HK1111541B - A method and system for user information management in instant communication system - Google Patents

Description

Method and system for user information management in instant communication system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an instant messaging technology in the field of communications and computer technologies, and in particular, to a method and a corresponding system for managing user information in an instant messaging system.

Background

In the instant messaging system, when a user logs in the instant messaging system, online information of friends needs to be obtained; meanwhile, the login information of the user needs to be sent to the user who adds the user as a friend. If the online state of the user changes, the online state change information of the user also needs to be sent to the user who adds the user as a friend.

By adopting the method in the prior art, the online information of the user is generally managed in a centralized management mode by a dedicated user information management server. When the user logs in the system, the login information of the user is sent to the user information management server, and the user information management server manages the login information. When a user logs in, the online state of the user after logging in is changed, or instant messages are sent between the user and the user, the user needs to search for the online information of the contact through the user information management server. Thus, not only the load of the user information management server is increased, but also the network overhead is increased.

With the increasing number of online users in a large-scale instant messaging system, one user information management server cannot realize centralized management of all user online information, and the user online information is dispersed to a plurality of user information management servers. When searching the online information of the user, the user needs to search on a plurality of user information management servers, so that the searching efficiency is reduced. With the further increase of the number of users, the search efficiency of the user information management server is sharply reduced, which causes the deterioration of the online information management performance of the users and becomes the operation bottleneck of the whole instant communication system.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a method and a system for user information management in instant messaging, which are used for solving the problems that in the prior art, the system load is increased, the network overhead is increased and the system performance is influenced because a user information management server needs to be frequently accessed when user information is inquired.

The invention provides the following technical scheme:

a method for managing user information in an instant communication system comprises the following steps:

the access server acquires and stores contact information of a login user; the contact information of the user comprises friend information and reverse friend information of the user; the access server is provided with a friend list for storing friend information of a user and a reverse friend list for storing reverse friend information of the user, the friend list is associated with the local friend information of the user through a user identifier, and the reverse friend list is associated with the reverse friend information of the user through the user identifier and records the position information of the user;

the access server informs other access servers of the user information of the login user;

when the access server receiving the notification message determines that the local contact of the login user exists, the user information is stored; and

when the access server needs to acquire the contact information of the user, the access server inquires on a local server or/and other access servers.

Wherein:

the access server further sends the state information of the contact of the login user to the client of the login user; and the other access servers storing the user information further send the state information of the login user to the related contact persons.

Wherein:

the method for acquiring and storing the contact information of the login user comprises the following steps:

the access server which the user logs in searches the friend identification and the reverse friend identification of the logged-in user from the database;

the access server searches the friend identification in a reverse friend table, and records the user identification of the login user into associated reverse friend information after the identification is found; and

and searching the reverse friend identification in a friend table of the access server, and recording the user identification of the login user into the associated friend information after the identification is searched.

Preferably, the method further comprises the following steps after the user logs in:

the access server searches the identification of the login user in a local friend list, and acquires the identification of all local friends from the corresponding friend information after the identification is searched;

and recording the position information of the access server in the position information associated with each local friend identification in the reverse friend list.

Preferably, when the state of the logged-in user changes, after the access server notifies the other access servers of the information of the user state change, and when the access server receiving the notification message finds the logged-in user identifier in the reverse buddy list, the access server sends the state change information of the logged-in user to the corresponding user according to the user identifier in the reverse buddy information associated with the identifier.

When the user state of the login user is changed into logging out, the access server further deletes the information of the login user associated with the user identification in the friend list and the reverse friend list of the local computer; and when the access server receiving the notification message finds the login user identification in the reverse friend list, clearing the position information associated with the login user identification.

When the login user sends the instant message to the contact person, the access server inquires the contact person identification in the local reverse friend list and forwards the instant message according to the position information associated with the contact person identification.

And if the access server cannot inquire the contact person identification in the local reverse friend list, requesting the contact person information of the user from other access servers, and forwarding the instant message according to the contact person information.

Wherein:

the access server sends notification messages and request messages to other access servers in a multicast mode.

A communication system, comprising:

the system comprises a plurality of access servers, a plurality of client side servers and a plurality of server management servers, wherein each access server is used for acquiring and storing contact person information of a login user, informing other access servers of the user information of the login user, inquiring the contact person information of the user from a local and/or other access servers and forwarding instant messages; the access server is provided with a friend list used for storing friend information of a user and a reverse friend list used for storing reverse friend information of the user, the friend list comprises a user identifier and the local friend information of the user, and the reverse friend list comprises the user identifier, the reverse friend information of the user and the position information of the user;

the user client accesses the instant communication system through the access server, searches the contact information from the access server, and sends and receives the instant messages through the access server.

The invention manages the information of the user by establishing the friend list for storing the friend information of the user and the reverse friend list for storing the reverse friend information of the user on the access server, thereby greatly reducing the frequency of searching the user information on the user information management server, not only reducing the load of the user information management server, but also improving the searching performance of the user information and improving the online information management performance of the user; and meanwhile, the network overhead of the system is reduced.

Drawings

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating a buddy list structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1C is a diagram illustrating a reverse buddy list structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating a user login process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating a process for a user to search friend presence information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the processing of notification of a user presence change message in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process for a user to send a message according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of another process for a user to send a message in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram illustrating a process of logging out of a user according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to solve the problems that the efficiency of searching user information is reduced, the load of a user information management server is large, the online information management performance of a user is deteriorated and the like in the existing instant communication system, a friend list and a reverse friend list of the user are established on an access server, the user accessing the local computer and the contact information of the user are managed, and the user information is directly searched on the access server when being inquired.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1A, the communication system in this embodiment includes a plurality of access servers, and a plurality of login user clients connected to the access servers through a network.

Each access server is used for acquiring and storing contact information of a login user and informing other access servers of the user information of the login user; and locally querying the contact information of the user and forwarding the instant message.

The client of the login user accesses the instant communication system through the access server, searches the contact information from the access server, and sends the instant message to the contact through the access server.

When a User logs in, the User is connected to one access server in the system, a plurality of access servers form a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multicast group, and each server in the group can receive multicast UDP information sent by other servers accessed in the group.

Establishing a friend list for storing friend information of a user and a reverse friend list for storing reverse friend information of the user on an access server, associating the friend list with the local friend information of the user through a user identifier, associating the reverse friend information of the user and recording the position information of the user in the reverse friend list through the user identifier.

Both the buddy list and the reverse buddy list are indexed by the user's ID. The reverse friend is a user who adds a friend user, and if a adds B as a friend, B is a friend of a, and a is a reverse friend of B. The friend table is used for looking up friend information of a certain user on the server. The friend list structure is shown in fig. 1B, where nodes of the user identification ID are included in the friend list, and the friend list corresponding to each node records friend information of the user in the local area.

When inquiring the friend of the user on the server, inquiring the node of the user in the friend list of the server, namely finding the friend information of the user on the local machine, which is recorded corresponding to the node.

When each user logs in the server, the reverse friend information of the user is obtained, and the user information is recorded in a friend list of the reverse friend node in a friend list of the server accessed by the user. For example: when the user A accesses the instant communication system through the server A, the ID of the reverse friend user B and the ID of the user C of the user A are searched from the database, the information of the user A is recorded into the friend lists of the user B node and the user C node in the friend list of the server A, and the recording process is as follows: searching a user node B in a friend list of a server A, if the user node B does not exist, establishing the user node B in the friend list, and recording the information of the user A in a friend list of the user node B; and searching the user C node in the friend list, and if the user C node already exists, directly recording the information of the user A in the friend list of the user C node. Thus, when the user A logs in the instant communication system, the information of the user A is recorded in the friend lists of the user B node and the user C node in the friend list of the server A.

The reverse buddy list is used to find out which users are added as buddies by the Server, the structure of the reverse buddy list is as shown in fig. 1C, the reverse buddy list includes nodes of user identification IDs and POS (Position of Server) where the users are located, and the list corresponding to each node records the local reverse buddy information of the users.

The node of the user is inquired in the reverse friend list of the server, so that the reverse friend information of the user on the local machine and the server position information of the user, which are recorded corresponding to the node, can be searched.

When each user logs in the server, the friend information of the user is obtained, and the user information is recorded in the reverse friend list of the friend node in the reverse friend list of the server accessed by the user. For example: the user A is a reverse friend of the user B and the user C, the user A accesses the instant messaging system through the server A and the server B, and the user C is not online. When a user A accesses an instant messaging system through a server A, the IDs of a friend user B and a friend user C of the user A are searched from a database, and the information of the user A is recorded into reverse friend lists of a user B node and a user C node in a reverse friend list of the server A, wherein the recording process comprises the following steps: searching a user node B in a reverse friend list of a server A, if the user node B does not exist, establishing the user node B in the reverse friend list, recording a POS (point of sale) where the user node B is located as the server B, and recording information of the user A in a reverse friend list of the user node B; and searching the user C node in the reverse friend list, if the user C node exists, recording the POS where the user C is located as null, and recording the information of the user A in the reverse friend list of the user C node. Thus, when the user A logs in the instant messaging system, the user A is taken as reverse friends of the user B and the user C on the server A and is recorded in the friend lists of the user B node and the user C node in the reverse friend list on the server A, and meanwhile, the server position information of the user B and the user C is also recorded in the reverse friend list.

Referring to fig. 2, the process of the user accessing the server is as follows:

step 201, a user A accessing a server A sends a login message to the server A.

Step 202, the server a obtains the friend ID and the reverse friend ID of the user a from the database.

Step 203, the server a returns the friend ID and the reverse friend ID of the user a retrieved from the database to the local computer.

Step 204, searching a friend node in a reverse friend list of the server A according to the friend ID, and recording the information of the user A into the reverse friend list of the friend node; and searching the node of the reverse friend in a friend list of the server A according to the ID of the reverse friend, and recording the information of the user A into a friend list of the node of the reverse friend.

Step 205, when the server a sends an online notification of the user a to the reverse friend of the user a in the local machine, querying the user a in the reverse friend table of the local machine, if the user a node does not exist, it is indicated that the reverse friend of the user a does not exist in the local machine, and no processing is performed; if the user A node exists, the information of the server where the user A is located is modified into the server A in the reverse friend list of the user A node, and the reverse friend ID is searched in the reverse friend list of the user A node.

Step 206, the server a sends the user a online notification to the corresponding user according to the found ID of the reverse friend.

Step 207, when the server a sends the online notification of the user a to other access servers, the server a multicasts the online message of the user a in the instant messaging system through UDP.

Step 208, after receiving the multicast message, the access server B in the instant messaging system queries the user a in the reverse buddy list of the local computer, and if the user a does not exist, it indicates that the reverse buddy of the user a does not exist in the local computer, and the processing is not performed; if user A is present, step 209 is performed.

Step 209, the server location information of the user a in the reverse buddy list of the server B is modified to be the server a, and the reverse buddy ID is found in the reverse buddy list of the user a node.

Step 210, the server B sends the user a online notification to the corresponding user according to the found ID of the reverse buddy.

By adopting the processing, after the user A logs in the system in the instant messaging system, the information of the user A and the contact information of the user A are stored in the server accessed by the user A; meanwhile, the reverse friends of the user A all obtain the information of the user A.

Referring to fig. 3, after the user a logs in the communication system, the process of searching the online information of the friend is as follows:

step 301, user a logs in server a.

Step 302, the server a queries the node of the user a in the buddy list of the local computer, finds the buddy ID recorded in the buddy list of the node, finds the buddy node in the reverse buddy list according to the buddy ID, modifies the server information recorded corresponding to the node into the server a, and checks the online information of the buddy.

Step 303, the server a returns the found friend online information of the user a in the local computer to the user a.

Step 304, the server a multicasts the friend online information of the request user a in the instant messaging system.

Step 305, after receiving the multicast request, the server B in the instant messaging system queries the node of the user a in the buddy list of the local computer, checks whether the local computer has the buddy of the user a, and if so, executes step 306; otherwise, no processing is performed.

Step 306, the server B sends the online information of the friend of the user a in the local computer to the server a.

And 307, the server A records the server position information of the friend of the user A on the server B in the reverse friend list of the local machine as the server B according to the friend information of the user A returned by the server B.

Step 308, the server a returns the friend online information of the user a received from the server B to the user a.

Referring to fig. 4, the process of changing the online status of the user to stealth login is as follows:

step 401, the user a accessing the server a sends the message that the online status changes to stealth to the server a.

Step 402, the server A records the state of the user A in the local friend list and the reverse friend list as stealth login.

Step 403, the server a queries whether a node of the user a exists in a reverse buddy list of the local server a, if so, finds a reverse buddy ID in the reverse buddy list of the node, and then executes step 404; otherwise, no processing is performed.

Step 404, the server a sends the user a state change information to the corresponding user according to the found ID of the reverse friend.

Step 405, the server a multicasts the user a online state change message in the instant messaging system.

Step 406, after receiving the multicast message, the server B in the instant messaging system queries whether the node of the user a exists in the reverse buddy list of the local machine, if so, finds the reverse buddy ID in the reverse buddy list of the node of the user a, and then executes step 407; otherwise, no processing is performed.

Step 407, the server B records the server location information of the user a in the reverse buddy list of the local computer as the server a.

And step 408, the server B sends the user A state change information to the corresponding user according to the searched reverse friend ID.

Referring to fig. 5, the process of the user a accessing the server a sending a message to the friend user B is as follows:

step 501, a user a connected to a server a requests the server a to send a message to a friend user B.

Step 502, inquiring the node of the user B in the reverse buddy list of the server a, and checking the server location information of the user B recorded corresponding to the node.

Step 503, judging whether the server position information of the user B is empty, if so, indicating that the user B does not log in the instant communication system, and executing step 504; if not, step 505 is performed.

Step 504, server a saves the information that user a sent to user B to the database.

Step 505, checking whether the server where the user B is located is a local machine, and if the server is the local machine, executing step 506; otherwise, go to step 507.

Step 506, the server a directly forwards the message sent by the user a to the local user B to the user B.

And step 507, when the server where the user B is located is the server B, the server A forwards the information sent by the user A to the user B to the server B.

Step 508, when server B receives the message forwarded by server a, it looks up whether there is a connection of user B, if yes, go to step 509; otherwise, step 511 is performed.

The step is executed, and the message loss caused by the fact that the server B sends the message to the user B when the user B is off line and the user B information stored in the server B is not updated is avoided.

Step 509, server B sends the message forwarded by server a to user B.

Step 510, server B sends a message sending success notification to server a.

Step 511, server B sends a message transmission failure notification to server a.

Step 512, server B stores the message in the database.

If the user B is not a friend of the user A, but a user is added as a friend among users connected with the server A, and when the information of the user B exists in the reverse friend list of the server A, the processing of the user A for sending the message to the user B is the same as the processing process.

Referring to fig. 6, when the user B is not a friend of the user a and the reverse friend list of the server a does not have the information of the user B, the processing procedure of the user a sending a message to the user B is as follows:

step 601, the user a connected to the server a requests the server a to send a message to the user B.

Step 602, the node of the user B is queried in the reverse buddy list of the server a, and the node cannot be found in the reverse buddy list.

Step 603, server a looks up the connection of user B locally.

Step 604, judging whether the connection information of the user B exists locally, if so, executing step 605; otherwise, step 606 is performed.

Step 605, server a forwards the message directly to user B.

Step 606, server a multicasts the request user B presence information.

Step 607, the server a judges whether the online information of the user B is received, if not, step 608 is executed; otherwise, step 609 is performed.

Step 608, server a stores the message in a database.

Step 609, when the server a receives the online information of the user B sent by the server B, a node of the user B is established in the reverse buddy list of the local computer, the server location information of the user B is recorded as the server B corresponding to the node, and the reverse buddy list is empty.

Step 610, server a forwards the message that user a sent to user B to server B.

Step 611, server B sends the message to user B.

Step 612, the server B sends a message sending success notification to the server a.

Referring to fig. 7, the process of logging out of the user is as follows:

step 701, a user a accessing a server a sends a message of log-out to the server a.

Step 702, the server A inquires whether a node of the user A exists in a reverse friend list of the local computer, if so, the server A inquires a reverse friend ID in the reverse friend list of the node, and then step 703 is executed; otherwise, no processing is performed.

Step 703, the server a sends the user a logout information to the corresponding user according to the found ID of the reverse friend.

Step 704, the server a queries corresponding nodes in the buddy list and the reverse buddy list of the local computer according to the found reverse buddy ID, and deletes the information of the user a corresponding to the node record after querying the corresponding nodes; and meanwhile, emptying the information of the server where the user A is located in the node A of the user in the reverse friend list.

Step 705, the server a multicasts the user a logout message in the instant messaging system.

Step 706, after receiving the multicast message, the server B in the instant messaging system queries whether the node of the user a exists in the reverse buddy list of the local machine, if so, finds the reverse buddy ID in the reverse buddy list of the node of the user a, and then executes step 707; otherwise, no processing is performed.

And step 707, the server B clears the server position information of the user a node in the reverse buddy list of the server.

Step 708, the server B sends the user a logout information to the corresponding user according to the found ID of the reverse friend.

By adopting the method of the invention, the friend list and the reverse friend list of the user are established on the server, the information of the user and the contact person accessing the local server is managed, and the user information which is originally acquired by frequently accessing the user information management server is stored in the local server, thereby not only reducing the network overhead, but also improving the searching efficiency and the user information management performance.

In a specific implementation process, two memory data structures can be established on the access server and are respectively used for recording data of the buddy list and the reverse buddy list. The practical operation and the statistical analysis prove that the method is feasible.

In the instant messaging system, assuming that 50000 users are accessed to each access server, each user has 100 friends and 100 reverse friends on average, 50000 x (100+100) ═ 10M friends information is stored, and if 32 bytes of information are reserved for each friend, a total of 320M memory is occupied. At present, the mainstream server generally has 2G-4G memory, and the memory overhead is feasible. And the friend list and the reverse friend list adopt the ID as an index, a plurality of same IDs repeatedly appear on the same access server, the IDs can be put into a memory pool and then directly expressed by a pointer, and the memory actually occupied is further reduced.

Secondly, the invention reduces the network overhead. By adopting the prior art, when the online information of a user changes, the user information needs to be sent to a user information management server, and a network transmission time unit is occupied; by adopting the method of the invention, the online information change of the user is sent to each equivalent access server through UDP multicast, and one network transmission time unit is occupied. When user information is searched, the access server where a user is located is searched by adopting the prior art, the user information management server needs to be accessed, and when a plurality of user information management servers exist, cross-machine searching is needed, so that not only is network overhead increased, but also searching efficiency is reduced.

The invention can keep the user information in the memory of the access server when being implemented, thereby saving the searching time, reducing the network overhead and improving the searching efficiency.

The method of the present invention is also suitable for the large-scale instant messaging system of the client P2P sending information, and the method is the same and is not repeated.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims (15)

1. A method for managing user information in an instant communication system is characterized by comprising the following steps:

the access server acquires and stores contact information of a login user; the contact information of the user comprises friend information and reverse friend information of the user; the access server is provided with a friend list for storing friend information of a user and a reverse friend list for storing reverse friend information of the user, the friend list is associated with the local friend information of the user through a user identifier, and the reverse friend list is associated with the reverse friend information of the user through the user identifier and records the position information of the user;

the access server informs other access servers of the user information of the login user;

when the access server receiving the notification message determines that the local contact of the login user exists, the user information is stored; and

when the access server needs to acquire the contact information of the user, the access server inquires on a local server or/and other access servers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the access server further sends the status information of the contact of the login user to the client where the login user is located; and the other access servers storing the user information further send the state information of the login user to the related contact persons.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining and storing contact information for a logged-on user comprises the steps of:

the access server which the user logs in searches the friend identification and the reverse friend identification of the logged-in user from the database;

the access server searches the friend identification in a reverse friend table, and records the user identification of the login user into associated reverse friend information after the identification is found; and

and searching the reverse friend identification in a friend table of the access server, and recording the user identification of the login user into the associated friend information after the identification is searched.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein when no friend identifier is found in the reverse friend list, recording a friend identifier in the list, and associating the user identifier of the logged-in user with the friend identifier as reverse friend information.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein when a reverse buddy identifier is not found in the buddy list, recording the reverse buddy identifier in the list, and associating the user identifier of the logged-in user with the reverse buddy identifier as buddy information.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising, after the user logs in, the steps of:

the access server searches the identification of the login user in a local friend list, and acquires the identification of all local friends from the corresponding friend information after the identification is searched;

and recording the position information of the access server in the position information associated with each local friend identification in the reverse friend list.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein after the access server notifies other servers of the information related to the logged-in user, when the access server receiving the notification message finds the identifier of the logged-in user in the reverse buddy list, the access server records the location information of the logged-in user in the location information associated with the identifier, and sends the status information of the logged-in user to the corresponding user according to the user identifier in the reverse buddy information associated with the identifier.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein when the access server requests the status information of the logged-in user from another access server, and when the other access server finds the identifier of the logged-in user in a local buddy list, the access server returns the user identifier in the buddy information associated with the user identifier to the access server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the access server further searches a local reverse buddy list for the user identifier returned by the other access server, and after finding the user identifier, records the location information of the user in the location information associated with the user identifier.

10. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 9, wherein when the status of the logged-in user changes, after the access server notifies other access servers of the information of the user status change, and when the access server that receives the notification message finds the logged-in user identifier in the reverse buddy list, the access server sends the status change information of the logged-in user to the corresponding user according to the user identifier in the reverse buddy information associated with the identifier.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the access server further deletes information of the logged-in user associated with user identifications in the native buddy list and the reverse buddy list when the user status of the logged-in user changes to logged-out; and when the access server receiving the notification message finds the login user identification in the reverse friend list, further emptying the position information associated with the login user identification.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein when the logged-on user sends an instant message to a contact, the access server forwards the instant message according to the location information associated with the contact after querying the contact identification in a local reverse buddy list.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein if the access server does not look up the contact identifier in the local reverse buddy list, requesting contact information of the user from other access servers, and forwarding the instant message according to the contact information.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the access server sends notification messages and request messages to other access servers in a multicast manner.

15. A communication system, comprising:

the system comprises a plurality of access servers, a plurality of client side servers and a plurality of server management servers, wherein each access server is used for acquiring and storing contact person information of a login user, informing other access servers of the user information of the login user, inquiring the contact person information of the user from a local and/or other access servers and forwarding instant messages; the access server is provided with a friend list used for storing friend information of a user and a reverse friend list used for storing reverse friend information of the user, the friend list comprises a user identifier and the local friend information of the user, and the reverse friend list comprises the user identifier, the reverse friend information of the user and the position information of the user;

the user client accesses the instant communication system through the access server, searches the contact information from the access server, and sends and receives the instant messages through the access server.