JP2013097745A - Software development kit, extended application for image forming apparatus created by using the same, and portable terminal device including the application - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a software development kit capable of efficiently coordinating a native library and a plurality of types of intermediate language programs, an extended application for an image forming apparatus created by using the software development kit, and a portable terminal device including the application.SOLUTION: A native library 120 that is common to a first intermediate language and a second intermediate language is used from a user application of the first language or the second language respectively via a first wrapper class 121 or a second wrapper class 122.

Description

  The present invention relates to a software development kit that uses a native library common to a plurality of kinds of intermediate languages, an extended application for an image forming apparatus created using the same, and a portable terminal device including the application.

  To ensure security, it is generally prohibited to bring a private computer into the company.

  However, with the widespread use of smartphones, business processes are becoming more efficient by removing this prohibition under certain conditions.

  Smartphones such as iPhone (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark), and Windows Phone (registered trademark) use different platforms and programming languages, which causes a long application development period for multiple types of smartphones.

  On the other hand, although a smartphone is inferior in terms of CPU capability and memory capacity compared to a desktop computer, it needs to process an image having a relatively large data size, and therefore requires high-speed processing. In order to meet this requirement, a C language that is close to machine language and independent of the platform is used.

  However, since the C language is a low-level language, when the native library is developed using this and the application is developed, the period becomes longer. For this reason, the C language is used only for portions where high-speed processing is required.

  Native libraries created and compiled in C language are linked with intermediate language programs created and compiled in Java (registered trademark) and C # using Java Native Interface (JNI) and Common Language Infrastructure (C ++). Can be made. This also applies to a native library created and compiled in the C ++ language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Native_Interface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B/CLI

  However, in the past, the linkage between Java (registered trademark) and C / C ++ and the linkage between C # and C / C ++ were performed independently, so the development and improvement of the native library was delayed, As a result, development and improvement of multiple types of smartphone applications have been delayed.

  In view of such problems, the object of the present invention is to provide a software development kit capable of efficiently linking a native library and a plurality of types of intermediate language programs, and an image forming apparatus created using the software development kit An object of the present invention is to provide an extended application and a portable terminal device provided with the application.

In the first aspect of the software development kit according to the present invention,
A native library with multiple native functions or methods as native subroutines;
For each of the plurality of native subroutines, in response to the function call described in the first intermediate language, the type of each argument of the function call code described in the first intermediate language corresponds to the native subroutine. Calling the native subroutine by converting it to the type of the argument, converting the return value type of the native subroutine to the corresponding type of the first intermediate language, and the function caller described in the first intermediate language A first wrapper class with a type conversion method to return to
For each of the plurality of native subroutines, in response to the function call described in the second intermediate language, the type of each argument of the function call code described in the second intermediate language corresponds to the native subroutine. Calling the native subroutine after converting it to the argument type, converting the return value type of the native subroutine to the corresponding type of the second intermediate language, and the function caller described in the second intermediate language And a second wrapper class having a type conversion method to be returned to (2), and the native library, the first wrapper class, and the second wrapper class are provided as intermediate language extension libraries.

In a second aspect of the software development kit according to the present invention, in the first aspect,
The first intermediate language is a C # intermediate language, and the second intermediate language is a Java (registered trademark) intermediate language.

  According to a third aspect of the software development kit of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the software development kit is for user application development of a portable terminal.

  According to the configuration of the first aspect, a common native library can be used from a plurality of types of intermediate languages via the respective wrapper classes, so the native library and the programs of the plurality of types of intermediate languages can be used. There is an effect that the cooperation can be efficiently performed.

  In addition, there is an effect that each programmer of a plurality of languages can use the native library as an extension library of each of the plurality of languages without being aware of the native code.

  Furthermore, since the native library can be used in common for a plurality of types of languages, according to the configuration of the third aspect, the development and improvement of the application of the mobile terminal in which each of the plurality of types of languages is selectively used is delayed. There is an effect that it can be prevented.

  Other objects, characteristic configurations and effects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description read in connection with the appended claims and the drawings.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming system using a plurality of cloud services according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hierarchical structure of the image forming apparatus in FIG. 1. It is a block diagram which shows the hierarchical structure of the smart phone in FIG. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of PC in FIG. It is a schematic functional block diagram in the case of using this PC as a software development apparatus. (A) and (B) are schematic block diagrams of a control module for the first and second platforms and a wrapper API on the lower side thereof, respectively. It is a schematic flowchart which shows the process by the type conversion method contained in the wrapper class in FIG. 6 (A). (A) is a schematic flowchart which shows the control module preparation procedure for 1st platforms, (B) is explanatory drawing of step S10 in (A). (A) is a schematic flowchart which shows the control module preparation procedure for 2nd platforms, (B) is explanatory drawing of the process of (A).

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming system using a plurality of cloud services according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In this system, an image forming apparatus 11, a personal computer (PC) 12 as a user terminal, and a wireless LAN access point 13 are coupled to an intranet 10, and a smartphone 14 is coupled to the intranet 10 via the access point 13. Is done. This intranet 10 is coupled to the Internet 20 via a router (not shown). A plurality of clouds 21 to 23 are coupled to the Internet 20. In addition, a base station 24 is coupled to the Internet 20, and the smartphones 14 and 25 are coupled to the intranet 10 via the base station 24.

  The plurality of clouds 21 to 23 can provide cloud services 31 to 33 to various client terminals, respectively.

  The user installs an extended application on the PC 12, the smartphones 14 and 25, and the like, and as a Web service, basic services such as copying, printing, and facsimile of the image forming apparatus 11, cloud services 31 to 33, and these services are provided. Can be executed, the setting information of the image forming apparatus 11 can be acquired, and the setting can be changed.

  In FIG. 1, for simplification, a plurality of PC terminals are represented by one PC 12, a plurality of portable terminals for the access point 13 are represented by one smartphone 14, and a plurality of portable terminals for the base station 24 are represented by one. It is represented by the smartphone 25.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hierarchical structure of the image forming apparatus 11.

  The image forming apparatus 11 includes a scanner 40, a printer 41, a FAX 42, an operation panel 43 and a network interface (NIC) 44 as hardware, and can perform basic input / output control via the platform 50. ing.

  The platform 50 performs the control, manages the power supply, and communicates with a protocol such as TCP / IP, various device drivers below the OS, and Java (registered trademark) on the OS. ) A virtual machine (class library) such as VM or CLR (Common Language Runtime) and a standard library are provided.

  The control module 51 is an extension class library and can control each piece of hardware in units of functions via the API 52 of the platform 50. The basic application 53 can control the hardware 40 to 44 in logical function units such as copy, print, and facsimile via the API 54 of the control module 51.

  The setting information for the hardware 40 to 44 is stored in the setting information database 55 by the control module 51 in response to the operation on the operation panel 43, and the stored setting information is in response to the operation on the operation panel 43. The information is displayed on the operation panel 43 by the control module 51.

  The system management unit 56 performs user authentication and authorization processing, error management, and power saving management via the API 52 or API 54.

  A service request from the PC 12 or the smartphone 14 or 25 to the image forming apparatus 11 is transmitted to the web service provider 57 via the NIC 44 and the platform 50, and the web service provider 57 sends the basic application 53 via the API 58 in response to the request. Operate, read out the setting information from the setting information database 55 via the API 54 or change the setting of the setting information database 55, and return those results.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a hierarchical structure of the smartphone 14.

  The smartphone 14 includes a camera 60, a tilt sensor 61, a Bluetooth communication unit 62, an operation panel 63, a communication adapter 64, and the like as hardware, and an antenna 65 is coupled to the communication adapter 64. Input / output control can be performed.

  The platform 70 performs the control, manages the power supply, and communicates with a protocol such as TCP / IP, various device drivers under the OS, a virtual machine on the OS, and a standard library. I have.

  The control module 71 is an extension class library and can control each piece of hardware in units of functions via the API 72 of the platform 70. The basic application 73 includes a browser, a video player, an address book, and the like, and can control the hardware 60 to 64 in units of logical functions via the API 74 of the control module 71.

  The setting information for the hardware 60 to 64 is stored in the setting information database 75 by the control module 71 in response to the operation of the operation panel 63, and the stored setting information is in response to the operation of the operation panel 63. The information is displayed on the operation panel 63 by the control module 71.

  The system management unit 76 performs user authentication and authorization processing, error management, and power saving management via the API 72 or 74.

  In response to an operation on the operation panel 63, the Web client 77 transmits a request to the URL using the HTTP protocol via the API 72, and causes the operation panel 63 to display the returned content.

  The extended application (user application) 78 executes a combination of single or plural functions via the API 79 of the basic application 73, reads the setting information in the setting information database 75 via the API 74, and displays the setting information on the operation panel 63. The setting information in the setting information database 75 is changed.

  The Web service interface 7A includes a service proxy for calling a Web service like an internal method, a serializer that converts the method call to XML at the time of transmission, and a deserializer that converts XML to the return value of the method at the time of reception. I have.

  The extended application 78 also makes a request to the web service provider 57 of the image forming apparatus 11 or the services 31 to 33 of the clouds 21 to 23 via the web service interface 7A and the web client 77, and the result is sent to the web client 77 and The content is received via the Web service interface 7A and the content is displayed on the operation panel 63.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the PC 12. FIG. 5 is a schematic functional block diagram when the PC 12 is used as a software development apparatus.

  In the host computer PC 12, a CPU 91 is coupled to a memory 93, an auxiliary storage device 94, an interactive input / output device 95 and a network interface 96 via an interface 92. In FIG. 4, a plurality of types of interfaces are represented by one block 92 for the sake of simplicity.

  The memory interface 92 includes, for example, a flash memory storing a BIOS and a DRAM used as a main storage device. The auxiliary storage device 94 stores an OS, various device drivers, a library, and a virtual machine as a platform (PF), and further stores a software development kit (SDK). Network interface 96 is coupled to intranet 10.

  This software development device supports the development of the extended application 78 in FIG. 3, includes a native library, enables high-speed processing on a smartphone, and enables any one of a plurality of platforms. It is possible to develop an extended application 78 for the installed smartphone, and it is possible to select a programming language corresponding to multiple languages.

  In FIG. 5, the components 72A, 171, 173 to 176, and 179 correspond to the components 72, 71, 73 to 76, and 79 in FIG. These constituent elements 72A, 171, 173 to 176, and 179 need only include portions necessary for developing the extended application 78 among the corresponding constituent elements in FIG. The wrapper API 172 looks the same as the API 72 by wrapping the API 110.

  The PC 12 includes a text editor 100, a designer 101, a debugger 102, and a builder 103, and an application development integrated management unit that performs a process for calling one of these in response to a user operation, a project generation process, and the like, as in a normal SDK. 104.

  The designer 101 is for supporting application development of the screen design of the operation panel 63, and automatically generates a program based on interactive visual design.

  The builder 103 includes compilers corresponding to a plurality of languages, for example, C #, C ++, C, and Java (registered trademark).

  The source code of the extended application 78 is created in a C # or Java (registered trademark) language more efficiently than C / C ++. This source code is translated into an intermediate language by a corresponding compiler in the builder 103. This intermediate language is interpreted and executed under the J # (Just In Time) compilation or execution under the C # runtime or Java runtime in the platform. Each of the C # runtime and the Java runtime includes a CLR (Common Language Execution Environment) and a JVM (Java Virtual Machine).

  Here, the control module 171 shown in FIG. 5 includes a class library for high-speed processing of application-level communication, images, and the like, which compiles C or C ++ source code as shown in FIG. A native library 120 and wrapper APIs 121 and 122 obtained by compiling source codes of wrapper classes of C # and Java (registered trademark) in order to be compatible with multiple languages.

  The C # wrapper API 121 allows a part of the intermediate code of the extended application 78 to call a C function or C ++ class method (native subroutine) in the native library 120 as a method of an instance of a C # class. And a type conversion method for converting the signature of the C # method into the signature of the C function or native C ++ class method (native subroutine) in the native library 120.

  A part of the intermediate code of the extended application 78 calls a native subroutine through this type conversion method.

  FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart showing processing in this type conversion method.

  (S0) The argument type included in the C # method call code (signature) is converted into the argument type of the corresponding native subroutine in the native library 120.

  (S1) The native subroutine is called using this argument. Thereby, the native subroutine is executed and a return value is generated.

  (S3) This return value type is converted into the corresponding type of the method caller (the return value type of the signature) and returned to the method caller.

  The wrapper API 121 includes one or a plurality of classes (class library) including such type conversion methods and essential ones for language specification conversion such as a constructor and a destructor for performing memory management based on C # specifications. ).

  The wrapper class 122 for Java is the same as the wrapper API 121 for C #.

  The C # wrapper class 121 and the Java wrapper class 122 are generated using the corresponding language in the wrapper class generation tool. That is, the wrapper class generation tool includes a tool that generates a C # wrapper class 120 using C ++ / CLR and a tool that generates a Java wrapper class 1211 based on JNI.

  The native library 120 is a specific platform 70 (PL1) OS or / and library, e.g. It is created using the standard library of the NET framework. The wrapper API 172 is for allowing the platform 70 to be regarded as PL1 when viewed from the native library 120.

  The PC 12 also includes a control module 171A as shown in FIG.

  The control module 171A includes a native library 120A having the same function as the native library 120, a C # wrapper API 121, and a Java (registered trademark) wrapper API 122. These wrapper API 121 and API 122 are shared with those of the control module 171. .

  The native library 120A is created using an OS or / and library of another platform 70 (PL2), for example, a class library of Linux (registered trademark). The wrapper API 172A is for allowing the platform 70 to be regarded as PL2 when viewed from the native library 120A.

  In order to enable the sharing, the signature of each method in the native library 120A is the same as that of the native library 120. That is, the difference between the native libraries 120 and 120A in the C or C ++ source code is which API of the platforms PL1 and PL2 is used and its peripheral part, and the others are the same.

  FIG. 8A is a schematic flowchart showing a procedure for creating the control module 171.

  (S10) The native library 120 for the platform PL1 is created. The native library 120 uses, for example, API1 to API3 in the wrapper API 172 (class library) as shown in FIG. 8B.

  (S11) A wrapper class library for each language, that is, a wrapper API 121 and a wrapper API 122 are created.

  FIG. 9A is a schematic flowchart showing a procedure for creating the control module 171A.

  (S20) A native library 120A for the platform PL2 is created. As shown in FIG. 9B, the native library 120A uses, for example, API1A to API3A in the wrapper API 172A.

  The wrapper API 121 and API 122 have already been created and are shared with those of the control module 171 and need not be further created.

  Returning to FIG. 5, the PC 12 further includes a simulator 105 corresponding to the hardware of the smartphone 14. The input device 950 and the display device 951 constitute the interactive input / output device 95 in FIG. In FIG. 5, the components other than the extended application 78 and the service proxy in the Web service interface 7A are provided in advance as a development environment.

  According to the first embodiment, the common native library 120 can be used from the extended application 78 of any of a plurality of languages via the corresponding wrapper API 121 or 122. There is an effect that it is possible to efficiently cooperate with various intermediate language programs.

  Further, there is an effect that each programmer of a plurality of languages can use the native library 120 as an extension library for each intermediate language of the plurality of languages without being aware of the native code.

  In addition, since the native library 120 can be used in common with a plurality of languages, it is possible to prevent delays in development and improvement of a smartphone application in which each of the plurality of languages is selectively used. Play.

  In the above, preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, the present invention includes various modifications, and other configurations that realize the functions of the respective components described in the above embodiments are used. However, other configurations that would be conceived by those skilled in the art from these configurations or functions are also included in the present invention.

  For example, the wrapper API 120, 122 may be part of the API 174. In other words, the wrapper API 120, 122 may be used as part of the API 174.

  The object-oriented language compiled into the intermediate language may be other than the above. The native library may be created using part or all of the assembly language.

10 Intranet 11 Image forming device 12 PC
13 Access Point 14, 25 Smartphone 20 Internet 21-23 Cloud 24 Base Station 31-33 Cloud Service 40 Scanner 41 Printer 42 FAX
43 Operation panel 44 NIC
50, 70, 110, PL1, PL2 Platform 51, 71, 171 Control module 52, 54, 58, 72, 74, 79, 174, 179 API
53, 73, 173 Basic application 55, 75, 175 Setting information database 56, 76, 176 System management unit 57 Web service provider 60 Camera 61 Tilt sensor 62 Bluetooth communication unit 63 Operation panel 64 Communication adapter 65 Antenna 72A, 172, 172A, 121, 122 wrapper API
77 Web client 78, 78A Extended application 7A, 7B Web service interface 91 CPU
92 Interface 93 Memory 94 Auxiliary Storage 95 Interactive Input / Output Device 96 Network Interface 100 Text Editor 101 Designer 102 Debugger 103 Builder 104 Application Development Integrated Management Unit 105 Smartphone Hardware Simulator 120, 120A Native Library

Claims (5)

A native library with multiple native functions or methods as native subroutines;
For each of the plurality of native subroutines, in response to the function call described in the first intermediate language, the type of each argument of the function call code described in the first intermediate language corresponds to the native subroutine. Calling the native subroutine by converting it to the type of the argument, converting the return value type of the native subroutine to the corresponding type of the first intermediate language, and the function caller described in the first intermediate language A first wrapper class with a type conversion method to return to
For each of the plurality of native subroutines, in response to the function call described in the second intermediate language, the type of each argument of the function call code described in the second intermediate language corresponds to the native subroutine. Calling the native subroutine after converting it to the argument type, converting the return value type of the native subroutine to the corresponding type of the second intermediate language, and the function caller described in the second intermediate language A second wrapper class with a type conversion method to return to
A software development kit comprising the native library, the first wrapper class, and the second wrapper class as an extension library for an intermediate language.   The software development kit according to claim 1, wherein the first intermediate language is an intermediate language of C #, and the second intermediate language is an intermediate language of Java (registered trademark).   The software development kit according to claim 1, wherein the software development kit is used for developing a user application for a portable terminal.   An extended application for an image forming apparatus, which is created using the software development kit according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   5. A portable terminal device in which the extended application for an image forming apparatus according to claim 4 is installed.

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