JP3767091B2 - Screen dialogue processing device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a software and a browser for accessing a WWW (World Wide Web) server on the Internet or an intranet and viewing the data. In particular, it relates to improvement in operability in the case of an application that performs a search based on input conditions.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The WWW server stores the data (pages) displayed by the browser as a file. When a request for data transmission is received from the browser, the corresponding data file is transmitted to the browser, and the received file is interpreted by the browser. And display.
[0003]
The WWW system is a distributed system, and data displayed by the browser is distributed and arranged on a plurality of WWW servers. The browser designates the position of data to be displayed by a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that is an address uniquely determined on the Internet, which includes a transmission protocol name, a server name, and a file name. Since the WWW server name that is the destination of the transmission request is managed in association with the IP address that is an address on the communication network, the server name specified from the browser is converted into an IP address and searched on the network. A transmission request is notified.
[0004]
In addition to sending the file specified by the URL to the browser, the WWW server can also start another program and request processing, and send the processed result back to the browser. The WWW system has an interface called CGI (Common Gateway Interface), and it is possible to specify an argument when specifying a URL from a browser. Therefore, if the search expression is notified from the browser as an argument, the WWW server notifies the search expression when the database search program is started, and the database program notifies the browser according to the search expression via the WWW server. It becomes possible.
[0005]
Conventionally, when there are a plurality of WWW servers linked with a database search program, the browser has to specify a search expression for the database for each WWW server URL and send a search result transmission request. . For example, when searching a database connected to a plurality of WWW servers, as shown in (1) and (2) in FIG. 9A, the browser displays a search result received from the server X after displaying a document. It was necessary to make a search request (request to send search results) to the server Y.
[0006]
In addition, for example, even when information is searched for one database, when tracking several search routes that have been branched in a tree structure, it is possible to return to the original branch and change to another In order to continue searching by following the route, it was necessary to go back to the screen for selecting a branch by returning the original browser screen one by one. If you go back to the top screen directly by the menu, if you follow other branches, you will need to repeat the same operation to find the search result screen of another route that was searched before when returning to the original (A case where A3 *, B2 *, and C4 * screens found by tracing each of the branch information A, B, and C in FIG. 9B are compared).
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As mentioned above, the operation is complicated, and it is required to repeat a simple operation that is particularly understandable, which leads to the promotion of operation mistakes, loss of willingness to work, or reduction of work efficiency. There was a need for a solution.
[0008]
In view of these points, the present invention
Provide a means that allows multiple screens to correspond to a single browser, and for the same request to start a WWW server by a single operation or to create a copy of a search screen corresponding to multiple branches. For the purpose.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The above problem is solved by a screen interaction processing apparatus configured as follows.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention.
[0010]
In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a screen dialogue processing apparatus using a computer.
1 is a dialogue screen generating means of the present invention, which displays a plurality of dialogue screens 10 based on information from the transmission information input means 2, the condition table 3 or the reception screen display means 7 and so on, while switching the screens simultaneously or in parallel. Thus, it is possible to interact with a plurality of objects.
Here condition table 3 Ru der those including format of the target address data to interact is a table that stores the object attributes that interact through the screen.
[0011]
The transmission information input means 2 is for inputting information to be transmitted to the object of dialogue. When the same content information is sent to multiple targets, the format of the input transmission information is converted so that the input operation can be performed only once even if the data received by the other party is different. Is a transmission information converting means 4 which is one means constituting the dialogue screen generating means 1.
[0012]
The transmission information conversion means 4 generates a screen frame corresponding to a plurality of preset conversation objects notified separately by the transmission information input means 2 or stored in the condition table 3. Based on the attribute, the input transmission information is converted.
The screen frame generating means 5 is activated from the transmission information converting means and generates a necessary number of screen frames.
This screen frame is used to input data to be transmitted to the dialogue target or to display a screen received from the dialogue target.
Also, Ru der which may be information to be transmitted by selecting the further link information to received screen embedded in another document on the screen.
[0013]
The screen transmission means 6 designates information embedded in the screen displayed in the screen frame and transmits it to the object of dialogue, or transmits the transmission information input in the screen frame. The reception screen display means 7 displays the screen information received from the dialogue target in a corresponding screen frame.
[0014]
The screen copy means 8 copies the screen information received by the reception screen display means 7 to the screen frame generated by the screen frame generation means 5 as necessary to form a new dialog screen.
Copied screen Ru der what the dialogue screen to interact independently.
[0015]
A case where the present invention is realized on a WWW system will be described below.
[0016]
In the condition table 3, URLs of a plurality of WWW servers that request a search, a search expression format for each database search program linked to the WWW server, and the like are set. When the transmission information input means 2 notifies the interactive screen generating means 1 of the search formula input by the operator, the interactive screen generating means 1 refers to the condition table 3 and refers to each of a plurality of registered WWW servers. The transmission information conversion means 4 converts the format into a format for each WWW server. The screen frame generation means 5 activates a browser that requests processing for each WWW server, and each browser issues a search request to each WWW server based on the data converted by the transmission information conversion means 4. The browser transmits a search expression to the designated URL by the screen transmission unit 6. The designated WWW server activates and executes a linked database search program based on the requested search expression, and transmits the search result to the browser. In the browser that has received the data, the received screen display means 7 displays the search result.
[0017]
Also, when using the already searched results when searching to a plurality of WWW servers, the screen frame generating means 5 does not start a plurality of browsers at the same time, but first starts one browser and searches the search results. After receiving the data, the received search result data and link information indicating the URL of another WWW server are displayed together. When the reception screen display means 7 receives the search result data, the reception screen display means 7 notifies the screen copy means 8, and the screen copy means 8 displays screen data composed of link information and search result data of another WWW server registered in the condition table. Is generated and notified to the browser activated by the screen frame generating means 5. Since the browser can display not only the data notified from the server but also the data on the local disk, the search result and the link information are displayed according to the notified data. Since the activated browser displays the link information of another WWW server together with the search result data, the operator can request a search by selecting an appropriate server from a plurality of link information according to the search result. It becomes.
[0018]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram (part 1) of the embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, a form realized by a computer program executed on a computer used for general purposes such as a personal computer or a workstation is shown.
[0019]
The screen interaction processing apparatus of the present invention is realized by executing a computer program on a computer including a processing device, a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device, an input / output device, and the like. The computer program is stored and provided in a portable medium such as a floppy disk or CD-ROM, or in a main storage device or auxiliary storage device of another computer connected to the network. The recording medium of the present invention corresponds to the portable medium, the main storage device, and the auxiliary storage device.
[0020]
The provided computer program is loaded directly from the portable medium into the main storage device of the computer, or once copied or installed from the portable medium to the auxiliary storage device, then loaded into the main storage device and executed. In addition, when the data is stored and provided in another device connected to the network, it is copied to the auxiliary storage device after being received from the other device via the network, and loaded into the main storage device for execution.
[0021]
The figure shows a system for searching books in a plurality of libraries, from library A and library B having WWW servers 28a and 28b connected by the Internet 27, and from a book search browser 20 which is a WWW browser to which the present invention is applied. Become.
28a and 28b are provided with information for lending management of collections in the databases 29a and 29b, respectively, and provide services such as searching for collections via the Internet.
Here when one books search request RQ26 is input to the book search browser 20, the search request RQA26a for multiple libraries by request converter 21 of the present invention is an interface to the network 27 are converted to RQB26b port Pa, It is sent out via the port Pb.
[0022]
As shown in the figure, the book search browser 20 further includes a screen frame generation unit 22, which generates a plurality of screens, a screen A 24a and a screen B 24b corresponding to a preset library to be searched, and interacts with the servers 28a and 28b. Like to do. On the screens 24a and 24b, search results from the servers of each library or document A25a and document B25b showing the process are displayed. The following describes the book search operation.
[0023]
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram (part 1) of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. 5, 6, and 7 are explanatory diagrams (part 2), (part 3), and (part 4) of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. The left half of FIG. 4 shows a flowchart, and the right half shows the state of transmission of corresponding search information. A description will be given according to the flowchart with reference to the right diagram.
[0024]
In step S41, a common condition for searching for a plurality of libraries is input from the WWW browser screen 40 as a book title and an author name. Here, the common condition is a minimum requirement in any library among the search conditions required by a plurality of library servers, and a book name “Hanayome”, an author name “Akazawa”, and the like are input. In step S42, screen frames corresponding to the number of ports set in advance corresponding to the number of libraries to be searched are created. That is, it is a screen frame displayed on 43a, 43b, 43c.
[0025]
In step S43, the input common search condition is converted into a form script adapted to the search item format for each library. In the figure on the right, RQA 41a for library A, RQB 41b for library B, etc. are shown. In step S44, the server of each library is designated as the destination and each form script is transmitted in parallel by designating the screen frame of each set port.
[0026]
In step S45, a search result document sent from each server or an intermediate result document for further specifying additional conditions is displayed on the screen frame of the port corresponding to each server. That is, the screens 43a, 43b, and 43c are displayed. After that, as shown in step S46, detailed information is designated for each library according to the display contents of each screen, and the target book is searched. Of course, at this time, it becomes clear that the library that has a different number of repeated dialogues with the server for each library immediately finds that there is a current collection, that there is no library, and that others have more desirable books. Since there seems to be, there will be situations such as continuing dialogue to exchange additional information.
[0027]
In this way, it is possible to realize a method of proceeding such that the search results 44a, 44b, 44c for each library are displayed in parallel in step S47, and the most desirable search results are adopted by comparison.
[0028]
FIG. 5 shows an explanatory diagram (part 2) of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. Here, the conversion of the search item format shown in FIG. 4 will be additionally described. As described above, the items required for the search differ depending on the difference in the server search system accepted by each library and the difference in library operation. However, when searching for a target book through a browser, it is natural to start searching for items that are commonly required in any library. As shown in the figure, if the book title and author name of the book are specified, any library will be able to find printed materials, CDs, etc. that contain the desired contents.
[0029]
As shown in the screen of 50, the search data to be transmitted to the A and B libraries with the title “Hanayome” and the author name “Akakawa” sent to both the A and B libraries is addressed to the A library 52a from the communication port Pa. In addition to the above, as shown in 51a, “Hanayome” is specified as the book name in the item IKSJOUKEN0, “Akakawa” is specified as the author name in the item IKSJOUKEN1, and “0” is specified in the item IKSZENPO. It is specified as follows. Although this item is not entered, the library A is embedded as a normal standard value. As for Library B, as shown in 51b, the item name specified by the book name and author name is different from Library A, and there is a difference that the search method is not specified.
[0030]
FIG. 6 shows an example of browser screen transition as an explanatory diagram (part 3) of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 60 denotes an initial common search condition input screen. When the search button on the screen is pressed after inputting the book name and author name, the respective search data are sent to the A library and the B library as described above. When the search result is sent, it is displayed on a separate screen generated for each library server as indicated by 61. As shown here, the display on each screen is different from the display format and search result contents. The search can be advanced while comparing these plural screens. If necessary, the detailed RQ button on the screen is pushed to advance the search, and detailed information as shown in 62 is displayed.
[0031]
FIG. 7 shows an example of a condition table as an explanatory diagram (part 4) of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. As described above, the condition table 70 stores attributes for transmitting common search items to each library server in accordance with the interface to be accepted. In the figure, the port number is used for correspondence between transmission information, reception information, and a screen when transmitting / receiving data to / from the network.
[0032]
The address is the network address of each library server. The search item format is a list of items required as the format of the search request item for each library, and there are one in which a common search item input as described above is embedded and one in which a standard value is set for a specific item.
[0033]
Next , an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram (No. 2) according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Reference numeral 30 denotes a WWW browser to which the present invention is applied. When a user requests a document from the WWW server by accessing information entered by a user, there are a plurality of anchor tags in which links between documents are embedded, and information is searched by following each link. This is used when leaving a history for each route or comparing documents obtained with the latest search results.
[0034]
The form data 32 created by the user input 31 is sent to the WWW server A 36a by designating the port number Pa of the screen A. The document A is transmitted from the WWW server A 36a to the screen A 35a corresponding to the port number Pa. Generally, it may be considered as a state after several exchanges between the screen A of the WWW browser 30 and the WWW server A.
[0035]
The user recognizes such a situation that requires copying and inputs the user to instruct the copying of the document. At this time, the number of screens to be copied is designated from the state of the anchor tag of the original document A. In this way, a plurality of screens on which the document A having links with a plurality of other documents are copied are installed. In FIG. 3, two screens are newly copied to create a screen B35b and a screen C35c.
[0036]
The screen frame generation unit 34 newly generates a necessary number of screens. The screen copy unit 33 copies the document A to the generated screen B and screen C. Each screen is independently operated using the copied link information of the document A. On the screen B, the server B 36b is accessed by clicking an anchor tag in which the link information to the server B is embedded as shown in the figure. At this time, by specifying the port number Pb corresponding to the screen B, the document B received from the WWW server B is displayed on the screen B. The same applies to screen C.
[0037]
In each screen, the link information of each displayed document can be tracked independently. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of information links between the plurality of documents and an example of a search route when the plurality of screens are used as an explanatory diagram (part 5) of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.
Reference numeral 80a corresponds to the document A copied from the screen A in FIG. 3 and is the document Da that is the branch source of the information search route. Although 80a shows a document as described above, there are a plurality of screen frames for displaying the document, and the screen on which each document is displayed can independently follow the link of the document described here. The document link shown here is a document described in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) used in the normal Internet, and is exchanged between a WWW browser and a WWW server by a communication protocol (HTTP).
[0038]
That is, the information search route branches from the tags Ta1, Ta2, and Ta3 embedded in 80a. For example, in the search route indicated by Ra, the document Db is linked to the document Da by the address on the network. Tb1 in Db links Dc. Tc in Dc can be displayed on the screen by linking to detailed information in the same document and clicking Tc. In this way, by copying the document Da to a plurality of screens, a plurality of routes can be searched in parallel while comparing the screens.
[0039]
【The invention's effect】
As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a plurality of screens are made to correspond to a browser, and a plurality of documents that access a plurality of WWW servers or cause a plurality of branches of a search for the same request by a single operation. By providing means that can be copied and created on the screen, it is possible to prevent operational errors and operational errors due to repeated simple operations, and lowering work efficiency, improving operational efficiency and operational reliability. There is an industrial effect of improvement of work and motivation for work.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (part 1).
(System for searching books in multiple libraries)
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (part 2).
(Search system using screen copy)
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention (part 1);
(Flowchart and search information transmission status)
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention (part 2);
(Search item format conversion)
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention (part 3);
(Example of browser screen transition)
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention (part 4);
(Example of condition table)
FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention (part 5);
(Example of search route using information links between multiple documents and multiple screens [Fig. 9] Illustration of prior art [Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Dialog screen generation means 2 Transmission information input means 3 Condition table 4 Transmission information conversion means 5 Screen frame generation means 6 Screen transmission means 7 Reception screen display means 8 Screen copy means

Claims (1)

A plurality of screen frame generating means for generating a screen frame corresponding to the port number based on a condition table including a port number, a network address, and a search item format;
Transmission information conversion means for converting the input search condition into a script adapted to the search item format;
Screen transmission means for transmitting the converted script to the server at the network address;
Receiving screen display means for displaying a document in which link information sent as a search result from the server is embedded in a screen frame generated by the screen frame generating means ;
Screen copy means for generating a number of screen frames specified by the screen generating means in accordance with a user instruction, and copying and displaying the document with the link information displayed on the screen embedded in each of the generated screen frames When,
Each time link information in a document displayed in a plurality of the screen frames is designated by the user, the searched document is displayed in each corresponding screen frame, and the search result documents branched into a plurality can be compared. A screen dialogue processing apparatus characterized by displaying on the screen.

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