JPH06131199A - Method and device for processing information - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute data link for data specified from plural pieces of the data by storing the plural pieces of the data in a data buffer for performing the data link among plural applications. CONSTITUTION:In respective applications store partial data for performing the data link on a clipboard buffer 3b. Plural stacks 31 for storing the partial data are provided on the clipboard buffer 3b and plural pieces of the partial data are stored in the plural stacks 31 when the need arises. Then, by specifying the data for which the data link is performed from the plural pieces of the stored partial data, the fetching of the data on the activating application is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing method and apparatus for performing data cooperation such as paste, embedding, and embedding link among a plurality of applications.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an information processing apparatus that executes various application programs to create data such as documents, data cooperation is required to enable a part of the created data to be shared by a plurality of documents. It has a function.

As one method for realizing such a data linking function, there is a method in which the application itself has a paste buffer for storing data to be data linked. Since the application itself manages the paste buffer, only the data created by that application can be handled.

Further, as a data linking buffer for handling data of a plurality of applications, there is a clipboard buffer owned by an OS such as a window system. Since this clipboard buffer is managed by the OS, data can be registered by various applications.

[0005]

However, as described in the conventional example, the paste buffer of the application can handle only the data created by the same application. Therefore, data linkage can be executed only between data created by the same application, and data created by other applications cannot be pasted using the paste buffer.

Further, the conventional clipboard buffer can store only one data at a time.
For this reason, when pasting the write data to the clipboard buffer before the last time, it is necessary to write the data to the clipboard buffer again. For example, when a plurality of locations of document data of an application are pasted onto other document data, data linkage operations are required for the number of locations to be pasted, which is a very troublesome task.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and stores a plurality of data in a data buffer for performing data cooperation between a plurality of applications, and stores data designated by these plurality of data. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing method and device capable of executing data cooperation.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the information processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, an information processing apparatus for performing data cooperation between a plurality of applications, a storage unit for storing partial data for data cooperation in a data buffer having a plurality of areas for storing data, and the data buffer. Specifying means for specifying the partial data for which data cooperation is to be executed from the plurality of partial data stored in, and reading the partial data specified by the specifying means from the storage means,
Data capturing means for capturing into the application.

Further, the information processing method according to the present invention which achieves the above object comprises the following steps. That is,
An information processing method for linking data between a plurality of applications, comprising a step of storing partial data for linking data in a data buffer having a plurality of areas for storing data, and storing in the data buffer. The method further comprises a designation step of designating the partial data for which data linkage is to be executed from the plurality of designated partial data, and a data loading step of reading the partial data designated by the designating step from the storage step and loading the partial data into the application.

[0010]

With the above-mentioned configuration, each application stores partial data for data cooperation in the data buffer. This data buffer has a plurality of areas for storing partial data, and a plurality of partial data are stored as necessary. Then, by specifying the data to be linked with the data from the plurality of partial data, the loading of data is executed on the running application.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic arrangement of an information processing apparatus according to this embodiment. In the figure, 1 is CP
U, which controls the entire information processing apparatus. 2 is RO
M, which stores various control programs and various data executed by the CPU 1 when the system is started up.
A RAM 3 includes a program area 3a, a clipboard buffer area 3b, and a work area 3c. The program area 3a stores an operating system for the CPU 1 to execute various processes, an application program operating on the operating system, and the like. The clipboard buffer area 3b is a data storage area for executing paste, and details will be described later. The work area 3c is a work area used by the CPU 1 for temporary storage of data for executing various processes. A hard disk 4 stores various application programs and the like.

A keyboard 5 and a mouse 6 are used for inputting various data and commands. Reference numeral 7 denotes a display, which displays document data created by an application program or the like. An external interface 8 is connected to an external device such as a printer. Reference numeral 9 denotes a printer, which executes printing on recording paper or the like based on print data input through the external interface 8. Reference numeral 10 denotes a system bus, which connects the above-described components to each other and enables mutual data exchange.

Next, the clipboard buffer 3a described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the clipboard buffer 3b. Clipboard buffer 3b
Is a ring buffer format having n stacks 31 and a counter 32 for designating a stack to be used. Then, partial data is stored in each of these n stacks.

In FIG. 2, the partial data 20 of the document data A20 created by the application A, for example, is used.
a is stored in the stack 1 and partial data 20b is stored in the stack 2. Similarly, the partial data 21a of the graphic data 21 created by the application B is stored in the stack 3. Then, the data C2 being created by the application C for each partial data stored in the stacks 1 to 3
The state of being pasted on No. 2 is shown.

The stack to which the partial data is taken in is determined by the counter 32. For example, if the content of the counter 32 is 1, the data is stored in the stack 1, and then the content of the counter 32 is incremented by 1. Then, the content of the counter 32 becomes 2, so that the next partial data is stored in the stack 2. In this way, the counters are sequentially incremented, and when the content becomes n + 1, the counter returns to 1 again and the stacks 1 to n are circulated.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the data structure of each stack of the clipboard buffer 3b. In each stack, partial data for which data cooperation is to be performed is registered in the same data format as it is, and converted into various common data formats as much as possible and registered. Therefore, the partial data in each data format and the data format identification information for identifying the data format are stored correspondingly. In this embodiment, the following four types of formats are used as common data formats on the window system.

That is, 1. Character code format: A data format in which character data is represented by a character code. 2. Image format: Image data in bitmap format. 3. Stroke format ... Data format that can be displayed by the graphic display library owned by the operating system. 4. Table format: A data format that represents a two-dimensional data structure such as a spreadsheet or a database. There are four types of data formats.

Registration of partial data is as follows, for example. First, the data format name unique to the application that created the partial data to be registered and the partial data in the data format unique to the application are stored in the area 311 in association with each other. Further, the partial data is converted into various convertible data formats and stored in association with each data format name. For example, the partial data converted to the character code format is "character code format".
Is registered in the area 312 in association with the data format identification information. If the partial data can be converted into the image format, the partial data converted into the image format is registered in the area 313 in association with the data format identification information “image format”.

The storage of the partial data in the stack as described above is executed by each application according to the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a registration processing procedure of partial data. It should be noted that this flowchart is started by inputting a command to start the paste processing with the keyboard 5 or the mouse 6.

First, in step S11, a range of partial data is designated in order to determine which part is to be partial data. In step S12, it is checked whether or not an input indicating that the designation of the partial data range is completed is entered, and if the designation is completed, the process proceeds to step S13. Until the designation completion is input, the process returns to step S11 and the range of partial data is designated.

In step S13, the unique data format name of the application that created the partial data is registered in the area 31a of the stack designated by the counter 32. Then, in step S14, the partial data of the designated range is registered in the area 31b in the data format of the application. This partial data can be used as it is, as long as the pasted document is created by the same application.

In the next steps S15 to S18, the procedure of converting the data format of the paste data and registering it is shown. First, in step S15, the common data format to be converted is selected (for example, the character code format of the common data format is selected). Then, in step S16, the data format name is registered. Then, in step S17, the data format of the partial data is converted into the common data format selected in step S15, and registered in association with the data format name registered in step S16. For example, it is checked whether the data can be converted into the character code format, and if possible, the format name of the character code format and the partial data converted into the character code format are registered in association with each other.

In step S18, whether all the common data formats (character code format, image format, stroke format, table format) described above are processed in the same manner as described above, and whether there is an unprocessed data format. To judge. If there is an unprocessed data format, step S1
Returning to step 5, the above processing is repeated.

When there is no unprocessed data format in step S18, the process proceeds to step S19. In step S19, the counter 32 is incremented by 1 for the next paste data. Then, in step S20, it is determined whether the counter 32 has become equal to n + 1, and if they are equal, the counter 32 is reset to 1 in step S21.
This process achieves the ring buffer format.

As described above, registration of partial data in each stack is executed. Next, a method of pasting the partial data registered as described above to the data created by a certain application will be described.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the procedure for pasting partial data. It should be noted that this flow chart is started upon receiving a paste processing start command.

In step S31, a partial data list is displayed. This list, as shown in Figure 6,
It is displayed at the bottom of the display screen of the display 7. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 61 is a partial data list. Also, 6
A pointer 2 is operated by the mouse 6. Here, the application name and the data content are displayed for each partial data. Here, the partial data that cannot be pasted in the application is notified to the user by lightly displaying it. Whether or not this paste processing is possible can be determined by whether or not there is data in the area of the data format that can be processed by the application. Details of this processing will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 7.

In step S32, partial data is designated. This uses the mouse 6 to operate the pointer 62,
The portion of the list may be designated directly, or the corresponding number may be designated using the keyboard 5. When the designation is completed in step S33, the process proceeds to step S34.
In step S34, where to paste the designated partial data is designated. Then, when the designation of the pasting position is completed in step S35, the partial data stored in the stack is taken out and the pasting of the data is executed by the processes of step S36 and subsequent steps.

In step S36, a data format that can be fetched by the currently activated application is searched, and it is checked whether or not partial data is converted into the fetchable data format and registered in the stack. As a result, if it has been registered, the process proceeds from step S37 to step S38, and the partial data registered corresponding to the data format name that can be taken in is used to execute the pasting to the designated position. On the other hand, if the data format has not been converted into a data format that can be imported, the partial data is not imported and this process ends. In the search of the data format in step S36 described above, when there are two or more data formats that can be fetched, the data format more suitable for the running application is sequentially searched. Therefore, the partial data can be captured in a more suitable data format.

Next, the process of displaying the partial data list in step S31 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S51, the stack to be displayed in the list is accessed. Next, step S52.
Then, the registered data format is searched to check whether or not the partial data is registered in the stack in a data format that can be fetched by the running application. If the search is successful in step S54 (that is, if the partial data is registered in the importable data format), the process proceeds to step S54, and the contents of the partial data are displayed in the list with normal brightness. on the other hand,
When the search is unsuccessful in step S53, the process proceeds to step S55, and the contents of the partial data are displayed in a light color. Then, in step S56, it is checked whether or not there is a stack to be processed, and if there is any undisplayed stack, the process returns to step S51, and the above-described processing is repeated for the undisplayed stack. When the processing is completed for all the stacks, this processing is completed.

As described above, according to the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment, by having a plurality of types of data for the same range data, data linkage of a plurality of applications can be performed easily and with high quality. Also, the data that each application can express most easily can be used. Further, since the clipboard buffer can store a plurality of partial data, when pasting a plurality of data, it is not necessary to repeat the operation of writing and pasting, and the operability in the data cooperation processing is significantly improved.

Further, according to the information processing apparatus of this embodiment,
When the partial data to be pasted is specified, the partial data that can be linked with the data can be distinguished from the data that is not linked, so that the operability in the data link is improved.

Further, in the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the clipboard buffer has a ring buffer format capable of registering a plurality of data, and each partial data is converted into various data formats for data registration. Even between different applications, data linkage of partial data becomes possible without being aware of the difference in the data. By providing such a clipboard, the following effects can be further obtained.

That is, by making the data format common to applications such as a window system, it is not necessary to individually know the data of the application using the clipboard, so that the application development efficiency is improved. -By using multiple data formats as common conventions and writing to the clipboard at the same time, applications of various genres such as document processing, spreadsheets, databases, and graphic processing can use the clipboard. -Each application can read from the clipboard in an appropriate data format.・ As a common data format to be registered in the clipboard,
By including a general text data format, the clipboard can be used more easily. Get the effect.

[0039]

As described above, according to the information processing method and apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of data are stored in a data buffer for performing data cooperation between a plurality of applications, and designated by these plurality of data. It becomes possible to perform data cooperation for the data that has been obtained. For this reason,
For example, in the case of embedding multiple partial data of the document data of a certain application in other document data, etc., the operation of registering in the data buffer and the operation of embedding in the document data can be executed collectively. Significantly improved.

[0040]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information processing apparatus according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a clipboard buffer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data structure of each stack of a clipboard buffer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a registration processing procedure of partial data.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for pasting partial data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display state of a partial data list on a display screen.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a display processing procedure for displaying a list of partial data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 ROM 3 RAM 3a Clipboard buffer 3b Program area 3c Work area 31 Stack 32 Counter

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Motohide Tamura 3-46 Okihamahigashi, Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture Justsystem Co., Ltd.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An information processing device for performing data cooperation between a plurality of applications, comprising a storage means for storing partial data for data cooperation in a data buffer having a plurality of areas for storing data. Designating means for designating the partial data for which data cooperation is to be executed from the plurality of partial data stored in the data buffer, and data for reading the partial data designated by the designating means from the storage means and loading it into a running application An information processing device comprising: a capturing unit. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data buffer in the storage unit has a ring buffer format having a plurality of areas for storing data. 3. A display means for displaying a list of the partial data stored in the data buffer, wherein the designating means changes from the list of the partial data displayed by the display means to an application being activated. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein partial data to be taken in is designated. 4. The storage means stores partial data for performing data cooperation in a data buffer having a plurality of areas for storing data, stores information about a data format of the partial data, and displays the partial data. The means displays a list of partial data stored in the data buffer, determines whether or not data can be taken into the running application by the data format of each partial data, and displays the determination result together. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: 5. An information processing method for linking data between a plurality of applications, the storing step of storing partial data for linking data in a data buffer having a plurality of areas for storing data. A designating step of designating partial data for which data cooperation is to be executed from a plurality of partial data stored in the data buffer, and a data loading step of reading the partial data designated by the designating step from the storing step and loading the data into the application And an information processing method comprising: 6. The information processing method according to claim 5, wherein the data buffer in the storing step is a ring buffer format having a plurality of areas for storing data. 7. The method further comprises a display step of displaying a list of partial data stored in the data buffer, wherein the designating step changes from the partial data list displayed by the display step to a running application. 7. The information processing method according to claim 5, wherein partial data to be taken in is designated. 8. The storage step stores partial data for performing data cooperation in a data buffer having a plurality of areas for storing data, stores information about a data format of the partial data, and displays the partial data. The process displays a list of partial data stored in the data buffer, determines whether data can be loaded into the running application by the data format of each partial data, and displays the determination result as well. The information processing method according to claim 7, wherein