JPH04290138A - Software maintenance system for decentralized information communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a user to make an immediate return to the environment after a last customizing process by judging whether the revised version data is a correction data of customization or not by a work station at the time of the transfer of the revised version data from a master file. CONSTITUTION:A file server 2 which holds the master file 1 and the work station 3 which holds a local file 4 are connected by a network system. The local file 4 is generated by customization based upon characteristic specifications on the work station 3. At this time, the work station 3 judges whether or not the revised version data from the master file 1 is the correction data of the customization. When the revised version data is the correction data, the work station 3 gives a mark and copies the data by a matching process, but when the customization is not performed, the data is copied in the local file 4.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a software maintenance method for a distributed information communication system, and in particular, after customizing a local file that has been copied and generated from a master file, the local file is updated while maintaining the customization information when revising the master file. This invention relates to a software maintenance method for a distributed information communication system for updating.

In recent years, with the progress of distributed processing in computer systems, workstations have become more widespread, and network systems connecting these workstations, file servers, etc. have become commonplace. Such network systems are required to provide workstation users with a standard environment common to all systems, while also allowing users to customize their own usage environments.

[0003] Therefore, in order to provide a common standard environment for the system, a network provides functions for remote installation (remote setting) at the time of system introduction and remote maintenance at the time of maintenance. This feature automatically transfers software stored in the master file on the file server to a local file on the workstation. Furthermore, workstation users will need to customize the software in the transferred local files to create their own usage environment.

0004

[Background Art] In conventional distributed information processing systems, a master file is revised after the contents of a local file transferred by remote installation processing or remote maintenance processing are modified by customization processing at each workstation. Then, the local file was replaced with the contents of the new master file by remote maintenance processing again.

However, in the customization process, modules in the local file transferred from the master file may be modified, renamed, or added. Therefore, if the local file is replaced again with the contents of the new master file, there is a possibility that the previous customization information will be lost. Therefore, after the transfer, the same customization process as the previous one will be performed again.

[0006]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, in the conventional method, after the contents of the revised master file are transferred to a local file, the user cannot immediately use the workstation in the conventional environment. , there was a problem in that it was necessary to perform the same customization process again as before.

[0007]Furthermore, in addition to the time and effort required to perform the customization process again, normal customization processes involve personal information created by each user and are rarely documented. There is also the problem that corrections may be omitted or errors may occur when re-customizing a module that has been revised according to the memory of processing.

[0008] The present invention provides a software maintenance method for a distributed information communication system that allows a user to immediately and easily restore the environment after the previous customization process after transferring the contents of a revised master file to a local file. The purpose is to provide.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of the present invention. In Figure 1, 1 is the master file, 10
2 is a revised data section, 2 is a file server, 20 is a transfer means, 3 is a workstation, 30 is a customization judgment means, 31 is an alignment means, 32 is a transcription means, 4 is a local file, 40 is a transcription data section, 41 is a It represents a customized data section, and 1 to 4 constitute a distributed information communication system.

[0010] When the master file is revised, the present invention transfers only the modules modified by the revision from the file server to the local file of the workstation, and when further copying them to the customization data section, the modules to be copied are modified at the time of customization. If the module has not been modified, it is copied as is, but if it is a modified module, it is harmonized and a revised module containing customization information is copied.

[0011]

[Operation] When the master file 1 is revised, the transfer means 20 of the file server 2 transfers only the modules whose data have been corrected by the revision to the local file 4 of the workstation 3. The workstation 3 replaces this with data at the corresponding module position in the transfer data section 40 provided in the work area of the local file 4 (overwrites the original data).

[0012] This module is copied to the customization data section 41 of the local file 4, but at this time, the customization determining means 30 determines whether the module has been modified during previous customization. This judgment is made by the customization data section 41 of the local file 4.
This is compared with the current transcription data (module) 40 transcribed from the master file 1 to determine whether or not it has been localized and modified at this workstation 3. If not modified, the data (module) in the transcription data section 40 in the local file 4 is transferred to the customized data section 41 by the transfer means 32 .

If the module has been modified, the matching means 31 performs matching processing. In this case, the difference between the revised module and the current customized module is extracted, the difference is applied to the revised module, and the customization data section 4 is
Store in 1. In the harmonization process, in addition to this, an inconsistency mark is added to the revised module and the customized data section 4 is added.
It is also possible to perform a process of transferring the module by storing it in 1.

When this latter process is adopted, after the copying of all modules is completed, a list of marked modules is presented to the user of the workstation 3, and correction information is displayed when the user customizes each module. It is possible to check or create a correction module that integrates the information and correction information at the time of revision. If the process of adding marks is not performed, the user can use the customized file without being aware of it.

[0015]

Embodiment FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a processing flow of the embodiment, and FIG. 4 is an example of file data structure. In Figure 2, 1 to 4 represent the same things as in Figure 1, 5 is a file server group, 6 is a workstation group, and 7 is an L
It is a network system such as AN. The file servers 2 and 5 and the workstations 3 and 6 each have a similar configuration, and the workstation 3 in FIG. 2 shows an example of the hardware configuration. In other words, the CPU (central processing unit), main memory (MM), network control unit that controls the network, input/output control unit to which the keyboard, mouse, etc. are connected, display control unit to which the display is connected, display memory, hard disk, etc. It consists of a file control unit, etc. to which a file device is connected, and local files and master files are stored in the file device.

Next, in the above system configuration,
When the master file 1 of the file server 2 is revised, the processing flow of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 when the local file 4 of the workstation 3 is revised is operated. In this case, it is assumed that the data structure of each file has a structure as shown in FIG. The data structure of this figure 4 is
The software revision history (year, month, and date) of the distributed information and communication system is as follows. The two modules in this system are module A (MODULE-A) and module B (MODULE-A).
LE-B), module A was modified and not customized at the time of the previous revision, and module A was not modified or customized at the time of the previous or current revision. It is assumed that module B was revised and customized at the time of the previous revision and the previous revision, and was also modified at the time of this revision.

[0017] Under the above conditions, Figure 4 shows the state immediately before the revised information is introduced into the workstation after this revision.
Revised data section 10 in master file 1 (A.
), the transcription data section 40 in the local file 4 (B. in FIG. 4), and the customized data section 41 in the local file 4 (C. in FIG. 4). In each data section, the "module name" is the identifier of the module included in each data, and the "last update date and time" is the value of the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second of the last update. B. The "mark area" of the transcription data section of the local file is an area to which a mark, which will be described later, is added.

To explain the processing flow in FIG. 3, when the workstation receives revised data from the file server module by module, it selects the first module (see FIG. 3).
No. 50), it is determined whether all modules have been completed in that module (No. 51), and if not, it is determined whether it is a modified module at the time of revision (No. 53). This determination is made based on whether the update dates and times of the current modules do not match. In the data example of FIG. 4, it can be seen that module A is not a modified module because the current last updated date and time and the last updated date and time of the revision data section match. In this case, the revised data 10 from the master file is not copied to the customized data section of the local file, and the process moves to step 59 to select the next module.

When the next module B is selected, in step 53 via step 51, in determining whether it is a modified module at the time of revision, the last update date and time 40b of the transcription data section of module B in FIG. Since the update date and time 41b do not match, it can be seen that this is a modification module at the time of customization. After this, matching processing is executed in steps 55-57.

That is, the difference between the revised module and the current customized module is extracted (55), the customization information is applied to the revised module (56), and an inconsistency mark is added to the module (57). This misalignment mark is shown in B of FIG. It is added to the mark area 40c as shown in FIG. Note that this example was added in the previous revision, and will also be added in the current revision.

[0021] Next, copy the revised module (58)
and select the next module (59). When transcription is completed for all modules, output a list of inconsistent modules due to revision/customization (52),
Finish the process. The list output of this inconsistent module is
By presenting the user with a list of module names marked in the mark area, the user recognizes the consistency of revisions and customizations. By looking at this and customizing module B of the customized data section, the last update date and time of the customized data section is changed.

[0022]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, when the master file is revised, the user of each workstation can perform the process of transferring the revised version information to his own workstation, thereby ensuring consistency between the revision and customization. In some cases, the authentication will be done automatically. Furthermore, if there is no consistency, a list of the inconsistent modules is output, making it easy to ensure consistency between revisions and customizations. Furthermore, it is possible to encourage the revision of the common environment specifications and the activation of individual customization processes in the distributed information and communication system, and it is possible to improve the functional performance of the usage environment in the distributed information and communication system.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a processing flow of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an example of a data structure of a file.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Master file 10 Revised data section 2 File server 20 Transfer means 30 Customization judgment method 31. Harmonization means 32 Transfer means 3 Workstation ４　　　　　　Local file 40 Transcription data section 41 Customized data section

Claims (1)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A file server that holds a master file and a workstation that holds local files are connected via a network system, and a process of transferring the contents of the master file that stores software with system common specifications to a local file and a workstation. In a distributed information communication system where local files are created by customization based on specific specifications, a workstation determines whether the revised data is modified data due to customization during the process of transcribing revised data from the master file, and determines whether the revised data is modified data due to customization. A software maintenance method for a distributed information and communication system that is characterized in that if the data is data, a mark is added by harmonization processing and it is transcribed into a local file, and if it is not corrected data, the revised data is transcribed as is into the local file.