JP2004118272A - Content display method, content display unit, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sequentially view all the URLs registered with a group, when it is selected. <P>SOLUTION: If a "bookmark" provided in a menu area 52 is selected, a child menu 55 is displayed, if one (for instance, "newspaper") of group names which have been registered with the child menu 55 by a user previously is double-clicked, contents of all bookmarks (for instance, "newspaper A", "newspaper B", "newspaper C") registered with the group are downloaded, and the contents are displayed in a client area 54 on a Web browser screen 50. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a content display method for displaying content (also referred to as a web page) downloaded from a network such as the Internet or an intranet, a content display device, a program, and a recording medium on which the program is recorded.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The web browser is a general term for software for displaying and browsing a document (a so-called web page) described in a structured language such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or XML (extensible Markup Language). Sometimes simply called a browser.
[0003]
The world's first graphical web browser is Mosaic software, developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), but now Netscape Communications, a company developed by the Mosaic development team. Netscape Navigator (Communicator) (R) (hereinafter abbreviated as "NN") of (now AOL Time Warner) and Internet Explorer (R) (hereinafter abbreviated as "IE") of Microsoft Corp. almost divide the market into two parts. .
[0004]
Generally, a web browser is provided to a user in the form of “software” that runs on a personal computer having a network connection function such as the Internet.
For example, when downloading and viewing arbitrary content from a variety of web servers existing on the Internet to his / her personal computer, the user operates the personal computer to start a web browser, In the address box, a location specifying information character string (URL: Uniform Resource Locator) of the content is input. The web browser downloads the content from the web server using the input URL as a clue, analyzes the layout, and displays the layout on the screen (for example, see Patent Literature 1 and Non-Patent Literature 1).
[0005]
Browsing of contents performed in such a procedure is one of important information gathering means, especially today, and for example, users who routinely browse news sources such as newspapers at a fixed time every morning. Not a few.
[0006]
By the way, for example, when browsing n news sources (for convenience, newspaper A, newspaper B, newspaper C), it is troublesome to manually input the URL of each newspaper. There is known a web browser having a mechanism in which a desired content is displayed and browsed without registering the URL by simply registering the identifier and selecting the identifier. For example, it is called “bookmark” in NN and “favorite” in IE (for example, see Non-Patent Document 2).
[0007]
In the case of the above example, the URL of each newspaper and its identification name (eg, "A newspaper", "B newspaper", "C newspaper") are registered in advance in a bookmark (or favorite; hereinafter, represented by "bookmark"). If this is done, it is possible to efficiently collect desired information simply by selecting a bookmark every morning without being conscious of the URL of each newspaper.
[0008]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-157271
[Non-Patent Document 1]
"System of Homepage", [online], October 10, 2000, Seai Senior High School, [searched September 20, 2002], Internet <URL: http: // www. jomon. ne. jp / @ seiai / t2000 / webb / wb002. html>
[Non-patent document 2]
"Registration method to" favorite "or" bookmark "", [online], NEC Corporation, [searched on September 20, 2002], Internet <URL: http://support.biglobe.ne.jp/ help / browser / sbook />
[0009]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in such a conventional web browser, although a desired URL and an identification name can be registered in a bookmark, browsing can be performed only in the registration unit. In order to browse, it is necessary to repeat the bookmark selection operation n times, and there is a problem that the browsing becomes troublesome as the number of registrations (n) increases.
[0010]
In addition, although there is a mechanism called grouping in the above-mentioned bookmarks, it is merely an arrangement of the registered information into an arbitrary category, and has nothing to do with the browsing operation.
[0011]
Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to select one group so that all the URLs registered in the group can be browsed sequentially, thereby simplifying the browsing operation of the registered URLs. It is an object of the present invention to provide a content display method or a content display device whose operability is greatly improved.
[0012]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention, in order to achieve the above object,
Connection means for connecting to the network;
Download means for downloading content from the network;
Display means for displaying the downloaded content in a viewable manner;
Holding means for holding a plurality of pieces of position information specifying the position of the content in a group,
Selecting means for displaying the held information held in the holding means in a selectable manner in group units;
Instruction means for instructing the download means to download the content from the network based on all position information included in the group when one of the groups is selected.
According to the present invention, position information of contents can be organized and stored in groups, and when one group is selected, all contents included in the group can be collectively downloaded and displayed. Therefore, it is possible to display and browse the registered URLs within the group with a single operation, and it is possible to provide a content display method or a content display device with greatly improved operability.
Further, the present invention may be realized in the form of a program for causing a computer to execute a predetermined processing function. In other words, the processing function displays a holding unit that collectively stores a plurality of pieces of position information that specify the position of the content on the network, and displays the held information held in the holding unit in a selectable group unit. And selecting means for instructing, when one of the groups is selected, downloading of content from the network based on all pieces of position information included in the group.
According to the present invention as well, by executing the program on the computer, the position information of the contents can be organized and stored in groups, and when one group is selected, all the contents included in the group are collectively downloaded. Can be displayed. Therefore, it is possible to display and browse the registered URLs within the group with a single operation, and the operability can be greatly improved.
Also, as a preferable aspect of the program, when one of the groups is selected, when instructing to download contents from the network based on all position information included in the group, the content to be downloaded is The number of downloads of the content may be limited so that the number does not exceed a predetermined upper limit.
In this way, for example, when the web browser screen is opened for each content, the number of open web browser screens can be suppressed to a certain upper limit, and in particular, the inconvenience of a specific operating system having a system resource consumption problem is reduced. (Operation instability due to lack of system resources) can be avoided.
Alternatively, as a preferred aspect of the program, the processing function may further include a prefetching unit that prefetches the downloaded content, and a display unit that selectively displays one of the prefetched content. .
In this embodiment, since only one web browser screen is opened, no system resource problem occurs.
[0013]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking application to a web browser as an example. In the following description, the specification or examples of various details and examples of numerical values, character strings, and other symbols are merely reference for clarifying the idea of the present invention, and all or some of them Obviously, the idea of the invention is not limited. In addition, well-known techniques, well-known procedures, well-known architectures, and well-known circuit configurations (hereinafter, “known matters”) will not be described in detail, but this is also for the purpose of simplifying the description, It does not intentionally exclude all or some of the matters. Such a well-known matter can be known to those skilled in the art at the time of filing the present invention, and is naturally included in the following description.
[0014]
First, a first embodiment will be described.
FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram. In this figure, the Internet 1 is a global wide-area network constructed by a general-purpose protocol (communication procedure) called an Internet Protocol (TCP / IP: Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). A variety of servers 2a to 2d such as a web server and a file server are connected to the Internet 1, and the Internet 1 is connected to access points (AP) 3a to 3c of connection companies called Internet Service Providers (ISPs). A network terminal of a user (hereinafter referred to as “user”), for example, personal computers 4a and 4b and a portable information terminal 4c are connected.
[0015]
The Internet 1 may include a wired network such as a public telephone line network, or may include a wireless network such as a mobile phone line or a PHS line. Alternatively, a dedicated line may be partially included. The connection form of the user may be not only a dial-up connection but also a constant connection form using DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), CATV (Community Antenna Television), optical fiber or wireless infrastructure.
[0016]
The servers 2a to 2d are various servers as described above, but for convenience of description, the three servers 2a to 2c on the left side are so-called WWWs that provide a browsing service of contents represented by web pages. (World Wide Web) server (or web server), and the leftmost server 2a provides a web page of "A newspaper company", and the second server 2b from the left has a web page of "B newspaper company". The server to be provided, the third server 2c from the left, shall provide the web page of "C Newspaper Company".
[0017]
Each of the network terminals 4a to 4c has a mechanism for accessing an arbitrary server (servers 2a to 2d) on the Internet 1, downloading contents provided by the server, displaying the contents on a screen, and browsing the contents. Hereinafter, the leftmost personal computer 4a will be described as a representative.
[0018]
FIG. 2 is an external view of the personal computer 4a and a conceptual diagram of its hardware configuration. The personal computer 4a is a general-purpose product having a known architecture (such as a DOS / V architecture). In the drawing, a so-called desktop personal computer 4a in which a display device 12, a keyboard 13, a pointing device (a mouse 14 in the drawing), and the like are connected to the main body 11 is illustrated, but the invention is not limited to this. It may be a notebook type or a tower type.
[0019]
The name of the personal computer 4a ("personal computer" or "personal computer") has no special meaning and is merely a general name. Other names such as “workstation”, “office computer (office computer)”, “minicomputer (minicomputer)”, or “information processing device” may be used.
[0020]
Although the personal computer 4a has a slight difference in configuration in terms of scale, stability, etc., depending on the model, there is no great difference in the basic configuration (architecture) as a so-called "computer". Reference numeral 4a denotes a main body 11 in which a CPU 16, a RAM 17, a disk controller 18, a disk device 19, a display controller 20, a keyboard controller 21, a modem 22, a main bus 23, a bus interface 24, an internal bus 25, and the like are provided. The display unit 12, the keyboard 13, the mouse 14, and the like are mounted on the unit 11.
[0021]
The above configuration shows a case where a dial-up connection is made to the ISP AP via a public telephone line. In the case of a dial-up connection via a digital network such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), the modem 22 should be read as a terminal adapter. In the case of a constant connection mode using DSL or CATV, the modem 22 is read as a DSL modem or a CATV modem, respectively. Alternatively, in the case of Ethernet (registered trademark) connection via an optical fiber, the modem 22 should be read as an Ethernet (registered trademark) unit.
[0022]
The personal computer 4a loads an operating system and various application programs (hereinafter, these are collectively referred to as “software resources”) installed in the disk device 19 in advance into the RAM 17 and executes the same by the CPU 16, thereby causing the CPU 16 and the like to operate. Various processing functions are realized by the organic combination of the above hardware resources and the above software resources.
[0023]
One of the processing functions is a web browser function executed in the personal computer 4a. Hereinafter, this web browser function will be described in detail.
FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating a simplified hierarchical model of hardware resources and software resources of the personal computer 4a. The hierarchical model 30 simulates an OSI (Open Systems Interconnection: an open system interconnection) reference model, in which an operating system layer 32 and an application layer 33 are provided on a hardware resource layer 31. It has a laminated structure.
[0024]
The hardware resource layer 31 includes a hardware resource 34 such as the CPU 16 (the configuration in FIG. 2B), and via an interface (API: Application Program Interface) of an operating system 35 included in the operating system layer 32 thereon. Thus, indirect use from the application layer 33 is enabled.
[0025]
The application layer 33 includes at least a predetermined application program 36 (for example, “Internet Explorer (R)” of Microsoft Corporation) which is a main part of the “web browser function”, and these software resources (the operating system 35 and the application The “web browser function” in the present embodiment is virtually realized by the organic combination of the program 36) and the hardware resource 34. The application program 36 corresponds to a “program” described in the gist of the present invention.
[0026]
FIG. 3B is a conceptual diagram of the “web browser function” in the present embodiment. In this figure, a web browser 38 is realized by an organic connection between the above-mentioned software resources (the operating system 35 and the application program 36) and the hardware resources 34, as described above, and has a functional configuration. Can be roughly divided into sections such as a communication section 39, an input section 40, a data receiving section 41, a data requesting section 42, a group selection processing section 43, a group information holding section 44, and a display control section 45. Note that these components do not show all of the web browser functions. It is representatively shown what is considered necessary for understanding the operation and effect of the present embodiment.
[0027]
The web browser 38 corresponds to the “content display device” described in the gist of the invention, the communication unit 39 corresponds to “connection means” described in the gist, and the data receiving unit 41 corresponds to the “download means, The data request unit 42 corresponds to the “instruction unit” described in the gist, the group selection processing unit 43 corresponds to the “selection unit” described in the gist, and the group information holding unit 44 corresponds to The display control unit 45 corresponds to the “holding unit” described in the gist, and the display control unit 45 corresponds to the “display unit” described in the gist.
[0028]
The communication unit 39 is realized by an organic combination of a communication function of software resources (mainly a communication function of the operating system 35) and a communication function of hardware resources 34 (mainly, a communication function of the modem 22). It performs communication based on Internet protocol and communication based on the Internet protocol.
[0029]
The input unit 40 takes in user operation commands, that is, key commands from the keyboard 13 and the mouse 14, and outputs those commands to the group selection processing unit 43 and the display control unit 45. Commands from the keyboard 13 include commands such as characters and numbers, and various control commands such as function keys. Key commands from the mouse 14 include a mouse cursor coordinate command, a left button operation command, and a right button. Operation commands and other commands (for example, wheel operation commands) are included.
The data receiving unit 41 receives the content downloaded from the server on the Internet 1 in response to the request from the data requesting unit 42, and outputs it to the display control unit 45.
[0030]
The data request unit 42 makes a content download request to the server of the Internet 1, and in particular, in the present embodiment, when receiving a group selection signal from the group selection processing unit 43, the data is included in the group. The URLs of all the contents are transmitted to the Internet 1 via the communication unit 39, and a request for downloading the contents specified by the URLs from the Internet 1 is made.
[0031]
The group selection processing unit 43 performs a “bookmark” (detailed later) operation process of the web browser screen based on a command (mainly a mouse cursor coordinate command or a left button operation command) from the input unit 40. The group selection processing provided for the bookmark is performed.
The group information holding unit 44 holds various kinds of information (group information and bookmark information for each group) necessary for the group selection processing in the group selection processing unit 43 so as to be updated and newly added.
[0032]
The display control unit 45 generates a web browser screen (to be described later), displays the web browser screen on the display device 12, and, when receiving the content from the data receiving unit 41, analyzes the layout and analyzes the layout in the web browser screen. And a user interface (bookmark) required for the above group selection process is displayed on the web browser screen.
[0033]
FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating a web browser screen. In this figure, the display area 12a of the display device 12 has, for example, a resolution of XGA (extended Graphics Array) (1024 × 768 dots), and when the personal computer 4a executes the web browser 38, The web browser screen 50 is displayed in the display area 12a.
[0034]
The web browser screen 50 is, for example, Windows (R), which is one of the representative operating systems, and its basic layout is as follows: a title bar 51 is arranged at the upper end, and a menu area is arranged below the title bar 51. 52, and an address box 53 and a client area 54 as a user operation area are further disposed below.
[0035]
The client area 54 is a child object of the web browser screen 50, and the client area 54 is used as a display browsing screen for various contents downloaded from the Internet 1.
[0036]
Here, the menu area 52 has various menu items such as “File”, “Edit”, “Display”, “Bookmark”, “Tool”, and “Help”. When an arbitrary menu item is selected, , A child menu item of the menu item is displayed in a pull-down manner. Note that "selection" means that the cursor of the mouse 14 is positioned on the target and a left-click operation is performed (hereinafter, simply referred to as "selection" or "click").
[0037]
FIG. 4B is a diagram showing a selected state of “bookmark”. In the child menu 55 of the bookmark, several fixed menus ("Add to bookmark", "Organize bookmarks", "Batch registration of bookmarks" in the figure) are displayed. Some group names (“newspaper”, “broadcast”, “entertainment” in the figure) registered in advance are listed. The symbol at the right end of each group name (triangle pointing right) indicates the existence of the grandchild menu 56 in the lower layer. In the illustrated example, three bookmarks included in one group (“newspaper”) highlighted. (“A newspaper”, “B newspaper”, “C newspaper”) are displayed.
[0038]
FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram of an information holding table (hereinafter, referred to as “bookmark information table”) of the group information holding unit 44. The bookmark information table 57 is composed of, for example, two tables (a group table 58 and a bookmark table 59) linked by a one-to-many relationship.
[0039]
The group table 58 has a group ID field 58a for storing identification information (ID) for each group, and a group name field 58b for storing a group name. The bookmark table 59 includes a bookmark ID field 59a for storing identification information (ID) for each bookmark, a link field 59b for the group table 58, a bookmark name field 59c for storing a bookmark name, and a URL (for each bookmark). And a URL field 59d for storing content position information on the Internet 1). The link field 59b of the bookmark table 59 stores link information of the corresponding group name (information of the group ID field 58a of the group table 58).
[0040]
By using two tables in which such a one-to-many relationship is set, for example, by making full use of the Structured Query Language (SQL) language, a temporary list in which all group names and bookmark names are listed up List tables can be configured.
[0041]
FIG. 5B is a diagram showing the list table. The bookmark ID field 60a of the list table 60 corresponds to the bookmark ID field 59a of the bookmark table 59, the group name field 60b corresponds to the group name field 59b of the group table 58, and the bookmark name field 60c corresponds to the bookmark table 59 of the bookmark table 59. The URL field 60d corresponds to the bookmark name field 59c, and the URL field 60d corresponds to the URL field 59d of the bookmark table 59.
[0042]
For example, in the example shown in the figure, three bookmarks “A newspaper”, “B newspaper” and “C newspaper” are registered for the group name “newspaper”, and their URLs are “http: // www. a-news.co.jp "," http://www.b-news.co.jp ", and" http://www.c-news.co.jp "are registered.
Also, for the group name “broadcast”, three bookmarks “A broadcast”, “B broadcast”, and “C broadcast” are registered, and as URLs thereof, “http://www.a-tv.co.” .Http ”,“ http://www.b-tv.co.jp ”, and“ http://www.c-tv.co.jp ”are registered.
[0043]
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the “menu selection event processing program” on the web browser screen 50. This program constitutes a part of the application program 36 mounted on the application layer 33 of the hierarchical model 30 in FIG. This program is executed when any menu item in the menu area 52 of the web browser screen 50 is selected. That is, it is determined whether any menu item in the menu area 52 has been selected (step S11). If it has been selected, it is determined whether the menu item is a “bookmark” (step S11). S12). When a menu item other than “bookmark” is selected, a process (not shown) for the menu item is executed. On the other hand, when “bookmark” is selected, the child menu 55 of the bookmark is displayed. A group selection is determined (step S13).
[0044]
Here, the group selection means selecting one of “newspaper”, “broadcast”, and “entertainment” registered in advance by the user in the example of FIG. 4B. If any of “newspaper”, “broadcast” or “entertainment” is selected, the process proceeds to the next step S14, while a fixed menu other than the group (“add bookmark”, “organize bookmark” in the figure) , “Bookmark registration of bookmarks”), processing (not shown) relating to those fixed menus is executed.
[0045]
When a group is selected, for example, "newspaper" is selected, first, a double-click operation (operation of pressing the left button of the mouse 14 twice at short intervals) is determined (step S14). If not, it is determined that the operation is a single click operation (operation of the right button of the mouse 14), and the grandchild menu 56 is displayed (step S15).
[0046]
In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, in response to any operation of selecting a bookmark displayed in the grandchild menu 56 (“A newspaper” in the figure), the URL of the bookmark is extracted from the list table 60, and The content of the URL (“http://www.a-news.co.jp”) is downloaded and reproduced and displayed on the client area 54 of the web browser screen 50. Therefore, similarly to the related art described at the beginning, the content can be browsed in units of bookmarks ("A newspaper", "B newspaper", "C newspaper").
[0047]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S14 that the double-click operation has been performed, a “batch browsing process of contents in a group” (step S16) unique to the present embodiment is executed.
[0048]
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the collective browsing processing of the contents in a group. When this flowchart is executed, first, values are set to two variables Gname and imax (step S16a). Here, Gname is a group name variable, imax is a registration number variable within the group, and Gname is set to the selected group name (hereinafter referred to as “newspaper” for convenience) determined in step S13 of FIG. Is set to the number of bookmarks registered in the newspaper group (in the example shown, three bookmarks are registered in the group “newspaper”).
[0049]
Next, the expression “imax> 0” is evaluated (step S16b). If the evaluation result is False (“NO”), it is determined that the bookmark is not registered in the selected group, and the process ends. On the other hand, if the evaluation result is True (“YES”), the following processing is executed.
[0050]
First, the loop variable i is initialized (i = 1) (step S16c), and a record having the same group name (“newspaper”) as Gname is extracted from the list table 60 (step S16d). Since “Newspaper” is set in Gname, the corresponding record (the record having the same group name as Gname) in the list table 60 is the first, second, and third records in FIG. (Records marked with *).
[0051]
Next, a URL is extracted from the i-th record (step S16e), a download request for the content of the URL is made (step S16f), and a loop variable i is incremented by 1 (step S16g), and then the expression “i> imax” is evaluated. (Step S16h), and repeatedly execute Step S16e and the subsequent steps until the evaluation result becomes False (“YES”).
[0052]
Here, when i = 1, the URL (“http://www.a-news.co.jp”) of the first record of the list table 60 is extracted, and the content of the URL is downloaded. When i = 2, the URL (“http://www.b-news.co.jp”) of the second record of the list table 60 is extracted, and the content of the URL is downloaded. Further, when i = 3, the URL (“http://www.c-news.co.jp”) of the third record in the list table 60 is extracted, and the content of the URL is downloaded. Then, when i = 4, the evaluation result of the expression “i> imax” becomes False (“YES”), so that the processing exits from the loop.
[0053]
Therefore, according to the above-described flowchart, as shown in FIG. 9, “bookmark” provided in the menu area 52 of the web browser screen 50 is selected, and an arbitrary group name (for example, “newspaper”) displayed in the child menu 55 is selected. )), The URLs (“http://www.a-news.co.”) Of all the bookmarks (“A newspaper”, “B newspaper”, “C newspaper”) registered in the group are simply clicked. .Http ”,“ http://www.b-news.co.jp ”, and“ http://www.c-news.co.jp ”) are extracted from the list table 60, and their URLs are used as clues. The contents of A newspaper, B newspaper and C newspaper are sequentially downloaded from each server (servers 2a to 2c) of the It can be displayed on the screen The 50a~50c.
[0054]
As a result, as compared with the prior art described at the beginning, each of “A newspaper”, “B newspaper”, and “C newspaper” is individually selected and displayed and browsed, the labor of the selection operation is reduced. be able to. Since the operation reduction rate can be expressed by 1 / imax, the browsing operation can be simplified and the operability is greatly improved, especially as the number of registrations in the group (imax) increases. Can be provided.
[0055]
FIG. 10 is a display state diagram of batch browsing in the above embodiment. In this example, the web browser screens 50a to 50c are opened for the number of bookmarks included in the selected group. In the illustrated example, three representative web browser screens 50a to 50c are display screens when i = 1, i = 2, and i = 3 in the above example, respectively.
[0056]
These web browser screens 50a to 50c may be opened at the same time as the download request (execution of step S16f in FIG. 8), or may be opened at the same time as the download is completed (the reception of the requested content is completed).
For example, when the file is opened simultaneously with the download request, the content of "A newspaper" is displayed on the web browser screen 50a located on the first page (front), and the content of "B newspaper" is displayed on the web browser screen 50b located on the second page. Is displayed, and the content of "C Newspaper" is displayed on the web browser screen 50c located on the third surface (rear surface).
[0057]
When browsing the content (newspaper B, newspaper C) hidden behind the first page, the user only has to click the screen frame of the web browser screen 50b or 50c. In the illustrated example, the web browser screens 50a to 50c have a style of "display overlapping", but the present invention is not limited to this, and a style of "display vertically and horizontally" may be used.
[0058]
Next, batch bookmark registration will be described.
FIG. 11 shows a "bookmark batch registration operation screen" opened when "bookmark batch registration" (see FIG. 4B), which is one of the fixed menus provided in the bookmark child menu 55, is selected. FIG.
[0059]
The bookmark batch registration screen 61 includes a list box control 62 for displaying registered bookmarks within a group, an OK command button control 63, a cancel command button control 64, a group name registration text box control 65, a group hierarchy display tree control 66, and a new creation command button. It has a control 67 and the like.
[0060]
The illustrated example shows a state where “newspaper” of the existing group of the group hierarchy display tree control 66 is selected. That is, in this case, the selected group of the group hierarchy display tree control 66 is highlighted and the group name (“newspaper”) is displayed in the group name registration text box control 65.
[0061]
The information (for convenience, “D newspaper”, “E newspaper”, and “F newspaper”) displayed in the list box control 62 for displaying the registered bookmarks in the group opens three web browser screens 50 and displays The URLs of “D newspaper”, “E newspaper” and “F newspaper” are manually input into the address box 53, and the contents are downloaded and displayed on the web browser screens 50.
[0062]
When the OK command button control 63 is clicked in such a state, "D newspaper", "E newspaper" and "F newspaper" are additionally registered in the bookmark of the selected group ("newspaper" in the illustrated example) at that time. You. Alternatively, if a new group (for example, “other newspaper”) is created by clicking the new creation command button control 66, “D newspaper” and “E newspaper” are added to the bookmark of the new group (“other newspaper”). And "F newspaper" are registered.
[0063]
Therefore, according to the bookmark batch registration screen 61, the bookmark batch registration screen 61 is opened with the URL of an arbitrary content manually input and the content is displayed, and a desired group is selected (or a new group is selected). By simply clicking the OK command button control 63, the URLs of all the contents currently being browsed can be registered collectively, and the labor for registering bookmarks within a group can be reduced.
[0064]
In this embodiment, all the bookmarks in the group are collectively downloaded and their download contents are displayed on individual web browser screens. However, as is well known, each web browser screen consumes system resources. In particular, operating systems such as the Windows (R) 95/98 / Me series may cause system instability. For example, the type of the operating system is determined and the operating system ( In the case of the above series, it is desirable to set a certain upper limit on the number of open web browser screens or the number of content downloads.
[0065]
Next, a second embodiment will be described.
In the above embodiment, an example has been described in which the group selection process is performed using the menu item (bookmark) in the menu area 52, but the idea of the present invention is not limited to this. The client area 54 of the web browser screen 50 may be used, for example, as follows.
[0066]
FIG. 12A shows an example in which a sub-screen for group selection is displayed in the client area 71 of the web browser screen 70. In this figure, the client area 71 includes a main screen 72 for displaying contents and a sub screen 73 located on the left side of the main screen 72. The sub screen 73 displays a group list in a tree format.
[0067]
“Newspaper”, “broadcast”, and “entertainment” on the sub screen 73 are registered group names, and a square figure with a plus (“+”) sign added to the head of each group name is assigned to the group. This indicates that one or more bookmarks are registered.
[0068]
Now, when one group name, for example, "newspaper" (or a square figure at the head of "newspaper") is selected, the symbol in the square figure becomes minus ("-") as shown in FIG. At the same time, a list of bookmarks registered in the group name (“A newspaper”, “B newspaper”, “C newspaper”) is expanded and displayed.
[0069]
At this time, the contents of all the bookmarks (“A newspaper”, “B newspaper” and “C newspaper”) in the group are collectively downloaded to the RAM 17 by the look-ahead method, and one of the contents (in the order of the start or completion of the download). The content at the top of the order; the content of newspaper A for convenience) is displayed on the main screen 72.
When browsing another content (contents of newspaper B or newspaper C), the user selects the corresponding character string (newspaper B or newspaper C) of the expanded bookmark to read the newspaper B pre-read in the RAM 17. Alternatively, the contents 74 and 75 of the C newspaper (see FIG. 13) are loaded on the main screen 72 and displayed.
[0070]
Therefore, also in this example, as shown in FIG. 13, by simply selecting the group name on the sub screen 73, all the bookmarks registered in that group can be downloaded collectively, and Similar effects can be obtained, and in this example, one of the contents collectively downloaded to the RAM 17 by the prefetching method is displayed on the main screen 72, and thereafter, the main contents are switched while switching the contents as desired. Since the web browser screen is displayed on the screen 72, the number of displayed web browser screens can always be "1", and consumption of system resources can be prevented.
[0071]
When all the bookmarks in the group are downloaded at a time, the download of the content may fail due to a broken link or a server down.
FIG. 12C is a diagram showing a device for clearly indicating the success and failure of the download to the user. In this example, only “A newspaper” and “B newspaper” are underlined. Generally, in a web browser, the underline means the link attribute, so if you only add the underline to the bookmark that has been downloaded successfully, you can intuitively inform the user of the success or failure of the download. Can be.
[0072]
Further, as shown in FIG. 14, the cursor 76 may be placed on an arbitrary bookmark, and for example, by left-clicking the mouse 14, the detailed information display screen 77 of the download content of the bookmark may be opened. The user can know detailed information of the content (for example, link information such as a form structure and an image) as necessary.
[0073]
Next, a third embodiment will be described.
This embodiment is common to the first embodiment in the point of group selection, in that all bookmarks registered in a group are prefetched and downloaded, and prefetched contents can be selected one by one. Although it is common to the above-described second embodiment in that it is displayed, it differs from any of the other embodiments in the point of the pre-read content selection operation method.
[0074]
FIG. 15 is a conceptual diagram of group selection in the third embodiment. In this embodiment, a group is selected by selecting “bookmark” provided in the menu area 78 of the web browser screen 80 to display a child menu 79, and an arbitrary group name (for example, “ Do this by double-clicking on the newspaper ").
[0075]
By this group selection operation, the URLs (“http: //www.a-news”) of all the bookmarks (“A newspaper”, “B newspaper”, “C newspaper”) registered in the group (“newspaper”) are obtained. .Co.jp "," http://www.b-news.co.jp "," http://www.c-news.co.jp ") are extracted from the list table 60, and their URLs are extracted. As a clue, the contents of the newspapers A, B and C are downloaded from the servers (servers 2a to 2c) of the Internet 1.
[0076]
The downloaded content is pre-read in the RAM 17, and one of the contents (for example, the content whose download has been started first or the content whose download has been completed first) is displayed on the main screen 81 of the web browser screen 80.
[0077]
Here, in the web browser screen 80, a sub-screen 82 is provided on the left side of the main screen 81 for displaying the content, and on the sub-screen 82, command button controls 83a to 83c for each pre-read content are arranged in a predetermined order. (Eg, in the order of download start or download completion). For example, if the arrangement order is the download start order, and the order is A newspaper → B newspaper → C newspaper, the sub-screen 82 displays a command button control 83a for A newspaper content and a command button for B newspaper content in order from the top. A button control 83b and a command button control 83c for C newspaper content are arranged.
[0078]
In each of the command button controls 83a to 83c, a content name (for example, "A newspaper", "B newspaper", "C newspaper") is displayed, and other useful information (for example, the content of the content in the illustrated example) is displayed. (Update date and time information) is displayed.
[0079]
In FIG. 15, at the top of the sub screen 82, a command button control 83a for A newspaper content is currently located. This position corresponds to the content displayed on the main screen 81. For example, when the command button control 83b for the B newspaper content is selected as shown in FIG. The content is loaded from the RAM 17 and displayed, and the command button control 83b for the B newspaper content is moved to the top of the sub screen 82.
[0080]
Also in the third embodiment, all the bookmarks in the group are read ahead and one of the contents is displayed on the web browser screen 80, so that the system resources are not shortaged. By selecting the command button controls 83a to 83c, the display of the contents can be freely switched. Further, the positions of the command button controls 83a to 83c are switched in accordance with the switching of the display of the contents. The content inside can be easily identified.
[0081]
The main function of each of the above embodiments is functionally realized by an organic combination of hardware assets including a microcomputer and software assets such as an operating system and various programs. Since the operating system can use a general-purpose operating system, essential items indispensable to the present invention are substantially a program for executing the above-described “collective browsing processing of contents in a group” (see FIG. 8). Alternatively, it can be said that the programs are displayed in the programs for displaying the screens shown in FIGS. 11, 12, and 15.
[0082]
Therefore, the present invention provides a method for recording on a flexible disk, an optical disk, a hard disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like, which stores the application program 36 itself corresponding to these programs or a program component (for example, a plug-in) mounted on the application program 36. It includes media (including those that are on a distribution channel as well as those that provide only recorded contents on a network).
[0083]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, the position information of contents can be organized and stored in a group unit, and when one group is selected, all contents included in the group can be collectively downloaded and displayed. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a content display method or a content display device in which browsing operation of a registered URL is simplified and operability is greatly improved.
Also, when instructing to download content from the network, if the number of downloads of the content is limited so that the number of the content to be downloaded does not exceed a predetermined upper limit, for example, for each content, When opening a browser screen, the number of open web browser screens can be suppressed to a certain upper limit, and in particular, the inconvenience of a specific operating system that has a problem of system resource consumption (instability due to insufficient system resources) Can be avoided.
Alternatively, if the system is provided with a pre-reading means for pre-reading the downloaded content and a display means for selectively displaying one of the pre-read content, only one web browser screen is opened. Does not occur.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram.
FIG. 2 is an external view of a personal computer 4a and a conceptual diagram of a hardware configuration thereof.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a simplified hierarchical model of hardware resources and software resources of the personal computer 4a, and a conceptual diagram of a “web browser function” in the present embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a web browser screen and a selection state diagram of “bookmark”.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a bookmark information table generated in a RAM 17 and a list table.
6 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a “menu selection event processing program” on the web browser screen 50. FIG.
FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of one of the bookmark selection operations displayed on the grandchild menu 56.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a collective browsing process of contents in a group.
FIG. 9 is an operation conceptual diagram when an arbitrary group name displayed in a child menu 55 is double-clicked.
FIG. 10 is a display state diagram of batch browsing.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a bookmark batch registration operation screen.
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing another embodiment.
FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram of a group name selection operation on a sub screen 73.
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a detailed information display screen 77 of a download content.
FIG. 15 is a conceptual diagram of group selection in the third embodiment.
FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram of display content switching according to the third embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Internet (network)
36 Application programs (programs)
38 Web browser (content display device)
39 Communication unit (connection means)
41 Data receiving unit (download means, pre-read means)
42 Data request part (instruction means)
43 Group selection processing unit (selection means)
44 Group information holding unit (holding means)
45 Display control unit (display means)

Claims (6)

A content display method for downloading content from a network and displaying the content in a viewable manner,
A plurality of position information for specifying the position of the content are grouped together.
A content display method, wherein when one of the groups is selected, the content is downloaded from the network based on all pieces of position information included in the group. Connection means for connecting to the network;
Download means for downloading content from the network;
Display means for displaying the downloaded content in a viewable manner.
Holding means for holding a plurality of pieces of position information specifying the position of the content in a group and
Selection means for displaying the held information held in the holding means in a selectable manner in group units;
An instruction unit for instructing the download unit to download the content from the network based on all the location information included in the group when one of the groups is selected. Display device. A program for causing a computer to execute a predetermined processing function,
The processing function includes a holding unit that collectively stores a plurality of pieces of position information for specifying the position of the content on the network, and a selection unit that displays the held information held in the holding unit in a group unit. Means for instructing to download content from the network based on all location information included in the group when one of the groups is selected. The instruction means, when one of the groups is selected, when instructing to download the content from the network based on all the position information included in the group, the number of contents to be downloaded is predetermined. 4. The program according to claim 3, wherein the number of downloads of the content is limited so as not to exceed the upper limit number of contents. 4. The program according to claim 3, wherein the processing function further includes a pre-reading unit that pre-reads the downloaded content, and a display unit that selectively displays one of the pre-read content. A recording medium storing the program according to claim 3.

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