KR20020068431A - Method which it defines and expresses Electronic Catalog for soft e-business - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for defining and displaying a catalogue for a flexible electronic commerce is provided to supply structure and expansion property of a data expression with respect to an electronic catalogue for an electronic commerce. CONSTITUTION: An item selection is performed(401), and a category classification is progressed according to the selection(402). It is checked whether a category generated by the category classification is an item category(403). If the category is an item category, information with respect to a corresponding item is inserted, and an attribute of the item is drawn(404). It is checked whether a use of an existing template is available based on the attribute of the drawn item(405). If the existing template is not available, the attribute is classified(407), and a name definition(408), a type definition(409), an attribute explanation(410), a verification rule definition(411), and a process rule definition(412) are performed in accordance with the classified attribute. It is judged whether an attribute to be appended with respect to a corresponding item is existed(413). If an attribute to be appended is existed, a catalogue template is created(414).

Description

Method which it defines and expresses Electronic Catalog for soft e-business}

The present invention relates to a method of defining and displaying a catalog for flexible e-commerce and a computer-readable recording medium recording a program for realizing the method. A method of defining and displaying a catalog for flexible e-commerce that performs schema definition and facilitates structural search and display of various attributes, and a computer-readable recording medium recording a program for realizing the method. .

In traditional commerce, paper catalogs have been used as a simple means of communicating product information between sellers and buyers. Recently, however, the role of the catalog has evolved to require not only to act as a means of providing information on more efficient goods and services, but also to act as a window for actual transactions.

Meanwhile, with the generalization of the Internet, computer hardware and software technologies have been rapidly developed, and they have been commercially utilized. This effect has led to the development of a paper catalog form into an electronic catalog that can provide product information dynamically on a computer.This catalog can be used to view product information, which is a future catalog requirement. It also satisfactorily fulfills the role of countermeasures.

Thus, by satisfying the demands of sellers and buyers, it has naturally entered the era of electronic commerce using electronic catalogs.

In the early days of the Internet, electronic catalogs represented the form of paper catalogs on the Internet. In other words, the text information, picture or photo information for product description was expressed using a network and a computer, as expressed on a paper catalog.

However, with the development of technology and increasing user demand, e-catalogue has been developed with various functions added. It is easy to understand the evolution of electronic catalogs in three dimensional perspectives.

The first element is the level of dynamic product information presentation, which is the dynamics of content information presentation. In the beginning, static e-catalogues were used in which the catalog was expressed in the form of textual product descriptions and static photographs. However, due to its limitations, dynamic electronic catalogs have been required.

In addition to texts, dynamic e-catalogs express live product information such as pictures of activities, pictures, and sounds in the catalog by technical means such as JAVA and VRML. In addition, in the dynamic aspect of the product information data, instead of using data existing in a simple hypertext sentence, a separate product database is linked to CGI (common gateway interface) to express product information dynamically. E-catalog.

The second factor relates to the level of customization that allows you to see how much a catalog is tailored to your needs, depending on your personal preference.

In the early days, pre-made fixed catalogs by merchants or managers always provided the same content and appearance to any customer.

However, custom catalogs tailored to customer needs were required for an efficient approach to product sales. That is, only customized orders may be expressed in the catalog according to the preferences or characteristics of the customers, and the display methods may be differently displayed according to the needs of the customers.

The third factor is the degree of integration of electronic catalogs with other systems or traditional information systems to support existing business processes.

Electronic catalogs require integration with business processes. There are a few things to this.

-Integration with order processing and delivery processing

Rather than ordering by fax or telephone, it provides order processing directly on an electronic catalog and enables one-stop shopping from an electronic catalog to deliver orders to buyers.

Integration with electronic payment processing

Ensure that electronic payment processing using credit cards with electronic money or security issues is integrated with the electronic catalog.

Integrate with intra-company intranet and workflow

Electronic catalogs for business-to-business electronic commerce often require approval from multiple decision makers prior to order processing. To support this situation, the e-catalogue, the intranet, and the workflow are integrated.

-Integration with existing information system inventory management system and accounting management system

Just as the information system is used in traditional commerce, business processes and electronic catalogs can be integrated by connecting the pre-order and post-order processes with the information system.

Integration with extranets to external suppliers or suppliers

Ensure that links to partnering external suppliers or suppliers that are scheduled to be delivered on a regular basis are integrated with the catalog using various types of directories.

As for the appearance of the electronic catalog as described above, in the actual implementation, it has been in the early stage.

There is still no smooth operation in the processing of large-capacity multimedia information. Accordingly, electronic catalogs provide fragmentary information mainly based on images and characters. In other words, hypertext is added to text and images in the early web.

In addition, the need for personalized information is widely recognized, but due to the enormous amount of construction and the need for a lot of manual work, there is a problem in providing an electronic catalog customized to each individual in an actual electronic catalog.

In addition, there are some approaches in order processing, delivery processing, payment processing, etc. in the integration with business processes, but there is a problem in that security problems are insufficiently solved and there is a limit that does not trust the public. In the integration with such, there was a problem that the progress as necessary as the technical limitations on the implementation is not achieved.

E-catalogue basically aims to publish goods. However, a lot of effort is required for such an electronic catalog to be published efficiently based on abundant product data. In particular, in order to reach a wide range of products and buyers of various patterns, detailed and detailed processing is required in various parts.

However, such a process requires a lot of time and a large amount of data, resulting in high payment costs.

In particular, the manual operation of the manager was frequently required in the existing inflexible electronic catalog. Even though it is out of the process of sorting and cataloging each individual product by category, even if the framework for batch processing is huge, there are a huge number of product types and conditions, and according to the needs of buyers having various forms. In the production of an electronic catalog having a rigid frame and its production, a manual operation of an administrator takes a large amount, and there is a problem that the management of the electronic catalog is not efficient.

The present invention has been made to solve the problems described above, and provides an electronic catalog definition and display method for enabling flexible electronic commerce by providing the structure and extensibility of the data representation for the electronic catalog for electronic commerce; It is an object of the present invention to provide a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the above method.

1 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a network environment to which the present invention is applied.

2 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a catalog management system to which the present invention is applied.

3 is an illustrative example of an electronic catalog used by a catalog management system to which the present invention is applied.

4 to 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

11: wireless terminal 12: wired terminal

13: Gateway 14: Internet

15: server

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a catalog definition and display method applied to a catalog management system, and performs a structure search, a search result display, and a comparison of two items for a selected item and manages redundancy verification information. A first step of performing categorization, and performing attribute classification and attribute definition to generate a catalog template; And a second step of searching for a selected category by combining a search item and a search word according to whether the item is a category or a detailed search based on the catalog template, and outputting a search result as a list of common brief titles or individual brief titles. Characterized in that.

In addition, the present invention, in the catalog management system having a processor, performs a category search to perform a structure search, display the search results and comparison of the two items for the selected item, and manage the redundancy verification information, and to classify the attribute and A first function of generating a catalog template by performing attribute definitions; And a second function for searching a selected category by combining a search item and a search word based on the catalog template according to whether the item is a category and a detailed search, and outputting a search result as a list of common brief titles or individual brief titles. A computer readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon is provided.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a network environment to which the present invention is applied.

The network environment to which the present invention is applied includes a wireless terminal 11 capable of performing electronic commerce via wireless, a wired terminal 12 capable of performing electronic commerce via wire, a gateway for interworking a wired network and a wireless network. (13), the Internet 14 for connecting various computers, and a server 15 for providing information via the Internet 14.

Electronic business (e-business) refers to the act of buying and selling goods using the Internet or personal computer (PC) communications. Broadly, the term includes the purchase of goods and services or advertisements made through a computer network. Furthermore, it includes both customer support and collaboration with business partners.

The biggest advantage of such e-commerce is that there is no time and space constraints, so it is less troublesome to go directly to the store, and the transaction price is mainly settled by credit card. In addition, there is no cost of distribution or rent, and it is likened to the state-of-the-art golden fishing grounds because all network users are potential customers.

The use of the Internet 14 in electronic commerce is basic and furthermore, data communication that is wired or wireless is becoming commonplace.

This is illustrated in FIG. 1. The wireless terminal 11 via wireless is connected to the Internet 14 through a gateway 13, and the wired terminal 12 via a wire is directly connected to the Internet 14. In this way, the wired / wireless terminals 11 and 12 connected to the Internet 14 receive information provided from the server 15 through the Internet 14, and perform electronic commerce under the guidance of the server 15.

A more detailed description of the electronic catalog presented in the present invention is as follows.

An electronic catalog can be divided into a production layer, a core layer, and a sales layer. The production layer has information to show to the end consumer and information for consumer protection, the core layer has product-related information, and the sales layer has commercial information related to sales, information necessary for delivery, and manufacturer / seller information. Have.

On the other hand, [Table 1] below shows the standards related to the electronic catalog, and in order to effectively manage the catalog, standardization is required.

division Contents Product classification system Establishment of Product Classification System-Item Classification Code System (HS, UN / SPSC ...)-Item Identification Code System (ISIC, NAICS ...) Content component Publishing standard Definition of product attribute information according to product classification system (Content) Transmission standard Transmission protocol for transmitting product information (HTTP, X.400, X.435, FTP, SMTP, etc.) Technical component Format standard XML standard for document type containing product information Expression standard Style sheet (CSS, XSL, DSSSL, etc.) to represent the product information sent to the user Directory service Directory standard (X.500, LDAP) used for catalogs and lists, etc.

On the other hand, the operation of the Transactive Catalog System is most important in the operation of shopping malls and marketplaces. The end user always wishes to have a catalog of the items he / she wants when making a transaction, checking the supplier's current availability and price.

Thus, the catalog should be the transitive content that is connected to the overall transaction process of the shopping mall and marketplace. Catalog management is important as an electronic purchasing solution between companies.

In general, inefficient purchases are made due to the absence of mutual purchase information within the enterprise, particularly in geographically dispersed companies. The inefficiency can be eliminated by sharing price information and contract information through an electronic catalog. Service process automation enables each employee to search the catalog and execute a purchase, minimizing the involvement of the purchasing department, minimizing the cost of each purchase.

The change in the concept of the electronic catalog is described as follows.

In the limited (closed) e-commerce (dedicated network, VAN, etc.), e-catalogue shows unity, unity, and verticality, but in open e-commerce (Internet, next-generation mobile network, etc.), flexibility, interchangeability, It aims at ease to use.

In particular, the electronic catalog (eCatalog) proposed in the present invention is a third-party aggregator (supplier, buyer, or third-party aggregator) according to the industrial characteristics of the company, the nature of the items purchased And open architecture based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), etc. Seamless connection with legacy is possible, and it is also compatible with external contents, enabling the construction of a global e-catalog, and web-based non-professionals through the self-service catalog. You can conveniently author and search the contents of related information.

2 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a catalog management system to which the present invention is applied, and is a basis for providing an electronic catalog as described above.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a catalog management system. A supplier may access a catalog server through a communication network, and the catalog server may be a template manager or a controller. ), Logic Component and Catalog Repository.

As shown in FIG. 2, the catalog can be represented in various approaches.

3 is an illustrative example of an electronic catalog used by a catalog management system to which the present invention is applied.

3 illustrates three aspects that an electronic catalog should consider. Electronic catalogs through catalog management systems should be able to reflect the interests of buyers, suppliers and aggregators, and should be convenient and useful to each of them. Figure 3 shows what the electronic catalog provided to them should have.

The electronic catalog in the present invention will be described below with respect to the existing catalog.

-In the catalog management, the structural correlation of product information is expressed in XML format.

-Buyers and sellers can easily create catalogs, and upload and download bulk materials as item-specific templates.

Efficient catalog creation, management tools and extended search (keywords, categories, features, synonyms, etc.) are possible.

-You can upload a large catalog in spreadsheet (ExCEL, etc.), text, or XML format.

-Content verification and online correction can be done when entering catalog.

-A variety of catalogs can be managed to meet the needs of the customer, which takes into account buyers, suppliers and third parties.

A single catalog entry is made using the online entry form.

-It is easy to update the catalog from the supplier's point of view (Self Management).

-It is possible to publish and keep confidential information on individual buyers' prices of pre-negotiated items.

-Maintains unique part numbers of suppliers / buyers in the catalog for easy integration with legacy.

-Personal My-catalogue (your own classification system) for quick purchase is easy.

In addition, the various functions provided by the above-described catalog management system to which the present invention is applied are as follows.

1) Catalog Search provides full text keyword search, conditional search and index search through catalog search engine.

2) Category Search function supports tree structure search, synonym search, and code search by category (classification code) for registered catalog information. do.

3) The Catalog Comparison function provides a comparison function of the searched catalog results and allows you to compare attribute information (basic and detailed attributes) between catalogs.

4) Register Standard Catalog to My Category allows you to create and search a classification system by supplier or buyer separately from the standard category.

5) Self-Service Upload Catalog function can upload supplier catalog in flat file, Excel format, XML / EDI (bulk) format. In this case, the category display method may be viewed in a top-down manner or in a tree form, and a catalog field definition file may be downloaded.

6) Self-Service Catalog Input allows the supplier to enter the catalog individually, and the input form can also be provided differently by category (item).

7) Browse My Catalog allows you to organize your own categories and connect your catalog of interests for quick and easy search and viewing.

8) The user-specific information management function can take hot-sale information on the products provided by the seller, and the seller can take differentiated pricing by buyer, and specially in terms of buyer. You can manage special information (Item No., account code, contract price, direct order status, etc.) to go.

9) Catalog form wizard (catalog form schema definition and style definition) is created by classifying classification category and product category when registering category.

The reason why the classification category and the product category are generated here is that the product category should have a template for the category to be stored.

To create a template, you can use a pre-registered catalog template. You can modify or add a new template by copying and pasting using the copy button.

Attribute definitions for categories are dynamically added, configured, and saved. Product categories are automatically created and catalog types are registered. You can specify a detailed search item here and have a D.T.D (document type definition) style different from other items.

10) The Refinery Management function allows the operator to verify the product registered by the supplier. The refinery management function can be registered as a standard catalog through the process of the operator's verification of the product registered by the supplier. Unrefined Catalog list is searched by supplier, date by date, or searched by product name or product identifier (ID), and approved through inspection processing button.

On the other hand, through the log management (Log Management) you can see the history information about the purification process, it is possible to check the status (Search) by searching by company by date.

11) Standard Catalog Management enables management of standard catalogs and categories. You can check the refined catalog and register or delete a new catalog. In addition, the administrator can download the contents of the catalog, save and manage it as an Excel document, and upload, input and modify it.

You can upload and register a large number of catalogs using the upload function.

10) The style sheet selection function can freely register and change display information to be applied to a catalog using a style register.

Style sheets can be previewed before application and applied to the admin screen and front screen.

11) Recovery Management provides a recovery function for deleted categories, which can be recovered until they are put in the Recycle Bin and emptied.

4 to 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce according to the present invention.

In order to define real-world items in a catalog including various attributes, items are analyzed and attribute information about them is derived. To define these attributes, you basically define the name, type, description, validation rules, and so on. In addition, it provides a system to define information about items to manage structure search, search result display, comparison of two items, and redundancy verification information. Through the Template Wizard, which can define and manage a series of web-based processes, it manages verification rules and other information, and enables structure search, keyword search, and comparative search of item information based on this.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a catalog template generation process according to the present invention.

Catalog templates store information about keywords and parametric searches, and validation and duplication rules, which are managed by category. The structure of this template is to serve as Meta-DTD and to be acceptable in the same format for all catalog documents and to be compatible with other DTD or EDI formats.

The catalog template generating procedure shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to the flow of the drawing as follows.

First, item selection is made (401), and category classification accordingly is performed (402).

Then, it is checked whether the category indicated by the category classification is an item category (403). The category has an item category that can contain the information of the actual item, and there is a category category for classifying the category. In order to express the selected item, there must be a corresponding item category. In other words, when a directory is described as an example in an existing "window", a subdirectory may exist under a directory, and a file may exist. Based on this concept, a classification category is a higher category that can have a category below, and an item category is a category that can contain item information below.

As a result of confirming whether the category indicated by the category classification is an item category, if there is no item category, a lower category may be added or generated, and thus, the category classification process 402 is repeated.

As a result of checking whether the category indicated by the category classification is an item category, if the item category is included, information about the corresponding item may be stored, and then the attribute of the item is derived (404). Then, it is checked whether the existing template can be used based on the derived property of the item (405).

As a result of checking whether the existing template can be used based on the derived property of the item, if the existing template is available, the property of the existing template is modified (406), and it is determined whether there is an attribute to be added for the corresponding item ( 413).

As a result of checking whether the existing template can be used based on the derived item's attributes, if the existing template cannot be used, the attribute is classified (407), the name definition according to the classified attribute (408), and the type (Type) The definition 409, the attribute description 410, the verification rule definition 411, and the processing rule definition 412 are performed.

Next, it is determined whether there is an attribute to be added for the item (413).

As a result of determining whether there is an attribute to be added for the corresponding item, if there is an attribute to be added, the process of classifying the attribute is repeated 407.

As a result of determining whether there is an attribute to be added for the item, if there is no attribute to be added, a category classification and attribute classification and description of the item are made, and a catalog template is generated through this (414).

5A and 5B illustrate an embodiment of a catalog style structure according to the present invention.

The catalog template may be managed and modified for each item category.

In addition, the style for the catalog may also be registered and managed as an Insert, Modify, View Style, etc. for each item category. If not specified, the style is managed as a Default Style.

The structure is composed of the basic area and the extended area as shown in Figs. 5A and 5B.

In FIG. 5A, structural information of a basic area for an item registered in a catalog is described. It consists of essential elements such as catalog identifier, category, creator, seller, manufacturing identifier, product type, manufacturing name, manufacturing date and manufacturing image.

In FIG. 5B, the structure information of the extended area for the item registered in the catalog is described. This information can be registered according to the item, and is configured to express this flexibility. FIG. 5A shows that attachment file information pertaining to attachment information and information about a group and an item represented by a group can be expressed in an extended area.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a structure search and display process through category selection according to the present invention.

In FIG. 6, a list of detailed search items is loaded based on a catalog template to support a parametric search for each category. The combination of the search item and the search word is searched, and the searched result is output as a list of common brief titles or individual brief titles. The brief title to be output is managed by category.

This will be described according to the flow of the drawings.

First, a selection of a category is received (601), and it is checked whether the selected category is an item category (602).

As a result of the check, if the selected category is the item category, it is checked whether a detailed search is requested (603).

As a result of checking whether the detailed search is requested, if the detailed search is requested, the search field is loaded (604), a parametric search is performed (605), and an individual brief list is created (606). Then, it is checked whether a comparison search is made (607).

As a result of checking whether the comparison search is performed, when the comparison search is performed, catalog comparison display is performed (608), and catalog detail display is performed (612).

As a result of checking whether or not the comparison search is performed, it is determined whether re-search is required if the comparison search is not performed (611).

As a result of determining whether re-search is required, if re-search is requested, the process is repeated from step 601 in which category selection is performed.

As a result of determining whether re-search is required, if the re-search is not required, detailed catalog display is performed (612).

As a result of checking whether the selected category is the item category, if the selected category is not the item category, keyword search is performed (609), and a common brief list is created (610). Then, it is determined whether re-search is required (611).

As a result of checking whether the detailed search is requested, if the detailed search is not requested, keyword search is performed (609), and a common brief list is created (610). Then, it is determined whether re-search is required (611).

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes are possible in the art without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be apparent to those of ordinary knowledge.

As described above, the present invention has an effect that can be flexibly expanded and modified in a structural framework by including various attributes in representing items in the electronic catalog.

In addition, the present invention has an effect of providing a corresponding information by accommodating various requirements of a buyer, a supplier, and a third party by defining a catalog including various attributes.

In addition, the present invention, the structure search, search result display, comparison of the two items and the redundancy verification information management is possible based on the catalog including various attributes.

In addition, the present invention, by defining to include a variety of attributes in the catalog has the effect of defining the information about the system based on this.

In addition, the present invention has the effect of managing the verification rules and other information, and can perform a structure search, keyword search and comparison search for the item information based on this.

Claims (8)

In the catalog definition and display method applied to the catalog management system, A first step of performing a categorization to perform a structure search, displaying a search result, comparing two items, and managing redundancy verification information with respect to the selected item, and generating a catalog template by performing attribute classification and attribute definition; And A second step of searching for a selected category by searching a combination of search items and search terms according to whether or not an item category and a detailed search based on the catalog template, and outputting a search result as a list of common brief titles or individual brief titles; Catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce, including. The method of claim 1, The catalog template, A method for defining and displaying a catalog for flexible e-commerce, which stores information on keywords and parametric search and validation and duplication rules, and is managed by category. The method of claim 1, The structure of the catalog template, Flexible e-commerce, which acts as Meta-DTD (Document Type Definition) and is configured to be acceptable for all catalog documents in the same format and compatible with other DTD or EDI formats. For defining and displaying catalogs. The method of claim 3, wherein The structure of the catalog template, A basic area for representing basic information of an item such as a catalog identifier (ID), a seller, a type, a name, etc .; And Extended area for displaying information about the item that is not represented in the basic area Catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce, characterized in that consisting of. The method of claim 1, The list of brief titles to be output is Catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce characterized in that managed by category. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, The first step is, Performing a category classification on the selected item to a corresponding item category; A fourth step of deriving an attribute for the item and checking whether it is usable as an existing template; A fifth step of modifying an attribute of the existing template if it is possible to use the existing template as a result of the checking in the fourth step; A sixth step of classifying the property and defining and explaining the property if it is not possible to use the existing template as a result of the checking in the fourth step; A seventh step of checking whether an attribute addition is necessary for the item in which an attribute is defined, explained or modified; An eighth step of repeating the attribute classification process of the sixth step if it is necessary to add an attribute as a result of the checking of the seventh step; And A ninth step of generating and processing a catalog template if it is not necessary to add an attribute as a result of the checking of the seventh step Catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce, including. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, The second step, A third step of checking whether it is an item category and whether detailed search is necessary for the selected category; A fourth step of creating a common brief list by performing a keyword search and determining whether a re-search is necessary if it is not an item category or a detailed search is not necessary as a result of the checking of the third step; A fifth step of creating an individual brief list by performing a search field loading and a parametric search if the item category and the detailed search are required as a result of the checking of the third step and confirming whether a comparative search is required; A sixth step of performing a catalog comparison display and a catalog detail display based on the prepared brief list when a comparison search is requested as a result of the checking of the fifth step; A seventh step of determining whether re-search is necessary if the comparison search is not required as a result of the fifth step; An eighth step of repeating from the third step if the re-search is necessary as a result of the determination of whether the re-search is necessary; And As a result of the determination of whether the re-search is necessary, if the re-search is not necessary, the ninth step of displaying the catalog detail based on the prepared brief list Catalog definition and display method for flexible e-commerce, including. In a catalog management system with a processor, A first function of performing a categorization to perform a structure search, displaying a search result, comparing two items, and managing redundancy verification information with respect to the selected item, and generating a catalog template by performing attribute classification and attribute definition; And A second function of searching for a selected category by searching a combination of search items and search terms according to whether or not an item category and a detailed search based on the catalog template, and outputting a search result as a list of common brief titles or individual brief titles; A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing this.