JPH08153010A - Information processing method, apparatus and system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] It is possible to provide a flexible master application that can cope with a complicated environment in which the constituent elements can dynamically change. [Configuration] When an event occurs in a certain application in order to perform a cooperative operation of the application in a working work environment, an event information group indicating the processing content of the event related to the cooperative operation for each individual application of the application group is Event information of the application corresponding to the event is searched, and processing of the event is executed based on the searched event information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mechanism for controlling an application program running on one or more computers. In particular, the present invention relates to a mechanism that enables coordination among a plurality of applications by controlling the start and end of application programs and message delivery processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, GUIs using window systems on personal computers and workstations
The spread of (graphical user interface) is remarkable. Along with this, the applications to be provided to users are required to provide more complicated and diverse functions in a more sophisticated form than the applications in the programming environment before GUI.

In response to such a request, it is possible to combine a plurality of relatively simple applications by responding to various situations by providing a cooperative operation mechanism between the applications, instead of responding by extending a single application. The system to try is appearing.

In response to such demands, the following two methods of implementation have been proposed and attempted. That is, (1) there is one application program (called a master application) that is the key to application coordination, and this controls another application (called a slave application). (2) A method in which all applications communicate equally and share the processing with each other. Is. Here, method (1) is the master method, and method (2)
Will be called a communication method.

The features of each system are summarized as follows: Master system: The coordination and integration mechanisms of applications are concentrated on the master. For this reason, the slave can be easily created, but the master program is complicated accordingly. Also, the load is likely to concentrate on the master.・ Communication method: Each application has its own coordination and integration mechanism. This complicates each individual application, but instead facilitates load balancing. Further, the trouble of one application has a small effect on the whole.

In general, in the master method, the master can centrally perform complicated application control, but in the communication method, it is difficult to realize high-level processing unless a protocol between applications is specified. For this reason, the master method is often adopted except for the case where the same program only performs simple data exchange.

[0007]

However, in the master system, when a new application is added to an application group operating in cooperation with each other or a new cooperation protocol is introduced, the master application program (master program ) Need to be modified and even completely rewritten.

Even if the modification of the master is small, it is impossible to deal with the modification of the individual master programs in the environment where the configuration of the related application dynamically changes. . This request is
With the development of LAN and WAN, it has become more and more urgent as the use of multiple computers as a work environment has become widespread. For this reason, it has been required to realize a flexible application linkage control mechanism that can deal with complicated application linkage whose configuration can change dynamically.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to provide a flexible master application capable of coping with a complicated environment in which the constituent elements can dynamically change. An information processing method, device, and system for

Further, another object of the present invention is to perform an information processing which makes it possible to easily construct an application which operates in the environment without being aware of a complicated environment in which the constituent elements can dynamically change. It is an object to provide a method, an apparatus and a system.

[0011]

The information processing system of the present invention for achieving the above object has the following configuration. That is, it is an information processing system that causes an application group to operate cooperatively in a work environment configured by one or a plurality of computers, and event information indicating processing contents of an event related to a link operation for each individual application of the application group. Holding means for holding the group, search means for searching event information of the application corresponding to the event from the event information group of the holding means when an event is issued in one application, and the searching means for searching. And executing means for executing the processing of the event based on the event information.

[0012] Preferably, it further comprises changing means for changing the event configuration of the event information group in the holding means. This is because it is possible to flexibly cope with a dynamically changing work environment and application group.

[0013] Further, preferably, it further comprises a changing means for changing the processing content of the event of each event information in the holding means. This is because it is possible to flexibly cope with a dynamically changing work environment and application group.

[0014]

According to the above configuration, when an event occurs in a certain application in order to perform the cooperative operation of the application in the working environment under operation, the processing content of the event related to the cooperative operation is displayed for each individual application of the application group. Event information of the application corresponding to the event is searched from the event information group shown, and the process of the event is executed based on the searched event information.

[0015]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an integrated application management system according to a first embodiment. This integrated application management system allows a plurality of applications to be linked and behave as if they were one application. In this embodiment, a logical unit that collectively manages a plurality of applications that operate in cooperation with each other is called an "integrated application". The integrated application management system provides a mechanism for realizing this integrated application.

In FIG. 1, the workstation 101
Is configured by connecting a CPU 111 that executes the processing of the present embodiment and a main memory 112 that holds DesktopMgr 102 that is the basic software of this integrated application management system with a computer bus 113.

Application information 1 is used as data used by DesktopMgr 102 to manage the application.
It is called 03 and is managed by DesktopMgr 102 using the database 104. The database 104 is a general database capable of data search such as a relational database or an object-oriented database. Database 104 and workstation 10
1 are connected by an Ethernet cable 114. The database 104 is also used to manage the script information 105 that defines the operation of the integrated application. A user interface for the user to operate the application such as input / output is displayed on the display 106.

The DesktopMgr 102 is internally composed of the following four software modules. That is, the application information management module 107, the script information management module 108, the script execution module 109, and the event control module. Each module will be described below.

[Application Information Management Module 1
07] Application information management module (AppServi
ce) 107 manages the application information 103,
It provides a user, an application, or another software module with a means for controlling the application based on the application information such as starting and ending the application.

[Script Information Management Module 108]
Script information management module (ScriptService) 10
Reference numeral 8 manages the script information 105. The script information 105 is information that defines how DesktopMgr should behave in response to an operation performed on the integrated application (this is regarded as an “event” for the integrated application and this is called an “event”). . In this embodiment, this "behavior" is described in a simple script language. A program written in this script language is simply called a script.

[Script Execution Module 109] The script execution module (ScriptEngine) 109 executes the processing described in the script information 105. That is, it is realized as an interpreter of a script language used to describe script information.

[Event Control Module 110] The event control module (EventService) 110 controls the overall operation of the Desktop Mgr 102, which receives and processes events sent from users and applications.

In the present embodiment, these modules are integrated into one program called DesktopMgr, but it is also possible to implement such a form that each module functions as an independent program.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the state of application linkage in this embodiment. In FIG. 2, reference numerals 201 to 210 correspond to reference numerals 101 to 110 in FIG.
In this figure, the application A211, the application B212, and the application C213 are DesktopMgr2.
One integrated application 21 under the control of 02
4 are formed. In addition, the applications 211 and 211
Applications that are constituent elements of the integrated application, such as 12, 213, are called element applications. The element application in the present embodiment has an inter-process communication mechanism in order to operate in cooperation with each other, as in the master method and the communication method in the conventional example.

Here, it is assumed that the user 215 has performed an operation on the application A 211 that should be processed by the integrated application 214 as a whole. In this embodiment, a user operation to be processed by the entire integrated application 214 is defined as an event. Further, an “incident” that is secondarily caused by such a user operation and should be processed by the entire integrated application 214 is also treated as an event.

An event is given a name (event name), and script information defining the processing performed when the event occurs is stored in the application information management module 20.
Registration in 7 defines the event in this system. The application A211 notifies the DesktopMgr 202 of such user operation as an event. This event notification mechanism can be realized by issuing a character string representing the event name as a message to the DesktopMgr 202, triggered by a user operation, for example.

However, all the element applications belonging to one integrated application do not have to have this mechanism, and if at least one has this mechanism, they function as an integrated application. An element application having this mechanism is also called a UI provider because it can provide the user interface of an integrated application.

If the script information corresponding to the notified event exists, the DesktopMgr 202 evaluates and executes the script information. In many cases, (1) send a message to another application 212, 213 or application A211 itself. (2) Termination of running applications. (3) Launching a new application. The above processing is executed and handled as the processing of the integrated application 214 as a whole.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of processing performed inside the DesktopMgr 202 in FIG. Note that each configuration from 301 to 315 in FIG. 3 corresponds to the items from 201 to 215 in FIG. Further, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the first embodiment. The processing of the first embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

The event 316 sent from the application A311 is received by the EventService 310 (step S401). EventService310
Requests the AppService 307 to search for the application information 303 of the application A311 that is the issuer of the event. It is assumed that the application name used as the search key is always added to the sent event. The AppService 307 retrieves the application information 303 from the database 304 using the application name added to this event as a key (step S402).

Here, the application information 303 is
In this embodiment, as a data structure of the C ++ programming language, class ApplicationInfo {char * appName; int portNumber; int processNumber; ... ApplicationInfo * integrated_in; ListOf <ApplicationInfo>components; ListOf <char *>eventNames;}; Is defined as

AppName is an application name used as an application identifier. The attribute eventNames in the application information 303 manages a list of event names related to the application. This event name is used as a key when searching script information. In integrated_in, when this application is a part of the integrated application, a reference (pointer) to the application information of the integrated application is registered. If this application itself is an integrated application, co
mponents manages pointers to the application information that is its component.

Further, in this embodiment, the integrated application itself also has corresponding application information. By doing so, it is possible to deal with a situation in which one integrated application becomes a component of another integrated application. A mechanism for generating application information including the integrated application will be described later. In addition, information such as the process number processNumber and port portNumber necessary for controlling and communicating other applications is also managed in the application information.

Next, the EventService 310 requests the script information management module 308 to retrieve the script information 305 associated with the event 316 to be processed. The script information management module 308
The script information 305 is extracted using the extracted application information 303 and the name of the event 316 to be processed as keys (step S403).

The definition of the script information itself is, for example, C ++.
It is defined by the programming language as follows: Here, eventName is the name of the event associated with this script information. Also, owner is application information of an application using this script information, and the last scriptText is a character string representing a program written in a script language. The script language in this embodiment is the TCL programming language with some command groups added (for the TCL programming language, "Tcl and the Tk Toolkit", John K. O).
See usterhout, Addison-Wesley, 1994.). By making similar extensions to other scripting languages,
It is also possible to replace the TCL programming language. Event processing is performed by the ScriptEngine 309 evaluating this script (step S40).
4).

With the extended command group of the TCL program in this embodiment, it is possible to combine the functions provided by individual element applications. The added command group is classified into the following three categories. That is, operation of application information, operation of application, operation of script information. Hereinafter, each category will be described in detail.

[Operation of application information] Reference / update of application information is performed. The following commands belong to this category. That is, (1) AppInfo "app name" create (2) AppInfo "app name" info "attribute name"? "
The attribute value is "?".

(1) is the generation of application information,
(2) is reference and update of application information. The attribute name is a character string representing the name of the instance variable declared in the ApplicationInfo class. Items with both ends surrounded by "?" May or may not be specified. In the case of (2), when the "attribute value" is given, the attribute value of the application information represented by the "attribute name" is updated. When "attribute value" is not given, it means reference.

[Operation of Application] The following commands for controlling the application belong to this category. That is, (3) launchApp "app name" (4) terminateApp "app name".

In (3) and (4), the designated application is activated and terminated, respectively. These operations are finally performed by utilizing the function of the operating system in which the present embodiment is activated, and the information necessary for that purpose is extracted from the application information.

The commands (5) forwardMessage "application name""messagetext" for delivering messages also belong to this category. (5)
Forwards the message to the specified application. The function provided by the element application is used by this command. In this embodiment, the message is treated as a character string.

[Operation of script information] The script information corresponding to the event is referred and updated. The commands include (6) ScriptInfo "event name" info "attribute name""attributevalue". (6) is a command for referring to and updating the attribute value of the script information corresponding to the specified event.

The following is an example of a script that combines the above command groups to enable application coordination.

[Example 1] Integrated application IntegWork
Defines the activation of as an event. The script is set component_tools [AppInfo IntegWork info components]; foreach tool $ component_tools {launchApp $ tool;}. This script is a list of element applications from IntegWork application information components
Takes out the value of and launches all applications in the list.

[Example 2] Similarly, termination of IntegWork causes termination of set component_tools [AppInfo IntegWork info components]; foreach tool $ component_tools {terminateApp $ tool;} element application.

[Example 3] do_something for IntegWork
If you want the element application called Editor to process such event, write forwardMessage Editor "do-something";.

Next, the mechanism for creating an integrated application that operates as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the integrated application creating process. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the integrated application creating process. Each of the reference numerals 501 to 510 in FIG. 5 corresponds to each of the reference numerals 101 to 110 in FIG.
The window 511 in the figure also provides the user 512 on the display 506 with a user interface for creating an integrated application.

When the user specifies an integrated application name to be created in window 511, EventService
510 receives the request and requests the application information management module 507 to search the application information 503 of the integrated application using the designated application name as a key (step S601). At this time, if the designated application information 503 does not exist, new application information is generated (steps S602 and S603).

When the application information 503 is obtained, a list of associated event names is taken out from the attribute eventNames, which is a list of event names, and is displayed in the window 510 (step S604). At this time, if the application information has just been created in step S603, the list of event names to be displayed is empty. When the list of event names is displayed,
Step S until the end of processing is instructed by the user
The processing from 605 to step S616 is repeated.

The user 512 can instruct the DesktopMgr 502 to add / delete a new event via the window 511. If the user has not instructed to end the process, the process proceeds from step S605 to step S606.

To add an event, the event name of the event to be added is given (step S606) so that the event name is eventNam of the application information 503.
is added as an attribute value to the es attribute (step S607),
Further, new script information 505 is generated (step S608). Of the script information 505 at this point
eventName attribute and owner attribute are specified, but script
The value of the Text attribute is the null string.

To delete an event, the user does not give an event name (step S606) and selects the event name to be deleted from the list on the window 511 (step S60).
9) Further, the user requests the DesktopMgr 502 for deletion (step S610). In this case, the script information 505 corresponding to the selected event name is fetched and deleted (step S61).
1). Next, eventNames of application information 503
The event name is deleted from (step S61)
2).

Further, it is possible to change the processing for the already registered event. That is, when the user specifies the event name on the window 511 (step S609) and the user does not make a deletion request (step S610), the corresponding script information 5
05 is taken out (step S613), and the window 51
No. 1 is displayed (step S614). In this embodiment,
Only the script registered in the scriptText attribute can be updated.

Here, the user edits the script displayed on the window 511. When the change is made (step S615), the changed script becomes the new value of the scriptText attribute and is stored in the database (step S616). After the change or when the change has not been made (step S615), the process returns to step S605, and it is determined whether the operation is continued or the process is ended. If there is no end instruction from the user, the above process is repeated.

Using the above mechanism, the integrated application that has already been created by modifying the event name list registered in the eventNames attribute of the application information 503 and the script registered in the scriptText attribute of the script information 505. It is possible to change the application configuration, the number and processing of events, and create a new integrated application.

For example, when the application A311 is newly replaced with the application A'in the example shown in FIG. 3, the event in which the application A311 is the issuing source in the events registered in the application information corresponding to the integrated application 314 is issued. Should be replaced with the event whose application A ′ is the issuer.

Even when a script for sending a message by the forwardMessage command is specified from the integrated application 314 to the application A311, by changing the part so that the application A'can be accepted, the application A'is changed to the application A311. It is possible to operate instead.

Further, in the case where the application D is newly added to the example shown in FIG. 3, the event in which the application D is the issuer is added to the application information corresponding to the integrated application 314, and the existing event is added. The script in the corresponding script information,
By making a modification in consideration of the addition of the application D, it is possible to customize the master without rewriting the entire surface.

Further, although the integrated application in this embodiment provides an application linking mechanism within one user environment, by applying the integrated application management system described in this embodiment as it is, the integrated application can be used in a plurality of user environments. It is also possible to realize a collaborative work environment under a plurality of user environments by linking a plurality of applications operating simultaneously.

As described above, in this embodiment, it is possible to define the event to be processed by the integrated application, and provide the extended TCL script language,
By associating an event with script information, it is possible to describe the processing for the event as a linked operation of element applications.

Further, by introducing the application information and the script information, it is possible to arbitrarily change the type of event to be processed by the integrated application and the processing for the event.

For this reason, since the element application is controlled by the script described in DesktopMgr, it is not necessary for each element application to be aware of how the integrated application is constructed. It is also possible to absorb the difference in the external interface of each element application by the event processing of the integrated application.

Furthermore, it becomes possible to realize an integrated application in which the configuration dynamically changes, and even if a change is necessary, it can be dealt with only by modifying the application information and the script information.

<Second Embodiment> In the first embodiment, the application example to the integrated application management system has been described. In the second embodiment, a master for realizing an integrated application similar to that described in the first embodiment.・ Explain the application generation system.

This master application generation system is a program for automatically generating a master application program for controlling an integrated application. Unlike the first embodiment, the master application generation system itself does not directly control the application.

The master application created by the second embodiment has only the function of controlling other applications, but it is possible to add other functions based on the generated program.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the master application generation system of the second embodiment. In the figure, application information 702 is stored in the secondary storage disk 701.
Has been accumulated. This application information 702
Is information about the application functions that the user 712 needs to create a master application. Application information 7 in the second embodiment
Reference numeral 02 removes dynamic information such as port numbers and process numbers from the application information 103 in the first embodiment, and instead adds a hash table that manages additional information such as processing content and change history for the event using the event name as a key. It is a thing. This hash table is called an event script correspondence table.

Master application generation server 70
4 manages application information, provides a user interface that supports the generation of a master application by combining them, and creates a master program as a final result. The master application generation server 704 is composed of two software modules.

Reference numeral 705 is an application information management module. Unlike the application information management module 107 in the first embodiment, which uses the function of the database 104, the application information management module 705 in the present embodiment uses a hash table function using an application name as a key, and The application information 702 on the next storage disk 701 is managed. The application information 702 itself is also the application information 10 in the first embodiment as described above.
It has a different structure from 3.

Further, the application information management module 705 uses the same mechanism as the application information 702 to execute the script template information 7
It also manages 07. The script template information 707 is a skeleton program that describes a typical pattern of the skeleton of the script program. The user can create an actually executable script based on the skeleton program.

Reference numeral 711 is a program generation module. This module is the main routine program 7
09 and the application information 702 are combined based on the designation from the user to create a master application program. The main routine program 709 is a simple program that executes a corresponding script when receiving an event from an application.

A window 710 provides a user interface. Here, the user specifies an application to be integrated by the master, writes and registers a script corresponding to the event of each application, and the like.

Here, the application information in this embodiment is defined as follows. That is, class ApplicationInfo {class EventInfo {char * eventName; ApplicationInfo * owner; char * info; char * scriptText;}; char * appName; ... ApplicationInfo * integrated_in; ListOf <ApplicationInfo>components; HashTable <char *, EventInfo>eventHandlers;};.

The additional information such as the processing contents and the change history for the event in the application information is managed by the event / script correspondence table eventHandlers and has almost the same structure as the script information in the first embodiment. In the present embodiment, it is important that the event processing be improved little by little, so that the item info that describes additional information such as a change history is added. In the present embodiment, additional information such as processing content and change history is called event information.

The main difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment is that the relation between the application information and the information about the event is
In the first embodiment, the event name is loose, but in the second embodiment, it is included in the application information.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the operation of the main routine program. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing of the main routine program.

The script text 801 extracted from the event script correspondence table and the event script correspondence table 802 itself are added to the main routine program. The reason why the script text managed in the event / script correspondence table 802 in the application information is separated when it is added to the main routine program is that it is convenient when the generated master program is changed later. This is because it is intended. Of course, as shown in the figure, the correspondence between the event / script correspondence table 802 and the script text 801 is saved because the event / script correspondence table holds a reference 803 to the script text 801. .

In order to refer to the correspondence table 802 from the script in the second embodiment, it is referred to as a function named EventTable which takes the event name as an argument and returns the text of the script. When the event loop 804 receives the event (step S901), the corresponding script text 80 from the event / script correspondence table 802 using the event name added to the event as a key.
1 is taken out (step S902), and the script
The control is transferred to the text (step S903). Maine·
The routine program is basically a simple program that repeats this operation.

In the second embodiment, the Lisp programming language extended is used as the script language.
The program generation module finally converts a Lisp script into a program in C language (For the Lisp programming language, see Guy L. Steel Jr. et al., Translated by Masayuki Ida, "Common LISP") ).

This conversion mechanism itself uses a general program translation mechanism. In the second embodiment
Lisp script extension is done by adding the following commands. That is, (1) (launchApp "app name") (2) (terminateApp "app name") (3) (forwardMessage "app name""messagetext"). The functions of the commands (1), (2), and (3) are the same as the command of the same name in the first embodiment, that is, the start and end of the application and the delivery of the message.

In the second embodiment, since necessary information can be incorporated in the master program, no special command is required to obtain application information or the like. Therefore, only commands for controlling the above-mentioned application are prepared. These features are provided as basic features of the operating system, so you only need to use them from Lisp.

Now, the operation of the program generation module 711 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7, 10 and 11. FIG.
0 and FIG. 11 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure of the program generation module.

When the user specifies the integrated application name to be created in the window 710, the application generation server 704 requests the application management module 705 to search the application information 702 using the application name as a key (step S1).
001). If the application information does not exist (step S1002), new application information is generated (step S1003).

When the application information 702 is obtained, the event / script correspondence table is retrieved from the eventHandlers of the application information 702 and displayed in the window 710 (step S1004). When the list of event names is displayed, the processing from step S1006 to step S1016 is repeated until the end of processing is instructed by the user (step S1005).

Also in the second embodiment, it is possible to add / delete / update the event as in the first embodiment.

That is, when the user has not instructed the end of the process (step S1005), the event is newly added by giving the event name of the event to be added (step S1006) (step S1006). S1007) is added to the event / script correspondence table (step S1008). The eventName attribute and owner attribute of the event information at this point are specified, but the values of the scriptText attribute and info attribute are null character strings.

To delete an event, the event name is not given by the user (step S1006), the event name is selected from the list on the window 710 (step S1009), and the user deletes it in the master application creation server 704. Is executed by requesting (step S1010). In this case, the selected event information is deleted from the event script correspondence table. That is, the event information designated in step S1011 is deleted, and the event information selected from the application information is deleted in step S1012.

For changing the event processing, when the user specifies an event on the window 710 (step S1009) and the user does not make a deletion request (step S1010), the corresponding event information is the event. It is taken out from the script correspondence table (step S1013) and displayed on the window 710 (step S1014). In the second embodiment, scriptText
Only the script registered in the attribute and the additional information registered in the info attribute can be updated. The user updates the event information by editing the script and additional information on the window 710 as necessary.

When the event information is changed on the window 710 (step S1015), the change is written in the application information 703 on the secondary storage disk 701 (step S1016). After the change or when the change has not been made (step S1015)
Returns to step S1005, determines whether to continue the operation or to end the process. If there is no end instruction from the user, the process from step S1006 to step S1016 described above is continued.

When the user gives an instruction to finish checking the event information (step S1005), the program generation module 708 extracts the event / script correspondence table from the application information (step S101).
7) Further, the script text is separated from the event script correspondence table (step S1018).

Next, the main routine program 70
9 and the event / script correspondence table and the retrieved script text are merged to create a master program in the Lisp programming language (step S101).
9). The final master program is generated by converting the finally generated Lisp master program into the C programming language (step S1020).

In the second embodiment, by utilizing the above mechanism, even when the integrated application needs to be changed,
By adding an appropriate change to the application information based on the application information before the change, it is possible to generate a version of the master program corresponding to the change.

Further, the integrated application by the master program provided in the second embodiment also links a plurality of applications simultaneously operating in a plurality of user environments in the same manner as the integrated application realized in the first embodiment. It is possible to realize a collaborative work environment under a plurality of user environments.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the means for defining the user operation to be reflected among the users in the integrated application as an event is provided, and the extended Lisp programming language is provided to provide the event script. By introducing the conversion table generation means, we provided a means to describe the processing of an event as a coordinated operation of an application operating in each user environment.

By providing means for semi-automatically generating a master program from application information and script information, a means for changing the configuration of an event to be processed by the integrated application and the processing for the event is provided. It

According to the present embodiment, the application information managed by the secondary storage disk is updated even when the master program needs to be changed due to the change of participants and applications used in the joint work. This makes it possible to easily modify the master program.

Further, since the generated master program itself can perform control specialized for the target application linkage, it is possible to realize efficient processing.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to a case where it is achieved by supplying a program that causes a system or an apparatus to execute the processing defined by the present invention.

[0100]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Capable of handling complex environments in which the components can dynamically change,
It is possible to provide a flexible master application.

Further, it becomes possible to construct an application which operates in the environment without paying particular attention to the complicated environment in which the constituent elements can dynamically change.

[0102]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an integrated application management system according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a state of application cooperation in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of processing performed inside DesktopMgr in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an overview of integrated application creation processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure of integrated application creation processing.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a master application generation system according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an outline of operation of a main routine program.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing of a main routine program.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a program generation module.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a program generation module.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 workstation 102 DesktopMgr 103 application information 104 database 105 script information 106 display 107 application information management module 108 script information management module 109 script execution module 110 event control module 111 CPU 112 main storage 113 computer bus 114 network cable

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An information processing system for operating an application group in cooperation in a work environment constituted by one or a plurality of computers, wherein the processing content of an event related to a link operation is set for each individual application of the application group. Holding means for holding the event information group shown; searching means for searching event information of the application corresponding to the event from the event information group of the holding means when the event is issued in one application; An information processing system, comprising: an execution unit that executes the processing of the event based on the event information retrieved in. 2. The information processing system according to claim 1, further comprising changing means for changing the event configuration of the event information group in the holding means. 3. Each event information in the holding means,
The information processing system according to claim 1, further comprising a changing unit that changes the processing content of the event. 4. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the processing content of the event in the event information is described in a script language. 5. The holding means holds a list holding means for holding a list of event names registered for each individual application, and an event processing procedure corresponding to the event name held by the list holding means. The information processing system according to claim 1, further comprising procedure holding means. 6. An information processing apparatus capable of operating an application group in cooperation with each other, and holding means for holding an event information group indicating processing contents of an event related to a link operation for each individual application of the application group, When an event is issued in one application, search means for searching event information of the application corresponding to the event from the event information group of the holding means, and the event based on the event information searched by the search means An information processing apparatus, comprising: an executing unit that executes the process of. 7. An information processing method for operating an application group in cooperation, comprising: a holding step of holding an event information group indicating processing contents of an event related to a link operation for each individual application of the application group; When an event is issued in the application, a search step of searching event information of the application corresponding to the event from the event information group held in the holding step, and the search step based on the event information searched in the search step An information processing method, comprising: an execution step of executing event processing.