JP2013058065A - Control method of control device, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a reduction in effort related to development of objects that depend on a device in a device control program.SOLUTION: A host computer 10 in which objects operate under an operating system 12 includes: a printer CO21 that provides a POS application program 11 with an interface for each type of device; a printer SO22 that executes a process by a device unit while providing the printer CO21 with the interface for each type of device; and a wrapper SO30 that executes the process of at least a part of a method called by the printer CO21 instead of the printer SO22 and, when the printer CO21 calls other method, calls a method of the printer SO22 while calling the method of the printer SO22 on the basis of a result of the process having been executed.

Description

  The present invention relates to a control method for a control device that controls a device such as a printer, and a program.

Component-based programs or software (hereinafter referred to as objects) based on object-oriented programming are reusable software that runs on an operating system, and various systems have been developed using objects. For example, provided by Microsoft (registered trademark). An operating system (OS) based on the NET Framework is an operating system having a wide range of functions for providing an environment in which an application program (container application) as a client can use an object.
For example, the POS system is one of the systems assembled by a wide variety of peripheral devices, and various input devices such as displays, printers, scanners, drawers, card readers are connected to a central host computer such as a personal computer. Thus, a system is constructed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 discloses a POS system constructed using an object and having a flexible configuration based on a personal computer.

  In an object distributed POS system, a POS application program provided by various manufacturers, a control object supplied to a type unit (device class unit) of peripheral devices (devices) such as a printer, a scanner, and a drawer, and a peripheral device Service objects supplied for each device, that is, for each device. For example, when the POS application program outputs from the printer, the data is passed to the printer control object (CO), and further passed to the service object (SO) corresponding to the manufacturer and model of the printer to be output, via the OS. Supplied to the printer.

In the OPOS (OLE for Retail POS) system, an object control system including a control object and a service object for each device class that conforms to the OPOS standard specifications provides a standardized interface for an application program. In addition to providing an interface that does not depend on the model for peripheral devices such as printers. When the application program calls a method defined for each device class, the control object calls a service object method via an interface independent of the device model (for example, Microsoft IDispatch interface). The service object executes a request by using a device driver for each device provided by the OS, and notifies the execution result as an event to the application program through the control object.
The control object has a detailed specification for each device class of the peripheral device and is substantially standardized by the OPOS specification, but one service object is developed in accordance with the specification of each device.

JP-A-9-106355

By the way, when changing device specifications or developing new models, it is natural to develop service objects that are compatible with the device after the change. Developing a new service object to deal with everything requires a lot of effort.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to reduce the labor involved in developing a device-dependent object in a device control program.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a first object that provides an interface for each type of device to an application program capable of controlling a plurality of types of devices, and a device of the device for the first object. A second object that provides an interface for each type and executes the device-based processing, and these objects operate under the operating system. , At least a part of the methods called by the first object is processed instead of the second object, and the method of the second object is called based on the result after execution, while the first object When the other method calls another method And it said to call the method of the object.
According to the present invention, the control device that controls the device based on the data output from the application program executes processing by the third object when a part of the method that is not supported by the second object is called. it can. As a result, even if all methods of the second object are not compatible with the device, the device can be controlled using the second object. Accordingly, it is easy to change or extend a part of the function of the second object. For example, when the entire second object is not newly created for changing the device specifications or developing a new model, for example, A necessary system can be constructed using the assets of the two objects.

In the control method of the control device according to the present invention, the third object is called by the first object via the interface provided by the second object to the first object. The second method is executed, and the method of the second object is called through the interface.
According to the present invention, the second object can be complemented so as not to affect the configuration of the second object and the first object.

In the control method of the control device according to the present invention, the first object is a control object provided for each type of device of the personal computer, and the second object is a service provided for each device. It is an object.
According to the present invention, for example, when changing the specifications of a device or developing a new model device, the compatibility of the control object corresponding to the type of the device is ensured, and the function of the service object prepared for each device is complemented. By doing so, the assets of the old service object can be used.

In the control method of the control device according to the present invention, the application program is a POS application program, and the first object and the second object control a printer in response to a request of the POS application program. Configured as an object, the third object performs conversion from the predetermined character code set to another character code set when the first object calls a print method of the predetermined character code set; The print method of the second object is called based on the character code set after conversion.
According to the present invention, even if the second object does not have a character code conversion function, the third object complements this conversion function, so that the character code that the second object does not support. Can process set data.
In the control method of the control device according to the present invention, the predetermined character code set is indicated by Unicode, and the other character code set is indicated by byte code.
When a character designated by Unicode is sent from an application, if the printer as a device does not support Unicode, the third object can be converted into byte code and printed.

According to the present invention, in the control method of the control device, the first object is configured as an OPOS-compliant control object, and the interface provided by the second object to the first object is an IDispatch interface. And the third object provides an IDispatch interface to the first object, while calling a method of the second object via the IDispatch interface of the second object.
According to the present invention, the function of a service object compliant with OPOS can be complemented without affecting the control object compliant with OPOS.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a first object that provides an interface for each device type to an application program capable of controlling a plurality of types of devices, and the first object includes the first object. The second object that provides an interface for each type of device and that executes the process for each device is operated under an operating system, and at least some of the methods that the first object calls are the second object. When a process is executed by the third object in place of the object, and the method of the second object is called based on the result after execution, the second object is called when the first object calls another method. Characterized by calling object methods That.
By executing the control method of the present invention, the control device that controls the device based on the data output from the application program causes the third method to be executed when a part of the method that is not supported by the second object is called. Processing can be executed by object. As a result, even if all methods of the second object are not compatible with the device, the device can be controlled using the second object. Accordingly, it is easy to change or extend a part of the function of the second object. For example, when the entire second object is not newly created for changing the device specifications or developing a new model, for example, A necessary system can be constructed using the assets of the two objects.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of computers that execute, under an operating system, an application program that can control a plurality of types of devices and an object that provides an interface for the application program. A first object that provides an interface for each type of device to an application program that can control a type of device, an interface for each type of device for the first object, and processing for each device The second object that executes the process and at least some of the methods that the first object invokes execute processing on behalf of the second object, and based on the result after execution, execute the second object method. While calling the head, when the first object calls the other method is characterized in that to function as a third object to invoke a method of the second object.
By executing the program of the present invention, the control device that controls the device based on the data output from the application program causes the third object to be called when a part of the method that is not supported by the second object is called. The process can be executed. As a result, even if all methods of the second object are not compatible with the device, the device can be controlled using the second object. Accordingly, it is easy to change or extend a part of the function of the second object. For example, when the entire second object is not newly created for changing the device specifications or developing a new model, for example, A necessary system can be constructed using the assets of the two objects.
Further, the present invention may be realized as a storage medium storing the above program.

  According to the present invention, in a control device that controls a device based on data output from an application program, for example, a legacy object can be stored without newly creating an entire object for device specification change, new model development, etc. Use it to build the necessary system.

It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the POS system which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of an OPOS driver. It is a figure which shows the specific operation example of an OPOS driver. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of a POS system.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a POS system 1 according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.
The POS system 1 includes a host computer 10 (control device) connected to a POS server (not shown) via a communication line. The host computer 10 includes a display 51, a keyboard 52, a printer 53, a scanner 54, and a drawer 55. Various devices are connected.
The host computer 10 is installed near the printer 53 in a store such as a supermarket or a convenience store, where a user performs accounting processing, and issues a receipt based on input information related to product sales input by an operator. The printer 53 is a local printer that is directly connected to the host computer 10 and is connected to the printer 53 by wire or wirelessly through an interface, and FIG. 1 shows an example in which the printer 53 is wire-connected via a connector. The host computer 10 controls one or a plurality of printers 53 for printing coupons to be handed over to customers, vouchers for cooking instructions in the kitchen, and the like, based on the print data generated by the host computer 10, receipts and vouchers. Print out.

The host computer 10 includes a keyboard 52 and a scanner 54 as input devices for inputting merchandise information, and acquires input information related to merchandise based on an input from the keyboard 52 or a barcode reading result of the merchandise from the scanner 54. A POS server (not shown) extracts and returns information on a product code, a product name, and a price from the product master based on input information transmitted by the host computer 10.
The host computer 10 executes printing of receipts and slips based on information received from the POS server. Further, the host computer 10 has a display 51 for displaying product information generated based on product data transmitted from the POS server, and displays the price of the purchased product to the customer by the display on the display 51. . The drawer 55 accommodates money exchanged with the sale of merchandise and is opened and closed each time an accounting process is performed by the host computer 10.

  The host computer 10 is provided by, for example, Microsoft Corporation. An operating system 12 such as Windows (registered trademark) based on the NET Framework is executed, and the POS application program 11 and the OPOS driver 20 are operated on the operating system 12. The OPOS driver 20 is a printer driver OLE for Retail POS (hereinafter referred to as “OPOS driver”) that runs on the operating system 12, and controls various devices on the operating system 12.

  The OPOS driver 20 provides a POS application program 11 running on the operating system 12 with a model-independent interface with each device of the printer 53, the scanner 54, and the drawer 55, and is a device such as a printer. The control object (CO) corresponding to each category and the service object (SO) corresponding to the specification for each device model. The control object is created in conformity with the specification standardized by OPOS, and is usually provided as a part of the POS system platform together with the operating system 12.

  On the other hand, the service object is developed and created for each model of the printer 53, the scanner 54, and the drawer 55, and is provided by the manufacturer of each device. The service object has different functions and specifications depending on the model of each device, and performs control according to the characteristics of each device model. For example, the printer CO 21 provides a common interface to devices belonging to the device category of the printer to the POS application program 11 according to the classification by the operating system 12. The printer CO21 (first object) calls a method of the printer SO22 based on the data output from the POS application program 11 by a method compliant with the OPOS specification. The printer SO22 (first object) is created so as to be compatible with the model of the printer 53, executes a process when a method is called by the printer CO21, controls the printer 53, and notifies the printer CO21 of the processing result as an event. To do.

The OPOS driver 20 includes a scanner CO41 corresponding to the device category of the scanner 54 and a scanner SO42 prepared corresponding to the model of the scanner 54, thereby enabling control of the scanner 54 and reading of a barcode. Yes. The OPOS driver 20 includes a drawer CO43 corresponding to the device category of the drawer 55 and a drawer SO44 prepared corresponding to the model of the drawer 55, and enables opening / closing control of the drawer SO44. The display 51 and the keyboard 52 can be controlled from the POS application program 11 by a device driver provided by the operating system 12.
The host computer 10 may include a card reader that reads magnetic information recorded on a card-type recording medium as an input device. In this case, the OPOS driver 20 controls the control object corresponding to the device category of the card reader. And a service object corresponding to the model of the card reader.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing in detail the conceptual configuration of the OPOS driver 20.
As shown in FIG. 2, the printer SO22 provides an IDispatch interface 23 as an interface for receiving method calls and data from the printer CO21. Various processes related to the control of the printer 53 realized by the printer SO22 are classified according to processing types (functions), and there are methods 24 corresponding to the respective functions. In addition, an IDispatch interface 23 corresponding to them is provided. The IDispatch interface is an interface provided by Microsoft for communication between objects. For example, when the printer CO21 executes the function B of the printer SO22, the method 24 including the function B is called and activated via the IDispatch interface 23 corresponding to the method 24.

Incidentally, since the printer SO22 includes the method 24 corresponding to various functions of the printer 53, the configuration of the printer SO22 becomes more complicated as the functions and setting items of the printer 53 become more complicated. For example, it is not uncommon for a service object corresponding to a general thermal printer to correspond to more than 100 methods.
When developing a new printer model or changing the specifications of a conventional model, it is also necessary to develop a printer SO22. For example, only a part of the functions may be changed or added to the printer SO22 used conventionally. There is a case. However, the printer SO22 needs to have each function, and the configuration of the IDispatch interface 23 needs to be consistent with the function of the printer SO22. As described above, the printer CO21 uses a common printer for each device category.
Therefore, the OPOS driver 20 of this embodiment includes a wrapper SO30 (third object) in addition to the printer CO21 and the printer SO22, and is configured to complement the function of the printer SO22 by this wrapper SO30.

The wrapper SO30 is interposed between the printer CO21 and the printer SO22, and detects a call to the IDispatch interface 23 provided by the printer SO22 to the printer CO21. Here, the wrapper SO30 includes an IDispatch interface 31 that is identified to the printer CO21 in the same manner as the IDispatch interface 23. When the printer CO21 calls a method of the printer SO22, the wrapper SO30 is called via the IDispatch interface 31. It is.
The wrapper SO30 has a method 32 related to a specific function. This method 32 corresponds to a function that the printer SO22 does not have or a function that is an improvement, extension, or change of the function of the printer SO22. The wrapper SO30 determines whether the method 32 of the wrapper SO30 itself controls the call from the printer CO21 or the method 24 of the printer SO22. Then, if the processing should be performed by the method 24 of the printer SO 22, a call from the printer CO 21 is made to the IDispatch interface 23. When an event is notified from the method of the printer SO22, the wrapper SO30 notifies the printer CO21 of the event via the IDispatch interface 31. Further, the wrapper SO30 has a function of notifying the result to the printer CO21 as an event when the method 32 of the wrapper SO30 is executed.

  As described above, the wrapper SO30 executes the method instead of the printer SO22 when a method that should not be executed by the printer SO22 is called. By using the wrapper SO30, the function of the printer SO22 is added. , Expansion, modification, etc. can be realized. Further, since the wrapper SO30 includes an IDispatch interface 31 and behaves like a part of the printer SO22 from the printer CO21, there is an advantage that the wrapper SO30 can be applied without changing or modifying the specifications of the printer CO21.

3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating a specific operation example of the OPOS driver 20, in which FIG. 3A illustrates a case where the wrapper SO30 calls a method of the printer SO22, and FIG. 3B illustrates a case where the method of the wrapper SO30 is called. .
As shown in FIG. 3A, when the POS application program 11 calls the “PrintNormal” method together with the character data composed of the data specifying the code page, the printer CO21 sends “PrintNormal” to the printer SO22. Make a method call. The data output by the POS application program 11 is information for designating characters from the font data built in the printer 53, and the form of this data is information for designating a code page. A single font can be obtained and printed based on this. In this case, the wrapper SO30 determines that this call can be executed by the printer SO22, calls the “PrintNormal” method of the printer SO22, and controls the printer 53.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3B, when the POS application program 11 calls the “PrintNormal” method together with the data specifying characters in Unicode, and the printer CO21 calls the “PrintNormal” method of the printer SO22, The wrapper SO30 determines that this call cannot be executed by the printer SO22, and calls a method 32 that performs MBCS (Multibyte Character Set) / Unicode conversion provided in the wrapper SO30. This is because the printer 53 and the printer SO22 do not support Unicode, and therefore printing cannot be performed even if the method of the printer SO22 is called. The wrapper SO30 converts the character code set of the data output from the POS application program 11 by the called method, generates multibyte code character data, and calls the “PrintNormal” method of the printer SO22 based on this data. Thus, printing is executed under the control of the printer SO22.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the POS system 1.
Referring to FIG. 4, the operation flow of the POS system 1 is summarized. When the POS application program 11 calls data to be printed and the “PrintNormal” method for executing printing (step S11), the printer CO21 A method is called (step S12).
The wrapper SO30 determines whether the method called by the printer CO21 is called to the printer SO22 or is executed by the method 32 of the wrapper SO30 itself (step S13). When the wrapper SO30 itself executes (step S13; Yes) ), The method 32 is called to perform processing, and the method 24 of the printer SO22 is called based on the processed data (step S14). When the method of the wrapper SO30 itself is not executed (step S13; No), the method 24 of the printer SO22 is called (step S16).
Thereafter, the printer SO22 controls the printer 53 to execute printing (step S15), notifies an event indicating the normal end of printing, and ends this processing.

  As described above, the POS system 1 according to the embodiment to which the present invention is applied includes the printer CO 21 that provides an interface for each device type to the POS application program 11 that can control a plurality of types of devices including the printer 53. A printer SO22 that provides an interface for each device type to the printer CO21 and executes processing for each device, and the host computer 10 in which these objects operate under the operating system 12 is at least called by the printer CO21. For some methods, processing is executed in place of the printer SO22, and the method of the printer SO22 is called based on the result after execution, while when the printer CO21 calls another method, the processing is executed. Having a wrapper SO30 invoking methods on centers SO22, performs processing by the wrapper SO30 if some methods that printer SO22 does not support is called. As a result, even if all methods of the printer SO22 are not compatible with the device, the device can be controlled using the printer SO22. Accordingly, since it is easy to change or extend a part of the functions of the printer SO22, for example, the assets of the old printer SO22 can be saved without newly creating the entire printer SO22 when changing the device specifications or developing a new model. Use it to build the necessary system.

  Further, since the wrapper SO30 intervenes in the interface provided by the printer SO22 to the printer CO21 and executes the method called by the printer CO21 and calls the method of the printer SO22 via the interface, the wrapper SO22 and the printer CO21 The printer SO22 can be complemented so as not to affect the configuration. Here, since the printer CO21 is a control object provided for each type of device of the personal computer, and the printer SO22 is a service object provided for each device, for example, when changing the specifications of the device or developing a new model device. The asset of the old service object can be used by ensuring the compatibility with the control object corresponding to the type of the device and complementing the function of the service object prepared for each device.

Also, the printer CO21 and the printer SO22 are configured as objects that control the printer in response to a request from the POS application program 11, and the wrapper SO30 is a predetermined object when the printer CO21 calls a print method of a predetermined character code set. Since conversion from a character code set to another character code set is performed and the print method of the printer SO22 is called based on the converted character code set, even if the printer SO22 does not have a character code conversion function, By supplementing the conversion function by the wrapper SO30, it is possible to process data of a character code set not supported by the printer SO22.
Further, the printer CO21 is configured as an OPOS-compliant control object, the interface provided by the printer SO22 to the printer CO21 is configured as an IDispatch interface, and the wrapper SO30 provides an IDispatch interface to the printer CO21, while the printer SO22 has an IDispatch interface. Since the method of the printer SO22 is called through the interface, the function of the service object compliant with OPOS can be complemented without affecting the control object compliant with OPOS.

Each of the above embodiments shows a specific example to which the present invention is applied, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the devices included in the POS system 1 are not limited to the display 51, the keyboard 52, the printer 53, the scanner 54, and the drawer 55, and other devices can be used. For example, the host computer 10 includes a plurality of printers. It is also possible to apply the present invention to execute printing by controlling 53. In the above-described embodiment, the configuration in which the wrapper SO30 is provided to supplement the function of the printer SO22 that controls the printer 53 has been described as an example. However, for example, the functions of the scanner SO42 and the drawer SO44 are expanded and changed. It is also possible to provide a wrapper SO corresponding to the scanner 54 and the drawer 55.
Furthermore, the present invention can be applied to an object that provides an interface for all application programs executed on the operating system 12, and the application program is not limited to a POS application program, and is a control target. This device is not particularly limited as described above.

  Moreover, each function part shown in FIGS. 1-3 shows a functional structure, Comprising: It is not necessary to comprise each function part with the independent hardware, and several by cooperation with software and hardware. It is of course possible to realize the functions of these functional units in a single piece of hardware, or to implement a single functional unit with a plurality of hardware. In addition, the program executed by the host computer 10 that performs the above-described operation is not limited to the configuration stored in the nonvolatile storage device such as the ROM that configures the host computer 10, and is a configuration stored in a portable recording medium. Alternatively, the program may be stored in a downloadable manner in other devices connected via a communication line, and the host computer 10 may download and execute the program from these devices. It can be changed arbitrarily.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... POS system, 10 ... Host computer (control apparatus), 11 ... POS application program, 12 ... Operating system, 20 ... OPOS driver, 21 ... Printer CO (first object), 22 ... Printer SO (second object) ), 23 ... IDispatch interface 23, 24 ... method, 30 ... wrapper SO (third object), 31 ... IDispatch interface, 32 ... method, 41 ... scanner CO, 42 ... scanner SO, 43 ... drawer CO, 44 ... drawer SO, 53 ... printer (device), 54 ... scanner (device), 55 ... drawer (device).

Claims (7)

A first object that provides an interface for each type of device to an application program that can control a plurality of types of devices, an interface for each type of device to the first object, and a device unit And a second object that executes processing, and these objects operate under the operating system.
While the third object executes processing on behalf of the second object for at least some of the methods that the first object calls, and calls the method of the second object based on the result after execution, Calling a method of the second object when the first object calls another method;
A control method for a control device.   The third object executes a method called by the first object via the interface provided by the second object to the first object, and executes the method called by the first object. The control method of the control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the method of the second object is called.   3. The first object is a control object provided for each device type of a personal computer, and the second object is a service object provided for each device. Control method of the control device. The application program is a POS application program,
The first object and the second object are configured as objects that control a printer in response to a request from the POS application program,
The third object performs conversion from the predetermined character code set to another character code set when the first object calls a print method of a predetermined character code set, and converts the converted character code. The control method of the control device according to claim 1, wherein a print method of the second object is called based on the set.   5. The control by the control device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined character code set is represented by Unicode, and the other character code set is represented by a byte code. Method. The first object is configured as an OPOS compliant control object, and the interface provided by the second object to the first object is configured as an IDispatch interface;
The third object provides an IDispatch interface to the first object, and calls a method of the second object through the IDispatch interface of the second object. 6. A control method for a control device according to claim 5. A computer that executes, under an operating system, an application program that can control a plurality of types of devices and an object that provides an interface to the application program;
A first object that provides an interface for each device type to an application program capable of controlling a plurality of types of devices;
A second object that provides an interface for each type of device to the first object, and executes the process in units of devices;
For at least some of the methods called by the first object, processing is executed on behalf of the second object, and the method of the second object is called based on the result after execution, while the first object A third object that calls a method of the second object if another method is called;
A program characterized by making it function.

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