Information provision apparatus, format separation apparatus, information provision method and program

• US 7,647,301 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2004
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Open-Circuit Limited
• Original Assignee: Open-Circuit Limited
• Inventors: Nakano, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US10/902,857
• Publication Number:
  US 20050033738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,989 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/104.1, 707/6, 707/7, 707/102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An information-provision apparatus that is capable of easily changing the format of display data without the risk due to changes of the program since it is not necessary to change the program. A format-separation unit separates basic format data, to which part information is attached that indicates a starting position and ending position of each structural unit of the format, according to the part information, and stores the format of a format database in a format-memory unit. Next, a format-acquisition unit receives search conditions from an information terminal, and acquires each of the structural units corresponding to those search conditions from the format-memory unit. A display-data-generation unit inputs the data from the search results acquired from the database into the variables of the structural units acquired by the format-acquisition unit and generates display data, and a send unit sends the generated display data to the information terminal.

Claims

1. An information-provision apparatus that acquires data from a database according to a request from an information terminal, correlates said data with a template described in a specific Markup language to create display data, and then sends said display data to said information terminal, comprising:

a processor or central processor unit (CPU) coupled to a storage medium containing the database and to the information terminal to execute tasks for the information-provision apparatus;

a basic format data that is a format including structural units, each of the structural units corresponding to a type displaying the structural unit or a type including a command, and the structural units being attached by an operator with part information at both a starting position and an ending position of the structural unit, the part information being a comment including an identifier indicating (a) a description not directly related to display, (b) a description directly related to display and containing no variable, (c) a description directly related to display and containing variables, or (d) a description containing a command;

a format-separation unit that separates said basic format data into the structural units based on the part information;

a format-memory unit that stores respective structural units separated by said format-separation unit;

a format-acquisition unit that acquires the structural units from said format-memory unit that correspond to the request from the information terminal;

a command-execution unit that executes the command contained in the structural unit when the identifier of the structural unit acquired by said format-acquisition unit indicates that the structural unit includes the command; and

a display-data-generation unit that generates the display data by sequentially combining the structural units acquired by the format acquisition unit when the identifier included in the part information of the structural unit acquired by the format-acquisition unit indicates the structural unit which is the description directly related to display and containing variables, acquiring the correlated data from a data-memory unit and inserting said data into a specific field.

2. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

an item-number-judgment unit that determines a number of items in the data acquired from the database according to the request from said information terminal and selects the structural units to use based on the number of items; and

wherein said format-acquisition unit acquires the structural units selected by said item-number-judgment unit.

3. The information-provision apparatus of claim 2, wherein when the number of the items in said acquired data is greater than one and less than a specified number, said item-number-judgment unit selects the structural unit that is different from the structural unit when the number of the items in said acquired data is greater than the specified number.

4. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a load-judgment unit that determines a load on the CPU of said information-provision apparatus, and selects structural units used based on the load, and wherein said format-acquisition acquires the structural units that are set by said load-judgment unit.

5. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a load-judgment unit that determines a load on a network to which said information-provision apparatus is connected, and selects the structural units used based on the load, and wherein said format-acquisition acquires the structural units that are set by said load-judgment unit.

6. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a sending unit that sends data for input to the information terminal for selecting said structural units and display order of said structural units that are separated by said format-separation unit, wherein

said format-acquisition unit acquires the structural units from said format-memory unit based on results of selections that were input into the data for input.

7. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 wherein said format-acquisition unit selectively acquires the structural units based on information obtained through communication with said information terminal.

8. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 that selectively acquires the structural units based on verification information for a user using said information terminal.

9. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a use-condition-judgment unit that determines use of the structural unit based on condition information and information related to said information terminal, or based on the condition information and information about a user using said information terminal, if said command is a command that restricts conditions when using said structural units and contains said condition information which are the restricted conditions, and wherein said display-data-generation unit generates display data based on judgment results from said use-condition-judgment unit.

10. The information-provision apparatus of claim 1, wherein if said command is an instruction to insert another structural unit when using the structural unit, said command-execution unit acquires another structural unit from said format-memory unit based on said instruction, and inserts that another structural unit in a specified location.

11. An information-provision method that is carried out by instructions from a computer, of acquiring data from a database according to a request from an information terminal, correlating said data with a template described in a specific Markup language to create display data, and then sending said display data to said information terminal, comprising:

a basic format data that is a format including structural units, each of the structural units corresponding to a type of displaying the structural unit or a type including a command, and the structural units being attached by an operator with part information at both a starting position and an ending position of the structural unit, the part information being a comment including an identifier indicating (a) a description not directly related to display, (b) a description directly related to display and containing no variable, (c) a description directly related to display and containing variables, or (d) a description containing a command;

a format-separation unit that separates said basic format data into the structural units based on the part information;

a format-memory unit that stores respective structural units separated by said format-separation unit;

a format-acquisition unit that acquires the structural units from said format-memory unit that correspond to the request from the information terminal;

a command-execution unit that executes the command contained in the structural unit when the identifier of the structural unit acquired by said format-acquisition unit indicates that the structural unit includes the command; and

a display-data-generation unit that generates the display data by sequentially combining the structural units acquired by the format acquisition unit when the identifier included in the part information of the structural unit acquired by the format-acquisition unit indicates the structural unit which is the description directly related to display and containing variables, acquiring the correlated data from a data-memory unit and inserting said data into a specific field.

12. An information provision system that acquires data from a database according to a request from an information terminal, correlates said data with a template described in a specific Markup language to create display data, and then sends said display data to said information terminal, comprising:

a processor coupled to a storage medium containing the database and to the information terminal to execute tasks for the information-provision apparatus; and

a format-separation apparatus comprising;

a basic format data that is a format including structural units, each of the structural units corresponding to a type displaying the structural unit or a type including a command, and the structural units being attached by an operator with part information at both a starting position and an ending position of the structural unit, the part information being a comment including an identifier indicating (a) a description not directly related to display, (b) a description directly related to display and containing no variable, (c) a description directly related to display and containing variables, or (d) a description containing a command;

a format-separation unit that separates said basic format data into the structural units based on the part information;

a format-memory unit that stores respective structural units separated by said format-separation unit;

a format-acquisition unit that acquires the structural units from said format-memory unit that correspond to the request from the information terminal;

a command-execution unit that executes the command contained in the structural unit when the identifier of the structural unit acquired by said format-acquisition unit indicates that the structural unit includes the command; and

a display-data-generation unit that generates the display data by sequentially combining the structural units acquired by the format acquisition unit when the identifier included in the part information of the structural unit acquired by the format-acquisition unit indicates the structural unit which is the description directly related to display and containing variables, acquiring the correlated data from a data-memory unit and inserting said data into a specific field.