JPH07282002A - Message controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control even a complicated cooperation operation among developing tools. CONSTITUTION:A condition definition part 10 for setting a trigger condition by combining plural trigger messages, a trigger condition judgement part 14 judging whether the trigger condition is fullfilled by a transmission message transmitted from the various developing tools and a message transmission part 15 transmitting the transmission message in accordance with the result of judgement by the trigger condition judgement part 14, are provided. Thus, the transmission message becoming a chance for starting the operation of the developing tools is transmitted in accordance with the combination of the plural trigger messages transmitted from the plural developing tools. Thus, even a cooperation operation among plural developing tools can be controlled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a message control device, and in particular, it is suitable for use in controlling cooperative operation of various development tools used in a software development environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, software is often developed using various development tools according to the purpose of development. In this case, in order to enable more efficient software development, it is required to operate the various development tools while cooperating with each other.

Conventionally, there has been provided a software development system capable of interlocking various development tools with each other. This system is one of the frameworks for easily incorporating various development tools into a software development environment, performing data communication between the incorporated development tools, and operating the development tools in cooperation.

In the above software development system, as a mechanism for communicating between development tools, BMS (Broadcast Message Sever:
It is called a message server. ) Is used a mechanism called.

That is, the software development system incorporates a tool called a message connector into the development environment, and uses this message connector to exchange control data called a message between the development tools via the message server. , It is possible to control the cooperative operation.

Now, the function of the message connector will be described. That is, first, the user statically or dynamically sets a condition for communicating between the development tools by using a message connector as a preparation for actually controlling the cooperative operation between the development tools. .

This condition is defined by a pair of one message that the development tool pays attention to and a message group to be transmitted when the message is observed (when the condition is fired). Plural sets of such conditions can be defined.
The condition thus defined by the user is registered in the condition list.

On the other hand, when actually executing control of cooperative operation, the message connector monitors various messages output from each development tool and exchanged via the message server.

When a message of interest defined in advance as described above is observed, a group of transmission messages corresponding to the message is sent to the message server. The message server sends the outgoing message group received from the message connector to the corresponding development tool. Each development tool operates according to the information described in the corresponding outgoing message sent from the message server in this way.

[0010]

As described above, in the conventional software development system, the cooperative operation of various development tools can be controlled through the exchange of messages. However, the message connector used in this software development system can only define a trigger condition for one attention message (monitoring message).

In other words, the message connector used in the conventional software development system has a problem that it can control only a very monotonous operation of receiving one message and sending a transmission message group in response to this. there were. The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to control a complicated cooperative operation between development tools.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A message control device of the present invention is configured to control the cooperative operation of the tools based on messages exchanged between various tools according to a predetermined trigger condition. In the above, the above-mentioned trigger condition is set by combining a plurality of trigger messages of interest to the tool.

Another feature of the present invention is that in a message control device adapted to control the cooperative operation of the tools according to messages exchanged between the various tools, a plurality of triggers to which the tools are interested. Condition defining means for defining a trigger condition by combining messages, and condition determination for determining whether or not the trigger condition defined by the condition defining means is satisfied by a plurality of messages sent from the various tools. Means and message sending means for sending a corresponding message according to the result of the judgment by the condition judging means.

Still another feature of the present invention is that the trigger condition is set by collectively defining the combination of the plurality of trigger messages and the order thereof.

[0015]

Since the present invention comprises the above technical means, the trigger condition defined by combining a plurality of trigger messages is:
When satisfied by multiple messages sent from multiple tools, a message that triggers the operation of the tool will be sent to the corresponding tool, and cooperative operation between multiple tools can be performed. It also becomes possible to control. Further, by defining the order of the trigger messages together when setting the trigger condition, it becomes possible to define the order of receiving the messages sent from the plurality of tools.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the message control device 20 of this embodiment. In FIG. 1, 10
Is a condition definition part, and is a trigger message declaration part 10a,
Transmission message declaration unit 10b, trigger condition definition unit 10c
And the condition list storage unit 10d.

The trigger message declaring section 10a is for defining the trigger message used in the trigger condition defining section 10c. The trigger message defined here is one or more messages (monitoring messages) that various development tools pay attention to. In the present embodiment, as shown in the following example, {$
<Number>} is used.

$ 1 = <trigger message $ 1> $ 2 = <trigger message $ 2> $ 3 = <trigger message $ 3>

The transmission message declaration unit 10b is for defining the transmission message used by the trigger condition definition unit 10c. The transmission message defined here is a message to be transmitted to the message server when the above trigger message is observed to satisfy the condition defined by the trigger condition definition unit 10c. In this embodiment, {@ <number>} is used as the identifier of the transmission message, as shown in the following example.

@ 1 = <sent message @ 1> @ 2 = <sent message @ 2>

Further, the trigger condition defining unit 10c satisfies the trigger condition in which a plurality of trigger messages are combined and the trigger condition, using each message defined by the trigger message declaring unit 10a and the transmission message declaring unit 10b. It is for defining a set with a transmission message which is sometimes sent to the message server.

Regarding the above trigger condition, AND (*)
The conditional expression can be defined by using operators such as OR and OR (+). This conditional expression is expressed by a Boolean algebraic expression of a flag (value of 0 or 1) corresponding to each trigger message. Further, in this conditional expression, an if statement that does not care about the reception order of trigger messages, or a seqif statement that can specify the reception order of trigger messages can be used.

That is, when the if statement is used in the trigger condition, the firing order of the trigger message used in the conditional expression is free. On the other hand, when the seqif statement is used in the trigger condition, when comparing the observed trigger message with the conditional expression, if the trigger message is described on the right side of the AND operator, the above AND If all the conditions on the left side of the operator are not true, the corresponding flag will not be set.

For example, consider the following trigger condition. seqif ($ 1 * ($ 2 + $ 3)) then {@ 1; @ 2;} (Equation 1) In this case, when the observed message is the trigger message $ 2 or $ 3, the flag corresponding to the trigger message $ 1 is set. If not, the flag corresponding to the observed trigger message $ 2 or $ 3 is not set.

In the above example, the trigger message declaration unit 1
The three trigger messages $ 1, $ 2, and $ 3 are defined in a, and the two send messages @ 1 and @ 2 are defined in the send message declaration unit 1b. When the trigger message $ 2 is observed next to the trigger message $ 1 in the trigger condition definition unit 1c, or when the trigger message $ 2 is observed
It is defined to send the sending messages @ 1 and @ 2 when the trigger message $ 3 is observed after $ 1.

The condition list storage unit 1d stores a set of trigger message, transmission message and trigger condition defined in the trigger message declaration unit 1a, transmission message declaration unit 1b and trigger condition definition unit 1c as a condition list. It is for keeping.

Next, 11 is a condition state holding unit, which is a state of a flag corresponding to each trigger message in the trigger condition defined by the condition definition unit 10 and a transmission message to be sent when the trigger condition is satisfied. Is for holding. The condition state holding unit 11 is used as a work memory when the message control device 20 is actually operated to control the cooperative operation between the development tools.

FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing an example of the storage state in the condition state holding unit 11. In FIG. 2, each portion surrounded by double lines represents each trigger condition. The example of FIG. 2 represents the trigger condition represented by (Equation 1).

As described above, under the trigger condition of (Equation 1), the trigger message $ 2 or the trigger message $ 3 is generated.
If the trigger message $ 1 has not been received before that, the flags corresponding to the trigger messages $ 2 and $ 3 are not set. Therefore, in the present embodiment, in order to be able to make such a condition determination, the reception state of the trigger message is held.

Next, 12 is a message input section,
It is for inputting messages sent from various development tools. A condition state changing unit 13 changes the state of the corresponding flag in the condition state holding unit 11 when the message input from the message input unit 12 is a trigger message.

Next, 14 is a trigger condition judging section,
Based on the state of each flag held in the condition state holding unit 11, it is determined whether or not the trigger condition defined by the condition definition unit 10 is satisfied. Reference numeral 15 denotes a transmission message sending unit, which sends out a transmission message corresponding to the trigger condition to the message server when the trigger condition determining unit 14 determines that the trigger condition is satisfied.

Next, 16 is a condition changing unit, which defines the trigger message, transmission message and trigger condition held in the condition state holding unit 11 and adds flag states corresponding to each trigger message in the trigger condition, It is for performing operations such as deletion and modification via a graphical user interface (GUI).

As described above, in the present embodiment, the trigger condition for a plurality of messages can be statically defined by the condition defining unit 10 and dynamically defined by the condition changing unit 16. ing.

Next, the operation of the message control device configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. Note that FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a software development system to which the above message control device is applied. Further, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the above message control device.

In the software development system shown in FIG. 3, the message control device 20 of the present embodiment has a first tool 22 and a second tool 2 via a message server 21.
3, ..., Nth tools 24 are connected so that messages can be exchanged with each other.

First, when the message control device 20 is activated in step P1 of FIG. 4, a plurality of trigger conditions and a transmission message to be sent when the trigger conditions are satisfied are read from the condition definition unit 10 in the next step P2. Be done.
In the next step P3, the state of the flag and the transmission message for each trigger condition read as described above are given to the condition state holding unit 11 and held therein.

In such a state, the message control device 20 has the first tool 22, the second tool 23,
..., waits for a message to be sent from the nth tool 24 via the message server 21. Then, when any message is input to the message input unit 12 in step P4, it is checked in step P5 whether the input message is a trigger message.

When it is judged that the inputted message is the trigger message, step P6
Then, the flag corresponding to the trigger message in each trigger condition held in the condition state holding unit 11 is "1".
Is set to. If the trigger condition is defined by the seqif statement, the flag is set to "1" only when the receiving order of the trigger message indicated by the trigger condition is satisfied.

Next, in step P7, the above step P6
The state of each trigger condition is calculated based on the state of the flag set in. Then, in step P8, as a result of the above calculation, it is determined whether or not there is a trigger condition that satisfies the condition. This determination is performed by the trigger condition determination unit 1
It is performed by 4.

Here, if there is a trigger condition satisfying the conditions among the plurality of trigger conditions held in the condition state holding unit 11, the transmission message corresponding to the trigger condition is sent in Step P9. 15 is sent to the message server 21. Then, the processes of steps P4 to P10 are repeatedly performed until the power of the message control device 20 is turned off in step P10.

Here, the exchange of messages when the following condition settings are made by the condition definition unit 10 will be described with reference to FIG. $ 1 = <trigger message $ 1> $ 2 = <trigger message $ 2> @ 1 = <send message @ 1> if ($ 1 * $ 2) then {@ 1;} ... (Equation 2)

For example, first, it is assumed that the trigger message $ 1 is input from the second tool 23 to the message control device 20 via the message server 21. Next, it is assumed that the trigger message $ 2 is input from the first tool 22 to the message control device 20 via the message server 21. At this time, the message control device 20 determines whether or not the trigger condition shown in (Equation 2) is satisfied based on the states of the flags set in response to the reception of these trigger messages $ 1 and $ 2.

In this case, since the trigger condition of (Expression 2) is defined by the if statement, the order of receiving the trigger message $ 1 and the trigger message $ 2 does not matter. Therefore,
It is determined that the trigger condition of (Equation 2) is satisfied, and the corresponding send message @ 1 is sent to the first tool 22 via the message server 21. The first tool 22 receives the send message @ 1 and performs the process corresponding to the send message @ 1.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the trigger condition is defined by combining a plurality of trigger messages,
Since the messages can be exchanged according to the trigger condition defined in this way, it is possible to control the cooperative operation between a plurality of tools.

Therefore, for example, it is effective to apply the message control device of this embodiment in the following cases. That is, usually, a workflow is defined in a software development project. In this workflow, it is often the case that the next job cannot be started unless a plurality of jobs are cleared.

The conventional message connector cannot cope with such a situation, but the message control device of this embodiment can cope with such a situation. Therefore, it becomes possible to control the fine cooperative operation between the development tools.

More specifically, as illustrated in FIG.
The compilation process of the program composed of multiple files is distributed to multiple computers connected by LAN (Local Area Network),
The speed of the compilation process can be improved.

In order to realize this, the following trigger condition is defined. $ 1 = <COMPILE-A success file a> $ 2 = <COMPILE-B success file b> $ 3 = <COMPILE-C success file c> @ 1 = <LINK start file a, b, c> @ 2 = <COMPILE-A Start file a> @ 3 = <COMPILE-B start file a> @ 4 = <COMPILE-C start file a> if ($ 1 * $ 2 * $ 3) then {@ 1;} ... (Equation 3)

Here, the trigger message $ 1 indicates that "the compilation of the file a has succeeded". The same applies to trigger messages $ 2 and $ 3. Further, the transmission message @ 1 represents the content that "linking of file a, file b and file c is started".
Further, the transmission message @ 2 represents the content of "start compilation of file a". Outgoing message
The same applies to @ 3 and @ 4. Further, the trigger condition represented by (Equation 3) represents the content that "the transmission message @ 1 is transmitted when all the trigger messages $ 1, $ 2, and $ 3 are received".

The cooperative operation of each tool group shown in FIG. 5 will be described below. First, the build tool 31 performs build processing on three files, file a, file b, and file c, and the transmitted messages @ 2, @ 3, and @ 4 are transmitted to the first computer 32, the second computer 33, and the second computer 33, respectively. 3 to the computer 34.

Each of the computers 32, 33, 34 receives the transmission message @ 2, @ 3, @ 4 and receives the file a,
The compiling process is performed on the files b and c, and the corresponding trigger message is sent from the computer that has been successfully compiled.

Only when the trigger messages $ 1, $ 2 and $ 3 are sent from all the computers 32, 33 and 34, that is, when the compilation is successful in all the computers 32, 33 and 34, the transmission message @ 1 Is sent to the link tool 35 to start the link process.

The above-mentioned example of FIG. 5 shows the case where the receiving order of the trigger messages is irrelevant, but according to the message control apparatus of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. As described above, the case where the order is related can be dealt with.

The example of FIG. 6 shows a case where either the test tool 37 or the debug tool 38 is activated depending on whether or not the build processing performed by the build tool 31 is successful. In order to realize this, the following trigger condition is defined.

$ 1 = <EDIT end> $ 2 = <BUILD success> $ 3 = <BUILD failure> @ 1 = <STAT ○> @ 2 = <STAT ×> @ 3 = <BUILD start> @ 4 = <TEST start> @ 5 = <DEBUG start> if ($ 1) then {@ 3;} ... (Equation 4) if ($ 2) then {@ 4;} ... (Equation 5) if ($ 3) then {@ 5;} ... (Equation 6 ) Seqif ($ 1 * $ 2) then {@ 1;} ... (Equation 7) seqif ($ 1 * $ 3) then {@ 2;} ... (Equation 8)

First, a file is created by the edit tool 36, and when the creation process is completed, a send message @ 3 to start the build process is sent to the build tool 31 according to the trigger condition of (Equation 4). Build tool 3
In No. 1, in response to the transmitted message @ 3, file build processing (including compilation processing and link processing) is performed.

When the build process performed by the build tool 31 is successful, a transmission message @ 4 for activating the test tool 37 is sent to the test tool 37 according to the trigger condition of (Equation 5). At the same time, according to the trigger condition of (Equation 7), a transmission message @ 1 indicating that the build processing has succeeded is sent to the statistical tool 39.

On the other hand, if the build process fails,
According to the trigger condition of (Equation 6), a transmission message @ 5 indicating that the debug tool 38 is activated is sent to the debug tool 38, and according to the trigger condition of (Equation 8),
A send message @ 2 indicating that the build process has failed is sent to the statistical tool 39.

The test tool 37 receives the transmission message @ 4 and tests the execution program. Further, the debug tool 38 receives the above transmission message @ 5 and performs file debug processing. When the debug process is performed, the edit tool 36 and the build tool 31 perform the same process as described above on the debugged file.

Each time the series of processes as described above are repeatedly performed, either the transmission message @ 1 or the transmission message @ 2 is sent to the statistical tool 39. As a result, the statistical tool 39 measures the number of times a certain file has been tested and the number of times debugging has been performed.

Therefore, according to the example shown in FIG.
Since it is possible to know how much the file is being recompiled, that is, where the work is taking time, it becomes easy to improve the work in developing the software.

In the embodiment described above, AND or O is used as the operator used when defining the trigger condition.
Although only R is used, it goes without saying that other operators such as XOR may be used.

[0063]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of trigger messages are combined to set a trigger condition. Therefore, conventionally, only cooperative operation between one tool and another tool is controlled. However, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to control the cooperative operation between a plurality of tools, and the cooperative operation between various development tools used in the software development environment can be controlled. , Can be controlled with a great deal of freedom. Therefore, for example, it becomes possible to disperse various tasks necessary for developing software into a plurality of development tools, and to increase the processing speed of software development.

Further, according to another feature of the present invention, since the combination of the plurality of trigger messages and the order thereof are defined together to set the trigger condition, the operation order of the plurality of tools is set. Can also be defined, the degree of freedom of cooperative operation between each tool can be further increased, and more detailed control can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a message control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a storage state in a condition state holding unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a software development system to which the message control device of this embodiment is applied.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the message control device of this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory diagram illustrating an example of cooperative operation control between development tools performed by the message control apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram illustrating another example of the cooperative operation control between the development tools performed by the message control device according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 condition definition unit 10a trigger message declaration unit 10b transmission message declaration unit 10c trigger condition definition unit 10d condition list storage unit 11 condition state holding unit 12 message input unit 13 condition state change unit 14 trigger condition determination unit 15 transmission message transmission unit 16 condition Change unit 20 Message control device 21 Message server 22 First tool 23 Second tool 24 nth tool 31 Build tool 32 First computer 33 Second computer 34 Third computer 35 Link tool 36 Edit tool 37 Test Tool 38 Debug Tool 39 Statistics Tool

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A message control device adapted to control a cooperative operation of the tools based on a message exchanged between various tools according to a predetermined trigger condition, wherein a plurality of trigger messages to which the tool pays attention are transmitted. A message control device characterized in that the trigger condition is set in combination. 2. A message control device configured to control the cooperative operation of the tools according to messages exchanged between various tools, wherein a trigger condition is defined by combining a plurality of trigger messages of interest to the tools. Condition defining means, condition determining means for determining whether or not the trigger conditions defined by the condition defining means are satisfied by a plurality of messages sent from the various tools, and determination by the condition determining means And a message sending means for sending a corresponding message according to the result of the message control device. 3. The message control device according to claim 1, wherein the trigger condition is set by collectively defining a combination of the plurality of trigger messages and an order thereof.