JPH11191108A - Data retrieval system and record medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily perform retrieval by digging when retrieving a data base storing records partitioned at plural hierarchical levels. SOLUTION: Concerning a data retrieval system for retrieving data from a data base 4 storing the records partitioned at the plural hierarchical levels, first of all, a parameter is generated for extracting the record at the hierarchical level lower next to the record at the designated level extracted from the data base 4 based on the contents of this record. Next, this generated parameter is made correspondent to display object data to be a display object in the record at the designated level, and the correspondent display object data are displayed. When the display object data are designated by a user, the data base 4 is retrieved by digging while using the parameter made correspondent to these display object data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data retrieval system and a recording medium on which a data retrieval program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, for example, in a configuration in which a WWW browser and a WWW server are connected via the Internet or the like,
There is known a data search system in which a WWW server starts a specific program in response to a search request from a WWW browser, searches a database, and returns a search result to the WWW browser. The program used at this time is CG
I (Common Gateway Interface) program, C
GI means a standard interface for starting a program on a WWW server.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional data search system, the WWW server digs down (drills down) the data based on an instruction from the WWW browser and sends the result to the WWW browser. I couldn't return.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily perform a deep search when searching a database storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels.

[0005]

Means of the present invention are as follows. A data retrieval system for retrieving data from a database storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels, wherein the parameter generating means designates this record as a higher order based on the contents of a record of a specified level extracted from the database. A parameter for extracting the record of the next lower hierarchy level is generated.

The associating means associates the parameter generated by the parameter generating means with display target data to be displayed in the record of the specified level.

[0007] The display means displays the display target data associated by the association means. When the display target data is specified via the display unit, the search unit searches the database using the parameters associated with the display target data.

[0008] The means of the invention of claim 2 is as follows. The computer-readable recording medium stores a program including instructions for causing a computer to execute the following processing when searching for data.

In retrieving data from a database storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels,
The first process is a process for generating, based on the contents of a record of a specified level extracted from the database, a parameter for extracting a record of a hierarchy level one level lower than this record.

The second process is a process of associating the generated parameters with display target data to be displayed in the record of the specified level. The third process is a process of searching the database using the parameters associated with the display target data when the display target data is specified.

Next, the operation of the means according to the first and second aspects of the present invention is as follows. In retrieving data from a database storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels, first, based on the contents of a record at a specified level extracted from the database, a record of a next lower hierarchical level having this record as an upper rank is set. A parameter for extracting a record is generated, and the generated parameter is associated with display target data to be displayed in the record of the specified level. Next, the display target data is displayed, and when the displayed display target data is designated, the database is searched using the associated parameter.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. First, an outline of a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a data search system according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which a WWW browser 1 and a WWW server 2 are connected via the Internet or the like (not shown). Here, a WWW browser is also referred to including a machine on which the WWW browser is installed. The same applies to the WWW server. The WWW browser 1 has a display unit for displaying a search result from the WWW server 2. Further, the WWW server 2 includes a CGI program 3 for executing a search according to the present embodiment and a database 4 storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels.

In such a configuration, when the WWW browser 1 instructs the WWW server 2 to dig into the data (100), the WWW server 2 starts the CGI program 3 (101). The started CGI program 3 searches the database 4 composed of a plurality of data totalized for each hierarchy using the parameters indicating the details of the drilling, and creates an HTML document of the next totaling level based on the search result ( 102). WWW server 2
Receives this HTML document and transmits it to the WWW browser 1 (103).

Hereinafter, the above outline will be described in detail based on the flow of processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. Here, it is assumed that the data handled in the present embodiment is data in which the segment names of commodities are totaled according to three levels of hierarchy of items, genres, and products. That is, it is assumed that the sales amounts, which are management items, are totaled in the three levels of hierarchy.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which all the data tabulated for each layer is printed. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the data shown in FIG. 3 in a data file format. In FIG. 4, a blank portion of the contents of the level B and level C fields indicates that no data is stored in this field. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that data in a data file format as shown in FIG. 4 is stored in the database 4 shown in FIG.

First, when the WWW browser 1 accesses the home page of the WWW server 2 (step S1),
The WGI server 2 starts a CGI program 3 as a search unit and a parameter generation unit. CGI
Program 3 creates an HTML document for top-level display. At this point, since the data has not yet been drilled down, the WWW server 2 does not receive the drilling parameters described later from the WWW browser 1. Therefore, the CGI program 3 performs the extraction condition of level A ≠ “”, level B = “”, and level C = “”, that is, in FIG. The database 3 is searched for records having fields in which no data is stored at B and level C. Thereby, the top-level record, that is, the record No. in FIG. 1 and record No. Eight records are extracted. The CGI program 3 creates a top-level HTML document based on the contents of these records. FIG.
Indicates the HTML document created at this time. W
When the WWW server 2 sends such an HTML document to the WWW browser 1 (step S2), the WWW browser 1 interprets this and performs a top-level display as shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 6, in the top level display, the contents of the two records, namely, “item A” and “item B”, and the corresponding sales amounts (“1000”, “100”)
0 ”) are displayed. The character strings of“ item A ”and“ item B ”in this table are underlined to indicate that they are hyperlinks, and these character strings are parameters for drilling down. In this case, FIG.
The display of the header portion of the HTML document is omitted.

Here, the HTML document realizing the top-level display as shown in FIG. 6 has the content as shown in FIG. After the header 10 and the heading 11, there is a description of a hyperlink at a portion indicated by reference numeral 12. In this part, drilldown.cgi (13) is W
The program started on the WW server 2 (CG in FIG. 1)
This is an instruction parameter of the I program 3). Also,? The character string 14 of "item A" after the character is a parameter for deepening passed to this program. Further, portions indicated by 15 and 16 are display data actually displayed. Further, the portion indicated by 17 has a description of a hyperlink relating to “item B”, and the meaning can be considered in the same manner as the hyperlink of the portion indicated by 12.

Therefore, when the user clicks the character string of "item A" having a hyperlink in FIG. 6 with a mouse or the like, this data is sent to the WWW server 2 (step S3), and drilldown.cgi (13) Is started, and the parameter “item A” for digging is passed to the CGI program 3. C
The GI program 3 confirms that this parameter is not a parameter for displaying the lowest level (step S
4) Drill down based on the parameter “item A” and store the next aggregation level HTML document in the database 3
And sends it to the WWW browser 1 (step S5). That is, first, by receiving the parameter “item A” for in-depth extraction, the extraction condition of level A = “item A”, level B ≠ “”, and level C = “”, that is, in FIG. The database 3 is searched for a record having a field in which “item A” is stored as data in A, a field in which data is stored in level B, and a field in which data is not stored at level C. Search. Thereby, the record No. 2 and No. 5
Is extracted. Then, “item A” and the content of the level B (genre AA or genre BB) are embedded in the hyperlink description of the HTML document as parameters for instructing the next digging. In addition, an HTML document is created including the contents of level B (genre AA or genre BB) and the contents of the sales amount (300 or 700) as the contents to be actually displayed. The HTML document created in this way has the contents as shown in FIG. FIG.
In the part indicated by 21, there is a description of a hyper ring. In this part, 18 is a newly generated parameter, which is a combination of "item A" and "genre AA". 19 and 20 are display data actually displayed. A hyperlink related to “genre AB” is shown in the portion indicated by 22, but “genre A”
Similar to the hyperlink for A ".

When the HTML document thus created is sent to the WWW browser 1 via the WWW server 2, a display as shown in FIG. 7 is made. In FIG. 7, if the user does not request the end (step S7), and clicks the character string of "Genre AB" with a mouse or the like, this is sent to the WWW server 2 (step S3). Here, the CGI program 3 confirms that the parameter for indentation is a parameter for displaying the lowest level (step S4), creates an HTML document for indentation by indentation, and creates a WWW browser 1 (Step S6). That is, first, by receiving the in-depth parameter “item A, genre AB”, the extraction condition of level A = “item A”, level B = “genre AB”, and level C ≠ “”, that is, In FIG. 4, at level A, a field where "item A" is stored as data, at level B, a field where "genre AB" is stored as data, and at level C, data is stored. The database 3 is searched for records having fields. Thereby, two records (record No. 6, No. 6) of “product ABA” and “product ABB” which are one level below genre AB.
7) is extracted. Then, an HTML document is created including the contents of level C (products ABA and ABB) and the contents of the sales amount (300 and 400) as the contents to be actually displayed. Further, since this HTML document is an HTML document for lower level display, it does not describe a hyperlink and does not embed an in-depth parameter. When the HTML document created in this way is sent to the WWW browser 1 via the WWW server 2, a display as shown in FIG. 9 is made. Since no hyperlink is described in the displayed content, “Product ABA” and “Product ABB” are not underlined. Finally, in step S7, it is confirmed that there is a termination request, and the processing is terminated. According to the above-described first embodiment, the in-depth parameters are embedded in the HTML document and are created as hyperlinks, which are displayed by a WWW browser,
Since the digging is performed in response to the clicking of the hyperlinked portion with the mouse or the like, the user can dig down with a simple operation. In addition, the parameters for drilling are automatically generated each time, so even if the data in the database is updated, the HT
Data updated after the creation of the ML document can be reflected.

Further, since the data that has been totaled for each hierarchy is used in advance, the retrieval result can be displayed at high speed without performing the totaling operation. Also, since only the narrowed data at the required level is transferred to the WWW browser, the amount of data to be transferred is small,
As a result, search results can be displayed at high speed.

Furthermore, since top-down data analysis can be performed on the screen, it is not necessary to print and view all data as in the print example shown in FIG. In the above-described embodiment, the totaling level is set to three levels. However, records may be stored in different levels. Further, the number of management items and the total number of records are not limited to those in the above embodiment.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, it is assumed that the WWW browser and the WWW server are connected via the Internet. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and one WWW browser and one WWW server are provided in one office. Of course, it may be arranged as a system.

Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The second embodiment intends to use the form data created by the form creation server in the configuration of the first embodiment. That is, FIG.
0, the form creation server 203
5 starts a predetermined program in response to a request from 5 and creates a specification file and total data, and
To be stored. The data created in this way is
The data is registered in the server 200 as a database 201, and in-depth data is displayed according to an instruction from the WWW browser 202. That is, the WWW server 200 extracts the contents of the table headers and headings from the specification file, creates the HTML document by narrowing down the aggregated data at a necessary level as it is, and
It is displayed by the W browser 202. According to the above-described second embodiment, there is an advantage that the specification file for printing as a form and the aggregation data can be used as they are.

[0024]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention,
When searching a database that stores records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels, it is possible to easily perform a deep search.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a data search system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a digging operation as a data search in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example in which all data aggregated for each layer is printed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the data shown in FIG. 3 in a data file format.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of an HTML document for performing top-level display.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a top-level display is performed by a WWW browser.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example in which a level below item A is displayed by a WWW browser.

8 is a diagram showing the contents of an HTML document for displaying a lower level of item A as shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of displaying a level below a genre AB under an item A;

FIG. 10 is a system configuration diagram for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... WWW browser, 2 ... WWW server, 3 ... CGI program, 4 ... database, 100 ... digging instruction, 101 ... activation of CGI program, 102 ... Transmission of the next aggregation level HTML document to WWW server 103 ... Next Transmission of the HTML document of the aggregation level of the above to the WWW browser.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A data retrieval system for retrieving data from a database storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels, wherein the record is identified as a higher level based on the contents of a record of a specified level extracted from the database. Parameter generation means for generating a parameter for extracting a record at the next lower hierarchy level, parameters generated by the parameter generation means, and display target data to be displayed in the record at the specified level. A display unit for displaying the display target data associated with the display unit; and a display unit that displays the display target data when the display target data is designated via the display unit. Search means for searching the database using the attached parameters Data retrieval system characterized by comprising a. 2. When retrieving data from a database storing records divided at a plurality of hierarchical levels, based on the contents of a record of a specified level extracted from the database, the next lower record is set to a higher level. A process of generating a parameter for extracting a record of a hierarchy level; a process of associating the generated parameter with display target data to be displayed in the record of the specified level; And a computer-readable recording medium storing a program that includes a process for causing a computer to execute a process of searching the database using a parameter associated with the display target data when the process is performed.