Data-flow control device and data-flow control method

A data-flow control method, comprising:

• acquiring device-side metadata including an item indicating a specification of data that can be provided by a device for each of a plurality of devices;
• acquiring application-side metadata including an item indicating a specification of data requested by an application that uses the data provided by the device;
• storing the device-side metadata and the application-side metadata;
• performing matching between the application-side metadata and the device-side metadata to extract a combination of an application and a device capable of providing the data satisfying the specification required by the application;
• and
• generating a data-flow control command specifying the device and the application extracted in the matching,
• wherein
• a flag indicating changeability is associated with each of the matching target items included in the device-side metadata and the application-side metadata, and
• the matching comprises:
• extracting the combination based on whether matching target items are matched with each other among the items included in the device-side metadata and the application-side metadata;
• generating a device-side user inquiry and an application-side user inquiry whether to change the item in which the mismatch is generated when the item in which the mismatch is generated exists and the flags indicate that the item in which the mismatch is generated is changeable;
• and
• changing the item in which the mismatch is generated based on answers acquired in response to the device-side user inquiry and the application-side user inquiry, and
• the method is performed by a computer.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program configured to cause a computer to perform operations comprising:

• acquiring device-side metadata including an item indicating a specification of data that can be provided by a device for each of a plurality of devices;
• acquiring application-side metadata including an item indicating a specification of data requested by an application that uses the data provided by the device;
• storing the device-side metadata and the application-side metadata;
• performing matching between the application-side metadata and the device-side metadata to extract a combination of an application and a device capable of providing the data satisfying the specification required by the application;
• and
• generating a data-flow control command specifying the device and the application extracted in the matching,
• wherein
• a flag indicating changeability is associated with each of the matching target items included in the device-side metadata and the application-side metadata, and
• the matching comprises:
• extracting the combination based on whether matching target items are matched with each other among the items included in the device-side metadata and the application-side metadata;
• generating a device-side user inquiry and an application-side user inquiry whether to change the item in which the mismatch is generated when the item in which the mismatch is generated exists and the flags indicate that the item in which the mismatch is generated is changeable;
• and
• changing the item in which the mismatch is generated based on answers acquired in response to the device-side user inquiry and the application-side user inquiry.