JP3052790B2 - Collaborative work system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooperative work system having an exclusive control management device for processing shared data in real time between terminals on a computer network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a collaborative work system in which a plurality of terminals refer to and update the same data in real time, in a collaborative work system in which a meeting or a meeting is performed, it has been conventionally possible to prevent processing conflicts when processing requests are issued simultaneously. Had been a problem. In order to solve this problem, in the conventional collaborative work system, (1) Only one terminal that can issue an execution request is prevented from issuing a request from another terminal.

(2) When execution requests are issued from a plurality of terminals at the same time, only the execution request of the earliest terminal is permitted. In this way, processing conflicts were prevented.

[0004]

However, in the above-described method, another process cannot be performed until one process is completed, regardless of the content of the requested process, resulting in a loss of real-time performance in the joint work. Further, in (2), there is a problem in each terminal that it is not known whether or not the requested processing can be executed until the request is made. In addition, there has been a problem in that sharing work is hindered by personal work.

[0005] The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. It is possible to execute a plurality of request processes in parallel at the maximum, and to preliminarily determine in advance a process that can or cannot be performed in each terminal. The purpose is to make them understand.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a cooperative work system according to the present invention is characterized in that an exclusive control management device of a central control unit requests processing when a plurality of terminals perform cooperative work. , A management element conversion unit that breaks down the requested processing into exclusive control management elements that are units for managing exclusive control, and exclusive control that holds the currently executing process as an exclusive control management element A management table, an update management unit that manages updates of the exclusive control management table, and an exclusive control unit that compares the exclusive control management element input from the management element conversion unit and the exclusive control management element input from the update management unit to determine whether execution is possible. A control determination unit and a determination result output unit that outputs the output of the exclusive control determination unit to an appropriate output destination. Each terminal has an exclusive control management device at each terminal, and the processing to be executed is reflected on other terminals. Let Is reflected in the sharing process or another terminal should
Require at least personal work such as printing materials
An execution process determining unit that determines whether the process is a personal process that performs a process based on the process, and transmits the process to the exclusive control management device of the central control unit if the process is a shared process, and transmits the process to the exclusive control management device of the terminal itself if the process is a personal process. It is provided.

The joint work system according to the present invention also includes an update processing element conversion unit for converting the updated exclusive control management element into a list of related processing in accordance with the update of the exclusive control management table. An update processing transmission unit for transmitting to the terminal is provided, and each terminal is further provided with an exclusive control processing display unit for receiving and displaying a processing list transmitted by the update processing transmission unit.

[0008]

In the joint work system of the present invention, each terminal transmits an updated exclusive control management element to a central control unit or a terminal that manages exclusive control of shared work in accordance with a change in the exclusive control management table. Has a personal information transmission unit,
Further, in the central control unit or a terminal that manages exclusive control of shared work, the exclusive control management table includes a personal information management table that manages personal work of each terminal, and receives personal information transmitted by the personal information transmission unit. It has a personal information receiving unit that outputs a command for updating the contents of the personal information management table to the update management unit.

[0010]

According to the present invention, a plurality of processes are executed in parallel as much as possible in order to decompose a requested process into exclusive control management elements and compare them with an exclusive control management element for a process currently being executed. be able to.

According to the present invention, since the update of the exclusive control management table is converted into a list of related processes and transmitted to each terminal, the currently executable or impossible process can be grasped in real time by each terminal.

The present invention also determines whether the process requested to be executed is a shared process or a private process and transmits the process to the corresponding exclusive control management device. Exclusive control can be managed in the same way as.

According to the present invention, since the contents of the personal exclusive control of each terminal are combined in the shared exclusive control management table, the conflict between the shared work and the personal work can be prevented.

[0014]

【Example】

Embodiment 1 Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a collaborative work system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 101, 102, and 103 are terminals, 104 is a central control unit for adjusting and controlling execution requests of each terminal, 105 to 107 are components of the central control unit 104, and 105 is a component of the central control unit. A transmission / reception unit for exchanging instructions; 106, an exclusive control management device for performing exclusive control by receiving an execution instruction from the transmission / reception unit 105; 107, a process execution unit for executing processing of the central control unit; 108, a processing request input unit for inputting a processing request; 109, a management element conversion unit for decomposing the processing request into an exclusive control management element serving as a unit for managing exclusive control; An exclusive control management table held as a control management element; 111, an update management unit that manages updates of the exclusive control management table 110;
Reference numeral 12 denotes an exclusive control determination unit that determines exclusive control by the exclusive control management element output from the management element conversion unit 109 and the update management unit 111. Reference numeral 113 denotes an output result of the exclusive control determination unit 112, the transmission / reception unit 105 or the process execution unit 107. This is a determination result output unit that outputs the result.

The operation of the above-structured collaborative work system from the input of each processing request to the output of a judgment will be described below.

Now, as a model of a collaborative work system, a material consisting of a plurality of pages is browsed jointly by a plurality of terminals,
Consider a system that updates the contents. It is assumed that the pages are linked and managed in order from the first page. The materials to be shared are collectively managed by the central control unit.

First, processing requests from the terminals 101, 102 and 103 are transmitted to the transmission / reception unit 105 of the central control unit 104, and those processing requests are passed to the processing request input unit 108 of the exclusive control management unit 106. The processing request input unit 108 sends those processing requests to the management element conversion unit 109 in the order of input. The management element conversion unit 109 decomposes the input processing request into exclusive control management elements and sends them to the exclusive control determination unit 112. In the exclusive control determination unit 112, the management element conversion unit 109
Then, the exclusive control management element input from the above is compared with the current exclusive control management element held in the exclusive control management table 110, and it is determined whether or not the requested processing can be executed. As a result, when it is determined that it is executable,
The update management unit 11 transmits to the determination result output unit 113 the fact that the process is executable, and registers the exclusive control management element corresponding to the process in the exclusive control management table 110.
Command to 1.

When it is determined that the requested process cannot be executed due to the effect of the process currently being executed, it notifies the determination result output unit 113 that the process cannot be executed. The determination result output unit 113 outputs to the transmission / reception unit 105 or the process execution unit 107 based on the input determination result.

FIG. 2 shows the operation of the management element conversion unit 109 of FIG.
It is a conversion example when converting to 02. Here, the exclusive control management element is changed to the target processing element 2 which is the element of the processing to be executed.
03, and is converted as a prohibition processing element 204 which is an element whose execution should be prohibited when the processing is executed.

In this embodiment, exclusive control management elements are
Define DISP, PICKUP, INSERT, PDATA. Where DIS
P (a) displays page a, PICKUP (a) removes page a from the list, INSERT (ab) inserts a page between page a and page b, PDATA (a) a Indicates that the data in the page is to be updated. That is, the fact that the target processing element is PICKUP (3) means that the processing takes out three pages from the list,
The fact that the prohibition processing element is INSERT (2-3) means that inserting a page between the second and third pages is prohibited.

For example, as a processing request, “3 pages to 6
If "move to the end of page" is input, the management element conversion unit will use PICKUP (3) and INSERT as target processing elements.
(6-7), PICKUP (2,3,4,6,7) and INSE as prohibition processing elements
Convert to RT (2-3,3-4,6-7).

In this embodiment, the exclusive control management elements as described above are used. However, it goes without saying that these elements vary depending on the system configuration and data structure.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the exclusive control management device in the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the flow of processing will be described with reference to FIG. 3, particularly focusing on the state of the exclusive control management table (FIG. 4).

First, it is assumed that nothing is registered in the exclusive control management table as shown in FIG. At this time, when a processing request of “move page 3 after page 6” is input (FIG. 3-302), the management element conversion unit converts the management request into an exclusive control management element as shown in FIG. 2-205. (FIG. 3-303). The converted exclusive control management element is passed to the exclusive control determining unit. The exclusive control determination unit,
The input exclusive control management element is compared with the contents of the exclusive control management table (FIG. 4-401), and it is determined whether the process can be executed (FIG. 3-304). In this case, since nothing is registered in the exclusive control management table, the determination result becomes executable.

Next, if the result of the determination is feasible, the exclusive control determining unit registers the requested exclusive control management element in the exclusive control management table (FIG. 3-305). As a result, the exclusive control management table has the contents shown in FIG. 4-402.

In this state, "5 page deletion" is continued.
When the processing request is input, the management element conversion unit similarly converts the processing request into an exclusive control management element as shown in FIG. In the exclusive control determination unit, the input exclusive control management element (FIG. 2-20)
6) and the contents of the current exclusive control management table (FIG. 4-4).
02). At this time, in the exclusive control determination unit, the target processing element of the input exclusive control management element and the prohibition processing element of the exclusive control management table, the prohibition processing element of the input exclusive control management element and the target processing element of the exclusive control management table Are compared with each other to determine whether or not there is an overlapping portion.

In this case, since there is no overlapping portion, it is determined that the process can be executed, and the content of the exclusive control management table is updated as in the previous case. Here, the exclusive control management table is as shown in FIG. 4-403.

Further, in this state, "copy 7 pages to 3
When a processing request "Insert after page" is entered,
Similar to the above, it is converted into an exclusive control management element as shown in FIG. 2-207 and sent to the exclusive control determination unit. In this case as well, it is determined whether the process can be executed. In this case, INSERT (3-4) of the target processing element of the input exclusive control management element
Is INSERT (3-
Since it is the same as 4), it is determined that the process cannot be executed.

After that, when the processing for the above-mentioned request of “move page 3 to page 6” is completed, the corresponding exclusive control element is removed from the exclusive control table, and as a result, exclusive control The contents of the table are
The result is shown in FIG. In this case, since the above-described determination result of “insert a copy of page 7 after page 3” becomes executable, processing can be performed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by determining whether or not a process can be executed by the exclusive control management device, it is possible to prevent conflicts between processes and to execute a plurality of processes in parallel at the maximum. And the efficiency of the collaborative work can be increased.

(Embodiment 2) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, 501, 502, 503 are terminals, 504, 505,
Reference numeral 506 denotes an exclusive control process display unit provided in each terminal for inputting and displaying a list of processes related to the current exclusive control.
7 is a central control unit, 508 is a transmission / reception unit for exchanging commands with the terminal, 509 is an exclusive control management device, 510 is a processing execution unit that executes processing of the central control unit, and 511 is a processing request input unit that inputs a processing request Reference numeral 512 denotes a management element conversion unit that decomposes a processing request into an exclusive control management element that is a unit for managing exclusive control. Reference numeral 513 denotes an exclusive control management table that holds a process being executed as an exclusive control management element. Reference numeral 514 denotes exclusive control management. An update management unit that manages updates of the table 513;
Reference numeral 15 denotes an exclusive control determination unit that determines exclusive control based on the exclusive control management element output from the management element conversion unit 512 and the update management unit 513, and 516 transmits the output result of the exclusive control determination unit 515 to the transmission / reception unit 508 or the processing execution unit 510. The determination result output unit 517 that is output to the transmission / reception unit 508 converts the updated exclusive control management element into a list of related processes when the exclusive control management table 513 is updated.

The difference from the configuration of FIG. 1 is that the central control unit
An update processing conversion section 517 for receiving an update of the exclusive control management table and converting it to related processing and outputting the processing is added thereto, and an exclusive control processing display section for inputting and displaying the processing related to the current exclusive control to each terminal. 504, 505, and 506 are added.

The operation of the collaborative work system configured as described above will be described below. First, the terminal 501
Are transmitted to the transmission / reception unit 508 of the central control unit 507, and those processing requests are passed to the processing request input unit 511 of the exclusive control management device 509. The processing request input unit 511 sends those processing requests to the management element conversion unit 512 in the order of input. The management element conversion unit 512 decomposes the input processing request into exclusive control management elements and sends them to the exclusive control determination unit 515. The exclusive control determination unit 515 compares the exclusive control management element input from the management element conversion unit 512 with the current exclusive control management element held in the exclusive control management table 513, and determines whether the requested processing can be executed. Judge whether or not. As a result, when it is determined that the process is executable, the fact that the process is executable is transmitted to the determination result output unit 516, and the exclusive control management element corresponding to the process is updated to be registered in the exclusive control management table 513. An instruction is issued to the management unit 514.

If it is determined that the requested process cannot be executed due to the effect of the process currently being executed, it notifies the determination result output unit 516 that the process cannot be executed. The determination result output unit 516 outputs to the transmission / reception unit 508 or the processing execution unit 510 based on the input determination result.

The operation up to this point is the same as in the first embodiment. The difference is that thereafter, the update processing conversion unit 517 receives the update of the exclusion control management table 513, extracts related processing from the updated exclusion control management element, and transmits it to each terminal as a list. The control processing display sections 504, 505, and 506 display the contents of the processing list described above.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4-401, when nothing is registered in the exclusive control management table,
When a processing request of “move page 3 to page 6” is input, the exclusive control management table has the contents shown in FIG. 4-402 as described above. At this time, the update processing conversion unit performs processing corresponding to the prohibited processing element as
As shown in FIG. 6-601, a process whose execution is prohibited is extracted and output as a list. Further, each terminal receives the above-mentioned processing list, and in the exclusive control processing display unit,
It is displayed as shown in Fig. 7-701. In this case, since the purpose of the display is to inform each terminal of the currently executable and impossible processes, the display method is not described.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by displaying the processing related to the update of the exclusive control management table on each terminal, it is possible for each terminal to understand the processing that is currently executable and the processing that cannot be performed. It becomes possible.

(Embodiment 3) Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 8, reference numerals 801 and 811 denote terminals. Each terminal determines whether the requested process is a shared process that should be reflected on other terminals or a personal process that should not be reflected, and determines the transmission destination of the process request. Processing determination units 802 and 812, exclusive control management devices 803 and 813 for managing exclusive control of personal work, and a personal information transmission unit 804 for transmitting the updated content of the exclusive control management table of the own terminal to the central control unit; 814.

Reference numeral 821 denotes a central control unit; 822, a transmission / reception unit for exchanging commands with the terminal; 823, an exclusive control management device; 824, a processing execution unit for executing the processing of the central control unit; The personal information receiving unit instructs the update of the exclusive control management table in response to the information update.

Here, the difference from the first embodiment is that
The difference is that an execution processing determination unit, an exclusive control management device, and a personal information transmission unit are added to each terminal, and a personal information reception unit is added to the central control unit.

The operation of the cooperative work system configured as described above will be described below. In each terminal, the execution processing determination units 802 and 812 determine whether the requested processing is related to shared work or personal work. Further, the processing request is transmitted to the central control unit in the case of shared processing, and to the exclusive control management device of the terminal in the case of personal processing.

For example, when the terminal 801 issues a processing request of “move 3 pages behind 6 pages”, the request is a shared work request, and is sent to the central control unit 821. Is determined to be a personal work request, and transmitted to the exclusive control management device 803 of the terminal itself. In this case, "print two pages"
The processing request is converted into an exclusive control management element by the management element conversion unit 806 in the same manner as in the first and second embodiments, and is determined to be executable by the exclusive control determination unit 809. If there is, the exclusive control management table 807 is updated. When the exclusive control management table 807 is updated, the personal information transmitting unit 804 transmits the updated contents to the central control unit.

In the central control unit, a personal information update command is issued from the personal information receiving unit 825 to the exclusive control management unit 829, and the personal information management table of the exclusive control management table 828 is updated.

FIG. 9 shows the state of the exclusive control management table of the central control unit in this embodiment. The exclusive control management table holds the content of the exclusive control for each terminal in addition to the table for managing the shared exclusive control.
For example, as described above, the terminal 801 sets “3 pages to 6
When the processing requests of “move to the end of page” and “print one page” are successively executed, the exclusive control management table of the central control unit is in the state shown in FIG. 9-901.

In this state, subsequently, the terminal 802 sets “1”
When a processing request of “delete page” is transmitted, the job can be executed by exclusive control for the shared work.
It is determined that the exclusive control of the personal work cannot be executed. In this case, the terminal 802 can be notified that the request for “deleting one page” can be executed, and the terminal 801 can be notified that the current personal work conflicts with the shared work. . In addition, here, when the shared work and the personal work conflict, a notice is sent to the terminal that is executing the personal work, but how to behave in such a case is a problem. do not do.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, an exclusive control management device that manages exclusive control of personal work in each terminal, determines whether the requested process is a shared process or a personal process, and In the case of the processing described above, the execution processing determination unit transmits the result to the central control unit of the own terminal, and in the case of personal processing, the execution processing determination unit transmits the update content of the exclusive control management table of the terminal itself to the central control unit. Equipped with an information transmission unit, the central control unit holds the exclusive control status of personal work of each terminal,
A mechanism for preventing conflict between shared work and personal work can be created, and conflict between personal works in each terminal can be prevented.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of terminals
By converting a process requested when performing a work process into an exclusive control management element and managing it, a plurality of processes can be executed in parallel as much as possible.

According to the present invention, since the update of the exclusive control management table is converted into related processing and transmitted to each terminal, the currently executable or impossible processing can be grasped in real time by each terminal.

The present invention also determines whether the process requested to be executed is a shared process or a personal process, and transmits the process to the corresponding exclusive control management device. Exclusive control can be managed in the same way as.

According to the present invention, since the contents of the personal exclusive control of each terminal are combined in the shared exclusive control management table, the conflict between the shared work and the personal work can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a joint work system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a conversion example of a management element conversion unit according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process performed by an exclusive control management device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an example of a state of an exclusive control management table according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a collaborative work system according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a conversion example of an update processing conversion unit according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of an exclusive control processing display unit according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a collaborative work system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a state of an exclusive control management table according to the third embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 terminal 102 terminal 103 terminal 104 central control unit 105 transmission / reception unit 106 exclusive control management device 107 processing execution unit 108 processing request input unit 109 management element conversion unit 110 exclusive control management table 111 update management unit 112 exclusive control determination unit 113 determination result output Unit 501 terminal 502 terminal 503 terminal 504 exclusive control processing display unit 505 exclusive control processing display unit 506 exclusive control processing display unit 507 central control unit 508 transmission / reception unit 509 exclusive control management device 510 processing execution unit 511 processing request input unit 512 management element conversion Unit 513 exclusive control management table 514 update management unit 515 exclusive control determination unit 516 determination result output unit 517 update processing conversion unit 801 terminal 811 terminal 802 execution processing determination unit 812 execution processing determination unit 803 exclusive control management device 813 Exclusive control management device 804 Personal information transmission unit 814 Personal information transmission unit 805 Processing request input unit 815 Processing request input unit 806 Management element conversion unit 816 Management element conversion unit 807 Exclusive control management table 817 Exclusive control management table 808 Update management unit 818 Update Management unit 809 exclusive control determination unit 819 exclusive control determination unit 810 determination result output unit 820 determination result output unit 821 central control unit 822 transmission / reception unit 823 exclusive control management device 824 processing execution unit 825 personal information reception unit 826 processing request input unit 827 management Element conversion unit 828 Exclusive control management table 829 Update management unit 830 Exclusive control determination unit 831 Determination result output unit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor, Isao Isogai 1006, Kazuma, Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-6-12310 (JP, A) JP-A-2- 227748 (JP, A) JP-A-62-140159 (JP, A) JP-A-4-111151 (JP, A) JP-A-5-233336 (JP, A) JP-A-5-204677 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 9/46 G06F 12/00 G06F 15/00 G06F 15/16 G06F 17/21

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A central control unit comprising a plurality of terminals and one central control unit, wherein the central control unit comprises an exclusive control management device, a processing execution unit, and a transmission / reception unit for exchanging commands with the terminal. The control management device is configured to input a processing request input unit that inputs a processing request when a plurality of terminals perform a joint work process, and to input a processing request output by the processing request input unit,
A management element conversion unit that converts an exclusive control management element that is a unit for managing exclusive control, an exclusive control management table that holds a process currently being executed as an exclusive control management element, and updates the exclusive control management table. An update management unit and an exclusive control management element output by the management element conversion unit are input, the exclusive control management elements managed by the update management unit are compared, and it is determined whether the corresponding process can be executed. An exclusive control determining unit that issues an instruction to update the exclusive control management table to the update managing unit in accordance with, and a determination result output unit that outputs the determination of the exclusive control determining unit to a process execution unit or a transmitting and receiving unit, Each terminal has an exclusive control management device in each terminal, and the processing to be executed is a shared processing to be reflected in other terminals, or the other end.
Process based on personal work requests that are not reflected
Determine the Hare personal treatment, characterized in that it comprises the execution determination unit that transmits shared if the processing of the central control unit to the exclusive control management device, the process to the exclusive control management device of the terminal if the personal treatment And collaborative work system. 2. A management element conversion unit for extracting a target processing element that is an exclusive control management element to be executed, and an exclusive control management element to be prohibited in order to execute a requested process. A prohibition processing element extraction unit that extracts a prohibition processing element that is:
2. The cooperative work system according to claim 1, further comprising a target processing element management table for holding a current target processing element and a prohibited processing element management table for holding a current prohibited processing element. 3. An update processing conversion unit, which, when the exclusive control management table is updated, converts the updated exclusive control management element into a list of related processes, and outputs the list to a transmission / reception unit. The collaboration system according to claim 1, wherein each terminal includes an exclusive control process display unit that receives and displays a process list transmitted by the transmission / reception unit. 4. Each terminal has a personal information transmitting unit for transmitting an exclusive control management element updated in accordance with a change in the exclusive control management table to a central control unit, and the central control unit further includes a personal information transmitting unit. A personal information management table for managing the personal work of each terminal; receiving the personal information; and setting the personal information when the personal work conflicts with the shared work.
A personal information receiving unit that outputs to the update management unit an instruction to update the content of the personal information management table for notifying a terminal that is in the process of processing that a conflict has occurred. Collaborative work system. 5. The central control unit includes an update process conversion unit that converts an exclusive control element that has been updated into a list of related processes and outputs the list to a transmission / reception unit when the exclusive control management table is updated. The terminal includes an exclusive control process display unit that receives and displays a process list transmitted by the transmission / reception unit, and a list of processes related to the updated exclusive control management element with the update of the exclusive control management table of the terminal. 5. The collaborative work system according to claim 4, further comprising a personal update processing conversion unit that converts the data into an exclusive control processing display unit. 6. The cooperative work system according to claim 1, comprising only a plurality of terminals, wherein one of the terminals (main terminal) manages the exclusive control of the shared work. 7. An update processing conversion unit for converting an updated exclusive control management element into a list of related processing in accordance with the update of the exclusive control management table, and a processing list output by the update processing conversion unit 7. The collaborative work system according to claim 6, further comprising: an update processing transmission unit that transmits the processing list to each terminal; and each terminal further includes an exclusive control processing display unit that receives and displays a processing list transmitted by the update processing transmission unit. 8. An exclusive control management device according to claim 1, comprising only a plurality of terminals, wherein one of the terminals (main terminal) manages exclusive control of shared work. Having the exclusive control management device according to claim 1,
Individuals whose processing is to be shared or not reflected on other terminals
To determine whether the process is a personal process in which the process is performed based on a request for private work, and if the process is a shared process, the process is transmitted to the exclusive control management device of the main terminal. A collaborative work system including a processing judgment unit.