JPH10187573A - Client/server communication repeater - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the operability of client by reducing one part of communication with the client. SOLUTION: This device 16 repeats a uniform resource locator(URL) to be transmitted from a terminal 22 to a world wide web(WWW) server 10. In this case, this device 16 stores a history at one part of the URL to be repeated and successively and automatically transmits the URL at prescribed timing later. Thus, one part of communication between the terminal 22 and this device 16 is reduced and operability at the terminal 22 is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication relay device, and more particularly, to a communication relay device between a client and a server that can automatically communicate with a server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the use of WWW (World Wide Web) as a core technology of an information transmission system has been rapidly progressing. In an information transmission system using such technology, HTM
Hypertext information described in L (HyperText Markup Language) and a URL (Unifor
m Resource Locater) is exchanged between a client having a Web browser and a WWW server.

[0003]

However, a personal digital assistant (PDA) is used as a client of the information transmission system.
However, there is a problem that the operability is significantly deteriorated due to the limitation of the communication speed.

That is, for communication connection between the portable information terminal and the WWW server, a low-speed communication means such as a telephone network or infrared communication is generally used for a part thereof. Therefore, for example, hypertext information for image synthesis as an operation screen is transferred to a portable information terminal which is a client, whereas a URL based on a button on an operation screen selected by a user is transferred to a WWW server. May take several seconds.

[0005] For this reason, communication using low-speed communication means such as a telephone network is reduced as much as possible so that a WW can be transmitted from a portable information terminal.
There has been a widespread demand for a technology for enabling a service provided by a W server to be comfortably received.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication relay device between a client and a server capable of improving a client's operability by reducing a part of communication with the client. Aim.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a request signal relay for receiving a request signal from a client and transmitting the request signal to a server based on the request signal. Means, request history information storage means for storing history information of a request signal received from the client by the request signal relay means, and a request to the server based on the history information of the request signal stored by the request history information storage means. Request signal automatic transmission means for sequentially transmitting signals.

According to the present invention, a request signal is sequentially transmitted to the server based on the history information. In this case, in order to obtain a desired response signal or to request a desired process to the server, when it is necessary to sequentially transmit several request signals from the client to the server, the request signal automatic transmission means The transmission of those request signals can be performed on behalf of them. As a result, it is possible to reduce a part of the communication between the client and the present communication relay device, thereby improving the operability at the client.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the communication relay device according to the first aspect, a response signal to the request signal transmitted by the request signal relay unit is received from a server, and a response is made based on the response signal. Response signal relay means for transmitting a signal to the client, and stopping transmission of at least a part of the response signal received by the response signal relay means to the client in response to the request signal transmitted by the request signal automatic transmission means to the client And a response signal relay control means for controlling the response signal relay means.

According to the present invention, the transmission of at least a part of the response signal transmitted from the server to the client in response to the request signal sequentially transmitted by the request signal automatic transmission means is stopped. By doing so, a part of the communication between the client and the present communication relay device can be reduced, and the operability at the client can be improved.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the communication relay device according to the first aspect, a response signal to the request signal transmitted by the request signal relay unit is received from a server, and a response is made based on the response signal. A response signal relay unit for transmitting a signal to the client, a response history information storage unit for storing at least a part of history information of a response signal received from the server by the response signal relay unit, and a request signal automatic transmission unit sequentially Communication with the server is normally performed based on a response signal received from the server by the response signal relay unit with respect to the transmitted request signal, and history information of the response signal stored by the response history information storage unit. Communication state determination means for determining whether or not the communication is being performed;
Automatic communication stopping means for controlling the request signal automatic transmitting means to stop transmitting the request signal when the communication state determining means determines that communication with the server is not performed normally. It is characterized by the following.

According to the present invention, the communication state judging means stores a response signal received from the server in response to the request signal sequentially transmitted by the request signal automatic transmitting means and the response history information storage means in advance. By comparing the received response signal with the history information of the response signal, it is determined whether or not a normal response signal expected from the request signal transmitted by the request signal automatic transmission means is transmitted from the server. And
When the communication with the server is not performed normally, the transmission of the request signal by the request signal automatic transmission unit is stopped by the automatic communication stop unit. With this configuration, a response signal transmitted from the server due to an update of the response signal stored in the server or an abnormality in communication between the server and the communication relay device is stored in the response history information storage means. When the history information is different from what is expected when the history information is stored, the transmission of the request signal by the request signal automatic transmission means is stopped. As a result, automatic transmission of an unexpected request signal from the client user can be avoided.

The invention described in claim 4 is the first to third aspects of the present invention.
3. The communication relay device according to claim 1, further comprising an automatic communication start control unit that controls activation of the request signal automatic transmission unit based on a timing signal transmitted from the client.

With this configuration, the user of the client can automatically transmit the request signal at a desired timing, and the operability of the client can be further improved.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an example in which a communication relay device according to the present invention is applied to an information transmission system using WWW will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an information transmission system including the present communication relay device. As shown in the figure,
The information transmission system includes a WWW server 10, various services 12, a support server 14, a communication relay device 16,
And the proxy server 18 are communicably connected to each other via a network 20, and a terminal 22 which is a client is connected to the proxy server 18 via a public telephone network or the like.

The WWW server 10 has a function of storing hypertext information described in HTML, transmitting hypertext information in accordance with a URL transmitted from the communication relay device 16, and having a CGI (Copier).
Various services 12 using mmon Gateway Interface)
Perform the execution of

The support server 14 is a server for storing hypertext information required when the hypertext information received from the WWW server 10 is processed in the communication relay device 16.

The various services 12 include a print output,
It includes modules for performing services such as fax transmission, database search, etc., which are performed using CGI.

The proxy server (Proxy Server) 18
Is a means for handling the terminal 22 via infrared communication or a modem, and has a gateway function, a security function, and a cache function between the communication relay device 16 and the terminal 22.

The communication relay device 16 is connected to the terminal 22 via the proxy server 18 and
By the network 20, the WWW server 10,
The support server 14 and the various services 12 are connected.

The communication relay device 16 is connected to the terminal 2
2 receives the URL from the WWW server 10
And receives the required hypertext information from the support server 14 as well as the hypertext information corresponding to the argument of the URL. Then, the hypertext information is synthesized and processed to generate new hypertext information, which is transmitted to the terminal 22. Further, when the URL argument received from the terminal 22 includes a communication history recording start instruction, a recording stop instruction, an automatic communication start instruction based on the communication history, and the like, a corresponding process described later is performed.

The network 20 connects the WWW server 10, the various services 12, and the support server 14 so that they can communicate with each other by a TCP / IP protocol.

The terminal 22 is an information processing device such as the portable information terminal 22, and functions as a Web browser that interprets hypertext information and displays a screen in a predetermined format. The terminal 22 is connected to the proxy server 18
And infrared communication or a mobile phone via a modem or the like.

Next, the terminal 2 displayed based on the hypertext information transmitted from the communication relay device 16
The second display screen will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen of the terminal 22.

The display screen of the terminal 22 shown in FIG. 2A includes a portion 24 based on the hypertext information stored in the WWW server 10 and a hypertext information stored in the support server 14. Based part 26 is included. That is, the main part (content) of the transmission information is mainly displayed on the upper part of the screen based on the hypertext information supplied from the WWW server 10, and the hypertext supplied from the support server 14 is displayed on the lower part of the screen. Based on the information, a “record” button 28 and an “paste operation” button 3
0 is displayed.

Here, the "record" button 28 is
2 is a button for transmitting a recording start command indicating that recording of a communication history between the communication relay device 2 and the communication relay device 16 should be started to the communication relay device 16 as an argument of the URL. In addition, the “paste operation” button 30 is an operation paste command indicating that an automatic communication button for executing automatic communication based on the communication history recorded by the user should be displayed below the screen of the terminal 22. Is a button for transmitting to the communication relay device 16 as an argument.

FIG. 2B is a diagram showing an example of a display screen displayed next when the "record" button 28 is pressed on the display screen shown in FIG. 2A. As shown in the figure, after the "record" button 28 is pressed, the display of the "record" button 28 and the "paste operation" button 30 are cancelled, and the "stop" button 32 is displayed instead. .

The "stop" button 32 is used to transmit a recording stop command indicating that recording of the communication history started by pressing the "record" button 28 to be stopped to the communication relay device 16 as an argument of the URL. Button.

FIG. 2C is a view showing an example of a display screen displayed next when the "stop" button 32 is pressed on the display screen shown in FIG. 2B. As shown in the figure, when the "stop" button 32 is pressed, the terminal 22 displays a page titled "Recording result". This page contains the “Record”
The title of the page displayed on the terminal 22 between the time when the button 28 is pressed and the time when the “stop” button 32 is pressed, and the communication between the terminal 22 and the communication relay device 16 during the communication therebetween. The arguments of the exchanged URL are listed. At this time, check boxes 34 and 36 are displayed next to the argument for which the user can specify the value by button input or the like. When the user adds a check to these check boxes 34 and 36 and inputs the name of the series of operations in the input field 38, and further presses a “register” button 40, the series of operations is performed. A registration command indicating that registration is to be performed as automatic communication is transmitted to the communication relay device 16. The check boxes 34 and 36 indicate whether the default value is used for the argument value in the subsequent automatic communication.
This is for allowing the user to select whether to adopt the value selected on the operation screen of the terminal 22 at the start of the automatic communication.

FIG. 2D is a diagram showing an example of a display screen displayed next when the "paste operation" button 30 is pressed on the display screen shown in FIG. 2A. As shown in the figure, when the "paste operation" button 30 is pressed, the terminal 22 displays an "operation list".
The title page is displayed. In this page, "Automatic operation 1" and "Automatic operation 2" are shown in FIG.
Input field 3 on the "recording result" page already shown in
The name of the operation input in 8 and the names of the arguments with check boxes 34 and 36 added thereto are listed together with the selection buttons 42a, 42b and 42c. When one or more select buttons 42 are selected on this display screen and the “paste execution” button 44 is pressed, a button addition command indicating that an automatic communication button should be added on the screen display of the terminal 22 thereafter. Is transmitted to the communication relay device 16 as an argument of the URL.

FIG. 2E shows a selection button 42c representing automatic operation 3 on the display screen shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed next when the “paste execution” button 44 is pressed. As shown in the figure, in this case, in the portion 26 based on the hypertext information stored in the support server 14, an automatic communication button 46 further displaying "automatic operation 3" is displayed. Then, when the user presses the automatic communication button 46, an automatic communication start command is transmitted to the communication relay device 16 as an argument of the URL, and the WWW is registered based on the communication history registered under the name of "automatic operation 3".
Automatic communication with the server 10 is performed.

Next, the communication relay device 16 that performs the above-described processing will be described in more detail.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of the communication relay device 16. As shown in FIG.
Is configured to include an HTTPD 48 and a CGI execution module 50, and the CGI execution module 50
CGI front-end unit 501 and argument interpreting unit 502
, URL generation unit 503, HTTP client unit 5
04, an HTML analysis unit 505, and an HTML synthesis unit 50
6, a communication history information storage unit 507, and an automatic communication control unit 5
08.

The HTTPD (Hyper Text Transfer Pr)
otocol Daemon) 40 is a resident execution module that supports the CGI function. The otocol daemon starts the CGI execution module 50 based on a URL transmitted from the terminal 22 via the proxy server 18, and converts its argument to the The information is passed to the CGI front-end unit 501 of the CGI execution module 50, and receives a standard output of the CGI execution module 50 as a return value.

The CGI execution module 50 includes the H
It is activated when the URL indicating that the CGI program should be executed is received by the TTPD 48, and synthesizes hypertext information based on the hypertext information supplied from the WWW server 10 and the data output from the various services 12. , An execution module that outputs to the standard output.

The CGI front-end unit 501 exchanges argument information included in the URL transmitted from the terminal 22 with hypertext information transmitted from the HTML synthesizing unit 506, with the HTTPD 48.

The argument interpreting unit 502 interprets the argument part of the URL transmitted from the terminal 22 via the proxy server 18 and converts and outputs the URL in an internal format.
Each part of the communication relay device 16 is controlled in accordance with various commands transmitted as arguments of the URL from the terminal 22, such as the recording start command and the recording stop command in the arguments.

The communication history information storage unit 507 stores the URL arguments from when the argument interpreting unit 502 receives the recording start command to when the argument interpreting unit 502 receives the recording stop command, and the “recording” already shown in FIG. Communication history information including argument value information on whether or not a check box is checked on the “result” page and hypertext information received from the WWW server 10 or the various services 12 in the meantime is recorded.

The automatic communication control unit 508, when the automatic communication start command is received by the argument interpreting unit 502, the URL argument recorded in the communication recording unit,
Based on the argument value information, URLs are sequentially transmitted to the WWW server 10 via the HTTP client unit 504 in order to automatically communicate with the WWW server 10, the various services 12, and the support server 14.
Further, the automatic communication control unit 508 controls the output of the hypertext information by the HTML synthesizing unit 506 so as to stop the relay of the hypertext information to the terminal 22 while the URLs are sequentially transmitted.

Further, the automatic communication control unit 508 compares the hypertext information received from the WWW server 10 at the time of the automatic communication with the hypertext information recorded in the communication history recording unit, and
It is determined whether or not automatic communication with 0 is normally performed. When it is determined that the automatic communication is not performed normally, the automatic transmission of the URL is stopped.

The URL generation unit 503 generates a URL of a server to be connected on the network 20 based on the argument information output by the argument interpretation unit 502.

The HTTP client unit 504 is a means for transmitting the URL generated by the URL generation unit 503 to the network 20 and communicating with each server on the network 20.

The HTML analysis unit 505 performs HTML syntax interpretation on the hypertext information transmitted from the WWW server 10.

The HTML synthesizing unit 506 performs the WWW
A layout change function for changing layout information in the hypertext information received from the server 10 into a format suitable for display on the terminal 22;
A communication path maintaining function of changing the link command information in the hypertext information received from the server 10 so that the link destination is the communication relay device 16; By this communication path maintaining function, the terminal 22 is connected to the WWW server 1
Even when accessing another WWW server 10 based on the hypertext information supplied from 0, the connection with the communication relay device 16 can be maintained.

Next, the basic processing of the communication relay device 16 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the processing of the communication relay device 16. Hereinafter, the processing will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in the communication relay device 16, the URL transmitted from the terminal 22 via the proxy server 18 is received by the HTTPD 48,
The GI execution module 50 is activated.

The CGI front-end unit 501 of the CGI execution module 50
8 (S1), the argument interpreting unit 502 interprets the argument and changes it to an internal format (S2). When it is determined that none of the recording start command, the operation sticking command, and the automatic communication start command are included in the argument (S3, S4, S5), the URL is determined.
The generation unit 503 generates a URL of an access destination such as the WWW server 10 or the support server 14 based on the information included in the argument (S6), and the HTTP client unit 504 sends the URL to the network 20. (S7).

As a result, the HTTP client unit 5
04 is the WWW server 10 or the support server 14
The hypertext information is received from such as (S8).

Next, the HTML analysis unit 505 receives the received hypertext information from the HTTPD48 client unit, and performs language analysis based on HTML (S9).

The HTML synthesizing unit 506 further changes the layout information included in the hypertext information to layout information suitable for display on the terminal 22, and further includes a “record” button 28 received from the support server 14, Hypertext information for displaying the "paste operation" button 30 or the like is added, and new hypertext information for transmission to the terminal 22 is synthesized (S1).
0).

For example, when the display screen shown in FIG. 2A is output on the terminal 22, the hypertext information shown in FIG.
06. The hypertext information shown in FIG. 3 is a hypertext for displaying a “record” button 28 and an “paste operation” button 30 supplied from the support server 14 in the hypertext information received from the WWW server 10. Information 52 is synthesized.

The hypertext information generated as described above is passed to the HTTPD 48 in the form of standard output by the CGI front-end unit 501, and transmitted to the terminal 22 via the proxy server 18 (S11). ).

Next, the URL is interpreted by the
The processing of the communication relay device 16 when it is determined that the recording start command is included in the argument (S3) will be described. FIG. 6 shows the communication relay device 1 when a recording start command is included in an argument of a URL transmitted from the terminal 22.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the process of No. 6;

As shown in the figure, first, the HTML synthesizing unit 506 performs the “record” button 28 and the “paste execution” button 44 on the page currently displayed on the terminal 22.
Is received, another hypertext information is received from the support server 14, and new hypertext information is synthesized so that the "stop" button 32 is displayed instead. Then, the information is transmitted to the terminal 22 (S12).

Thereafter, the communication history information storage unit 507 starts recording the argument of the URL transmitted from the terminal 22 (S13), and stores the H in accordance with the URL.
The recording of the hypertext information transmitted from the WWW server 10 to the URL transmitted from the TTP client unit 504 is started (S14). Then, the recording of the communication history is continued until a recording stop command is received by the argument interpreting unit 502 (S15).

When the "stop" button 32 is pressed on the terminal 22 and a recording stop command is received by the argument interpreting unit 502, the HTML synthesizing unit 506
Based on the communication history recorded in the communication history information storage unit 507 as described above, hypertext information for displaying a “recorded result” page (see FIG. 2C) on the terminal 22 is displayed. The information is synthesized, and the information is transmitted to the terminal 22 (S16).

When the user presses the “register” button 40 on the “record result” page and the argument interpreting unit 502 receives the registration command (S 17), the registered argument and the already-recorded communication history are checked. Is recorded in the communication history information storage unit 507 (S18).

Then, the hypertext information obtained by adding a command for displaying the “record” button 28 and the “paste operation” button 30 to the hypertext information transmitted immediately before from the WWW server 10 is again added. Synthesize and
The information is transmitted to the terminal 22 (S19). Thus, the communication history is stored in the communication history information storage unit 507.

Next, the URL is interpreted by the
The process of the communication relay device 16 when it is determined that the operation paste command is included in the argument (S4) will be described. FIG. 7 shows the communication relay device 1 in the case where the operation paste command is included in the argument of the URL transmitted from the terminal 22.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the process of No. 6;

As shown in the figure, first, when an operation paste command is received by the argument interpreting unit 502, the HTM
The L combining unit 506 is a hypertext for displaying a “operation list” page (see FIG. 2D) on the terminal 22 based on the communication history information stored in the communication history information storage unit 507. The information is synthesized, and the information is transmitted to the terminal 22 (S20).

Then, the user checks the check box 34,
When a check is added to 36 and the name of the series of operations is input to the input field 38, and a “register” button 40 is pressed, an operation including information for specifying which operation is to be pasted is performed. The pasting command is received by the argument interpreting unit 502 (S21).

Thereafter, the HTML synthesizing unit 506 re-synthesizes the hypertext information to which the automatic communication button has been added according to the operation pasting command, and converts the information to the terminal 22.
(S22). Thus, an automatic communication button is added on the display screen of the terminal 22 (see FIG. 2E).

Next, when the automatic communication button thus added is depressed and an automatic communication start command is received by the argument interpreting section 502 (S5), the communication relay device 16 is activated.
Will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of the communication relay device 16 when an automatic communication start command is included in an argument of a URL transmitted from the terminal 22.

As shown in the figure, first, the HTML analysis section performs an HTML syntax analysis on the hypertext information currently received from the WWW server 10 (S23), and the automatic communication control section 508 From the hypertext information, the URL argument to be transmitted to the communication relay device 16 by the terminal 22 and the title name of the page are extracted (S24).

Further, the automatic communication control unit 508 reads the communication history information of the page having the same title from the communication history information storage unit 507 (S25), and transmits the URL argument included in the communication history information and the hyper It is determined whether a normal automatic communication process is performed by comparing the URL argument extracted from the text information with the argument (S26). If it is determined that the normal automatic communication processing is being performed, the automatic communication processing is continued as long as the communication history information including the argument of the URL to be transmitted next is stored in the communication history information storage unit 507. (S27).

Then, the automatic communication control unit 508 reads out communication history information including the argument of the URL to be transmitted next from the communication history information storage unit 507 (S28).
A URL is generated based on the argument and default value of L and the value of the argument when the automatic communication button 46 is pressed (S29), and transmitted to the WWW server 10 by the HTTP client unit 504 (S30). ). Then, the automatic communication control unit 508 controls the HTML synthesizing unit 506 so as to stop the synthesis output of the hypertext information during the automatic transmission of the URL in this way, and stops the transmission of the hypertext information to the terminal 22. .

According to the above-described communication relay device 16, the URL is automatically transmitted to the WWW server 10 sequentially, so that the terminal 22 and the communication relay device 1 are transmitted.
6 can be partially reduced. As a result, the operability of the terminal 22 can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an information transmission system including a communication relay device 16;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen of a terminal 22.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of the present communication relay device 16;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the communication relay device 16;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of hypertext information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the communication relay device 16;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the communication relay device 16;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the communication relay device 16;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 WWW server, 16 communication relay device, 22 terminal (client), 507 communication history information storage unit, 50
8 Automatic communication control unit (request signal automatic transmission means, response signal relay control means, communication state determination means, automatic communication stop means).

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A request signal relay unit for receiving a request signal from a client and transmitting a request signal based on the request signal to a server, and a history of at least a part of the request signal received from the client by the request signal relay unit. Request history information storage means for storing information; and request signal automatic transmission means for sequentially transmitting request signals to a server based on history information of the request signal stored by the request history information storage means. Communication relay device. 2. The communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein a response signal to the request signal transmitted by the request signal relay unit is received from a server, and a response signal is transmitted to the client based on the response signal. Signal relaying means; and the response signal relaying means for stopping transmission of at least a part of the response signal received by the response signal relaying means to the client in response to the request signal transmitted to the server by the request signal automatic transmitting means. And a response signal relay control means for controlling the means. 3. The communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein a response signal to the request signal transmitted by the request signal relay unit is received from a server, and the response signal is transmitted to the client based on the response signal. Signal relay means, response history information storage means for storing at least a part of history information of a response signal received from the server by the response signal relay means, and a request signal sequentially transmitted by the request signal automatic transmission means. A response signal received from the server by the response signal relay unit and a response signal history information stored by the response history information storage unit to determine whether communication with the server is normally performed. A communication state determining means for determining, and a request signal when the communication state determining means determines that communication with the server is not normally performed. Communication relay apparatus and automatic communication stopping means for controlling said request signal automatic transmission means to stop the transmission, further comprising a to. 4. The communication relay device according to claim 1, further comprising an automatic communication start control unit that controls activation of the request signal automatic transmission unit based on a timing signal transmitted from the client. Characteristic communication relay device.