JP4449381B2 - Search apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a search technique, and in particular, enables a search result such as a document to be easily used at a site other than a search execution site.

  In general, the document management service stores content and a document having an attribute attached to the content, and the user instructs the document management service to perform a search by specifying a search condition using a web browser. A search result indicating a document group that matches the conditions can be obtained and displayed in a table format on a web browser.

  By the way, with the conventional device, only the attribute to be displayed can be specified in the display condition column in the search condition. Therefore, each field in the search result table is simply a character string of the attribute value. Was only displayed.

  Recently, there is a device that defines the hyperlink type as the attribute type and displays it as a hyperlink when the attribute type to be displayed is this type, but the link destination is fixed and irrelevant to the target document It is.

  Therefore, to use the document on another site, it was necessary to create a special web page and search for the site independently.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a search technique that makes it easy to use a search result, for example, a document, at a site other than the search execution site.

  According to this invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the configuration as described in the claims is adopted.

  In a specific example of the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a search condition (search range, search expression, display condition. Displayed from the document 101 stored in the document management service 100 through the web browser 102. A desired document is searched by giving 103 (only the condition is shown), and the search result 104 is displayed in a table format with each document as a row and the document attribute as a column. At this time, by specifying in advance in the search condition 103 by the user, a hyperlink 105 having a plurality of attribute values as arguments can be displayed instead of displaying the attribute values of the document in the column. In the example of FIG. 1, “number” and “creation date” attributes are displayed in the search result record, and a hyperlink 105 is added under the display of “distribution” (representative value). The hyperlink contains the path and arguments of the processing program. This argument is an attribute value of “number” and “name” which are attributes of the record. By describing and displaying the attributes ("number" and "creation date") specified as the display target and the hyperlink including the attribute value specified as the argument as an argument in each field of the table of the search result 104 Documents can be distributed and the documents can be used at other sites without using a special search program or additional device. Note that the description content of the hyperlink is also referred to herein as anchor information.

  Further, the present invention will be described.

  That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-described object, the search device includes: a search means for searching for a record based on its attributes; Describes an attribute value related to an attribute, and (b) a value representative of an anchor information that includes a location of a predetermined program and an attribute value related to a predetermined at least one attribute of the record used as an argument of the program Descriptive data generating means for generating descriptive data to be displayed; display means for displaying on the display screen an attribute value related to the display target attribute and the representative value based on the descriptive data; and the anchor information is operated on the screen The attribute value relating to the predetermined at least one attribute is sent to the location of the predetermined program. So that provided the arguments transmitting means for.

  In this configuration, by displaying anchor information (hyperlink) having a specified attribute as an argument, it is possible to use a document at another site without using a special search program or an additional device.

  The representative value is text, graphic information, or the like, and it is preferable to display and suggest a process executed by the predetermined program, but is not limited thereto. In some cases, an attribute value to be displayed may be used.

  The present invention can be implemented using, for example, web technology. Moreover, this invention can be comprised using the client apparatus, web server apparatus, and database apparatus which mount a web browser, for example. The program to which the argument is passed may be arranged in the web server device or may be arranged in another server device.

  The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, software products used to cause a computer to execute such software are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  These and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

  According to the present invention, search results that have conventionally been static and simply displayed can be used in other sites (other systems) through hyperlinks, and system linkage is greatly improved.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 2 shows a principle embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, the search system 10 includes a search condition input unit 11, a search unit 12, a description document generation unit 13, a display unit 14, and an argument transmission unit 15. Etc. are configured. The search system 10 performs a search using the database device 17. The argument transmission unit 15 passes the argument to the linked program (program execution device 18) and requests processing.

  The search condition input unit 11 inputs a search condition as indicated by reference numeral 103 in FIG. The search condition describes a search range, a search expression (for example, “creation date” of 2003/03/01 to 2003/03/31), and a display condition (display target). The search condition 103 in FIG. 1 shows only display conditions. The search range and search formula are normal. In this example, the display target is described in the first row of the table of the search condition 103, the type is described in the second row, and the link destination ( When the display target is a link) is described, and an attribute (when the display target is a link) serving as an argument to be passed to the link destination program is described in the fourth line. In this example, there are three display objects in total, of which “number” and “creation date” are the attributes of the record, and “distribution system” is the link (the title of the field at the time of display). When the “number” and “creation date” are displayed, the field title is used as it is. The type of display target is an attribute and a link. In the case of a link, a character string ("distribution" in this example) displayed in the field of the display record is specified by being enclosed in parentheses. Hereinafter, this may be referred to as a link representative value.

  In this way, the search condition input unit 11 specifies a search range, a search expression, and a display condition (for example, shown as the search condition 103 in FIG. 1).

The search unit 12 receives the search condition from the search condition input unit 11 and requests an operation from the database device 17 based on the search condition. The search unit 12 receives the operation result from the database device 17 and passes it to the description document generation unit 13 that generates a document describing the search result. The description document generation unit 13 generates a document that displays the search result as indicated by reference numeral 104 in FIG. In the “ distribution ” portion of the search result 104, the character string, link, and argument are described. For example, the “ distribution ” portion corresponding to the number “A001” includes “<A HREF =” http: // aaa. com / deliver. cgi? number = A001 & name = abc "> distribution </A>". In this case, the name “abc” corresponds to the number “A001”. Similarly, the part corresponding to the number “B001” and the name “def” has “<A HREF =” http: // aaa. com / deliver. cgi? number = B001 & name = def ”> distribution </A>”, and the part corresponding to the number “C001” and the name “ghi” is “<A HREF =” http: // aaa. com / deliver. cgi? number = C001 & name = ghi "> distribution </A>". Various description methods such as HTML and XML can be adopted.

  The display unit 14 displays search results using the document generated by the descriptive document generation unit 13 and is, for example, a web browsing program, but is not limited thereto.

  In response to a click operation or the like of the hyperlink portion (anchor information; “distribution” on the display) of the search result (104 in FIG. 1) displayed on the predetermined display screen by the display portion 14. The corresponding event is received and processing execution is requested together with an argument to the linked program (program execution device 18).

  The program execution device 18 is a computer such as a server device, and may be the search system 10 itself. The program execution device 18 executes a predetermined process based on the argument. For example, in this example, a “distribution” process is executed, and a list including “number” and “name” as arguments is distributed to the distribution destination. The content itself may be distributed based on such arguments. When distribution is performed, distribution destination information and distribution means are designated in advance. The distribution destination (group, etc.) and distribution means (e-mail, FAX, print output to a predetermined printer) may be determined appropriately in accordance with the user attributes. In this case, user attributes are passed to the program. A user attribute input unit 16 indicated by a broken line inputs a user attribute using a directory service using user information included in the login information. Of course, the user may input using a keyboard or the like. The user may specify parameters for processing options to be passed to the program execution device 18 (this is also passed as an argument).

  According to this embodiment, when a user specifies a search condition, as shown in the search condition of FIG. 1, a display target hyperlink (actually a representative value is displayed) and an attribute as an argument are specified. As a result of the search, an extended column (hyperlink column) is displayed in addition to the attribute column as shown in FIG. A desired process such as document distribution can be executed by clicking the representative value of the extended column.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, a document management service is executed using a client device, a web server device, a database management system, or the like.

  FIG. 3 shows the entire document management system for realizing the document management service of this embodiment. In this figure, the document management system 200 includes a web server 201, a client device 202, a database management system (RDB) 203, and the like. It is comprised including. These computer resources are connected to a network 205 such as LAN, INTRANET, and the Internet.

  The client device 202 can execute the web browser 202a. The web server 201 provides an HTTP service in conformity with HTTP. The web server 201 has various function processing units such as a CGI program, and performs processing such as document registration, document deletion, and document search for a document management service. The parts related to the present invention include a search processing unit 202a, a document generation unit 202b, a distribution processing unit 202c, a print request issue unit 202d, and the like. Instead of the CGI program, an application server 204 may be provided as indicated by the broken line portion.

  The web server 201 receives a request from the web browser 202a, passes it to the processing program, and returns the processing result to the web browser as a response.

  The processing program analyzes the input from the web server, performs an appropriate RDB process or file process using, for example, SQL, and returns it to the web server.

  The database management system 203 manages permanent information of documents.

  The document management system 200 can be configured with at least one computer. In order to reduce the processing load, it is possible to operate the web server 201 and the database management system 203 on different computers, connect them through a network, distribute processing programs to the respective computers, and communicate between the processing programs. .

  A document attribute is associated with one record of the document management system 200. The content is associated with one file on the OS (operating system, file management system) on which the document management system 200 operates, and the file path is recorded in one column of the previous record. Of course, the present invention is not limited to such a document management mode.

  As mentioned earlier, the search conditions are the range to search for documents (search range), the condition of the attribute value to select (search formula), the attribute or link of the document to be displayed when the condition is satisfied (display condition) Consists of. The search range and search formula are the same as well-known ones, and the display conditions will be described in detail here.

  Display conditions are created according to the following procedure.

(A): Select whether to display attributes or hyperlinks for each column of search results.

  In the case of the attribute, it is the same as before, and one of the attributes of the document is selected. Return to the top of (a).

In the case of a hyperlink, the following processing is performed.
(B): Enter the column name to be displayed in the header of the table. ("Distribution system")
(C): Enter the link destination. ("Http://aaa.com/deliver.cgi")
(D): Enter the display name of the hyperlink. ("Distribution")
(E): The attribute to be used as an argument is selected from the attributes of the document. ("Number" / "Name")
What is actually used as an argument is not the language-dependent attribute display name, but the attribute identification name. ("Number" and "name").
(F): Return to (a) and repeat this for the necessary number of columns.

  The display name of the hyperlink is specified by the search condition. The actual link is “http://aaa.com/deliver.cgi” for the link destination, “number” and “name” for the attributes used as arguments, and “number” and “name” for the identification names of the attributes. If the attribute values of “number” and “name” of a document hit with “A001” and “abc” are respectively “http://aaa.com/deliver.cgi?number=A001&name=abc”.

  Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The operation of the second embodiment is as follows.

[Step S10]: A search request is sent to the web server 201 using the web browser 202a of the client device 202. When making a search request, a web page (document) for document management is acquired from the web server 201, and using this, or further using the web page for search, a search range, a search expression, and a display are displayed. The conditions are input and sent as a search request to the search processing unit 201a of the web server 201.

[Step S11]: The search processing unit 201a of the web server 201 receives the search request and sends a database operation request (for example, an SQL statement) to the database management system 203 based on the search request. The search request sent here may include an instruction instructing acquisition of the attribute (“number”, “name”) of the document to be the argument selected earlier.

[Step S12]: The database management system 203 performs a database operation and acquires an operation result.

[Step S13]: The database management system 203 returns the operation result to the search processing unit 201a of the web server 201.

[Step S14]: The search processing unit 201a of the web server 201 receives the operation result.

[Step S47]: The document generation unit 201b of the web server 201 generates a search result display web page (document) based on the operation result and the previous display condition.

[Step S <b> 16]: The web server 201 transmits the generated search result display web page to the web browser 202 a of the client device 202.

[Step S17]: The web browser 202a of the client device 202 receives the web page for displaying the search result.

[Step S18]: The web browser 202a of the client device 202 displays a search result display web page on the display screen.

[Step S19]: The web browser 202a receives an event generated in response to a click on a link portion (representative value of anchor information) on the display screen.

[Step S20]: A given argument is delivered to the program designated by the link unit to request processing.

[Step S21]: The distribution processing unit 201c of the web server 201 receives an argument.

[Step S22]: The distribution processing unit 201c of the web server 201 executes processing based on the argument. For example, a document is taken out and distributed electronically (for example, using a distribution function of an e-mail or a document management system), or a linked list is electronically distributed to users.

  This is the end of the description of the embodiment. Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made.

Modifications and application examples are as follows.
(1) RDB is used as a search target instead of the document management system, and the present invention is applied as a database record instead of a document. The search target is not limited to documents.
(2) The present invention is applied to a character string displayed on a hyperlink as an icon image or both a character string and an icon image.
(3) Define the hyperlink argument name separately from the attribute name. Various values can be passed to the program as options based on user input and environment variables.
(4) The present invention is applied in such a manner that a hyperlink is not specified by a search condition but is separately defined in advance as a custom link for a document, and an attribute or a defined hyperlink is selected in the search condition. The link may be determined appropriately according to the user.
(5) Rather than specifying hyperlink arguments in search conditions, they are defined together when defining hyperlink type attributes, and link destinations and arguments are expanded and concatenated when the document returns its attribute values. To return in the form.

It is a figure explaining the outline of this invention based on an example. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of Example 1 of this invention. It is a figure explaining Example 2 of this invention. It is a figure explaining operation | movement of the said Example 2. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Search system 11 Search condition input part 12 Search part 13 Description document production | generation part 14 Display part 15 Argument transmission part 16 User attribute input part 17 Database apparatus 18 Program execution apparatus 100 Document management service 101 Document 102 Web browser 103 Search condition 104 Search result 105 Hyperlink 200 Document Management System 201 Web Server 201a Search Processing Unit 201b Document Generation Unit 201c Distribution Processing Unit 201d Print Request Issuing Unit 202 Client Device 202a Web Browser 203 Database Management System 204 Application Server 205 Network

Claims (10)

A search means for searching for records based on their attributes;
For each record obtained by the search, (a) an attribute value related to the display target attribute of the record , (b) location information of a predetermined program linked to the record and a hyperlink, and the program document generation for generating a search result document that describes the above hyperlink and a display value to be displayed on the screen on behalf of the attribute value and the hyperlink for the at least one attribute specified the record to be used as an argument of the Means,
Display means for displaying on the display screen the attribute value related to the attribute of the display object and the display value for each of the records based on the document ;
When the display value of the hyperlink is operated in the screen, the location of the predetermined program, possess the argument transmitting means for transmitting attribute values relating to the predetermined at least one attribute,
The predetermined program distributes at least one of the attribute value constituting the argument and the content specified by the argument to the distribution destination, and the display value of the hyperlink has a function of distribution to the distribution destination. Common to the above records obtained by search
Furthermore, it has a search user attribute input means for inputting the attribute value of the search user, and the hyperlink includes the attribute value of the search user as an argument, and at least one of a distribution destination and a distribution means of distribution by the predetermined program is A search apparatus characterized by being determined according to the attribute value of the search user . The search apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for inputting the display target attribute, the location of the predetermined program, the attribute value attribute used as the argument, and the display value. The search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program has a function of distributing content specified by the argument to a predetermined destination using an electronic mail . The search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program has a function of issuing a print request for content specified by the argument to a destination printer and printing out the content.   The search device according to claim 1, wherein the display means performs display based on a web display protocol. A search unit searching for records based on their attributes;
For each record obtained by the search by the document generation unit, (a) an attribute value related to an attribute to be displayed, and (b) information on a location of a predetermined program linked to the record as a hyperlink. Generate a search result document that describes an attribute value related to a predetermined at least one attribute of the record used as an argument of the program and the hyperlink including a display value displayed on the screen as a representative of the hyperlink Steps,
A step of displaying, on a display screen, an attribute value related to the display target attribute and the display value for each of the records based on the document ;
When the display value of the hyperlink is operated in the display screen, the argument transmission unit, have a transmitting attribute values relating to at least one attribute location of the predetermined said predetermined program,
The predetermined program distributes at least one of the attribute value constituting the argument and the content specified by the argument to the distribution destination, and the display value of the hyperlink has a function of distribution to the distribution destination. Common to the above records obtained by search
Furthermore, it has a search user attribute input means for inputting the attribute value of the search user, and the hyperlink includes the attribute value of the search user as an argument, and at least one of a distribution destination and a distribution means of distribution by the predetermined program is A search method characterized by being determined according to the attribute value of the search user . Computer
Search means for searching records based on their attributes,
For each record obtained by the search, (a) an attribute value related to the display target attribute of the record, (b) location information of a predetermined program linked to the record and a hyperlink, and the program Generation of a search result document that describes an attribute value relating to at least one predetermined attribute of the record used as an argument of the record and the hyperlink including a display value displayed on the screen as a representative of the hyperlink means,
Display means for displaying on the display screen the attribute value related to the attribute of the display object and the display value for each of the records based on the document;
Argument transmission means for transmitting an attribute value related to the predetermined at least one attribute to the location of the predetermined program when the display value of the hyperlink is operated on the screen
Function as
The predetermined program distributes at least one of the attribute value constituting the argument and the content specified by the argument to the distribution destination, and the display value of the hyperlink has a function of distribution to the distribution destination. Common to the above records obtained by search
Furthermore, it has a search user attribute input means for inputting the attribute value of the search user, and the hyperlink includes the attribute value of the search user as an argument, and at least one of a distribution destination and a distribution means of distribution by the predetermined program is A computer program for search, which is determined according to the attribute value of the search user . A web client device;
A database device;
A web server device that receives a search request from the web client device, generates a search result document that describes the search result by accessing the database device, and returns the document to the web client device;
The web server device uses an attribute value relating to an attribute to be displayed for each of the records of the search result, a hyperlink assigned to the record, and information on a location of a predetermined program at a link destination and an argument of the program Generating a document describing the hyperlink including an attribute value related to the predetermined at least one attribute of the record and a display value displayed on the screen on behalf of the hyperlink as the search result document ,
The predetermined program distributes at least one of the attribute value forming the argument and the content specified by the argument to a distribution destination, and the display value of the hyperlink has a function of distribution to the distribution destination. Common to the above records obtained by search
Furthermore, it has a search user attribute input means for inputting the attribute value of the search user, the hyperlink includes the attribute value of the search user as an argument, and at least one of a distribution destination and a distribution means of distribution by the predetermined program is A search system characterized by being determined according to the attribute value of the search user . In a web server device that accepts a search request from a web client device, generates a search result document that describes a search result by accessing a database device, and returns the search result document to the web client device.
For each record of the search result, an attribute value related to the attribute to be displayed , a hyperlink assigned to the record, location information of a predetermined program linked to, and a predetermined value of the record used as an argument of the program Generating a document including the attribute value related to at least one attribute and the hyperlink including the display value displayed on the screen on behalf of the hyperlink as the search result document ;
The predetermined program distributes at least one of the attribute value constituting the argument and the content specified by the argument to the distribution destination, and the display value of the hyperlink has a function of distribution to the distribution destination. Common to the above records obtained by search
Furthermore, it has a search user attribute input means for inputting the attribute value of the search user, and the hyperlink includes the attribute value of the search user as an argument, and at least one of a distribution destination and a distribution means of distribution by the predetermined program is The web server device is determined according to the attribute value of the search user . Search means for searching for documents each having content and attributes related thereto,
For each record obtained by the search, (a) an attribute value related to the attribute to be displayed, (b) a hyperlink assigned to the record, and information on the location of a predetermined program linked to, and an argument of the program Document generating means for generating a search result document that describes the hyperlink including an attribute value related to a predetermined at least one attribute of the record used and a display value displayed on the screen on behalf of the hyperlink ;
Display means for displaying on the display screen the attribute value related to the attribute of the display object and the display value for each of the records based on the document ;
When said hyperlink is operated in the screen, the location of the predetermined program, possess the argument transmitting means for transmitting attribute values relating to the predetermined at least one attribute,
The predetermined program distributes at least one of the attribute value constituting the argument and the content specified by the argument to the distribution destination, and the display value of the hyperlink has a function of distribution to the distribution destination. Common to the above records obtained by search
Furthermore, it has a search user attribute input means for inputting the attribute value of the search user, and the hyperlink includes the attribute value of the search user as an argument, and at least one of a distribution destination and a distribution means of distribution by the predetermined program is A document search apparatus characterized by being determined according to the attribute value of the search user.

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