JP4382006B2 - Mediation apparatus, communication system, communication method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an intermediary device that mediates communication between a server and a plurality of clients, a communication system including such an intermediary device, the server, and the plurality of clients, a communication method using such an intermediary device, The present invention relates to a program for causing a computer to function as such an intermediary device, and a computer-readable recording medium on which such a program is recorded.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a communication system in which communication devices are connected via a network, communication devices are exchanged with each other so that a communication partner device is notified or requested. In such a system, a command is transmitted as an operation request from one device to another device to execute the operation, and an operation execution result is returned from the transmission partner as an operation response.

Such a technique is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1, in which a remote processor transmits a message indicating a command to be executed to a local processor and receives a response to the command. Is described.
Also, in this document, when a local processor is arranged inside a firewall, a communication request is transmitted from the local processor to a remote processor outside the firewall, and the remote processor sends a response to the communication request to the local processor. A technique is also disclosed in which a command can be transmitted from the outside to the inside of the firewall by transmitting the command.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-273211

In addition, the technology related to the operation request can be applied to a system that remotely controls the operation of the device connected to the communication device. Patent Document 2 discloses a remote operation system for operating a blind and illumination by transmitting a command from a remote operation device having a function of accepting an operation from a user to a remotely operated device having a function of operating a blind and illumination. An example in which such a technique is applied is described. However, this document does not indicate that a response to the command is transmitted.
JP 2002-135858 A

By the way, when a client requests some operation from the server, the client transmits a command as an operation request to the server and receives a response to the command as an operation response from the server. .
However, when such a process is adopted, if it takes time to execute the process related to the command in the server, and if no response is returned until the process is completed, the server receives the command normally on the client side. Cannot determine whether or not When there is no response for a certain period of time, it is common to perform error processing by timing out the command.

  Therefore, in order to prevent command timeout, the server function is to return a reception notification indicating that a command from the client is received immediately, and then send the execution result to the client again after the processing is completed. It is conceivable to adopt a method of providing. However, when a protocol such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is adopted for communication, if the client is inside the firewall, the server cannot normally request communication from the client. Therefore, in order to transmit the execution result to the client, the client is requested to communicate with the server, and the execution result is described in a response to the communication request and returned to the client.

  For this reason, from the perspective of the client, it is necessary to periodically establish a connection by requesting communication with the server in order to obtain the execution result after sending the command. It is necessary to request communication from the server as frequently. Accordingly, there is a problem that the number of communication requests increases and communication traffic and processing load increase as a whole, compared with a method of simply receiving an execution result as a response when an operation request is transmitted. When the number of clients is large, the communication traffic due to the communication request for obtaining the execution result is an amount that cannot be ignored.

  At present, there are still many environments in which communication via a network is performed by dial-up connection. In such an environment, an increase in the number of communication requests is particularly problematic. In such an environment, it may take several tens of seconds to establish a connection, and a fee will be charged each time a connection is established, so increasing the number of connection establishments will increase costs. is there.

  The present invention solves such a problem, and when a client provided inside a firewall transmits an operation request to a server outside the firewall and receives an operation response to the operation request, the server requests the operation request. An object of the present invention is to make it possible to avoid time-out of an operation request while suppressing communication traffic necessary for transferring an operation response from the server to the client even when the corresponding processing requires time.

In order to achieve the above object, an intermediary device of the present invention stores an operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request in the intermediary device that mediates communication between a server and a plurality of clients. First storage means, second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request, and receiving an operation request from each client and storing it in the first storage means Read out the operation request to be transmitted to the server from the first receiving means and the first storage means, read out the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server from the second storage means, when a first transmission means for transmitting the operation request and the operation response to the server, the first transmission means has access to the server, at the server, sent to the far When there anything that could be transmittable state in the operation response and operation request from the server to any of the operation request comprises a second receiving means for receiving the operation response and operation request, the The operation response received by the first receiving unit is stored in the first storage unit in association with the corresponding operation request, and the operation request received by the first receiving unit is stored in the second storage unit. The second storing means for reading out the operation response to be sent to the client from the distributing means for storing in the first storing means and the operation response stored in the second storing means. Processing means is provided for executing processing according to the request, obtaining an operation response to the operation request, and storing it in the second storage means in association with the operation request .

In such a mediation device, the second receiving means, when the first transmission means has access to the server, at the server, operating response and from the server to any of the operation request sent so far When there are a plurality of operation requests that can be transmitted, a plurality of operation responses and operation requests may be received collectively.
Furthermore, the first transmission means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, whether the operation request and the operation response to be transmitted to said server regardless, or equal to means for accessing periodically said server.

Furthermore, after transmitting an operation request to the server to the first transmission means, until receiving an operation response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, the server transmits to the server at intervals shorter than other periods. Means for accessing may be provided .
Further, in each of the mediation devices described above, when an operation request is received from the client, a reception notification means for transmitting a reception notification to the client may be provided.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication system including a server, a plurality of clients, and an intermediary device that mediates communication between the server and the plurality of clients . First storage means for storing an operation request and an operation response to the operation request, second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request, and an operation from each client The first receiving means for receiving the request and storing it in the first storage means, and the operation request to be transmitted to the server are read from the first storage means, and the server is read from the second storage means. The first transmission means for reading out the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server and transmitting the operation request and the operation response to the server, and the first transmission means When accessing the server, at the server, operating response and when there is anything that could be transmittable state of the operation request from the server, the operational response to either operation request sent so far And the second receiving means for receiving the operation request and the operation response received by the first receiving means are stored in the first storage means in association with the corresponding operation request, and the first storage The operation response to be transmitted to the client is read from the means, the second transmission means for transmitting to the client, and the processing according to the operation request stored in the second storage means is executed, and the operation request is executed. get the operation responses to, in association with the operation request provided and processing means to be stored in said second storage means, to each client, said the operation request And transmitting means for transmitting to the through apparatus, an operation response to the transmitted operation request provided receiving means for receiving from the intermediary device, to the server, the operation for the transmitted getting operation requests and operation requests from the intermediary device A third storage means for storing a response; a fourth storage means for storing an operation request to be transmitted to the intermediary apparatus and an operation response to the operation request; and receiving the operation request and the operation response from the intermediary apparatus. The third receiving unit and the operation request received by the third receiving unit are stored in the third storage unit, and the operation response received by the third receiving unit is associated with the corresponding operation request. A distribution unit that stores the fourth storage unit and an operation request associated with the operation request stored in the third storage unit to generate an operation response and associate the operation request with the third operation unit. Means for storing in the storage means, means for generating an operation request to be transmitted to the intermediary device and storing it in the fourth storage means, and when accessed from the intermediary device, from the third storage means The operation response to any operation request received from the intermediary device is read out and transmitted, and the operation request in a state that can be transmitted to the intermediary device is read out from the fourth storage means. And a third transmitting means for transmitting the operation request and the operation response to the mediating apparatus .

In such a communication system, when the mediation device receives the reception means, the second reception means, and the first transmission means when the first transmission means accesses the server, any one of the operation requests transmitted so far in the server. When there are a plurality of operational responses and operational requests from the server that are in a transmittable state, the plurality of operational responses and operational requests are collectively received, and the server transmitting means Are accessed from the intermediary device , if the operation response to the operation request received from the intermediary device and a plurality of operation requests to be transmitted to the intermediary device can be transmitted , the operation response and the operation request are transmitted . It is preferable to use a means for transmitting a plurality of batches to the mediating apparatus.
Further, in the mediating apparatus, the first transmitting means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, the operation requests and to be transmitted to said server Regardless of whether or not there is an operation response, means for periodically accessing the server may be provided.

Furthermore, after transmitting an operation request to the server to the first transmission means of the intermediary device, until an operation response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server is received, the interval is shorter than other periods. It is preferable to provide means for accessing the server.
In each of the communication systems, when the operation request is received from the client, the intermediary device is provided with a reception notification means for transmitting a reception notification to the client, and the reception notification is sent to each of the clients. Means for receiving may be provided.

Further, the communication method of the present invention is a communication method in which communication between a server and a plurality of clients is mediated by an intermediary device , wherein the operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request are sent to the intermediary device . A procedure for preparing first storage means for storing data, a procedure for preparing second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request, and an operation request from each client. Is received and stored in the first storage means, and the operation request to be transmitted to the server is read from the first storage means, and the second storage means is sent to the server. The operation response in a state in which transmission is possible is read, and the operation request and the operation response are transmitted to the server. The server transmits the operation response and the operation response to the server in the first transmission procedure. When the scan, at the server, operating response and when there is anything that could be transmittable state of the operation request from the server, the operation response and operation to any of the operation request sent so far a second receiving step of receiving the request, the operation response received in said first receiving procedure, causes stored in the corresponding above in association with the operation request to the first storage means, the said first receiving means A distribution procedure for storing the received operation request in the second storage means, a second transmission procedure for reading an operation response to be transmitted to the client from the first storage means, and transmitting the response to the client; A process according to the operation request stored in the second storage means is executed to obtain an operation response to the operation request, and is associated with the operation request in the second storage means. It is obtained so as to execute a processing procedure for憶.

In such a communication method, when the second reception procedure to be executed by the intermediary device is accessed by the first transmission procedure , the server responds to any operation request transmitted so far. If there are a plurality of operation responses and operation requests from the server that are ready for transmission, the procedure may be a procedure for receiving a plurality of these operation responses and operation requests at once.
Moreover, the presence or absence of said first transmission procedure, after sending the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, the operation requests and the operation responses to be transmitted to said server Regardless, it is advisable to provide a procedure for periodically accessing the server.

Further, after transmitting an operation request to the server in the first transmission procedure, until an operation response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server is received, the server is sent to the server at intervals shorter than other periods. A procedure for access may be provided .
Further, in each of the communication methods described above, when the mediation device further receives an operation request from the client, a reception notification procedure for transmitting a reception notification to the client may be executed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program that controls a computer that controls an intermediary device that mediates communication between a server and a plurality of clients, and that stores an operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request. Means, a second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request, and a first storage for receiving the operation request from each client and storing it in the first storage means. The operation request to be transmitted to the server is read from the reception unit and the first storage unit, and the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server is read from the second storage unit. when a first transmission means for transmitting a response to the server, the first transmission means has access to the server, at the server, and sends the far If there is anything that could be transmittable state in the operation response and operation request from the server to any of the operation request, second receiving means for receiving the operation response and the operation request, said first The operation response received by one receiving unit is stored in the first storage unit in association with the corresponding operation request, and the operation request received by the first receiving unit is stored in the second storage unit. A distribution means for storing, an operation request to be transmitted to the client from the first storage means, a second transmission means for transmitting to the client, and an operation request stored in the second storage means executes processing in accordance with the acquired operation response to the operation request, program for functioning as a processing means for storing in the second storage means in association with the operation request It is.

In such a program, when the first transmission means accesses the server, the server receives an operation response to any of the operation requests transmitted so far and the operation from the server. In the case where there are a plurality of requests that can be transmitted , it is preferable that the plurality of operation responses and operation requests are collectively received.
Furthermore, the first transmission means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, whether the operation request and the operation response to be transmitted to said server Regardless, it may be a means for periodically accessing the server.

Furthermore, the first transmission means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, to the server at intervals shorter than the other period Means for accessing may be provided .
Each of the above programs may further include a program for causing the computer to function as reception notification means for transmitting a reception notification to the client when an operation request is received from the client.

  The recording medium of the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which any one of the above programs is recorded.

According to the mediating apparatus, communication system, or communication method of the present invention as described above, a client provided inside the firewall transmits an operation request to a server outside the firewall and receives an operation response to the operation request. In some cases, even if the server takes time to process the operation request, the operation request is not timed out while suppressing the communication traffic necessary for transferring the operation response from the server to the client. be able to.
Further, according to the program of the present invention, a computer can be made to function as the mediation device described above to realize its characteristics, and similar effects can be obtained. According to the recording medium of the present invention, the above effect can be obtained by causing a computer not storing the above program to read and execute the program.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[Embodiment: FIGS. 1 and 2]
First, a first embodiment of an intermediary device of the present invention and a communication system configured using the mediation device will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the communication system.
As shown in FIG. 1, this communication system includes a management device 102 that is a first communication device, a plurality of managed devices 10 that are second communication devices, and an intermediary device 101 that mediates communication between them. And a managed mediation apparatus 101. Of these, the mediation device 101, the managed mediation device 110, and the managed device 10 are arranged in the installation environment on the user side, and these can be communicated with the management device 102 via the Internet 103. The management apparatus 102 communicates with each managed apparatus 10 to constitute a remote management system that centrally manages each managed apparatus 10 centrally.

The managed device 10 may be a communication device in which various electronic devices are provided with a communication function. For example, an image processing device such as a printer, a FAX device, a digital copying machine, a scanner device, a digital multifunction peripheral, or a network Communication devices that have communication functions in home appliances, vending machines, medical equipment, power supply devices, air conditioning systems, metering systems such as gas, water, and electricity, automobiles, and airplanes are conceivable.
By the way, in this communication system, the intermediary device 101, the managed device 10, and the managed intermediary device 110 in each installation environment are connected to each other via a LAN (local area network) and can communicate with each other. In consideration of security, the LAN is connected to the Internet 103 via the firewall 104.

Here, since the firewall 104 is normally set to block a communication request from the outside, the management device 102 simply transmits a communication request such as an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) request. Information cannot be transmitted to the inner managed device 10. Therefore, in order for the management apparatus 102 and the managed apparatus 10 to exchange information, it is necessary to adopt a special protocol. However, in order to make each managed apparatus 10 compatible with this protocol, labor and cost are required. Take it. Therefore, the managed device 10 adopts a general communication protocol so as to support only communication within the LAN (without a firewall), while being provided with an intermediary device 101 corresponding to the special protocol described above. By mediating communication between the management apparatus 102 and the managed apparatus 10, information can be exchanged between the managed apparatus 10 and the management apparatus 102 that do not support a special protocol.
Further, by causing the mediation device 101 to mediate communication, communication traffic can be reduced as compared with the case where the managed device 10 individually communicates with the management device 102.

Note that the connection between the mediation device 101 and the managed device 10 is not limited to the LAN, but is performed by serial connection based on the RS-485 standard, parallel connection based on the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) standard, or the like. Also good. For example, in the case of the RS-485 standard, up to five managed devices 10 can be connected in series to the mediation device 101.
In addition, the intermediary device 101, the managed device 10, and the managed intermediary device 110 have various hierarchical structures depending on the usage environment.

  For example, in the installation environment A shown in FIG. 1, the intermediary device 101a capable of establishing a direct connection with the management device 102 by HTTP has a simple hierarchical structure that follows the managed devices 10a and 10b. In the installation environment B shown, since four managed devices 10 are installed, the load increases only by installing one intermediary device 101. Therefore, the intermediary device 101b capable of establishing a direct connection with the management device 102 by HTTP follows the managed mediation device 110 as another mediation device as well as the managed devices 10c and 10d. A hierarchical structure is formed in which the managed devices 10e and 10f can be further followed. In this case, information issued from the management device 102 for remotely managing the managed devices 10e and 10f is sent via the mediation device 101b and the managed mediation device 110, which is a lower node thereof, to the managed device 10e. Or 10f will be reached.

  In such a communication system, the mediation apparatus 101 is mounted with an application program for control management of the managed apparatus 10 connected thereto. The management apparatus 102 is mounted with an application program for performing control management of each intermediary apparatus 101, and further performing control management of the managed apparatus 10 and the managed intermediary apparatus 110 via the intermediary apparatus 101. Then, each of these nodes in this remote management system including the managed device 10 transmits an “operation request” that is a request for processing for a method of the application program to be implemented by RPC (remote procedure call). An “operation response” that is a result of the requested processing can be acquired.

  That is, the management device 102 generates an operation request to the managed device 10 and the mediation device 101 (hereinafter referred to as a management device-side operation request), delivers it to the managed device 10 and the mediation device 101, and responds to this operation request. While the operation response can be acquired, the managed device 10 generates an operation request to the mediation device 101 and the management device 102 (hereinafter referred to as a managed device side request) and delivers it to the mediation device 101 and the management device 102. The operation response to the operation request can be acquired. The intermediary device 101 also generates an operation request (hereinafter referred to as an intermediary device-side request) to the managed device 10 or the management device 102, passes it to the managed device 10 or the management device 102, and operates in response to the operation request. You can get a response.

  Here, the method is defined as a logical function that defines the format of input and output. In this case, the operation request is a function call for calling this function (Procedure Call), and the operation response is an execution result of the function called by the function call. The content of the request by the operation request includes a notification without a meaningful execution result.

FIG. 2 shows a part of the relationship between these operation requests and operation responses. In this figure, the presence of the firewall 104 is not considered.
FIG. 2A shows a case where an operation request for the management apparatus 102 is generated in the managed apparatus 10. In this case, the managed device 10 generates a managed device-side operation request a, and the management device 102 that has received the request via the mediation device 101 returns an operation response a to the operation request. Further, a case where there are a plurality of mediation devices 101 shown in the figure can be assumed (for example, when the managed device is the managed device 10e or 10f shown in FIG. 1). Note that the managed device-side operation request a is an operation request transmitted to the management device 102, and thus can be said to be an operation request for the management device “to”.

  FIG. 2A also shows a case where not only the operation response a but also a delay notification a ′ is returned. This means that when the management apparatus 102 receives the managed apparatus side operation request a from the connected intermediary apparatus 101 and determines that a response to the operation request cannot be returned during connection with the management apparatus 102, the response is delayed. This is because it is conceivable that the connection state is temporarily disconnected after notification, and a response to the operation request is delivered again at the time of subsequent connection. In this system, in order not to provide the managed device 10 with a function of processing the delay notification, the delay notification is not transferred to the managed device 10 but is managed by the mediation device 101, and the mediation is performed. When the device 101 receives the response a from the management device 102, the response is transferred to the managed device 10. Further, if the managed device 10 is provided with a function for processing a delay notification, the managed device 10 may be transferred so as to notify the delay.

  FIG. 2B shows a case where an operation request for the mediation apparatus 101 is generated in the managed apparatus 10. In this case, for example, the managed device 10 generates a managed device-side operation request b, and the mediation device 101 that has received the operation request returns an operation response b to the operation request. In the case of FIG. 2B, no delay notification is returned.

  FIG. 2C shows a case where an operation request for the management apparatus 102 is generated in the mediation apparatus 101. In this case, the mediation device 101 generates a mediation device-side operation request c, and the management device 102 that receives the mediation device-side operation request c returns an operation response c to the operation request. Also in the case of (C), as in the case of (A), the management apparatus 102 may return a delay notification c ′ when a response cannot be returned immediately.

FIG. 2D shows a case where an operation request for the managed device 10 has occurred in the mediation device 101. In this case, the intermediary apparatus 101 generates an intermediary apparatus side operation request d, and the managed apparatus 10 that receives the intermediary apparatus side operation request d returns an operation response d to the operation request. Note that the general communication protocol used by the managed device 10 does not have a function of returning a delay notification, so the managed device 10 does not return a delay notification.
As for the operation request from the management apparatus 102 to the intermediary apparatus 101 or the managed apparatus 10, the apparatus that has received the operation request returns a response to the operation request in the same manner as described above. However, this embodiment is characterized by a method of transferring an operation request and a response to the operation request from the managed device 10 or the mediation device 101 inside the firewall 104 to the management device 102 outside the firewall 104. Therefore, the operation request from the management apparatus 102 is not shown here.

Here, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is adopted as a protocol for passing arguments and return values by RPC, and the operation request and response described above are described here as SOAP messages.
As a communication protocol for actually transferring an operation request or an operation response, an appropriate protocol can be adopted according to the system configuration, for example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Here, a case where HTTP is adopted as a communication protocol will be described.

[First Embodiment: FIGS. 3 to 41]
Here, as a more specific embodiment of the communication system shown in FIG. 1, a management apparatus that is a server remotely manages a plurality of image processing apparatuses that are clients, and communication between these apparatuses is performed according to the present invention. A remote management system that mediates by an intermediary device will be described. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the configuration of the remote management system. However, the only difference from FIG. 1 is that the managed device 10 is changed to the image processing device 100. Description is omitted.
The image processing apparatus 100 is a digital multi-function peripheral having functions such as copying, facsimile, and scanner, and a function for communicating with an external apparatus, and is equipped with an application program for providing a service related to those functions. It is.

  As in the case of the communication system shown in FIG. 1, the mediation apparatus 101 has an application program for control management of the image processing apparatus 100 connected thereto. The management apparatus 102 is mounted with an application program for performing control management of each mediation apparatus 101 and further control management of the image processing apparatus 100 and the managed mediation apparatus 110 via the mediation apparatus 101. Then, it is possible to transmit an “operation request” that is a processing request for a method of an application program to be implemented by RPC (remote procedure call), and to acquire an “operation response” that is a result of the requested processing. It can be done.

FIG. 4 shows the relationship between these operation requests and operation responses. In this figure, the presence of the firewall 104 is not considered.
FIG. 4A shows a case where an operation request for the management apparatus 102 is generated in the image processing apparatus 100. In this case, the image processing apparatus 100 generates an image processing apparatus side operation request a (hereinafter also referred to as “image device command”), and the management apparatus 102 that has received the request via the mediation apparatus 101 operates for this command. It is a model that returns a response a (hereinafter also referred to as “command response” or simply “response”). Further, a case where there are a plurality of mediation apparatuses 101 shown in the figure can be assumed. Note that the delay notification a ′ may be returned when the response cannot be returned immediately, as in the case of FIG.

  FIG. 4B shows a case where an operation request for the mediation apparatus 101 is generated in the image processing apparatus 100. In this case, for example, the image processing apparatus 100 generates an image processing apparatus-side operation request (image device command) b, and the mediation apparatus 101 that receives the request returns an operation response b to the operation request. . The intermediary device 101 does not return a delay notification, as in the case of FIG.

  FIG. 4C shows a case where an operation request for the management apparatus 102 is generated in the mediation apparatus 101. In this case, the mediation device 101 generates a mediation device-side operation request c (hereinafter also referred to as “mediation device command”), and the management device 102 that receives the mediation device returns an operation response c to the operation request. Become. Note that the delay notification c ′ may be returned when the response cannot be returned immediately, as in the case of FIG.

FIG. 4D shows a case where an operation request for the image processing apparatus 100 is generated in the mediation apparatus 101. In this case, the mediating apparatus 101 generates a mediating apparatus side operation request (mediating apparatus command) d, and the image processing apparatus 100 that receives the mediating apparatus 101 returns an operation response d to the operation request. Note that the image processing apparatus 100 does not return a delay notification, as in the case of FIG.
Hereinafter, a communication sequence when transferring such a command and command response will be described.

First, FIG. 5 shows an example of a communication sequence between the image processing apparatus and the mediation apparatus.
As shown in this figure, the image processing apparatus 100 and the mediation apparatus 101 communicate with each other by transmitting and receiving an HTTP request that is a communication request and an HTTP response that is a communication response to the communication request. Since there is no firewall between the image processing apparatus 100 and the mediation apparatus 101, communication is performed regardless of which of the image processing apparatus 100 and the mediation apparatus 101 transmits an HTTP request (functions as a communication server). Can do. For example, the mediation device 101 can return an HTTP response X in response to an HTTP request X transmitted by the image processing device 100, or the image processing device 100 can send an HTTP response W in response to an HTTP request W transmitted by the mediation device 101. It can be returned.

  Then, the image processing apparatus 100 describes a command for the mediation apparatus 101 or the management apparatus 102 in an HTTP request and transmits the command to the mediation apparatus 101 (HTTP request X, Y). If the received command is for itself, the intermediary device 101 performs processing according to the command, writes a response in the HTTP response to the HTTP request at the time of command reception, and transmits the response to the image processing device 100 (HTTP). Response X).

  If the received command is for the management apparatus 102, the mediation apparatus 101 transfers the command to the management apparatus 102, receives a response from the management apparatus 102, and transmits the response to the image processing apparatus 100. However, in this case, it may take time for the management apparatus 102 to process the command, or the response may not be acquired immediately. Even in such a case, if the response is described and transmitted in the HTTP response to the HTTP request at the time of receiving the command, the HTTP request times out in the image processing apparatus 100, and as a result, the response to the command cannot be received. May end up.

  Therefore, here, a sequence as shown in FIG. 5B is adopted, and when the mediation apparatus 101 receives a command to the management apparatus 102 (a command to be transferred without being processed by itself) The reception notification is described in the HTTP response to the HTTP request and is transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100 (HTTP response Y). When a response to the command is received from the management apparatus 102, a result notification for notifying the content of the response is described in the HTTP request and transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100 (HTTP request Z). In addition, the image processing apparatus 100 describes the reception notification of the result notification in the HTTP response corresponding to the HTTP request and returns it to the mediation apparatus 101.

By doing so, it becomes possible to quickly return a response to the image device command in the form of a reception notification, and an HTTP request timeout in the image processing apparatus 100 can be prevented.
The result notification from the mediation apparatus 101 to the image processing apparatus 100 can be configured as one type of command from the mediation apparatus 101 to the image processing apparatus 100 transferred in a sequence as shown in FIG.
Further, the above-described reception notification and result notification may be used for the image device command from the image processing apparatus 100 to the mediation apparatus 101.

Next, FIG. 6 shows an example of a communication sequence between the mediation device and the management device.
Since there is a firewall 104 between the mediation device 101 and the management device 102, as shown in this figure, communication always transmits an HTTP request as a communication request from the mediation device 101 to the management device 102, and the management device 102 The HTTP response is returned to the mediation apparatus 101 as a communication response to the communication request. For example, the management apparatus 102 returns an HTTP response M to the HTTP request M transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101, and similarly returns an HTTP response N to the HTTP request N.

The intermediary device 101 describes, among the image device commands received from the image processing device 100, a command to be transferred without being processed by the mediation device 101, and transfers the command to the management device 102 (HTTP request M, N). ).
On the other hand, if the response to the received command can be generated immediately, the management device 102 describes the response in the HTTP response to the HTTP request at the time of command reception, as shown in FIG. You may make it transmit (HTTP response M).
However, if the processing may take time, the HTTP request may time out in the mediation apparatus 101. Therefore, as shown in (b), an acceptance notification is sent to the HTTP response to the HTTP request at the time of command reception. Is transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101 (HTTP response N).

In this case, the intermediary device 101 periodically transmits an HTTP request in which a result inquiry command is described to the management device 102 (HTTP request O, P). If the processing for the received command is not completed, the management apparatus 102 transmits an incomplete notification as a response to the result inquiry to the intermediary apparatus 101 in the corresponding HTTP response (HTTP response O). If the processing has been completed, a response to the command for which the processing has been completed is transmitted as a response to the result inquiry in the HTTP response corresponding to the HTTP request in which the result inquiry is described, and transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101 ( HTTP response P).
When the management apparatus 102 transmits a delay notification, a delay notification may be described instead of the reception notification or the incomplete notification.

FIG. 7 shows an example of another communication sequence between the mediation device and the management device.
As shown in this figure, the mediation apparatus 101 manages other commands (which may be generated by an image processing apparatus different from the initial command) before receiving a response to the transmitted command from the management apparatus 102. It can be sent to the device 102 (HTTP request Q, R). Then, the management apparatus 102 returns an acceptance notification to each of these (HTTP response Q, R).
However, in such a case, the management apparatus 102 does not necessarily return the response to the previously received command first in response to the result inquiry from the mediation apparatus 101, but can return a response when the result inquiry occurs. It returns one of those that are. As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, the response to the image device command C received later may be returned before the response to the image device command B.
When there are a plurality of responses that can be returned at the time when the result inquiry is made, a response to the previously received command may be returned first.

By adopting the communication sequence as described above, even when the management device 102 cannot immediately prepare the execution result of the command received from the mediation device 101, a response to the command can be transferred to the mediation device 101.
Further, in order to receive the command execution result from the management apparatus 102 in this way, a communication request is periodically made to the management apparatus 102 (in this case, transmission of an HTTP request in which a result inquiry command is described corresponds). )There is a need. However, since the intermediary device 101 can collectively perform the periodic communication requests, the number of communication requests is reduced as compared with the case where the plurality of image processing devices 100 perform the separation, and the intermediary device 101 is transmitted from the management device 102. It is possible to suppress communication traffic required for transferring an operation response to the. In addition, since it is not necessary to provide the image processing apparatus 100 with a function for making such a periodic communication request, the configuration of the image processing apparatus 100 can be simplified, and design and development costs can be reduced.

Next, the hardware configuration of the management apparatus, the image processing apparatus, and the mediation apparatus illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIGS.
First, an outline of the hardware configuration of the management apparatus is shown in the block diagram of FIG.
The management device 102 includes a modem 121, a communication terminal 122, an external connection I / F 123, an operator terminal 124, a database 125, a control device 126, and the like.
The modem 121 manages communication with the mediation apparatus 101 on the device user side (for example, a user destination using the image processing apparatus) via a public line, and modulates and demodulates data to be transmitted and received. The modem 121 and the communication terminal 122 serve as communication means.

The communication terminal 122 transmits / receives data to / from the line adapter and the mediation apparatus 101 via a public line.
The external connection I / F 123 performs data transmission / reception and security management with the mediation apparatus 101 on the device user side via the Internet 103. The external connection I / F 123 also functions as a communication unit. A proxy server for security management may be provided.

The operator terminal 124 is a terminal operated by an operator of the management center, and accepts input of various data by an operation on an input device such as a keyboard by the operator, or displays information to be notified to the operator on a display unit. . The input data includes, for example, customer information such as an IP address and a call destination telephone number used when the mediation device 101 on each device user side communicates with the management device 102.
The database 125 exists in a storage device such as a hard disk device of a database server (not shown), and is input from the operator terminal 124, such as the IP address and telephone number of the image processing device 100, data such as abnormality information received from these devices. Stores various data such as data.

The control device 126 includes a microcomputer composed of a CPU, ROM, RAM, etc. (not shown), and controls the entire management device 102 in an integrated manner. The CPU executes the control program stored in the ROM or the like as necessary, and uses the modem 121, the communication terminal 122, the external connection I / F 123, the operator terminal 124, or the database 125, so that Function can be realized.
The configuration of the management apparatus 102 is not limited to this, and can be configured using, for example, one PC.

Next, FIG. 9 shows a hardware configuration of the image processing apparatus.
Here, the image processing apparatus 100 is configured as a digital multi-function peripheral having functions of a printer, a facsimile (FAX) apparatus, a digital copying machine, a scanner apparatus, a document management apparatus, etc. As shown in FIG. ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 202, SDRAM 203, flash memory (nonvolatile memory) 204, NRS memory 205, PHY (physical media interface) 206, NVRAM (nonvolatile memory) 207, operation unit 209, HDD (hard disk drive) 210, modem 211, PI (personal interface) 212, FCU (fax control unit) 213, USB (Universal Serial Bus) 214, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) 1394_215, engine interface And a chromatography scan (I / F) 216 and the engine unit 217,. These configurations are hardware resources for performing image processing such as image reading, image formation, and image information transmission.

The CPU 201 is arithmetic processing means that performs data processing (control of each function) via the ASIC 202.
The ASIC 202 is a multi-function device board including a CPU interface, an SDRAM interface, a local bus interface, a PCI interface, a MAC (Media Access Controller), an HDD interface, and the like. From the aspect, it helps to improve the development efficiency of applications (application software) and common system services.
Further, the ASIC 202 is directly connected to an operation unit 209 such as an operation panel that receives an operation command of each engine unit, and a PHY 206 is also directly connected thereto. Further, the FCU 213, USB 214, IEEE 1394_215, and engine I / F 216 are connected via the PCI bus 218, and the modem 211, PI 212, and the like are directly connected as necessary.

The CPU 201 functions as a processing unit that processes information by reading a necessary control program from a storage unit such as the flash memory 204 or the HDD 210 via the ASIC 202, and developing and executing the program on the SDRAM 203 or the like. be able to.
The SDRAM 203 is a main memory used as a program memory for storing various programs including the OS, a work memory used when the CPU 201 performs data processing, and the like. In place of the SDRAM 203, a DRAM or SRAM may be used.

  The flash memory 204 is, for example, a boot loader (boot program) that starts the image processing apparatus 100, an OS image that is an OS file, a program memory that stores various programs described later, a fixed parameter memory that stores various fixed parameters, and the like. As a non-volatile memory (storage means) used to hold stored contents even when the power is turned off. Instead of the flash memory 204, a nonvolatile RAM in which a backup circuit using a RAM and a battery is integrated, or another nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM may be used.

The NRS memory 205 is a non-volatile memory that stores an NRS application described later, and an NRS function can be added as an option.
The PHY 206 is an interface for communicating with an external device via a LAN.
The NVRAM 207 stores, for example, a model number memory that stores a model number that is identification information of the image processing apparatus 100, a memory that stores initial values for operations by the operation unit 209, and initial values for each application (APL). A non-volatile memory (storage means) used as a memory for storing various counter information (billing counter data), a memory for storing model information such as setting status of the communication partner, network address information, protocol, etc. Yes, the stored contents are retained even when the power is turned off. As the NVRAM 207, a nonvolatile RAM in which a backup circuit using a RAM and a battery is integrated, or a nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM or a flash memory can be used.

The operation unit 209 is operation display means (operation means and display means).
The HDD 210 is a storage unit (recording medium) that stores and saves data regardless of whether the power is on or off. The HDD 210 can store the above-described program in the flash memory 204, other data, or data in the NVRAM 207. In addition, data that is subject to processing such as collection, update, and transmission periodically may be stored in the HDD 210.
The modem 211 is modulation / demodulation means. When data is transmitted to the management apparatus 102 via the public line, the modem 211 modulates the data so that the data can flow on the public line. In addition, when modulated data sent from the management apparatus 102 is received, the data is demodulated.

The PI 212 includes an interface conforming to the RS485 standard, and is connected to a public line via a line adapter (not shown).
The FCU 213 controls communication with an external apparatus such as an image processing apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a digital multifunction peripheral having a FAX apparatus or a modem function (FAX communication function) and a management apparatus 102 via a public line.
USB 214 and IEEE 1394 — 215 are USB standard and IEEE 1394 standard interfaces for communicating with peripheral devices, respectively.
The engine I / F 216 is an interface for connecting the engine unit 217 to the PCI bus.
The engine unit 217 is a post-processing unit that performs post-processing such as sorting, punching, and stapling on a sheet on which an image is formed by the plotter engine, or an image reading / forming engine including a known scanner engine and plotter engine. Etc.

  In such an image processing apparatus 100, when the power is turned on (powered on), the CPU 201 activates the boot loader in the flash memory 204 via the ASIC 202, reads the OS image in the flash memory 204 according to the boot loader, and reads it as the SDRAM 203. And load it into a usable OS. When the deployment of the OS is completed, the OS is activated. After that, various functions can be realized by reading a program such as an application in the flash memory 204 or an NRS application in the NRS memory 205 as needed, loading it in the SDRAM 203, developing it, and starting it. .

Next, FIG. 10 shows a hardware configuration of the mediation apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 10, the intermediary device 101 includes a CPU 52, an SDRAM 53, a flash memory 54 (nonvolatile memory), an RTC (real time clock circuit as an internal clock) 55, an Op-Port (operation unit connection port) 56, a PHY 57, A modem 58, HDD control unit 59, expansion I / F 60, RS232 I / F (interface) 61, RS485 I / F 62, HDD 63, and the like are provided.

Then, the CPU 52 reads the necessary control program from the storage means such as the flash memory 54 and the HDD 63, and develops and executes it on the SDRAM 53 and the like, thereby controlling the entire intermediary device 101. Function as means, distribution means, individual transmission means, individual reception means, collective transmission means, collective reception means, and other means).
The SDRAM 53 is a main memory used as a program memory for storing various programs including the OS, a work memory used when the CPU 52 performs data processing, and the like.

The flash memory 54 is, for example, a boot loader (boot program) that activates the mediation apparatus 101, an OS image that is an OS file, a program memory that stores various programs described later, a fixed parameter memory that stores various fixed parameters, and the like. This is a non-volatile memory (storage means) to be used, and holds the stored contents even when the power is turned off. Similar data can also be stored in the HDD 63.
The RTC 55 is a circuit for measuring time, and the Op-Port 56 is a circuit for detecting an operation in an operation unit (not shown).
The PHY 57, the modem 58, and the RS485 I / F 62 are interfaces for performing communication by LAN, public line, and RS485 standard serial communication, respectively.
The expansion I / F 60 is an I / F for connecting an expansion board such as a wireless LAN board or an expansion memory.

  The mediation apparatus 101 is connected to the image processing apparatus 100 and the managed mediation apparatus 110 on the network via the PHY 57, and is connected to the Internet 103. The image processing apparatus 100 can also be connected via RS232I / F61 and RS485I / F62. A DRAM or SRAM may be used instead of the SDRAM 53. Further, instead of the flash memory 54, another nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM may be used.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 11 to FIG. 34, functions and functions for realizing the communication sequence as described above in the management apparatus 102, the image processing apparatus 100, and the mediation apparatus 101 having the hardware configuration as described above. A process for realizing the above will be described. Also in the following description, a command from the image processing apparatus 100 or the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102 and a command response to the command will be mainly described, and a description of the command from the management apparatus 102 will be omitted or simplified. To.

First, FIG. 11 shows a functional block diagram showing a configuration of functions for performing processing related to commands and command responses among the functions of the mediation apparatus 101. Each function illustrated in FIG. 11 is realized by the CPU 52 executing a required control program to control the operation of each unit of the mediation apparatus 101.
Among the functions shown in FIG. 11, the functions of the HTTP server function unit 41 and the HTTP client function unit 45 are realized by the CPU 52 and the PHY 57. The functions of the command distribution function unit 42, action handler group 43, and command transfer handler 44 are realized by the CPU 52.

These functions will be described in further detail.
First, the HTTP server function unit 41 includes an HTTP request reception function unit 41a that receives an HTTP request and an HTTP response transmission function unit 41b that transmits an HTTP response.
The HTTP request reception function unit 41a has a function of receiving an HTTP request transmitted from the image processing apparatus 100 and passing it to the command distribution function unit 42 (A1, A2). In addition, the HTTP response transmission function unit 41b describes a message passed from the command distribution function unit 42, that is, a SOAP response related to a response to an image device command, a reception notification, or the like in the HTTP response, and the image is received as a response to the received HTTP request. It also has a function of transmitting to the processing apparatus 100 (A5, A6).

  The command distribution function unit 42 has a function of analyzing the type or classification of a command described in the SOAP request in the HTTP request received by the HTTP request reception function unit 41a. Depending on the result, if it is a command to be processed by itself, the SOAP request is passed to an appropriate action handler 43a of the action handler group 43, and if it is not a command to be processed by itself, it is transferred to the management apparatus 102. , And also has a function of passing a SOAP request to the command transfer handler 44 (A3).

Further, the command execution result returned by the action handler 43a or the reception notification (A4) returned when the command transfer handler 44 receives a command to be transferred to the management apparatus 102 is related to the response to the command or the reception notification. It also has a function of generating a SOAP response, passing it to the HTTP response transmission function unit 41b, and transmitting it to the image processing apparatus 100. The mediation device command generated by the action handler 43 a is also passed to the command transfer handler 44 so as to be transferred to the image processing device 100 or the management device 102.
Although not shown here, the content of an HTTP request containing a message other than a SOAP request is also interpreted, and the request is transmitted to an appropriate processing means, or a response is returned to the HTTP response transmission function unit 41b. It also has a function to let you.

  The action handler group 43 includes a plurality of action handlers 43 a and a command transfer handler 44. Each of the action handlers 43a is prepared corresponding to the type of command, and includes a function for executing processing according to the command received from the image processing apparatus 100 and returning the result, the image processing apparatus 100, and management. It has a function of generating a command for the device 102, receiving a response to the command, and performing processing according to the response. It can be said that the action handler 43a having the former function is a handler for providing a web service function. Also, commands and responses are transmitted / received via the command distribution function unit 42, and illustration of handling of commands from the management apparatus 102 side is omitted here, but the action handler group 43 includes Also included is an action handler that executes processing in response to a command from the management apparatus 102 and returns the result.

  The command transfer handler 44 is a special handler having a function related to command transfer among handlers belonging to the action handler group 43. When an image device command to be transferred from the command distribution function unit 42 to the management apparatus 102 is received, an acceptance notification is returned to the command distribution function unit 42 (A4), and a SOAP request related to the image device command is generated. The HTTP request transmission function unit 45a of the HTTP client function unit 45 has a function of transmitting the request to the management apparatus 102 (B1). Further, it manages the status of the command transferred to the management apparatus 102 in response to a reception notification or incomplete notification from the management apparatus 102 received from the HTTP response reception function unit 45b, a response to the command, etc., and a response to the transferred command It also has a function of periodically generating a SOAP request related to a result inquiry until it is obtained, passing it to the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a, and transmitting it to the management apparatus 102.

  Furthermore, when a response to the image device command is received from the management apparatus 102 (via the HTTP response reception function unit 45b) (B4), a SOAP request related to the result notification is generated, and the HTTP request transmission of the HTTP client function unit 45 is performed. It also has a function of passing to the function unit 45a and causing the image processing apparatus 100 to transmit (C1). At this time, the transmission destination is, of course, the image processing apparatus 100 that is the transmission source of the image device command corresponding to the response. Also, it has a function of managing the state of the command according to the reception notification of the result notification from the image processing apparatus 100 (C4).

  Furthermore, although detailed illustration is omitted here, the command generated by the action handler 43a of the action handler group 43 also has a function of handling according to the image device command. That is, if it is a command for the management apparatus 102, it is transferred to the management apparatus 102 as in the case of the image device command, and a response is returned to the action handler 43a via the command distribution function unit 42. If the command is for the image processing apparatus 100, the command is transferred to the image processing apparatus 100 as in the case of the result notification, and the response described in the HTTP response corresponding to the HTTP request at the time of transfer is sent to the command distribution function unit 42. To the action handler 43a.

The HTTP client function unit 45 includes an HTTP request transmission function unit 45a that transmits an HTTP request and an HTTP response reception function unit 45b that receives an HTTP response.
Then, the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a describes the message passed from the command transfer handler 44, that is, various SOAP requests to be transferred to the management apparatus 102 and the image processing apparatus 100 in the HTTP request, and manages the management apparatus 102 and the image processing apparatus. 100 (B2, C2). The HTTP response reception function unit 45b has a function of receiving an HTTP response transmitted from the management apparatus 102 or the image processing apparatus 100 and passing it to the command transfer handler 44 (B3, B4, C3, C4).

Next, FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of functions for performing processing relating to commands and command responses among the functions of the image processing apparatus 100. Each function illustrated in FIG. 12 is realized by the CPU 201 executing a required control program to control the operation of each unit of the image processing apparatus 100.
Also, among the functions shown in FIG. 12, the functions of the HTTP server function unit 241 and the HTTP client function unit 245 are realized by the CPU 201 and the PHY 206. The functions of the command distribution function unit 242 and the action handler group 243 are realized by the CPU 201.

These functions will be described in further detail.
First, the HTTP server function unit 241 includes an HTTP request reception function unit 241a that receives an HTTP request and an HTTP response transmission function unit 241b that transmits an HTTP response.
The HTTP request reception function unit 241a has a function of receiving an HTTP request transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 and passing it to the command distribution function unit 242 (E1, E2). In addition, the HTTP response transmission function unit 241b writes the message passed from each action handler 243a of the action handler group, that is, the SOAP response related to the reception notification for the result notification received from the mediation apparatus 101, in the HTTP response and receives it. It has a function of transmitting to the mediation apparatus 101 as a response to the HTTP request (E5, F5).

  The command distribution function unit 242 is described in the SOAP request in the HTTP request received by the HTTP request reception function unit 241a and the SOAP response in the HTTP response received by the HTTP response reception function unit of the HTTP client function unit 245. It has a function of analyzing the type or classification of commands and command responses. And, it has a function of passing a SOAP request and a SOAP response to an appropriate action handler 243a of the action handler group 243 according to the result (E3). Unlike the case of the mediation apparatus 101, the image processing apparatus 100 is not provided with a function for transferring a received command to another apparatus. Therefore, when a command that cannot be processed by itself is received, error processing is performed. And has a function for that purpose.

  The action handler group 243 has a plurality of action handlers 243a. Each of the action handlers 243a is prepared corresponding to the type of command, and has a function of executing processing according to the command received from the mediation device 101 and returning the result, the mediation device 101, and the management device 102. A function for generating a command for, receiving a response to the command, and performing processing according to the response. It can be said that the action handler 243a having the former function is a handler for providing a web service function. The command and response are received via the command distribution function unit 242. Further, although the illustration of handling of commands from the management apparatus 102 is omitted here, the action handler group 243 also includes action handlers that execute processing according to commands from the management apparatus 102 and return the results. included. Each action handler 243a generates a SOAP message related to a command or a command response to be transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101, passes it to the HTTP request transmission function unit 245a and the HTTP response transmission function unit 241b, and transmits this to the mediation apparatus 101. It also has a function to make it.

In addition, the HTTP client function unit 245 includes an HTTP request transmission function unit 245a that transmits an HTTP request and an HTTP response reception function unit 245b that receives an HTTP response.
Then, the HTTP request transmission function unit 245a has a function of transmitting a message delivered from each action handler 243a, that is, various SOAP requests to be transmitted to the mediation device 101 to the mediation device 101 in the HTTP request (F2). . The HTTP response reception function unit 245b has a function of receiving an HTTP response transmitted from the management apparatus 102 or the image processing apparatus 100 and passing the received HTTP response to the command distribution function unit 242 (F3, F4).

Next, FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of functions for performing processing related to commands and command responses among the functions of the management apparatus 102. Each function shown in FIG. 13 is realized by the CPU in the control device 126 executing a required control program to control the operation of each part of the management device 102.
In addition, among the functions shown in FIG. 13, the function of the HTTP server function unit 141 is realized by the CPU in the control device 126 and the external connection I / F 123. The functions of the command distribution function unit 142 and the action handler group 143 are realized by the CPU in the control device 126. The function of the command execution result storage function unit 146 is realized by a memory in the control device 126.

These functions will be described in further detail.
First, the HTTP server function unit 141 includes an HTTP request reception function unit 141a that receives an HTTP request and an HTTP response transmission function unit 141b that transmits an HTTP response.
The HTTP request reception function unit 141a has a function of receiving an HTTP request transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 and passing it to the command distribution function unit 142 (G1, G2). In addition, the HTTP response transmission function unit 141b describes the message passed from the command distribution function unit 142, that is, the SOAP response related to the reception notification or response to the image device command or the mediation device command in the HTTP response, and receives the received HTTP request. As a response to the mediation apparatus 101 (G5, G6).

  The command distribution function unit 142 has a function of analyzing the type or classification of the command described in the SOAP request in the HTTP request received by the HTTP request reception function unit 141a. And it also has a function of passing a SOAP request to an appropriate action handler 143a of the action handler group 143 or a result inquiry handler 144 according to the result (G3, H1). Further, as in the case of the image processing apparatus 100, when a command that cannot be processed by itself is received, it also has a function of performing error processing.

  The action handler group 143 includes a plurality of action handlers 143a and a result inquiry handler. Each action handler 143a is generally prepared for each type of command, and executes a process according to a command received from the mediation device 101 (which may be an image device command or mediation device command). The command execution result storage function unit 146 has a function of storing the result. On the other hand, it also has a function of generating a SOAP message related to an acceptance notification for a command, passing it to the command distribution function unit 142, and transmitting it to the mediation apparatus 101. If attention is paid to the correspondence between the command and the response, this reception notification becomes a direct response to the command, and the action handler 243a can be said to be a handler for providing a web service function that returns the reception notification as a response.

  The command and response are received through the command distribution function unit 142. Although illustration of handling of commands generated by the management apparatus 102 is omitted here, a command for the mediation apparatus 101 and the image processing apparatus 100 is generated in the action handler group 143 and a response to the command is received. An action handler having a function of performing a corresponding process is also included.

The result inquiry handler 144 is a special handler in the action handler group 143, and has a function of searching the command execution result storage function unit 146 when receiving a result inquiry command from the mediation apparatus 101 (H2). If an operation result to be returned to the intermediary device 101 is stored, a function of acquiring this and generating a SOAP response notifying the operation result is passed to the command distribution function unit 142 and transmitted to the intermediary device 101. (H3) In addition, when there is no operation result to be returned to the intermediary device 101, it also has a function of generating a SOAP response notifying that and returning it to the intermediary device 101 in the same manner.
Such a result inquiry handler 144 may be provided for each command corresponding to the command received by the management apparatus 102. However, the result inquiry handler 144 may be provided for each command group in which several commands are combined, or only one may be provided for all the commands. Alternatively, processing corresponding to the command may be performed.

Further, the command execution result storage function unit 146 has a function of storing a command execution result by each action handler 143a other than the result inquiry handler 144 of the action handler group 143. The execution result is stored in a format that can be searched by the result inquiry handler 144.
By providing each function as described above in the mediation device 101, the image processing device 100, and the management device 102, the mediation device 101 receives the operation requests from the plurality of image processing devices 100 and transfers them to the management device 102. Procedure, receiving procedure for receiving a response when the management device 102 is ready to send a response to any of the commands transferred so far, and the procedure When a response is received at, a second transfer procedure for transferring the response to the transmission source of the command corresponding to the response can be executed.

Next, FIG. 14 illustrates an example of an HTTP request transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 having such a function to the management apparatus 102 or the image processing apparatus 100. The HTTP request that the mediation apparatus 101 receives from the image processing apparatus 100 basically has the same configuration.
This HTTP request describes a SOAP request as a body part, and this is indicated by the “SOAPAction” header in the header part. The “SOAPAction” header indicates the content of the SOAP request. In this example, the content of the request is indicated by a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) “http: // www. In addition to this, a standard header defined in the HTTP specification may be added.

FIG. 15 shows an example of an HTTP response that the mediation apparatus 101 receives from the management apparatus 102 and the image processing apparatus 100. The HTTP response transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 to the image processing apparatus 100 basically has the same configuration.
This HTTP response describes a SOAP response as a body part. However, the header corresponding to the “SOAPAction” header is not described here. If the protocol is designed so that the SOAP response is always described in the HTTP response corresponding to the HTTP request transmitted by describing the SOAP request, the SOAP response is described in the HTTP response even if it is not clearly indicated in the header. This is because it can be easily recognized whether or not it is. Also, for the HTTP response, a standard header defined in the HTTP specification may be added in addition to the illustrated one.

The mediation apparatus 101, the image processing apparatus 100, and the management apparatus 102 send a SOAP request in this format to the communication partner to request an operation related to a predetermined method, and the communication partner returns a SOAP response as a result of the operation. And process according to the result.
In order to efficiently realize each function as described above, it is preferable to create a method prepared in each device according to a certain rule. Next, this point will be described.

  First, as a specific example, consider a command for allowing the image processing apparatus 100 to order a sheet from the management apparatus 102. In this case, assuming that the command name is “paper order” and “product name” and “quantity” are passed as arguments (input parameters), a method having specifications as shown in Table 1 may be prepared in each device. In this table, the underline indicates a portion that should be shared for different types (names) of methods.

  When transmitting a command from the image processing apparatus 100 to the management apparatus 102, the command is first transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101. First, a method of “paper order” is prepared in the mediation apparatus 101. There is a need. In this case, the format needs to be able to receive “product name” and “quantity” as input parameters, but the mediation apparatus 101 does not need to analyze the contents of the input parameters, etc., and receives an acceptance notification as a response. Return a message corresponding to. However, it is necessary to manage what command is received from which image processing apparatus, whether a response is received from the management apparatus 102, whether there is a result notification to the image processing apparatus 100, or the like based on a reception number or the like.

  The management apparatus 102 to which the command should arrive also prepares a “paper order” method, receives “product name” and “quantity” as input parameters, and returns “result” as an output parameter (response). Of course, it is good to make it. In the intermediary device 101, if the method name and input parameter configuration are changed when the command is transferred to the management device 102, the name and input of the method to be called by the command received by the mediation device 101 and the command received by the management device 102 The parameters do not need to match, but the configuration is simpler and the processing load is smaller when the mediation apparatus 101 transfers the command as it is.

  Further, since a result inquiry is made from the intermediary device 101 to the management device 102, a method (corresponding to the result inquiry handler 144) for responding to the result inquiry is prepared in the management device 102. If the name of the method is, for example, the name of the command + “result inquiry”, the result inquiry command can be easily generated from the command transferred to the management apparatus 102. As an output parameter of the result inquiry method, in addition to “result”, identification information such as “accept number” transmitted at the time of accepting the command may be returned in order to indicate to which command this is the result. “Charge” is an output parameter specific to the paper order command.

  In addition, since the result notification is performed from the mediation apparatus 101 to the image processing apparatus 100, the image processing apparatus 100 is provided with a method for responding to the result notification. If the method name is, for example, the command name + “result notification”, a result notification command can be easily generated from the command received from the image processing apparatus 100. In addition to the “result”, the “fee” received from the management apparatus 102 is also transmitted as the input parameter of the result notification method.

In each of the above methods, the description format of “result” is not limited to that shown in Table 1, but it is preferable to describe the same contents as those shown in Table 1. Although the name space may be set freely, other commands derived from one command (here “paper order”) (here “paper order result inquiry” and “paper order result notification”) Are preferably shared namespaces to some extent.
And if you want to create one command, if you prepare each method as described above to perform processing related to that command in each device, it is easy to recognize the mutual relationship, and the command in each device It is possible to make the configuration easy to manage.

  Table 2 shows the conventions to be followed by each method as described above. In this table, the underlined portion indicates a portion that should be determined according to the type of command, and the other portions indicate portions that are preferably common regardless of the type of command. In the example shown in Table 1, “request name” corresponds to “paper order”, “request parameter” corresponds to “product name” and “quantity”, and “request result” corresponds to “charge”. .

Next, specific examples of SOAP messages transmitted and received by each device when the image processing device 100 issues a paper order command described using Table 1 as an image device command to the management device 102 are shown in FIGS. Shown in
FIG. 16 shows an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order command transmitted from the image processing apparatus 100 to the mediation apparatus 101.

  In this example, a namespace is declared as an attribute of an “Envelope” tag that is a root tag. Here, in addition to the namespace defined as a standard in SOAP, “http: // www. The namespaces specified by the URIs “example.com/header” and “http://www.example.com/sales/server” are declared. Therefore, it can be seen that the XML tag with the namespace prefix “n” belongs to the namespace specified by the URI “http://www.example.com/header”. It can be seen that the XML tag with the namespace prefix “” belongs to the namespace specified by the URI “http://www.example.com/sales/server”.

In the SOAP header, “DB12345” that is the ID of this paper order command is described as the contents of the XML tag of “command ID”. This ID is assigned by the image processing apparatus 100 that is the issuer of the command.
Furthermore, information of “mediation device ID” and “image processing device ID”, which is information indicating the transmission source of this command, is described as the content of the “transmission source” tag. Among these, the “image processing apparatus ID” is the ID of the image processing apparatus that generated the image device command, and the “mediation device ID” has passed through until the image device command is transferred to the mediation device 101. This is the ID of the mediation device. There may be a case where a plurality of “mediation device IDs” are described, but when directly transferred from the image processing device 100, the content of the “mediation device ID” tag is empty.

In this remote management system, the destination of the command is not specified. If the command that can be processed by the device that received the SOAP request is processed, the command is processed. Otherwise, the command is transferred to another device or error processing is performed. I try to do it. Accordingly, the destination is not specifically described here, but may be described.
Also, in the SOAP body, a “paper order” tag is described as information for specifying a method to be executed by the transmission destination device, and the tag “product name” and “quantity” subordinate elements thereof are used as arguments to the method. The parameters to be delivered are described. Here, the order details are listed.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a SOAP response related to a paper order command reception notification transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 to the image processing apparatus 100.
Also in this example, the namespace declaration is the same as in the example shown in FIG. In the SOAP header, “DB12345” that is the ID of the corresponding paper order command is described as the content of the XML tag of “command ID”.

  Further, as the contents of the “destination” tag, “mediation device ID” and “image processing device ID”, which are information indicating the destination of this command response, are subordinate to the “mediation device list” tag and “image processing device list” tag. The information of is described. Among these, the “image processing apparatus ID” is an ID of the image processing apparatus that is the final transmission destination of the command response, and the “mediation apparatus ID” is used when the command response is transferred to the image processing apparatus. This is the ID of the intermediary device that passes through. “Intermediary device ID” is not described because there is no information to be described here. Also, the “mediating device list” tag and the “image processing device list” tag are not provided, and the tag “image processing device ID” or “mediation device ID” is directly placed below the “destination” tag as in the case of FIG. You may make it provide.

In this remote management system, if the device that sent the command can receive a response to the command, there is no need to recognize what route the command was transferred to and processed by which device. However, the transmission source is not particularly described, but may be described.
The SOAP body is provided with a “paper order Response” tag for indicating that it is a response to a paper order command, and the content of the response is described in a lower tag. Here, “acceptance complete” is described as information indicating that the paper order command has been normally accepted.

FIG. 18 shows an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order command transmitted (transferred) from the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102.
Also in this example, as in the case of FIG. 16, the namespace is declared as the attribute of the “Envelope” tag.
In the SOAP header, the ID of this paper order command is described as “command ID”. Since this command is generated by the mediation device 101, this ID is assigned by the mediation device 101. It is. In addition, information of “mediation device ID” and “image processing device ID”, which is information indicating the transmission source of this command, is described as the content of the “transmission source” tag. Here, since this command is generated by the image processing apparatus 100 and transferred by the mediation apparatus 101, the IDs of both apparatuses are described. In addition, information similar to the case of FIG. 16 is described in the SOAP body.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a SOAP response related to a paper order command acceptance notification transmitted from the management apparatus 102 to the mediation apparatus 101.
Also in this example, the namespace declaration is the same as in the example shown in FIG. In the SOAP header, the ID of the corresponding paper order command is described as the content of the XML tag of “command ID”. This ID is an ID assigned by the mediation apparatus 101 that is a direct reply destination.
Further, as the contents of the “destination” tag, information on “mediation apparatus ID” and “image processing apparatus ID”, which is information indicating the destination of this command response, is described.

The SOAP body is provided with a “paper order Response” tag for indicating that it is a response to a paper order command, and the content of the response is described in a lower tag. Here, the reception number given by the management apparatus 102 is described as information indicating that the paper order command has been normally received.
Upon receiving this, the mediation apparatus 101 manages the command ID and the reception number in association with each other so that when a processing result is acquired together with the reception number later, it can be understood which command the processing result is. Keep it.

FIG. 20 shows an example of a SOAP response different from FIG. 19 relating to the notification of acceptance of the paper order command.
This example is an example when the paper order command is not normally received in the management apparatus 102. Here, the content of the “result” tag indicates that there is no product with the designated product name. "Product name error" is described.
The attributes of the “Envelope” tag and the contents of the SOAP header are the same as in FIG.

FIG. 21 shows an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order result inquiry command transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102.
Also in this example, as in the case of FIG. 16, the namespace is declared as the attribute of the “Envelope” tag.
In the SOAP header, the ID of this paper order result inquiry command is described as “command ID”. Since this command is generated by the mediation apparatus 101, this ID is also given by the mediation apparatus 101.

Further, as the content of the “transmission source” tag, information of “mediation device ID” which is information indicating the transmission source of this command is described. Since this command does not transfer a command from the image processing apparatus 100, the information of “image processing apparatus ID” is not described.
The SOAP body is provided with a tag of the same name to indicate that this SOAP request is related to the paper order result inquiry command, but no argument is required, so the content is empty.

FIG. 22 shows an example of a SOAP response related to a response to the paper order result inquiry command transmitted from the management apparatus 102 to the mediation apparatus 101.
Also in this example, the namespace declaration is the same as in the example shown in FIG. In the SOAP header, the ID of the corresponding paper order result inquiry command is described as the content of the XML tag of “command ID”. This ID is an ID assigned by the mediation apparatus 101.
Further, as the contents of the “destination” tag, information of “mediation apparatus ID” which is information indicating the destination of this command response is described. In order to share the format with other SOAP responses, an “image processing apparatus list” tag is also provided. However, since there is no information to be described here, this tag may not be provided.

  The SOAP body is provided with a “paper order Response” tag for indicating that it is a response to the paper order result inquiry command, and the content of the response is described in a lower tag. Here, “processing” is described as information indicating that there is no paper order result inquiry command that has been processed.

FIG. 23 shows an example of a SOAP response different from FIG. 22 relating to the response to the paper order result inquiry command.
This example is an example in the case where there is a paper order command that has been successfully processed in the management apparatus 102. Here, as the contents of the “result” tag, the receipt number of the command that has been processed and the paper order The charge that is the output parameter of the command is described.
The attributes of the “Envelope” tag and the contents of the SOAP header are the same as in FIG. However, if the information on the transmission source of the command corresponding to the reception number can be grasped on the management device 102 side, the information on the transfer route to the transmission source as well as the mediation device 101 should be described in the “destination” tag. It may be.

FIG. 24 shows another example of the SOAP response related to the response to the paper order result inquiry command.
This example is an example in the case where there is a paper order command whose processing is completed but the result is an error in the management apparatus 102. Here, the reception number of the command that has been processed as the content of the “result” tag In addition, “out of stock” indicating that the order was not received and the order could not be received is described.
The attributes of the “Envelope” tag and the contents of the SOAP header are the same as in FIG.

FIG. 25 shows an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order result notification command transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 to the image processing apparatus 100.
In this example, the namespace is declared as an attribute of the “Envelope” tag, but the namespace prefix of “nc” is specified by the URI of “http://www.example.com/sales/client” This is different from the case of FIG. 16 or the like.
In the SOAP header, the ID of this paper order result notification command is described as “command ID”. Since this command is generated by the mediation apparatus 101, this ID is also given by the mediation apparatus 101.

Further, as the contents of the “destination” tag, information on “image processing apparatus ID” which is information indicating the destination of this command is described. Here, since the result notification is directly transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100, the information of “mediation apparatus ID” is not described, but may be transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100 through another managed mediation apparatus 110. For example, “mediation device ID” information that mediates transmission is also described. These pieces of information can be described with reference to the information stored in the transmission source in association with the command ID when the paper order command is first received.
Further, in order to indicate that this SOAP request relates to the paper order result notification command, the SOAP body is provided with a tag of the same name, and information indicating the execution result of the command is described below the tag. The content may be obtained by excluding the “reception number” from the execution result received as a response to the paper order result inquiry command. FIG. 25 shows an example in which the processing is completed normally and the sheet fee is 1000 yen.

When the image processing apparatus 100 does not transmit the next command until the response to the command is received after the transmission of the command, the image processing apparatus 100 does not need to manage the ID by using an ID or the like. The transmitted command and the result notification for the command can be easily associated with each other.
However, it is also possible to configure so that the next command can be transmitted before receiving the response. In this case, the corresponding image device is set as the “command ID” of the result notification command on the mediation apparatus 101 side For example, the image processing apparatus 100 may recognize the correspondence between the image device command and the result notification by using the ID attached to the image processing apparatus 100 in the command.

FIG. 26 shows another example of the SOAP request related to the paper order result notification command, which is different from FIG.
This example is an example when the paper order command is not normally received in the management apparatus 102. Here, the “product name error” described in the response to the paper order command as the content of the “result” tag. Is described.
The attributes of the “Envelope” tag and the contents of the SOAP header are the same as in FIG.

FIG. 27 shows still another example of the SOAP request related to the paper order result notification command.
In this example, the processing of the paper order command is completed in the management apparatus 102, but the result is an error. Here, as the contents of the “result” tag, the paper order as shown in FIG. “Out of stock” is described by excluding “reception number” from the execution result of the result inquiry command.

FIG. 28 shows an example of a SOAP response related to a response to the paper order result notification command.
Also in this example, the namespace declaration is the same as the example shown in FIG. In the SOAP header, the ID of the paper order result notification command that generated the response is described as the content of the XML tag of “command ID”. This ID is an ID assigned by the mediation apparatus 101 that is a direct reply destination.
Further, as the contents of the “destination” tag, information on “mediation apparatus ID” and “image processing apparatus ID”, which is information indicating the destination of this command response, is described.

  The SOAP body is provided with a “paper order result notification response” tag for indicating that it is a response to the paper order result notification command, and the content of the response is described in a lower tag. Here, “result reception completion” is described as information indicating that the execution result of the paper order command has been normally received by the paper order result notification command.

Next, in FIG. 29, among the processes performed to realize the function related to the transfer of the image device command as described above in the mediating apparatus 101, the process is executed when there is a communication request to the HTTP server function unit 41. The flowchart of a process is shown.
This process is an HTTP server thread process for causing the mediation apparatus 101 to function as an HTTP server, and is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. Then, when there is a communication request to the HTTP server function unit 41, the CPU 52 creates this thread and starts the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S1, the CPU 52 receives an HTTP request describing a SOAP request (for example, one shown in FIG. 16) related to an image device command from the image processing apparatus 100 by the function as the HTTP request receiving function unit 41a.
In the next step S2, the name space URI and the method name related to the command described in the SOAP request are extracted, and in step S3, the handler table is referenced based on these to search for a handler that executes the command. .
The namespace URI and the method name related to the command are the namespace and the local name of the element to which the child element of the “Body” element indicating the SOAP body belongs, and are described in the child element tag of the “Body” element. . For example, in the example of the SOAP request shown in FIG. 16, it is “ns: paper order” as shown in FIG. When the definition of the namespace URI in the attribute of the “Envelope” tag is referenced from the namespace prefix indicated by the symbol a, the namespace URI related to the command is “http://www.example.com/sales/server”. It can be seen that it is. Further, the part indicated by the symbol b after “:” is the method name as it is.

The handler table is a table that describes the correspondence between the name space URI and method name extracted in step S2 and the action handler in the mediation apparatus 101 for executing the processing related to the command defined by them. Yes, the intermediary device 101 is held in a nonvolatile memory.
As a specific example, it can be considered as shown in FIG. 31, and here, a “mediation device information acquisition” command for requesting acquisition of information of the mediation device 101 itself is executed by the mediation device information acquisition handler. It is described that a “current time acquisition” command for requesting acquisition of the set time of the mediation apparatus 101 for time adjustment is executed by a current time acquisition handler. Of course, other commands can be described in the same manner.

  Note that this handler table describes only commands that the mediation device 101 executes itself, and commands not described here are handled by the command transfer handler 44 in order to be transferred to other devices for execution. I am doing so. However, it is also conceivable that all commands that can be received including those to be transferred are described in the handler table, and error processing is performed when a command not described in the handler table is received.

Returning to the description of FIG.
When the search in step S3 is completed, the process proceeds to S4, and it is determined whether or not an action handler to be processed for the received command has been found. The processing of steps S2 to S4 so far is processing by the function as the command distribution function unit 42.
If an action handler has been found in step S4, the process proceeds to step S5, a command is passed to the found action handler to execute processing related to the command, and the result is received. In step S6, the action handler is found. An HTTP response describing a SOAP response as a response to the command is transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100, and the process is terminated. These processes of steps S5 and S6 are processes related to the provision of a normal web service, and depend on functions as the command distribution function unit 42 and the HTTP response transmission function unit 41b.

On the other hand, if no action handler is found in step S4, the processing of steps S7 to S9 is performed by the function as the command transfer handler 44. That is, the SOAP request received in step S7 is stored, and in step S8, an HTTP response describing a SOAP response (for example, the one shown in FIG. 17) related to the command acceptance notification is transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100. Then, a transfer thread for transferring the command received in step S9 to the management apparatus 101 is activated, and the process ends.
Through the above processing, the mediation apparatus 101 accepts a command from the image processing apparatus 100. If the command is a command processed by itself, the mediation apparatus 101 performs a process and returns a response, and accepts a command that cannot be processed by itself. It is possible to prepare for transfer to the management apparatus 101 after returning the notification. In the above process, step S8 is a process of a reception notification procedure, and in this process, the CPU 52 functions as a reception notification means.

Next, FIG. 32 shows a flowchart of processing of a transfer thread executed to realize a function of transferring an image device command received by the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102. This process is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. Then, the CPU 52 creates this thread when the activation is instructed in step S9 of FIG. 29, and starts the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.
In this process, first, in step S11, an untransmitted SOAP request related to the image device command is read. In step S12, a transfer SOAP request (for example, the one shown in FIG. 18) is described in the acquired SOAP request by describing the command ID for the mediation device 101 to manage the command and its mediation device ID. Generate.

Thereafter, in step S13, an HTTP request describing the SOAP request generated in step S12 is transmitted to the management apparatus 102 by the function as the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a.
In the next step S14, an HTTP response from the management apparatus 102 is waited for. When this is received, the contents of the SOAP response described therein are stored. This SOAP response should be an acceptance notification for the command transferred to the management apparatus 102.

In step S15, it is determined whether or not the SOAP response indicates that the command has been normally received (for example, one shown in FIG. 19). Here, when the management apparatus 102 normally receives the command, the reception ID is described and returned as the “result” element. For example, this determination is made depending on whether or not the value of the “result” element is a numerical value. It can be performed. By adopting such a determination method, the determination in step S15 can be performed without analyzing the details of the SOAP response in detail, and thus the processing can be simplified.
If “YES” in the step S15, the process proceeds to the step S16 and the subsequent steps, and it is determined whether or not a result inquiry thread as shown in FIG. 33 exists. If not, the result inquiry thread is activated in the step S17 and the process is ended. To do. If there is, the process is terminated. In the case where different result inquiry threads are used depending on commands, if there is no result inquiry thread corresponding to the command transmitted in step S13, the corresponding result inquiry thread is activated.

  On the other hand, if “NO” in the step S15, the process proceeds to a step S18 to generate a SOAP request (for example, one shown in FIG. 26) related to the result notification that the transferred image device command has become a reception error, and in a step S19. The HTTP request transmission function unit 45a transmits an HTTP request describing the SOAP request to the image processing apparatus 100 that is the transmission source of the transferred image device command.

In step S20, the reception of an HTTP response from the image processing apparatus 100 is awaited. When this is received, the contents of the SOAP response described therein are stored. This SOAP response should be a reception notification (for example, the one shown in FIG. 28) for the result notification transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100. Then, the process ends.
When the processing is completed in step S20, the processing related to the image device command transferred to the management apparatus 102 is complete. Information such as device commands and result notifications may be discarded at that time. Of course, error information may be extracted and managed.

  Through the above processing, the image device command received from the image processing apparatus 100 can be transferred to the management apparatus 102. Further, the processing of the HTTP server thread and the processing of this transfer thread are the processing of the transfer procedure, and the CPU 52 functions as a transfer means in this processing. In this transfer process, the mediation apparatus 101 only transfers the SOAP body of the SOAP message related to the command received from the image processing apparatus 100 as it is, and it is not necessary to analyze the contents of the SOAP body for parts other than the command name. .

Next, FIG. 33 shows a flowchart of processing of a result inquiry thread executed to realize a function for acquiring an execution result in a command transferred from the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102. This process is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. The CPU 52 creates this thread when the activation is instructed in step S17 of FIG. 32, and starts the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG.
In this process, first, a predetermined time is waited in step S31. Thereafter, a SOAP request (for example, the one shown in FIG. 21) for inquiring the result is generated in step S32, and the HTTP request describing the SOAP request in step S33 is sent to the management apparatus 102 by the function as the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a. Send.

  In the next step S34, an HTTP response from the management apparatus 102 is waited for. When this is received, the contents of the SOAP response described therein are stored. The content of the SOAP response should be a response from the management apparatus 102 to the result inquiry. In addition, when the result inquiry is made and the response to any of the commands transferred so far is ready to be transmitted, the management apparatus 102 returns the response as a response to the result inquiry. The process of step S34 corresponds to the process of the reception procedure. In this process, the CPU 52 functions as a receiving unit.

In step S35, it is determined whether or not the SOAP response is a response (for example, one shown in FIG. 22) that the command processing is not completed. Here, when there is no command for which processing has been completed in the management apparatus 102, the management apparatus 102 returns "processing" as the "result" element and returns, for example, the value of the "result" element This determination can be made based on whether or not is “processing”. Even with such contents, the SOAP response corresponds to an operation response.
If the response indicates that the process has not been completed, the process returns to step S31 to repeat the process, and again transmits a SOAP request for a result inquiry to the management apparatus 102 after a predetermined time. That is, the management apparatus 102 is periodically accessed to try to obtain a response to the command.

  On the other hand, if step S35 is not a response indicating that the process has not been completed (if the response indicates that the process has been completed), in step S36, a response indicating that the process has been normally completed (for example, FIG. 23). Here, when the management apparatus 102 returns a response indicating that the processing has been completed to the control, the management apparatus 102 returns “processing completed” as the “result” element and returns, for example, a “result” element. This determination can be made based on whether or not the value is “processing completed”. By adopting such a determination method, the determination in step S15 can be performed without analyzing the contents of the SOAP response in detail, and thus the processing can be simplified. The same applies to step S35.

If YES in step S 36, the process proceeds to step S 37, and for the image device command for which processing has been completed, a SOAP request (for example, FIG. 25) for notifying that the processing has been completed and the processing result is notified. (Shown). In step S38, the function as the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a transmits the HTTP request describing the SOAP request to the image processing apparatus 100 that is the transmission source of the processed image device command.
In step S39, it waits for reception of an HTTP response from the image processing apparatus 100. When this is received, the contents of the SOAP response described therein are stored. This SOAP response should be a reception notification (for example, the one shown in FIG. 28) for the result notification transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100.

In step S43, it is determined whether there is an image device command that has not received a response. If there is an image device command, the process returns to step S31 to repeat the process. That is, the management apparatus 102 is periodically accessed to obtain a response to the command until responses to all the image device commands transferred to the management apparatus 102 are received. If there is no image device command that has not received a response in step S43, the process ends.
If the answer is NO in step S36, the received SOAP response is a response (for example, the one shown in FIG. 20) indicating that the process has not been completed normally. Also, the SOAP response corresponds to an operation response.
In this case, the process proceeds to step S40, and for the image device command that has been processed, a SOAP request (for example, the one shown in FIG. ) Is generated. In steps S41 and S42, as in the case of steps S38 and S39, a result notification and a reception notification SOAP message are exchanged with the image processing apparatus 100, and the process ends.

Note that when the processing of step S39 or step S42 is completed, the processing related to the image device command transferred to the management apparatus 102 is completed. If the point can be grasped based on the reception notification from the image processing apparatus 100, Information such as the transferred image device command and result notification may be discarded at that time. Of course, execution results and error information may be extracted and managed.
By executing the processing of the result inquiry thread, the execution result of the image device command transferred to the management apparatus 102 by the mediation apparatus 101 can be acquired and notified to the image processing apparatus 100. In this process, steps S38 and S41 are processes of the second transfer procedure, and here the CPU 52 functions as a second transfer means.

  Each thread described above does not need to be erased at the end of the process, and may be kept in a standby state until a new start trigger exists after the process ends. Therefore, it is possible that the processing of each thread is executed simultaneously in parallel. As for the transfer thread, a plurality of threads may be activated at the same time so that a plurality of commands can be transferred in parallel. A plurality of HTTP server threads may be activated simultaneously if the specification of the server function permits. However, even in these cases, it is preferable to set an upper limit on the number of threads, since resource consumption increases when too many threads are provided.

  As for the result inquiry thread, if a plurality of the same types are prepared simultaneously, the number of result inquiries increases accordingly. Rather, it is better to adjust the interval for inquiring the result according to the situation and shorten the interval when there are many commands that have not received a response. In this way, even when a large number of commands are processed sequentially, if the processing is completed in the management apparatus 102, responses to all commands can be acquired in a short time. Even if there is no response to be received, if the result inquiry thread is kept in a standby state, it is preferable not to make a result inquiry during that time.

In each of the above flowcharts, the command from the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102 is not particularly mentioned, but this command can also be handled by almost the same processing as the transfer thread and the result inquiry thread. However, it is naturally not necessary to notify the execution result to the image processing apparatus 100. Instead, the result may be notified to the action handler that generated the command.
Furthermore, although only one result inquiry thread is shown here, when different result inquiry commands are prepared depending on the type of transferred command, a result inquiry thread corresponding to each result inquiry command is provided and is independent. It is good to make it operate.

Here, FIG. 34 shows a processing sequence in the case where the intermediary device 101 executes the processing related to each thread described above to mediate the command transfer from the image processing device 100 to the management device 102.
That is, when the image processing apparatus 100 generates an image device command (S51), the command is first transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101 (S52). At this time, the image processing apparatus 100 does not necessarily need to recognize which apparatus will ultimately execute the transmitted command.

Also, when the mediating apparatus 101 receives an image device command and recognizes that this is a command that needs to be transferred, it returns a reception notification to the image processing apparatus 100 for the time being (S53), and then transfers the command to the management apparatus 102. (S54). When receiving this, the management apparatus 102 returns an acceptance notification (S55).
Thereafter, the mediation apparatus 101 periodically makes a result inquiry to the management apparatus 102 (S56, S59). In response to this inquiry, if the processing for the received command has not been completed, the management apparatus 102 returns a response indicating that processing has not been completed (S57), and performs processing (S58) according to the image device command to complete the processing. If so, a process completion response is returned (S60).

  Then, when the mediation apparatus 101 receives the process completion response, the mediation apparatus 101 transmits a result notification indicating the fact and the content of the response to the image processing apparatus 100 (S61). The image processing apparatus 100 returns a reception notification in response to the result notification (S62), and performs a process according to the received command execution result (S63).

  As described above, in the remote management system of this embodiment, the mediation apparatus 101 can receive commands from a plurality of image processing apparatuses 100 and transfer them to the management apparatus 102. When each device receives a command, it immediately returns an acceptance notification or reception notification to its transmission source, so that it is possible to prevent the HTTP request from timing out even if it takes time to transfer or process the command. . In particular, since communication between the mediation apparatus 101 and the image processing apparatus 100 is performed by a LAN or the like in the user environment, occurrence of timeout can be greatly reduced.

Further, since the intermediary device 101 can transfer a command at an arbitrary timing without worrying about a timeout, the degree of freedom in protocol design can be improved.
Further, since the intermediary apparatus 101 performs subsequent result inquiries and result notifications, it is not necessary to provide these functions in the terminal image processing apparatus 100. Therefore, fewer functions need to be added when a normal image processing apparatus is compatible with the remote management system of this embodiment, and design and development are facilitated.

Further, the intermediary device 101 makes a result inquiry without particularly considering which device the command transmission source is, and the management device 102 also performs processing corresponding to any command when the result inquiry is made. If completed, a response is returned regardless of the device from which the command is related.
Accordingly, the intermediary device 101 can perform a result inquiry to be performed by a plurality of image processing devices 100 (further, the intermediary device 101 itself or the managed intermediary device 110), and can perform the inquiry in a unified manner. Compared to the case of making an inquiry, the number of result inquiries required for obtaining a response to each command can be reduced, and the amount of communication traffic can be reduced.

That is, when the image processing apparatus 100 provided inside the firewall 104 transmits a command to the management apparatus 102 outside the firewall 104 and receives a response to the command, the management apparatus 102 takes time for processing corresponding to the command. Even in the case where it is necessary, it is possible to suppress the communication traffic necessary for transferring the operation response from the management apparatus 102 to the image processing apparatus 100 while preventing the command from timing out.
In addition, the management apparatus 102 only has a function of performing processing according to the commands shown in Tables 1 and 2 from the intermediary apparatus 101 without providing a function of actively notifying the result. The command processing result can be transmitted to the terminal image processing apparatus 100. Therefore, the functional configuration of the management apparatus 102 can be simplified, and design and development costs can be reduced.

In the above description, the specification example described using Table 1 and Table 2 shows an example in which a result inquiry method corresponding to each command (service) is prepared. Of course, a result inquiry method may be prepared, or a result inquiry method capable of handling a plurality of commands may be prepared.
However, in this case, in order to enable the mediation apparatus 101 to transmit an appropriate result notification command to the image processing apparatus 100, the mediation that has received the execution result of the image device command as a response to the result inquiry command. It is preferable that the apparatus 101 can recognize what type of command the received data is. For this purpose, the command name written in the image device command is added to the response to the result inquiry command, or the mediation apparatus 101 side manages the reception number and the command name in association with each other. It may be possible to search the command name from the receipt number.

Also, it is not essential to provide a result notification method in correspondence with the image device command. As in the case of the result inquiry method described above, a common method that can handle a plurality of image device commands should be prepared. Also good. If the result inquiry method and the result notification method correspond to each other, it is not necessary for the mediating apparatus 101 to manage a specific command name of the image device command.
However, in this case, it is necessary for the image processing apparatus 100 to be able to manage whether the notified operation result corresponds to the image device command. For this purpose, for example, the mediation device 101 may use the ID assigned by the image processing device 100 to the corresponding image device command as the “command ID” of the result notification command.

Further, when the management apparatus 102 has completed processing related to a plurality of commands from the same apparatus at the time when the result inquiry command is received, responses to these commands are described in one SOAP response and returned together. You may do it.
Even when processing related to a plurality of commands from different devices has been completed, the same correspondence can be performed. In this case, information on the device of the command transmission source (response destination) is stored in the SOAP header. Therefore, it is described in the SOAP body corresponding to each response.

[Second Embodiment: FIGS. 35 to 56]
Next, a remote management system which is a second embodiment of the communication system shown in FIG. 1 will be described. This remote management system is characterized in that a plurality of SOAP messages can be described and transmitted between the intermediary device 101 and the management device 102, and an independent method called a result inquiry is not provided. However, substantially the same function can be realized by a command transferred to the management apparatus 102 and a response to the command. And in order to implement | achieve such a characteristic, the process in the mediation apparatus 101 and the management apparatus 102 mainly differs from the case of a 1st Example. Since the hardware configuration of the system and the functions of the image processing apparatus 100 are almost the same as those in the first embodiment, description thereof will be omitted or simplified. Further, the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment are used for portions corresponding to the configuration of the first embodiment.

First, FIG. 35 shows an example of a communication sequence between the mediation apparatus 101 and the management apparatus 102 in this remote management system.
Also in this remote management system, since there is a firewall 104 between the mediation device 101 and the management device 102, as shown in this figure, communication always sends an HTTP request from the mediation device 101 as a communication request to the management device 102. And an HTTP response is returned from the management apparatus 102 to the intermediary apparatus 101 as a communication response to the communication request.

  Then, the intermediary device 101 describes, among the image device commands received from the image processing device 100, a command to be transferred without being processed by itself, and transfers the command to the management device 102 (HTTP request X). ). Also, the command generated by the mediation apparatus 101 itself can be described in the same HTTP request and transferred to the management apparatus 102. In this case, an arbitrary number of commands (including an upper limit from the viewpoint of the data amount) including 0 can be described in one HTTP request, and the HTTP request X includes two image device commands and 1 The example which described one mediation apparatus command is shown.

On the other hand, when the response to the received command can be generated immediately, the management device 102 describes the response in the HTTP response to the HTTP request at the time of receiving the command and transmits the response to the mediation device 101 (HTTP response X). Also in this case, as in the above case, an arbitrary number of responses can be described in one HTTP response.
However, when processing takes time, an HTTP response is transmitted without particularly describing a response. In the example shown in FIG. 35, the response to the image device command C is not described in the HTTP response X.

Then, the intermediary device 101 periodically accesses the management device 102 by transmitting an HTTP request, and the management device 102 receives a response that is ready to be transmitted to the mediation device 101 at the time of the access. The response is described in the corresponding HTTP response and transmitted. In the example shown in FIG. 35, a response to the image device command C is described in the HTTP response Y and transmitted.
Thus, unlike the first embodiment, this remote management system does not employ a SOAP message such as an acceptance notification from the management apparatus 102 or a result inquiry from the mediation apparatus 101. However, even if such a sequence is adopted, it is possible to transfer image device commands and obtain responses as in the first embodiment. This is because, in this remote simple system, the HTTP request transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102 itself has the same function as the result inquiry.
The communication sequence between the mediation apparatus 101 and the image processing apparatus 100 is the same as that in the first embodiment.

Next, FIG. 36 shows a functional block diagram showing a configuration of functions for performing processing relating to commands and command responses among the functions of the mediation apparatus 101 in this embodiment. Each function illustrated in FIG. 36 is realized by the CPU 52 executing a required control program to control the operation of each unit of the mediation apparatus 101.
36, the functions of the HTTP server function unit 41 and the HTTP client function unit 45 are realized by the CPU 52 and the PHY 57. The functions of the command distribution function unit 42, action handler group 43, command transfer handler 44, transmission message collection function unit 47, received message distribution function unit 48, and response status management function unit 49 are realized by the CPU 52. The managed-side command pool 46 is provided in any rewritable storage means. For example, it can be provided in the flash memory 54, but it may be provided in the SDRAM 53 or the HDD 63.

These functions will be described in further detail.
First, the functions of the HTTP server function unit 41 and the command distribution function unit 42 are the same as those in the first embodiment. However, in this embodiment, as will be described later, the command distribution function unit 42 is not involved in transmission of the mediation device command to the management device 102.
The action handler group 43 includes a plurality of action handlers 43a and a command transfer handler 44, as in the case of the first embodiment. However, each of these handlers creates a transfer command sheet and registers the command to be transferred to the management apparatus 102, received from the image processing apparatus 100 or generated by itself, and registered in the managed command pool 46. (L1) is different from the case of the first embodiment.

When the command transfer handler 44 receives a response to the command transferred to the management apparatus 102, the command transfer handler 44 generates a SOAP request related to the result notification command and sends an HTTP request transmission function to notify the image processing apparatus 100 of the response. It also has a function of passing it to the unit 45a, describing it in an HTTP request, and sending it to the image processing apparatus 100 (M1).
The managed-side command pool 46 registers image device commands and mediation device commands to be transmitted to the management apparatus 102 in association with responses to these commands, identification information of the commands, destination information, transmission source information, and the like. Pool. Hereinafter, the image device command and the mediation device command are collectively referred to as “managed-side command”.

Here, FIG. 37 shows an example of the data structure in the transfer command sheet of the mediation apparatus 101.
As shown in this figure, in the intermediary device 101, the command sheet for transfer includes “command ID”, “transmission source information”, “method name”, “input parameter”, “state”, “command execution result” An area for storing “notification destination” and “output parameter” data is provided. Of these, “command ID”, “method name”, and “input parameter” correspond to the managed command (and the ID attached thereto), and “status” and “notification destination of command execution result” are Corresponds to management information. “Output parameter” is the content of a command response received from the management apparatus 102.

The contents of each item will be described.
First, “method name” is the content of a request to the management apparatus 102 and indicates the type of function (method) to be called in the management apparatus 102. “Input parameter” is data attached to “method name”, and is an argument for calling a function.
“Transmission source information” indicates identification information of a command transmission source, that is, a device that has generated the command. This information is information indicating a destination when a response to the command is transmitted. As identification information, an ID, a unique name, an IP address, or the like can be used. In addition, when the command described on the sheet has been transferred via a plurality of devices, the route information to the final response destination is also included.

“Command ID” is identification information for identifying a managed command. “Status” is data indicating the progress of processing related to the managed side command. When processing progresses, “Unprocessed” → “Waiting for response” → “Response received” or when there is a delay notification “Unprocessed” → “waiting for response” → “response delay” → “response received” transitions.
The “command execution result notification destination” is reference information indicating a module that, when receiving a response to the managed-side command described in the sheet, notifies that fact and executes a necessary process. The module to be referenced is often a handler that registers the managed-side command, but this is not necessarily the case.
The “output parameter” stores the contents when the command response is received. It is empty until a command response from the management apparatus 102 is received.
In addition, the sheet properties may be recorded.

38 shows data items to be described in each item when the command transfer handler 44 registers an image device command (for example, a SOAP request as shown in FIG. 16) received from the image processing apparatus 100 in the transfer command sheet. Indicates the acquisition source.
As shown in this figure, “command ID” and “source information” are extracted from the SOAP header of the SOAP request. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the former is described as an element of a “command ID” tag, and the latter is described as an element of a “transmission source” tag.

The “method name” is extracted from the SOAP body, but is generally described in the tag of the child element of the “Body” element. As the “input parameter”, the XML character string of the SOAP body is registered as it is. In this case, it is not necessary to interpret the contents of the SOAP body.
Then, “unprocessed” is registered as an initial value in “state”, and the command transfer handler 44 that created the command sheet is registered in “notification destination of command execution result”. The initial value of “output parameter” is empty as described above.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 36, the transmission message collection function unit 47 reads the managed command to be transferred to the management apparatus 102 from the managed command pool 46 in association with the command ID and the destination information (L2), The function of generating a transmission message from When the transfer priority is specified in the managed side command, it is conceivable that the transmission message collection function unit 47 reads in order from the highest transfer priority.

The transmission message is a description of the command response, command, and command ID described above as a SOAP message in XML (Extensible Markup Language) that is a structured language. Then, the transmission message collection function unit 47 generates one SOAP message as a transmission message for one command. At this time, the command ID, transmission source information, and destination information of each command are described in the SOAP header, and the contents of the managed command are described in the SOAP body. In communication using SOAP, a message called a SOAP envelope (envelope) composed of a SOAP header and a SOAP body is written in XML and exchanged using a protocol such as HTTP.
Generation of a SOAP message from such a command can be performed by executing a required conversion program (serializer) generated based on Web Service Description Language (WSDL) and serializing the data. Note that a serializer is not necessary for the portion in which the XML character string is registered as it is in the transfer command sheet.

The HTTP client function unit 45 includes an HTTP request transmission function unit 45a and an HTTP response reception function unit 45b as in the case of the first embodiment.
The HTTP request transmission function unit 45a has a function of generating an HTTP request in which the transmission message generated by the transmission message collection function unit 47 is described and transmitting it to the management apparatus 102 (L3, L4). At this time, any number of transmission messages may be included in one HTTP request. Of course, transmission messages related to commands of different transmission sources may be mixed.
Therefore, the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a transmits all the transmission messages generated by the transmission message collection function unit 47 in one HTTP request regardless of the type of command and the transmission source. However, it is also conceivable to set an upper limit on the number of transmission messages included in one HTTP request.

By the way, this HTTP request is transmitted when the transmission message collection function unit 47 attempts to read out the managed-side command, command response, or the like, there is no data to be read, and consequently no SOAP message to be transmitted is generated. This is also the case. This reading attempt is made periodically. For example, it is possible to read out every 60 minutes by a timer.
This is because, as described above, even if there is information desired to be transmitted from the management apparatus 102 to the mediation apparatus 101, transmission is not possible unless communication is requested from the mediation apparatus 101. Even if there is no data to be transmitted from the mediation device 101, the communication request is periodically transmitted to the management device 102, and the opportunity is transmitted from the management device 102 to the mediation device 101. The necessary information can be prevented from staying in the management apparatus 102 for a long period of time.

It goes without saying that the reading by the transmission message collection function unit 47 and the subsequent transmission of the HTTP request by the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a may be appropriately performed in addition to the periodic timing. For example, when information that needs to be urgently transmitted is registered in the managed-side command pool 46, each handler 43a, 44 of the action handler group 43 notifies the transmission message collection function unit 47 of the fact and reads it out. You may make it let.
The HTTP request transmission function unit 45a also has a function of transmitting various SOAP requests, which are transferred from the command transfer handler 44 and to be transferred to the image processing apparatus 100, to the image processing apparatus 100 in the HTTP request (M2). . In this case, one SOAP request is described for one HTTP request.

  The HTTP response reception function unit 45b receives an HTTP response transmitted from the management apparatus 102, passes the received HTTP response to the received message distribution function unit 48 (L5 and L6), and the image processing apparatus 100 transmits the response. It has a function of receiving an incoming HTTP response and passing it to the command transfer handler 44 (M3, M4). Here, the HTTP response transmitted by the image processing apparatus 100 describes one SOAP response as in the case of the first embodiment, but the HTTP response transmitted by the management apparatus 102 includes Any number of received messages by a SOAP message including a response to the managed side command and a command ID and transmission source information associated with the command are included.

The received message distribution function unit 48 has a function of distributing and registering data included in the HTTP response received by the HTTP response reception function unit 45b in an appropriate transfer command sheet stored in the managed command pool 46. (L7).
Specifically, the response to the managed command included in the HTTP response received from the management apparatus 102 is registered as an “output parameter” for the corresponding managed command. At that time, the command ID associated with the command can be compared with the command ID of the command sheet for transfer stored in the managed command pool 46 to identify the corresponding managed command.

  At this time, the HTTP response is divided and each received message included therein is extracted, and the data is converted into a format necessary for registration in the table. This conversion is a required conversion generated based on WSDL. This can be done by executing a program (deserializer). When the response is transferred to the image processing apparatus 100, the XML character string may be directly registered as an output parameter for the part other than the “result” element in the SOAP body, and this part is determined by the deserializer. No processing is necessary.

The response status management function unit 49 is a means for managing the reception status of command responses to commands registered in the managed command pool 46. When there is a command for which a response has not been received after transfer to the management apparatus 102, a function for performing control to shorten the command read cycle by the transmission message collection function unit 47, that is, the access cycle to the management apparatus 102 Have
Although explanation is omitted here, the mediation apparatus 101 receives an HTTP request transmitted from the management apparatus 102 as a SOAP request related to a command (management apparatus command) from the management apparatus 102 to the mediation apparatus 101 or the image processing apparatus 100. It also has a function of receiving in the state described in the response or transmitting a SOAP response related to the response to the command to the management apparatus 102 in the HTTP request.

  At this time, the received management device command is registered in the management device command pool (not shown) by the received message distribution function unit 48, and notification to that effect is sent to the action handler corresponding to the command to execute the processing related to the command. It is good to do so. Then, the result may be registered in the management device command pool so as to correspond to the management device command, and the transmission message collection function unit 47 may read and return it to the management device 102.

Next, FIG. 39 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of functions for performing processing related to commands and command responses among the functions of the management apparatus 102. Each function shown in FIG. 39 is realized by the CPU in the control device 126 executing a required control program to control the operation of each part of the management device 102.
In addition, among the functions shown in FIG. 39, the function of the HTTP server function unit 141 is realized by the CPU in the control device 126 and the external connection I / F 123. The functions of the action handler group 143, the transmission message collection function unit 147, the reception message distribution function unit 148, and the response status management function unit 149 are realized by the CPU in the control device 126. The managed-side command pool 150 is provided in a memory in the control device 126.

These functions will be described in further detail.
First, the HTTP server function unit 141 includes an HTTP request reception function unit 141a and an HTTP response transmission function unit 141b as in the case of the first embodiment.
The HTTP request reception function unit 141a has a function of receiving an HTTP request transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 and passing it to the reception message distribution function unit 148 (N1, N2). Here, the HTTP request transmitted by the mediation apparatus 101 includes a SOAP message including a managed command, a command ID associated with the command, and transmission source information.

Further, the HTTP response transmission function unit 141b has a function of generating an HTTP response in which the transmission message generated by the transmission message collection function unit 147 is described, and transmitting it to the mediation apparatus 101 as a communication response to the received HTTP request (N7, N8). At this time, any number of transmission messages may be included in one HTTP request. Of course, responses to commands of different transmission sources may be mixed.
Therefore, the HTTP response transmission function unit 141b transmits all the transmission messages generated by the transmission message collection function unit 147 in one HTTP response regardless of the type of command and the transmission source. However, it is also conceivable to place an upper limit on the number of transmission messages included in one HTTP response.

Further, the received message distribution function unit 148 has a function of registering data included in the HTTP request received by the HTTP request reception function unit 141a by providing a managed command sheet in the managed command pool 150 (N3). .
The managed-side command pool 150 is a pool that registers the managed-side commands in association with responses to these commands, identification information of the commands, information on the command transmission source, and the like.

Here, FIG. 40 shows an example of the data structure in the managed command sheet of the management apparatus 102.
As shown in this figure, in the management apparatus 102, the command sheet to be managed includes “command ID”, “transmission source information”, “method name”, “input parameter”, “status”, “command notification”. An area for storing data of “first” and “output parameter” is provided. Of these, “command ID”, “method name”, and “input parameter” correspond to the managed command (and the ID assigned thereto), and “status” and “command notification destination” are management information. It corresponds to. The “output parameter” is the content of the command response generated by the action handler of the action handler group 143. In addition, the sheet properties may be recorded.

  The contents of these items are generally the same as those in the transfer command sheet of the mediation apparatus 101. However, “command notification destination” is reference information indicating a module for executing the managed-side command described in the sheet. The transition of “state” is “unprocessed” → “process completed” → “response completed”, or “not processed” → “delay not notified” → “waiting for processing” → “process” “Medium” → “Processing completed” → “Response completed”.

In FIG. 41, the managed-side command (for example, a SOAP request as shown in FIG. 18) received from the intermediary device 101 is described in each item when the received message distribution function unit 148 registers it in the managed-side command sheet. Indicates the source of data to be acquired.
As shown in this figure, “command ID” and “source information” are extracted from the SOAP header of the SOAP request. In the example shown in FIG. 18, the former is described as an element of a “command ID” tag, and the latter is described as an element of a “transmission source” tag.

Further, “method name” and “input parameter” are each extracted from the SOAP body. At this time, the data of the SOAP body is converted into a format necessary for registration in the table. This conversion can be performed by executing a required conversion program (deserializer) generated based on WSDL.
Then, “unprocessed” is registered as an initial value in “status”, and a handler table as described with reference to FIG. 31 in the first embodiment is registered in “notification destination of command execution result”. Prepare an action handler and register an action handler to execute the process related to the command. The initial value of “output parameter” is empty as described above.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 39, the action handler group 143 has a plurality of action handlers as in the first embodiment. However, the result inquiry handler 144 is unnecessary, and each handler obtains necessary information from the managed command sheet of the managed command pool 150 based on the notification from the received message distribution function unit 148 ( N4) The process related to the managed command is performed based on the information, and after the process is completed, the response is registered in the same managed command sheet (N5), which is different from the case of the first embodiment.

  Further, the transmission message collection function unit 147 reads a response to the managed command to be transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101 from the managed command pool 150 in association with the command ID and the destination information (N6), and transmits from this It has a function to generate a message. When the transmission priority is specified in the response, it is conceivable that the transmission message collection function unit 147 reads in order from the transmission priority higher.

The transmission message collection function unit 147 attempts to read out the command response when it receives an HTTP request from the mediation apparatus 101. This is because an HTTP request cannot be transmitted from the management device 102 to the mediation device 101 through the firewall 104 even if reading is attempted in other situations, and thus the transmission message cannot be transferred to the mediation device 101. The transmission of the HTTP response is also performed when the transmission message collection function unit 147 tries to read out the command response or the like, and there is no data to be read and consequently the SOAP message to be transmitted is not generated. It is.
The response status management function unit 149 is a means for managing the generation and transmission status of command responses to commands registered in the managed command pool 150.

Although not described here, the management apparatus 102 transmits a SOAP request related to a command (management apparatus command) to the mediation apparatus 101 or the image processing apparatus 100 to the mediation apparatus 101 in a state described in the HTTP response. Or a function of receiving a SOAP response relating to a response to the command from the mediation apparatus 101 in a state described in the HTTP request.
At this time, the generated management device command may be registered in the management device command pool (not shown) by the action handler that generated the command, and the transmission message collection function unit 147 may collect and transmit the management device command. If a response is received, the received message distribution function unit 148 registers the response in the management device command pool so as to correspond to the management device command, and notifies the appropriate action handler to that effect and responds to the response. It is advisable to let the process be performed.

  By providing each function as described above in the mediation apparatus 101 and the management apparatus 102, the mediation apparatus 101 receives and manages operation requests from the plurality of image processing apparatuses 100 as in the case of the first embodiment. When the management device 102 is ready to transmit a response to any of the commands transferred so far when the management device 102 is accessed, and the transfer procedure for transferring to the device 102, the response is received. It is possible to execute the reception procedure and the second transfer procedure for transferring the response to the transmission source of the command corresponding to the response when the response is received in the procedure. The function of the image processing apparatus 100 is the same as that in the first embodiment.

Next, FIG. 42 shows an example of an HTTP request transmitted from the mediation apparatus 101 having such a function to the management apparatus 102.
In this HTTP request, as shown in FIG. 42, a multi-part message according to MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) is described as a body part, and an entity header is described in each part, and detailed information is provided. Although not shown, a SOAP envelope is embedded. The contents of the SOAP envelope naturally differ according to the contents of the command and command response.
In the example of FIG. 42, each element divided by “MIME_boundary” forms an independent first part, second part, third part, and fourth part in the HTTP body of the HTTP request. The number of parts that can be included in the HTTP body is not limited to four. Any number is possible including zero.
The SOAP envelope embedded and delivered in the HTTP request includes a description of a managed command and a description of a response to a management device command.

FIG. 43 shows an example of an HTTP response received from the management apparatus 102 by the mediation apparatus 101 having such a function.
As shown in FIG. 43, this HTTP response is different in format only from the HTTP request shown in FIG. 42 and the HTTP header part, and the body part is not shown in detail as in the case of the HTTP request. However, a multi-part SOAP envelope according to MIME is described. The contents of the SOAP envelope naturally differ according to the contents of the command and command response.
The SOAP envelope embedded and delivered in the HTTP response includes a management device command and a response to the managed command.

The HTTP request and HTTP response in the above format are one message that can be transferred, and a plurality of SOAP envelopes of each part can be combined and generated without changing the format. Further, by dividing the HTTP request and HTTP response in such a format and taking out the SOAP envelope of each part, it is possible to transfer each SOAP envelope in a separate HTTP request or HTTP response.
In addition to the SOAP envelope, each part includes an entity header indicating the contents of the part. Among these, the “X-SOAP-Type” header describes information indicating whether the SOAP message described in this part is a SOAP request or a SOAP response. If a part is a SOAP request part, the value of the “X-SOAP-Type” header of that part is “Request”, and if a part is a SOAP response part, the “X-SOAP” of that part -Type "header value is" Response ".

  The “SOAPAction” header indicates the content of the SOAP request. In this example, the content of the request is indicated by a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) “http: // www. Since the “SOAPAction” header is not added when the SOAP message is a SOAP response, whether the SOAP message of each part is a SOAP request or a SOAP response depending on the presence or absence of this header on the message receiving side. Can also be judged.

Further, in order to efficiently realize each function as described above, a method prepared in each device may be created according to a certain rule slightly different from the case of the first embodiment. Next, this point will be described.
First, as a specific example, consider a “paper order” command as described with reference to Table 1 in the first embodiment. In this case, assuming that the command name is “paper order” and “product name” and “quantity” are passed as arguments (input parameters), a method having specifications as shown in Table 3 may be prepared in each device. In this table, the underline indicates a portion that should be shared for different types (names) of methods.

Also in this embodiment, since the communication sequence between the image processing apparatus 100 and the mediation apparatus 101 is the same as in the first embodiment, the method to be prepared is also the same as in the first embodiment. is there.
However, the management apparatus 102 does not provide a “paper order result inquiry” method, but only “paper order”. In this case, the output parameter of the “paper order” method includes “charge” which is an output parameter unique to the “paper order” method. Further, even if the reception number is not prepared on the management apparatus 102 side, the correspondence between the command for invoking a method and the response to the command can be easily grasped by the command ID. Therefore, in this embodiment, the “reception number” as in the first embodiment is not necessary.

  Table 4 shows the conventions to be followed by each of these methods. In this table, the underlined portion indicates a portion that should be determined according to the type of command, and the other portions indicate portions that are preferably common regardless of the type of command. In the example shown in Table 3, “request name” corresponds to “paper order”, “request parameter” corresponds to “product name” and “quantity”, and “request result” corresponds to “fee”. To do.

  A specific example of a SOAP message (SOAP envelope) transmitted and received by each device when the paper order command described using Table 3 as an image device command is issued to the management device 102 will be described in the first embodiment. The figure is substantially the same as that shown in FIGS. However, in this embodiment, since the result inquiry command is not used, a message related to the command and a response to the command is not transmitted / received. Further, in response to the change of the “paper order” method in the management apparatus 102, the format of the SOAP message in response to the image device command transferred to the management apparatus 102 is slightly different from that in the first embodiment.

FIG. 44 shows an example of a response to the paper order command transmitted from the management apparatus 102 to the mediation apparatus 101.
Also in this example, the namespace declaration and the contents of the SOAP header are the same as those in the example of the SOAP response related to the receipt notification of the paper order command shown in FIG.
However, the SOAP body is different from the first embodiment in that the processing result itself (“result” and “fee”) is returned as a response to the paper order command. In this embodiment, such a response is possible because the HTTP request / response and the SOAP request / response do not have to correspond one-to-one. This is because it is not necessary to return.

FIG. 45 shows another example of the SOAP response related to the response to the paper order command.
This example is an example in the case where the processing according to the paper order command is completed in the management apparatus 102, but the result is an error. Here, there is no stock of paper related to the order as the content of the “result” tag. “Out of stock” indicating that the order could not be accepted.
The attributes of the “Envelope” tag and the contents of the SOAP header are the same as in FIG.
Note that in the case where an error occurs when the paper order command is received in the management apparatus 102, the fact is described in the response to the paper order command in the first embodiment as shown in FIG. This embodiment also has the same format.

Next, processing executed in the mediation apparatus 101 having the configuration and functions described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. The processing shown in these flowcharts is performed by the CPU 52 of the mediation apparatus 101 executing a required control program.
First, among the processes performed to realize the function related to the transfer of the image device command as described above in the mediating apparatus 101 in FIG. 46, the process executed when the HTTP server function unit 41 receives a communication request The flowchart of is shown.

  This process is an HTTP server thread process for causing the mediation apparatus 101 to function as an HTTP server, and is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. Then, when there is a communication request to the HTTP server function unit 41, the CPU 52 creates this thread and starts the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. Further, this processing corresponds to the processing described with reference to FIG. 29 in the first embodiment, and the processing in steps S101 to S106 is the same as the processing in steps S1 to S6 in FIG. .

Then, the processing when there is no handler in step S104 and the received image device command is to be transferred to the management apparatus 102 is different from the case of FIG.
That is, in this case, a transfer command sheet is created based on the received SOAP request in step S107, and the created transfer command sheet is registered in the managed command pool 46 in step S108. In step S109, an HTTP response describing a SOAP response (for example, the one shown in FIG. 17) related to the command reception notification is transmitted to the image processing apparatus 100.

  Through the above processing, the mediation apparatus 101 accepts a command from the image processing apparatus 100. If the command is a command to be processed by itself, the mediation apparatus 101 performs a process and returns a response, and accepts a command that cannot be processed by itself. After the notification is returned, the transfer to the management apparatus 102 can be prepared. Further, in the above processing, step S109 is processing of a reception notification procedure, and in this processing, the CPU 52 functions as a reception notification means.

  Next, FIGS. 47 and 48 are flowcharts of processing of a transfer thread that is executed to realize a function of transferring an image device command received by the mediation apparatus 101 to the management apparatus 102. FIG. This processing is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. 36, mainly as the transmission message collection function unit 47 and the reception message distribution function unit 48. Then, the CPU 52 starts processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 47 when it is time to access the management apparatus 102 periodically.

  In this process, the CPU 52 of the mediation apparatus 101 firstly, in step S111, commands and commands registered in the managed command sheet whose “status” is “unsent” from the managed command pool 46. Collect IDs. The “status” of “not transmitted” indicates that the command has not been transmitted to the management apparatus 102 after being registered in the managed command pool 46, and is transmitted to the management apparatus 102 based on this. You can extract commands to be used. At this time, the image device command and the mediation device command are handled without distinction.

  Thereafter, the processes in steps S112 to S114 are repeated for all the managed-side commands collected in step S111. In this part of the processing, first, in step S112, the target managed command, its command ID and transmission source information, and the XML document (SOAP envelope) in which these information are included in the SOAP body and the SOAP header, respectively. In step S113, an entity header is added to this to generate a part related to the target managed command. In step S114, the “status” of the managed command sheet that describes the target managed command is changed to “wait for response”. The “status” of “waiting for response” indicates that the command has been transmitted to the management apparatus 102 and the response has not been received yet.

After all these are completed, in step S115, the CPU 52 merges the parts generated in step S113, generates a multi-part HTTP request as shown in FIG. 42, and functions of the HTTP request transmission function unit 45a. To the management apparatus 102.
When there is an untransmitted response to the management device command in the management device command pool, a response part is also created and described in the same HTTP request and transmitted to the management device 102. Further, the change of the “state” performed in step S114 may be performed after the transmission is actually completed. By doing so, even if a communication error occurs, the command that was about to be transmitted can be sent again, so that the reliability of the system is improved.

This completes the processing related to the transmission of the HTTP request, and proceeds to the processing in FIG.
In step S116, an HTTP response is received from the management apparatus 102 using the function as the HTTP response reception function unit 45b. In step S117, the HTTP body of the HTTP response is analyzed and divided into parts. Here, the division into parts is to divide into elements divided by “MIME_boundary”, and here, all parts are divided. Then, the following steps S118 to S127 are repeated for each part obtained here. Here, it is assumed that each part is a response part to the managed side command.

In this case, first, the SOAP header of the target part is analyzed in step S118, and in step S119, a command sheet for transfer corresponding to the response of the target part is received from the managed command pool 46 using the command ID in the SOAP header as a key. Search for.
In step S120, it is determined whether the command described in the found command sheet is a transfer command, that is, an image device command received from the image processing apparatus 100 and transferred to the management apparatus 102. If YES, the “result” element is extracted from the SOAP body of the target part in step S121, and the contents are registered in the “result” item of the transfer command sheet extracted in step S122. In step S123, the part other than the “result” of the SOAP body is registered as an “other output parameter” item as an XML character string. That is, in this case, since the process according to the response is not performed by itself and the response is transferred to another device, it is not necessary to interpret the entire content of the response.

On the other hand, if “NO” in the step S120, the entire SOAP body of the target part is analyzed in a step S126, and the contents are registered in the “output parameter” item of the transfer command sheet extracted in a step S127.
After step S123 or S127, the process proceeds to step S124, and the “status” of the transfer command sheet in which the response is registered is changed to “response received”. The “status” of “response received” indicates that a response to the command has been received from the management apparatus 102.

Thereafter, the fact that the response has been received is notified to the handler described in the “command execution result notification destination” of the transfer command sheet in which the response is registered, and the handler performs processing in response to the reception of the response. At this time, if the command is an image device command, the subject of notification is the command transfer handler 44, and the processing according to reception of the response is processing of a result notification thread shown in FIG.
When the above processing is completed for all the parts obtained in step S117, the processing of the transfer thread is completed.
If there is a management device command part in the received HTTP response, a management device command sheet is created and this command is registered in the management device command pool. It is good to notify and to make the process which concerns on a command perform.

  Through the above processing, the image device command received from the image processing apparatus 100 can be transferred to the management apparatus 102 and the execution result of the image apparatus command transferred to the management apparatus 102 can be received. When the management apparatus 102 is ready to transmit responses to a plurality of commands transferred so far, a plurality of these operation responses can be received together. Also, the processing of the HTTP server thread and the processing of the portion shown in FIG. 47 among the processing of this transfer thread are the processing of the transfer procedure, and in this processing, the CPU 52 functions as a transfer means. Further, the processing of the portion shown in FIG. 48 is processing of a receiving procedure, and in this processing, the CPU 52 functions as a receiving unit.

Next, FIG. 49 shows a flowchart of processing of a transfer timing setting thread for the mediation apparatus 101 to set access timing to the management apparatus 102. This processing is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as the response status management function unit 49 shown in FIG.
The CPU 52 starts processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 49 at an appropriate timing, and starts managing access timing to the management apparatus 102. In step S301, the process waits until an HTTP response reception event is received from the management apparatus 102. If there is this event, the process proceeds to step S 302, where it is determined whether or not a transfer command sheet whose “status” is “processing wait” is stored in the managed command pool 46. That is, it is determined whether there is a managed command that has been transmitted to the management apparatus 102 and has not received a response.

  If there is, the transfer thread execution interval is set to a short time in step S303 to shorten the access interval to the management apparatus 102, and if not, the execution interval is set to a long time in step S304 to increase the access interval. Then, it returns to step S301 and repeats a process. Note that the determination in step S302 may be performed after the distribution of the received message received in the state described in the HTTP response is completed.

  By performing the processing as described above, after a managed-side command is transmitted to the management apparatus 102, a response to all the managed-side commands transmitted to the management apparatus 102 is shorter than other periods. The server can be accessed at intervals. In this way, the command is normally managed while the system is operated with the access interval to the management apparatus 102 set to a somewhat longer period such as once an hour in consideration of reduction of network traffic. After transmission to 102, it is possible to take measures such as shortening the access interval so that a response can be received as early as possible. Therefore, it is possible to reduce network traffic while maintaining communication efficiency to some extent.

  Note that the access interval may be controlled more finely than the conditions shown in FIG. Further, for example, even when a command that takes extremely long processing time is transmitted to the management apparatus 102, if access is repeated at a short interval until a response is obtained, communication traffic will be increased. Therefore, in such a case, the management apparatus 102 may return a delay notification and notify that the command processing takes time. Then, even if there are managed commands that have been sent but have not received a response, the mediation device 101 side should increase the access interval to the management device 102 if all of them have received delay notifications. It is possible to control.

  Next, FIG. 50 shows a flowchart of processing of a result notification thread executed by the mediation apparatus 101 to realize a function of notifying the image processing apparatus 100 of the execution result of the image device command. This processing is executed by the CPU 52 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. 36, mainly as the command transfer handler 44. Then, the CPU 52 creates this thread when the command transfer handler 44 is notified in step S125 in FIG. 48 that the response to the image device command has been registered in the managed command pool 46, and FIG. The processing shown in the flowchart is started.

The contents of this process are the contents of the transfer command sheet for the image device command whose processing result should be notified to the image processing apparatus 100 in step S131, and the result notification based on the contents in step S133 or S136. The contents are substantially the same as the contents of steps S36 to S42 in FIG. 33 except that the SOAP request is generated.
Accordingly, although detailed description is omitted, the mediation apparatus 101 can notify the image processing apparatus 100 of the execution result of the image device command by performing the processing of the result inquiry thread. In this process, steps S134 and S137 are processes of the second transfer procedure, and here, the CPU 52 functions as a second transfer means.

  Each thread described above does not need to be erased at the end of the process, and may be kept in a standby state until a new start trigger exists after the process ends. In addition, the modifications described in the first embodiment can be applied as appropriate. However, for the transfer thread, it is preferable not to provide a plurality of threads at the same time for the convenience of managing the access interval to the management apparatus 102.

Next, processing executed in the management apparatus 102 having the configuration and functions described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. The processing shown in these flowcharts is performed by the CPU in the control device 126 executing a required control program.
First, FIG. 51 and FIG. 52 are flowcharts of processing performed to realize a function related to transmission / reception of a SOAP message with the mediation apparatus 101.

This processing is executed by the CPU in the control device 126 functioning as each unit shown in FIG. Then, the CPU in the control device 126 starts the processing shown in this flowchart when a communication request is received from the mediation device 101 to the HTTP server function unit 141.
In this process, first, in step S201, an HTTP request is received from the mediation apparatus 101. In step S202, the HTTP body of the received HTTP request is divided into parts. Here, the division into parts is to divide into elements divided by “MIME_boundary”, and here, all parts are divided.

Thereafter, the processes in steps S203 and S204 are repeated for all the parts obtained by the division in order. In this part of processing, first, in step S203, a managed command sheet is created based on the SOAP request of the target part as described with reference to FIG. 41, and the created managed side is created in step S204. Register the command sheet in the managed command pool 150. These processes are based on the function of the received message distribution function unit 148.
If there is a response part to the management device command in the received HTTP request, the management device command sheet of the command corresponding to the response is extracted from the management device command pool, and the response content is registered in the command sheet. At the same time, it is preferable to notify the handler described in “Notification destination of command execution result” to execute the processing related to the received command response.

  When the processing in steps S203 and S204 is completed for all parts, the processing proceeds to step S205 in FIG. 52, and is registered in the managed command sheet whose “status” is “processing completed” from the managed command pool 150. Collecting commands and command IDs. The “status” of “processing completed” indicates that the processing related to the command has been completed and a response has been registered in the managed command pool 150 and has not yet been transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101. The response to be transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101 can be extracted based on the above.

  And the process of step S206 thru | or S208 is repeated about all the commands collected here. In this part of the processing, first, in step S206, the output parameter (response) related to the target managed command, its command ID, and transmission source information are included in the SOAP body and SOAP header, respectively. In step S207, an entity header is added to the XML document (SOAP envelope) to generate a part related to the response to the target command. In step S208, the “status” of the managed command sheet that describes the target managed command is changed to “responded”. “Status” of “Responded” indicates that a command response has been transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101.

After all of these are completed, the CPU in the control device 126 merges the parts generated in step S207 in step S209 to generate a multipart HTTP response as shown in FIG. 43, and in step S210. The HTTP response is transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101 by the function as the HTTP response transmission function unit 141b, and the process ends.
If there is an untransmitted management device command in the management device command pool, a part of the command may be created and transmitted to the management device 102 in the same HTTP request. Further, the change of the “state” performed in step S208 may be performed after the transmission is actually completed. In this way, even if a communication error occurs, the command response that was about to be transmitted can be sent again, so that the reliability of the system is improved.

  As a result of the above processing, when the management device 102 is accessed from the mediation device 101, if the response to any command received from the mediation device 101 can be transmitted, the response is sent to the mediation device 101. Can be sent. Further, the processing of steps S205 to S210 is the processing of the transmission procedure, and in this portion of the processing, the CPU in the control device 126 functions as a transmission means.

Next, FIG. 53 shows a flowchart of processing relating to execution of the managed side command in the management apparatus 102.
As processing related to execution of the managed side command, first, the CPU in the control device 126 performs the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 53 after the processing of step S204 shown in FIG. It may be performed immediately after registration in the side command pool 150.

In this process, first, in step S221, the managed handler is called based on the “command notification destination” information of the managed command sheet for the registered managed command, and the “input parameter” data To execute the process related to the managed command. The processing related to the managed side command is not shown in this flowchart, but is executed separately by the CPU in the control device 126.
When this is completed, the execution result is registered in the “output parameter” item of the managed command sheet in step S222, and the “status” of the managed command sheet is changed to “processing completed” in step S223. Returning to the original process of FIG. 51, indicating that the process has been completed.
By performing the above processing, when a managed command is received from the intermediary device 101, the operation related to the command is executed, and the result is generated as a command response so that it can be transmitted to the intermediary device 101. be able to.

  FIG. 54 shows a flowchart of another example of processing related to execution of the managed side command. This process is performed independently of the process shown in FIG. 51. When this process is used, the CPU in the control device 126 starts the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 54 at an appropriate timing.

In this process, first, in step SX1, it is determined whether or not there is a managed command sheet whose “status” is “waiting for processing” in the managed command pool 150. Wait for the command sheet to be added. When such a managed command sheet is found, one of them is set as a processing target in step SX2, and the “status” of the managed command sheet is changed to “processing”.
Thereafter, the processes in steps S221 to S223 similar to those in FIG. 53 are performed to execute the managed command described in the managed command sheet to be processed. When this is completed, the process returns to step SX1 to repeat the process.

  The above processing may be performed simultaneously by a plurality of threads (for example, 4 threads). Since the “status” of the managed command sheet to be processed is not “waiting for processing”, even if processing is performed simultaneously by multiple threads, one managed command sheet is duplicated as the processing target. There is nothing.

If the processing as described above is performed, the managed-side command can be executed at an arbitrary timing. Therefore, even if there is a command that takes a long time to execute, the subsequent processing is not delayed. Then, in order from the end of execution, the result can be sent to the mediation apparatus 101 as a command response.
This is the end of the description of the processing related to the transfer of each command and command response executed in the management apparatus 102.
Note that the processing related to the transfer of each command and command response executed in the image processing apparatus 100 is the same as that in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Here, in the remote management system described above with reference to FIG. 55, a series of processing performed in each device from when the image processing device 100 generates an image device command to the management device 102 until receiving a response to the command is performed. Show.
Since each of the processes shown in this figure is one of the processes already described, detailed description will be omitted. However, in the remote management system described above, by performing such a process, the image processing apparatus Transmission and reception of commands and command responses between the management device 102 and the management device 102 can be performed by the mediation device 101.

FIG. 56 shows an example of a communication sequence between the respective apparatuses from when the image processing apparatus 100 generates an image device command to the management apparatus 102 until receiving a response to the command in the remote management system described above.
In this example, first, the image processing apparatus 100 generates an image device command for the management apparatus 102, describes this in the HTTP request x, and transmits it to the mediation apparatus 101. Then, the intermediary device 101 determines that this should not be executed by the processing of the HTTP server thread, registers it in the transfer command sheet, describes the reception notification in the HTTP response to the HTTP request x, and performs image processing. Return to device 100.

  On the other hand, the intermediary device 101 separately transfers the image device command to be transferred to the management device 102 and the command generated by the mediation device 101 in the same HTTP request by the transfer thread processing to the management device 102. To do. Here, first, the HTTP request X corresponds to the HTTP request related to this transfer, and the image device command A received from the image processing apparatus 100 and the mediating apparatus command B generated by itself are described in the HTTP request X and the management apparatus 102.

Then, the management apparatus registers the received command in the managed command sheet and registers the execution result in the same sheet. However, if the response can be generated immediately, the HTTP response to the HTTP request in which the command is described The response can be described and transmitted to the mediation apparatus 101. Here, a response to the mediation device command B is described in the HTTP response X and transmitted.
However, a command that cannot immediately generate a response is transmitted to the mediation device 101 when an HTTP request is received from the mediation device 101 after the response is generated.

On the other hand, even if there is no information to be transmitted to the management apparatus 102, the mediation apparatus 101 can periodically transmit an HTTP request to the management apparatus 102 and receive information to be transmitted from the management apparatus 102 to the mediation apparatus 101. I can do it.
Here, the HTTP request Y corresponds to this, and if the response to the image device command A has been generated by the management device 102 up to this point, the management device 102 sets the image device to the HTTP response Y for the HTTP request Y. A response to the command A is described and returned to the mediation apparatus 101.

  In this case, even if any command is described in the HTTP request Y to be transmitted, a response to the image device command A is transmitted in the same manner. That is, the transmission of the command from the intermediary device 101 and the transmission of the command response from the management device 102 are basically performed independently, and any inquiry (here, an HTTP request) is sent from the mediation device 101 to the management device 102. When there is a command response generated on the management apparatus 102 side, a process of receiving this is performed. Of course, if responses are generated for a plurality of commands, they can be received all at once.

  When the mediation apparatus 101 receives a response to the image device command from the management apparatus 102, the intermediary apparatus 101 notifies the command processing source image processing apparatus 100 of the processing result described in the response by processing of a result notification thread. A result notification is generated and described in the HTTP request y to the image processing apparatus 100 and transmitted. Upon receiving this, the image processing apparatus 100 writes the reception notification in the HTTP response y, which is a response to the HTTP request, and transmits it to the mediation apparatus 101. Thus, the series of communication sequences related to the image device command A is completed. To do.

As described above, also in the remote management system of this embodiment, as in the case of the first embodiment, the image processing apparatus 100 provided inside the firewall 104 sends a command to the management apparatus 102 outside the firewall 104. When a response to the command is transmitted and a response to the command is received, the communication required for transferring the command response from the management apparatus 102 to the image processing apparatus 100 is required even if the processing corresponding to the command takes time. You can reduce the traffic while keeping the command from timing out.
In addition, the same effects as those of the first embodiment are obtained. Furthermore, since multiple commands can be sent with one HTTP request written, and multiple responses can be written with one HTTP response, they can be written separately in separate HTTP messages. In comparison with the first embodiment, the communication overhead is reduced, the amount of data to be transmitted is also reduced, and the communication load can be reduced as compared with the case of the first embodiment.

[Modification: FIG. 57]
Here, the modification applied to embodiment mentioned above is demonstrated.
In the above-described embodiment, SOAP is adopted as the upper protocol for realizing RPC, and the application directly operates the pool to realize RPC. However, CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) is provided between the application and the pool. Or a JAVA (registered trademark) RMI (Remote Method Invocation) bridge (message conversion function) may be provided to further improve application development efficiency.
That is, in each of the above-described embodiments, the exchange of commands and command responses between the nodes is performed by a SOAP message described in XML. However, the present invention is not limited to this and is described in another format. May be.

In the above-described embodiment, the managed device 10 and the image processing device 100 do not support a protocol (here, SOAP) used for transmission / reception of commands and command responses between the mediation device 101 and the management device 102. In this case, the mediation device 101 may convert the data format, and commands and command responses may be transmitted and received between these devices in a format supported by the managed device 10 and the image processing device 100. For example, when the image processing apparatus 100 supports only SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), it is conceivable that the mediation apparatus 101 converts an image device command into a MIB (Management Information Base) format and transfers it.
Further, there may be a limit on the information amount of commands and command responses to be transmitted / received. In particular, if the amount of information of commands to be received is limited, the amount of memory used can be suppressed when the receiving side is a device with a limited memory capacity.

  In the second embodiment described above, not only the SOAP standard protocol but also a unique protocol combining SOAP and MIME multipart is included in the HTTP request or HTTP response. The SOAP envelope is treated as completely independent, but the SOAP attachment defined as the related specification of SOAP links the SOAP envelope of the first part included in the HTTP response to the SOAP envelope of the second and subsequent parts. You may make it the structure which embeds and links | relates and delivers these. The same applies to the case of electronic mail using SMTP.

Furthermore, as an example of adopting HTTP as a data communication protocol positioned below a higher level protocol such as SOAP, an example has been described here. However, for this lower level protocol, other protocols such as SMTP and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) are also used. It may be adopted.
In addition, although the example in which the mediation apparatus 101 and the management apparatus 102 are connected via the Internet 103 has been described here, various communication paths that can perform network communication regardless of wired or wireless may be used. it can. Various communication paths other than the LAN can also be used between the mediation device 101, the managed mediation device 110, and the managed device 10.

Furthermore, the configuration of the communication system is not limited to that described above, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to communication systems other than the remote management system. The device to be managed is not limited to the image processing device.
For example, in the remote management system shown in FIG. 1, it is conceivable to configure a remote management system as shown in FIG. 57 by using a communication device provided with a communication function in various electronic devices as a managed device. In this figure, examples of managed devices include network home appliances such as a television receiver 12a and a refrigerator 12b, a medical device 12c, a vending machine 12d, a weighing system 12e, an air conditioning system 12f, an automobile 13a and an aircraft 13b. Yes.

Further, even in an apparatus that moves over a wide range, such as the automobile 13a and the aircraft 13b, the functions of the mediation device 101 and the firewall 104 are provided in the automobile and the aircraft itself, and are regarded as an installation environment, for example, for control installed in the automobile 13a. A computer, a navigation system, an ITS (Intelligent Transport System) terminal, or the like can be handled as a client.
Furthermore, as a configuration of the communication system, the client may correspond to a function such as a delay notification, or the server may be an apparatus that does not have a function of managing the client or the mediation device.
Further, it is possible to cope with a configuration in which intermediary devices are cascade-connected in multiple stages. Alternatively, the mediation device may be configured integrally with any one of the clients.

  In addition, the program according to the present invention controls a mediating apparatus that mediates communication between a server provided inside a firewall and a server provided outside the firewall and a plurality of clients provided inside the firewall. The above-described effects can be obtained by causing a computer to execute such a program.

Such a program may be stored in a storage means such as a ROM or HDD provided in the computer from the beginning, but a non-volatile recording such as a CD-ROM or flexible disk, SRAM, EEPROM, memory card or the like as a recording medium. It can also be recorded on a medium (memory) and provided. Each procedure described above can be executed by installing a program recorded in the memory in a computer and causing the CPU to execute the program, or causing the CPU to read and execute the program from the memory.
Furthermore, it is also possible to download and execute an external device that is connected to a network and includes a recording medium that records the program, or an external device that stores the program in the storage unit.

As described above, according to the intermediary device, communication system, communication method, program, or recording medium of the present invention, the client provided inside the firewall transmits an operation request to the server outside the firewall, and the operation When receiving an operation response to a request, even if the server takes time to process the operation request, the operation request is timed out while suppressing the communication traffic required for transferring the operation response from the server to the client. You can make it happen.
Therefore, by applying the present invention to such a communication system or an intermediary device that mediates communication in such a communication system, it is possible to configure a communication system that enables stable communication but has a low communication load. it can.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of embodiment of the communication system comprised using the mediation apparatus of this invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an operation request and an operation response in the communication system illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the remote management system which is 1st Example of this invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an operation request and an operation response in the remote management system illustrated in FIG. 3. It is a figure which similarly shows the example of the communication sequence between an image processing apparatus and a mediation apparatus. It is a figure which similarly shows the example of the communication sequence between a mediation apparatus and a management apparatus. It is a figure which shows the other example. It is a block diagram which shows the outline of the hardware constitutions of the management apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a hardware configuration of the image processing apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows the outline of the hardware constitutions of a mediation apparatus similarly.

It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the function for performing the process regarding a command and a command response among the functions of the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the function for performing the process regarding a command and a command response among the functions of an image processing apparatus. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the function for performing the process regarding a command and a command response among the functions of a management apparatus. It is a figure which similarly shows the example of the HTTP request which a mediation apparatus transmits to a management apparatus and an image processing apparatus. It is a figure which similarly shows the example of the HTTP response which a mediation apparatus receives from a management apparatus or an image processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the example of the SOAP request which concerns on the paper order command similarly transmitted from an image processing apparatus to a mediation apparatus. Similarly, it is a diagram illustrating an example of a SOAP response related to a receipt notification of a paper order command transmitted from the mediation apparatus to the image processing apparatus. Similarly, it is a diagram showing an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order command transmitted from the mediation device to the management device. Similarly, it is a diagram illustrating an example of a SOAP response related to a receipt notification of a paper order command transmitted from the management device to the mediation device. It is a figure which shows the other example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order result inquiry command transmitted from the mediation apparatus illustrated in FIG. 3 to the management apparatus. Similarly, it is a diagram showing an example of a SOAP response related to a response to a paper order result inquiry command transmitted from the management device to the mediation device. It is a figure which shows the other example. It is a figure which shows another example. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a SOAP request related to a paper order result notification command transmitted from the mediation apparatus illustrated in FIG. 3 to the image processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the other example. It is a figure which shows another example. It is a figure which shows the example of the SOAP response which concerns on the response with respect to a paper order result notification command. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the HTTP server thread which the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 3 performs. It is a figure for demonstrating the name space URI and method name which concern on a command.

It is a figure which shows the example of the handler table in the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which similarly shows the process of the transfer thread which a mediation apparatus performs. It is a flowchart which similarly shows the process of a result inquiry thread | sled. It is a figure which shows the processing sequence in the case of making the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 3 perform each process shown to FIG. 29, 32, and 33, and mediating transfer of the command with respect to the management apparatus from an image processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the example of the communication sequence between a mediation apparatus and the management apparatus in the remote management system of 2nd Example of this invention. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the function for performing the process regarding a command and a command response among the functions of the mediation apparatus in the remote management system. It is a figure which shows the structure of the command sheet for transfer in the mediation apparatus. It is a figure for demonstrating the acquisition place of the data which should be described in each item when the mediation apparatus registers the image apparatus command received from the image processing apparatus on the command sheet for transfer. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the function for performing the process regarding a command and a command response among the functions of the management apparatus in the remote management system of 2nd Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the to-be-managed side command sheet in the management apparatus.

It is a figure for demonstrating the acquisition destination of the data which should be described in each item, when the management apparatus registers the management side command received from the mediation apparatus to the management side command sheet. It is a figure which shows the example of the HTTP request which the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 36 transmits to the management apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure which similarly shows the example of the HTTP response which a mediation apparatus receives from a management apparatus. Similarly, it is a figure which shows the example of the response with respect to the paper order command transmitted to a mediation apparatus from a management apparatus. It is a figure which shows the other example. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the HTTP server thread which the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 36 performs. It is a flowchart which shows a part of process of the transfer thread which a mediation apparatus similarly performs. It is a flowchart which shows the subsequent process. 37 is a flowchart showing processing of a transfer timing setting thread executed by the mediation device shown in FIG. 36. It is a flowchart which similarly shows the process of the result notification thread | sled which an intermediary apparatus performs.

FIG. 40 is a flowchart showing a part of processing performed by the management apparatus shown in FIG. 39 in order to realize a function related to transmission / reception of a SOAP message with an intermediary apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the subsequent process. FIG. 40 is a flowchart showing a process related to execution of a managed side command executed by the management apparatus shown in FIG. 39. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the other example. In the remote management system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, a flow chart showing a series of processing performed in each device from when the image processing device generates an image device command to the management device until receiving a response to the command. . Similarly, it is a diagram showing an example of a communication sequence between devices from when the image processing device generates an image device command to the management device until receiving a response to the command. It is a figure which shows another structural example of the communication system shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

10: Managed devices 41, 141, 241: HTTP server function units 41a, 141a, 241a: HTTP request reception function units 41b, 141b, 241b: HTTP response transmission function units 42, 142, 242: Command distribution function units 43, 143 243: Action handler groups 43a, 143a, 243a: Action handler 44: Command transfer handler 45, 245: HTTP client function unit 45a, 245a: HTTP request transmission function unit 45b, 245b: HTTP response reception function unit 47, 147: Transmission Message collection function unit 48, 148: Received message distribution function unit 49, 149: Response status management function unit 52, 201: CPU 57, 206: PHY
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100: Image processing apparatus 101: Mediation apparatus 102: Management apparatus 103: Internet 104: Firewall 126: Control apparatus 144: Result inquiry handler 146: Command execution result storage function part

Claims (21)

An intermediary device that mediates communication between a server and a plurality of clients ,
First storage means for storing an operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request;
Second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request;
First receiving means for receiving an operation request from each client and storing the operation request in the first storage means;
The operation request to be transmitted to the server is read from the first storage unit, the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server is read from the second storage unit, and the operation request and the operation response are read from the server. First transmitting means for transmitting to
When the first transmission means has access to the server, at the server, what has become transmittable state in the operation response and operation request from the server to any of the operation request sent so far A second receiving means for receiving the operation response and the operation request , if any,
The operation response received by the first reception unit is stored in the first storage unit in association with the corresponding operation request, and the operation request received by the first reception unit is stored in the second storage. Distribution means to be stored in the means;
Second transmission means for reading out an operation response to be transmitted to the client from the first storage means and transmitting the response to the client;
Processing means for executing a process according to the operation request stored in the second storage means, obtaining an operation response to the operation request, and storing the response in association with the operation request in the second storage means; An intermediary device characterized by comprising The intermediary device according to claim 1,
When the first transmission means accesses the server, the second receiving means can transmit the operation response to any of the operation requests transmitted so far and the operation request from the server. An intermediary device, characterized in that when there are a plurality of devices in a certain state, the plurality of operation responses and operation requests are collectively received. The intermediary device according to claim 1 or 2,
It said first transmission means, said after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, whether or operation requests and operation responses to be transmitted to the server And a means for periodically accessing the server. The intermediary device according to claim 3,
It said first transmitting means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, accesses the server at intervals shorter than the other period mediating apparatus characterized by having means. The intermediary device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
An intermediary apparatus, comprising: a reception notification means for transmitting a reception notification to the client when an operation request is received from the client. A communication system comprising a server, a plurality of clients, and an intermediary device that mediates communication between the server and the plurality of clients ,
In the mediating device,
First storage means for storing an operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request;
Second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request;
First receiving means for receiving an operation request from each client and storing the operation request in the first storage means;
The operation request to be transmitted to the server is read from the first storage unit, the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server is read from the second storage unit, and the operation request and the operation response are read from the server. First transmitting means for transmitting to
When the first transmission means has access to the server, at the server, what has become transmittable state in the operation response and operation request from the server to any of the operation request sent so far A second receiving means for receiving the operation response and the operation request , if any,
The operation response received by the first reception unit is stored in the first storage unit in association with the corresponding operation request, and the operation request received by the first reception unit is stored in the second storage. Distribution means to be stored in the means;
Second transmission means for reading out an operation response to be transmitted to the client from the first storage means and transmitting the response to the client;
Processing means for executing a process according to the operation request stored in the second storage means, obtaining an operation response to the operation request, and storing the response in association with the operation request in the second storage means; Provided,
For each client,
Transmitting means for transmitting the operation request to the mediating device;
A receiving means for receiving an operation response to the transmitted operation request from the intermediary device;
To the server,
Third storage means for storing an operation request transmitted from the mediation device and an operation response to the operation request;
Fourth storage means for storing an operation request to be transmitted to the intermediary device and an operation response to the operation request;
Third receiving means for receiving an operation request and an operation response from the intermediary device;
The operation request received by the third receiving unit is stored in the third storage unit, and the operation response received by the third receiving unit is associated with the corresponding operation request in the fourth storage unit. Distribution means for storing;
Means for executing an action related to the action request stored in the third storage means to generate an action response, and storing the action response in association with the action request;
Means for generating an operation request to be transmitted to the intermediary device and storing it in the fourth storage means;
When accessed from the intermediary device, the third storage means reads out an operation response to any of the operation requests received from the intermediary device in a transmittable state, and the fourth storage means And a third transmission means for reading out the operation requests ready to be transmitted to the mediation device and transmitting the operation requests and the response to the mediation device . The communication system according to claim 6, wherein
When the first receiving means accesses the server, the second receiving means of the intermediary device, in the server, sends an operation response to any of the operation requests transmitted so far and an operation request from the server. If the ones out has become transmittable state there is a plurality, a means for receiving a plurality collectively their operation response and operation request,
When the transmission means of the server is accessed from the mediation device , if the operation response to the operation request received from the mediation device and a plurality of operation requests to be transmitted to the mediation device can be transmitted , those operations A communication system, characterized in that a plurality of responses and operation requests are transmitted to the intermediary device in a lump. The communication system according to claim 6 or 7,
In the intermediary device, the first transmission means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, the operation requests and the operation responses to be transmitted to the server A communication system characterized by being means for periodically accessing the server regardless of the presence or absence . The communication system according to claim 8, wherein
The first transmission means of the mediation device, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, the at shorter intervals than the other period A communication system comprising means for accessing a server. The communication system according to any one of claims 6 to 9,
When receiving an operation request from the client, the intermediary device is provided with a reception notification means for transmitting a reception notification to the client,
A communication system, wherein each client is provided with means for receiving the reception notification. A communication method in which communication between a server and a plurality of clients is mediated by an intermediary device ,
In the mediating device,
A procedure for preparing first storage means for storing an operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request;
A procedure for preparing second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request;
A first reception procedure for receiving an operation request from each of the clients and storing the operation request in the first storage unit;
The operation request to be transmitted to the server is read from the first storage unit, the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server is read from the second storage unit, and the operation request and the operation response are read from the server. A first transmission procedure to transmit to
When accessing the server by the first transmission procedure in the server, what has become transmittable state in the operation response and operation request from the server to any of the operation request sent so far A second reception procedure for receiving the operation response and the operation request , if any,
The operation response received in the first reception procedure is stored in the first storage unit in association with the corresponding operation request, and the operation request received by the first reception unit is stored in the second storage. A distribution procedure to be stored in the means;
A second transmission procedure for reading an operation response to be transmitted to the client from the first storage means and transmitting the response to the client;
A processing procedure for executing a process according to the operation request stored in the second storage means, obtaining an operation response to the operation request, and storing the response in the second storage means in association with the operation request; A communication method characterized in that the method is executed. The communication method according to claim 11, comprising:
When the second reception procedure to be executed by the mediation apparatus accesses the server in the first transmission procedure , the server receives an operation response to any of the operation requests transmitted so far, and from the server. A communication method characterized in that when there are a plurality of operation requests in a transmittable state, a plurality of operation responses and operation requests are collectively received. The communication method according to claim 11 or 12,
Said first transmission procedure, after sending the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, whether or operation request to be sent to the server and operating response And a procedure for periodically accessing the server. The communication method according to claim 13, comprising:
It said first transmission procedure, after sending the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, accesses the server at intervals shorter than the other period communication method characterized by having a step. The communication method according to any one of claims 11 to 14,
The intermediary apparatus, further comprising: a reception notification procedure for transmitting a reception notification to the client when an operation request is received from the client. A computer that controls an intermediary device that mediates communication between a server and a plurality of clients ;
First storage means for storing an operation request from the client and an operation response to the operation request;
Second storage means for storing an operation request from the server and an operation response to the operation request;
First receiving means for receiving an operation request from each client and storing the operation request in the first storage means;
The operation request to be transmitted to the server is read from the first storage unit, the operation response in a state that can be transmitted to the server is read from the second storage unit, and the operation request and the operation response are read from the server. First transmitting means for transmitting to
When the first transmission means has access to the server, at the server, what has become transmittable state in the operation response and operation request from the server to any of the operation request sent so far A second receiving means for receiving the operation response and the operation request , if any,
The operation response received by the first reception unit is stored in the first storage unit in association with the corresponding operation request, and the operation request received by the first reception unit is stored in the second storage. Distribution means to be stored in the means;
Second transmission means for reading out an operation response to be transmitted to the client from the first storage means and transmitting the response to the client;
As processing means for executing processing according to the operation request stored in the second storage means, obtaining an operation response to the operation request, and storing it in the second storage means in association with the operation request A program to make it work. The program according to claim 16, wherein
When the first transmission means accesses the server, the second receiving means can transmit the operation response to any of the operation requests transmitted so far and the operation request from the server. A program characterized by being means for collectively receiving a plurality of operation responses and operation requests when there are a plurality of items in a different state. The program according to claim 16 or 17,
It said first transmission means, said after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, whether or operation requests and operation responses to be transmitted to the server not, the program, which is a means for accessing periodically to the server. The program according to claim 18, wherein
It said first transmitting means, after transmitting the operation request to the server, until it receives an operational response to all the operation requests transmitted to the server, accesses the server at intervals shorter than the other period a program characterized by having means. A program according to any one of claims 16 to 19,
A program for causing the computer to function as reception notification means for transmitting a reception notification to the client when an operation request is received from the client.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to any one of claims 16 to 20 is recorded.

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