JP3447684B2 - Information mediation system and information mediation method for protocol conversion - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information mediation system that enables data transmission to a terminal using a general protocol and data transmission to an information storage / delivery server using a dedicated protocol other than the general protocol. And information mediation method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a server / client system using Internet technology, a WWW server, a mail server, a server for storing and distributing various information,
News servers are well known, but as data transmission protocols, different protocols such as HTTP for WWW servers, IMAP for mail servers, and NNTP for news servers are all adopted, so information is transmitted from all these servers. In order to communicate with each other, it is necessary to prepare a processing program that operates with each protocol in the terminal as a client.

[0003]

As described above, preparing a processing program for each protocol in a terminal not only creates waste in terms of cost and memory resources, but above all, uploads and downloads of information. Since different operations are required depending on the server, the ease of operation of the user in the information terminal is reduced. Also,
WWW as a processing program for WWW servers even for mobile phones, which have been spotlighted as new information terminals in recent years.
Since browsers are beginning to be installed, even if there is no problem in exchanging information with the WWW server, other protocols, that is, protocols other than HTTP, such as NNT, are used.
It is difficult to exchange information with a server that uses P. In view of the above situation, an object of the present invention is to provide HTTP.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technology capable of exchanging information with a server that can handle only a general-purpose protocol such as that described above, but with a server adopting a protocol such as NNTP or IMAP other than the general-purpose protocol.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, data can be transmitted to and from a terminal equipped with a WWW browser by using HTTP , and data can be transmitted to and from an information storage / delivery server by a dedicated protocol other than HTTP. The information mediating system according to the present invention that enables transmission is obtained from the information storage and distribution server based on a protocol conversion unit that performs protocol conversion between a plurality of different dedicated protocols and HTTP , and a download request from the terminal. Description format conversion for converting the specific information into a description format that can be displayed on the terminal, and for converting the specific information acquired from the terminal based on an upload request from the terminal into a description format that can be handled by the information storage / delivery server Section, a code conversion determining section that determines the necessity of code conversion when converting the description format, and the code conversion determining section. Provided a code conversion unit for transcoding at least some of the specific information based on the over-de conversion determination unit of the judgment result, the code conversion determining section before
The attached file is attached to the specific information from the information storage and delivery server.
Determines if it is included and the attachment is included
, The code converter is the part of the attached file.
Check the encoding format described in the header and conform
Decoding the attached file part
Decoding that can be decoded and displayed on the screen of the WWW browser
Create attached file

H with a terminal equipped with a WWW browser
An information mediating method according to the present invention that enables data transmission using TTP and data transmission with an information storage / delivery server using a dedicated protocol other than HTTP is a protocol between a plurality of different dedicated protocols and general-purpose protocols. A protocol conversion step for converting, and converting the specific information acquired from the information storage and delivery server into a description format displayable on the terminal based on a download request from the terminal, and based on an upload request from the terminal. A description format conversion step of converting the specific information acquired from the terminal into a description format that can be handled by the information storage / delivery server, a code conversion determination step of determining the necessity of code conversion during the description format conversion, and the code conversion determination At least a part of the specific information is coded based on the determination result of the department Including a code conversion step of conversion
Only the code conversion determination unit is the information storage / delivery server.
Whether the specific information from these users includes attachments
If it is judged and the attached file is included, the above code
The conversion part is described in the part header of the attached file
Check the encoding format and use a compatible decoding program
Decoding the attachment file part by the above WWW
Create an attachment file that can be displayed on the browser screen.

By adopting the information mediation technology according to the present invention as described above, even a terminal that can handle only a general-purpose protocol cannot use the protocol conversion function of the information mediation system to handle a dedicated protocol that cannot be handled by this terminal. It is possible to download and upload information from various information storage and distribution servers that have adopted.

In particular, when this terminal is equipped with a WWW browser, the general-purpose protocol is HTTP, and the information storage / delivery server is a news server for data transmission by NNTP or a mail server for data transmission by IMAP, This information mediation system is NNTP / H
It is a WWW server equipped with a TTP conversion function and an IMAP / HTTP conversion function, and a terminal can browse information from a news server or a mail server simply by accessing this WWW server using a WWW browser.

Of course, since the description format of the data handled by the information storage / delivery server such as a news server or mail server is not HTML, the information acquired from the information storage / delivery server is converted into HTML by the description format conversion unit. The HTML format information uploaded from the terminal is also converted by the description format conversion unit into a corresponding description format, for example, text format.

There is a case where a binary file is transferred between the news server or the mail server and the terminal. The existence of such a file is determined by the code conversion determining unit, and the binary file is converted by the code conversion unit into Base64.
It is encoded by the corresponding method such as or uuencode,
A text-formatted binary file, a so-called attachment file, is decoded by a corresponding method to be a binary file.

A typical example of the WWW browser terminal is a personal computer equipped with a WWW browser, but recently, a mobile phone having a WWW browser function and capable of accessing a WWW server has rapidly spread. WW installed in such mobile phones
Since the W browser does not support the full specification of HTML, but only supports at least a subset thereof, the full specification HTML cannot be completely displayed. In order to solve such a problem, in one of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, the accessing terminal is
A terminal specification unit for specifying whether the mobile phone with a WWW browser or the personal computer with a WWW browser is provided, and the description format conversion unit uses the description information suitable for the specified terminal to obtain the specific information acquired from the information storage / delivery server. It has a function to convert to. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments with reference to the drawings.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Information mediation system 1 according to the present invention.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an information browsing system using HTML which adopts 0. Here, by interposing the information intermediation system 10 including the WWW server unit 11 between the news server 1 that performs data transmission by NNTP and the mail server 2 that performs data transmission by IMAP,
A terminal such as a mobile phone 5 having a WWW browser or a personal computer 6 having a WWW browser is HTTP as a general-purpose protocol.
Thus, it becomes possible to exchange information with the news server 1 and the mail server 2.

The information mediation system 10 includes a WWW server unit 11, protocol conversion between NNTP and HTTP, and I conversion.
Since the protocol conversion unit 12 that performs the protocol conversion between MAP and HTTP is provided, the terminals 5 and 6 can send and browse news and mails only by the operation of browsing a predetermined page created by the WWW server unit 11. It can be performed.

Of course, since the description format handled by the WWW browser is HTML, and mail and news are basically plain text, the description format conversion unit 13 for converting such description format is provided. . Further, in order to handle a binary file transferred as an attached file by e-mail or the like, the binary file is encoded and converted into a text (ASCII) file as necessary, or the encoded attached file is decoded into a binary file. Therefore, the code conversion determination unit 14 and the code conversion unit 15 are provided.

The code conversion determination unit 14 is, for example, MIM.
The presence of the attached file (binary file) and its code format are checked from the E header, and if there is, an appropriate decoding program is activated in cooperation with the code conversion unit 15 to perform decoding. On the contrary, when the information to be transferred to the mail server includes a binary file that should be an attached file, an appropriate encoding program is started to convert it into a text file. For this reason, the code conversion unit 15 is provided with code conversion programs corresponding to various systems such as Base64, uuencode, and BinHex.

WWW server section 1 of information mediation system 10
1 and the personal computer 6 are connected via the Internet 3, and the mobile phone 5 is connected using a network topology which is connected to the Internet 3 via a gateway 4a of the mobile phone network 4. Also,
The connection between the information mediation system 10 and the information storage / delivery server such as the news server 1 and the mail server 2 is NNT.
It is performed by the communication unit 16 including the P communication program and the IMAP communication program, but the network topology between them may be the LAN 7 form as shown in the figure, or may be the form connected by the Internet or a dedicated line. It may be. In particular, if only the WWW server unit 11 is opened to the Internet and the news server 1 and the mail server 2 are placed in the firewall, it is convenient for security.

The client management unit 17 manages the information of the terminal itself or the user who is using the terminal, and the code name and password of the user who receives this information browsing service, and the login name for the registered mail server and news server. Check password, password, and terminal type. As a result, when the information intermediary system 10 accesses the news server 1 or the mail server 2, it can act as the user of the requesting terminals 5 and 6, and the accessing terminal is the mobile phone of the company A. The telephone 5 is an HTML (for example, CH which can be properly processed by the WWW browser installed in the mobile phone of the company A).
HTM that is compatible with the mobile phone of company B
The description format conversion unit 13 can be instructed to convert to L (for example, Handheld Device Markup Language).

Next, the operation of the information browsing system using this HTML will be described. FIG. 2 is a sequence schematic diagram when downloading information from the mail server 2 to the terminals 5 and 6. From mail server 2 to information mediation system 1
The MIME standard mail data distributed by IMAP 0 includes a mail header, a document part, an attached file part, a part header for the document part, and a part header for the attached file. The mail data received by the communication unit 16 is the code conversion determination unit 14,
Check the "content type" in the email header area to see if there is an attached file.

[0018] If an attachment is present, check the encoding format code conversion unit 15 is described in the part header of the attached file, decode the attachment part by matching record program to create the attachment. Here, the attached file "XYZ.JPG" is created. The document part part is also converted into a Japanese document file based on the Japanese conversion format that is also used. Here, a text file called "ABC.txt" has been created.

Next, the description format converter 13 creates an HTML document from the above two files. At that time, the attached file may be linked by an anchor, or may be directly attached to the same page as the document. Of course, an attached file such as an application is HTML-documented in a link format. The created HTML document is delivered by HTTP to the terminals 5 and 6 by the WWW server unit 11 and displayed on the WWW browser screen of the terminals 5 and 6.

FIG. 3 is a sequence schematic diagram when uploading information from the terminals 5 and 6 to the mail server 2.
When the user sends an email, the information mediation system 10
The WWW server unit 11 sends the HTTP mail transmission page described in HTML. While looking at the screen of the mail transmission page displayed by the WWW browser installed on the terminals 5 and 6, the user writes the address, subject, mail body, etc. as mail information, and the attached file (here, JPEG image file) If so, specify the reference destination of the file on the local desk and press the send button.

Regarding the mail information and the attached file transmitted to the WWW server unit 11, the description format conversion unit 13 converts the mail information into a text file and the attached file into a binary file , but the code conversion determination unit 14 converts the binary file into a binary file. Since the binary file is encoded by the code conversion unit 15 into a text file, the address and subject of the mail information and the contents of the attached file are arranged in the mail header according to the MIME standard. The body of the email is in the document part,
Binary file (JPEG)
(Image file) is placed in the attachment part.

The created mail data is converted into transmission data by IMAP by the protocol conversion unit, and the communication unit 16
Is accessed from the client management unit 17, accesses the mail server 2 desired by this user, logs in as this user, and is then uploaded.

Here, the description has been made by taking the exchange with the mail server 2 using IMAP as an example, but the exchange with the news server 1 using NTTP can be performed in the same manner, and another protocol is used. The present invention can be applied to electronic conference servers and the like.

By adopting the information mediation system 10 according to the present invention as described above, a user can interoperate all information of NNTP and IMAP protocols on HTTP. This means that the user can receive and send Internet mails and net news at any time in the usual way of surfing the Internet as long as they have terminals 5 and 6 equipped with a WWW browser. This means that not only can programs for Internet mail and programs for net news be omitted from the terminal, but also operability can be unified in exchanging information via the Internet or Intranet, especially for operating specifications such as mobile phones. This is a great advantage for terminals that have limited

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an information browsing system that employs an information mediation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a sequence when downloading information from a mail server to a terminal.

[Fig. 3] Schematic sequence diagram when uploading information from a terminal to a mail server

[Explanation of symbols]

1 News server 2 mail server 3 Internet Mobile phone (terminal) with 5 WWW browser 6 WWW browser-equipped personal computer (terminal) 10 Information mediation system 11 WWW server section 12 Protocol converter 13 Description format converter 14 Code conversion judgment section 15 Code converter 17 Client Management Department

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A communication between a terminal equipped with a WWW browser and H
To allow data transmission with TTP, in the information mediation system that enables data transmission in a dedicated protocol other than HTTP between the information storage distribution server, protocol conversion for performing protocol conversion between the dedicated protocols and HTTP a plurality of different Part, and the specific information acquired from the information storage and delivery server based on a download request from the terminal is converted into a description format that can be displayed on the terminal, and acquired from the terminal based on an upload request from the terminal. A description format conversion unit that converts specific information into a description format that can be handled by the information storage and distribution server, a code conversion determination unit that determines the need for code conversion when converting the description format, and a determination result of the code conversion determination unit. A code conversion unit that performs code conversion of at least a part of the specific information based on
Is provided, and the code conversion determination unit is provided from the information storage / delivery server.
Determine if the specific information includes an attachment
If the attached file is included, the code conversion
Part that is described in the part header of the attached file
Check the code format and use a compatible decoding program.
The attached file part is decoded and the WWW
An information mediation system that performs protocol conversion characterized by creating an attachment file that can be displayed on the user's screen . 2. The additional information included in the specific information from the terminal.
The attached file is converted into a binary file by the description format conversion unit.
The binary file is converted to
It is encoded by the conversion unit and converted into a text file.
The protocol conversion according to claim 1, characterized in that
Information mediation system to do. The 3. Before SL information storage distribution server, a news server for performing data transmission in NNTP, according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it contains the mail server for transmitting data in IMAP An information mediation system that performs protocol conversion. 4. The terminal is a WWW browser-equipped mobile phone and a WWW browser-equipped personal computer, and is provided with a terminal identification unit that identifies the type of the terminal that requested download, and the description format conversion unit is an information storage / delivery server. The information mediation system for performing protocol conversion according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the specific information acquired from (3) is converted into a description format suitable for the specified terminal. 5. An H terminal is provided between the terminal equipped with a WWW browser.
An information mediation method that enables data transmission using TTP and data transmission with an information storage / delivery server using a dedicated protocol other than HTTP , and is a protocol that performs protocol conversion between a plurality of different dedicated protocols and general-purpose protocols. Converting step, converting the specific information acquired from the information storing and delivering server based on a download request from the terminal into a description format displayable on the terminal, and acquiring from the terminal based on an upload request from the terminal A description format conversion step of converting the specified information into a description format that can be handled by the information storage / delivery server, a code conversion determination step of determining the necessity of code conversion during the description format conversion, and a determination result of the code conversion determination unit. Transcode at least a part of the specific information based on That the code conversion step, only contains the code conversion determination unit from the information storage distribution server
Determine if the specific information includes an attachment
If the attached file is included, the code conversion
Part that is described in the part header of the attached file
Check the code format and use a compatible decoding program.
The attached file part is decoded and the WWW
An information mediation method characterized by creating an attached file that can be displayed on the user's screen . 6. The additional information included in the specific information from the terminal.
The attached file is converted into a binary file by the description format conversion unit.
The binary file is converted to
It is encoded by the conversion unit and converted into a text file.
The information mediation method according to claim 5, wherein