JPWO2006114880A1 - Information linkage window system - Google Patents

Abstract

[Issue] Realize simple and flexible information linkage between application software. [Solution] In a window system on a computer screen, data is exchanged between a plurality of programs in a data structure described in XML or other meta languages, and a screen is displayed based on the means for communicating necessary information and the information. Means. For example, in a computer system for production and manufacturing management, logical names such as equipment names and point names are defined in the data structure in the tag identifier, and the receiver program area continues from the drag operation of the mouse etc. by arbitrary pointing operation on the sender program When the drop operation is performed, the data described in the meta is communicated between the programs. As a result, the receiver program autonomously interprets the schema and executes the intended screen display operation.

Description

The present invention relates to a technology related to a computer human interface, and is used in a window system for various information display screens as a production management system in manufacturing industry, a system for manufacturing management and other business portals.

Conventional technology

Recently, with the advancement of computer hardware and software, the terminal display screen has become high-definition and the number of display pixels has improved, so it is possible to configure multiple windows on one screen, and each window is independent. Program has been able to perform each function.
However, these programs have almost independent design forms. Coordination between programs is not necessarily taken, and it is necessary to review the design of each program when trying to cooperate, and information is closely Coordination has been quite difficult.

The two functions that exist in the computer are called Program A and Program B. When data is communicated between them by drag and drop, the format of the data to be communicated is fixed. Yes, it was necessary to take a form strictly defined between the two programs A and B, such as the meaning of the data to be transferred, the data type, the data length, and the arrangement order of the data to be transferred. In the past, for sure, many techniques have been devised for cutting the window of the screen, tiling attachment and overlap assignment, and the example of Patent Document 1 was one of the suitable examples. This does not solve the problem of the present invention.

Fig. 1 shows an image of the window system. Here, in the area from the center to the right, program A that executes the graphic screen of the upper plant and program B that executes the trend (history graph) screen of the lower process variable. Then, you often want to select a graphic object on the Program A window and see the process variable transitions defined there. As the operation, it is desirable to perform a drag / drop operation on the graphic object (indicated by a dotted line operation in the figure). For this purpose, a communication protocol is defined between the program A and the program B, and the data to that effect can be communicated from the program A to the program B in accordance therewith. Actually, if a software interface function such as that disclosed in Patent Document 2 is used for designing, it is possible to realize advanced functions.
In addition, as a terminology for operating a pointing device such as a mouse, “select” is to press a button in a certain object area, “drag” is to drag while holding down the button, and “drop” is a button in a screen area. It generally means to release.

However, in such a method, the specification is fixed, and there is a problem from the extensibility as a system. For example, if the program that receives the information is not a trend screen, but a separate maintenance management screen for equipment, for example, a higher-level concept equipment name may be desired. The point name alone is not sufficient, and higher logical names such as area names and device names are necessary. In this case, the program that becomes the sender of information may be possible if the communication data is switched for each recipient program that is the other party, but this places a heavy burden on the sender program. On the other hand, for the receiver program, for example, the trend screen is desired to be linked from the process alarm list screen, etc., but at that time, the data transmitted from the alarm list screen program etc. is recorded by the alarm occurrence time. It is desired that the trend display in the vicinity of the set time is required and that even time data can be received in order to use this. As described above, in a system in which a plurality of programs are in a relationship of a sender and a receiver at random, it is extremely difficult to cope with information exchange depending on a fixed data communication format.
JP 7-44351 A JP 2005-11355 A

The purpose is to realize information linkage between application software easily and flexibly.
That is, by providing data and a program structure according to a certain standard in such a manner that programs do not depend on each other, information is linked to each other to provide a comprehensive information screen environment.
As a result, it is possible for the operator to arbitrarily obtain a cooperation function between programs, while for the software creator, it is intended to realize the function relatively easily as compared with the prior art.

The first feature is in the data structure. The present invention is characterized in that the system defines a data structure that does not depend on a program for displaying a screen, and each program has means for setting and decoding only necessary portions according to the specifications and further executing display. There is. There, the sender program can send data without being conscious of the receiver program, while the receiver program receives data without being conscious of the sender program and realizes the screen display after decoding necessary and common parts. Only the basic data structure is defined so that it can be done.
Therefore, a meta language is used. A meta language means a language for describing a language. There are HTML and C language that describe Web pages, but recently, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) that extends HTML is mentioned.
The meta language only defines the basic structure, and the structure can be freely determined within that range. The language user can freely define the elements and attributes, and the arrangement order is arbitrary.

The second feature is the program structure. The present invention defines a software structure composed of programs, and establishes a program structure standard so that each program can have a simple system and an information-linked window system can be established. And
Each program includes a routine for executing processing corresponding to selection, dragging, and dropping operations of at least an object (meaning a selectable target unit on the screen) from the pointing device. It has a structure that can be a receiver.

The above two points are the gist of the invention.
The invention according to claim 1 stores the data structure described in the meta language in the memory at the time of dragging, loads the memory at the time of dropping, and loads the memory at the time of dropping, and provides a plurality of programs on the window system for screen drawing as a result of decoding Indicates invention.
The invention described in claim 2 is an invention of a method related to a window system comprising drag and drop operation steps viewed from the operation surface.
Claims 3 and 4 show the inventions according to claims 1 and 2, respectively, in which the meta language is limited to XML.

The invention according to claim 5 is the invention in which one function is further added to the storage means in the invention of claim 1. This additional function is called the reflect function here, but this is done by checking the acceptance attributes of all programs in advance to find a drop-acceptable program at the start of dragging, and display other acceptable program display frames. It means something that is exaggerated to distinguish it.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The data structure described in the meta language is basically created as a flat text document, and no matter what meta language is used, there is no difference in the present invention, so the following will be described using only an XML example. .
An XML element is a unit of information that starts with <element name> and ends with </ element name>. The element name can be freely determined by the program. (An element that does not have content is indicated by <element name />.)
On the other hand, in order to think about the name of an element and tell it to the computer, a schema is sometimes written. A schema is also a kind of language, and there are rules that describe it. There are several types of schema for XML. Major examples include DTD (Document Type Definition) described as part of the XML 1.0 specification. Normally, an XML document that describes elements and attributes is created according to the rules defined in this schema. The created XML document can be checked against the schema to check whether it is written according to the rules.
However, it is sufficient for the implementation of the present invention that the receiver program decodes the XML document one by one without using the schema by using the simplicity of XML. can not touch.

(1) Data structure
(a) Example 1
For illustration of FIG. 1, taking FIG. 2 shown in the same layout as an example, on one terminal screen 10, a graphic figure corresponding to a program for a sender and a receiver operating in divided windows is drawn. If there is a trend screen 12 that can display the processed system diagram screen 11 and process variables, the data that the graphic part (this example: distillation tower) in the selectable object 21 in the system diagram screen 11 has in XML Describe as follows:
--- Definition 1 ---
<Equipment name>
<Area name> A </ Area name>
<Device name> Distillation tower A102 </ Device name>
<Monitoring point>
<Point name> A102-FLOW.PV </ Point name>
<Point name> A102-TEMP1.PV </ Point name>
<Point name> A102-LEVEL.PV </ Point name>
<Point name> A102-TEMP2.PV </ Point name>
</ Monitoring point>
</ Equipment name>
-------------------
On the other hand, when data that can be processed by the trend screen 12 is defined in XML, the following is obtained.
--- Definition 2 ---
<Energy usage trend>
<Display pen>
<Pen number />
<Point name />
<Pen color />
<Upper limit value />
<Lower limit value />
<Industrial unit />
</ Display pen>
</ Energy usage trend>
-------------------

Here, when the object 21 (distillation tower) in the system diagram screen 11 is selected and dragged with a pointing device such as a mouse and dropped on the trend screen 12 to display the history graph of the process variables belonging to it (the operation) The information indicated by definition 1 is transmitted as data. Since the trend screen 12 can understand <point name> defined in definition 2 of this information as a common element name definition, the trend screen automatically assigns four point names to trend display pens 1 to 4. Operates to display the trend at the current time.
In this way, the logical name between <element name></ element name> is communicated between screen programs. The sender program on the system diagram screen 11 sends the XML defined for the object, the receiver program on the trend screen 12 takes out only the logical name common to both from the received XML, executes the display according to the designation, Other data can be ignored.

(b) Example 2
If there is the maintenance management screen 14 as another program, the data that can be processed by this program 14 is XML,
--- Definition 3 ---
<Maintenance information>
<Equipment name>
<Area name />
<Device name />
<Maintenance history>
<Inspection date / time>
<Inspector />
<Inspection result />
<Inspection record />
</ Maintenance history>
<Administrator name />
</ Equipment name>
</ Maintenance information>
-------------------
If the object 21 (distillation tower) in the system diagram screen 11 is selected and dragged with the mouse and then dropped on the maintenance management screen 14 (operation 32) as in the previous example, it is shown in definition 1. However, since the maintenance management screen 14 can understand <area name> and <device name> in definition 3 in this information as a common definition, the maintenance management screen 14 has an area name: A , Device name: Display of the maintenance status history of the distillation column A102 up to the present can be performed.

(c) Example 3
Further, for example, assuming that there is an alarm list screen 13 as another program, when selecting an alarm event of one process variable managed by this program and defining data that can be sent to the trend screen 12 in XML, The XML looks like this:
--- Definition 4 ---
<Equipment name>
<Area name> A </ Area name>
<Device name> Distillation tower A102 </ Device name>
<Monitoring point>
<Point name> A102-FLOW.PV </ Point name>
<Time> 2005.04.28 11:25 </ Time>
<Event> Alarm HI occurrence </ Event>
</ Monitoring point>
</ Equipment name>
-------------------
In this case, when the line object 22 at the point name in the alarm list screen 13 is selected and dragged and dropped on the trend screen 12 (operation 33), the information defined in the definition 4 is transmitted as data. Here, the alarm occurrence time and the like can be transmitted by time data depending on the monitoring point.
On the other hand, the program for the trend screen is upgraded and the XML definition is expanded as follows.
--- Definition 5 ---
<Energy usage trend>
<Display pen>
<Pen number />
<Point name />
<Time />
<Pen color />
<Upper limit value />
<Lower limit value />
<Industrial unit />
</ Display pen>
</ Energy usage trend>
-------------------
In this information, <point name> and <time> can be understood as a common definition, so the trend screen 12 of the new program receives the alarm occurrence time data for point A102-FLOW.PV and uses it as a display parameter. To do. By setting this to, for example, the center time of the time axis, a trend screen near the alarm occurrence time can be displayed.

(2) Program structure Next, an example of the structure design of the sender program and the receiver program is shown.
The program flow and stored information transition diagram in FIG. 3 will be described. The program structure is common to both sender and receiver programs.
For the sake of simplicity, the “data structure defined in the meta language” is hereinafter referred to as “metadata”.

When a program is called by ENTRY100, most startup methods are event startup from some event except when it is initially started. It goes through a branch 110 that accepts periodic events, normal keyboard, mouse operation events, and other events. It is sufficient that the events for information linkage according to the present invention branch at least at three discrimination branches 111, 112, and 113 (other events flow in the Other direction and are not shown).
In the operation flow of the sender program, when an object is selected, the branch 111 goes to the downstream object selection process 121 to reset and prepare metadata. When dragging, the branch 112 goes to the metadata store process 122 to store the metadata in the storage means 200.
On the contrary, in the operation flow of the receiver program, at the time of dropping, the process goes to the processing 123 for loading and decrypting metadata at branch 113. Here, necessary processing is performed as appropriate, and execution of drawing or the like is entrusted to the display update main routine 130. As described in the above embodiments (a) to (c), the decryption method is mainly used by applying the stored metadata to the common definition elements in its own metalanguage definition and using it for its own processing. It is determined for each program.

The metadata storage unit 200 can be configured with a clipboard or other simple memory or with an active component such as another program module, but the configuration of the metadata storage unit 210 is essential. This accepts Store / Load from each program, and deals with saving / reading data structures described in meta languages.
In addition, when performing a drag operation in the sender program, the reflect processing unit 220 that executes a so-called reflect function of providing a program group that can accept a drop operation subsequent to the drag and a function indicating the screen area is provided. , The storage unit 200 is positioned as an option.
The reflect processing unit 220 is executed at the timing when the storage processing to the metadata storage unit 210 is executed (by detecting memory writing or capturing the module activation timing, etc.), and the database of the entire window system ( The screen frame of the receiver program area having a description definition common to the meta language definition is highlighted, for example, by displaying it in a red frame. Thereby, operation efficiency can be achieved.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic flow and will be described. The reflect processing unit 220 is called from the metadata storage means, and first acquires the metadata just stored in the metadata storage unit 210 in the process 221. Next, an area of a candidate program in the system is obtained (process 222). Therefore, the metadata of the receiver program is extracted (process 223). Here, both metadata are compared to check whether there is a common defined element name (process 224). If it exists, the frame display of the recipient program is displayed in red, for example (process 225). If nothing, skip without doing anything. The loop end processing 226 checks whether there is a program that can still be a receiver. If there is a program, the program area pointer is sequentially advanced in process 227 and the process is repeated from process 223. When all candidate programs have been examined, the process is over (229).
Note that the metadata of the recipient candidate program is normally set in the management area of the window system at the start timing, and the details thereof are omitted.

The configuration of the present invention is not limited to the configuration given in this embodiment. For example, the pointing device includes other than a mouse. The implementation method of the program or storage means shown in FIG. 3 may be arbitrarily configured by one execution module, or may be executed by multitask divided into a plurality of parts.
In addition, although examples of language definitions are based on XML, various modifications are possible depending on the language specifications defined as other meta-languages, and such changes are within the scope of the present invention. Shall belong.

As described above, according to the present invention, only the common specifications are defined in the system, and the data structure described in the meta language can be defined and processed independently in each program. There is an effect not influenced by etc.

The image figure of a window system is shown. Shows the window system program, the layout of the corresponding screen, and the operation summary. Shows program flow and metadata storage transition state. Reflect processing section flow

Claims (5)

In the window system on the computer screen,
A sender program having means for storing a data structure described in a meta language defined in an object selected and dragged by a pointing device;
Means for storing the data structure;
A receiver program having means for loading a data structure described in a meta language stored when dropped by a pointing device, and means for decoding the data structure and displaying a screen;
A window system composed of In the window system on the computer screen,
Selecting and dragging an object with a pointing device on the sender program window;
Storing a data structure described in a meta language defined for the dragged object;
Dropping a pointing device on the receiver program window;
Loading and decoding a data structure described in a meta language in which the receiver program is stored;
The receiver program draws in the window;
A window system information linkage method consisting of: The window system according to claim 1, wherein the meta language is XML. The method for information cooperation in a window system according to claim 2, wherein the meta language is XML. The window system of claim 1,
The storage means has a reflect processing unit,
A window system characterized in that the reflect processing unit searches for the recipient attributes of all programs in advance to search for a program that can accept a drop, and highlights a display frame of the acceptable program.

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