JPS639274B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (1) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention provides a POS terminal device using a PLU (Price Lookup) file.
PLU that manages only changes to reduce the time and complexity required for PLU file update processing
This invention relates to a POS terminal device equipped with a temporary file for use.

(2) Background of the technology Conventionally, POS systems used in supermarkets etc. have a file for referencing code names, prices, service conditions, etc. of sold products.
Some use PLU files with a capacity of up to 128KB. In such a POS system,
For a huge number of products, product types, prices, and other sales conditions change rapidly on a daily or hourly basis. Therefore, to ensure that this information is conveyed to the POS terminal operator, the PLU file must be updated quickly. However, the update process is extremely complicated and takes a lot of time.

Figure 3 shows that the conventional POS system
This will be explained in terms of the PLU file update processing method.

In Figure 3, 21 is the supermarket's POS management center data processing system, 22 is its PLU file, 22a is the PLU data before revision, 22b
is the revised (updated) PLU data, 23, 25
is the POS terminal, 24 and 26 are the PLU files of the POS terminals 23 and 25, and 26a is the PLU
PLU data before updating of file 26, PLU data 26b after updating, and communication lines 27 and 28.

For example, when the price of some products is revised in the POS management center, the POS management center data processing system 21 first rewrites the PLU data in its own PLU file 22 from 22a to 22b, and then rewrites the PLU data in the PLU file 22 under management. Revised for each POS terminal 23, 25 (sometimes located in the same store, sometimes located in another store)
The entire PLU data 22b is sequentially transferred online via communication lines 27 and 28, and each
The PLU data in the PLU files 24 and 26 is rewritten. For example, at POS terminal 25,
The PLU data in the PLU file 26 is rewritten from 26a to 26b (revised portions are shown with diagonal lines in the figure).

By the way, in many supermarkets, the types of products they carry range from hundreds to thousands of items in their PLU files.
The total amount of data in a PLU file is extremely large (for example, 128KB). Additionally, the number of POS terminals may range from a few to several dozen or more.

For this reason, it takes a considerable amount of time to transfer the PLU data to each POS terminal, and additional line usage fees are required if the terminal is far away.Also, if the data is delivered by hand using a floppy disk or cassette, the copying time and the time required to hand it over are required. This required a lot of manpower and time.

In this way, at the central POS management center,
Recreate the entire PLU file and create each file online or using a floppy disk, cassette, etc.
The method of notifying the POS terminals and replacing each PLU file is wasteful because all files are replaced for only a part of the changes, and if there are many POS terminals, the overall The time and burden required for the replacement process increased, creating problems.

In addition, only the revised product type data is transferred from the POS management center to the POS terminal.
There was a file update method that corrected or added data to the PLU file, but in the case of a large PLU file with thousands to tens of thousands of product types (items), it is necessary to update the file at the POS terminal. The burden of update processing becomes large, especially for PLU files with sequential organization with traction (large-scale PLU files).
When adding or inserting data to a file (most files are configured as indexed sequential files), it is necessary to reorganize the index and handle file overflow. At the POS terminal of
There was a problem that it was impossible to deal with operationally.

Furthermore, there was a method in which multiple types of unit price data were preset in the POS device, and the unit price could be changed by switching based on a switch or time of day, etc., but presetting required manpower and time, which meant that the number of POS devices was limited. When the number of product types is large, the flexibility and immediacy of price changes are restricted, and when there are many types of products for which price changes can occur, there are problems in that it is difficult to apply.

(3) Purpose of the invention The present invention provides a quick and easy way to solve the problem using relatively simple means.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a POS terminal device that can handle PLU changes and reduce the number of times all files are rewritten.

(4) Structure of the Invention The present invention adds a temporary file device that stores only PLU change data to a conventional PLU master file device, and accesses the entire file as a two-level hierarchical file. The above-mentioned object is achieved by making the conversion file containing the product price data corresponding to the product code a temporary file consisting only of the master file and its changed data. In a POS system configured with a first memory device that stores a master file, a second memory device that stores a temporary file, and a first memory device that stores a temporary file, a 2
only allows access to the memory device and the second
The device is equipped with an access control means that enables access to the first memory device only when the specific data cannot be found in the memory device, and the normal conversion file change process updates only the PLU temporary file. It is characterized by the fact that it is carried out by

(5) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, the "conversion file having product price data corresponding to the product code" in the POS terminal, that is, the PLU file, is: Master file - first memory device Temporary file - second memory It is composed of two levels of devices, and when the product price data is revised, only the temporary file is rewritten, and the product price data before the revision is left unchanged in the master file.

When referring to data, priority is given to the temporary file, and the master file is referred to only when the target data does not exist in the temporary file. As a result, for product price data that has been revised, the revised data is always read from the temporary file, and only product price data that has not been revised is read from the master file.

In this way, the PLU file in the POS terminal is divided into a temporary file that collects only revised data (changed data) and a master file that contains unrevised and unrevised data. For notification of revisions from the POS terminal to the POS terminal, only the data corresponding to the temporary file needs to be sent, making it possible to complete online data transfer and file replacement processing in a short time.

(6) Examples of the invention FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is the data processing system of the POS management center, 2 is the PLU master file device,
3 is a PLU temporary file device, 4 is a communication line such as a public line, 5 is a POS terminal device,
6 indicates a PLU master file device, and 7 indicates a PLU temporary file device.

In operation, when it is necessary to notify a PLU file change, the POS management center creates a PLU change data file in the PLU temporary file device 3. When this file is created, the PLU change data file is sent to all the subordinate POS terminal devices 5 via the communication line.
Transmit. Alternatively, it may be scheduled in time, and at a predetermined time, all
Transmit this data to the POS terminal device.
In the POS terminal device 5, this received PLU
The modified data file is stored in the PLU temporary file device 7.

In this way, the PLU change data notification process is
Since only the changed data is required, and the file update process can be completed by simply replacing a small-capacity temporary file, overall PLU change processing can be performed quickly. Changed data in the PLU temporary file is incorporated into the master file through file update processing at a certain time, such as after the end of a job.

The method of accessing the PLU file in the POS terminal device 5 is to first access the PLU temporary file device and search for the desired item, and only if the desired item is not found here, the PLU file is
A two-step access method is used to access the master file device. Since the PLU temporary file device only needs to have a relatively small storage capacity, high-speed RAM can be used, and file search time can be shortened.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the POS terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and particularly shows the portion related to the PLU file. In the figure, 8 is a POS terminal device, 9 is a control unit related to normal POS functions,
10 is the PLU file, 11 is the PLU master file device, 12 is the PLU temporary file device, 13 is the normally closed gate, 14 is the PLU
The file access control section 15 is a PLU file management section. PLU file has item code,
It consists of product name, price, and other sales data.

During sales processing, if the POS terminal operator needs to check the price of a specific product, he inputs an item key, such as an item code, by key operation in order to query the PLU file. Since gate 13 is initially closed, PLU temporary file device 12 is accessed.
Among them, if PLU data corresponding to the target item code is found, the PLU data is sent from the PLU file access control section 14 to the POS control section 9.

Furthermore, if the desired item code is not found in the PLU temporary file device 12, the gate 13 is opened in response to a command from the PLU file access control unit 14, and the PLU master file device 11 is accessed. Ru. Here, when the PLU data is read, the POS control unit 9
sent to.

The PLU file management section controls the updating process of both the PLU master and PLU temporary files using change data in accordance with commands from the POS control section and online data from the POS management center. In normal business processing, changed data is input by replacing the entire contents of the file device 12 with a new PLU temporary file sent from the POS management center. Further, if necessary, for example, the PLU master file is replaced periodically. Furthermore, it is also possible to update the PLU master and PLU temporary files through control within the POS terminal, without relying on data from the POS management center.

(7) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, since the temporary file contains data with a significantly smaller number of items than the master file, change processing can be speeded up without stopping POS operations. PLU changes can be performed in parallel, and the manpower and cost required for the change process can be reduced. Furthermore, it becomes possible to easily perform opportunistic processing such as temporary discounts. Furthermore, PLU maintenance can be performed on individual POS terminals, which has the advantage of improving services such as time service and allowing trouble-free operation even when the host system goes down. Furthermore, since the temporary file contains a lot of information regarding noteworthy products such as the addition of new products, etc., it can be used in a variety of ways for management strategy purposes in purchasing and sales.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a POS terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a PLU file update processing method of a conventional POS system. In the figure, 1 is a POS management center data processing system, 2 and 6 are PLU master file devices, 3 and 7 are PLU temporary file devices, and 5 is a POS terminal device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a POS system in which a conversion file having product price data corresponding to a product code is composed of a master file and a temporary file consisting only of its changed data, a memory device; a second memory device that stores a temporary file; and a second memory device that initially allows only access to the second memory device in response to an access request that refers to specific data in the conversion file; The first memory device is provided with an access control means that enables access to the first memory device only when the above-mentioned specific data cannot be found in the file, and normal conversion file change processing is performed by updating only the temporary file. A POS terminal device characterized by: