to be transmitted. The “control unit” composed of an “account creation unit” that processes a request to create or edit an account for logging on to the website as an external user and an “account deletion unit” that processes a request to delete the account The material transfer system according to claim 1, further comprising: A method for providing a many-to-many material transfer service used by a large number of users by using the material transfer system according to claim 1 or 2. The method for managing an access account using the material transfer service according to claim 3 is such that a user who logs on using a dedicated account can create, edit, and delete an account of a user who logs on as an external user. Characteristic account management method. If an account of a user who logs on as an external user using the data transfer service according to claim 3 has expired in advance, it is automatically deleted and unnecessary shared files are automatically deleted. The account management method according to claim 4, wherein:

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