Patent Publication Number: US-2007100827-A1

Title: Real-time data exchange system and method thereof

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to a real-time data exchange system and a method thereof, especially to a remote management system and method for managing real-time data exchange of a shared database.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      Due to rapid change of industrial environment, progress of communication technology, and trends of automation and digitalization, there are various systems developed inside or between companies. By increasing of different systems, different platforms, and back-end database between the systems, data sharing and exchanging become an important issue in companies.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , it shows data exchange between different systems. A first system  10 ′ reads and transmits data of a first database  12 ′ to a second database  20 ′ of a second system  18 ′ so as to update content of the second database  20 ′ that corresponds to the data read from the first database  12 ′. Although the above system overcomes problems of data exchanges among different systems, there might raise database security problems by direct database access operations, such as accessing data from the first system  10 ′ to the second system  18 ′ directly with security or authentication mechanism. On the other hand, if a user intends to steal data, there is no mechanism for verifying the user&#39;s ID for preventing any direct data accessing operation.  
      Besides the aforementioned security problem, it is inconvenient to classify the data to corresponding systems when the company system intends to transmit the data to a plurality of different systems. At the same time, a load of the first database  12 ′ also increases. An other approach for efficiently exchanging data among a plurality of different systems is to use a database as a communication medium.  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , a conventional method for data exchange among different systems is shown. The first system  10 ′ reads and sends a plurality of data from the first database  12 ′ to a sharing database  14 ′ for updating corresponding data of the sharing database  14 ′. According to a schedule preset by a database scheduling unit  16 ′, the second system  18 ′ periodically reads the updated data of the sharing database  14 ′ for updating content of the second database  20 ′ 
       FIG. 2  shows that the database is taken as a data exchange medium for heterogeneous systems. By periodically scheduling, the second system  18 ′ reads the updated data of the shared database  14 ′ at a scheduled time. Once the time lag between the scheduled time and the time that the data sent from the first system  10 ′ to the shared database  14 ′ is too long, the data exchange is not real-time. Thus there might be data inconsistency or data error between the first system  10 ′ and the second system  18 ′.  
      In accordance with above description, a conventional system and method for data exchange neither changes data in real time nor encrypts the data inside the database. Thus the data in the database may be stolen without data security mechanisms.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      A real-time data exchange system and the method thereof provides a remote management system to control data exchange process among different systems and execute data exchange in real time. Moreover, direct data access of the database among different systems is prevented for ensuring database security.  
      A real-time data exchange system discloses a first system connecting to a remote management system for transmitting a plurality of data. The remote management system connects to a shared database for storing the data. Then, the data is transmitted to a second system by the remote management system for updating the content of the second system in time when the data is stored in the shared database. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic drawing showing a conventional data exchange system;  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic drawing showing another conventional data exchange system;  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic drawing of an embodiment in accordance with the present invention;  
       FIG. 4  is a flow chart of an embodiment in accordance with the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED  
     EMBODIMENT  
      The present invention provides a real-time data exchange system and method thereof that controls data exchange between different systems for real-time exchanging data and preventing direct data accessing operations to the database by different systems so as to ensure database securities.  
      Referring to  FIG. 3 , the present invention includes a personnel information system  10 , a remote management system  20 , a shared database  30 , an organization hierarchy system  40  and a salary management system  50 . The remote management system  20  is respectively connected to the personnel information system  10 , the shared database  30 , the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  through the Internet or intranet.  
      When a user wants to update new employee information  100 , the new employee information  100  is sent to the remote management system  20  and then stored into the shared database  30 . Moreover, the remote management system  20  checks whether the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  are the subjects of the new employee information  100 . Then the new employee information  100  stored in the shared database  30  by the remote management system  20  is transmitted into the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  so as to maintain data consistency between the personnel information system  10  and the organization hierarchy system  40  as well as the consistency between the personnel information system  10  and the salary management system  50 .  
      The remote management system  20  includes a first identifying unit  200 , a checking unit  202 , a parser  204 , a processing unit  206  and a second identifying unit  208 . The first identifying unit  200  checks whether the personnel information system  10  is recognized by the remote management system  20  so as to prevent illegal systems to access the remote management system  20 . When the new employee information  100  is transmitted to the shared database  30  by the remote management system  20 , the checking unit  202  of the remote management system  20  checks service type of the new employee information  100  so as to verify whether the service type of the new employee information  100  corresponds to service type of the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50 . If not, the remote management system  20  rejects the new employee information  100  accessing. For example, when a user wants to update the new employee information  100  of the personnel information system  10  stored into the shared database  30 , the new employee information  100  is sent to the checking unit  202  of the remote management system  20  for verifying whether service type of the new employee information  100  corresponds to service type of the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50 . If so, the new employee information  100  is sent to the shared database  30  by the remote management system  20  for updating the data stored in the shared database  30 . If not, the new employee information  100  in the personnel information system  10  is rejected by the remote management system  20 .  
      The parser  204  is used to analyze the new employee information  100  for recognizing its item name and the content. If the new employee information  100  is encrypted, it is decrypted by the parser  204 . The processing unit  206  is set for processing executions between the remote management system  20  and the shared database  30  such as connection between the remote management system  20  and the shared database  30  for storing the new employee information  100  into the shared database  30  or converting the new employee information  100  stored in the shared database  30  into data with XML (Extensible Makeup Language) format for sending it into the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50 . The second identifying unit  208  is to identify whether the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  are subjects that the new employee information  100  is sent to. It is assumed that the organization hierarchy system  40  is not the subject of the new employee information  100 , the second identifying unit  208  sends an undeliverable instruction to the personnel information system  10  through the processing unit  206 . When the present invention is applied in the company, the first identifying unit  200  and the second identifying unit  208  can be removed because the systems are connected to different systems in the company through intranet. When the present invention is applied among different companies through internet, it is necessary to provide the first identifying unit  200  and the second identifying unit  208  for data security.  
      The management system  20  in accordance with the present invention uses data communication protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) as channels of data exchange for receiving the new employee information  100 . TCP/IP uses the terms “socket” and “port” to describe the path (or virtual circuit) over which cooperating applications communicate. Socket means a logic address and a port. Within the TCP/IP environment, two systems communicate with each other by different port numbers. Compared with the communication protocol of HTTP with 80 Port, the TCP/IP is more flexible and fast. Moreover, in order to make different platforms communicate with each other through network, the remote management system  20  in accordance with the present invention can be a web server so that the personnel information system  10 , the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  connect to the remote management system  20  by the explorer for real-time data exchange.  
      Referring to  FIG. 4  in view of  FIG. 3 , in step S 10 , when a user wants to update the new employee information  100  to the shared database  30  by the remote management system  20 , the new employee information  100  is sent to the shared database  30  by the remote management system  20 . Proceeding to step S 11 , the first identifying unit  200  identifies whether the new employee information  100  is transmitted to the remote management system  20  for confirming the service type of the new employee information  100 . Proceeding to step S 12 , the checking unit  202  checks whether the service type of the new employee information  100  corresponds to service type of the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50 . As shown in step S 13 , the parser  204  analyzes the new employee information  100  so as to recognize its item name and the content. Once the new employee information  100  is encrypted, it is also decrypted by the parser  204 . Referring to step S 14 , the processing unit  206  sends the new employee information  100  to the shared database  30  for storing the new employee information  100  in the shared database  30 .  
      Then proceeding to step S 15 , the new employee information  100  is sent to the processing unit  206  and being packeted into data with XML format by the parser  204 . Then the second identifying unit  208  identifies whether the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  are subjects of the new employee information  100  for real-time transmitting the new employee information  100  to the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50 . Therefore, the disadvantage of conventional organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  that periodically read the updated data according to a scheduled preset. Thus the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  can get the new employee information  100  in time.  
      Moreover, when data in the organization hierarchy system  40  or the salary management system  50  is modified, the modified data is sent to the remote management system  20  for storing the modified data to the shared database  30  in above way. The data is transmitted into the personnel information system  10  by the remote management system  20  in real time. Furthermore, the above personnel information system (the first system), the organization hierarchy system (the second system) and the salary management system (the second system) are applied in an embodiment of the present invention. They can be replaced or adjusted by accounting management system, research &amp; development data exchange management system, marketing management system, customer data management system, even legal-related contract management system, and patent/trademark management system according to requirements of the company. The first system and the second system respectively include at least one system. The first system and the second system may vary according to different embodiments.  
      In summary, the present invention relates to a real-time data exchange system and method thereof that provides a remote management system as a data exchange medium of the personnel information system  10  (the first system) and the organization hierarchy system  40  or the salary management system  50  (the second system). Therefore, the shared database  30  is controlled by the remote management system so as to avoid database safety-related problems caused by directly accessing the new employee information  100  of the personnel information system  10  (the first system) to the shared database  30 . Moreover, the new employee information is sent to the organization hierarchy system  40  and the salary management system  50  (the second system) in time by the remote management system  20  of the present invention so as to keep information consistency between different systems through internet or intranet.  
      Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details, and representative devices shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.