JP2011065245A - System for providing event notification function - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To secure an occurrence order of events in notifying the occurrence of an event defined arbitrarily among respective applications. <P>SOLUTION: A system includes a first server receiving the occurrence of the event transmitted from a service providing server for managing respective applications together with a user identifier, and a second server carrying out registration processing for registering the occurrence of the event in a storage means in association with the user identifier by sharing among the plurality of servers in response to a request from the first server. The first server uniquely determines the server as a request destination in response to the user identifier, and when the server as the request destination cannot carry out the registration processing, the first server requests the registration processing to other server included in a group by referring to a table in which a server as a pair is previously determined mutually among the plurality of servers. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for notifying the occurrence of an event between applications on the web.

  In recent years, in the Internet, for example, social networking services (hereinafter referred to as SNS), an application that builds a place where users can post content such as articles, photos, and videos and make them available to other users. Services provided on the web are widespread.

  These services are generally called CGM (Consumer Generated Media), and are used not only as a tool for transmitting information from a user who created content to other users, but also as a tool for communication between users. For example, for a diary posted by a certain user, another user who has browsed the diary adds comments individually so that opinions can be exchanged between the users via the diary.

  And recently, in the service as described above, when a comment is added to a certain content by a user, the user who posted the content is notified that there is a new comment. The thing is proposed (for example, refer patent document 1). Such notification is made by inserting the web page displayed by the browser of the client if the service is being used at that time.

  In the conventional service as described above, the number of contents to be handled is enormous, and accordingly, a large number of events occur. For this reason, a server that provides a service as described above is required to construct a mechanism that can withstand such a load in order to process a large number of events.

  A method for handling such a large number of event occurrences, for example, is to provide multiple servers with the same function, and to distribute processing from those with low load so that a specific server is not overloaded. It has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2007-328537 A JP 2001-101134 A

  However, in the above-described conventional method, processing is distributed in order from the server with the lightest load, so there is a possibility that a plurality of events that occur continuously for a certain content are distributed to different servers. In such a case, if a failure occurs in one of a plurality of assigned servers, the occurrence of an event positioned after the event that is positioned in front of the event is overtaken by the event in time sequence. There was a possibility that the occurrence of the occurrence was not accumulated in order. In other words, the order of occurrence of the accumulated events cannot be guaranteed, and the order of event occurrence is not correctly notified to the user, so that there is a problem that reliability as a function for notifying the event is lacking.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an event notification function providing system capable of ensuring the order of occurrence of events.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following aspects.

(1) A system for providing an event notification function that has a server configuration for ensuring the occurrence order of events arbitrarily defined in an application on the web, and that notifies the occurrence of an event between the applications,
A first server that receives an occurrence of an event transmitted from a service providing server that manages each application together with a user identifier;
A second server for performing a sharing process among a plurality of servers in response to a request from the first server, and registering the event occurrence in a storage means in association with a user identifier,
The first server is
A request destination server is uniquely determined according to a user identifier, and when the request destination server cannot execute a registration process, a server that is paired with each other among the plurality of servers is referred to a predetermined table. An event notification function providing system that requests registration processing to the other server included in the set.

  According to (1), an event related to the same user can be generated by uniquely determining a server that requests the registration process from a plurality of servers that share the registration process for generating the event according to the user identifier. The registration process can be executed by the same server. In addition, a group server is assigned to each of a plurality of servers in advance, and when a failure occurs in the uniquely determined server, the registration processing request destination is switched to the other server in the group. . Thereby, it becomes possible to secure the order of occurrence of events related to the same user.

(2) Each of the plurality of servers is assigned a numerical value as an identifier in advance,
The first server is
The event according to (1), wherein the requesting server is uniquely determined from a numerical value obtained as a result of converting the user identifier into numerical information and performing predetermined arithmetic processing on the numerical information. Notification function providing system.

  According to (2), since it is not necessary to prepare and refer to a table in which user identifiers and servers that perform registration processing are associated in advance, it is possible to increase the number of servers while speeding up the processing. Yes.

(3) An operation method of an event notification function providing system that secures an order of occurrence of events arbitrarily defined in an application on the web and notifies the occurrence of an event between each application,
A first server receiving an occurrence of an event transmitted from a service providing server managing each application together with a user identifier;
A second server, in response to a request from the first server, performing a registration process in which the occurrence of the event is associated with a user identifier and registered in a storage unit in a shared manner among a plurality of servers;
When the first server uniquely determines the requested server according to the user identifier, and the requested server cannot execute the registration process, a server to be paired with each other is determined in advance. And a step of requesting a registration process to the other server included in the set with reference to the table, and an operation method of the event notification function providing system.

  According to (3), the same effect as in (1) is obtained.

  According to the present invention, in the event notification function providing system that notifies the occurrence of an event arbitrarily defined between applications, the order of event occurrence can be ensured.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the whole system concerning embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the event notification function provision system concerning embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of an event table. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of a content table. It is a figure which shows the data structure example of a cache table. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of an event definition data sharing list. It is a sequence diagram (event registration) showing a processing example of an embodiment. It is a sequence diagram (event reference: summary) showing a processing example of an embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen (summary) regarding the notification of an event. It is a sequence diagram (event reference: event list) showing a processing example of an embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen (event list) regarding the notification of an event. It is a sequence diagram (event deletion) showing a processing example of an embodiment. It is a figure which shows the detailed structural example of the 2nd server of an event notification function provision system. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of a farmID matching table. It is a sequence diagram (event registration) showing a processing example of an embodiment. It is a flowchart figure (request destination server determination process) which shows the process example of embodiment.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, modes for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration>
With reference to FIG. 1, the structure of the whole system containing the event notification function provision system (notice platform) 3 which concerns on this embodiment is demonstrated.

  The event notification function providing system 3 is connected to a plurality of service providing servers 5 (5a,..., 5x) via a network N. The service providing server 5 is connected to a plurality of user terminals 7 (7a,..., 7x) via a network.

  The event notification function providing system 3, the service providing server 5, and the user terminal 7 may be a computer (single or A plurality). The user terminal 7 is a PC (Personal Computer), a mobile phone terminal, or the like used by the user, and includes an input device such as a key button or a touch panel and an output device such as a liquid crystal display in addition to the hardware resources described above.

(User terminal 7)
The user terminal 7 includes a general browser. The browser functions to request, obtain and display page data written in a language such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), send form data, etc. in accordance with HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), which is a standard protocol of the Internet. have. The user uses an application provided by the service providing server 5 through the browser of the user terminal 7.

(Service providing server 5)
The plurality of service providing servers 5 provide individual applications (hereinafter referred to as APs) to the user terminal 7 to realize services on the web. Examples of services on the web are services that provide a place for users to browse content such as articles, photos, videos, etc., or for white users to post content and publish it to other users, or to conduct business transactions. News services, SNS (social networking services), auction services, map information services, and the like are applicable. The AP provides the user terminal 7 with various functions for the user to perform content posting, input of some action on the content, content search, browsing, and the like.

  In this embodiment, information that is arbitrarily defined in each AP and that indicates some action targeting content related to the user is referred to as an “event”.

  For example, in the case of an auction service, a user viewed from user A when an item submitted by one user (user A) is placed by another user (user B or user C). The bid action of B or user C can be defined as an “event”.

  In another example, in an auction service, one user (referred to as user B) bids on an item, and another user (referred to as user C) for the item on which the bid is placed. When bidding is performed by the user B, the bidding action of the user C viewed from the user B can be defined as an “event”.

  In another example, in SNS, when one user (referred to as user X) is registered as a friend by another user (referred to as user Y), the registration act of user Y viewed from user X is “event”. Can be defined as

  In another example, in an auction service, when an exhibit of one user (referred to as user Z) ends without being awarded to anyone, the result of the end as viewed from the user Z is referred to as “event”. Can be defined. The actions in this example are not directly generated by the user, but events that have automatically occurred in the operation of the AP as described above can be included in the actions.

  In this embodiment, a configuration in which one service providing server 5 manages one AP is described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a configuration in which one service providing server 5 manages a plurality of APs, A configuration in which a plurality of service providing servers 5 manage one AP can be employed.

  The service providing server 5 includes, for each AP, an input receiving unit 51, an input information processing unit 52, an event transmitting unit 53, an event referring unit 54, an event receiving unit 55, and a page data providing unit 56. I have.

  The input receiving unit 51 has a function of receiving various requests and input information of the user based on mouse clicks and keyboard inputs from the browser of the user terminal 7.

  The input information processing unit 52 has a function of performing various processes such as registration, search, and reference of posted content and actions to the database in accordance with the user request received by the input receiving unit 51 and the content of the input information. Have The input information processing means 52 defines an event when registering an action for the content. For example, in the auction service, when the content of the user input information is “first bid for the exhibit 1”, the identifier (event_0001) indicating the first bid is displayed as the identifier (item_0001) of the exhibit 1 ).

  The event transmission unit 53 has a function of transmitting an event occurrence message to the event notification function providing system 3 when the input information processing unit 52 defines an action for content as an event.

  The event reference unit 54 has a function of transmitting an event reference request to the event notification function providing system 3 in response to a user request received by the input receiving unit 51.

  The event receiving means 55 has a function of receiving an event occurrence state in each AP transmitted from the event notification function providing system 3.

  The page data providing unit 56 has a function of creating page data and transmitting it to the browser of the user terminal 7. For example, page data is created based on the event occurrence status in each AP received by the event receiving means 55, transmitted to the browser of the user terminal 7, and the occurrence of the event is notified to the user.

  The event transmission unit 53, the event reference unit 54, and the event reception unit 55 are functions realized by incorporating an API (Application Program Interface) provided from the administrator side of the event notification function providing system 3 into the AP. Communication between the AP managed by each service providing server 5 and the event notification function providing system 3 can be in any form.

(Event notification function providing system 3)
On the other hand, the event notification function providing system 3 has a function of collecting occurrences of events arbitrarily defined in each of a plurality of APs, collectively managing them, and notifying each AP. The event notification function providing system 3 includes an event receiving unit 31, an event registration unit 32, an event reading unit 33, an event notification unit 34, an event erasing unit 35, and an event storage unit 36.

  The event receiving unit 31 receives an event occurrence message transmitted from each AP (more specifically, the event transmitting unit 53). The event registration unit 32 performs an event registration process on the event storage unit 36 based on the event occurrence message in each AP received by the event reception unit 31.

  The event storage means 36 stores the event occurrence status for each user. The occurrence state of an event related to a user is data accumulated in time series in which events generated in each AP are classified in units of users. Although the detailed data structure will be described later, the event storage means 36 stores at least data capable of specifying the content and AP in which the event has occurred and the user to be notified of the occurrence of the event.

  The event reading unit 33 reads the event occurrence status from the event storage unit 36 in response to an event reference request transmitted from each AP (more specifically, the event reference unit 54). Note that the event reading in this embodiment is performed when so-called pull-type notification is performed, but any timing such as when performing push-type notification can be employed.

  The event notification unit 34 transmits the event occurrence status read by the event reading unit 33 to each AP (more specifically, the event receiving unit 55). The event erasure unit 35 erases, from the event storage unit 36, the record related to the event for which the user has confirmed the notification among the event occurrence states transmitted by the event notification unit 34 to each AP.

(Server configuration of event notification function providing system 3)
Although the functional configuration of the event notification function providing system 3 has been described with reference to FIG. 1, the hardware configuration will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a server configuration of the event notification function providing system 3 according to the present embodiment.

  The event notification function providing system 3 includes a first server 11, a second server 12, a database server (hereinafter referred to as a DB server) 13, and a cache server 14, and these servers 11 to 14 communicate with each other. It is connected and configured. Communication between the servers 11 to 14 can be in any format. Each of the servers 11 to 14 is configured by a computer having hardware resources such as a control device such as a CPU, a storage device such as a memory and an HDD, and a communication device such as a communication I / F.

  The first server 11 serves as a window with the AP managed by each of the plurality of service providing servers 5. That is, the first server 11 has a function as a front end unit that receives a request from each service providing server 5 and returns a processing result as a response. The second server 12 has a function of receiving an event registration process in response to a request from the first server 11. The DB server 13 and the cache server 14 manage events that occur in each AP.

  Here, in relation to FIG. 1, the first server 11 functions as the event receiving unit 31, the event reading unit 33, and the event notification unit 34 described above. The second server 12 functions as an event registration unit 32 and an event deletion unit 35. Further, the DB server 13 and the cache server 14 function as an event registration unit 32, an event deletion unit 35, and an event storage unit 36.

(Event registration process)
Here, the event notification function providing system 3 according to the present embodiment performs the following processing regarding event registration processing in order to process a large number of events that occur in each AP.

  First, when receiving an event occurrence message from the service providing server 5, the first server 11 requests the second server 12 to register the received event. At this time, the first server 11 receives the response indicating that the event registration processing has been performed immediately after receiving the event occurrence message without receiving the processing completion notification from the second server 12, and receives the response indicating that the event has been registered. 5 is transmitted.

  On the other hand, the second server 12 that has received a request from the first server 11 performs event registration processing on the DB server 13 and the cache server 14.

  In this way, the event registration process is performed not by the first server 11 that directly receives a request from each service providing server 5 but by the second server 12 in the background. When the generated message is received, a response can be transmitted to the service providing server 5 as it is, and a large number of events generated in each AP can be processed without delay. Further, the first server 11 is freed from the processing burden caused by performing both the event registration process and the read process, so that the performance related to both the event registration process and the read process can be improved.

(Data structure of DB server 13)
Next, a data structure example provided in the DB server 13 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The DB server 13 includes an event table (FIG. 3) and a content table (FIG. 4).

(Event table for managing events individually)
The event table (FIG. 3) stores information related to events that have occurred in each AP (hereinafter referred to as event information). The event information includes data items of “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “content identifier”, “event identifier”, “event content”, and “date and time”. Each of these data items is arbitrarily defined by the AP of the service providing server 5, and is included in the event occurrence message and transmitted.

  “User identifier” is data for specifying a target user to be notified of the occurrence of an event. For example, in the case of an auction service, the user ID of the exhibitor of the exhibit for which a bid is placed.

  The “service identifier” is data that identifies an AP in which an event has occurred. For example, the identifier “auc” specifies the auction service, and the identifier “board” specifies the bulletin board service.

  The “content identifier” is data specifying the content in which the event has occurred. For example, in the case of an auction service, an identifier “item” is specified as “exhibit”, and an identifier “item_0001” is specified as “exhibit A”.

  The “event identifier” is data that identifies the event that has occurred. For example, in the case of an auction service item, the identifier “event” is specified as “bid”, and the identifier “event_0001” is specified as “first bid 1”.

  The “event content” is text data indicating additional information about the event that has occurred. For example, it is the content of information input by the user who generated the event, and in the case of an auction service, “bid amount”, “bidder user ID”, and the like are described.

  “Date and time” is data specifying the date and time when the event occurred. For example, when an auction service is taken as an example, it is “date and time when a bid is made”.

(Content table for managing events in units of content)
The content table (FIG. 4) stores information (hereinafter referred to as content information) in which generated events are aggregated in units of content. The content information includes data items of “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “content identifier”, “number of events”, “event identifier”, “URL”, and “date / time”.

  “Number of events” is data specifying the number of events that have occurred for the content. Each event information stored in the event table described above is stored as a set of “user identifier”, “service identifier”, and “content identifier” as a key, and the number is counted. “URL” is data specifying the address of the content managed by each AP. For example, when an auction service is taken as an example, it is the number of new bids for one exhibit.

  In this way, since the event occurrence status at each AP is managed using the user identifier to be notified as a key, the database can be divided and managed for each user identifier, thereby enabling data access for each user. High speed can be expected. Further, when referring to an event, event information is not read beyond the user identifier to be notified, and the robustness of the system can be ensured.

  In the present embodiment, since the DB server 13 manages event information and content information separately, when each is constructed as a separate server farm, the DB server 13 is expanded according to the amount of data. Can be achieved and scalability can be ensured.

(Cache table that manages events in AP units)
Next, an example of a data structure provided in the cache server 14 will be described with reference to FIG. The cache server 14 includes a cache table (FIG. 5).

  The cache table (FIG. 5) stores information (hereinafter referred to as summary information) in which contents in which events have occurred are aggregated in AP units. The summary information includes data items of “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “number of contents”, “content identifier”, “event identifier”, “URL”, and “date / time”.

  “Number of contents” is data specifying the number of contents in which an event has occurred. The contents information stored in the contents table of the DB server 13 is stored as a set of “user identifier” and “service identifier” as a key, and the number is counted. For example, when an auction service is taken as an example, when 10 items are listed, the number of items for which a new bid has been placed is obtained.

  The summary information is associated with content information related to individual contents included in the number of contents. This makes it possible to specify the URL of each content, the number of events that have occurred, and the like.

(Sharing the display of events that occur at each AP)
Next, the event definition data sharing list will be described with reference to FIG.

  The event definition data sharing list is data used in each AP to grasp events defined in other APs, and is provided in common to each AP. Further, it is used when displaying the service name, content name, and event name in another AP by the browser of the user terminal 7.

  The event definition data sharing list is associated with a name for displaying each according to a list of “service identifier”, “content identifier”, and “event identifier” arbitrarily defined in each AP. For example, an “auction” service is associated with the service identifier “auc”, and an “exhibit” is associated with the content identifier “item”.

  The event notification function providing system 3 provides an event definition data sharing list together with the above-described summary information when notifying each AP of the occurrence of an event related to another AP. As a result, each AP can share contents and events defined in other APs, and can perform a common display in each AP when notifying an event.

  Here, as the “service identifier”, “content identifier”, and “event identifier”, identifiers arbitrarily defined in each AP by the operator of the service providing server 5 are set.

  When setting the identifier, the event notification function providing system 3 transmits the setting page data to a browser of an operator terminal (not shown) connected to the service providing server 5. The operator of the service providing server 5 registers an identifier arbitrarily defined in the AP via the setting page displayed on the browser, and transmits it to the event notification function providing system 3.

  For example, when the service on the web provided by the AP is an auction service, the operator registers “auc” as the service identifier and “auction” as the text of the display name. In addition, “item” is registered as the content identifier, and “exhibit” is registered as the display name text. Furthermore, “event” is registered as the event identifier, and “bid” is registered as the display name text.

  In the setting page, in addition to registering an identifier that is arbitrarily defined in each AP, customization of the layout of a page that performs event occurrence notification (see FIGS. 9 and 11 described later), and notification of event occurrence These patterns (AP unit, content unit, event list, etc., which will be described later), the timing of erasing an event whose notification has been confirmed, and the like may be arbitrarily set. In this case, the event notification function providing system 3 manages the setting information such as the event occurrence notification pattern and the erasure timing in association with the service identifier, and performs processing corresponding to each AP.

<Operation>
Next, the operation of the event notification function providing system 3 of this embodiment will be described.

(Event registration)
FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing a processing example of this embodiment, and is a processing example until the occurrence of an event transmitted from the AP of the service providing server 5 is stored in the DB server 13 and the cache server 14.

  When the user of the user terminal 7 wants to browse the page of the service provided by the AP of the service providing server 5 from the browser, a page request is transmitted from the browser to the AP of the service providing server 5 (step S11). For example, when an auction service is taken as an example, it is a request for a page for browsing exhibits. This request is made in the browser by inputting the URL of the target content or designating a link attached to another page.

  Whether the user has logged in is confirmed by reading a cookie indicating a session ID, for example. Assuming that the user has not logged in yet, the service providing server 5 transmits a login page to the browser of the user terminal 7, accepts input of a user ID and password, and checks whether or not the user is registered in the user database. Perform login process.

  The service providing server 5 creates page data to be provided to the browser depending on whether to acquire previously stored page data or to dynamically create page data (step S12). At this time, content provided by the AP and a screen area for inputting some action on the content are included in the page data.

  Subsequently, the service providing server 5 transmits the created page data to the user terminal 7 (step S13). The page data is transmitted to the browser according to an HTTP response or the like. The user terminal 7 displays a page screen on the browser based on the received page data (step S14). For example, when an auction service is taken as an example, a screen area for specifying “bid” and “bid amount” is displayed together with an exhibit, and a bid can be made by inputting to the area. .

  Subsequently, when the user of the user terminal 7 inputs desired content as an action for the content of the page screen, the content of the input action is transmitted from the browser to the AP of the service providing server 5 (step S101). .

  The service providing server 5 registers the content of the received action in the database, and at that time, defines an event (step S102). That is, a newly issued “event identifier (for example, bid 1)” or “event content (for example, bid amount)” indicating the content of input information by the user, “content identifier (for example, exhibit A)”, and event notification It is registered in the database together with the target “user identifier (for example, exhibitor of exhibit A with bid)”, “URL”, and the like.

  Subsequently, the service providing server 5 transmits an event occurrence message to the first server 11 of the event notification function providing system 3 (step S103). The event occurrence message includes “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “content identifier”, “event identifier”, content “URL”, “event content”, and “date / time” that are subject to event notification. ing.

  When receiving the event occurrence message from the service providing server 5, the first server 11 transmits the registration process to the second server 12 together with a request for requesting the second server 12 (step S104). Subsequently, the first server 11 transmits a process completion response to the received service providing server 5 with respect to the received event occurrence message (step S105). The first server 11 may make a response to the service providing server 5 before making a request to the second server 12.

  That is, the first server 11 does not wait for the completion of the registration process by the second server 12, and immediately returns a process completion response after receiving the event occurrence message.

  On the other hand, the second server 12 requested to register from the first server 11 first transmits an event registration request to the DB server 13 (step S106). Upon receiving this, the DB server 13 first extracts event information from the generated message and registers it in the event table (FIG. 3). Subsequently, the DB server 13 generates content information from the event table and registers it in the content table (FIG. 4) (step S107). Commands such as SQL (Structured Query Language) are used to refer to and update each table.

  More specifically, the DB server 13 determines, from the event occurrence message received by the first server 11, the “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “content identifier”, “event identifier”, A set of “event content” and “date and time” is extracted and set as new event record information in the event table.

  Further, when the registration of the event information is completed, the DB server 13 collects each event information stored in the event table using a set of “user identifier”, “service identifier”, and “content identifier” as a key, The number is counted as “number of events”. Then, a set of “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “content identifier”, “number of events”, “event identifier”, “URL” and “date / time” is extracted, and a new record in the content table is obtained as content information Set to.

  When the DB server 13 completes registration in the event table (FIG. 3) and the content table (FIG. 4), it sends a notification to that effect to the second server 12 (step S108).

  Next, the second server 12 transmits a summary creation request to the DB server 13 (step S109). Receiving this, the DB server 13 creates summary information (step S110) and transmits it to the second server 12 (step S111).

  More specifically, the DB server 13 collects the content information registered as a new record in the content table (FIG. 4) using a set of “user identifier” and “service identifier” as a key, and sets the number of records as “ Count as "number of contents". Then, “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “number of contents”, “content identifier”, “event identifier”, “URL” of the content in which the latest event occurred among the collected contents, “event” of the latest event A combination of items including “content” and “date and time” is used as summary information, and individual content information is associated with this.

  When receiving the summary information from the DB server 13, the second server 12 transmits a summary registration request to the cache server 14 (step S112). Receiving this, the cache server 14 sets the summary information in a new record of the cache table (FIG. 5) and performs registration (step S113). The summary registration request may be sent from the DB server 13 to the cache server 14.

  When the registration of the summary information is completed, the cache server 14 transmits a notification to that effect to the second server 12 (step S114). The second server 12 transmits an event registration completion notification to the first server 11 (step S115).

  The first server 11 that has received the notification transmits an update notification to the target AP when an AP that requests the update notification is set in advance (step S116).

(Event reference)
8 and 10 are sequence diagrams showing an example of processing according to the present embodiment. Processing from when the AP of the service providing server 5 transmits an event reference request until the event is notified to the AP. It is an example.

(Event reference: summary list)
First, with reference to FIG. 8, a processing example when an event reference request specifying a summary list is performed will be described.

  In FIG. 8, when the user of the user terminal 7 wants to browse the page of the service provided by the AP of the service providing server 5 from the browser, a page request is transmitted from the browser to the AP of the service providing server 5 (step S201). . For example, taking a shopping service as an example, it is a request for a page for searching and browsing for a product. This request is made in the browser by inputting the URL of the target content or designating a link attached to another page.

  When receiving the page request for the AP from the browser of the user terminal 7, the service providing server 5 transmits an event reference request “summary list” to the first server 11 (step S202). The event reference request includes the user identifier of the user who made the request.

  The first server 11 that has received the event reference request transmits an event reference request “summary list” to the cache server 14 (step S203).

  The cache server 14 that has received the event reference request searches the target summary information with reference to the cache table (FIG. 5) using the “user identifier” that made the request as a key (step S204).

(When there is a cache hit)
If the summary information hits as a result of the search in step S204, the cache server 14 acquires the summary information and transmits it to the first server 11 (step S205).

  The first server 11 that has received the summary information transmits the summary information to the service providing server 5 (step S206).

  The service providing server 5 that has received the summary information creates page data based on the summary information (step S207), and transmits the page data to the browser of the user terminal 7 that has made the page request (step S208).

  The browser of the user terminal 7 that has received the page data displays a page screen (step S209). FIG. 9 shows an example of a browser page screen 70. An event notification area 71 is displayed on the page screen 70, and an AP unit notification area 72 and a content unit notification area 73 created based on the summary information are displayed in the area.

  In the AP unit notification area 72, a message for notifying the user of the occurrence of an event to be viewed in AP units is displayed. For example, a message such as “There is a bid for two items in the auction” or “There is a new comment for one topic on the bulletin board” is displayed, and the name of the AP where the event occurred and the event occurred in that AP The number of contents is notified to the user.

  On the other hand, in the content unit notification area 73, a message for notifying the occurrence of an event related to the user in units of content is displayed. For example, “There are two bids for Auction Exhibit A” and “There is one bid for Auction Exhibit B”. A message is displayed informing the user of the number of events that have occurred.

  Further, in the AP unit notification area 72, a link destination URL to the content in which the latest event has occurred is embedded for each AP. On the other hand, in the content unit notification area 73, a link destination URL to the content is embedded for each content.

  For the link destination URL, the character string of the URL is displayed or linked to the display of the notification message. By making these displays clickable, the transition to the web page indicated by the link destination URL is designated to the user. Let

  Thus, the user who has received the event occurrence notification can display the web page of the content in which the event has occurred on the browser via the link destination URL, and can actually confirm the event that has occurred.

  By the way, in this embodiment, since the event registration process and the event read process are performed asynchronously, there is a possibility that the summary information is created at the end of the event reference. The following processing is a processing example in this case.

  If the summary information does not hit as a result of the search in step S204, the cache server 14 transmits a notification that the summary information acquisition has failed to the first server 11 (step S210).

  The first server 11 that has received the notification transmits an event reference request “summary list” to the DB server 13 (step S211).

  The DB server 13 that has received the event reference request refers to the content table (FIG. 4) using the “user identifier” that made the request as a key, creates summary information (step S212), and sends the summary information to the first server 11. Transmit (step S213).

  More specifically, the DB server 13 extracts content information registered as a new record in the content table (FIG. 4) using the “user identifier” that made the request as a key. These are collected in units of “service identifier” using “service identifier” as a key, and the number of records is counted as “content number”. Then, “user identifier”, “service identifier”, “number of contents”, “content identifier”, “event identifier”, “URL” of the content in which the latest event occurred among the collected contents, “text” of the latest event ”And“ date and time ”are set as summary information, and individual content information is linked to this.

  The first server 11 that has received the summary information transmits the summary information to the service providing server 5 (step S214).

  The service providing server 5 that has received the summary information creates page data based on the summary information (step S215), and transmits the page data to the browser of the user terminal 7 that has made the page request (step S216). The browser of the user terminal 7 that has received the page data displays a page screen (see FIG. 9) (step S217).

  The first server 11 transmits a summary registration request to the cache server 14 (step S218). Receiving this, the cache server 14 sets the summary information in a new record of the cache table (FIG. 5) and performs registration (step S219). As a result, the cache server 14 may be accessed at the next and subsequent references.

(Event reference: Event list)
Next, a processing example when an event reference request specifying an event list is performed will be described with reference to FIG.

  In FIG. 10, when the user of the user terminal 7 wants to browse the page of the service provided by the AP of the service providing server 5 from the browser, a page request is transmitted from the browser to the AP of the service providing server 5 (step S301). . For example, taking a news service as an example, it is a page request for browsing a news article.

  When receiving the page request for the AP from the browser of the user terminal 7, the service providing server 5 transmits an event reference request “event list” to the first server 11 (step S302). The event reference request includes the service identifier of the transmission source and the user identifier (for example, user ID) of the user who made the request.

  The first server 11 that has received the event reference request transmits the event reference request to the DB server 13 (step S303). The DB server 13 that has received the event reference request refers to the event table (FIG. 3) using the “user identifier” that made the request as a key, collects the target event information for each service identifier, and acquires it as a list ( Step S304). The DB server 13 transmits a list of acquired event information to the first server 11 (step S305).

  The first server 11 that has received the list of event information transmits the list of event information to the service providing server 5 (step S306). The service providing server 5 that has received the list of event information creates page data based on the list of event information (step S307), and transmits it to the browser of the user terminal 7 that has made the page request (step S308).

  The browser of the user terminal 7 that has received the page data displays a page screen (step S309). FIG. 11 shows an example of a browser page screen 70. An event notification area 71 is displayed on the page screen 70, and an event list notification area 74 created based on a list of event information is displayed in the area.

  In the event list notification area 74, a message for notifying the occurrence of an event to the user who made the request in units of events (that is, individual events in detail) is displayed. For example, a message such as “Bid for Auction Exhibit A is as follows” and “Bid 1: Details (Time / Bidder / Bid Amount)” and “Bid 2: Details (Time / Bidder / Bid Amount)” are displayed. It is displayed and the event that occurred is notified individually.

(Delete event)
FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram illustrating a processing example of the present embodiment, from when the AP of the service providing server 5 transmits an event deletion request to when the target event is deleted by the DB server 13 and the cache server 14. This is an example of processing.

  In FIG. 12, the service providing server 5 notifies the event by transmitting the page data to the user terminal 7 (step S21) and displaying it on the browser (step S22) as described above (FIG. 8). And FIG. 10). Thereafter, when the user specifies (clicks) the link destination URL of the content in which the event has occurred (step S23), a page request for the web page indicated by the link destination URL is transmitted to the service providing server 5. (Step S24).

  Receiving this, the service providing server 5 processes the page request (step S25). For example, if the content is in the AP managed by the other service providing server 5, the page request is transferred to the other service providing server 5.

  Subsequently, the service providing server 5 assumes that the user has confirmed the event that has occurred, and transmits an event deletion message to the first server 11 of the event notification function providing system 3 (step S401). The event deletion message includes “user identifier”, “service identifier”, and “content identifier” to be deleted.

  When receiving the event deletion message from the service providing server 5, the first server 11 transmits to the second server 12 a request for requesting the deletion processing to the second server 12 (step S402). Subsequently, the first server 11 transmits a process completion response for the deletion message to the service providing server 5 that is the reception source (step S403).

  On the other hand, the second server 12 requested to delete from the first server 11 first transmits an event deletion request to the DB server 13 (step S404). Upon receiving this, the DB server 13 first deletes the event information from the event table (FIG. 3) using the “user identifier”, “service identifier”, and “content identifier” to be deleted as keys (step S405).

  Further, the DB server 13 extracts content information from the event table after deleting the corresponding event information, and registers it in the content table (FIG. 4). This is because the event information after erasure is reflected in the content information.

  When the DB server 13 completes the deletion, the DB server 13 transmits a notification to that effect to the second server 12 (step S406). Next, the second server 12 transmits a summary creation request to the DB server 13 (step S407). This is because the event information after erasure is reflected in the summary information. Receiving this, the DB server 13 creates summary information (step S408) and transmits it to the second server 12 (step S409).

  When receiving the summary information from the DB server 13, the second server 12 transmits a summary registration request to the cache server 14 (step S410). Receiving this, the cache server 14 sets the summary information in a new record of the cache table (FIG. 5) and performs registration (step S411).

  When the registration of the summary information is completed, the cache server 14 transmits a notification to that effect to the second server 12 (step S412). The second server 12 transmits a completion notification to the first server 11 (step S413).

  Receiving this, when the AP that requests the update notification is set in advance, the first server 11 transmits the update notification to the AP (step S414).

  In the above-described processing example, the event is deleted when the link destination URL is designated by the user as a trigger. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, based on summary information or event information. It is also possible to delete the event by using the created page data transmitted to the user terminal 7 as a trigger.

(Detailed configuration of the second server 12)
Hereinafter, the detailed configuration and operation of the second server 12 described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 13 shows a detailed configuration of the second server 12. The second server 12 is constructed as a server farm in which a plurality of servers 12 (12a,..., 12x) are combined. That is, the second server 12 is a group of servers integrated to perform event update processing (registration processing and deletion processing) in response to a request from the first server 11 by load distribution.

  The second server 12 is configured by providing a plurality of groups (hereinafter, small farms) in which two servers are combined. Each server constituting the entire server farm is assigned an identifier (hereinafter referred to as farmID) for identifying each server. For example, when 2N servers are provided in the entire server farm, a numerical value from “0” to “(N−1) + N” can be assigned to each server as an identifier (see FIG. 13).

  The first server 11 makes an event registration request by designating the farmID. The server designated by the first server 11 performs event registration processing for the DB server 13 and the cache server 14.

  Note that the DB server 13 and the cache server 14 of this embodiment may also be constructed as a server farm in which a plurality of servers are combined. In this case, a table in which identifiers unique to each user (user identifiers) and server-specific identifiers are linked in advance is prepared, and a server in charge of managing events related to the users is uniquely determined. Can be. As a result, it is possible to manage by a server specific to the occurrence status of an event related to a certain user, and data is not distributedly managed.

  FIG. 14 shows a farmID association table. The farmID association table is a table in which a combination of two servers constituting a small farm paired with each other among a plurality of servers is determined in advance. The two servers that make up the small farm are in a mutually complementary relationship when a server failure occurs.

  That is, when one server goes down, the event registration request assigned to that server is assigned to the other server (operating normally) in the same small farm.

  The farmID association table is stored in the storage unit (memory or the like) of the first server 11. In other words, the first server 11 refers to the farmID association table when the server that is scheduled to perform the event registration request by specifying the farmID is down. Then, the other farmID (for example, “farm_ (N−1) +1” in the figure) associated with the farmID (for example, “farm_0” in the figure) is read, and the read out farmID is specified to the other server. Request event registration for

  FIG. 15 is a sequence diagram illustrating a processing example of the present embodiment, and is a processing example until the occurrence of an event transmitted from the AP of the service providing server 5 is stored in the DB server 13 and the cache server 14. Since it is basically the same as the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 7, the description of the same contents (such as processing indicated by the same reference numerals as in FIG. 7) is omitted.

  In FIG. 15, when the first server 11 receives the event occurrence message transmitted from the service providing server 5 in step S103, the first server 11 performs a request destination server determination process (step S501). In the request destination server determination process, a process of determining a server (hereinafter referred to as a request destination server) that requests an event registration process from the server farm of the second server 12 is performed. This process will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The first server 11 transmits an event occurrence message received from the service providing server 5 to the request destination server determined by the request destination server determination processing together with a request for requesting event registration processing (step S104). Receiving this, the request destination server transmits an event registration request to the DB server 13 (step S106).

  FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing an example of the request destination server determination process described above.

  First, the first server 11 acquires the “user identifier” included in the event occurrence message, and converts the acquired “user identifier” into numerical information (= k) (step S511).

  When the “user identifier” is a user ID composed of a combination of alphanumeric characters, the first server 11 converts the character (alphabet or symbol) part included in the user ID into a numerical value, thereby converting the entire user ID. Can be quantified. The digitization of characters can be performed using data (for example, ASCII character codes) in which unique numbers are previously associated with characters such as letters (A to Z) and symbols (−, /). For example, in the ASCII code, if the letters “AZ” are associated with the numerical values “65-90” and the user ID is “AZ1111”, “6590111” can be obtained as the digitized information. Moreover, it is also possible to divide the obtained number string into several parts and add them to make the digitized information (for example, 65 + 90 + 11 + 11 = 177).

  Next, the first server 11 acquires the number of all servers (= n) constituting the server farm of the second server 12 (step S512). Subsequently, the first server 11 executes an arithmetic expression “Result = k mod n” (step S513). That is, the first server 11 divides the digitized information (= k) of the “user identifier” by the total number of servers in the server farm (= n), and outputs the remainder as a calculation result. For example, when the digitized information (= k) of “user identifier” is “177” and the total number of servers (= n) is “6”, “177” is divided by “6” to obtain a remainder value “3”. Is calculated.

  Next, the first server 11 acquires the calculation result as farmID (step S514). Subsequently, the first server 11 determines whether or not the server corresponding to the acquired farmID is operating normally (step S515).

  If the first server 11 determines that the server corresponding to the acquired farmID is operating normally, the first server 11 determines the server corresponding to the acquired farmID as a request destination server (step S517).

  On the other hand, if the first server 11 determines that the server corresponding to the acquired farmID is not operating normally (the server is down), the first server 11 refers to the farmID association table (FIG. 14) and associates it with the farmID. The other farmID obtained is acquired (step S516). Then, a server corresponding to the acquired farmID is determined as a request destination server (step S517).

<Summary>
As described above, in the event notification function providing system 3 according to the present embodiment, occurrence of events arbitrarily defined in different APs can be managed across the APs, and arbitrarily defined in one AP. It is possible to provide a mechanism for notifying other APs of the occurrence of an event. Thus, the user can know the occurrence of an event at each AP without being aware of the gap between the APs being used.

  In the event notification function providing system 3 according to the present embodiment, an event generation process related to one user is performed by one unique server, and a server that can be switched in the event of a failure is assigned to the unique server. Therefore, the event generation process related to one user is not distributed across a plurality of servers, and the generation order of events related to individual users can be ensured.

  In addition, since the server that handles the occurrence of events related to individual users can be determined uniquely and dynamically from the user identifier, it is possible to easily cope with scale-out and scalability. It leads to securing of.

  In addition, since the determination process of the above-mentioned request destination server is an example, the specific content is “uniquely determine the server in charge of the event registration process for the user using an identifier unique to each user”. It can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the purpose. For example, a method different from the above-described numerical method such as a case where a user identifier different from the user ID such as a terminal ID is used or a predetermined function is used can be adopted.

  In addition, the other server in the small farm is determined with reference to the farm ID association table (FIG. 14). However, the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to determine dynamically as follows.

  When 2N servers are provided in the entire server farm, when the numerical value from “0” to “(N−1) + N” is assigned to each server as an identifier, the identifier of one server is “x”. Then, the identifier of the other server can be determined by the arithmetic expression “y = x + N”. For example, when “2N = 10” servers are provided in the entire server farm, when one server is “x = 3”, the other server can be determined as “y = 8”. . In this way, it is not necessary to prepare a table in which the combination of the two units is determined in advance, which is suitable for providing expandability.

  The present invention has been described above by the preferred embodiments of the present invention. While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. Obviously you can. In other words, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the details of the specific examples and the accompanying drawings.

  The event notification function providing system 3 of this embodiment can be used by a single service providing company that integrates and provides a plurality of services to users, but can also be used by different service providing companies. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to service providing companies that provide users with services on the Web, but can also be used in general companies that share information by using employees' business applications.

  Note that the gist of the present invention is to notify other APs of the occurrence of an event at one AP, and the processing on the AP side ahead can be left to each AP. . In this embodiment, each AP notifies the user of the occurrence of an event so that the user can know the occurrence of an event at another AP. For example, the user's behavior is analyzed. For example, it may be possible to provide an analysis result of an event occurrence state rather than notifying the occurrence of the event itself. For example, a time zone in which comments are easily attached to content in a certain AP is counted. Alternatively, the event occurrence status may be analyzed on the event notification function providing system 3 side, and the result may be provided to each AP.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 System 3 Event notification function provision system 5 Service provision server 7 User terminal 11 1st server 12 2nd server 13 DB server 14 Cache server 15 Event deletion means 16 Event storage means 31 Event reception means 32 Event registration means 33 Event reading means 34 Event notification means 35 Event deletion means 36 Event storage means 51 Input reception means 52 Input information processing means 53 Event transmission means 54 Event reference means 55 Event reception means 56 Event data provision means 70 Page screen 71 Event notification area 72 AP unit notification area 73 Content unit notification area 74 Event list notification area

Claims (3)

An event notification function providing system that has a server configuration for securing an occurrence order of events arbitrarily defined in an application on the web, and notifies the occurrence of an event between each application,
A first server that receives an occurrence of an event transmitted from a service providing server that manages each application together with a user identifier;
A second server for performing a sharing process among a plurality of servers in response to a request from the first server, and registering the event occurrence in a storage means in association with a user identifier,
The first server is
A request destination server is uniquely determined according to a user identifier, and when the request destination server cannot execute a registration process, a server that is paired with each other among the plurality of servers is referred to a predetermined table. An event notification function providing system that requests registration processing to the other server included in the set. Each of the plurality of servers is assigned a numerical value as an identifier in advance,
The first server is
The request server is uniquely determined from a numerical value obtained as a result of converting the user identifier into numerical information and performing predetermined arithmetic processing on the numerical information. Event notification function providing system. An operation method of an event notification function providing system that secures an event occurrence order arbitrarily defined in an application on the web and notifies an event occurrence between each application,
A first server receiving an occurrence of an event transmitted from a service providing server managing each application together with a user identifier;
A second server, in response to a request from the first server, performing a registration process in which the occurrence of the event is associated with a user identifier and registered in a storage unit in a shared manner among a plurality of servers;
When the first server uniquely determines the requested server according to the user identifier, and the requested server cannot execute the registration process, a server to be paired with each other is determined in advance. And a step of requesting a registration process to the other server included in the set with reference to the table, and an operation method of the event notification function providing system.

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