JPH08263402A - Link information generator - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a link information generation device that presents link information as information about a document in an information presentation system that manages the document as hypertext. That is, it realizes a function of outputting information (hereinafter referred to as link information) regarding connection of a link between a designated document and another document. [Configuration] a. Reference information extracting means for extracting information about links extending to other documents for each document and outputting reference information as a result thereof; b. Link information generating means for generating, based on the reference information, link information including at least the name of this document and the name of another document linked from this document with respect to the designated document.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer-based information presentation system for managing a plurality of documents as hypertexts, and a link information generation for realizing a function of outputting link information between a designated document and other documents. It relates to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, demand for information presentation systems using computers and networks is expected to increase due to improvements in processing performance and costs of computers, widening of networks, and reduction of communication costs. Examples of information provided include education and learning,
There are various possibilities such as research, medical and welfare, etc., where the target is clear, and those which do not specify the field or target.

In the following description, the term "document" is used to represent a state in which a text, an image, a video, a sound, or a combination thereof, which is a substance of information, is managed in the information presentation system.

The functions provided by the information presentation system include not only the basic function of presenting a document that meets the user's request, but also the relationship between the currently presented document and another document (this relationship is used in the present application). Is referred to as a link).

Here, the relationship with other documents refers to "a document in which the same contents are expressed in different media or words", "a document in which a detailed description is described", and "that document". Document, "document referred to by the document," etc.

That is, the latter function provides not the information on the object itself but the relation with the one surrounding the object as information.

The information presentation system targeted by the present invention is
As a document management method, it is assumed that a form (hereinafter referred to as hypertext) in which related information can be referenced by linking documents is adopted. When a user is looking at a document, the user can immediately refer to other documents (links) related to the document.

Conventionally, there is an example in which an information presenting system which does not adopt hypertext realizes a function of presenting a relation between documents. That is, the document is managed based on a predetermined system, and the position of a document in the document set is displayed (hereinafter, referred to as a system-based display function). That is, as a document management method, a storage location (hereinafter referred to as a directory) has the same structure as the system, and directory information is presented to show the relationship of the document to other documents. A presentation example is shown in FIG. Here, A, B, A1, A2, ... Are document names.

Further, as another management method, data which describes the system and the document name corresponding to each item of the system shown in FIG.
It is also possible to present the information of FIG. 20 in response to a request.

[0010]

2. Description of the Related Art In principle, it is possible to introduce a display function based on the above system into an information presentation system that manages a document as hypertext. Information can be presented in the form of FIG. 13 by preparing a system and assigning an index to each document using a term that appears in the system.

However, in order to realize it, it is necessary to prepare a system for expressing the relationship between documents and to manage the documents according to the system. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to realize the display function based on the system when the number of documents is large, the uniformity of indexing cannot be guaranteed, the areas are diverse, and the files are distributed on the network. Is.

Currently, without actually following links, no information is available regarding the connections between documents.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a link information generating apparatus for presenting link information as information about a document in an information presentation system for managing a document as hypertext. The purpose is. That is,
It realizes the function to output information (hereinafter referred to as link information) related to the link connection between the specified document and other documents.

[0014]

According to the present invention, an object of the present invention is to provide an information presentation system for managing a document as hypertext. Reference information extracting means for extracting information about links extending to other documents for each document and outputting reference information as a result thereof; b. Link information generating means for generating link information including at least the name of this document and the name of another document linked from the document based on the reference information, This is achieved by a characteristic link information generation device.

Here, in the information presentation system having a plurality of information providing servers on the network, it is necessary to extract the information on the links provided between the documents of different information providing servers. Therefore, in this case, in addition to the in-server reference information extracting means, the other server reference information extracting means for extracting the information related to another information providing server and outputting the other server reference information as a result, and the other server reference information are displayed. Reference information transmitting means for transmitting to other corresponding information providing server, reference information receiving means for receiving other server reference information transmitted from other information providing server, the in-server reference information and other server reference information. And a reference information integration means for integrating and outputting integrated reference information.

Here, the link information generating means can generate the link information regarding the specified document from this integrated reference information, and can expand and obtain the link information regarding the document of another information providing server.

Further, for a document connected to the target document by a link via a certain number (for example, two) or more other information providing servers, additional information extraction for outputting additional link information for this link relationship. Provide means. In this case, the link information generating means generates additional link information together with the link information.

[0018]

The reference information extracting means checks each document for the presence of a link extending from the document to another document, and if there is, outputs the document name and the document name of the link connection destination.

The link information generation means receives the output of the reference information extraction means and outputs the document connected by the link centering on the designated document. The output is preferably in a hierarchical representation format, but may be in other formats such as a list format. As a result, it becomes possible to display a list of document relationships.

[0020]

1 is a functional block diagram showing an outline of an information presentation system using a link information generating device according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the link information generating device according to the present invention. In this embodiment, links are provided between documents of a plurality of information providing servers.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an information presentation system, and reference numerals 2, 2a, 2b, and 2c are user terminals (hereinafter referred to as clients) 3, 3a in which a user inputs a search request and receives information as a search result. 3b manages the document to be searched by the user as hypertext, and an information providing server that responds to inquiries from clients, 4 communicates between the clients 2, 2a, 2b, 2c and the information providing servers 3, 3a, 3b. Is a network for doing.

Further, each information providing server 3, 3a, 3b
Is a hypertext document set 5, 5a, 5b
And link information generating devices 6, 6a, 6b according to the present invention. Since the information providing servers 3, 3a and 3b have the same configuration, the information providing server 3 will be mainly described below.

The link information generating device 6 is constructed as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the name of each functional block and the outline of the function are as follows.

Reference numeral 7 is an in-server reference information extracting means for extracting information regarding link connection (hereinafter referred to as in-server reference information) for the hypertext document set 5 included in the information providing server 3.

Reference numeral 8 denotes another server reference information extraction means, which receives the reference information in the server and from which the link connection information (Document) belonging to the other information providing servers 3a and 3b on the network 4 is referred to. Hereinafter, referred to as other server reference information).

Reference numeral 9 is a reference information transmitting means for transmitting other server reference information to another information providing server 3 via the network 4.
a to 3b. Here, it is the information providing server 3 that is transmitted to each of the information providing servers 3a and 3b.
It is only related to documents belonging to.

Reference numeral 10 is a reference information receiving means, which receives reference information from other information providing servers 3a and 3b from the other server provided via the network 4.

Reference numeral 11 is a reference information integrating means, which directly refers to the documents in the information providing server 3 from all the documents managed by the information presentation system 1 from the reference information in the server and the reference information from other servers. Alternatively, all link information related indirectly (hereinafter referred to as integrated reference information) is output.

Reference numeral 12 is a link information generating means, which receives input for designating a document name, generates link information centering on the document from the integrated reference information, and outputs the link information to the client. The client can display this link information in the hierarchical format shown in FIG. 3B, for example. The link information may be displayed in the form of a list as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the link information generating device 6 will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an input / output image (concept) of the link information generation device 6. FIG. 3A shows an image (concept) on the input side, that is, an image (concept) of the hypertext document set 5, 5a, 5b. Ellipses represent documents A, B, ... I, and arrows are links. The shaded ellipse is the document T designated by the user.

FIG. 3B is an image (concept) on the output side. Note that here, the number of layers to be presented is specified to be two layers before and after. In this case,
A document A that is linked to the document T centering on the document T specified by the user,
B, G, and a document in which one link is traced back from those documents are presented in a hierarchical manner. On the other hand, documents B and C linked to from the document T, and documents linked to from those documents are also hierarchically presented.

An outline of the operation of the in-server reference information extracting means 7 is shown in FIG. The following processing is executed for all the documents in the hypertext document set 5 in the information providing server 3. Process 71: Read documents one by one. Process 72: The information about the link included in the document is output as in-server reference information.

Here, the reference information in the server is as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the document name and the reference destination document name are included. Further, the reference document name includes the information providing server name and the document name. Note that FIG.
In (a), a blank reference destination document name means that the management is performed by the same information providing server as the link information generating device. This notation is
It will be used afterwards without notice.

An outline of the operation of the other server reference information extracting means 8 is shown in FIG. Perform the following process for the reference information in the server. Process 81: The reference information in the server is read item by item. Process 82: It is determined whether or not the referenced document described in the in-server reference information is included in the other information providing server. Process 83: If the output of process 82 is YES, other server reference information is output.

Here, the other server reference information is as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the reference document name and the document name are included. Further, the reference source document name includes the information providing server name and the document name.

The other server reference information is transmitted by the reference information transmitting means 9 to another information providing server via the network 4.

On the other hand, other server reference information (hereinafter referred to as reference information from another server) transmitted from another information providing server is received by the reference information receiving means 10.

An outline of the operation of the reference information integration means 11 is shown in FIG.
Shown in The following processes are executed for the reference information in the server and the reference information from other servers. Process 111: Read all items of reference information in the server. Process 112: Read all items of reference information from another server. Process 113: The reference information in the server and the reference information from another server are integrated and the integrated reference information is output.

Here, the integrated reference information includes a document name and a reference destination document name, as shown in FIG. 8 (c). Further, both are composed of the information providing server name and the document name.

An outline of the operation of the link information generating means 12 is shown in FIG. Receive the input that specifies the document name and execute the following process for the integrated reference information. Process 121: The designated document name and the number of layers are read. Here, the designated document is T, and the number of layers is two layers before and after. Process 122: Read all items of integrated reference information. Process 123: As shown in FIG. 3B, centering on the designated document T, the reference information of each of the front and rear two layers is output as link information.

According to the embodiment described above, the document connected to the specified document by the link is extracted from the documents distributed over the network, and the hierarchical format shown in FIG. FIG. 8 (c)
The list can be displayed in the form of a list like this.

[0042]

Other Embodiments In the above embodiment, the link information may be missing. For example, in FIG. 9A, the document J is added to the hypertext document set 5a in FIG.
Is added.

At this time, in the embodiment described above, FIG. 3B is output as the link information about the document T instead of the originally output FIG. 9B, and the link from the document J to the document G is performed. The information that it is stretched is missing. That is, a document that is connected to the target document by a link via two or more other information providing servers does not appear in the link information.

Another embodiment described below eliminates this lack of information and produces more accurate link information.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing another embodiment of the link information generating device 60 according to the present invention. Figure 10
In, the name of each functional block and the outline of the function are as follows.

Reference numeral 62 denotes a link information generating means. In addition to the function of the above-mentioned link information generating means, in order to make the link information more accurate, the presence or absence of additional information in another information providing server is necessary. It is provided with a function of outputting an inquiry to confirm and a function of reflecting the additional information transmitted from another information providing server in the link information.

Reference numeral 63 is a reference information transmission means for making an inquiry to confirm whether or not there is additional information output from the link information generation means 62 in addition to the other server reference information, and other link information from the link information generation device 60. Send additional information to the generator.

Reference numeral 64 denotes a reference information receiving means, which receives additional information transmitted from another link information generating device in addition to the reference information from another server and outputs it to the link information generating means 62.

Reference numeral 65 is an additional information extraction means, which receives the reference information extraction instruction output from the reference information transmission means 64, extracts additional information from the in-server reference information, and outputs it to the reference information transmission means 63. .

The in-server reference information extracting means 7, the other server reference information extracting means 8 and the reference information integrating means 11 are
The function is the same as that of the link information generating device 6 shown in FIG. 2 and its explanation is omitted.

The operations of the link information generating means 62 and the additional information extracting means 65, which are characteristic of the configuration of this embodiment, will be described below.

FIG. 11 shows an outline of the operation of the link information generating means 62. In addition to the processing executed by the link information generating means 12 described above, the following processing is executed for the integrated reference information and the additional information from other servers. Process 621: In generating link information, it is determined whether or not additional information from another information providing server is necessary. Figure 9
In the example of (a), when processing the document G as a target, it is necessary to confirm whether or not a link is established from the document in the information providing server 3a to the document G. I do.

Process 622: Create a request to confirm presence / absence of additional information with respect to another information providing server. In the above example, the inquiry (3a> G) is created for the information providing server 3b. In response to this inquiry, the information providing server 3b examines whether or not a link from the document of the information providing server 3a to the document G is linked to the integrated reference information by the additional information extracting means (equivalent to 65).

Process 623: The answer to the above inquiry is read and output to process 621. In the above example,
An answer (3a, J> G) is sent from the information providing server 3b to the information providing server 3. Based on this answer, the information providing server 3 knows that the document J of the information providing server 3a is linked to the document G of the information providing server 3b, and reflects it in the link information.

As a result, in response to the input of FIG. 9A, the link information generating device outputs FIG. 9B.

Although the two embodiments described above are used in the network type information presentation system, the present invention is not limited to this. FIG. 12 is a functional configuration diagram of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a stand-alone type information presentation system, and a link information generation device is configured by combining the functional blocks described in FIG.

The notation of data and the number of layers of link information to be presented are not limited to those shown in the above description.

When the present invention is embodied, it is determined whether the server internal reference information, the other server reference information, the integrated reference information, and the like, that is, whether each information is stored until the next update or is deleted when the processing is completed. It is a design matter and is not specified in the present invention.

[0059]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in an information presentation system using a computer that manages a plurality of documents as hypertext, information about a link connection between a designated document and another document is output. As a result, the user can efficiently obtain information about the relationship with other documents without having to follow links one by one.

In this case, the document may be stored in a plurality of information providing servers on the network, but may be a document only in a single information providing server (claim). Item 5).

In the case of targeting documents stored in a plurality of servers, a document connected to the target document by a link via another server having a specified number of layers or more is omitted from the link information. May occur. Therefore, in this case, it is desirable that the server confirms additional information regarding the link and outputs this additional information together with the link information (claim 3).

It is desirable that the reference information in the server includes at least the document name, the name of another document linked from this document, and the name of the server that manages this other document ( Claims 2 and 4).

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an information presentation system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of a link information generation device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a concept of an input example (a) and an output example (b) of the link information generating device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of in-server reference information extracting means.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of another server reference information extracting means.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an outline of reference information integration means.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an outline of another embodiment of the link information generating means.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing data in the link information generation device.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the concept of another input example (a) and output example (b) of the link information generating device.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an outline of another embodiment of the link information generating device.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an outline of link information generating means in another embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an outline of another embodiment of the link information generating device.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of presentation of directory information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information presentation system 2 Client 3 Information providing server 4 Network 5 Hypertext document set 6 Link information generation device 7 Server reference information extraction means 8 Other server reference information extraction means 9 Reference information transmission means 10 Reference information reception means 11 Reference information integration Means 12 Link information generating means

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A link information generation device provided in each information providing server, which is used in an information presentation system comprising a plurality of information providing servers on a network, each information providing server managing a document, which is provided information, as a hypertext. In each document managed by the information providing server, in-server reference information extracting means for extracting information about links extending to other documents and outputting in-server reference information as a result thereof; Other server reference information extracting means for extracting information related to another information providing server from the in-server reference information and outputting the other server reference information as a result, and the other server reference information to the corresponding information providing server. Reference information transmitting means for transmitting; other server reference information transmitted from another information providing server Reference information receiving means for receiving; reference information integrating means for integrating the in-server reference information and the other server reference information and outputting integrated reference information; link information regarding a specified document from the integrated reference information A link information generating device, comprising: link information generating means for generating; 2. The server reference information according to claim 1, wherein the in-server reference information is at least a document name, the name of another document linked from the document, and the name of an information providing server that manages the other document. A link information generating device including: 3. A link information generating device provided in each information providing server, comprising a plurality of information providing servers on a network, which is used in an information presentation system for managing a document, which is provided information, as a hypertext. In each document managed by the information providing server, in-server reference information extracting means for extracting information about links extending to other documents and outputting in-server reference information as a result thereof; Other server reference information extracting means for extracting information related to another information providing server from the server reference information and outputting the other server reference information as a result thereof; the in-server reference information and the other server reference information. And a reference information integrating means for integrating integrated reference information and outputting integrated reference information; Reference information transmitting means for transmitting information to the service server; reference information receiving means for receiving information transmitted from the other information providing server to the certain information providing server; and additional information from the other information providing server Additional information extracting means for outputting information on a document corresponding to the integrated reference information in response to the presence / absence confirmation; outputting a confirmation request for the additional information to another information providing server; Link information generating means for generating link information relating to the specified document from the integrated reference information;
A link information generating device comprising: 4. The server reference information according to claim 3, wherein the in-server reference information is at least the name of a document, and the names of other documents linked from the document.
A link information generating device including a name of an information providing server that manages the other document. 5. A link information generation device provided in an information presentation system that manages documents as hypertext, extracts information about links extending to other documents for each document, and refers to the result as a reference. Reference information extraction means that outputs information and link information about the specified document,
Link information generating means for generating from the reference information, wherein the reference information includes at least the name of the document and the name of another document linked to from the document. Generator.