JPH03278160A - Information offering method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the load for a data processing and transfer of a host computer and a network and to improve the responsiveness by arranging the contents of a response information accumulation table provided in a terminal server in accordance with a generation state of an inquiry. CONSTITUTION:When information corresponding to inquiry data does not exist in a terminal server 140, it is fetched from a host computer 110 side and transmitted to a terminal, and simultaneously, stored in a table, as well of the terminal server 140. Accordingly, in the case the same inquiry is generated concentrically from other terminal, since the information concerned exists in a data bus of the terminal server 140, it becomes unnecessary to execute repeatedly an access to the host computer 110. In such a way, even when a concentrical inquiry to the same information is generated, the load of the host computer 110 does not increase and the information is offered with satisfactory responsiveness.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an information providing method, and particularly to an information providing method in an information communication network system in which a terminal server is provided between a host computer and a terminal device.

[Conventional technology]

In an information communication network system, in which a user retrieves and uses various information stored in a host computer system to a terminal device (hereinafter simply referred to as a terminal) via an information communication network, there is a gap between the host computer and multiple terminals. By installing a terminal server and having it hold some of the information provided by the host, we aim to reduce the load on the host computer. An earlier application of such a system is one shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-20011, and its basic configuration is shown in FIG.

3- In the figure, the host computer 110 has a communication line 130,
Terminals 160 to 170 via terminal server 140
is connected to. Databases 120 and 150 are installed in the host computer 110 and the terminal server, respectively. When one of the terminals, for example the terminal 160, makes an inquiry, the inquiry data is input to the terminal server 140 via the communication line, where the inquiry data is analyzed and sent to the terminal server 1.
It is checked whether or not the corresponding information exists in the 40 databases 150. If there is, the information is sent to the terminal 160, but if there is no inquiry data is sent to the host computer 110, the relevant information is extracted from the database 120, and sent to the terminal 160 via the terminal server 140.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

For example, assume that a large number of inquiries are made from terminals regarding stock information on a specific stock. If this stock information does not exist in the database 150 of the terminal server 140, a large number of identical inquiries will occur between the host computer and the terminal server, placing a heavy load on the host computer and putting it in a waiting state for responses, which will reduce the responsiveness of the terminal. becomes worse. With conventional technology, it is not possible to dynamically change the contents of the terminal server's database 150 in response to inquiries from the terminal, so when information that does not exist in the database 150 is accessed, the above-described drop in responsiveness is unavoidable. Ta.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information providing method that can provide information with good responsiveness no matter what type of information is requested.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, in an information communication network system in which a terminal server is interposed between a host computer and a terminal, information corresponding to inquiry data from the terminal exists in the database of the terminal server. When not, the corresponding data is retrieved from the database of the host computer and sent to the inquiry terminal, and the response information is stored in a table provided in the terminal server. When making subsequent inquiries, both the database and this table are checked to see if there is any inquiry information, and if there is, it is sent to the terminal. In the terminal server, when the table becomes full of accumulated information, old information is removed according to predetermined standards to secure the necessary storage area.

[For production]

If the information corresponding to the inquiry data does not exist on the terminal server, it is retrieved from the host computer and sent to the terminal, and at the same time it is stored in the terminal server's table.

If a large number of similar inquiries occur from other terminals, the relevant information exists in the database of the terminal server, so there is no need to repeatedly access the host computer. Therefore, even when intensive inquiries regarding the same information occur, the load on the host computer does not increase and information can be provided with good responsiveness.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The basic configuration of the entire embodiment is shown in FIG.

This figure has the same overall configuration as the conventional figure 2, but the terminal server 14OA includes a response information accumulation table 143 for accumulating part of the information of the host computer 110.
, an offline storage process 141 for writing information thereto offline, and an online storage process 142 for writing information online. The online storage process 142 stores response information in the response information storage table 143 along with a response for processing an inquiry from a terminal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the format of response data 300 from the host computer, including an inquiry code 310 indicating an inquiry pattern, and a date 320 when the response data was created.
, erasure unit 33 indicating the timing to erase response data
0, response information 340 to be sent to the terminal.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the response information storage table 143 for storing response data 300. It stores a plurality of pieces of response data shown in FIG. The number of inquiries 350 indicating whether inquiries have been made is also stored.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the online storage process 142 of FIG. First, when inquiry data is input from a terminal, response data to the inquiry is stored in the storage table 143 or the database 15.
Check whether it is 0 (step 10). If so, extract the corresponding response information 340, and if it is in the accumulation table 143, add the number of inquiries 350.
The count is increased by 1 (step 20). If not, the inquiry data is sent to the host computer 110 (step 30), and response data 300 is received from the host computer 110 (step 40). Next, terminal server 1
40 is checked whether the response information storage table 143 is full (step 50). If it is full, please contact 3.
50 is the least and the oldest response data with date 320 is deleted (step 60). After this step is completed, if the table 143 is not full, the response data 300 is set in an empty position in the table 143, and the number of inquiries 350 is reset (step 70). The response information 340 in the response data 300 sent from the host computer 110 or the response information 340 extracted from the response information storage table 143 is transmitted to the terminal that made the inquiry (step 80).
).

According to this embodiment, when inquiries are made intensively for response information that is not stored in the database of the terminal server in advance, this information is stored in the response information storage table when the information is queried once. Therefore, there is no need to access the host computer for subsequent inquiries, reducing the load on the host computer and shortening the waiting time for inquiries.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart 1 showing another embodiment of the online storage process 142 of FIG. In this embodiment, from the host computer 110 to the terminal server 140A,
When response data that is considered to have a large number of inquiries is set in the accumulated table 143 in the online processing 141, a part of the table 143 is left empty. Further, the accumulation table 143 is provided with an inquiry number table 500 shown in FIG. This inquiry number table 500 is composed of one inquiry code 510 and the number of inquiries 520.

In the flowchart of FIG. 6, first, in step 410), it is checked whether there is information corresponding to the inquiry from the terminal in the response information storage table 143. +1 count up (step 420), and response information is transmitted to the terminal (step 490). If not, send inquiry data to the host computer 110 (step 430), response data 3 from the host computer 110.
00 is received (step 440), then the inquiry number table 500 is searched using the inquiry code 310 in the response data 300 as a key, and the inquiry number 520 in the case of a matching inquiry code 510 is counted up by +1 (step 450). ). As a result of counting up, check whether the number of inquiries 520 exceeds a pre-specified threshold (step 460).
, if not, the information is transmitted to the terminal in step 490. If the number of inquiries exceeds the threshold, it is determined that there are many requests for that inquiry, and in order to accumulate response data 300 in the storage table 143, it is checked whether the table 143 is full (step 4).
70). If it is full, information is sent to the terminal (step 490). If the space is not full, response data 300 is set in the empty space (step 480), and the response information is transmitted to the terminal (step 490).

In this embodiment, since the items that are likely to be frequently inquired about are set in advance in the storage table, there is no need to make inquiries to the host about them. From the host computer's point of view, this means that the number of inquiries multiplied by the number of terminal servers multiplied by the number of accumulated inquiry codes becomes unnecessary, which is very effective when there are a large number of terminal servers. In addition, since the area 11-A that is accumulated when online is left in the accumulation table, when inquiries change while online, for example, when inquiries about specific information occur, this inquiry can be made in the same way as in the first embodiment. By setting correspondence information to the storage table online, it is possible to reduce the number of inquiries to the host, reduce the load on the host computer, and reduce the load on the communication circuit between the host computer and the terminal server. .

In the network system shown in FIG. 3, there is one computer and one terminal server, but it is clear that the present invention can be applied even if there are multiple computers and terminal servers.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, by organizing the contents of the response information accumulation table provided in the terminal server in response to the occurrence of inquiries, it is possible to significantly reduce the data processing and transfer load on the host computer and network. This has the effect of improving responsiveness.

2

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of online storage processing that is a feature of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the basic configuration of an information communication network system, and FIG. 3 is an information communication network system using the present invention. Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of the format of response data. Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of the format of response data.
6 is a diagram showing a response information accumulation table, FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing another embodiment of online accumulation processing, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an inquiry number table used in the embodiment of FIG. 6. 110...Host computer, 120, 150...Database, 130...Communication line, 140A...Terminal server, 142...Online storage processing, 1
43...Response information accumulation table, 160-170...
・Terminal, 300...Response data.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A host computer equipped with a host database storing provided information, a terminal server equipped with a server database storing provided information and connected to the host computer via a network, and the terminal server and the network In an information provision method in a network system having terminals connected by If the corresponding information exists in the server database or information storage table of the terminal server, the information will be sent to the terminal that made the inquiry, and if the corresponding information does not exist, the terminal server will respond to the inquiry. An information providing method characterized by transmitting information sent to the host computer and returned to the terminal, and storing the returned information in an information storage table within its own server. 2. Add the number of inquiries regarding the information and the date it was stored to each piece of information stored in the information storage table, and if there is no free space to store the information returned from the host computer, it will be added to the information that has already been stored. 2. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein a vacant area is created by extracting the information that has received the least number of inquiries and deleting the information that has been stored the oldest among the information. 3. Each of the terminal servers is provided with an inquiry number table that stores the number of inquiries for each provided information, and the number of inquiries in the table is updated each time an inquiry occurs, and information that does not exist in the server database and information storage table is A claim characterized in that the number of inquiries made is checked by referring to the number of inquiries, and the information is stored in the information storage table only when the number of inquiries exceeds a predetermined value. The information provision method described in 1.