JPH10187515A - Download device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically put download data related with table-of- contents(TOC) structure in order to show the category to which downloaded real data belong when downloading data described in a hyper text format while including TOC data constructed on a network. SOLUTION: On a TOC hierarchy information table 32, TOC elements in the respective hierarchies of TOC data instructing the real data are registered while being related. A download means 22 downloads the real data from a network 6 and when they are stored in a storage part 3 as download data 34, a pointer corresponding to them is set while being related with the TOC element, which is registered on the TOC hierarchy information table 32, instructing the download data 34.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a download apparatus for downloading data constructed on a network, and more particularly, to a download apparatus comprising a plurality of real data and a table of contents having a hierarchical structure to which each real data is linked. ,
The present invention relates to a download device that downloads data described in a hypertext format.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, WWW which discloses data existing on a network as data that can be accessed by anyone.
(World Wide Web), various companies, government agencies, and the like have begun to release data.

[0003] Data published by the WWW is:
Generally, it is described in a hypertext format, and related data can be accessed one after another. Further, the data is classified by genre, and the upper layer portion is the table of contents data. The table of contents data is also described in a hypertext format, and by specifying a table of contents element (genre name, data name, etc.) in the table of contents data, it is possible to access actual data related thereto. By providing the above-described structure, the user can easily search for data.

[0004] By the way, when downloading data, it is common to specify a specific table of contents element in the table of contents data and download only specific actual data linked thereto. It may be necessary to download all of the actual data (data linked to the table of contents data) that has been released.

In such a case, conventionally, for example, the following has been performed. The user requesting the download sends to the network information indicating the table of contents data in the highest hierarchy and information indicating the depth of the data linked to the table of contents data. As a result, the server on the network holding the table of contents data collectively downloads the table of contents data and data linked thereto (data linked to a depth specified by the user) to the request source. The request source stores the downloaded table of contents data and actual data in the storage unit.

[0006]

As described above, conventionally, when downloading all data published by a certain company or institution, the table of contents data and the actual data sent from the server are stored in the storage unit. Since it is only necessary to store the data, it is necessary for the user to manually sort in which genre each real data stored in the storage unit is included in the real data, which places a burden on the user. was there. Also, when downloading all the data published by a company, etc., it is difficult to predict in advance how much the download data will be.
As described above, if the data is downloaded in a lump, there is a problem that the capacity of the storage unit may be exceeded or the communication fee may be extremely high.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to automatically organize download data based on a table of contents structure, such as organizing downloaded real data by genre, and to consider the amount of download data. It is an object of the present invention to provide a download device capable of stopping download in the middle.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a plurality of real data constructed on a network and each of the real data are constructed so as to automatically arrange download data based on a table of contents structure. A download unit that downloads data described in a hypertext format, which is composed of a table of contents data having a hierarchical structure as a link destination, a storage unit in which the downloaded actual data is stored; A table of contents hierarchy in which, for each of the actual data constructed in the table, a table of contents element of each layer in the table of contents indicating the actual data is registered in association with each other, and a pointer to the actual data stored in the storage unit is set. Information table and downloading the actual data from the network and storing it in the storage unit. And a downloading means for setting a pointer to the actual data stored in the storage unit the contents is registered in the layer information table, in association with the TOC element pointing to the actual data.

In this configuration, when the download unit downloads the actual data from the network, the download unit stores the downloaded actual data in the storage unit, and stores a pointer to the actual data stored in the storage unit in the table of contents hierarchy information. Set in association with a table of contents element that points to the actual data registered in the table.

[0010] Further, according to the present invention, in order to allow download to be stopped halfway in consideration of the amount of download data, schedule generation for inputting a schedule generation condition for determining actual data to be downloaded by one download process is provided. From the condition input means, after the end of the download process, before the next download process execution timing is reached, from the actual data that has not been downloaded, download at the next download process based on the schedule generation condition. Download scheduling means for determining the actual data to be executed, cumulative data amount calculating means for calculating the cumulative data amount of the actual data stored in the storage unit from the start of the first download processing to the present, and the stop of the download processing. Cancel download to instruct Indicating that the download process has not been instructed by the download stop instructing unit, and the download scheduling unit may perform the download every time the download process is executed. The determined actual data is downloaded from the network and stored in the storage unit, and a pointer to the actual data stored in the storage unit is registered in the table of contents hierarchy information table. A configuration is set such that the download processing is not performed when the setting is made in association with the stop of the download processing.

[0011] In this configuration, the download scheduling means sets the schedule generation condition from the actual data that has not been downloaded until the next download processing execution timing is reached after the download processing is completed. The actual data to be downloaded at the next download processing is determined based on the actual data, and when the execution timing of the download processing comes, the download means downloads the actual data determined by the download scheduling means, stores it in the storage unit, and The pointer is set in the table of contents hierarchy information table 32. Further, the cumulative data amount calculating means calculates the cumulative data amount when the download process is performed. When the user determines that the storage capacity of the storage unit is insufficient based on the cumulative data amount calculated by the cumulative data amount calculation unit or determines that the communication fee is too high, the user uses the download stop instruction unit. Instructs to stop downloading. After this instruction is issued, the download unit does not perform the download process even when it is time to execute the download process.

[0012] Further, in order to easily cope with a change in the table of contents data, a table of contents obtaining means for obtaining table of contents data constructed on the network,
A table of contents hierarchy information table generating means for generating the table of contents hierarchy information table based on the table of contents data acquired by the table of contents acquiring means.

In this configuration, the table of contents obtaining means obtains the table of contents data constructed on the network, and the table of contents hierarchical information table generating means generates a table of contents hierarchical information table based on the above table of contents data.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. A download device 1 connected to a network 6 such as the Internet includes a control unit 2, a storage unit 3, a communication unit 4, a keyboard, a CRT, and the like. Input / output unit 5 composed of
And

The storage unit 3 stores a table of contents data 31, a table of contents hierarchy information table 32, a schedule table 33,
Download data 34 and schedule generation conditions 35
Are stored.

The control unit 2 includes a table of contents acquisition unit 21, a download unit 22, a download scheduling unit 23, a table of contents hierarchy information table generation unit 24, a marking unit 25, and a schedule generation condition input unit 26.
And download stop instruction means 27. Further, the download means 22 includes the cumulative data amount calculation means 2.
2a.

The table-of-contents obtaining means 21 obtains table-of-contents data having a hierarchical structure from a server (not shown) storing the table-of-contents data connected to the network 6 by using the communication unit 4, and And has a function of storing it as the table of contents data 31. In this embodiment, the table of contents data is described in a hypertext format, and is stored in the first hierarchy (the highest hierarchy).
Is a genre name, the second hierarchy has a sub-genre name, and the third hierarchy (resume hierarchy) has a three-layer structure of data names.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the table of contents data. A plurality of genre names (news / newspaper, computer, etc.) are set as a table of contents element in the first layer portion 201 of the table of contents data. Genre name "News / Newspaper"
A plurality of sub-genres (political economy, society, etc.) are set as a table of contents element in the second hierarchical portion 202 of the table of contents data linked to. Sub-genre name "political economy"
A plurality of data names (election daily report, etc.) are set as a table of contents element in the third layer portion 203 of the table of contents data linked to the third layer portion 204 of the table of contents data linked to the sub-genre name “society”. Has a plurality of data names (traffic information etc.) set as table of contents elements. In the third layer portions 203 and 204 of the table of contents data, table of contents end marks 203E and 204E indicating the end of the table of contents are respectively set. The table of contents end marks 203E and 204E indicate the lowest hierarchy of the table of contents data, and the link destination of the table of contents data in which it is set is the actual data. For example, the link destination of the “election daily report” in the third hierarchy portion 203 is the actual data 205.

Although the example of FIG. 2 shows the table of contents data in which the table of contents end mark is set, there is also table of contents data in which the table of contents end mark is not set as shown in FIG. Even in the case of the table of contents data in the format shown in FIG. 3, when the address of the server storing the table of contents data and the address of the server storing the actual data 305 linked by the table of contents data are different. The download by the download device of the present invention can be performed. In the example of FIG. 3, the first part of the address of the first to third layer parts 301 to 304 of the table of contents data is “mesh”, and the first part of the address of the actual data 305 is other than that. In the example of FIG. 3, the head of the address of the real data 305 is "selection". Therefore, by looking at the address, it can be determined whether the data is table-of-contents data or actual data.

The table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 has a function of generating a table of contents hierarchy information table 32 based on the table of contents data 31 stored in the storage unit 3 and storing it in the storage unit 3.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32. The genre section 401 and the sub-genre section 4
02, a data section 403, an address section 404, an end mark section 405, and a pointer section 406.

In the genre section 401, a genre name (news / news), which is a table of contents element of the first layer portion of the table of contents data 31, is stored.
Newspaper, computer, etc.). The sub-genre part 402 includes a sub-genre name (political economy, society, PC 98, etc.) which is a table of contents element of the second layer portion of the table of contents data 31
Is set in correspondence with the genre name in which it is included.
In the data section 403, the data name (election daily report, traffic information, etc.), which is a table of contents element of the third hierarchy portion of the table of contents data 31,
It is set corresponding to the sub-genre name that includes it.
In the address section 404, an address on the network where each data exists is set. In the end mark section 405, an end mark indicating that the download has been completed is set. In the pointer unit 406, a pointer to the download data stored in the storage unit 3 is set.

The schedule generating condition input means 26 is a schedule generating condition for inputting the user's input / output unit 5 to determine the actual data to be downloaded in one download process.
And has a function of storing it in the storage unit 3.

Download scheduling means 23
Has a function of determining the actual data to be downloaded at the time of executing the next download process based on the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 and the schedule generation condition 35, and generating a schedule table 33 in which information indicating the actual data is set.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the schedule table 33. The genre section 501 and the sub-genre section 5
02 and an address section 503. The genre part 501 sets the genre name of the actual data to be downloaded, the sub-genre part 502 sets the sub-genre name of the actual data to be downloaded, and the address part 503 sets the address of the actual data to be downloaded on the network 6. .

The download unit 22 downloads the actual data indicated by the information set in the schedule table 33 and stores it as the download data 34 in the storage unit 3 at each execution timing of the download processing. It has a function of setting a pointer pointing to 34 in the table of contents hierarchy information table 32. Each time the download unit 22 stores the actual data as the download data 34 in the storage unit 3, the accumulated data amount calculation unit 22 a in the download unit 22 calculates the data amount of the actual data stored as the download data 34 so far. Has a function of accumulating the data amount of the actual data stored this time and displaying the accumulated data amount on the input / output unit 5.

The download stop instruction means 27 has a function of instructing the download means 21 to stop the download processing when a download stop instruction is input from the input / output unit 5 by the user. After receiving this instruction, the download unit 22 does not perform the download process even when it is time to execute the download process.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of the processing performed by the download apparatus 1, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing of the table of contents acquiring means 21, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing of the table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 24. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing of the download scheduling means 23, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing of the download means 22 and the accumulated data amount calculating means 22a. The operation of the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the respective figures.

First, an outline of the operation of the download device 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

When a user wants to obtain data provided by a certain company, institution, or the like, first, the user inputs information indicating the first hierarchy of the table of contents data constructed on the network 6 by the company or the like. Input from the output unit 5. As a result, the table of contents obtaining means 21 obtains all the hierarchical portions of the table of contents data constructed on the network 6 and stores it as the table of contents data 31 in the storage unit 3 (step S1).

When the table of contents data 31 is stored in the storage section 3, the table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 operates to generate the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 based on the table of contents data 31 (step S2).

Next, the download scheduling means 23 operates, and based on the contents of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 and the schedule generation conditions 35, a schedule table 33 storing information indicating actual data to be downloaded in the next download processing. Is generated (step S3). Here, the schedule generation condition 35 is set by the user using the input / output unit 5, the schedule generation condition
Is stored in the storage unit 3 in advance by using.

Thereafter, when it is time to execute the download processing, the download means 22 operates to download all the actual data indicated by the information set in the schedule table 33 and store it in the storage unit 3 as the download data 34. (Steps S4, S
5). At this time, the download unit 22 also performs a process of setting a pointer to the actual data in an entry of the pointer section 406 of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 corresponding to the downloaded actual data.

When the download processing of the actual data is completed, the marking means 25 operates, and the end of the download is indicated in the entry corresponding to the actual data downloaded by the current download processing in the end mark section 405 of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32. An end mark is set (step S6).

After that, the download scheduling means 23 refers to the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 and adjusts whether or not the end mark is set in all the entries of the end mark section 405, thereby downloading all the actual data. It is checked whether it is (Step S7). And
If there is an entry for which an end mark is not set in the end mark unit 405 (NO in step S7), the download scheduling unit 23 returns to step S3.
Is performed. If the end marks are set in all the entries (YES in step S7), the download device 1 ends the processing. The above is the outline of the operation of the download device 1.

Next, steps S1, S2 and S2 shown in FIG.
The processing of S3 and S5 will be described in detail.

First, referring to FIG.
Will be described in detail in step S1 shown in FIG.

The user inputs the first table of contents data from the input / output unit 5.
When the information indicating the hierarchy is input, the table of contents obtaining means 21 downloads the first layer of the table of contents data using the communication unit 4 and stores it in the storage unit 3 (step S11).

Next, the table of contents obtaining means 21 determines whether or not download of all layers of the table of contents data has been completed (step S12). Here, whether or not the download of all layers of the table of contents data is completed is determined as follows. When the table of contents data downloaded this time has the table of contents end marks 203E and 204E as shown in FIG. 2 or the head of the address which the table of contents element of the table of contents data downloaded this time has as a link destination is the table of contents downloaded this time. If the address is different from the head of the data address, it is determined that the download of all layers of the table of contents data has been completed. Otherwise, it is determined that there is a layer for which download has not been completed.

If it is determined that there is a layer for which downloading has not been completed (NO in step S12), one of the table of contents elements in the table of contents data of the first layer that has been downloaded this time is focused on, and it is linked to the link destination. The process of downloading the table of contents of the second hierarchy and storing it in the storage unit 3 is performed for all the contents of the table of contents of the first hierarchy (steps S13 to S15).

When the above-described processing is performed on all the table-of-contents elements in the table-of-contents data of the first hierarchy (S15 is N)
O) The same processing as described above is performed for all the table of contents elements in the table of contents data of the second hierarchy. Hereinafter, until all the contents data are downloaded (Y in step S12)
ES), the above-described processing is repeated.

Next, the processing of step S2 shown in FIG. 6 performed by the table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, the table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 24
Sets the value of the variable n indicating the layer number of the table of contents data to "1" (step S21).

Next, a table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 2
4 is the first of the table of contents data 31 stored in the storage unit 3
Attention is paid to the hierarchical portion (step S22), and the table of contents element set therein is set in the genre section 401 of the table of contents hierarchical information table 32 (step S23). Now, for example,
Assuming that the table of contents data 31 stored in the storage unit 3 is obtained by downloading the table of contents data shown in FIG. 2, the table of contents hierarchy information table generation unit 24 stores the figure in the genre section 401 of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32. As shown in FIG. 4, a genre name such as news / newspaper / computer is set.

Thereafter, the table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 2
No. 4 determines whether or not the processing has been completed for all layers of the table of contents data 31 (step S24). In the case of this example, since the table of contents data 31 exists up to the third hierarchy, the determination result in step S24 is NO.

If the decision result in the step S24 is NO, the table-of-contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 pays attention to the second layer part of the table of contents data 31 stored in the storage unit 3 (steps S25 and S22). Then, the table of contents element set therein is set in the sub-genre section 402 of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 (step S23). At this time, the table-of-contents layer information table generating means 24 sets each table-of-contents element of the second layer part in association with the table of contents element of the first layer part to which it is linked. In this example, the table of contents element “political economy, society,.
Since it is a link destination of the table of contents element “news / newspaper” in the hierarchical portion, it is set in the sub-genre section 402 in association with the genre name “news / newspaper” as shown in FIG.

Thereafter, the table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 2
4 performs the same processing as described above for the third hierarchical portion of the table of contents data 31 (steps S24, S25, S2)
2, S23). Thereby, the table-of-contents element “Election Daily Report, Social Democratic Party Gazette,..., Traffic Information,...” Of the third layer of the table of contents data 31 is set in the data section 403 of the table of contents table 32 as shown in FIG. . In this case, the table-of-contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 generates each table-of-contents element “election daily report, Social Democratic Party Gazette,..., Traffic information,.
Is set in association with the table of contents element “political economy, society,.

When the above-described processing is performed up to the third hierarchical portion of the table of contents data 31, the result of the determination in step S24 is YES.
Therefore, the table-of-contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 sets the address of the data on the network in the entry corresponding to each data name in the address section 404 of the table-of-contents hierarchy information table 32 (step S26).

Next, the processing of step S3 shown in FIG. 6 performed by the download scheduling means 23 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Download scheduling means 23
First, the schedule generation condition 35 stored in the storage unit 3 is acquired (step S31). Here, the schedule generation condition 35 is set by the user in the storage unit 3 using the input / output unit 5 and the schedule generation condition input unit 26. In the present embodiment, the following three conditions (1) to (3) are set. It is assumed that any one of (3) can be set.

(1) Download real data i items from each sub-genre. The value of i can be arbitrarily set by the user. (2) The number of actual data to be downloaded from each sub-genre is proportionally distributed according to the number of data belonging to each sub-genre. However, how many data items to download from the sub-genre having the least number of data items is set by the user. (3) For each genre, j pieces of actual data are downloaded from the one having the highest access frequency (popularity). The value of j can be arbitrarily set by the user.

When the schedule generation condition 35 is acquired in step S31, the table-of-contents hierarchy information table generating means 24 outputs the end mark part 40 of the table-of-contents hierarchy information table 32.
From the actual data for which no end mark is set in 5,
The actual data to be downloaded at the next download processing is determined based on the schedule generation condition 35 (step S32). Thereafter, the download scheduling unit 23 sets information indicating the actual data determined in step S32 in the schedule table 33.

Now, for example, if the condition shown in (1) above is set as the schedule generation condition 35, the download scheduling means 23 sends i undownloaded real data from each sub-genre at a time. The information indicating the selected actual data is set in the schedule table 33. The example in FIG. 5 is for the case where i = 1.

For example, the schedule generation condition 35
If the condition shown in (2) above is set, the download scheduling means 23 calculates the ratio of the number of actual data belonging to each sub-genre, and compares the ratio with the most data specified by the user. The number of download data for each sub-genre is determined based on the number of actual data to be downloaded from the sub-genre with a small number. After that, from each sub-genre, select the actual data that has not been downloaded for the number of download data determined for the sub-genre,
Information indicating the selected actual data is stored in the schedule table 3
Set to 3.

If, for example, the condition (3) described above is set as the schedule generation condition 35, the download scheduling means 23 accesses the actual data that has not been downloaded for each sub-genre. The j most frequently selected items are selected, and information indicating the selected actual data is set in the schedule table 33. In this case, it is necessary to separately obtain information indicating the access frequency of each actual data from a network or the like and store it in the storage unit 3.

Next, the processing of step S5 shown in FIG. 6 performed by the download means 22 and the accumulated data amount calculation means 22a will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The download unit 22 first focuses on one of the entries of the schedule table 33 (step S41). Now, for example, "news / newspaper, political economy, electi" in the schedule table 33 shown in FIG.
Assume that attention is paid to an entry for which "on" is set.

Thereafter, the actual data indicated by the information stored in the noted entry is downloaded and stored in the storage unit 3 as the download data 34 (step S42).

Next, the download means 22 sets a pointer P1 pointing to the download data 34 in an entry corresponding to the download data 34 in the pointer section 406 of the table of contents hierarchy information table 32 shown in FIG. 4 (step S43). Thus, the pointer pointing to the download data 34 is stored in the table of contents hierarchy information table 3.
By setting to 2, the download data related to the table of contents structure, such as to which genre the downloaded data belongs, is automatically arranged.

When the processing in step S43 is completed, the cumulative data amount calculating means 22a in the download means 22 calculates the data amount of the actual data downloaded this time into the data amount of the actual data stored in the storage unit 3 by the previous download processing. It accumulates to the amount, stores the accumulated result, and displays it on the input / output unit 5 (step S44).

The download unit 22 and the accumulated data amount calculation unit 22a perform the above-described processing on each entry of the schedule table 33. When the above-described processing is performed on all entries (step S4)
5 is NO), the download means 22 and the accumulated data amount calculation means 22a end the processing.

The user inputs the download data 34 displayed on the input / output unit 5 by the accumulated data amount calculating means 22a.
When it is determined that the data amount of the download data 34 is too large, a download stop command is input from the input / output unit 5. This allows
The download stop instruction means 27 is
2 is instructed to stop the download process. After receiving this instruction, the download unit 22 does not perform the download process even when it is time to execute the download process.

In the above-described embodiment, the table of contents data 31 is obtained from the network 6 by using the table of contents obtaining means 21, but the table of contents data is stored by the user using the input / output unit 5. Alternatively, the table of contents data 31 may be stored in the storage unit 3 using a CD-ROM in which the contents of the table of contents data are recorded. But,
It is preferable to acquire the table of contents data from the network 6 as in the present embodiment, because it is possible to easily cope with the change of the table of contents data.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention, when real data is downloaded from a network, the downloaded real data is stored in a storage unit, and a pointer to the real data stored in the storage unit is stored in a table of contents hierarchy. Since download means registered in the information table and set in association with a table of contents element indicating the actual data is provided, it is possible to organize downloaded data based on the table of contents structure, such as organizing downloaded actual data by genre. Can be done automatically.

Also, the present invention provides a download scheduling means for determining actual data to be downloaded in one download processing, a cumulative data amount calculating means for calculating an accumulated data amount of the actual data stored in the storage unit,
Since the download stop instruction means for instructing the stop of the download process is provided, if the amount of download data becomes too large, the download can be easily stopped in the middle.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a table of contents acquiring means for acquiring table of contents data constructed on a network, and a hierarchical information table generating means for generating a table of contents hierarchical information table based on the table of contents data acquired by the table of contents acquiring means. Therefore, even when the table of contents data is changed, it is possible to easily cope with the change.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of table of contents data described in a hypertext format.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another example of table of contents data described in a hypertext format.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a table of contents hierarchy information table 32;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a schedule table 33.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing of the download apparatus 1;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing example of a table of contents acquiring means 21;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing example of a table of contents hierarchy information table generating means 24;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a processing example of the download scheduling means 23;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a processing example of a download unit 22 and a cumulative data amount calculation unit 22a.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Download device 2 ... Control part 21 ... Table of contents acquisition means 22 ... Download means 22a ... Cumulative data amount calculation means 23 ... Download scheduling means 24 ... Table of contents hierarchy information table generation means 25 ... Marking means 26 ... Schedule generation condition input means 27 ... Download stop instructing means 3 storage unit 31 table of contents data 32 table of contents hierarchy information table 33 schedule table 34 download data 35 schedule generation conditions 4 communication unit 5 input / output unit 6 network

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Download of data described in a hypertext format, which is composed of a plurality of real data and a table of contents having a hierarchical structure linked to each of the real data, constructed on a network. A download device, wherein: a storage unit in which downloaded real data is stored; and for each of the real data constructed on the network, a table of contents element of each hierarchy in the table of contents data indicating the real data in association with each other. A table of contents hierarchy information table in which a pointer to real data stored in the storage unit is set, and the real data is downloaded from the network and stored in the storage unit, and stored in the storage unit The pointer to the actual data is registered in the table of contents hierarchy information table. Download means for setting in association with a table of contents element indicating a data item. 2. A schedule generation condition input means for inputting a schedule generation condition for determining actual data to be downloaded by one download process, and after the download process is completed, until a next download process execution timing is reached. Meanwhile, a download scheduling means for determining the actual data to be downloaded at the next download processing based on the schedule generation condition from among the actual data that has not been downloaded, and from the start of the first download processing until the present. Further comprising: a cumulative data amount calculating unit for calculating a cumulative data amount of the actual data stored in the storage unit; and a download stop instruction unit for instructing stop of the download process, and wherein the download unit includes the download stop instruction unit. By Dow When the stop of the load process is not instructed, the real data determined to be downloaded by the download scheduling unit is downloaded from the network and stored in the storage unit every time the download process is executed. A pointer to the actual data stored in the storage unit is set in association with a table-of-contents element pointing to the actual data registered in the table of contents hierarchy information table, and when the stop of the download processing is instructed, the download processing is performed. 2. The download device according to claim 1, further comprising a configuration that does not perform the download. 3. A table of contents acquiring means for acquiring table of contents data constructed on the network, and a table of contents hierarchy information table generating means for generating the table of contents hierarchical information table based on the table of contents data acquired by the table of contents acquiring means. The download device according to claim 2, further comprising: