JP6263984B2 - Relay device and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a relay device and a program.

  There are known services called cloud services and cloud computing. In this service, for example, a server device on a network performs various information processing such as data storage and data format conversion on behalf of a client device. In such a service, a technique for relaying an exchange between a server device and a client device has been proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 stores image data, and upon receiving a request for designating first information, a server device that returns image data corresponding to the first information to a transmission source of the request; A relay device that is connectable via a network to a communication device that acquires the image data from the server device according to first information and outputs an image formed by the image data, and acquires the first information A first receiving means for receiving a request from the communication device; a first information acquiring means for acquiring the first information from the server device when the acquisition request is received by the first receiving means; and the first information The first information acquired by the acquisition unit, the first information corresponding to image data having a data size suitable for the communication device to output an image, A first transmission means for transmitting to the transmission source of the communication apparatus of the resulting request, the relay apparatus comprising: a listed.

JP 2012-113701 A

  The present invention provides a mechanism in which a user can easily grasp a search result as compared with a case where a search result when a plurality of data is searched from a storage service is presented to the user as information attached to each data. With the goal.

The relay apparatus according to claim 1 is converted using search request data receiving means for receiving search request data indicating a data search request from the client apparatus, and search request data received by the search request data receiving means. a plurality of different conversion retrieval request data, transmitted respectively to the location of the multiple, the converted retrieval request data as a response to the transmitted respectively from multiple storage locations, identified given to retrieved data Search result data receiving means for receiving a plurality of first search result data for identifying the searched data including information, and data identified by the first search result data received by the search result data receiving means It includes identification information identifying, the plurality of data when a plurality of data is identified by the first search result data A plurality of second search result data including one identification information different to, and a retrieval result data transmitting means for transmitting to said search request data sending client device, the search result data transmitting means, which is received When the identification information included in the first search result data is common, one identification information for identifying a plurality of data identified by the plurality of first search result data corresponds to each of the plurality of data. to send the second search result data including the storage destination identification information for identifying a storage location and wherein Rukoto.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a relay apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the storage target data and storage request data indicating a storage request for the storage target data in one or a plurality of storage locations are stored in the client apparatus. Data receiving means received from the data receiving means, identification information providing means for giving identification information for uniquely identifying the data to be stored received by the data receiving means to the data to be stored, and identification information by the identification information giving means And a data transmission means for transmitting the data to be stored to which the data is stored to the one or more storage locations according to the storage request data.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the configuration according to the first or second aspect, the first search result data includes date and time information indicating a date and time when the searched data is stored, and transmits the search result data. The means is identified by identification information included in the first search result data, and when a plurality of data having different date information included in the first search result data are identified by the first search result data. The second search result data for identifying each of the plurality of data as different data is transmitted.

Program according to claim 4, a computer, using the client device, a search request data receiving means for receiving a search request data indicating a search request for data, a search request data received by said search request data receiving means applying the converted different converts the search request data, transmitted respectively to the location of multiple, transmitted from each of several storage location as a response to the converted search request data, the retrieved data Te The search result data receiving means for receiving a plurality of first search result data for identifying the searched data including the identified identification information, and the first search result data received by the search result data receiving means includes identification information for identifying the data to be, when a plurality of data is identified by the first retrieval result data The second search result data including one identification information for identifying a plurality of data, a program for functioning as a retrieval result data transmitting means for transmitting to the sender 'client device of said search request data, the The search result data transmission means is configured to identify a plurality of data identified by the plurality of first search result data when the identification information included in the plurality of received first search result data is common. It is a program for transmitting second search result data including identification information and storage location identification information for identifying storage locations respectively corresponding to a plurality of data .

According to the first or fourth aspect of the present invention, the search result when the plurality of data is searched from the storage service is presented to the user as compared with the case where the search result is presented to the user as the information assigned to each data. Is easy to grasp.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, data can be stored in the storage service so that the user can easily understand the search results when a plurality of data is searched from the storage service.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the data stored in the storage service is updated, the user can grasp that fact.

The block diagram which shows an example of the whole structure of a communication system. The figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a service provision apparatus. The figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a client apparatus. The figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a relay apparatus. The figure which shows an example of the content of the management table. The figure which shows an example of the screen which selects the storage service of the storage location of a file. The figure which shows an example of a function structure of a relay apparatus. The figure which shows the content of the transmission process of store data roughly. The figure which shows an example of the screen which inputs search conditions. The figure which shows the content of a search process roughly. The figure which shows an example of the screen which shows a search result. The figure which shows an example of the screen which shows a search result. The figure which shows an example of the screen which shows a search result.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a communication system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication system 1 includes service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c (an example of a server apparatus), a client apparatus 20, and a relay apparatus 30. The service providing devices 10a, 10b, and 10c are devices that provide so-called storage services. The storage service here means that a server on the network stores data. The client device 20 is a device that receives a service provided by the service providing devices 10a, 10b, and 10c. In the present embodiment, the client apparatus 20 is an image forming apparatus that has a print function and a scanner function, and forms an image on a medium such as paper by an electrophotographic method. The network 40 is a communication network that interconnects the service providing devices 10a, 10b, and 10c, the client device 20, and the relay device 30, and is, for example, the Internet.

  The relay device 30 relays data exchanged between the service providing devices 10a, 10b, and 10c and the client device 20 when a storage service is provided from the service providing devices 10a, 10b, and 10c to the client device 20. I do. More specifically, for example, when data to be stored is transmitted from the client device 20, the relay device 30 transfers the data to one or a plurality of service providing devices 10a, 10b, and 10c. To do. Further, when data is transmitted from any of the service providing devices 10 a, 10 b, and 10 c, the relay device 30 transfers the data to the client device 20. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the file identifier for identifying the file and the format of the folder identifier for identifying the folder are different for each storage service.

  Further, the relay device 30 has a function of searching for data across a plurality of service providing devices in accordance with a search request from the client device 20. Further, the relay device 30 performs a service other than transmission / reception (for example, a service for performing character recognition called OCR (Optical Character Recognition)) in the process of transmitting / receiving these data between the service providing devices 10a, 10b, 10c and the client device 20. Or processing of data such as a service for converting the data format) may be called to perform processing on the data.

  Although the service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c have different formats of data (file identifier, folder identifier, etc.) exchanged with other apparatuses, they all have the same hardware configuration and perform the same operation. Hereinafter, the service providing apparatus 10 is referred to except for a case where these are described separately.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the service providing apparatus 10. In the figure, the control unit 11 includes an arithmetic device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a main storage device such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory). The arithmetic device controls the operation of each unit of the service providing apparatus 10 by executing a program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 13 using the RAM as a work area. The communication unit 12 communicates with the relay device 30 via the network 40. The storage unit 13 is a storage device such as a hard disk, and stores data and programs used by the control unit 11. The storage unit 13 stores a file database 14. In the file database 14, files transmitted from the client device 20 via the relay device 30 are accumulated. In this embodiment, the file database 14 has a table in which a URI such as “http: //z**.com/C001” is described as information indicating the storage location of the file. A file storage area is associated with each URI.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the client device 20. In the figure, the control unit 21 includes an arithmetic device such as a CPU and a main storage device such as a ROM and a RAM. The ROM stores a program executed by the arithmetic device. The arithmetic device controls the operation of each unit of the client device 20 by executing a program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 27 using the RAM as a work area. The communication unit 22 communicates with the relay device 30 via the network 40. The operation unit 23 includes operators such as various keys and touch sensors, and supplies an operation signal corresponding to a user operation to the control unit 21. The control unit 21 performs processing according to the operation signal. The display unit 24 includes a liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal driving circuit, and displays an image under the control of the control unit 21. The image forming unit 25 forms an image by electrophotography. The image reading unit 26 optically reads an image of a document. The storage unit 27 is a storage device such as a hard disk, and stores data and programs used by the control unit 21.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the relay device 30. In the figure, the control unit 31 includes an arithmetic device such as a CPU and a main storage device such as a ROM and a RAM. The arithmetic device controls the operation of each unit of the relay device 30 by executing a program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 33 using the RAM as a work area. The communication unit 32 communicates with the client device 20 and the service providing device 10 via the network 40. The storage unit 33 is a storage device such as a hard disk, and stores data and programs used by the control unit 31. The storage unit 33 includes an identification information storage unit 34 and a management table storage unit 35. The identification information accumulating unit 34 stores identification information given to a file when the relay device 30 transfers the file to the service providing device 10 in response to a request from the client device 20.

  The management table storage unit 35 stores information for accessing the service providing apparatus 10. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of the management table. As illustrated, in this table, items of “SVC identifier”, “access destination”, “identifier conversion routine”, and “conditional expression conversion routine” are stored in association with each other. Among these items, the “SVC identifier” item stores a service identifier for identifying a storage service. The “access destination” item stores access destination information indicating information for accessing the service providing apparatus 10 that provides the storage service. In this embodiment, a URI is stored as access destination information. The item of “identifier conversion routine” includes a file identifier for identifying a file (an example of a data identifier) and a folder identifier format for identifying a folder, a format used by the service providing device 10 and a format used by the client device 20. An identifier conversion routine indicating a rule for conversion between and is stored. In this embodiment, as described above, it is assumed that the file identifier and the folder identifier have different formats for each storage service. In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, for example, a service identifier “service-A” is associated with an identifier conversion routine “ConvertForA ()”. The item “Conditional Expression Conversion Routine” is for converting the format of a specified condition indicating a condition for specifying one or more files into a format used in the service providing apparatus 10 and a format used in the client apparatus 20. Stores conditional expression conversion routines indicating rules. The relay device 30 and the client device 20 exchange data in a format that does not depend on the data format defined in each storage service.

  In this embodiment, each of the plurality of service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c exchanges data according to different communication protocols and data formats. Therefore, the control unit 31 of the relay device 30 uploads files by transmitting and receiving data to and from the service providing device 10 according to the communication protocol and data input / output format used by the service providing device 10 in providing the cloud service. Download.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In the following description, an operation of storing a file in a plurality of storage services designated by the user and an operation of searching for a file from the storage service designated by the user will be described. In the following description, for convenience of explanation, the storage service provided by the service providing apparatus 10a is referred to as “storage service A”, and the storage service provided by the service providing apparatus 10b is referred to as “storage service B”. The storage service provided by the service providing apparatus 10c is referred to as “storage service C”.

  First, an operation in which a user stores files in a plurality of storage services will be described. The user uses the operation unit 23 of the client device 20 to perform an operation for storing a file in the storage service. Based on the information output from the operation unit 23, the control unit 21 of the client device 20 displays a screen for selecting a file to be stored and a storage service at the storage destination on the display unit 24.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the display unit 24. In the example shown in FIG. 6, a text box for selecting a file to be stored, a check box for selecting a storage service as a storage destination, a message prompting selection, and the like are displayed. The user operates the operation unit 23 to instruct the storage service A, the storage service B, and the storage service C to store a file whose file name is “abc”.

  When the file is instructed by the user, the control unit 21 transmits a store request indicating that the file storage is requested to the relay device 30 according to the information output from the operation unit 23. This store request includes information indicating a plurality of storage services designated as storage destinations by the user.

  Next, the operation of the relay device 30 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the relay device 30. The relay device 30 realizes the functions of the units illustrated in FIG. 7 by the control unit 31 or the control unit 31 and the communication unit 32. Hereinafter, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The store request reception unit 131 receives a store request transmitted from the client device 20. Further, the store data receiving unit 132 receives a file (hereinafter referred to as “store data”) transmitted from the client device 20. The store request receiving unit 131 and the store data receiving unit 132 receive from the client device 20 store data to be stored and storage request data indicating a storage request for the data to be stored in one or a plurality of storage locations. This is an example of data receiving means.

  The store data processing unit 133 acquires the store request received by the store request receiving unit 131 and the store data received by the store data receiving unit 132. The store data processing unit 133 calls the identification information generation unit 134 to generate unique identification information for the received store data. Based on an instruction from the store data processing unit 133, the identification information generation unit 134 generates identification information for uniquely identifying the received store data, and stores the generated identification information in the identification information storage unit 34. The identification information generation method performed by the identification information generation unit 134 may be any method that issues unique identification information to store data, and various methods can be employed.

  The store data processing unit 133 (an example of an identification information adding unit) adds the identification information generated by the identification information generation unit 134 to the store data as meta information, and supplies it to the store data transmission unit 135. The store data transmission unit 135 (an example of a data transmission unit) transmits the store data supplied from the store data processing unit 133 to the service providing apparatus 10 corresponding to the storage service designated by the user. At this time, when there are a plurality of storage services designated by the user, the store data transmission unit 135 transmits the store data to the plurality of service providing apparatuses 10.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing the contents of the store data transmission process performed by the relay device 30. In the example illustrated in FIG. 8, “identification information 1” is given as meta information in the relay device 30 to “file 1” transmitted from the client device 20 to the relay device 30. “File 1” to which the meta information is added is transmitted as “file 1-a”, “file 1-b”, and “file 1-c” to the service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c, respectively. The “file 1-a”, “file 1-b”, and “file 1-c” transmitted to the service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c are respectively unique to the service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c. In some cases, a file identifier (file name) of the format is given.

  Next, an operation for retrieving a file from the storage service designated by the user will be described with reference to the drawings. In this operation example, when the relay apparatus 30 searches for a file from the service providing apparatus 10, the relay apparatus 30 acquires the identification information given to the file in the file storage process, and a plurality of files having the same identification information are retrieved. Are displayed on the client device 20 as one file.

In the example shown below, an operation when a user searches for a file by specifying a conditional expression (Name = abc) from the storage service A and the storage service B will be described. The user operates the operation unit 23 to instruct to search for a file. The control unit 21 of the client device 20 first displays a screen for inputting search conditions on the display unit 24 in accordance with the information output from the operation unit 23.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for inputting search conditions displayed on the display unit 24. In the example shown in FIG. 9, a text box for designating a keyword and a storage date and time, a check box for selecting a storage service to be searched, and the like are displayed. The user operates the operation unit 23 to instruct to search for a file whose file name is “abc” from the storage service A, storage service B, and storage service C.

  When a file search is instructed by the user, the control unit 21 of the client device 20 transmits a search request to the relay device 30 according to information output from the operation unit 23. This search request includes a service identifier for identifying the storage service and a conditional expression indicating the search condition. Specifically, in this operation example, the control unit 21 includes “id: svc: service-A”, “id: svc: service-B”, “id: svc: service-C” as service identifiers, Search request data including “Name = abc” as a conditional expression is transmitted.

  The search request receiving unit 141 (an example of a search request data receiving unit) receives search request data indicating a search request for the storage service from the client device 20. The file information processing unit 142 instructs the file search unit 143 to perform a search corresponding to the search request data received by the search request receiving unit 141.

  The file search unit 143 (an example of a search result data receiving unit) transmits data indicating a data search request to one or a plurality of storage locations in accordance with the search request data received by the search request receiving unit 141, and the data The first search result data for identifying the retrieved data including the identification information given by the store data processing unit 133 to the retrieved data and transmitted from one or a plurality of storage locations as a response to the received data is received. In this embodiment, the file search unit 143 first specifies the conditional expression conversion routine corresponding to the service identifier included in the search request received by the search request reception unit 141 with reference to the storage contents of the management table storage unit 35. To do. The file information processing unit 142 uses the specified conditional expression conversion routine to convert the conditional expression included in the received search request data into a conditional expression in a format compliant with each storage service. For example, in this operation example, the conditional expression “Name = abc” is converted into “search / Name / abc” by the conditional expression conversion routine “ConvertCondForA ()” and “search? FordB ()” by “search? q = 'Name = abc'. Similarly for the storage service C, the conditional expression is converted by the conditional expression conversion routine.

  The file search unit 143 transmits the search request data to the service providing apparatus 10 using the access destination information corresponding to the service identifier included in the received search request. For example, in this operation example, the file search unit 143 transmits an HTTP GET request to the service providing apparatus 10a by designating “http: //www.serviceA/search/Name/abc” as the URI. In addition, the file search unit 143 transmits an HTTP GET request to the service providing apparatus 10b by specifying “http: //www.serviceB/search? Q =‘ Name = abc ’” as the URI. In addition, the file search unit 143 transmits search request data to the service providing apparatus 10c using access destination information corresponding to the storage service C.

  Upon receiving the search request transmitted from the relay device 30, each service providing device 10 searches for a file using the conditional expression specified by the received search request, and is searched for the file identifier of the searched file. A list of the file identification information is transmitted to the relay device 30. At this time, the service providing apparatus 10 uses a file identifier in a format predetermined for each storage service. Specifically, in this operation example, for example, “http: //www.serviceA/doc/3210” and “http: //www.serviceA/doc/9876” are relayed as file identifiers from the service providing apparatus 10a. 30. Further, “http: //www.serviceA/doc-ZYX” is transmitted from the service providing apparatus 10b to the relay apparatus 30 as a file identifier. For the storage service C, the file identifier is transmitted from the service providing apparatus 10 c to the relay apparatus 30.

  The file search unit 143 receives a list of file identifiers and identification information of files as search results from the service providing apparatus 10. When the file information processing unit 142 acquires a list as a search result from the file search unit 143, the file information processing unit 142 supplies identification information included in the acquired list to the file determination unit 144. The file determination unit 144 is supplied with the identification information of the files searched in the plurality of service providing apparatuses 10.

  The file determination unit 144 determines whether one piece of identification information included in the list received by the file search unit 143 corresponds to another piece of identification information included in the list. In this embodiment, the file determination unit 144 compares a plurality of pieces of identification information supplied from the file information processing unit 142, and determines whether or not the same identification information exists in the search result. The file determination unit 144 supplies the determination result to the file information processing unit 142.

  The search result combining unit 145 is supplied with the determination result by the file determination unit 144 and the search result of the file search unit 143. When one identification information included in the list received by the file search unit 143 corresponds to another identification information included in the list, the search result combining unit 145 corresponds to the one identification information in the list. Data indicating a list of data identifiers to be collected and data identifiers corresponding to the other identification information are generated. In this embodiment, the search result combining unit 145 generates data indicating a screen on which a data identifier corresponding to one identification information and a data identifier corresponding to the other identification information are displayed together. In other words, the search result combining unit 145 corrects the data indicating the search results so that the files to which the same identification information is assigned appear as one file based on the determination result of the file determination unit 144. Data indicating the corrected search result is supplied to the search result transmission unit 146 by the file information processing unit 142.

  The search result transmission unit 146 transmits search result data indicating the search result to the client device 20 as a response to the search request data received from the client device 20. The file determination unit 144, the search result combination unit 145, and the search result transmission unit 146 include identification information that identifies data identified by the first search result data received by the file search unit 143, and the search result data When a plurality of data is identified by the search result data transmitting means for transmitting the second search result data including one piece of identification information for identifying the plurality of data to the client device 20 that is the transmission source of the search request data. It is an example.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing the contents of search processing according to this operation example. In the example shown in FIG. 10, a search is performed based on the search request data transmitted from the client device 20, and three files “file 1-a”, “file 1-b”, to which “identification information 1” is assigned, “File 1-c” is searched in each of the service providing apparatuses 10a, 10b, and 10c. The retrieved three files are regarded as files to which “identification information 1”, which is the same identification information, is given by comparing the identification information in the relay device 30, and the client is regarded as one file “file 1”. The device 20 is notified.

  Upon receiving the search result data from the relay device 30, the client device 20 displays a search result display screen illustrated in FIG. 11 according to the received search result data. In the example illustrated in FIG. 11, a table in which the items “storage service”, “file name”, and “save date” are associated with each other is displayed. Among these items, the “file name” item displays the file identifier (file name) of the searched file. If a different file identifier is assigned to each of the plurality of storage services, the file name in any storage service is displayed. In the “storage service” item, an icon indicating the storage service in which the file is stored is displayed. For example, in FIG. 11, “file 51” is associated with an icon for storage service A, an icon for storage service B, and an icon for storage service C. That is, it is indicated that the file whose file name is “file 51” was stored in the storage service A, the storage service B, and the storage service C. In the “save date and time” item, information indicating the date and time when the file was saved is displayed.

  By the way, when one store data is transmitted to and stored in multiple storage services, files stored in multiple storage services are displayed as separate files in the search results when searching for files. May feel annoying. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, when the search results are displayed, if the “file 51” sent to the storage service B and the storage service C is displayed individually, the user grasps the search results. It may be difficult. On the other hand, in this embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 11, among files searched from a plurality of storage services, files to which the same identification information is assigned are collectively displayed. Thus, the files transmitted to the plurality of storage services are presented to the user as one file, so that the user can easily grasp the search result.

  Next, a file output operation will be described. The user uses the operation unit 23 to select a file from the list displayed on the display unit 24. The client device 20 transmits an output instruction for the file selected according to the information output from the operation unit 23 to the relay device 30. This output instruction includes one of the file identifiers displayed in the file list. When the control unit 11 of the relay apparatus 30 receives the output instruction from the client apparatus 20, the service providing apparatus 10 corresponding to the storage service indicated in the search result list for the file corresponding to the file identifier included in the received output instruction. (If any, one of them) is acquired and transmitted to the client device 20. The client device 20 receives a file transmitted from the relay device 30.

[Modification]
The above-described embodiment is an example of the present invention and may be modified as follows. The following modifications may be combined with each other.

(1) In the above-described embodiment, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is used as the client apparatus 20, but the client apparatus is not limited to the image forming apparatus. For example, a smartphone, a tablet personal computer, or the like is used. It may be a device.

(2) In the above-described embodiment, the identification information storage unit 34 is provided in the storage unit 33 of the relay device 30 to store the identification information of the relayed file. However, the identification information is not necessarily stored in the storage unit 33. There is no need to let them. For example, when the control unit 31 assigns the identification information to the file so that the identification information does not overlap according to a predetermined rule, such as sequentially incrementing the identification information, the storage unit 33 does not necessarily include the identification information given to the file. There is no need to remember.

  As described above, in the above-described embodiment, instead of storing the identification information issued by the relay device 30 in the identification information storage unit 34, an algorithm or the like indicating an identification information generation rule is stored in the storage unit 33 of the relay device 30. You may make it memorize | store.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the format of the file identifier or folder identifier is different for each storage service has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a common file identifier or folder identifier may be used in a plurality of storage services. Good.

(3) In the above-described embodiment, the relay device 30 receives a file identifier (such as a file name in the service providing device 10) from each service providing device 10, but the relay device 30 does not necessarily receive a file identifier from each service providing device 10. It is not necessary to receive the file identifier, and the file identifier may not be received from each service providing apparatus 10. In this case, for example, the relay device 30 stores a table indicating the correspondence between the file identifier and the identification information, and each service providing device 10 also indicates the correspondence between the file identifier and the identification information. (The file identifier stored in the relay device 30 and the file identifier stored in each service providing device 10 may be different). In this case, the relay device 30 receives the identification information as a response to the search request from each service providing device 10 and transmits a list of file identifiers corresponding to the received identification information to the client device 20. At this time, when there are a plurality of files having the same identification information, the relay device 30 includes a file name corresponding to the files and transmits the file.

(4) In the above-described embodiment, the control unit 31 determines whether there is a file having the same identification information among the searched files based on the identification information attached to the file. The determination may be made using date / time information indicating the date / time when the file was saved or updated. In this case, the control unit 31 generates data indicating the correspondence relationship between the identification information of the retrieved file and the correspondence relationship between the date and time information of the retrieved file, and transmits the data to the client device 20. Specifically, for example, the control unit 31 collectively displays files having the same identification information provided, and uses different storage service icons for files having different update date / time information among these files. Data representing a screen to be displayed may be generated. More specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, among the files whose file name is “file 51”, the date / time information of the file searched in the storage service B is the file searched in the other storage service. If it is different from the date and time, screen data for displaying the icon of the storage service B in a display mode different from the icons of other storage services may be generated.

  As another example, for example, the control unit 31 may generate data indicating a list in which file identifiers having the same identification information and date / time information of the searched files are collected. In this case, even if the file identifier is the same, the files with different date information are displayed without being collected.

(5) In the above-described embodiment, the control unit 11 of the relay device 30 generates data (display data) indicating a screen for displaying a search result in the storage service and transmits the data to the client device 20. Not limited to this, the control unit 21 of the client device 20 may generate data indicating a screen for displaying the search result. In this case, the relay device 30 converts the file identifier received from the service providing device 10 according to the identifier conversion routine corresponding to the service providing device 10 read from the management table (FIG. 5), and converts the file identifier after conversion. Search result data in which file identifiers corresponding to identification information in the list are collected is transmitted to the client device 20. Then, based on the search result data received from the relay device 30, the client device 20 generates data indicating a screen indicating the search result, and performs display based on the generated data.

  In the above-described embodiment, FIG. 11 is exemplified as the display screen showing the search result. However, the display form of the search result is not limited to that illustrated in FIG. For example, an aspect in which an icon corresponding to the searched file may be displayed. In this case, when there are a plurality of files having the same identification information, the plurality of files may be displayed with one icon. In addition, the display form of the search result may be another display form, and any form may be used as long as the fact is displayed when there are a plurality of files having the same identification information. .

  In the above-described embodiment, the control unit 31 assigns the same identification information to the files transmitted to the plurality of storage services. However, the identification information provided to the files transmitted to the plurality of storage services is the same. Not only identification information but the structure to which the identification information which has a certain correspondence relationship is provided may be sufficient. In this case, the relay device 30 is configured to hold a table or the like indicating the correspondence relationship, and the control unit 31 may determine whether or not a plurality of files are the same file with reference to the correspondence relationship. .

(6) The configuration of the communication system 1 is not limited to the configuration described in the above-described embodiment. For example, the number of devices constituting the communication system 1 may be different from that in the embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, one storage service is provided by one service providing apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and one storage service may be provided by a plurality of server apparatuses.
In the above-described embodiment, the case where three storage services are provided has been illustrated, but the number of storage services is not limited to three, and may be more or less.
In the above-described embodiment, the client device 20 makes a file storage request to the storage service and makes a file search request. However, the client device 20 makes a file search request to the storage service and the file search request. The device to be performed may be a separate device. Furthermore, the device that makes a file search request and the device that receives the search result may be separate devices.

(7) In the above-described embodiment, the service identifier for identifying the storage service and the access destination information indicating the information for accessing the service providing apparatus 10 are separately used. The identifier and the access destination information may be integrated as one data. For example, the storage service may be identified by a URI for accessing the service providing apparatus 10.

(8) The program executed in the service providing device 10, the client device 20, or the relay device 30 may be downloaded via a communication line such as the Internet. The program is provided in a state of being recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a magnetic recording medium (magnetic tape, magnetic disk, etc.), an optical recording medium (optical disk, etc.), a magneto-optical recording medium, or a semiconductor memory. May be.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Communication system, 10 ... Service provision apparatus, 11, 21, 31 ... Control part, 12, 22, 32 ... Communication part, 13, 27, 33 ... Storage part, 14 ... File database, 20 ... Client apparatus, 23 ... Operation unit 24 ... display unit 25 25 image forming unit 26 image reading unit 30 30 relay device 40 network

Claims (4)

Search request data receiving means for receiving search request data indicating a data search request from the client device;
The search request data receiving means different conversion retrieval request data converted by using the received search request data, the transmitted respectively to the location of multiple, multiple as a response to the converted search request data Search result data receiving means for receiving a plurality of first search result data for identifying the searched data, including identification information given to the searched data, transmitted from each storage location;
Including identification information for identifying data identified by the first search result data received by the search result data receiving means, and when the plurality of data is identified by the first search result data, the plurality of data Search result data transmitting means for transmitting second search result data including one piece of identification information for identifying the search request data to a client device that is a transmission source of the search request data ,
The search result data transmitting means identifies a plurality of data identified by the plurality of first search result data when the identification information included in the plurality of received first search result data is common. One of the identification information, that sends a second search result data including the storage destination identification information for identifying a corresponding storage location in the plurality of data relaying devices. Data receiving means for receiving from the client device storage target data and storage request data indicating a storage request for the storage target data in one or a plurality of storage locations;
Identification information giving means for giving identification information for uniquely identifying the storage target data received by the data receiving means to the storage target data;
The relay apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a data transmission unit that transmits data to be stored, to which the identification information is added by the identification information adding unit, to the one or more storage locations according to the storage request data. The first search result data includes date and time information indicating a date and time when the searched data is stored,
The search result data transmitting means is identified by identification information included in the first search result data, and a plurality of data having different date information included in the first search result data is based on the first search result data. 3. The relay device according to claim 1, wherein, when being identified, the second search result data for identifying each of the plurality of data as different data is transmitted. Computer
Search request data receiving means for receiving search request data indicating a data search request from the client device;
The search request data receiving means different conversion retrieval request data converted by using the received search request data, the transmitted respectively to the location of several, multiple as a response to the converted search request data Search result data receiving means for receiving a plurality of first search result data for identifying the searched data, including identification information given to the searched data, transmitted from each storage location;
Including identification information for identifying data identified by the first search result data received by the search result data receiving means, and when the plurality of data is identified by the first search result data, the plurality of data A second search result data including one piece of identification information for identifying the search request data to a client device that is a transmission source of the search request data .
The search result data transmitting means identifies a plurality of data identified by the plurality of first search result data when the identification information included in the plurality of received first search result data is common. A program for transmitting second search result data including one piece of identification information and storage location identification information for identifying a storage location corresponding to each of a plurality of data .

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