JPH0452997B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a message transmission/reception control device in a processing terminal of a message transmission/reception system in which a plurality of terminals and a host controller are connected, such as a POS system.

[Prior Art] As shown in FIG. 4, a POS system has a configuration in which POS terminals 11, 12, . . . placed in each sales floor are connected to a host controller 10. The POS terminal is equipped with a scanner that reads barcodes printed on product packaging, and the controller is equipped with a PLU file. In such a POS system,
The operator uses a scanner to read the product code (represented by a barcode) of the product that the customer brings to the POS terminal in a basket. The POS terminal is
Send the read product code to the controller 10
The PLU file 20 is searched and the corresponding product name and unit price are sent back to the POS terminal. At the POS terminal,
These product names and unit prices are printed out on a receipt using a printer and are totaled. The operator calculates the total when all the product codes of the products in the basket are read, the product name and unit price are printed out, and the total is totaled.The operator prints out the total amount on a receipt, receives the total amount from the customer, and hands over the product. . On the other hand, the POS terminal transmits sales information for each product to a higher-level device of the controller 10 and uses it for daily or monthly sales status management.

For example, the product code is 13 for each product type that is differentiated by manufacturer, product name, and type, such as Harris (manufactured by XX company) peppermint (XX species) gum (product).
It is expressed as a bar code of digits, has a one-to-one correspondence with each product, and the unit price is also uniquely determined. The PLU file contains the product name and unit price of the product with that product code for each product code, so since there are tens of thousands of product types, the number of PLU files is quite large.

There are two types of POS terminals: one-person terminals and two-person terminals. A one-person POS terminal requires only one operator to read the product code (registration) and receive cash (payment) using scanner, but a two-person POS terminal
The terminal has two operators, one of whom (checker) handles registration and the other (cashier) handles payments, allowing for quick accounting processing.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, conventionally, only one PLU file search request can be issued from a POS terminal, and the next search request is issued only after receiving a response from the controller. Figure 3 is a diagram explaining this.
A PLU inquiry 1 is sent from the terminal to the controller 10, and the controller searches for a PLU file. When the search is completed, the result, that is, if a record of the queried product code is found, the product name and unit price are sent to the POS terminal, but even if PLU inquiry 2 occurs up to this point, it is not sent to the controller 10. It has not been sent and is in a waiting state.
Then, when the search results are sent back to the POS terminal,
At this point, PLU inquiry 2 is sent to the controller 10 for the first time.

Although the PLU file has a large capacity, since it is an electronic search, it is performed quickly, and even if the PLU search results have not yet been sent at the one-person POS terminal, the next
PLU queries are unlikely to occur. However, with a two-person POS terminal, products are added after registration is completed with the checker and sent to the cashier, where the product code is read using Scanner.
PLU inquiries may occur. In preparation for such a situation, the two-person POS terminal is equipped with a scanner 22 on the checker and a scanner 24 on the cashier, as shown in FIG. In such a POS terminal, two PLU queries may even occur almost simultaneously.

When multiple PLU inquiries occur from one POS terminal, if you wait until the search results for the preceding PLU inquiry are received before sending the subsequent PLU inquiry,
During this time, PLU inquiries from other POS terminals may enter the controller, resulting in a delay in receiving search results for subsequent PLU inquiries.

Further, the exchange between the controller and the POS terminal is not limited to the above-mentioned PLU inquiry, but various data are sent and received as telegrams.

Therefore, it often happens that a certain POS terminal sends messages to the controller in succession.

The present invention aims to improve these points and to enable rapid transmission of subsequent messages between the controller and the terminal.

[Means for solving problems]

In the case where processes such as information inquiries (in the case of POS terminals, e.g. PLU inquiries) of requesting terminals (for example, POS terminals) occur continuously in a message sending/receiving system, the present invention is effective in responding to the request message sending including the previous inquiry information. The feature is that the next request message is sent to the controller without waiting for a response from the controller.

[Effect]

To explain with Figure 1, in the present invention, the POS terminal
PLU inquiry 1 occurs and is sent to controller 10.
I sent it to , and still haven't received a response.
When PLU inquiry 2 occurs, this is also controller 1.
Send to 0. In the controller, the search results for PLU inquiry 1 that searched for PLU files (PLU
Send response 1) to POS terminal, then PLU inquiry 2
Performs a search for and sends the results to the POS terminal. FIG. 2 is a flowchart explaining this process.

When PLU inquiries are sent continuously, it is necessary to distinguish which inquiry the response is for when a response arrives. To do this, in addition to the POS terminal code, include the POS terminal internal identification code (a code indicating checker or cashier) in the header of the PLU inquiry message, and return the response message with this header attached. Next, an example will be shown.

〔Example〕

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a functional block diagram of a POS terminal (11 to 13 in FIG. 4) when the present invention is applied to a POS system.

The POS terminal has a main CPU (processor) and a sub CPU, and each control unit 31 to 6 shown in FIG.
1 is realized, for example, by a program executed by each CPU. Each CPU is used for sending and receiving data.
It has DMA control units 32 and 42.

The main CPU is provided with an application section 31, which controls a series of operations in processing such as product registration and aggregation at the POS terminal. On the other hand, sub CPU
is provided with an I/O management section 41, and the main CPU
The input/output operations of each of the I/O control units 47 to 50 are managed in accordance with input/output commands issued from the application unit 31. Further, the sub CPU includes a power-on processing (initial processing) section 43, a test section 44,
A loader 45, an IPL control section 46, and the like are provided.

The system configuration in this embodiment is the same as that shown in FIG. A control section 60 that controls the line with the controller 10 and an editing section 61 that edits the transmitted message are provided in each POS terminal.

Further, in addition to the PLU file 20 provided in the controller 10 as described above, a single item aggregation file is provided that performs aggregation (sales number, quantity) for each individual item (each product). On the other hand, each POS terminal has department-specific,
Various aggregation files other than single item aggregation such as by time zone and by operator are provided.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the line control section 60 in the embodiment.

As shown in the figure, the line control unit 60 has a flag 65 that stores the presence or absence of a message sent to the controller and its type. Then, it checks the type of message received from the editorial department 61 and turns on the corresponding flag. It also has a function of checking the type of message received from the line and turning off the corresponding flag 65.

More specifically, the messages sent from the POS terminal to the controller include a message requesting a response from the controller (hereinafter referred to as a request message),
There is a message (hereinafter referred to as a notification message) that only sends a notification to the controller.

In addition to the PLU request message as described above, the request message includes a quick report request message, a file maintenance message, and the like. Among these, a breaking news message is used to request current product sales information (report) during business hours. This report can specify and request various types of aggregated data such as single item sales report, departmental sales report, etc. that are performed by the controller and each POS terminal. File maintenance messages are updates to the PLU file of the controller (specifically,
It is used when changing the unit price of a certain product, registering a new product, etc.

On the other hand, the notification message includes a detailed message, a summary message, etc. This detailed message is used to notify the transaction product information including the registered (purchased) product code, quantity, etc. every time one transaction is completed at the POS terminal. The data is then used as data for aggregating single items in the controller.

The tally message is used to send the contents (part or all) of the tally file held by each POS terminal according to instructions from the controller. This telegram is used when the above-mentioned breaking news process is not started, or when making a payment after the work is completed.

The format of each of these request messages and notification messages is common. For example, a header indicating the type of message is attached to the beginning of the message. and,
After this header, specific processing request data is stored.

As shown in FIG. 6, the line control unit checks (analyzes) the header in the transmitted message to determine whether it is a request message or a notification message. If it is a request message, the corresponding flag of flag 65 is turned ON. Further, a timer (not shown) is activated to measure a predetermined time (for example, 30 seconds) as a response waiting time.

On the other hand, the header of the message sent from the controller received over the line is also checked. Then, it is determined whether it is a response message or not. If it is a response message, turn off the corresponding flag of flag 65.
shall be. Then, the timer is reset and the I/O management unit 41 is notified of the received message.

As described above, in this embodiment, the line control unit performs correspondence between the type of transmitted message, the response message from the controller to the message, and time monitoring.

As a result of time monitoring, if a timeout occurs,
Application unit 3 via I/O management unit 41
Notify 1. This allows the application unit 31 to process errors (notify the operator,
(instruction to re-operate PLU, etc.) is performed.

With the above configuration, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, when operating a two-person POS terminal, it is possible for both parties (checker and cashier) to make PLU requests without being aware of each other's operations. becomes.

Furthermore, processing speed can be increased not only in a two-person system but also in a one-person system.

In other words, as shown in Figure 7, one POS
Even if there is a concentration of message sending events to the controller at the terminal 1, continuous message sending is possible.

In the example shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that another POS terminal 0 issues a report request (breaking news processing). Based on this request, the controller requests each POS terminal, 0,
1. Send a collection telegram to... In other words, it issues a message requesting collection of data to be aggregated by each terminal.

At this time, it is assumed that a collection request from the controller to the POS terminal 1 and a PLU process by the operator occur one after the other. At this time, a PLU request message based on PLU processing is issued. Terminal 1 sends aggregated data using collected messages (aggregated messages)
without waiting for the response of the PLU request issued earlier.
Send to controller.

Through the above processing, the total data is sent to the controller without interfering with other processing operations such as sending messages and waiting for responses, and without delay.

Note that instead of inputting the product code by reading a barcode printed on the product packaging with a scanner, the operator may input the product code by operating a keyboard. In addition, continuous PLU inquiries and sending are not limited to two-person POS terminals, but many POS terminals
If all the terminals are working at the same time and the controller is waiting for a search, this can happen even if it is a single-person POS terminal.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the present invention, the PLU inquiry from the POS terminal is continued even if there is no response, so that processing can be performed quickly and is extremely effective.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a flowchart of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional system, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a POS system, and Fig. 5 is an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram, FIGS. 6 and 7 are explanatory diagrams of its operation. In the drawing, 11, 12, . . . are POS terminals, 10 is a controller, 20 is a PLU file, and 65 is a storage means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When a plurality of processing terminals are connected to a higher-level controller and a request message is sent from each processing terminal to the higher-level controller, the higher-level controller processes the request message and generates a response message including the processing result. A means for transmitting a request message including inquiry information from the processing terminal to the upper controller by attaching a code to distinguish it from other messages through an operator's operation at the processing terminal of the message transmission/reception system that is sent back to each processing terminal; Each processing terminal is provided with a storage means for storing an indication for identifying the return of a response message corresponding to a request message sent to a controller, and when a processing request to a higher-level controller occurs consecutively at a processing terminal, the request sent earlier is 1. A message transmission/reception control device in a processing terminal of a message transmission/reception system, comprising control means for controlling sending of the next request message to the controller without waiting for a response from the controller to the message.