JPH0198057A - Repeating installation - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To flexibly respond to changes, etc., by performing repeating processes as conventionally with respect to commands except for those related to file access and transmitting these commands to locations designated in accordance with a file location table. CONSTITUTION:A LAN connected with many POS terminals and an EMF serving as an external memory is set at a single side of a cluster controller 1 equivalent to a repeating device. While hots 1 and 2 such as centers, etc., are connected at the other side of the controller 1 via exclusive circuits. Various files for price look-up, capture and negative are used to the POS terminals and the necessary file locations are set at the EMF and an internal memory of the controller 1 or the hosts 1 and 2. The controller 1 consists of a microcomputer consisting primarily of a CPU 2, the ROM 3 and the RAM 4. Then host interfaces 5 and 6 are set on the bus of the controller 1 together with a LAN interface 7 for the EMF.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to an improvement in a relay device that is located between a group of POS terminals and one or more hosts and that relays communication messages between them.

(Summary of the Invention) In this invention, a message related to file access is detected from a message received from a PO8 terminal and a host, a file name to be accessed is detected from the detected message, and based on the detected file name. By referring to a predetermined table, a corresponding file location is detected, and a message is sent to this file location.

(Prior art and its problems) This type of relay device is a cluster controller (hereinafter referred to as
It is located between a group of POS terminals connected to each other via a LAN and one or more hosts connected via a transmission line, and relays communication messages between them. It is done like this.

For example, such a relay device is installed in a store such as a department store or a supermarket, and is used to relay transmitted messages between a POS group in the store and a host installed at a center.

By the way, in a system where, for example, ECR is used as the PO8 terminal group, the PLU file.

There are various data files such as capture files and negative check files, and these files are stored in the host, external memory (EMF) on the LAN, internal memory (IMF) in the cluster controller (C/C), which is a relay device, etc. Usually, they are fixedly provided in each.

Therefore, in the conventional relay device of this type, when a message related to file access is received, the transfer process is simply performed on the file location attached to the message.

However, in the case of such conventional relay equipment, if the file location is changed due to system modification or failure of a file capable device, a major modification of the entire system including each PO8 terminal group is required, which reduces flexibility. There were some problems, such as overloading.

(Object of the invention) The object of the invention is to:
To provide a relay device capable of responding flexibly even when various file locations are changed without majorly modifying the entire system.

(Structure and Effects of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a relay device that is located between a group of PO8 terminals and one or more hosts and that relays communication messages between them, a table in which file names and their file locations are stored in association with each other; means for detecting a message related to file access from messages received from the POS terminal or host; and a file name to be accessed from the detected message. means for detecting a corresponding file location by referring to the table based on the detected file name; and means for detecting a corresponding file location by referring to the table based on the detected file name; The invention is characterized by comprising: means for transmitting to a file location;

With this configuration, when a file location change occurs, it is possible to respond flexibly by simply rewriting the table within the relay device, without affecting each PO8 terminal group or the host side. Become.

(Description of Embodiments) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a POS system to which a relay device according to the present invention is applied.

In the figure, a cluster controller (C/C) 1 corresponds to the relay device of the present invention, and a large number of POS terminals and external memory (EMF) are connected to the LAN connected to this C/C. .

In addition, the C/C1, PO8 terminal group, and external memory are all installed within the store, while the C/C1 and hosts such as centers are connected via dedicated lines; in this example, two hosts Each is connected via an independent dedicated line.

ECR is used as the PO8 terminal, so this system uses PLU (abbreviation for price lookup).
file, capture file.

Various files such as negative check files are used, and the file location is usually set to external memory (EMF), internal memory (IMF) in C/CI, host 1.2, etc.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control section of the C/CI is
J2. It consists of a microcomputer with ROM3 and RAM4 as its main components, and on its system bus there is a host interface 5.6 for a dedicated line connected to the host, and a host interface 5.6 for connection with the PO8 terminal group and external memory (EMF). A LAN interface 7 is provided.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the configuration of the C/CI control program stored in the ROM 3, and the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be systematically explained below with reference to this flowchart.

When the program is started by turning on the power, etc., it executes a known initial process to initialize various flags and registers (step 301), and then starts the host 1. It enters a state of waiting for reception from the host 2 or the LAN (step 302).

Here, the command is host1. Host 2. PO8 terminal,
It is created by EMF and sent to C70.

C70 relays the command according to the file location table.

Responses, except for those related to files in the IMF, are sent to the command destination host 1. It is created by the host 2° POS or EMF and sent to the C70. C70 relays the command to the response destination.

A response regarding the file in the IMF is created at C70 and sent back to the command source.

In this state, if a message is received and the content is other than a file access related message, (
Step 303: No), the message is sent to the destination attached to it (Step 304). This message is P
This corresponds to received commands, responses, etc. in communication between the O8 terminal and the host.

Here, the format of commands/responses other than those related to files is as shown in Figure 5C.
It consists of response code, command source, command destination, and command details.

On the other hand, if the received message is related to file access (step 303, affirmative), it is roughly determined whether the message is a command or a response (step 305).

Here, as shown in Figure 5A, the command format consists of a command code, command source, command destination, file name, and command details, and as shown in Figure 5B, the command format consists of a command code, command source, command destination, file name, and command details. The format is response code, response source, and response destination.

Consists of file name and response details.

Therefore, in the determination process of step 305, the response/command is identified based on whether the command code is 10 or the response code is 2X.

If it is identified as a response, it is sent to the destination in the same way as described above (step 304),
If it is determined to be a command, the file name included in the command is roughly stored in the file location table (F
LT> is determined (step 3
06).

That is, as shown in FIG.
4 contains a rewritable file location table (
FLT) is provided.

This file location table is divided into a plurality of file name areas, and each of the file name areas stores a plurality of file locations (four file locations in this example) along with their priorities.

Now, add the number 10.2 to each file location area.
By storing 0, 3X, and 99, respectively, host 1. Host 2. It is possible to assign meanings to POS, EMF, and none.

Therefore, in the process of step 306 described above, a search is made to see if there is a file name in the file location table that matches the file name in the file access related command (see FIG. 5A).

As a result, if the corresponding file name exists in the file location table (step 306, YES), transmission to each file location is performed in order of priority until the transmission is successfully completed.

That is, the relevant command related to file access is first sent to file location 1 (step 30).
7, 308>, and then enters a state of waiting for a response from the command destination (step 309).

Here, if a normal response is returned (step 31
0 affirmative), sends a response to that effect to the response destination (step 311), and returns to host 1. host 2
Alternatively, it returns to the state of waiting for reception from the LAN (step 302).

On the other hand, if the file at location 1 is full or if the external device or interface containing the file (
If a normal response is not returned due to a failure of the LAN or line (No in step 310), the process returns to step 307, and the command is sent to location 2 according to the priority order (step 307.
308>, and then enters a waiting state for receiving a response from the command destination (step 309).

Thereafter, steps 307 to 309 are repeated until a normal response is returned from the corresponding location, and as a result, file locations are sequentially selected one by one according to the file location table, and command transmission processing is performed for each file location.

That is, when the C/C receives a command related to file access, it transmits the command in the order of locations 1, 2, 3.4 until a normal response is returned. however,
If the location is 99, it will not be sent.

Then, when the transmission to any file location is successfully completed (step 310, affirmative), a response to that effect is transmitted to the response destination.
11), host 1 again. The state returns to the state of waiting for reception from host 2 or the LAN (step 302).
.

In this way, according to the device of this embodiment, commands other than those related to file access are simply relayed as before, but only commands related to file access are transferred to the file specified according to the file location table. A transmission is made to a location.

Therefore, if the location of the relevant file changes due to system modification or file location failure, simply changing the contents of the file location table accordingly will have no effect on the transmitting and receiving low light sources. This makes it possible to respond flexibly without having to give up.

Roughly speaking, in this embodiment, it is possible to set multiple file locations for one file name along with priorities, but if the first file location in the priority order cannot be transmitted, it is possible to set multiple file locations in sequence immediately. As a result, even if there are some changes in the file location, file access processing can be performed without any problem without rewriting the file location table.

Therefore, even if communication with the normal file location is temporarily unavailable due to a LAN or line failure, in such a case, it will be possible to access any of the multiple file locations mentioned above, and no files will be saved. This makes it possible to respond quickly without delaying access.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the POS system to which the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the cluster controller, Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the software configuration, and Fig. 4 is Memory map showing the structure of the file location table, No. 5A
5C are explanatory diagrams showing the format of each command. 1...Cluster controller 2...CPU 3...ROM 4...RAM 5...Host coin interface 6...Host 2 interface 7...LAN interface

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A relay device that is located between a group of POS terminals and one or more hosts and that relays communication messages between them, and a table that stores file names and their file locations in association with each other; Said P
means for detecting a message related to file access from a message received from an OS terminal or a host; means for detecting a file name to be accessed from the detected message; and means for detecting a file name to be accessed from the detected message; and means for transmitting a message related to the detected file access to the file location detected based on the table. Device. (2) The table stores a plurality of file locations with priorities for one file name, and when detecting the file locations, the file locations are sequentially selected in priority order until the transmission is successfully completed. The relay device according to claim 1, wherein the relay device performs detection.