Product information for supporting operations of an electronic product via the web

• US 7,673,014 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2005
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fukinawa, Osamu
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smarth; Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/179,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184818A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,693 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/223, 709/232, 709/224, 709/235, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A product information providing apparatus for providing, via a network, product information for supporting operations of a product, comprises an electronic product information storage that stores electronic product information which contains a group of hierarchized files having a file format browsable through a Web browser; a table holder that holds an event table in which an event indicating a change in the state of the product is associated with address information of the product information corresponding to the event; an event detector that detects occurrence of the event; an address information acquisition unit that acquires address information corresponding to the event detected by the event detector by referring to the table holder; an accessing unit that accesses the corresponding electronic product information based on the address information acquired by the address information acquisition unit; and a display that displays the electronic product information accessed by the accessing unit.

Claims

1. A product information providing system, comprising:

a product information providing apparatus that provides electronic product information for supporting operations of a product; and

a Web server that is connected to the product information providing apparatus via a network, wherein

the Web server comprises;

an electronic product information storage that stores a group of files which are hierarchized and are associated with each other by a link structure, have a file format browsable through a Web browser of the product information providing apparatus and contain the electronic product information, each file of the group of files including an absolute address which consists of a first address indicating an address of a top page of the Web server and a second address indicating a relative address to the first address, and

the product information providing apparatus comprises;

a memory that stores the first address;

a table holding unit that holds an event table in which an event relating to a change in a state of the product is associated with the second address;

an event detection unit that detects occurrence of an event relating to a change in the state of the product;

an acquisition unit that acquires the second address corresponding to the event detected by the event detection unit from the event table held by the table holding unit;

a generating unit that generates the absolute address based on the first address stored in the memory and the second address acquired by the acquisition unit; and

an accessing unit that accesses corresponding electronic product information stored in the electronic product information storage based on the absolute address generated by the generating unit.

2. The product information providing system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a first rewriting unit that changes the first address stored in the memory; and

a second rewriting unit that changes, adds and deletes the association of an event relating to a change in the state of the product with the second address in the event table held by the table holding unit.

3. The product information providing system according to claim 1, wherein

the product is a printer;

and

the electronic product information includes control data which is used for internal processing of the printer.

4. A product information processing apparatus which is connected to an electronic product information storage in which a group of files are hierarchized and are associated with each other by a link structure, store electronic product information for supporting operations of a product and have a file format browsable through a Web browser, each file of the group of files including an absolute address which consists of a first address indicating an address of a top page of a Web server and a second address indicating a relative address to the first address, comprising:

a memory that stores the first address;

a table holding unit that holds an event table in which an event relating to a change in a state of the product is associated with the second address;

an event detection unit that detects occurrence of an event relating to a change in the state of the product;

an acquisition unit that acquires the second address corresponding to the event detected by the event detection unit from the event table held by the table holding unit;

a generating unit that generates the absolute address based on the first address stored in the memory and the second address acquired by the acquisition unit; and

an accessing unit that accesses corresponding electronic product information stored in the electronic product information storage based on the absolute address generated by the generating unit.

5. The product information processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a first rewriting unit that changes the first address stored in the memory; and

a second rewriting unit that changes, adds and deletes the association of an event relating to a change in the state of the product with the second address in the event table held by the table holding.

6. The product information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the product is a printer;

and

the electronic product information includes control data which is used for internal processing of the printer.

7. A product information providing method for providing electronic product information for supporting operations of a product, comprising:

storing each file of a group of files, the group of files being hierarchized and associated with each other by a link structure, storing electronic product information for supporting operations of a product and having a file format browsable through a Web browser, in absolute address which consist of a first address indicating an address of a top page of a Web server and a second address indicating a relative address to the first address;

storing the first address in a memory;

holding an event table in which an event relating to a change in a state of the product is associated with the second address;

detecting occurrence of an event relating to a change in the state of the product;

acquiring the second address corresponding to the event occurrence of which is detected from the event table;

generating the absolute address based on the stored first address and the acquired second address; and

accessing corresponding electronic product information based on the generated absolute address to provide the electronic product information.