JP5206532B2 - System, message relay server, and terminal device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique in which a plurality of terminals perform a collaborative work such as a conference via a Web server.

  With the development of the Internet, it is a common practice for a user to browse a Web page arranged on the WWW (World Wide Web) using a Web browser mounted on a computer. In recent years, Web browsers have been mounted not only on PCs (Personal Computers) that are common as computers, but also on mobile phones, game terminals, television sets, video devices, and the like.

  Conventionally, a remote collaboration system has been proposed in which users who are remote from each other perform collaborative work such as a conference via a network. As a form of use of the remote collaboration system, there is a remote conference system in which users refer to and draw the same material or chart at the same time, and transmit / receive files to / from each other. In such a remote conference system, a group is formed in advance or temporarily between users, and operations performed on each terminal are exchanged as operation messages between users belonging to the group. By realizing the operation corresponding to the operation message at each terminal, a conference between users who are remotely separated is realized. The participation and period of such a group are managed as a session, and control is performed so that members of the session can exchange operation messages while the session continues.

  In general, in order to realize such a remote collaboration system, a program that operates on a terminal used by a user transmits an operation performed on the terminal as an uplink communication to another terminal as an operation message, and downloads it. It has a function of receiving an operation message transmitted from another terminal as communication and executing the operation content described in the message on its own terminal.

  Patent Document 1 proposes a remote collaboration system using a Web browser as a client program. In this system, every time the table data arranged on the Web server is updated, the URL is transmitted as a message to each terminal. In each terminal, the Web browser displays the updated table data by displaying the URL indicated by the message.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, operations such as scrolling, clicking, and text input performed by a user of a terminal on a Web page displayed by a Web browser are transmitted as messages to other terminals, and other messages are received. Has disclosed a system that synchronizes operations on a displayed Web page between terminals by reproducing operations according to the contents described in the message.

  In order to use the Web browser as a client program and synchronize operations in the remote collaboration system, the functions of message transmission processing (uplink communication) and reception processing (downlink communication) are implemented on the Web browser of each terminal. There is a need to. Since the Web browser does not have a function of directly communicating with the Web browser of another terminal, a means for relaying a message exchanged between Web browsers (hereinafter referred to as a message relay server) is usually mounted on the Web server. A message relay server relays messages between Web browsers.

  For communication between the Web browser and the Web server, an HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) protocol is used. In this protocol, a Web browser is basically a transmission source of a request, and the Web server receives the request from the Web browser and performs processing according to the request. Therefore, for the above-described message upstream communication, the Web browser normally sends a message to the message relay server using an HTTP request. On the other hand, downlink communication cannot be realized by ordinary means because there is no means for the message relay server to actively start communication toward the Web browser.

  Patent Document 2 proposes a technique for realizing downlink communication. In this method, the message relay server holds a message transmitted by each browser and transmitted by the browser, and the Web browser makes a request (hereinafter referred to as a request for downlink communication) to the message relay server at a predetermined interval for downlink communication. ). When the message relay server receives a downlink communication request from the Web browser, the message relay server transmits the retained message to the request source Web browser as a response to the request. Thereby, although not completely real time, downlink communication is realized with a delay of a predetermined interval, and each Web browser can acquire a message. This method is hereinafter referred to as a polling method.

  In a system to which the above polling method is applied, a message relay server cannot immediately send a message received by upstream communication from a web browser to another web browser, and periodically sends a request for downstream communication from the web browser. I need to wait. Further, regardless of whether or not there is already a message in the message relay server, each Web browser transmits the message to the server by upstream communication at an arbitrary timing. Therefore, it is necessary to provide the message relay server with a buffer for accumulating messages from the Web browser for a certain period. This buffer is normally implemented as a queue that accumulates messages received from the Web browser in the order received and transmits them in the order received when there is a downlink communication request from the Web browser.

JP 2003-259323 A JP-T-2002-514332

  In the case of a system in which many people can participate in a collaborative work session at the same time, not all web browsers participate in the session from the beginning of the session, and the number of web browsers participating during the session can be increased or decreased at any time. There is sex. Since the collaborative work is not possible unless the Web browser that participates in the session is also in the same state as the other Web browsers, all previously sent and received messages are sent to the Web browser that joined in the middle, and the message The catch-up process is executed to execute the content of the above and bring it into the same state as other Web browsers. In order to realize this catch-up process, it is necessary to save all messages from the start of the session.

In addition, the collaborative work includes a wide variety of work such as document review, browsing of design drawings such as CAD, online chat, and file distribution, and web browsers have different applications corresponding to them. Each application sends and receives messages to perform each task, but the format of messages sent and received by each application is determined for each application, and in most cases, the compatibility of message contents between different applications Absent. Therefore, the message relay server needs to manage the message managed in the queue for each application. Further, the same application is not always operating in all Web browsers, and in this case, the messages that need to be received are different in each Web browser.
For these reasons, the message relay server needs to prepare a queue for storing messages for each session, and in this queue, it is necessary to store all messages from the start of the session for catch-up processing of each Web browser. In addition, it is necessary to manage whether the Web browser is in a normal state or in a catch-up process. In addition, for each Web browser, it is necessary to manage at which position in the queue for each application the message required by the application of the Web browser is stored.

  When such a queue management process is centrally implemented by a message relay server, it is necessary to track and monitor the status of all Web browsers and applications running on the Web browsers. In general, there are many situations in which the state of a Web browser cannot be grasped due to a sudden stop of the operation due to a user operation or a network failure. Furthermore, in the message relay server, it is necessary to manage how far the queue has been read for every application. If the number of users and terminals increases, management on the server becomes very complicated, and it becomes difficult to continue the remote collaboration service.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a technique capable of simplifying message management and reducing the load on a message relay server in a remote collaboration system.

One aspect of the present invention is a system. This system includes a plurality of terminal devices and a Web server connected to the plurality of terminal devices via a network.
The terminal device is used as a user interface for collaborative work between users, and a web browser including one or more application software for performing the collaborative work is mounted.

  The Web server can communicate with each of the Web browsers via WWW (World Wide Web), and a message relay server is provided. The message relay server has a queue, and stores upstream communication messages generated by the operation of application software on a Web browser installed in the terminal device in the order of reception. In response to a downlink communication request from the device, a response is generated from the uplink communication message stored in the queue and transmitted to the terminal device, thereby causing the Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices to operate synchronously.

  The terminal device includes an application ID management unit and a pointer storage unit. The application ID management unit assigns a different application ID to each application software installed in the Web browser of the terminal device for each Web browser and each application software. The pointer storage unit includes each of the application ID, a message type of a message handled by application software corresponding to the application ID, and a message having the message type last received from the message relay server. A pointer that is position information indicating the position in the queue is stored in association with each other.

  The terminal device includes the message type of the message, the application ID of the application software, and the message content when a message is generated by the operation of any application software installed in its Web browser. An uplink communication message is transmitted to the message relay server.

In addition, the terminal device refers to the pointer storage unit at predetermined time intervals, and includes an application request in which a message type, an application ID, and a pointer of each application software installed in its own Web browser are associated with each other. The downlink communication request is generated and transmitted to the message relay server. Then, from each response sent from the message relay server in response to the downlink communication request, including a downlink communication message in which the position information in the queue, the message type, and the message content are associated with each other, included in each downlink communication message Distributed to application software that handles the same message type as the message type corresponding to the message content, and obtaining the maximum value of the position information for each message type from the response, A pointer corresponding to the message type in the pointer storage unit is updated.
When the message relay server receives the uplink communication message, the message relay server associates the uplink communication message with location information corresponding to the reception order of the uplink communication message, and stores it in the queue.

  When receiving the downlink communication request, each application request included in the downlink communication request has a value larger than the position information indicated by the pointer included in the application request from the queue, and Position information corresponding to the same message type as the message type included in the application request is selected, and for all the selected position information, the position information, the message type corresponding to the position information, and the position information A downlink communication message composed of the corresponding message content is created and transmitted to the requesting terminal device as the response in ascending order of position information value.

  Note that a system that replaces the system of the above aspect with a method or apparatus, a message relay server and a terminal device included in the system, and a program that causes a computer to operate as a message relay server or a terminal device are also included as aspects of the invention It is valid.

  According to the technology of the present invention, in the remote collaboration system, the message relay server is configured such that the operation state of each Web browser, the type of application running on the Web browser, and how far each application is in the queue. It is no longer necessary to manage whether or not is loaded, and its implementation can be simplified.

It is a figure which shows the system concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the message relay server in the Web server of the system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the web browser in the terminal device of the system shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process at the time of the session start in the message relay server shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of session ID and user ID which are managed by the session management part of a message relay server. It is a figure which shows the example of the initial state of the queue which the session management part of the message relay server created. It is a figure which shows the example of a queue when a message is accumulate | stored. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a Web browser at the start of application processing in a terminal device. It is a figure which shows the example of the content memorize | stored in the pointer memory | storage part of a terminal device. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the web browser at the time of upstream communication. It is a figure which shows an example of an upstream communication message. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the message relay server at the time of uplink communication. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the web browser regarding downstream communication. It is a figure which shows the example of the request for downlink communications. It is a figure which shows the example of the response to the request for downlink communications. It is a figure which shows the example after the update of the pointer memory | storage part in a Web browser. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the message relay server at the time of downlink communication.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. For clarity of explanation, the following description and drawings are omitted and simplified as appropriate. Each element described in the drawings as a functional block for performing various processes can be configured by a CPU, a memory, and other circuits in terms of hardware, and a program loaded in the memory in terms of software. Etc. Therefore, it is understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof, and is not limited to any one.

  FIG. 1 shows a system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 is for remote users to perform collaborative work. The system 100 includes a Web server 110 and a plurality of terminal devices 120. The Web server 110 and each terminal device 120 include the Internet or the like. They are connected via a network 130.

  Each terminal device 120 is equipped with a Web browser 300 used as a user interface for users to collaborate with each other, and these Web browsers 300 communicate with the Web server 110 using, for example, the HTTP protocol. . The Web server 110 is provided with a message relay server 200 that relays messages between the Web browsers 300.

  FIG. 2 shows the message relay server 200. The message relay server 200 includes a session management unit 210, a message reception unit 220, a transmission message storage unit 230, a queue storage unit 240, and a downlink communication response unit 250. The downlink communication response unit 250 includes a transmission message selection unit 252 and a message transmission unit 254.

  The session management unit 210 manages a session of collaborative work between users, and holds a relationship between the session and a queue described later. The message receiving unit 220 receives a message (hereinafter referred to as an uplink communication message) transmitted by uplink communication from each terminal device 120, specifically, the Web browser 300 in these terminal devices 120. The transmission message storage unit 230 stores the upstream communication message received by the message reception unit 220 in the queue storage unit 240. The queue storage unit 240 has a queue 242 prepared for each session, and each queue 242 stores upstream communication messages from each Web browser 300 belonging to the session in the order of reception. In response to a downlink communication request from the Web browser 300, the transmission message selection unit 252 selects a message to be transmitted to the Web browser 300 that has made the downlink communication request from the uplink messages stored in the queue storage unit 240. To do. The transmission message selection unit 252 transmits the message selected by the transmission message selection unit 252 to the Web browser 300 that has made the downlink communication request.

  FIG. 3 shows a Web browser 300 implemented in each terminal device 120. The web browser 300 includes a user ID management unit 302 that manages a user ID indicating a user who uses the web browser 300, and a plurality of application software (hereinafter simply referred to as applications) for executing processing for collaborative work. 304, an application management unit 306 for managing each application 304 operating on the Web browser 300, and a temporary ID management unit for managing an application ID (also referred to as a temporary ID) for uniquely specifying each application 304 308, an upstream communication unit 310 for transmitting the message generated by each application 304 to the message relay server 200 as upstream communication, and a message (request for downstream communication) by transmitting a request to the message relay server 200. A downlink communication unit 312 for acquisition, a downlink timing management unit 314 that manages an interval (request interval) for transmitting a request for downlink communication to the message relay server 200, and a message acquired by the downlink communication unit 312 in the message A message distribution unit 316 that distributes to the corresponding application 304, and a pointer storage unit 320 that stores the position information in the queue on the message relay server 200 and the application 304 that processes the message in association with each other.

  Each functional block of the Web browser 300 is generally defined by a description method called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), and further on a Web browser generally called Java (registered trademark) Script, ActiveX, Flash, or the like. It is implemented using a mechanism that operates the program.

  Next, details of the functional blocks of the message relay server 200 and the Web browser 300 will be described along with the operations of the message relay server 200 and the Web browser 300.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing at the time of starting a session in the message relay server 200.
First, in the message relay server 200, the session management unit 210 creates a session for remote collaboration work (S100). At this time, any conventionally known method may be used as a session starting method. For example, in a state where the session management unit 210 and the telephone line switch are connected, the start of the telephone call may be set as the start of the session, and the callers may be the participants of the session. Alternatively, the session may be connected to the session management unit 210 from the Web browser 300 on the terminal device 120, and the start of the session and the participants of the session may be defined by the operation on the Web browser 300 side.

  The session management unit 210 associates and manages an ID (session ID) indicating the session and an ID (user ID) for identifying the user. The means for storing the session ID and the user ID in association with each other may be the session management unit 210 itself, another storage means provided in the message relay server 200, or a database server other than the message relay server 200 Another server may be used.

FIG. 5 shows examples of session IDs and user IDs managed by the session management unit 210.
In the illustrated example, “User1” and “User2” participate in the session “000001”, and “UserA”, “UserB”, and “UserC” participate in the session “000002”.

  When a session is started, the session management unit 210 creates a queue corresponding to the session ID of the session for each session (S102). FIG. 6 shows an example of a queue created by the session management unit 210 for the session “000001”.

  As shown in FIG. 6, in the queue 242 created by the session management unit 210, “sequence number”, “temporary ID”, and “message type” are stored for each message transmitted from the web browser 300 through upstream communication. And “message contents” are stored in association with each other. The meaning of each of these items will be described later.

  At the stage where the session management unit 210 has created a queue, no messages have been accumulated yet. Thereafter, a message is transmitted from the Web browser 300 in each terminal device 120 to the message relay server 200 in accordance with the start of the cooperative work. In the message relay server 200, the transmission message accumulation unit 230 accumulates the message received by the message reception unit 220 in the queue in the queue storage unit 240.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of the queue after the message is accumulated to some extent. This is also an example of a queue for session “000001”.

  The “sequence number” in the first column corresponds to the order in which the messages are received. In this embodiment, an integer starting from 0 and incrementing by 1 is used. The “temporary ID” in the second column is an ID indicating an application operating on the Web browser 300 that has transmitted the message, and will be described in detail later. The “message type” in the third column is a character string representing the type of application that uses the message. The “message content” in the fourth column is the main body of the message, and it can be any data as well as characters. Note that ““ temporary ID ”,“ message type ”, and“ message content ”are included in the uplink communication message transmitted from the terminal device 120.

  As shown in FIG. 7, for example, the message with the sequence number “0” is transmitted from the application having the temporary ID “A0001”, the message type is “CHAT”, and “HELLO” is specified as the message content. .

  The message with the sequence number “3” is transmitted from the application having the temporary ID “B0002”, the message type is “FILE”, and “FILE = BCD.BIN” is designated as the message content.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing of the Web browser 300 at the start of processing of the application 304 in the terminal device 120. The process of the application 304 is started, for example, when the user of the terminal device 120 is activated using the Web browser 300 (S110). The application 304 is activated in the same way as a normal Web browser. For example, by specifying a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in the Web browser, the HTML associated with the URL is read, and each functional block of the Web browser 300 operates according to the definition on the HTML. This mechanism is the same as the operation using a normal Web browser, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  When application processing is started, the application management unit 306 uses the user ID management unit 302 to acquire the user ID of the user using the Web browser 300 (S112). As a method for acquiring the user ID, various conventionally known methods can be used. For example, there are a method of acquiring a character string indicating a user ID described in HTML, a method of using a mechanism called Cookie generally provided in a Web browser, and a method of prompting a user to input. Conceivable.

  Next, the application management unit 306 initializes the application 304 operating on the Web browser 300 and acquires the temporary ID of each application 304 from the temporary ID management unit 308 (S114).

  The temporary ID is used to uniquely identify the application 304 operating on the Web browser 300. The temporary ID management unit 308 assigns a different temporary ID to the application 304 for each Web browser 300 and for each application. Even when the same user uses the same application 304 using a plurality of Web browsers 300, different temporary IDs are generated for each Web browser 300. In the same Web browser 300, when the application 304 is once terminated due to a URL change or the like and the application 304 is restarted, a temporary ID different from the previous temporary ID is generated.

  The temporary ID is generated, for example, by creating a base character string based on the current time, IP address, random number, etc. on the message relay server 200, and numbering the base character string for each application 304 on the Web browser 300. For example, a method of generating a temporary ID by adding the ID can be considered. Of course, the temporary ID management unit 308 of the Web browser 300 may create a character string based on the IP address, current time, random number, and the like of the terminal device 120 provided with the temporary browser.

  Next, the application management unit 306 passes each temporary ID acquired in step S114 to the application 304 corresponding to the temporary ID (S116).

  Each application 304 stores the passed temporary ID and performs its own initialization process. After completion of initialization, the application 304 notifies the application management unit 306 of the completion of initialization and the message type used by itself. Thereby, the application management part 306 acquires the message type of each application 304 (step S118).

  The message type may be any character string as long as the message types satisfy different conditions in different applications 304.

  Upon receiving the message type from the application 304, the application management unit 306 stores the temporary ID of the application 304, the message type, and the initial pointer in the pointer storage unit 320 in association with each other (S120). In this embodiment, “−1” which is one smaller than the start value “0” of “sequence number” in the queue of the message relay server 200 is used as the initial pointer. The significance of the pointer will be described later.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of the stored contents of the pointer storage unit 320. As illustrated, the pointer storage unit 320 stores a temporary ID of the application 304, a message type, and a pointer in association with each other. For example, a temporary ID “C00001”, a message type “CHAT”, and a pointer “−1” are associated with each other. This indicates that the message type used by the application whose temporary ID is “C00001” is “CHAT”, and the pointer is “−1” of the initial pointer.

  Similarly, a temporary ID “C00002”, a message type “DOC”, and a pointer “−1” are associated with each other. This indicates that the message type used by the application whose temporary ID is “C00002” is “DOC” and the pointer is “−1” of the initial pointer.

  In accordance with the start of the collaborative work, each terminal device 120 is operated, and a message is transmitted from the Web browser 300 to the message relay server 200 by upstream communication, and a message is transmitted from the message relay server 200 to the Web browser 300 by downstream communication. Is done.

First, uplink communication will be described.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing of the web browser 300 during upstream communication. In the Web browser 300, when a message is transmitted from the application 304 in response to a user operation or the like (S130), the application 304 outputs the message content and an echo back flag to the application management unit 306 (S132). ). The echo back flag is a true / false value indicating whether or not to acquire the message by itself when the application 304 transmits the message. Although details will be described later, in the present embodiment, when a message whose echo back flag is true is transmitted to the message relay server 200, this message is transmitted later by downlink communication, and the message is transmitted by uplink communication. It is returned to the Web browser 300.

  The application management unit 306 checks the echo back flag from the application 304, and when the value is true, the temporary ID management unit 308 does not generate a temporary ID corresponding to the message from the temporary ID of the application 304. The ID is changed to “0” (for example, “0”), and the message is transmitted via the upstream communication unit 310 (S134: Yes, S136, S138).

  On the other hand, when the value of the echo back flag from the application 304 is false, the application management unit 306 transmits a message with the temporary ID of the application 304 (S134: No, S138).

  The message transmitted in step S138 includes the user ID acquired from the user ID management unit 302, a temporary ID (a special ID when the echo back flag is false), a message type, and message content. The upstream communication unit 310 transmits a message by an upstream communication HTTP request.

  FIG. 11 shows an example of an HTTP request for uplink communication. In this example, for “/ Up” indicating the message receiving unit 220 of the message relay server 200, the user ID is “User1”, the message type is “CHAT”, and the temporary ID is “C0001”. A message whose message content is “Good evening” is transmitted. When the value of the echo back flag is true, the temporary ID portion is “0”, for example.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing processing of the message relay server 200 during uplink communication. In the message relay server 200, the message receiving unit 220 receives an HTTP request for uplink communication (S140). The message reception unit 220 outputs the received request to the transmission message storage unit 230.

  The transmission message storage unit 230 extracts a user ID, a message type, and a temporary ID (including a special ID) from the passed request, and inquires the session management unit 210 to acquire a session ID corresponding to the user ID. (S142, S144). Then, the transmission message accumulation unit 230 identifies the queue corresponding to the session ID in the queue storage unit 240, and acquires the maximum value of the sequence number of the queue (S146, S148).

  The transmission message storage unit 230 adds 1 to the maximum value to the acquired sequence number, and adds the message to the queue with the sequence number after the addition (S152). Specifically, the sequence number after addition, the temporary ID, the message type, and the message content are stored in the queue in association with each other.

Next, downlink communication will be described.
FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processing of the Web browser 300 for downlink communication. In the Web browser 300, the application management unit 306 instructs the downlink timing management unit 314 to start downlink communication (S150). At this time, the application management unit 306 acquires the user ID from the user ID management unit 302 and passes it to the downlink timing management unit 314. Thereafter, the downlink communication timing is managed by the downlink timing management unit 314.

  When the application management unit 306 instructs to start downlink communication, the downlink timing management unit 314 acquires each message type, pointer, and temporary ID registered in the pointer storage unit 320 (S152). The downlink timing management unit 314 outputs each message type, pointer, and temporary ID acquired in step S154 to the downlink communication unit 312 to transmit an HTTP request for downlink communication (S154).

  FIG. 14 shows an example of an HTTP request for downlink communication. For easy understanding, this example describes only the main part of the HTTP request for downlink communication. In this example, for “/ Down” indicating the message transmission unit 254 of the message relay server 200, the user ID is “User1”, the first message type, and the corresponding temporary ID and pointer are “ “CHAT”, “C0001”, and “−1”, the second message type, and the corresponding temporary ID and pointer are transmitted as “DOC”, “C0002”, and “−1”, respectively. .

  In response to the HTTP request for downlink communication, the message relay server 200 selects a message to be transmitted from the accumulated messages and transmits it as a response to the Web browser 300 that is the transmission source of the request. The message selection process by the message relay server 200 will be described in detail later when the process of the message relay server 200 is described. Here, an example of a response from the message relay server 200 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The response shown in FIG. 15 is the one that the queue shown in FIG. 7 is stored in the queue storage unit 240 of the message relay server 200 and is transmitted by the message relay server 200 in response to the HTTP request for downlink communication shown in FIG. is there. In the response, one message is composed of a sequence number, a message type, and message content. A character string indicating a delimiter is provided between the messages. In the illustrated example, <-delimiter-> is used as a character string indicating a message delimiter, but any character string may be used as long as it can indicate a message delimiter.

  In the example shown in FIG. 15, messages corresponding to sequence numbers “0”, “1”, and “2” are selected and transmitted. In the response, the messages are arranged so that the smaller the sequence number, the earlier.

Returning to FIG. 13, the downlink communication processing in the Web browser 300 will be described.
In the Web browser 300, when receiving the response from the message relay server 200, the downlink communication unit 312 analyzes the response, extracts the messages included therein one by one, and outputs the messages to the message distribution unit 316 (S 156, S 158). ).

  For each message received from the downlink communication unit 312, the message distribution unit 316 corresponds to the same message type as the message type of the message stored in the pointer storage unit 320 in the reception order (that is, the order of arrangement in the response). The pointer value to be rewritten is replaced with the sequence number of the message (S160). In addition, the message distribution unit 316 acquires the temporary ID stored in the same row as the pointer from the pointer storage unit 320, and outputs the content of the message to the application 304 having the temporary ID (S162). Each application 304 executes processing according to the content of the message.

  After rewriting in step S158, the stored contents of the pointer storage unit 320 shown in FIG. 9 are as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 16, the pointer corresponding to the message type “CHAT” and the temporary ID “C0001” is “2”, and the pointer corresponding to the message type “DOC” and the temporary ID “C0002” is “1”. It has become.

  Thereafter, after a predetermined time has elapsed, the processing is repeated from step S152 (S164, S152).

  For ease of understanding, FIG. 13 shows a flowchart when a message is included in the response from the message relay server 200. If a message is included in the response received in step S156, the processing from step S152 is repeated after a predetermined time has elapsed without performing the processing in steps S158 to S162.

  FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing processing of the message relay server 200 during downlink communication. In the message relay server 200, when the message transmission unit 254 receives the above-described HTTP request for downlink communication, the message transmission unit 254 extracts the user ID, the message type, the temporary ID, and the pointer from the request and passes them to the transmission message selection unit 252. (S170, S172). Hereinafter, the message type, temporary ID, and pointer in the HTTP request for downlink communication are referred to as request message type, request temporary ID, and request pointer, respectively.

  The transmission message selection unit 252 makes an inquiry to the session management unit 210 and acquires a session ID corresponding to the user ID received from the message transmission unit 254 (S174). Then, using the minimum value among the request pointers as an acquisition pointer, it is confirmed whether or not the message corresponding to the sequence number larger than the acquisition pointer is in the queue corresponding to the session ID acquired in step S174 (S176, S178).

  When there is a corresponding message, the transmission message selection unit 252 adds 1 to the acquisition pointer, and acquires a message having the same sequence number as the acquisition pointer after the addition (S178: Yes, S180, S182).

  The transmission message selection unit 252 confirms whether or not there is a request message type that is the same as the message type of the message acquired in step S182 (S184). If there is no request message type, the process returns to the process from step S178 (S184: No, S178-), if there is, it is further confirmed whether or not the request temporary ID corresponding to the request message type matches the temporary ID of the message acquired in step S182 (S184: Yes, S186). If the temporary IDs match, the transmission message selection unit 252 returns to the process from step S178 (S186: Yes, S178-), and if the temporary IDs do not match, the request corresponding to the request message type. The pointer is compared with the sequence number of the message acquired in step S182 (S186: No, S188).

  When the sequence number is equal to or smaller than the request pointer as a result of the comparison in step S188, the transmission message selection unit 252 returns to the processing from step S178 (S188: No, S178-), whereas when the sequence number is larger than the request pointer, The sequence number is stored as the selected sequence number, and the process returns to step S178 (S188: Yes, S190, S178-).

  When processing proceeds and there is no message corresponding to the sequence number larger than the acquisition pointer in the queue (S178: No), the transmission message selection unit 252 queues messages corresponding to all the selected sequence numbers stored in step S190. And is sent to the message transmission unit 254 (S196). The message transmission unit 254 arranges all the messages from the transmission message selection unit 252 in ascending order of sequence numbers, creates the response shown in FIG. 15, and transmits it to the Web browser 300 that is the transmission source of the HTTP request for downlink communication. (S98).

  Although not shown in FIG. 17, when there is no message corresponding to the sequence number larger than the request pointer in the queue (S178: No), if there is no selected sequence number, the transmission message selection unit 252 The message transmission unit 254 is notified that there is no message to be transmitted, and the message transmission unit 254 returns a response not including the message to the Web browser 300.

  As described above, in the system 100 according to the present embodiment, each Web browser 300 manages each application 304 installed in the Web browser 300 with a temporary ID that is different for each Web browser and for each application. It manages a pointer (that is, the sequence number of the last received message) indicating which of the messages stored in the queue of the relay server 200 has been received. When a message is transmitted to the message relay server 200 by upstream communication, the temporary ID and message type of the application 304 that transmits the message are transmitted together with the message content.

  When the message relay server 200 receives a message through the upward communication from the Web browser 300 browser, the message relay server 200 increments the queue number provided for each session by one in the order of reception, the temporary ID, the message type, and the message content. Are stored in association with each other.

  In downlink communication, the Web browser 300 sends a message type, temporary ID, and pointer to the message relay server 200 and makes an HTTP request for downlink communication for all the applications 304 installed in itself. Here, a set of “message type, temporary ID, and pointer” is referred to as an application request.

  When the message relay server 200 receives the HTTP request for downlink communication, for each application request, the message type of the message having the sequence number larger than the pointer included in the application request from the queue is the same as the message type of the application request. An image having a message type of 1 and different from the temporary ID of the application request is selected and a response is created.

Further, when receiving the response, the Web browser 300 updates the pointer with the sequence number of the received message.
By doing so, the Web browser 300 manages which messages of the messages 304 stored in the message relay server 200 are received by each application 304 installed in the Web browser 300, and loads the message relay server 200. Can be reduced.
Further, when the application 304 needs to receive a message transmitted by itself, if the echo back flag is set to true, the application 304 can transmit the message to the message relay server 200 by uplink communication. The temporary ID of the message is changed to a special ID. As a result, this message is stored as a special ID in the queue of the message relay server 200, and the comparison result of S186 in the flowchart shown in FIG. Therefore, this message is also returned to the Web browser 300 that transmitted the message.
As a result, for example, when a Web browser that has once left a session due to temporary evacuation or the like rejoins the same session, it is possible to receive messages sent by the user in the past again, and to easily realize catch-up processing. it can.

  The present invention has been described above based on the embodiment. The embodiment is an exemplification, and various changes and increases / decreases may be added without departing from the gist of the present invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that modifications to which these changes and increases / decreases are also within the scope of the present invention.

  For example, in the system 100 of the present embodiment, the upstream communication unit 310 and the downstream communication unit 312 are separate, but these may be combined into one. Of course, the message receiving unit 220 and the message transmitting unit 254 in the message relay server 200 may be combined into one.

  Further, in the queue storage unit 240 of the message relay server 200, the maximum value of the sequence number for each message type of each queue is separately stored, and this message is compared with the request pointer during downlink communication to determine which message. It may be possible to more quickly determine whether a type of message is a reply target.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 System 110 Web server 120 Terminal device 130 Network 200 Message relay server 210 Session management part 220 Message receiving part 230 Transmission message storage part 240 Queue memory | storage part 242 Queue 250 Downlink communication response part 252 Transmission message selection part 254 Message transmission part 300 Web browser 302 User ID management unit 304 Application 306 Application management unit 308 Temporary ID management unit 310 Uplink communication unit 312 Downlink communication unit 314 Downstream timing management unit 316 Message distribution unit 320 Pointer storage unit

Claims (19)

A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; ,
A web server connected to the plurality of terminal devices via a network and capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via a WWW (World Wide Web), having a queue and mounted on the terminal device The uplink communication messages generated by the operation of the application software and stored in the queue in the order received are stored in the queue according to the downlink communication request from the terminal device. In a system including the Web server including a message relay server that synchronously operates Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices by creating a response and transmitting the response to the terminal device,
The terminal device
An application ID management unit for assigning a different application ID to each web browser and to each application software for each application software implemented in its own web browser;
Each of the application IDs, a message type of a message handled by application software corresponding to the application ID, and a position of the message having the message type last received from the message relay server in the queue of the message relay server A pointer storage unit that stores pointers that are positional information in association with each other;
When a message is generated by the operation of any application software installed in its own web browser, the upstream communication message including the message type of the message, the application ID of the application software, and the message content is displayed. Send to the message relay server,
The downlink communication request including an application request in which a message type, an application ID, and a pointer of each application software installed in its own Web browser are associated with each other by referring to the pointer storage unit at a predetermined time interval And send it to the message relay server,
A message included in each downlink communication message from a response including a downlink communication message that is returned from the message relay server in response to the downlink communication request and that associates position information in the queue with a message type and message content. The content is distributed to application software that handles the same message type as the message type corresponding to the message content, and the maximum value of the position information for each message type is obtained from the response, and the pointer is set with the maximum value. Updating the pointer corresponding to the message type in the storage unit;
The message relay server is
When the uplink communication message is received, the uplink communication message and the positional information corresponding to the reception order of the uplink communication message are associated with each other and stored in the queue,
When receiving the downlink communication request, each application request included in the downlink communication request has a value larger than the position information indicated by the pointer included in the application request from the queue, and Position information corresponding to the same message type as the message type included in the application request is selected, and for all the selected position information, the position information, the message type corresponding to the position information, and the position information A system characterized in that a downlink communication message including corresponding message contents is created and transmitted to the requesting terminal device as the response in ascending order of position information value.   When the message relay server selects position information for each application request included in the downlink communication request from the queue, each position information corresponding to an application ID different from the application ID included in the application request The system according to claim 1, wherein the system is selected from the following. The terminal device
When it is set to receive a message sent from itself, the application ID included in the application request is changed to a special ID that is not given by the application ID management unit, and then the downlink communication request is changed to the message. The system according to claim 2, wherein the system is transmitted to a relay server.   The application ID management unit of the terminal device reassigns an application ID that has not been assigned to the application software when the terminated application software is restarted. Or the system of 3. A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; A message relay server provided in a web server connected via a network and capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via WWW (World Wide Web),
A queue for storing the upstream communication messages generated by the operation of the application software on the Web browser installed in the terminal device and transmitted from the terminal device in the order of reception;
In response to a downlink communication request from a terminal device, a response is generated from the uplink communication message stored in the queue and is transmitted to the terminal device, so that the Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices are operated synchronously. A downlink communication response unit,
The upstream communication message includes an application ID assigned to the application software that generated the message, a different application ID for each Web browser and for each application software, a message type of a message handled by the application software, and a message content. And
The downlink communication request is a position in the queue of a message having a message type, an application ID, and the message type last received by the terminal device of each application software installed in the Web browser of the terminal device. An application request is included that is associated with a pointer that is location information indicating
The queue stores an uplink communication message from a terminal device and location information corresponding to the reception order of the uplink communication message in association with each other,
When the downlink communication response unit receives a downlink communication request from a terminal device, for each application request included in the downlink communication request, position information indicated by a pointer included in the application request from the queue The position information corresponding to the same message type as the message type included in the application request is selected, and the position information and the position information for all the selected position information are selected. Message relay, comprising a message type corresponding to the location information and a message content corresponding to the location information, and transmitting the response message to the requesting terminal device as the response in ascending order of the location information value server.   When the downlink communication response unit selects position information for each application request included in the downlink communication request from the queue, each position corresponding to an application ID different from the application ID included in the application request 6. The message relay server according to claim 5, wherein the message relay server is selected from information. A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; ,
A web server connected to the plurality of terminal devices via a network and capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via a WWW (World Wide Web), having a queue and mounted on the terminal device The uplink communication messages generated by the operation of the application software and stored in the queue in the order received are stored in the queue according to the downlink communication request from the terminal device. The terminal device in a system including the Web server including a message relay server that synchronously operates Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices by creating a response and transmitting the response to the terminal device,
An application ID management unit for assigning a different application ID to each web browser and to each application software for each application software implemented in its own web browser;
Each of the application IDs, a message type of a message handled by application software corresponding to the application ID, and a position of the message having the message type last received from the message relay server in the queue of the message relay server A pointer storage unit that stores pointers that are positional information in association with each other;
When a message is generated by the operation of any application software installed in its own web browser, the upstream communication message including the message type of the message, the application ID of the application software, and the message content is displayed. Send to the message relay server,
The downlink communication request including an application request in which a message type, an application ID, and a pointer of each application software installed in its own Web browser are associated with each other by referring to the pointer storage unit at a predetermined time interval And send it to the message relay server,
A message included in each downlink communication message from a response including a downlink communication message that is returned from the message relay server in response to the downlink communication request and that associates position information in the queue with a message type and message content. The content is distributed to application software that handles the same message type as the message type corresponding to the message content, and the maximum value of the position information for each message type is obtained from the response, and the pointer is set with the maximum value. A terminal device that updates a pointer corresponding to the message type in a storage unit.   When it is set to receive a message sent from itself, the application ID included in the application request is changed to a special ID that is not given by the application ID management unit, and then the downlink communication request is changed to the message. The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the terminal device is transmitted to a relay server.   9. The application ID management unit according to claim 7 or 8, wherein when the terminated application software is restarted, an application ID that has not been assigned is reassigned to the application software. Terminal equipment. A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; In a message relay method by a message relay server provided in a web server connected via a network and capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via WWW (World Wide Web),
A storage process in which the upstream communication messages generated by the operation of the application software on the Web browser installed in the terminal device and transmitted from the terminal device are stored in the queue in the order of reception;
In response to a downlink communication request from a terminal device, a response is generated from the uplink communication message stored in the queue and is transmitted to the terminal device, so that the Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices are operated synchronously. Downlink communication response processing,
The upstream communication message includes an application ID assigned to the application software that generated the message, a different application ID for each Web browser and for each application software, a message type of a message handled by the application software, and a message content. And
The downlink communication request is a position in the queue of a message having a message type, an application ID, and the message type last received by the terminal device of each application software installed in the Web browser of the terminal device. An application request is included that is associated with a pointer that is location information indicating
The storage process associates an upstream communication message from a terminal device with location information corresponding to the reception order of the upstream communication message, stores the information in the queue,
When the downlink communication response process receives a downlink communication request from a terminal device, for each application request included in the downlink communication request, position information indicated by a pointer included in the application request from the queue The position information corresponding to the same message type as the message type included in the application request is selected, and the position information and the position information for all the selected position information are selected. Message relay, comprising a message type corresponding to the location information and a message content corresponding to the location information, and transmitting the response message to the requesting terminal device as the response in ascending order of the location information value Method.   In the downlink communication response process, when selecting position information for each application request included in the downlink communication request from the queue, each position corresponding to an application ID different from the application ID included in the application request The message relay method according to claim 10, wherein the message relay method is selected from information. A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; ,
A web server connected to the plurality of terminal devices via a network and capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via a WWW (World Wide Web), having a queue and mounted on the terminal device The uplink communication messages generated by the operation of the application software and stored in the queue in the order received are stored in the queue according to the downlink communication request from the terminal device. A message transmission / reception method by the terminal device in a system including the Web server including a message relay server that synchronously operates Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices by creating a response and transmitting the response to the terminal device Because
A process of assigning a different application ID for each web browser and for each application software to each application software installed in the web browser of the terminal device;
Each of the application IDs, a message type of a message handled by application software corresponding to the application ID, and a position of the message having the message type last received from the message relay server in the queue of the message relay server Processing for associating and storing pointers that are position information;
The uplink communication including a message type of the message, the application ID of the application software, and a message content when a message is generated by the operation of any application software installed in the Web browser of the terminal device Processing to send a message to the message relay server;
Creates a downlink communication request including an application request in which a message type, an application ID, and a pointer of each application software installed in its own web browser are associated with each other at a predetermined time interval, and sends it to the message relay server. Processing to send,
A message included in each downlink communication message from a response including a downlink communication message that is returned from the message relay server in response to the downlink communication request and that associates position information in the queue with a message type and message content. The content is distributed to application software that handles the same message type as the message type corresponding to the message content, and the maximum value of the position information for each message type is acquired from the response, and the maximum value A message transmission / reception method comprising: updating a pointer corresponding to a message type.   When it is set to receive a message transmitted from the terminal device itself, the application ID included in the application request is changed to a special ID that is not given to all application software, and then the downlink communication request The terminal device according to claim 12, wherein the terminal device is transmitted to the message relay server.   14. The message transmission / reception method according to claim 12, wherein when the terminated application software is restarted, an application ID that has not been assigned is reassigned to the application software. A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; A program connected via a network and causing a web server capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via WWW (World Wide Web) to execute message relay processing,
The message relay process is:
A storage process in which the upstream communication messages generated by the operation of the application software on the Web browser installed in the terminal device and transmitted from the terminal device are stored in the queue in the order of reception;
In response to a downlink communication request from a terminal device, a response is generated from the uplink communication message stored in the queue and is transmitted to the terminal device, so that the Web browsers installed in the plurality of terminal devices are operated synchronously. Downlink communication response processing,
The upstream communication message includes an application ID assigned to the application software that generated the message, a different application ID for each Web browser and for each application software, a message type of a message handled by the application software, and a message content. And
The downlink communication request is a position in the queue of a message having a message type, an application ID, and the message type last received by the terminal device of each application software installed in the Web browser of the terminal device. An application request is included that is associated with a pointer that is location information indicating
The storage process associates an upstream communication message from a terminal device with location information corresponding to the reception order of the upstream communication message, stores the information in the queue,
When the downlink communication response process receives a downlink communication request from a terminal device, for each application request included in the downlink communication request, position information indicated by a pointer included in the application request from the queue The position information corresponding to the same message type as the message type included in the application request is selected, and the position information and the position information for all the selected position information are selected. And a message content corresponding to the location information is created and transmitted to the requesting terminal device as the response in ascending order of the location information value.   In the downlink communication response process, when selecting position information for each application request included in the downlink communication request from the queue, each position corresponding to an application ID different from the application ID included in the application request The program according to claim 15, wherein the program is selected from information. A plurality of terminal devices, each of which is a Web browser that is used as a user interface for users to perform a collaborative work, and that includes the one or more application software for performing the collaborative work; ,
A web server connected to the plurality of terminal devices via a network and capable of communicating with each of the web browsers via a WWW (World Wide Web), having a queue and mounted on the terminal device The uplink communication messages generated by the operation of the application software and stored in the queue in the order received are stored in the queue according to the downlink communication request from the terminal device. Message transmission / reception processing to the terminal device in the system having the Web server provided with the message relay server that synchronously operates Web browsers mounted on the plurality of terminal devices by creating a response and transmitting the response to the terminal device A program for executing
The message transmission / reception process includes:
A process of assigning a different application ID for each web browser and for each application software to each application software installed in the web browser of the terminal device;
Each of the application IDs, a message type of a message handled by application software corresponding to the application ID, and a position of the message having the message type last received from the message relay server in the queue of the message relay server Processing for associating and storing pointers that are position information;
The uplink communication including a message type of the message, the application ID of the application software, and a message content when a message is generated by the operation of any application software installed in the Web browser of the terminal device Processing to send a message to the message relay server;
Creates a downlink communication request including an application request in which a message type, an application ID, and a pointer of each application software installed in its own web browser are associated with each other at a predetermined time interval, and sends it to the message relay server. Processing to send,
A message included in each downlink communication message from a response including a downlink communication message that is returned from the message relay server in response to the downlink communication request and that associates position information in the queue with a message type and message content. The content is distributed to application software that handles the same message type as the message type corresponding to the message content, and the maximum value of the position information for each message type is acquired from the response, and the maximum value And a program for updating a pointer corresponding to the message type.   When it is set to receive a message transmitted from the terminal device itself, the downlink communication is performed after changing the application ID included in the application request to a special ID that is not given to all application software. The program according to claim 17, wherein the program request is transmitted to the message relay server.   The program according to claim 17 or 18, wherein when the terminated application software is restarted, an application ID that has not been assigned is reassigned to the application software.

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