JP2007219857A - Api interface management program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an API interface management program which calls an API function after an input parameter specified by an application program is built up as an execution parameter according to the latest agreement of an API. <P>SOLUTION: An application notifies an IF management program 17 of a command and input parameter corresponding to a requested execution according to the designated agreement. An IF management table 18 defines an API name corresponding to each command and the input parameter of the command respectively corresponds to what number of of a parameter among the execution parameters of respective API. The IF management program 17 reads out the API name and order information corresponding to the command notified from the application by comparing the IF management table 18, and creates an execution parameter by sorting the input parameter notified from the application in turn, and specifies the execution parameter by calling the API indicated by the API name. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an API interface management program for constructing an execution parameter required by an API interface between an application program and an API (Application Programming Interface).

  An API is a set of instructions and functions for using functions provided by OS (Operating System) and middleware for application programs. When an application program uses functions of a certain API, the API is used. By specifying a parameter (argument) according to the above-mentioned convention and calling a function of the API (hereinafter referred to as “API function”), a process for realizing the function can be requested to the OS or middleware.

Therefore, the API reference location (reference module) in the source of the application program describes the name of the API function (API name) and parameters that need to be specified as follows (however, option1 and option2 are Each is a parameter required by the API function indicated by the API name.)
API name (option1, option2)

  The API interface may be changed as an API implementation program such as an OS or middleware is upgraded. For example, the number of parameters that can be specified for a certain API function may increase from two to three. In that case, since each parameter specified by the application must be able to know the number of the parameter after the change, all the reference modules for the API function in the source of the application program. Must be rewritten. For example, in the previous example, when a new parameter that can be specified is added as the third parameter, if there is a specific value that is meaningful to be specified as the third parameter, the specific value is set to the third parameter. If there is no specific value that needs to be added as a parameter and there is no meaningful value to specify as the third parameter, specify the NUL value as the third parameter (or specify any specific value as the third parameter) It is necessary to clearly indicate that it is not.

  Such rewriting of the reference module must be performed in all reference modules in all applications that use the API function whose interface has been changed. In addition, when the developer of the API implementation is different from the developer of the application, rewriting of the reference module must be requested from another company, which is accompanied by a practical difficulty.

  Conventionally, in order to check whether each parameter specified for an application to call an API function conforms to the conventions for the API function, a check logic has to be created for each API function. As the API interface is changed, these check logics must be changed individually.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and the problem is that an input parameter specified by the application program between the application program and the API is set as an execution parameter in accordance with the latest API convention. It is to provide an API interface management program that can call an API function after being constructed.

  The API interface management program according to the present invention devised to solve such a problem is for processing according to an API implementation program that implements an API, and for requesting predetermined processing to the API implementation program. In addition, in accordance with a predetermined rule, a process corresponding to an application program for notifying a command corresponding to a required process and a plurality of parameters as input parameters is read and executed by a computer that executes the process. Then, for each of the commands, an API name for calling an API function that causes the API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command, and an input parameter defined by the convention according to the command are input to the computer. A table in which order information that defines the number of parameters among the execution parameters that can be specified in the API function is stored in the storage means, and is generated by the application program. The command and input parameters are taken in, the API name and order information corresponding to the commands are read from the table, and the parameters in the input parameters are rearranged in the order positions defined by the order information. To create an execution parameter, and By calling the API function PI name indicates, by designating the execution parameter, that for executing the processing corresponding to the command to the API implementation program, characterized.

  With this configuration, when the application program notifies the command and the input parameter, the API interface program takes in the command and the input parameter, and reads out the API name and order information corresponding to the command from the table on the storage device. . Then, the execution parameters are created by rearranging the parameters in the input parameters at the positions indicated by the order information. After the above, the API interface program calls the API function indicated by the API name and designates an execution parameter, thereby causing the API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command.

  In the present invention, the table further includes a condition to be satisfied for each parameter in the execution parameters that can be specified for the API function that causes the API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command for each of the commands. It may be described. In that case, when creating an execution parameter, the API interface management program checks whether each parameter in the input parameter satisfies the condition described in the table for each parameter in the corresponding execution parameter. The execution parameters need only be created when all parameters satisfy the conditions. After changing the order of processing and creating execution parameters, it may be checked whether or not each parameter in the execution parameters satisfies each condition.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, an input function designated by an application program is constructed as an execution parameter in accordance with the latest API convention between the application program and the API, and then an API function is called. be able to.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<System configuration>
FIG. 1 shows a computer (server machine 1) in which an IF management program 17 and an IF management table 18, which are embodiments of an API interface management program according to the present invention, and a terminal 2 are connected to be communicable through a network N. 1 is a block diagram showing a computer system.

  The server machine 1 is a computer that executes business as a class server and a web server, and has a hardware configuration and a software configuration that are normally included as such a server. Briefly described, the internal circuit of the server machine 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 10 which is a processing device for executing processing according to a program, and a hard disk 11 connected to the CPU 10 through a bus B, A RAM 12, a communication adapter 19, and a ROM 20 are provided.

  The RAM 11 is a main storage device in which a work area in which a program and data are read (cached) from the hard disk 12 and the ROM 20 to perform data processing when the CPU 10 executes processing is expanded.

  The programs stored in the hard disk and read out to the RAM 12 as described above include, in addition to the IF management program 17 described above, a WWW server program 13, a business application program 14, and a program 16 such as an OS / middleware. Further, the data (library) stored in the hard disk and read out to the RAM 12 as described above includes the API 15 implemented in the program 16 such as OS / middleware. That is, the program 16 such as OS / middleware is an API implementation program. Further, the data stored in the ROM 20 and read out to the RAM 12 as described above includes the above-described IF management table 18.

  The WWW server program 13 communicates with a client program 21 which is an application program executed on the terminal 2 (a processor (not shown in the terminal 2 executing the program)). If various requests are received from the client program 21 and the API 15 call for using the function of the program 16 such as OS / middleware is included in the request, the API 15 call is called the IF management program 17. Finally, a response to the request is returned to the client program 16.

  The business application program 14 is an application program for executing various business operations, and requests the IF management program 17 to call the API 15 when it is necessary to use the function of the program 16 such as OS / middleware.

  Among the various programs described above, the client program 21 and the business application program 14 are developed by a company different from the company that developed the program 16 such as the OS and middleware, and the functions of the program 16 such as the OS and middleware are provided. Application program to use. The source of these application programs 21 and 14 includes an API reference module for requesting the IF management program 17 to call the API 15. The description format of the reference module is, for example, as follows.

ohpa_exec (input parameter)
Among these, “ohpa_exec” is a function for calling the IF management program 17. Also, the description format of the input parameter passed to the called IF management program 17 is, for example, as follows.

Command name (Item 1, Item 2, Item 3, ...)
Among these, “command name” is a description for designating the content of processing requested to the IF management program 17. In other words, the processing requested to the IF management program 17 is the number of parameters, contents, and order that can be specified according to the rules at the time of application development (or at the time of version upgrade) for a specific API function according to the latest rules. Match the number, contents, and order of parameters that can be specified. Therefore, even in the process related to the same API function, the contents of the process to be requested to the IF management program 17, that is, the command name, differ depending on the API convention when the application programs 21 and 14 are developed. . In addition, “item 1”, “item 2”, “item 3”,... Basically follow the conventions of API 15 at the time of development (or version upgrade) of the application programs 21 and 14. A plurality of parameters are described in number, content, and order. However, if the API 15 specifications have not been published, parameter descriptions for each item may be requested from the beginning in accordance with a convention different from the API convention on the assumption that the IF management program 17 is used. is there.

  As described above, in order to request the API implementation program 16 according to the API implementation program 16 that implements the API 15 and the API implementation program 16 to perform the predetermined process, the CPU 10 This corresponds to a computer that executes processes according to application programs 21 and 14 that generate a plurality of parameters as input parameters.

  The IF management table 18 is a table referred to by the IF management program 17 called by the application programs 21 and 14, and for each command name, the API name of the API function corresponding to the command and each item in the input parameter A record (style sheet) that defines the correlation between the parameters of the API and the parameters that should be specified for the API function (execution parameters) and the conditions of the parameters that can be specified for the API function (check contents) is registered Yes. That is, each style sheet has a “command name” field for defining a command name corresponding to the style sheet, an API name of an API function corresponding to the command name (an API function that causes the API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command) "API name" column that defines the API name for calling, "argument order" column that defines what parameter (option) in the execution parameter each item in the input parameter, the first in the execution parameter "Option1 check contents" field that defines the conditions that the parameter (option1) should satisfy, "option2 check contents" field that defines the conditions that the second parameter (option2) in the execution parameters must satisfy, and the third in the execution parameters Define the conditions to be satisfied by the parameter (option3) of “option3 Ekku content "column, from ..., are configured. The argument order “3, 2, 1” means that the parameter of item 1 in the input parameter should be option 3 in the execution parameter, the parameter of item 2 should be option 2, and the parameter of item 3 should be option 1. (That is, each parameter constituting the input parameter corresponds to order information that defines what number of parameters among the execution parameters that can be specified in the API function). In addition, “to check content” defined by an equation or an inequality is conditional on the parameter being an integer or an address value and satisfying the equation or inequality. In addition, “to check content” defined by a character is conditional on the parameter being the character. "-" Indicates that the option is a parameter that can be newly specified, and there is no corresponding input parameter item.

  When the application program 21 or 14 is called by executing ohpa_exec, the IF management program 17 executes the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, first, in the first S1, the IF management program 17 executes an item disassembly process. That is, the input parameters passed from the application programs 21 and 14 are analyzed and decomposed for each element. As shown in FIG. 4, the command name, blank, blank, item 1, item 2, item 3,.・ Arrange in the order of.

  In the next S2, the IF management program 17 executes style sheet item disassembly processing. That is, the IF management program 17 reads the style sheet corresponding to the “command name” analyzed in S1 from the IF management table 18, disassembles each column, and, as shown in FIG. 5, the command name, API name, In the argument order, the check contents of the option associated with the item 1 in the argument order, the check contents of the option associated with the item 2, the check contents of the option associated with the item 3, and so on.

  In the next S3, the IF management program 17 compares each element of the input parameter arranged in S1 with the contents of each column of the style sheet arranged in S2, and the parameter of each item is set to the corresponding position. Check whether the check contents listed are satisfied. For example, when the argument order is defined as “3, 2, 1”, the item 1 parameter satisfies “oprion3 check content” or the item 2 parameter satisfies “option2 check content” And whether the parameter of item 3 satisfies “check contents of option 1”. If the parameter of any item does not satisfy the corresponding “to check content”, the IF management program 17 returns an error message to the calling application. On the other hand, if the parameters of all items satisfy the corresponding “˜check contents”, the IF management program 17 advances the process to S4.

  In the next S4, the IF management program 17 executes an execution parameter creation process. That is, an execution parameter is created based on the API name in the element decomposed in S2 and the parameters of each item decomposed in S1. At this time, the IF management program 17 rearranges the parameters of each item to the corresponding option positions in accordance with the argument order in the elements decomposed in S2.

For example, now the input parameter is
$ xxx (1,64,128)
If so, since the corresponding style sheet is as shown in the top row of the IF management table 18 shown in FIG. 2, the argument order is “3, 2, 1”.
opm_yyy (128, 64, 1)
It becomes.

The input parameter is
$ ccc (18, 1)
If so, since the corresponding style sheet is as the fourth line of the IF management table 18 shown in FIG. 2, the argument order is “2, 3”.
opm_ccc (, 18,1)
It becomes. In this case, since there is no item corresponding to option1, a NUL value is set at the position of option1.

  In the next S5, the IF management program 17 macro-executes the execution parameter created in S4, thereby calling an API function indicated by the API name and specifying a parameter of option 1 or less. Since each parameter specified in this way is guaranteed to satisfy the latest rules of the API function, the program 16 such as OS / middleware can be executed by executing the called API function. A process corresponding to the API function is executed based on each parameter, and the result (return value) is returned to the IF management program 17. This return value is returned from the IF management program 17 to the calling application program.

  Since the configuration of the API 15 is changed in accordance with the version upgrade of the program 16 such as OS / middleware which is the implementation of the API 15, the developer of the program 16 makes a new API 15 The IF management table 18 is rewritten so that the execution parameters created by the IF management program 17 satisfy the new API rules. Then, the rewritten IF management table 18 is distributed to the user of the program 16 and overwritten on the hard disk 11 of the server machine 1. Alternatively, the server machine 1 is operated by itself to overwrite the hard disk 11 with the rewritten IF management table 18. As a result, the latest API 15 can be used without rewriting the API reference module in the application programs 21 and 14 at all.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the server machine which is embodiment of this invention Table showing the data structure of the IF management table Flow chart showing contents of processing by IF management program The figure which shows the result example of item disassembly processing The figure which shows the example of the result of style sheet item decomposition processing

Explanation of symbols

1 Server machine 10 CPU
11 Hard disk 12 RAM
14 Business application 15 API
16 Programs such as OS and middleware 17 IF management program 18 IF management table 20 ROM
21 Client program

Claims (2)

In order to request a process according to an API implementation program that implements an API and a predetermined process for the API implementation program, a command corresponding to the requested process and a plurality of parameters as input parameters are set according to a predetermined rule. For each computer that executes processing according to the application program to be notified,
For each of the commands, an API name for calling an API function that causes the API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command, and each parameter constituting an input parameter defined by the convention according to the command is the API. Store in the storage means a table in which the order information that defines what number of parameters among the execution parameters that can be specified for the function is described,
Capture the command and input parameters generated by the application program,
The API name and order information corresponding to the command are read from the table, and the execution parameters are created by rearranging the parameters in the input parameters in the order positions defined by the order information,
An API interface management program that causes an API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command by calling an API function indicated by the API name and specifying the execution parameter. The table further describes the condition to be satisfied for each parameter in the execution parameters that can be specified in the API function that causes the API implementation program to execute processing corresponding to the command for each of the commands. And
Whether to cause the computer to create the execution parameter, each parameter in the input parameter satisfies the condition described in the table for each parameter in the corresponding execution parameter. 2. The API interface management program according to claim 1, wherein the execution parameter is created only when all parameters satisfy the conditions.