Patent ID: 6363354
Filing Date: 2002-03-26
Classification: G06Q,G07G

Abstract:
A maintenance system for a plurality of price look-up tables comprising a POS server apparatus connected to a network and a plurality of POS apparatuses, wherein:said POS server apparatus stores, in response to entry of PLU data, data consisting of a combination of revision history information on those PLU data and revised data into a master PLU history management table, at the same time multicasts that combination of data to all of said POS apparatuses, and stores those PLU data into a master PLU table; each of said plurality of POS apparatuses stores the data multicast from said POS server apparatus into a local PLU history management table and, at the same time, stores the PLU data contained in those data into a local PLU table; said POS server apparatus uses, when a plurality of sets of PLU data have been entered collectively, for each set of PLU data the entry date and time of those PLU data, the total number of said plurality of sets of PLU data and the serial number of that particular set of PLU data out of all those sets of PLU data as said revision history information; uses that set of PLU data and the type of processing applicable to that set of PLU data as said revised set of data; multicasts, after the storing of data combining together the pertinent revision history information and the pertinent revised data into said master PLU history management table, all the data stored into that master PLU history management table to all of said POS apparatuses and, at the same time, stores said plurality of PLU data into the master PLU table; each of said plurality of POS apparatuses stores the plurality of sets of data multicast from said POS server apparatus into said local PLU history management table; at the same time, references said serial number and said total number of the sets of PLU data included in the revision history information of each of the pertinent plurality of sets of data; and, if it is confirmed that there is nothing missing in the plurality of sets of data multicast from said POS server apparatus, causes the plurality of sets of data included in said revised data of each of the pertinent plurality of sets of data to be reflected in said local PLU table according to said type of processing for the pertinent PLU data; each of said plurality of POS apparatuses, when power supply thereto is turned on, extracts said revision history information containing the latest entry date and time out of the plurality of sets of data stored in said local PLU history management table, and transmits it to said POS server apparatus; said POS server apparatus, if revision history information containing any newer entry date and time than the entry date and time of said revision history information transmitted from said POS apparatus is stored in said master PLU history management table, multicasts to all of said POS apparatuses data combining that revision history information and the revised data corresponding to that revision history information; and each of said plurality of POS apparatuses, if the data multicast from the POS server apparatus are not stored in its local PLU history management table, stores those of data into that local PLU history management table, and the PLU data included in those data are caused to be reflected in said local PLU table according to said type of processing of those PLU data.