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WO1999006925A1 - Procede et appareil pour la mise en oeuvre de connectivite logicielle destinee aux applications client/serveur - Google Patents

Procede et appareil pour la mise en oeuvre de connectivite logicielle destinee aux applications client/serveur Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO1999006925A1
WO1999006925A1 PCT/US1998/015867 US9815867W WO9906925A1 WO 1999006925 A1 WO1999006925 A1 WO 1999006925A1 US 9815867 W US9815867 W US 9815867W WO 9906925 A1 WO9906925 A1 WO 9906925A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
message
data collection
relational database
management system
database management
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US1998/015867
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
John J. Hession
Charles J. Salvo
Steven E. Bradbery
Original Assignee
Data Net Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Data Net Corporation filed Critical Data Net Corporation
Priority to AU86740/98A priority Critical patent/AU8674098A/en
Publication of WO1999006925A1 publication Critical patent/WO1999006925A1/fr

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/20—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of structured data, e.g. relational data
    • G06F16/25—Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
    • G06F16/252—Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems between a Database Management System and a front-end application

Definitions

  • This invention relates to the field of computer middleware and related equipment for enhanced connectivity between data collection systems and Client/Server software applications.
  • data collection systems for use in many different fields ranging from health care, to warehousing and manufacturing operations.
  • such systems have been implemented using one or more remote data collection terminals and a host computer upon which a relational database software application has been installed.
  • the remote data collection terminals were typically provided with a communication link to the host computer.
  • the remote data collection terminal would provide updated information and data to the host computer for tracking particular physical data such as inventory at a warehouse or manufacturing facility information.
  • the data collection terminals could be configured to automatically sense particular physical occurrences of interest or the information could be manually entered by an operator.
  • the database software application would typically analyze the data to ensure its validity as to format and/or content.
  • any new information communicated to the host by the remote data collection terminals would be used by the database application program to update the present content of the database.
  • One problem concerned the integration of the remote data collection terminals with the relational database application installed on the host computer.
  • the host computer and application program were not necessarily provided by the same manufacturer as the remote data collection terminals, it was typically necessary to install customized software on the host computer to facilitate the interface between the host computer and the remote data collection terminals. This resulted in substantial expense as it required the use of a skilled programmer in each instance to prepare new computer code.
  • client/server software software or “middleware”.
  • client/server software by interposing a software application on an independent computer platform between the host computer and the remote data collection terminals, means were provided for permitting the relational database application to be updated without requiring an independent programmer to customize the software comprising the computer database.
  • Communications between the host computer, remote data collection terminals and the client/server software were typically implemented with external network wiring or cables.
  • Communications between the middleware product and the database application were facilitated by use of Open Database Connectivity (OBDC) standards in the industry which were employed in the design of the database application.
  • OBDC software drivers have been designed and are called upon by the middleware product to update the database and validate data.
  • these OBDC drivers are typically provided by software vendors not associated with manufacturer of the database application software. Thus, while use of such drivers is satisfactory for the less critical purpose of data validation, it remains a weak link in such systems as concerns updating the relational database.
  • a method and apparatus in accordance with inventive arrangements disclosed herein facilitates the interfacing of a data collection terminal with a database application.
  • the system is interposed between one or more data collection terminals and a host application server provided for executing such database application.
  • the data collection terminals preferably are arranged to communicate with the system via a data collection terminal LAN which may include wireless communication links from remote or mobile data collection terminal units.
  • communications between the host application server and the system are preferably effected by a computer LAN.
  • the invention is advantageously designed to operate with database software applications which: (1 ) include a relational database management system (RDBMS); (2) comply with Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standards and (3) make use of Stored Procedures, as that term shall hereinafter be defined.
  • RDBMS relational database management system
  • ODBC Open Database Connectivity
  • the system receives input messages from the data collection terminal and, based upon the message content, will retrieve a pre-determined action message corresponding to the particular input message.
  • the action message will be communicated to the host application server, preferably to either validate a transaction parameter associated with the input message or to update the database. If an update is to be performed, the action message is advantageously configured for causing a stored procedure of the relational database management system to perform a database update in response thereto.
  • the database update is performed via a Remote Procedure Call ("RPC") to the stored procedure.
  • RPC Remote Procedure Call
  • a transaction parameter is to be validated, this is preferably accomplished directly by communicating with the database using an ODBC software driver on a read only basis.
  • the method involves the steps of receiving an input message from the data collection terminal and retrieving a pre-determined action message responsive to the input message.
  • the action message is preferably stored in a library or cross-reference table which relates a specific input message to a corresponding action message, and is configured for causing a stored procedure of the relational database management system to perform a database update in response thereto.
  • the action message is communicated to the relational database management system which, in turn, causes the stored procedure to perform the update.
  • the action message is comprised of at least one SQL statement.
  • the method can further comprise the steps of receiving a validation result message and communicating the validation result message to the data collection terminal.
  • the method can be implemented in a computer programmed with a routine of instructions stored in a physical medium, the computer comprising: data receiving means for receiving an input message from the data collection terminal; action retrieving means for retrieving a pre-determined action message responsive to the input message; and data transmitting means for communicating the action message to said relational database management system.
  • Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the operation of the system according to the present invention relative to a host application server and a plurality of remote data collection devices.
  • Fig. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the system according to the present invention.
  • FIG. 1 shows in block diagram form the interface system 10 according to the present invention for interfacing one or more data collection terminals 12 with a relational database management system 14 which has been implemented with a set of stored procedures 16.
  • the relational database management system 14 and the interface system 10 are each installed and executed on a separate computer platforms.
  • the relational database management system 14 is installed on a host application server computer 15, which preferably utilizes a UNIX or Microsoft NT type operating system. Suitable equipment for this purpose would include the HP 8000 system which is available from Hewlett Packard Corporation, the IBM RS 6000 system available from IBM Corporation, or the DEC VAX system available from Digital Equipment Corporation.
  • any other computer hardware may also be used which is capable of executing the relational database management system 14 and communicating with the interface system 10 as shall be hereinafter described.
  • any other computer hardware may also be used which is capable of executing the relational database management system 14 and communicating with the interface system 10 as shall be hereinafter described.
  • an IBM compatible personal computer with a Windows NT operating system may also be used.
  • the interface system 10 may be installed and executed on an interface platform computer 17.
  • Suitable computer equipment for the interface platform computer 17 include any one of many commercially available high speed personal computers offered by manufacturers such as Compaq, Hewlett Packard, IBM Corp or Apple Computers.
  • the operating system for the computer is one of the Windows family of operating systems, such as Windows NT or Windows 95.
  • the data collection terminals 12 may be one of any number of data collection terminals such as those which are commercially available from Data Net Corporation of Miramar, Florida for the collection of physical data in a warehousing, manufacturing or distribution operation. They can be of the fixed station type which are hard wired to a data collection local area network, or may be mobile terminals which communicate to the local area network 18 via an RF link. In either case, the data collection terminals 12 are capable of electronically transmitting and receiving messages to the interface platform 17 via local area network 18.
  • the relational database management system 14 is a computer application program which executes on the host application server computer. Such relational database management systems are well known to those who are familiar with the database management field and are commercially available from various vendors including Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, California, Progress Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia, and Informix Corporation of Menlo Park, California.
  • the relational database management system is typically comprised of a database engine object 20, database management object 22, and a set of stored procedures 24.
  • the stored procedures 24 are written in SQL, a high level query language which is commonly used among programmers of relational database application programs.
  • These stored procedures 24 are application objects and can be resident within the relational database engine object 20 or may be stored separately in the host computer memory. In either case, the stored procedures are designed to be called by the database management object 22 to perform various functions relative to the database, including verification of data collected by the data collection terminals 12 and database updates.
  • relational database management system 14 is capable of receiving action messages in SQL format from the interface system
  • Messages are transmitted between the interface system 10 and the relational database management system 14 via a local area network 26, which network is generally separate from local area network 18.
  • a local area network 26 between the host application server 15 and the interface platform computer are performed using a TCP/IP service, which is a commonly used communication protocol for accommodating a number of separate technology devices incorporating disparate communication protocols.
  • TCP/IP service is well known to those in the data communication field and is preferred in order to facilitate the communications between a host application computer 15 and interface platform computer.
  • the invention is not limited in this regard and other data communications protocols can also be used with the system.
  • the TCP/IP service is typically implemented as a separate software application 28 residing on the host application server 15, and an interface card 30 installed on the interface platform 17.
  • a message is transmitted to the interface system 10 via the local area network 18.
  • Local area network 18 can be any of several commonly utilized configurations such as ether net, token ring or X.25 which are well known to those familiar with such network systems.
  • the message is received by the interface platform computer, it is communicated to the LAN manager object 30.
  • the LAN manager object is configured for sending and receiving messages via local area network 18 in the required format and in conformance with network protocol.
  • the LAN manager object 30 communicates the content of the message to the dispatcher object 32.
  • the dispatcher object 32 validates the message parameters (e.g. field lengths, date fields and the like) in step 40 to ensure that the format is correct and that the information contained in the message has not been otherwise corrupted as a result of the communication process from the remote terminal 12. If the message parameters are correct, the message data is communicated to the transaction mapper object 34.
  • the message parameters e.g. field lengths, date fields and the like
  • Transaction mapper object 34 processes the message in step 42 to determine whether it concerns a request for validation of data or is of some other type, such as a database update message.
  • Validation type messages are typically those which require some type of confirmation from the database management system 14 regarding a specific data entry at a data collection terminal. For example, if a purchase order number is entered at a data collection terminal, it is desirable to verify that the number corresponds to a known purchase order. In such instances, a validation type message will be sent from the data collection terminal 12 to the interface system 10. Significantly, in the case of a validation type message, the content of the relational database maintained by the database management system 14 does not need to be altered in any way.
  • ODBC driver object 36 is stored in the memory of the interface platform computer 17. It facilitates communications with the relational database management system 14 and is specifically configured for communication with a particular manufacturer's relational database system 14. ODBC drivers are commercially available from software manufacturers such as Progress Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia, and Openlink of Canada.
  • the ODBC driver 36 is provided with the particular data or message which requires validation via an SQL action message from the transaction mapper 34.
  • the ODBC will thereafter communicate with the relational database management system 14 via local area network 26 in order to validate the information as requested and will return a result message to the dispatcher 32 as shown.
  • the result message is returned from the dispatcher 32 and LAN manager 30, to the data terminal 12 which originated the validation request, and the transaction is complete. If the operator of the terminal 12 then wishes to update the relational database management system 14, the terminal 12 will either automatically, or upon operator command, send a new message to update the database. As with the validation message, the update message is received by the transaction mapper 34 from dispatcher 32.
  • ODBC drivers are available which are designed to perform this task, they have proved to be less than satisfactory for this purpose for several reasons. Most importantly, use of ODBC drivers in conventional interface systems to modify the database content raises the possibility that the ODBC driver will not perform the update properly. Since ODBC drivers are not necessarily supplied by the manufacturer of the relational database management system 14, modifications and updates to the information contained in the database may not be performed properly. The result will be a loss of database integrity.
  • transaction mapper 34 when an update type message is received in transaction mapper 34, it is recognized as such and is processed by the transaction mapper in a distinct manner as compared to other message types which merely require data validation.
  • the transaction mapper object 34 determines the specific type of update or modification which is required based upon the content of the update message, and then cross-references the update message type to identify a specific remote procedure call for performing the necessary update action.
  • the remote procedure call when transmitted to the relational database management system 14, will trigger the execution of a specific SQL based procedure which is stored in the relational database management system.
  • the procedure thus called is a part of the relational database management system 14, and performs the specific update requested by the data terminal 12. Different procedures may be called in order to effect different types of updates or database modifications.
  • the standard format for such calls when using the C + + programming language for example, is RPCxx(AAA,BBB,CCC), where the xx identifies the specific stored SQL procedure to be called, and the AAA, BBB, and CCC are parameters or variables associated with the particular call.
  • the transaction mapper object 34 is preferably communicated to the repository object 38 in step 50.
  • the remote procedure call is queued in the repository 38 in step 52 until a suitable time when the message is transmitted to the relational database management system 14.
  • the communications between the repository and the local area network are advantageously effected by means of a socket object 40.
  • the socket object is a commercially available object which is specifically designed for receiving packets of data from the local area network.
  • the socket may be a WinSoc object which is commercially available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)
  • Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé d'interfaçage d'un terminal de collecte de données (12) avec un système de gestion de base de données relationnelles (14), réalisé avec des procédures stockées (16). Le procédé consiste à recevoir un message d'entrée provenant du terminal de collecte de données (12) et à extraire un message d'action prédéterminé en réaction au message d'entrée. Le message d'action est communiqué au système de gestion de base de données relationnelles (14) et est configuré de manière à ce que l'une des procédures (16) qu'il a stockées fasse une mise à jour de la base de données. On peut réaliser ce procédé dans un ordinateur programmé avec une routine d'instructions stockées sur un support physique, ledit ordinateur comprenant un récepteur de données (30, 32) pour recevoir un message d'entrée provenant du terminal de collecte de données (12), un extracteur d'actions (34) destiné à extraire un message d'action prédéterminé en réaction au message d'entrée, et un émetteur de données (36, 30) pour communiquer le message d'action au système de gestion de base de données relationnelles (14).
PCT/US1998/015867 1997-07-31 1998-07-30 Procede et appareil pour la mise en oeuvre de connectivite logicielle destinee aux applications client/serveur WO1999006925A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU86740/98A AU8674098A (en) 1997-07-31 1998-07-30 Method and apparatus for implementing software connectivity for client/server applications

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US90417397A 1997-07-31 1997-07-31
US08/904,173 1997-07-31

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO1999006925A1 true WO1999006925A1 (fr) 1999-02-11

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AU (1) AU8674098A (fr)
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Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2001006365A2 (fr) * 1999-07-19 2001-01-25 Groove Networks, Inc. Procede et appareil pour la collaboration basee sur l'activite, au moyen d'un systeme informatique equipe d'un gestionnaire de communication
EP1223517A1 (fr) * 1999-10-13 2002-07-17 Kabushiki Kaisha Visual Japan Systeme d'emission de donnees et systeme de gestion de ventes

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5586175A (en) * 1993-10-15 1996-12-17 Linkusa Corporation Call-processing system and method
US5712971A (en) * 1995-12-11 1998-01-27 Ab Initio Software Corporation Methods and systems for reconstructing the state of a computation
US5734718A (en) * 1995-07-05 1998-03-31 Sun Microsystems, Inc. NIS+ password update protocol

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5586175A (en) * 1993-10-15 1996-12-17 Linkusa Corporation Call-processing system and method
US5734718A (en) * 1995-07-05 1998-03-31 Sun Microsystems, Inc. NIS+ password update protocol
US5712971A (en) * 1995-12-11 1998-01-27 Ab Initio Software Corporation Methods and systems for reconstructing the state of a computation

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2001006365A2 (fr) * 1999-07-19 2001-01-25 Groove Networks, Inc. Procede et appareil pour la collaboration basee sur l'activite, au moyen d'un systeme informatique equipe d'un gestionnaire de communication
WO2001006365A3 (fr) * 1999-07-19 2003-05-15 Groove Networks Inc Procede et appareil pour la collaboration basee sur l'activite, au moyen d'un systeme informatique equipe d'un gestionnaire de communication
US6640241B1 (en) 1999-07-19 2003-10-28 Groove Networks, Inc. Method and apparatus for activity-based collaboration by a computer system equipped with a communications manager
EP1223517A1 (fr) * 1999-10-13 2002-07-17 Kabushiki Kaisha Visual Japan Systeme d'emission de donnees et systeme de gestion de ventes
EP1223517A4 (fr) * 1999-10-13 2004-01-14 Visual Japan Kk Systeme d'emission de donnees et systeme de gestion de ventes
US7363654B1 (en) 1999-10-13 2008-04-22 Kabushiki Kaisha Visual Japan Data transmission system and sale managing system

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Publication number Publication date
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