Data conversion system

• US 6,766,296 B1
• Filed: 09/18/2000
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Adachi, Tetsuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot, Bharat
• Application Number:
  US09/664,060
• Time in Patent Office: 1,401 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200-203, 709/205-207, 709/217-219, 709/226, 709/229, 709/237, 709/246
• US Class Current: 704/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/126 Character encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/157 using dictionaries or tables

Abstract

A data conversion system allowing the processing load of character set conversion at a terminal side to be minimized is disclosed. A terminal sends a terminal-supported character code to a gateway 11 when transmitting a data request to the server. In response to the data request received from the terminal, the gateway receives the contents data from the server. When a character code of the contents data is different from the terminal-supported character code, the character code of the contents data is converted to the terminal-supported character code at the gateway and then the contents data of the terminal-supported character code is transmitted to the terminal.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal,

wherein

the data requesting terminal comprises;

a character code sender for sending a terminal-supported character code to the network when transmitting a data request to the network, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal, and

the network comprises;

a node for receiving the predetermined data from the server in response to the data request received from the data requesting terminal and, when a character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported character code, converting the character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported character code before transmitting the predetermined data of the terminal-supported character code to the data requesting terminal.

2. A system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting at least the server and the data requesting terminal,

wherein

the network comprises;

a character code server for storing a plurality of character code processing modules each corresponding to a plurality of character codes; and

a node for receiving the predetermined data from the server in response to a data request received from the data requesting terminal and, when a character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported character code, receiving a module address of a character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code from the character code server to send a combination of the predetermined data and the module address to the data requesting terminal, and

the data requesting terminal comprises;

a character code sender for sending a terminal-supported character code to the network when transmitting the data request to the network, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal;

a receiver for receiving a character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code from the character code server based on the module address received from the node; and

a converter for converting the character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported character code by executing the character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code.

3. A system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting at least the server and the data requesting terminal,

wherein

the network comprises;

a character code server for storing a plurality of character code processing modules each corresponding to a plurality of character codes; and

a node for receiving the predetermined data from the server in response to a data request received from the data requesting terminal and, when a character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported character code, receiving a character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code from the character code server to send a combination of the predetermined data and the character code processing module to the data requesting terminal, and

the data requesting terminal comprises;

a character code sender for sending a terminal-supported character code to the network when transmitting the data request to the network, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal; and

a converter for converting the character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported character code by executing the character code processing module received from the node.

4. A system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal,

wherein

the data requesting terminal comprises;

a character code sender for sending a terminal-supported character code to the server when transmitting a data request to the server, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal, and

the server comprises;

a storage for storing the predetermined data described in a plurality of character codes; and

a data sender for sending the predetermined data of a character code that Is the same as the terminal-supported character code to the data requesting terminal.

5. A system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal,

wherein

the data requesting terminal comprises;

a character code sender for sending a terminal-supported character code to the server when transmitting a data request to the server, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal, and

the server comprises;

a converter for converting a character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported code when the character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported code; and

a data sender for sending the predetermined data of the terminal-supported code to the data requesting terminal.

6. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request for obtaining predetermined data, the data request having a supported processing kind of data added thereto;

first distinguishing means for distinguishing the supported processing kind of data based on the data request transmitted by the data request transmitting means;

data storage means storing the predetermined data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request from the data request transmitting means;

data transmitting means for transmitting the predetermined data stored in the data storage means when the data request receiving means has received the data request;

second distinguishing means for distinguishing a processing kind of data from the predetermined data received from the data transmitting means;

decision means for making a decision as to whether the supported processing kind distinguished by the first distinguishing means matches the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means;

converting means for converting the processing kind of the predetermined data into the supported processing kind distinguished by the first distinguishing means when the decision means has made a decision that the processing kind of the predetermined data does not match the supported processing kind;

data receiving means for receiving data obtained by the converting means; and

executing means for executing the data received by the data receiving means.

7. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request for obtaining predetermined data, the data request having a supported processing kind of data added thereto;

first distinguishing means for distinguishing the supported processing kind of data based on the data request transmitted by the data request transmitting means;

data storage means storing the predetermined data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request from the data request transmitting means;

data transmitting means for transmitting the predetermined data stored in the data storage means when the data request receiving means has received the data request;

second distinguishing means for distinguishing a processing kind of data from the predetermined data received from the data transmitting means;

processing module storage means storing a plurality of processing modules corresponding to a plurality of processing kinds, respectively;

decision means for making a decision as to whether the supported processing kind distinguished by the first distinguishing means matches the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means;

data receiving means for receiving a processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means and data that has been transmitted by the data transmitting means when the decision means has made a decision that the supported processing kind matches the processing kind, and receiving the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means, the data that has been transmitted by the data transmitting means, and specific information for specifying a processing module stored in the processing module storage means corresponding to the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means when the decision means has made a decision that the supported processing kind does not match the processing kind;

processing module obtaining means for obtaining a processing module corresponding to the processing kind from the processing module storage means depending on the specific information when it is not possible to process the received data based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means; and

executing means for executing processing of the data received by the data receiving means based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means when it is possible to process the data based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means, and executing processing of the data received by the data receiving means based on the processing module obtained by the processing module obtaining means when it is not possible to process the data received by the data receiving means based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means.

8. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request for obtaining predetermined data, the data request having a supported processing kind of data added thereto;

data storage means storing data that have been converted into a plurality of different processing kinds, said data of the different processing kinds having same content;

distinguishing means for distinguishing the processing kind based on the data request transmitted by the data request transmitting means;

data transmitting means for transmitting the data stored in the data storage means corresponding to the processing kind distinguished by the distinguishing means;

data receiving means for receiving the data from the data transmitting means; and

executing means for processing the data received by the data receiving means.

9. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request for obtaining predetermined data, the data request having a supported processing kind of data added thereto;

first distinguishing means for distinguishing the supported processing kind of data based on the data request transmitted by the data request transmitting means;

data storage means storing the predetermined data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request from the data request transmitting means;

data transmitting means for transmitting the predetermined data stored in the data storage means when the data request receiving means has received the data request;

second distinguishing means for distinguishing a processing kind of data from the predetermined data received from the data transmitting means;

processing module storage means storing a plurality of processing modules corresponding to a plurality of processing kinds, respectively;

decision means for making a decision as to whether the supported processing kind distinguished by the first distinguishing means matches the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means;

processing module obtaining means for obtaining a processing module stored in the processing module storage means corresponding to the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means when the decision means has made a decision that the supported processing kind does not match the processing kind;

data receiving means for receiving a processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means and the data that has been transmitted by the data transmitting means when the decision means has made a decision that the supported processing kind matches the processing kind, and further receiving a processing module that has been obtained by the processing module obtaining means in addition to the processing kind distinguished by the second distinguishing means and the data transmitted by the data transmitting means when the decision means has made a decision that the supported processing kind does not match the processing kind; and

executing means for processing the data received by the data receiving means based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means when it is possible to process this data based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means, and processing the data by using the processing module received by the data receiving means when it is not possible to process the data received by the data receiving means based on the processing kind received by the data receiving means.

10. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising;

a terminal comprising;

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request that is expressed by a predetermined character set and a character set as an information exchange code that has been set in advance;

data receiving means for receiving data that has been requested by the data request transmitting means; and

executing means for processing the data received by the data receiving means,

a first device comprising;

data storage means storing the data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request from the data request transmitting means; and

data transmitting means for transmitting the data stored in the data storage means when the request receiving means has received the data request, and

a second device comprising;

first character set distinguishing means for distinguishing a character set based on the data request received from the data request transmitting means;

second character set distinguishing means for distinguishing a character set based on content of the data received from the data transmitting means;

deciding means for making a decision as to whether the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means matches the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means;

character set converting means for converting the data to be transmitted into the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means when the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means does not match the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means; and

converted-data transmitting means for transmitting to the data receiving means the data that has been converted by the character set converting means.

11. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

a terminal comprising;

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request that is expressed by a predetermined character set, wherein the data request has a character set added thereto, the character set being an information exchange code that has been set in advance;

data receiving means for receiving the data requested by the data request transmitting means together with the character set of this data, and further receiving specific information for specifying a processing module corresponding to the data when the character set of the received data is not the character set that has been added to the data request at the time of making the request;

processing module obtaining means for obtaining a processing module corresponding to the character set depending on the specific information when the character set of the received data is not the character set that has been added to the data request at the time of making the request; and

executing means for processing the received data when the character set of the received data is the character set that has been added to the data request at the time of making the request, and processing the received data by using the processing module obtained by the processing module obtaining means when the character set of the received data is not the character set that has been added to the data-obtain request at the time of making the request,

a first device comprising;

data storage means storing the data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request from the data request transmitting means; and

data transmitting means for transmitting the data stored in the data memory means when the request receiving means has received the data request,

a second device comprising;

first character set distinguishing means for distinguishing the character set based on the data request received from the data request transmitting means;

second character set distinguishing means for distinguishing the character set of the data received from the data transmitting means;

deciding means for making a decision as to whether the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means matches the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means; and

data transfer means for transferring to the data receiving means the data transmitted by the data transmitting means together with the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means when the deciding means has made a decision that the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means matches the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means, and transferring to the data receiving means the data transmitted by the data transmitting means together with the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means, by further adding to them specific information that specifies a processing module corresponding to the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means when the deciding means has made a decision that the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means does not match the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means,

a third device comprising;

processing module storage means storing a plurality of processing modules for carrying out data processing expressed by each character set corresponding to each of a plurality of character sets; and

processing module transmitting means for extracting the processing module corresponding to the character set that has been requested by the processing module obtaining means from the processing module storage means, and transmitting the extracted processing module.

12. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

a terminal comprising;

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request that is expressed by a predetermined character set, wherein the data request has a character set added thereto, the character set being an information exchange code that has been set in advance;

data receiving means for receiving data that has been requested by the data request transmitting means; and

executing means for processing the data received by the data receiving means, and

a first device comprising;

data storage means storing data for a plurality of different character sets, said data having the same content as content of the data which is requested by the data request transmitting means;

character set distinguishing means for distinguishing the character set based on the data request received from the data request transmitting means; and

data transmitting means for extracting the data requested by the data request transmitting means corresponding to the character set distinguished by the character set distinguishing means from the data storage means, and transmitting the extracted data.

13. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

a terminal comprising;

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request that is expressed by a predetermined character set, wherein the data request has a character set added thereto, the character set being an information exchange code that has been set in advance;

data receiving means for receiving data that has been requested by the data request transmitting means; and

executing means for processing the data received by the data receiving means, and

a first device comprising;

data storage means storing data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request received from the data request transmitting means;

data reading means for reading out the data stored in the data storage means when the request receiving means has received the data request;

first character set distinguishing means for distinguishing a character set based on the data request received from the data request transmitting means;

second character set distinguishing means for distinguishing a character set of the data that has been read by the data reading means;

deciding means for making a decision as to whether the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means matches the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means;

character set converting means for converting the read-out data into the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means when the deciding means has made a decision that the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means does not match the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means; and

converted-data transmitting means for transmitting the data that has been converted by the character set converting means to the terminal.

14. A data conversion system implemented in a network, comprising:

a terminal comprising;

data request transmitting means for transmitting a data request that is expressed by a predetermined character set, wherein the data request has a character set added thereto, the character set being an information exchange code that has been set in advance;

data receiving means for receiving data that has been requested by the data request transmitting means together with the character set of this data, and that further receiving a processing module corresponding to the character set of the data when the character set of the received data is not the character set that has been added to the data request at the time of making the request; and

executing means for processing the data received by the data receiving means when the character set of the received data is the character set that has been added to the data request at the time of making the request, and processing the received data by using the processing module received by the data receiving means when the character set of the received data is not the character set that has been added to the data request at the time of making the request;

a first device comprising;

data storage means storing the data;

request receiving means for receiving the data request received from the data request transmitting means; and

data transmitting means for transmitting the data stored in the data storage means when the request receiving means has received the data request;

a second device comprising;

first character set distinguishing means for distinguishing the character set based on the data request received from the data request transmitting means;

second character set distinguishing means for distinguishing the character set of the data received from the data transmitting means;

deciding means for making a decision as to whether or not the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means matches the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means;

processing module obtaining means for obtaining a processing module corresponding to the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means from a third device when the deciding means has made a decision that the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means does not match the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means; and

data transfer means for transferring the data transmitted by the data transmitting means together with the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means to the data receiving means when the deciding means has made a decision that the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means does not match the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means, and transferring the data transmitted by the data transmitting means together with the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means to the data receiving means, by further adding to them the processing module obtained by the processing module obtaining means when the deciding means has made a decision that the character set distinguished by the first character set distinguishing means does not match the character set distinguished by the second character set distinguishing means, and

a third device comprising;

processing module storage means storing a plurality of processing modules for carrying out a data processing expressed by each character set corresponding to each of a plurality of character sets; and

processing module transmitting means for extracting the processing module corresponding to the character set that has been requested by the processing module obtaining means from the processing module storage means, and transmitting the extracted processing module.

15. In a system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal, a data converting method comprising the steps of;

at the data requesting terminal,

sending a terminal-supported character code to the network when transmitting a data request to the network, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal;

at the network,

receiving the predetermined data from the server in response to the data request received from the data requesting terminal;

determining whether a character code of the predetermined data is identical to the terminal-supported character code;

when the character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported character code, converting the character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported character code; and

transmitting the predetermined data of the terminal-supported character code to the data requesting terminal.

16. In a system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal, a data converting method comprising the steps of;

at the network,

storing a plurality of character code processing modules each corresponding to a plurality of character codes; and

receiving the predetermined data from the server in response to a data request received from the data requesting terminal;

determining whether a character code of the predetermined data is identical to the terminal-supported character code;

when the character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported character code, receiving a module address of a character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code from the character code server;

sending a combination of the predetermined data and the module address to the data requesting terminal;

at the data requesting terminal,

sending a terminal-supported character code to the network when transmitting the data request to the network, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal;

receiving a character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code from the character code server based on the module address received from the node; and

converting the character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported character code by executing the character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code.

17. In a system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal, a data converting method comprising the steps of;

at the data requesting terminal,

sending a terminal-supported character code to the network when transmitting a data request to the network, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal;

at the network,

storing a plurality of character code processing modules each corresponding to a plurality of character codes;

receiving the predetermined data from the server in response to the data request received from the data requesting terminal;

determining whether a character code of the predetermined data is identical to the terminal-supported character code;

when the character code of the predetermined data is different from the terminal-supported character code, receiving a character code processing module corresponding to the terminal-supported character code from the character code server;

sending a combination of the predetermined data and the character code processing module to the data requesting terminal; and

at the data requesting terminal,

converting the character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported character code by executing the character code processing module received from the node.

18. In a system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal, a data converting method comprising the steps of;

at the data requesting terminal,

sending a terminal-supported character code to the server when transmitting a data request to the server, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal;

at the server,

storing the predetermined data described in a plurality of character codes; and

sending the predetermined data of a character code that is the same as the terminal-supported character code to the data requesting terminal.

19. In a system comprising:

a server storing predetermined data;

a data requesting terminal for requesting the predetermined data from the server; and

a network for connecting the server and the data requesting terminal, a data converting method comprising the steps of;

at the data requesting terminal,

sending a terminal-supported character code to the server when transmitting a data request to the server, wherein the terminal-supported character code is supported in the data requesting terminal;

at the server,

converting a character code of the predetermined data to the terminal-supported code when the character code of the predetermined data Is different from the terminal-supported code; and

sending the predetermined data of the terminal-supported code to the data requesting terminal.