JP2010186414A - Information-processing device, and program for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information-processing device which selects an optimum retrieval method in accordance with individual situations; and to provide a program for controlling the same. <P>SOLUTION: The information-processing device includes a control means which is the mainstay of the device itself and a database storage means which stores databases comprising various kinds of information. In this case, the information-processing device is provided with: an application-executing means which executes applications under control of the control means; and a data retrieval means which operates in parallel to the executions of the applications by the application-executing means under the control of the control means and retrieves data, which conform to the retrieval conditions, from the database storage means. Then, a rate at which the control means is occupied by the application-executing means and the data retrieval means is adjusted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a search function, such as an office computer that issues a form, and a control program therefor.

In information processing devices such as office computers that issue forms, in addition to the method of directly inputting information using a keyboard, the data search function is used to search for information that satisfies any condition, and the operator searches for the results. There is also known an information processing apparatus that employs a method of selecting and inputting desired data from among them. (For example, see Patent Document 1)
JP 2008-165409 A

  The time required for performing a data search using the data search function varies considerably depending on the total number of data items stored in the information processing device, the number of data items to be searched, and the performance of the information processing device. For this reason, when the time required for data search is long, using the method of displaying a list of search results after completion of the above search is not convenient because no operation can be performed during the search. In addition, when the above-described method of sequentially displaying the search results is used when the time required for data search is short, the result display processing is entered during the search, and therefore the time until the search ends is unnecessarily long.

  The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances as described above, and an object thereof is to provide an information processing apparatus and a control program for the information processing apparatus that enable selection of an optimum search method.

  The present invention provides an information processing apparatus including a control unit that forms the center of the apparatus and a database storage unit that stores a database including various types of information, an application execution unit that executes an application under the control of the control unit, A data search unit that operates in parallel with the execution of the application under the control of the control unit and searches the database storage unit for data that matches the search condition, and the application execution unit and the data search unit are controlled by the control unit. And adjusting means for adjusting the ratio of occupying the means.

  According to the present invention in which such measures are taken, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of selecting an optimum search method and a control program therefor.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present embodiment is a case where the present invention is applied to an office information processing apparatus that issues a form or the like.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a control circuit of the information processing apparatus. A main body 1 includes a CPU 2 that functions as a control means in an internal control circuit. The CPU 2 includes a ROM 3, a RAM 4, an auxiliary storage device driver 5 for driving and controlling an auxiliary storage device such as a magnetic disk drive and an optical disk drive, a communication interface (I / F) 6, a keyboard controller 7, a display controller 8, a mouse interface (I / F) 9 and a hard disk drive (HDD) controller 10 are connected.

  The RAM 4 is formed with a search data buffer 4a which is search data storage means for storing data that matches the search conditions searched in the search processing described later.

  The information processing apparatus includes various software stored in the ROM 3 and the hard disk drive 10a (applications such as business programs, an OS that supervises the reading of applications, and functions that are more advanced than the functions provided by the OS to the applications. Middleware that provides information, a database composed of various data, a device driver that drives each device that constitutes the information processing apparatus, and a BIOS that plays the role of initializing each device and calling the OS when the system is started up) Works.

  Next, the relationship between the middleware, the application, and the database will be described. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the relationship between middleware, applications, and databases.

  When the CPU 2 executes a specific program stored in the hard disk drive 10a, the application selection unit 20, the application execution unit 21, and the database engine 22 are realized. The application selection unit 20, the application execution unit 21, and the database engine 22 are middleware that performs processing independently. The hard disk drive 10a includes m application files composed of data for executing the applications (AP) A1 to Am (m: integer) installed in the information processing apparatus, and data such as customer information and product information. Stored are n databases D1 to Dn (n: integer). Each application program includes a program file F1 that controls processing by the application, a screen setting file F2 that includes display screen setting information that is used in the processing of the application, and a search priority setting file F3 in which priorities to be described later are set. ing.

The application selection unit 20 selects an application to be executed from the applications A1 to Am in accordance with an operator instruction.
The application execution unit 21 specifies an application file of the application selected by the application selection unit 20 from the hard disk drive 10a, and executes the application.
The database engine 22 searches each database for data that matches the search condition specified by the application execution unit 21.

  When an application to be executed is selected by the application selection unit 20 and execution is instructed, the application execution unit 21 stores the program file F1, the screen setting file F2, and the search priority setting file F3 of the application instructed to execute. The commands read and stored in the program file F1 are sequentially executed. An example of the application execution screen displayed when the application is executed by the application execution unit 21 is shown in FIG. This application execution screen 30 is a screen that is displayed according to the screen setting file F2 of the application when an application for creating a delivery note is executed.

  In the application execution screen 30, input fields 31 to 34 and an operation button group 35 are arranged.

Information can be entered into the text box by operating the keyboard 7a, or by searching for data that matches an arbitrary condition from the database, and selecting and entering desired data from the search results. is there.
To input data from the data search result, the inquiry button of the operation button group 35 is operated. At this time, the inquiry screen 40 shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. The inquiry screen 40 includes a condition designation field 41, a search button 42, a cancel button 43, and a search result display field 44 (the search result is displayed in FIG. 4, but the search result is still displayed on the inquiry screen immediately after the operation of the inquiry button. Have no).

  The condition designation field 41 includes a text box for inputting a character string serving as a search key, and a list box for selecting whether the character string input in the text box relates to a product code, a product name, or a unit price. And a display field for displaying the product name of the data selected from the search results displayed in the search result display field 44 and a display field for displaying the number of the selected data.

  When a search is performed by specifying a search condition in the condition specification column 41, the search result is displayed in the search result display column 44. Here, for example, if data of the top row, that is, the number “01”, the product name “product 1”, and the unit price “1,000” is selected, “product 1” is displayed in the product name display field of the condition designation field 41. Is displayed, and “01” is displayed in the number display column. In this state, when the data to be selected is double-clicked with the mouse 9a, the product code, product name, and unit price of the double-clicked data are input to the input field 34 of the application execution screen 30.

  The information processing apparatus has a function of adjusting the ratio of the application execution unit 21 and the database engine 22 occupying the CPU 2 (adjustment unit). Details of this function will be described with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, the ratio is referred to as priority, and is represented by parameters 1 to 8. At priority 1, the search speed is given the highest priority. That is, while the search is being performed, operations related to the running application are hardly accepted. On the other hand, with priority 8, the operation related to the application is prioritized as much as possible over the search. That is, although the search speed is slow, operations related to the application can be performed smoothly.

  The priority is set from the search processing setting screen 50 shown in FIG. The search processing setting screen 50 includes a machine unit setting column 51 for setting priorities for all search processes at once, a program unit setting column 52 for setting program units such as applications, a priority explanation column 53, and contents. An OK button 54 for confirming and a cancel button 55 for invalidating the setting contents and ending the setting process are provided.

  The machine unit setting field 51 is provided with a priority input field 51a and an automatic setting button 51b. The operator can input a desired priority among the priorities 1 to 8 in the input field 51a. The automatic setting button 51b is a button for automatically inputting a priority in the input field 51a. The processing when the automatic setting button 51b is operated will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The program unit setting field 52 includes a folder designation field 52a for designating a folder in which a program whose priority is to be set is stored, and a program display field for displaying the type of the program stored in the folder designated by the folder designation field 52a. 52b. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, when a folder “Uriage” is designated in the folder designation field 52 a, an application for creating an “invoice” and an application for creating “monthly aggregation” stored in the folder are displayed. It is displayed in the program display field 52b. The operator can set a desired priority in the “priority” column for each of the applications displayed in the program display column 52b.

  Thus, when the OK button 54 is operated with the priority to be set in the machine unit setting field 51 or the program unit setting field 52 being input, the priority of the search priority setting file F3 of each application file is updated. . In the example shown in FIG. 5, the application related to the creation of “delivery note” is set to priority 1. All other applications are set to priority 3.

  Adjustment of the ratio that the application execution unit 21 and the database engine 22 occupy the CPU 2 according to the priority is performed by adjusting the monitoring process cycle of the search results and the number of result display references according to the priority. The result display reference number is the number of data to be displayed at once in the search result display field 44 of the inquiry screen 40. That is, until the data found in the search process and stored in the search data buffer 4a reaches the result display reference number, these data are not displayed in the search result display column 44, and the result display reference number is reached. Sometimes, data corresponding to the number of the result display reference items are displayed in the search result display field 44. The monitoring processing cycle is a cycle for determining whether the number of found data has reached the result display reference number. When this cycle is short, the above determination is frequently made. Therefore, the processing of the CPU 2 is occupied in this determination processing, and it becomes difficult to accept other operations. Also, when the number of result display criteria is large, a larger amount of data is displayed at a time than when it is small. Therefore, if the overflow processing associated with the display processing is taken into consideration, the same amount of data is displayed more than once. Efficiency is good. For this reason, while the search process is speeded up, the CPU 2 is continuously occupied for a long time in the display process, and no other operation is accepted during that time.

  Note that a series of processes for setting the timing for monitoring the number of data (data amount) of the search result by specifying the priority from the search processing setting screen 50 and setting the result display reference number (reference amount) for outputting the data are set. Configure the means.

  The monitoring processing cycle corresponding to the priority and the result display reference number are set in the parameter table t1 stored in the ROM 3. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the data structure of the parameter table t1. A monitoring processing cycle (msec) and a result display reference number are set in association with the priorities of 1 to 8. In the present embodiment, “5 msec” and “500” are set as priority 1 and “30 msec” and “400” are set as priority 2 as the number of monitoring processing cycles and result display reference cases associated with each priority. "Priority" is set, priority 3 is set to "60 msec", "300 cases", priority 4 is set to "80 msec", "250 cases", priority 5 is set to "100 msec", "200 cases" , Set priority 120 to "120 msec" and "200", set priority 7 to "160 msec" and "125", set priority 8 to "200 msec" and "100" is doing.

  Next, processing executed by the application execution unit 21 and the database engine 22 in the data search processing will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, when a search condition is input to the condition designation field 41 of the inquiry screen 40 shown in FIG. 4 and the search button 42 is operated, the application execution unit 21 transmits a search command to the database engine 22 for monitoring as ST101. The monitoring output process which is an output means is started. Further, the database engine 22 that has received the search command starts database search processing. Note that the monitoring output process and the database search process are executed in parallel by the application execution unit 21 and the database engine 22, respectively.

  In the database search process, first, the database engine 22 determines whether or not an error relating to the search condition has occurred in ST102a.

  When it is determined that no error relating to the search condition has occurred (No in ST102a), the database engine 22 searches the databases D1 to Dn stored in the hard disk drive 10a as ST103a for data that matches the search condition. When one piece of data matching the search condition is found, the data is output to the search data buffer 4a as ST104a. Thereafter, in ST105a, it is determined whether or not the search for all databases has been completed. When it is determined that the search for all the databases has not been completed (No in ST105a), the process returns to the process in ST103a again to continue the search for the data that has not yet been searched, and the found data is stored in the search data buffer. Output to 4a. In this way, when it is determined that the search has progressed and the search for all the databases has been completed (Yes in ST105a), the database search process is ended. When it is determined that an error has occurred in the process of ST102a (Yes in ST102a), the application execution unit 21 is notified as ST106a, an error occurrence warning is displayed on the display 8a, and the database search process is terminated.

  When starting the monitoring output process, the application execution unit 21 first refers to the parameter table t1 based on the priority set in the search priority setting file F3 of the application, and specifies the monitoring processing cycle and the result display reference number. To do. Then, as ST102b, the process waits according to the specified monitoring process cycle. For example, if priority 1 is set in the search priority setting file F3, the process waits until 5 msec is counted by a timer built in the CPU 2.

  When the time specified as the monitoring process cycle is finished, it is determined whether the search result stored in the search data buffer 4a by the database engine 22 has reached the reference number of results display as ST103b. At this time, when it is determined that the number of result display reference cases has been reached (Yes in ST103b), search results for the number of result display reference cases are displayed in the search result display field 44 as ST104b. For example, when priority 1 is set in the search priority setting file F3, 500 pieces of data are displayed in the search result display field 44.

  After displaying the search result or when it is determined in ST103b that the result display reference number has not been reached (No in ST103b), the application execution unit 21 determines whether the search is completed as ST105b. When a notification that the search has been completed has already been received from the database engine 22, or when data input from the search result displayed in the search result display field 44 to the input field of the application execution screen 30 has been completed. Determines that the search has been completed (Yes in ST105b). At this time, if there is data not yet displayed in the search result display field 44 in the search data buffer 4a, the data is displayed in the search result display field 44 as ST106b, and the monitoring output process is terminated. On the other hand, when it is determined that the search is not completed (No in ST105b), the process returns to ST102b and again shifts to a process generation waiting state.

  In this way, by adjusting the monitoring processing cycle and the result display reference number according to the set priority, the ratio of the application execution unit 21 and the database engine 22 occupying the CPU 2 is adjusted.

  It is possible to select an optimal search method according to various situations such as the number of data to be searched stored in the hard disk drive 10a, the performance of the information processing apparatus, and the operator's preference. Specifically, it is possible to select which of the search speed and the operability during the search is given priority. There is no need to prepare a special device or circuit, and the adjustment function can be realized at a low cost. It is possible to individually set whether to give priority to the search speed or the operability during the search according to the characteristics of the application or the preference of the executor.

Next, the automatic setting process executed in response to the operation of the automatic setting button 51b on the search process setting screen 50 will be described. This processing constitutes automatic setting means for automatically setting the timing for monitoring the data amount stored in the search data buffer 4a and the reference amount for outputting the data stored in the search data buffer 4a.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of processing executed by the application execution unit 21 in the automatic setting processing. First, in ST201, the counter k (k: integer) of the RAM 4 is initialized to “1”. In ST202, the value of k is set as the priority, and the test data stored in the hard disk drive 10a is searched under a predetermined search condition. The processing performed in the search is the same as the processing described in FIG. However, the required time t from the start of the search to the end of the search is measured by a timer built in the CPU 2, and when the search is completed, the required time t is associated with the value of the counter k and is formed in the RAM 4 in ST203. Record in the storage area. Thereafter, in ST204, it is determined whether the value of the counter k has reached the maximum priority value, that is, “8”. When it is determined that the value of the counter k has not reached the maximum priority value (No in ST204), the value of the counter k is incremented by 1 in ST205, and the process returns to ST202 to set the priority to k. Search for test data and record required time t.

When the time t required for test data search at each priority level 1 to 8 is thus measured, it is determined that the value of the counter k has reached the maximum priority level (Yes in ST204), and the application execution unit 21 specifies the maximum value tmax and the minimum value tmin of the required time t for each priority 1 to 8 recorded in the RAM 4 as ST206. In ST207, an average value tave of the maximum value tmax and the minimum value tmin is calculated. Furthermore, as ST208, the priority that the required time t recorded in the RAM 4 is closest to the average value tave is input to the input field 51a, and the automatic setting process is terminated.
As described above, in the automatic setting process, the priority of each machine is automatically set to a value having an intermediate search speed within a settable priority range. Therefore, when a person unfamiliar with the operation of the information processing apparatus makes a setting, or when it is desired to set an average setting for all applications, it is possible to set all at once by a simple operation, thereby improving work efficiency. .

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment as it is, In the implementation stage, within the range which does not deviate from the summary, each component can be changed suitably and can be embodied.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the example in which the monitoring process cycle and the result display reference number are adjusted has been described, but only one of the monitoring process cycle and the result display reference number may be adjusted. Even in such a case, the search speed and the operability during the search can be adjusted.

  Further, the priority is not limited to eight levels, and may be set to a larger number of levels or may be set to a smaller number of levels. In such a case, the number of data in the parameter table t1 may be increased or decreased according to the number of priority levels that can be set.

  In the automatic setting process, test data is searched for each priority, an average value tave between the minimum value tmin and the maximum value tmax of the required time t until the search is completed is specified, and the required time t is the average value tave. However, the priority is not limited to this setting method. Instead of this setting method, for example, the required time t of all priorities is added, an average value obtained by dividing the value by the number of priority levels is calculated, and the required time is set to the priority closest to the average value. You may employ | adopt methods, such as doing.

  In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from the overall components shown in the embodiment.

The block diagram which shows the control circuit of the information processing apparatus in one Embodiment of this invention. The conceptual diagram which shows the relationship of the middleware etc. in the same embodiment. The figure which shows the application execution screen in the embodiment. The figure which shows the inquiry screen in the embodiment. The figure which shows the search process setting screen in the embodiment. The schematic diagram which shows the data structure of the parameter table in the embodiment. The flowchart of the data search process in the embodiment. The flowchart of the automatic setting process in the embodiment.

  2 ... CPU, 3 ... ROM, 4 ... RAM, 4a ... search data buffer, 5 ... auxiliary storage device driver, 6 ... communication interface, 7a ... keyboard, 8a ... display, 9a ... mouse, 10a ... hard disk drive, 20 ... application Selection unit, 21 ... application execution unit, 22 ... database engine

Claims (6)

In an information processing apparatus comprising a control unit that forms the center of the apparatus and a database storage unit that stores a database of various types of information,
Application execution means for executing an application under the control of the control means;
Data search means that operates in parallel with the execution of the application under the control of the control means, and searches the database storage means for data that matches the search conditions;
An information processing apparatus comprising: an adjustment unit that adjusts a ratio of the application execution unit and the data search unit occupying the control unit. Search data storage means for storing data that matches the search conditions searched by the data search means from the database storage means;
A monitoring output means for monitoring the amount of data stored in the search data storage means at a predetermined timing, and outputting the data stored in the search data storage means in response to reaching a predetermined reference amount;
The monitoring output means further includes a setting means for setting a timing for monitoring the data amount stored in the search data storage means,
The adjustment means changes the timing for monitoring the amount of data stored in the search data storage means according to the timing set by the setting means, so that the application execution means and the data search means control the control means. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an occupation ratio is adjusted. The setting means further sets the reference amount in addition to the timing,
The adjustment means changes the timing for monitoring the amount of data stored in the search data storage means according to the timing set by the setting means, and stores it in the search data storage means according to the reference amount set by the setting means. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the ratio of the application execution unit and the data search unit occupying the control unit is adjusted by changing a reference amount for outputting the processed data.   4. The information according to claim 3, wherein the setting unit individually sets a ratio of the application execution unit and the data search unit to occupy the control unit with respect to an application executed by the application execution unit. Processing equipment.   Automatic setting means for automatically setting a timing at which the monitoring output means monitors the amount of data stored in the search data storage means and a reference amount for outputting the data stored in the search data storage means by the adjustment means; The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: A control program for an information processing apparatus comprising a control unit that forms the center of the apparatus and a database storage unit that stores a database of various data,
In the information processing apparatus,
An application execution function for executing an application under the control of the control means;
A data search function that operates in parallel with the execution of the application under the control of the control means, and searches the database storage means for data that matches a search condition;
A control program for realizing an adjustment function for adjusting a ratio of the application execution function and the data search function occupying the control means.

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