System of automatically fetching contents present on network

• US 20030065755A1
• Filed: 10/01/2001
• Published: 04/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Gunji, Nobuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,461,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The object of the present invention is to facilitate collection of contents that are present on a network.

Attribute information is stored at a predetermined location under a domain in a server that provides a device driver. The attribute information specifies attributes of the driver provided by the server, such as the address, the corresponding type, the version, the installation method, and the platform, in an XML format. The user of the driver fetches the attribute information from a computer connecting with the network and analyzes the details of the attribute information, so as to readily specify the address of the driver, irrespective of the construction of the server. The attribute information also shows whether or not the driver has been updated. This arrangement facilitates automatic acquisition of the updated driver.

Claims

1. A support system that assists a client connecting with a network to collect a predetermined content via the network, said support system comprising:

an attribute information providing module that is present at a known location to the client on the network and provides attribute information, which includes information regarding an address of the content on the network and a utilization method of the content.

2. A support system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the attribute information is described in an SGML language with a tag.

3. A support system in accordance with claim 2, wherein the attribute information includes attribute description data that utilizes the tag to describe an attribute and tag definition data that defines details of the tag used for the description.

4. A support system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the content is a driver program of a predetermined device.

5. A support system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the known location is defined by a relative path to an address of a page located on an upper most hierarchical level among a set of Web pages supplied by a provider of the content.

6. A support system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the attribute information includes new address information for specifying a new address of said attribute information providing module and instruction information that instructs replacement of data in the client with regard to the location of said attribute information providing module with the new address information.

7. An information collection system that collects a predetermined electronic content from a server connecting with a network, said information collection system comprising:

an attribute information fetching module that fetches attribute information, which includes information regarding an address of the predetermined content on the network and a utilization method of the content, from an attribute information server that is present at a known location on the network;

an address specification module that analyzes the attribute information and specifies the address of the predetermined content; and

a collection module that gains access to the specified address and thereby collects the predetermined content.

8. An information collection system in accordance with claim 7, said information collection system further comprising:

an updating module that activates said collection module to collect the predetermined content, when a specified condition with regard to update of the server that provides the predetermined content is fulfilled.

9. An information collection system in accordance with claim 7, said information collection system further comprising:

a replacement module that, when the attribute information includes new address information for specifying a new address of said attribute information server and instruction information that instructs replacement of data with regard to the location of said attribute information server with the new address information, replaces data with regard to the location of said attribute information server with the new address information based on the attribute information.

10. An information collection system in accordance with claim 7, said information collection system further comprising:

a storage module that stores the collected content; and

a distribution module that receives a requirement from a client connecting with the network and distributes a corresponding content to the client in response to the requirement.

11. An information collection system in accordance with claim 10, wherein the content is a driver program of a predetermined device,

the attribute information includes information regarding an installation method of the driver program, and

said distribution module installs the driver program into the client connecting with the network according to the installation method.

12. A support method that assists a client connecting with a network to collect a predetermined content via the network, said method comprising the step of:

storing attribute information, which includes an address of the content on the network, at a known location to the client on the network, thereby assisting the client to access the content.

13. A method of collecting a predetermined electronic content from a server connecting with a network, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) gaining access to a preset location on the network and fetching attribute information that is stored at the preset location and includes information regarding an address of the predetermined content on the network;

(b) analyzing the attribute information and specifying the address of the predetermined content; and

(c) accessing the specified address to collect the content.

14. A computer readable recording medium, in which data for assisting a client connecting with a network to collect a predetermined content via the network is recorded at a known location to the client on the network,

attribute information, which includes information with regard to an address of the content on the network, being recorded in said recording medium.

15. A recording medium, in which a program for collecting a predetermined electronic content from a server connecting with a network is recorded in a computer readable manner, said program causing a computer to attain the functions of:

fetching attribute information, which includes information with regard to an address of the predetermined content on the network, from a preset location on the network;

analyzing the attribute information and specifying the address of the content; and

collecting the content from the specified address.