JP2003132071A - Article providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide, in an article providing system, an article in a style as close to an article heretofore provided on a space as possible with a copyright problem and a privacy related problem avoided. SOLUTION: Display restriction information indicating whether or not the display is possible is held in a newspaper article DB 43 for every component composing an article, based on the display restriction information when article information is provided, whether or not the article information is providable is determined. If providable, the article information is provided as it is, and, if not providable, information indicating to that effect is substituted for the article information and is provided. Thus, a component having problems in terms of copyright and privacy can be restricted so that it is not provided by component unit. More specifically, problems concerned with copyright and privacy can be solved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an article providing system for providing articles such as newspapers and magazines by an electronic system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, attempts have been made to construct an article providing system for providing articles such as newspapers and magazines as electronic information to each home through a wide area network such as the Internet.

[0003] These systems usually receive a plurality of browsing terminals having a function of receiving articles as electronic information at each home and displaying the articles on a screen, and terminals for retaining articles as electronic information and browsing as necessary. It is composed of an article providing server having a function of providing the electronic information.

[0006] These systems can provide articles in a more real-time form as compared with the articles provided by conventional papers, and can target a huge amount of articles accumulated in the past. There is a feature that you can do it. For this reason, there is a great advantage for users, so it is built to provide as much information as possible in real time.

[0005]

However, among articles published in the past as articles, articles including copyrights that can be provided only on the page, such as those by external writers, and cases or accidents, for example, are included. It also includes articles that contain personal information such as articles about. Therefore, there are articles that include copyright issues and privacy issues regarding provision of electronic information.

[0006] Further, at present, there is a debate about the pros and cons of providing the articles including the above-mentioned copyright problem and privacy problem as electronic information, and a clear view is given. Not not. The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and provides an article that avoids copyright issues and privacy issues in an article providing system in a form as close as possible to articles conventionally provided on paper. The purpose is to

[0007]

[Means and Effects for Solving the Problems] The article providing system according to claim 1, which has been made to achieve the above object, provides a plurality of article viewing terminals with articles such as magazines and newspapers via a wide area network. It is a system to be provided, and the article information that groups information such as headings, texts and photographs that make up the space of magazines, newspapers, etc. for each article, and a display that shows whether or not the components can be displayed Restriction information,
An article holding unit for preliminarily storing search index information for searching article information is provided. Then, the article selection information providing means provides the article browsing terminal with the article selection information required to select any article information stored in the article holding means on the article browsing terminal side, and the article providing means When any article information is requested from the article browsing terminal based on the selection information, the article information is acquired from the article holding means and provided to the article browsing terminal. On the other hand, the article limiting means, when the article providing means provides article information to the article browsing terminal,
Whether or not there is a component that cannot be displayed among the components that make up the article information is determined based on the display restriction information stored in the article holding means, and if there is a component that cannot be displayed, the article is displayed. The article providing unit limits the components provided to the article browsing terminal so that the providing unit replaces the components as they are with the information and replaces it with information indicating that the provision is inappropriate.

As described above, in the article providing system of the present invention, since the article limiting means limits the components provided by the article providing means to the article browsing terminal based on the display limitation information, it is provided in terms of copyright and privacy. A configuration having a copyright or privacy problem by storing in advance the display restriction information indicating that the component cannot be displayed in the article holding means for a component having a problem in doing so (for example, a photograph or a text). Parts can be restricted from being provided on a component-by-component basis. In other words, copyright and privacy problems can be solved.

Although the article providing means may be configured to provide only the requested article information, as in the article providing system according to claim 2, the article selection information providing means is used for article browsing. Configured the article selection information provided to the terminal so that the article viewing terminal can select whether to display the entire page including the requested article or only the requested article. Based on the information, when the article viewing terminal is designated to display the entire page, the article information of the entire page including the article information requested by the article viewing terminal is acquired from the article holding means and is sent to the viewing terminal. If it is specified to provide and display only the requested article, it is preferable that only the article information requested from the article browsing terminal is acquired from the article holding means and provided to the browsing terminal.

With this configuration, when browsing, the user can select whether to display the entire page including the requested article or only the requested article, and display the entire page including the requested article. Choosing which display method to use has the advantage that you can see the position of the requested article on the entire page. However, at the same time, the problem that the article becomes difficult to read may occur, but since it has the selectivity to display the entire page including the requested article or only the requested article, the requested article You can avoid that problem by selecting a display method that displays only.

On the other hand, if the article providing means is configured to be able to specify the article information to be provided by the search condition,
The article browsing system is convenient for users.
Therefore, as described in claim 3, the article selection information providing means, in accordance with a request from the article browsing terminal, article search information for designating search conditions on the article browsing terminal side (for example, article search information). When the search condition is transmitted from the article browsing terminal based on the article search information providing means for providing a Web page) and the article search information provided by the article search information providing means, from the article holding means It is preferable to include a search unit that searches article information that matches the search condition and provides a list of the search results as article selection information to the article browsing terminal.

When the article providing system is configured as described above, the user can input search conditions and obtain a search result list based on the search conditions. Then, you can browse the article information by selecting an article from the search result list. Therefore, article information can be obtained from past article information by inputting, for example, a date in the search condition. That is, the use range of past article information is expanded. Also, by making it possible to set, for example, a keyword or a range of article posting dates as search conditions, it is possible to easily obtain article information that includes the keyword or article information that narrows down the posting date. Usability is also improved.

The article selection information providing means and the article providing means may target an unspecified number of users without particularly limiting the users, but limiting the users to the limited users ( It is better to target only members). That is, as described in claim 4, a member information holding unit that holds a member code that is information that uniquely identifies a member and information about the member is provided, and the article selection information providing unit and the article providing unit are members. It is configured to provide article selection information or article information to members registered in the information holding means, and further, when article information is provided from the article providing means to the article browsing terminal, the information indicating the provision is provided to the member. It is preferable to provide a result storage means for storing the result information together with the code.

In this way, the article information can be provided only to the limited users (members) by limiting the users. Therefore, the usage fee of the article providing system can be collected from the member. Further, since information regarding whether or not the member has browsed is managed, it is possible to charge by using this information.

Further, as described above, the record storing means may store only the member code and the information indicating the provision, but as described in claim 5, the record storing means stores the article information. At the time of provision, in addition to the performance information, the article code that is the information that uniquely identifies the article is saved, and the search method is used when the article browsing terminal specifies that the article information provided in the past is to be searched. Further, it is preferable that the article information to be searched from the article holding means is limited by using the actual result information as specified, and the article information that matches the search condition is searched.

In this way, the history of articles browsed by members is saved. Then, by using the information at the time of search, it is possible to perform a search by searching among articles browsed in the past. Therefore, the search method can be diversified and the service for members can be improved.

Further, as described in claim 6, claim 4
Alternatively, in the article providing system according to claim 5, when the member particularly specifies, the member stores the article code, which is information that uniquely identifies the article, in addition to the result information, and the member of the search unit searches In particular, when the article browsing terminal is specified to search from the specified article information, the article information to be searched from the article holding means is limited using the actual information as specified, and the article information that matches the search condition is searched. It may be configured to search.

By doing so, it becomes possible to save the articles browsed by the member's own will, and it is possible to retrieve from the saved articles. That is, it means that the member can create a personal article database by himself / herself. As a result, the range of use of the article providing system is expanded, and service for members is improved.

On the other hand, the article providing system according to claim 7 is the article providing system according to any one of claims 3 to 6,
The search information entered in the article browsing terminal when the search means is operating, and the article code, which is information that uniquely identifies the article corresponding to the article information provided from the article providing means to the article browsing terminal, are searched information. Further, a search information storage means for storing as is provided, and further, the search means arranges and provides a list of search results in an order that matches the search condition based on the search information.

In the article providing system thus configured, the number of times the article is viewed is stored in the search information storage means for each article corresponding to the search condition, and the articles are sorted in descending order of the number of times. By providing the list of the search results side by side, the usability when the user searches the article information can be improved.

The article providing system according to claim 8 is the article providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the article selection information providing means includes a headline stored in the article holding means and the article. The article providing means for article browsing is provided with an email sending means for sending an email consisting of a URL for identifying the article to the article viewing terminal and a URL changing means for randomly changing the URL each time the article is sent. When article information is requested from the terminal by a URL forming an e-mail, article information corresponding to the URL is acquired from the article holding means and provided to the requested article browsing terminal. .

According to the article providing system thus configured, the user can grasp the outline of the latest article from the headline in the electronic mail delivered from the article providing system, and If there is an article for which more detailed information is desired, detailed article information can be obtained by making a browsing request using the URL included in the e-mail. Therefore, even this article providing system can be a more convenient article browsing system for the user. Further, since the URL changes randomly each time it is sent, only the user who receives the e-mail can view the article, and only the person to whom the e-mail is sent cannot view the article. Therefore, the users of the article browsing system can be more definitely determined and limited, and the unauthorized use of the article information system can be prevented.

As described in claim 9, the electronic mail sending means sends an electronic mail in which the member information is added to the URL for specifying the article, and the article providing means uses the URL.
It may be configured to include a member specifying unit that specifies a member who has requested the article information. With this configuration, the member can be specified without using a generally-used means for specifying the member by inputting the member code and the password. Therefore, the member can save the time and effort of entering the member code and password without having to enter them. Moreover, since the member can be specified, various services that specify the member can be provided. Therefore, this may lead to improvement of services for members, which in turn may contribute to an increase in the number of members.

[0024]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A system that provides newspaper articles will be described as an example. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the overall configuration of an article providing system to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the article providing system of this embodiment includes a management center 10 that delivers article information to a plurality of households.
And a plurality of homes (A home, B home, ...) Connectable to the management center 10 via the Internet network 50.
Composed of and.

The home A 60 comprises a CATV modem 61 and a browsing PC 62. The CATV modem 61 is a CATV company (not shown) via a cable for TV broadcast distribution.
It is connected to the. The CATV company usually has a function as an Internet service provider (hereinafter referred to as "ISP"), and provides a service capable of accessing any server on the Internet. The browsing PC 62 is a general-purpose personal computer, and has a function of browsing a home page, sending / receiving mail, and the like.

The home B 70 has an ADSL modem 71.
And a browsing PC 72. The ADSL modem 71 is connected via a telephone line to an ADSL accommodating device (not shown) installed in a telephone office, and further connected to an ISP (not shown). The browsing PC 72 is a general-purpose personal computer like the browsing PC 62, and has a function of browsing a home page and sending / receiving mail.
Since there is no functional difference between the browsing PC 62 in the A household 60 and the browsing PC 72 in the B household 70, the browsing PC 62 of the A household 60 will be used in the description of the present embodiment. .

On the other hand, the management center 10 has a router 11
And is connected to the Internet network 50 through it. A firewall 13 is connected to the router 11, and the DMZ is connected by the firewall 13.
Public segment 20, called the demilitarized zone, and LA
It is divided into an internal segment 30 which is N.

A mail server 21 and a WWW server 23 are arranged in the public segment 20. The mail server 21 has a mail sending / receiving function. Also WWW
The server 23 has a function of providing a WWW page.
In the internal segment 30, the mail content server 3
1, newspaper article server 33, page image server 3
5. A performance management server 37 and a user / billing management server 39 are arranged, and each server has a database.

Next, the servers arranged in the public segment 20 and the internal segment 30 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the types of databases held by the servers arranged in the internal segment 30 and the general communication state between those servers and the servers arranged in the public segment 20.

Mail server 21 and WWW server 23
Is installed with an application that accesses a database of a server arranged in the internal segment 30 to perform processing. The mail server 21 accesses the mail content server 31 and the user / billing management server 39. Also, the WWW server 23
The newspaper article server 33, the page image server 35, the result management server 37, and the user / billing management server 39 are accessed.

The mail content server 31 is a mail content DB 41 which is a database (hereinafter referred to as "DB"), and the newspaper article server 33 is a newspaper article DB 43.
The paper surface image server 35 is a paper surface image DB 45.
Equipped with. In addition, the achievement management server 37 is a display achievement DB.
47 and an individual achievement DB 48. In addition, the user
The charge management server 39 includes a user / charge DB 49.

The mail content DB 41 stores article headings for mail magazines, URLs of articles and sentences to be put in the mail magazines, which will be described later. The newspaper article DB 43 stores article headlines, texts, bibliography, pointers for photographs and illustrations, copyright flags, and the like in XML format. The entity of the photograph or illustration is stored in the JPEG format or the PNG format.

The paper image DB 45 stores a paper image image of a newspaper in PNG format, and also stores position information of each article. The user / billing DB 49 is a database for storing personal information such as member names and email addresses, distribution record information, and settlement information.

The display performance DB 47 and the individual performance DB 48 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b).
FIG. 3A is a schematic data configuration diagram of the display result DB 47. As shown in FIG. 3A, the display record DB 47 has a search keyword 47a, an article code 47b, and a display count of 4
7c. The primary key is the search keyword 47a and the article code 47b. Display achievement D
B47 is a database for storing the search keyword at the time of the search and the article code of the article actually browsed from the search results and the number of times of browsing.

FIG. 3B is a schematic data configuration diagram of the individual achievement DB 48. As shown in FIG. 3B, the individual result DB 48 includes a member code 48a, an article code 48b,
The search date / time 48c and the storage designation flag 48d are included in each column. The primary keys are the member code 48a and the article code 48b. The individual result DB 48 is a database for storing the article code searched and browsed for each individual.

The operation of the system will be described below with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a mail magazine creation and transmission process. This process is manually started by the mail server 21 of the management center 10 at the timing when the newspaper is published in the morning or evening. When this e-mail newsletter creation and transmission process is activated, first, in step 110 (hereinafter, step is described as S), a random number is generated in the mail server 21 and a character string is generated using the random number. Next, in S120, the character string generated in S110 is passed to the WWW server 23.

On the other hand, the WWW server 23 includes the directory portion of the URLs of all homepages provided by the server (hereinafter, the homepages are simply referred to as "pages") including the character string passed from the mail server 21. Change to URL (for example, if the passed character string is abcdefg, change the URL to http: // www
w. aaa. co. jp / abcdefg / inde
x. Change to html). And WWW server 23
In step S180, the URLs of the pages to be provided thereafter all include this character string (S180).

Next, in the mail server 21, S130
At, the contents of the mail magazine are acquired by referring to the mail contents DB 41. Then, in S140, the user information such as the destination mail address and the member code is acquired by referring to the user / billing DB 49. S130 and S
Based on the information acquired in 140, a mail magazine is created for each member in S150. At that time, a member code is added to the end of the URL pointing to the article (for example, if the member code is 12345, the URL is http: //
/ Www. aaa. co. jp / abcdefg / in
dex. html? user = 12345). U
By adding the membership code to the RL, the member who has accessed the WWW server 23 can be transferred to the WWW server 23.
Can be specified from the URL. In this way, a mail magazine containing a URL different for each member is created.

Next, in S160, the user / billing DB
The charge information indicating that the mail magazine has been created for each member is written in 49. Then, the mail magazine created last is transmitted in S170. Although not shown in the flowchart, a mechanism is provided for canceling the charging information written in the user / charging DB 49 when the sent mail magazine returns as an error mail for some reason.

FIG. 12 shows an example of the mail magazine. Each article is a heading 60 that represents the brief content of the article in order from the top.
5, a normal format display URL 610 which is a page address for display in a normal format, a selected article image format display URL 615 which is a page address for display in a selected article image format, and a display in the entire paper image format Display the entire page image format U which is the page address
And RL620. This is repeated for each article. At the bottom of the e-mail newsletter, search page URL 62, which is the address of the page where you can search for articles
5 is shown.

The term "image format on the entire page" as used herein refers to a display format in which the entire newspaper page including the article requested to be displayed is displayed in the same image as the actual page of the newspaper. FIG. 13 is a display example of the image format of the entire page. As shown in FIG. 13, the image format of the entire page is the menu area 805 and the image display area 810.
Composed of and. In the menu area 805, there are a link for enlarging and displaying each article displayed in the image display area 810, a link for specifying the accumulation described later, and a link for displaying a search page screen also described later. Is displayed.

On the other hand, the image display area 810 displays the same image as one page of the actual newspaper. However, it is displayed that the article constituent element whose copyright is set as described later cannot be displayed at the location of the constituent element by the mask processing described later (see 813 in FIG. 13).

On the other hand, the selected article image format has the same image as the actual newspaper page, but is a display format in which only the articles requested to be displayed are enlarged and no other articles are displayed. is there. FIG. 14 is a display example of the selected article image format. This format also includes a menu area 815 and an image display area 820.

In the menu area 815, a link for displaying the entire page including the article displayed in the image display area 820, a link for specifying the accumulation described later, and a search page screen also described later are displayed. Is displayed. On the other hand, in the image display area 820, one article selected in the actual newspaper page image is enlarged and displayed. However, it is displayed that the article constituent element whose copyright is also set, which will also be described later, cannot be displayed at the location of the constituent element by the mask processing described later.

Next, the normal format is a display format in which only the article requested to be displayed is displayed in HTML format text and images, unlike the actual layout of the newspaper page. FIG. 15 is a display example of a normal format. This format is the menu area 825 and the HTML display area 8
And 30. In the menu area 825, a link for designating accumulation, which will be described later, and a link for displaying a search page screen, which will also be described later, are displayed.

On the other hand, in the HTML display area 830, H
Text in TML format, images and links to related pages are displayed. However, it is displayed that the article constituent element whose copyright is also set, which will also be described later, cannot be displayed at the location of the constituent element by the mask processing described later.

The user selects one display format from the article to be browsed and three types of display formats in the mail magazine, and copies the URL shown on the right next to the URL input field of the WWW browser. Browse articles using WWW browser. When the user wants to search and browse the article, the search page URL 625 described above is similarly copied to the URL input field of the WWW browser to display the search page.

Then, the user uses the search page to search for an article that the user wants to view, and browses the article. Even in that case, the above-mentioned three types of display formats can be selected. When the user performs these operations, the browsing PC 62 activates the request process. In the request processing, the information such as the URL and the search condition described above is transferred from the browsing PC 62 to the management center 10.
Sent to.

Next, the request processing will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operations of the browsing PC 62 and the management center 10 in the request process. S2
At 00, when the browsing PC 62 transmits the type of the request and information regarding the request to the management center 10, the request processing is started in the management center 10. Then, the management center 10 receives the type of request and the information about the request transmitted from the browsing PC 62.

In the management center 10, first, S2
At 05, it is determined whether the request is for displaying an article. If it is not an article display request, the process proceeds to S210. If it is an article display request, the display format of the article is determined in S250. If the request is to display the entire paper image format, the processing for displaying the entire paper image format in S255 is started. If the request is for a selected article image format display request, the S260 selected article image format display process is activated. Then, in the case of the normal format display request, the normal format display processing of S265 is activated.

On the other hand, in S210, it is determined whether the request is a search request. If it is not a search request, proceed to S215,
If it is a search request, the search type is determined in S230.
If it is a normal search request, the S235 normal search process is activated, and if it is a search request from an article that was previously searched and browsed, S240 is a search process from an article that was previously searched and browsed, and storage is designated. S if it is a search request from an article
The search processing from the 245 storage designated article is started.

Of these, the normal search process means a process for searching all the articles that are held. In addition, the search processing from the articles that have been searched and browsed in the past means the processing that searches the articles that the member has searched and browsed in the past. The search process from the storage-designated article means a process of searching from among articles that the member has browsed in the past, and particularly articles that have been selected to store.

In S215, it is determined whether the request is a storage designation request. If it is a storage designation request, the S225 storage designation process is activated, otherwise it is determined to be a search page display request and the S220 search page display process is activated. The browsing PC 62 that has made the request in S200 enters a standby state waiting for a reply from each of the above processes.

Next, the search page display processing will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the search page display process. In the search page display processing started in the management center 10, the search page prepared in advance is transmitted to the browsing PC 62 in S270.

On the other hand, the browsing PC 62 receives the search page in S275 and displays the search page on the screen in S280. Note that FIG. 16 is an example of the search page screen. Figure 1
The search page screen will be described with reference to FIG. The user can input a keyword to be searched in the search keyword input field 630. Also, a normal search option button 635 selected when performing a normal search
And a search option button 640 from articles that were searched and browsed in the past, and a search from the storage-designated articles that are selected when searching from the storage-designated articles Option button 645
Is provided, and one of three option buttons can be selected. Then, when the search button 650 is pressed, the request processing is activated in the browsing PC 62.

That is, a procedure of inputting a keyword to be searched in the search keyword input field 630, selecting an option button of the search type to be performed from the three types of search, and pressing the search button 650 is performed. Each search process can be performed by. Incidentally, the cancel button 65
When 5 is pressed, this search page screen disappears.

Next, the above-mentioned normal search process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the normal search process. In the normal search process activated in the management center 10, a process of searching the full text of the newspaper article DB 43 based on the search keyword received from the browsing PC 62 is performed in S300. Then, based on the search keyword and the article code of the article of the search result obtained from S300, the display count DB 47 is referred to obtain the display count of each article in S305. Then, in S310, articles are arranged in the order of the number of times of display to configure a search result list screen, and the browsing PC 6
Send to 2.

On the other hand, the browsing PC 62 receives the search result list in S315 and displays the search result list on the screen in S320. Note that FIG. 17A is an example of the screen configuration of the search result list. The screen configuration of the search result list will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 17A, in the search result list screen, an option button 705 indicating the selection state of articles, an article code 710, and a heading 715.
, Which is displayed by the number of articles searched. At the bottom, the entire paper image format display button 720 for displaying the entire paper image format, the selected article image format display button 725 for displaying the selected article image format, and the normal format for displaying the normal format Display button 730 is displayed. The user can browse the article in each format by selecting the option button 705 of the article to be viewed and pressing any one of the three types of buttons at the bottom.

Next, with reference to FIG. 8, a description will be given of the above-mentioned search processing from the article searched and browsed in the past and search processing from the storage designated article. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a search process from an article searched and browsed in the past and a search process from an accumulation designated article. Management center 1
In either one of the above processes started in step 0, a process of performing full-text search of the newspaper article DB 43 based on the search keyword received from the browsing PC 62 is performed in S330. After that, in the case of a search process from an article that has been searched and browsed in the past, refer to the individual result DB 48 based on the member code received from the browsing PC 62 and the article code of the search result obtained in S330. Then, in S335, it is determined for each article whether or not the article has been searched and browsed in the past. Then, only articles that have been searched and viewed in the past are left as search results.

On the other hand, in the case of the search processing from the storage designated article, the member code and S received from the browsing PC 62
Based on the article code of the search result obtained in 330, it is determined in S335 whether or not the article has been searched and browsed in the past by referring to the individual result DB 48 and the accumulation designation flag 48d is ON. Judge for each article. An accumulation designation flag 48d that is an article searched and browsed in the past
Only articles for which is ON are left as search results.

Then, in S338, the display result DB 47 is searched based on the article code of the search result thus obtained and the search keyword received from the browsing PC 62 to obtain the display count of each article. Then, in S340, the articles are arranged in the order of the number of times of display to form a search result list screen and transmitted to the browsing PC 62.

On the other hand, the browsing PC 62 receives the search result list in S345, and displays the search result list on the screen in S350. Note that FIG. 17A is an example of the screen configuration of the search result list. Since the respective constituent elements have been described above, the description thereof will be omitted. Next, the three types of display processing, which is determined when the request processing is a display request, the entire paper image display format display processing, the selected article image format display processing, and the normal format display processing will be described.

First, the entire page display image format display processing and the selected article image format display processing will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Management center 10
In either one of the above processes started in, whether the article requested to be displayed from the search result list or the article directly requested from the URL shown in the mail magazine It is determined in S400. In the determination, if it is not the article requested to be displayed from the search result list, the process jumps to S415.

On the other hand, in the case of an article requested to be displayed from the search result list, data is created in the individual result DB 48 at S405 using the member code, article code and search date and time received from the browsing PC 62. To do. At that time,
The accumulation designation flag is treated as OFF. If data having the same member code and article code already exists, only the search date and time is updated (see FIG. 3B).

In S410, data is created in the display result DB using the search keyword and article code received from the browsing PC 62, or if there is already data having the same search keyword and article code. , Update. It should be noted that when data is created, it is created with the display count set to 1, and when it is updated, 1 is added to the value of the display count of already existing data (see FIG. 3A).

By the operation of S410, the process shown in FIG.
The search result screen example described using 7 (a) is changed to the search result screen example as shown in FIG. 17 (b) by searching again under the same conditions. More specifically, in FIG. 17A, in the search page screen of FIG. 16, “Nagano” is input in the search keyword input field 630,
The normal search option button 635 is checked and the search button 650 is pressed. FIG. 17 (a)
Indicates a search result screen when the display result DB 47 is completely empty, and it can be confirmed that the article codes 710 are arranged in ascending order.

After that, data is added to the display result DB 47 by browsing, and as shown in FIG. 3A, the number of times the record having the search keyword is Nagano and the article code is 100010 is displayed 4, the search keyword is Nagano, and the article code is 10001.
The record number of 5 is 3, the search keyword is Nagano, and the record of the article code is 100016 is 1,
If the same conditions are entered again on the search page screen of FIG. 16 and the search button 650 is pressed, when
A search result screen as shown in (b) is displayed. From this figure, it can be confirmed that the article code 100010 is at the highest level, followed by 100015 and 100016.

In S415, article data is acquired by referring to the newspaper article DB 43 using the article code received from the browsing PC 62. Then, the paper image data corresponding to the article data obtained in S415 described above is acquired from the paper image DB 45 in S420.

In S425, the above-mentioned S415 and S4 are executed.
The article data and paper image data obtained in 20 are transmitted to the browsing PC 62 together with the JAVA applet. on the other hand,
On the browsing PC 62, article data, a page image, and JA
VA applet (JAVA is Sun Microsys
(registered trademark of tems) is received from the management center 10 in S430. Then, in S435, the mask processing is performed by the function of the JAVA applet described above.

Here, the mask processing will be described. Figure 1
8 is a diagram showing a schematic data structure of article data, which is headline data 43a to 43c, text data 43d, photograph data 43e to 43g, bibliographic data 43h, article coordinate data 43i, and display restriction flag 43j to.
It is composed of 43p. Of these, the display restriction flags 43j to 43p have the meaning of restricting the display of the corresponding article component if the display restriction flag is ON. On the other hand, if this display restriction flag is OFF, it means that the corresponding article constituent parts are not display restricted. For this reason, the display restriction flag corresponding to the article component having a copyright or privacy problem is turned on (hereinafter referred to as "copyright setting").

The mask processing is executed by the function of the JAVA applet, and is judged by the display restriction flag described above.
The copyrighted article components are replaced with the wording that they cannot be displayed. Note that this determination is made for each article component. Then, the masked screen is displayed in S440 (see FIGS. 13 and 14).

Next, the normal format display process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Management center 10
In the normal format display processing started in step S45,
0, S455, S460, and S465 are the same types of processing as S400, S415, S420, and S435 described above, respectively, and a description thereof will be omitted. In normal format display processing, S4
After 65, the article data and the JAVA applet are transmitted to the browsing PC 62 in S470.

On the other hand, in the browsing PC 62, the article data and the JAVA applet transmitted from the management center 10 are received in S475, the same mask processing as in S435 is performed in S485, and the article is displayed in S485 ( (See FIG. 15). Next, the accumulation designation process that is activated when the accumulation designation process is designated on the screen displayed in each of the above display formats will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the storage designation processing started in the management center 10, the storage designation flag of the individual achievement DB 48 is turned ON by using the member code and article code received from the browsing PC 62 as keys. Then, in S505, the storage designation completion screen is transmitted to the browsing PC 62.

On the other hand, the browsing PC 62 receives the accumulation designation completion screen transmitted from the management center 10 in S510, and displays the accumulation designation completion screen shown in FIG. 19 on the screen in S515. This storage specification completion screen is provided with an OK button 660 together with a message, and when this is pressed, the storage specification completion screen is deleted.

As described above, in the article providing system according to the present embodiment, since it is possible to conceal the constituent elements of an article that is inappropriately displayed by the masking process, it is necessary to display the articles in view of copyright and privacy. For an article containing a problem with, it is possible to hide only the components related to the problem. As a result, copyright and privacy issues can be avoided.

Since the member code for identifying the member is added to the URL sent by the e-mail newsletter, the member can be specified without using the member specifying means generally used for inputting the member code and password. . Therefore, the member can receive various services that specify the member without having to be aware of the member code and password. Therefore, this may lead to improvement of services for members, which in turn may contribute to an increase in the number of members.

On the other hand, since the management side is also free from password management, the management labor is reduced. Then, as a service for identifying the member, since the history of pages browsed by the member in the past is obtained by using the individual result DB 48, it is possible to realize a narrowed search using the history. In addition, because members can consciously specify and accumulate arbitrary articles,
It is also possible for the member to create a personal database based on the member's preference. Therefore, the range of use of the article providing system is expanded, and the service for members is improved.

Further, by preparing the display record DB 47, articles that are frequently viewed can be arranged at a higher position when the list of the search results is displayed, so that the search accuracy can be improved. As a result, the members can use the system with improved usability, resulting in improved satisfaction.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
It can take various forms. For example, in the above embodiment, the PNG format image is used in the entire paper image format display processing and the selected article image display processing, but this image format may be one supported by the WWW browser, for example, JPEG format image. .

Then, the image of the raster system and the image of the SVG format which is the vector system may be used in combination. Since the SVG format internally stores character and image position information in text format, the PNG format and JP
By combining with an EG format image, mask processing can be easily performed.

Further, in the above embodiment, a server having an image of a paper surface image is separately prepared as the paper surface image server 35. However, the image data of the paper surface image should be integrated in the SVG format and the XML data of the newspaper article DB 43. As a result, the paper image server 35 becomes unnecessary, and it becomes possible to reduce hardware resources.

When the display record DB 47 is used more and the data is enriched, the search keyword 47a itself in the display record DB 47 is used as the search target, so that a more accurate search can be performed. Furthermore, a function of setting an arbitrary search keyword 47a may be added to the article code 47b of the display record DB 47. By doing so, the display record DB 47 that enables a more complete search
Can be built. In that case, it is important to add a new column item so that the set member code can be registered and the user can be specified for operation.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the article included in the paper surface had to be selected as a previous step before the display in the image format of the entire paper surface was made. It may be equipped with a mechanism capable of displaying the entire paper image format. It is more convenient to use such a mechanism. Furthermore, it is more preferable to provide a mechanism in which the entire page of a part of the newspaper is displayed as thumbnails for each page and one of the pages is selected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of an entire article providing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating servers arranged in a public segment and an internal segment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display performance DB and an individual performance DB.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a mail magazine creation and transmission process.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing operations of a browsing PC and a management center in request processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing operations of a browsing PC and a management center in a search page display process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing operations of a browsing PC and a management center in a normal search process.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing operations of a browsing PC and a management center in a search process from an article that has been searched and browsed in the past and a search process from a storage-designated article.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operations of the browsing PC and the management center in the entire paper image display format display processing and the selected article image format display processing.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing operations of a browsing PC and a management center in a normal format display process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operations of the browsing PC and the management center in the storage designation process.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a mail magazine.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example of an image format on the entire page.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example of a selected article image format.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example in a normal format.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example of a search page screen.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example of a search result list screen.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic data structure of article data.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example of a storage designation completion screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Management center, 11 ... Router, 13 ... Firewall, 20 ... Public segment, 21 ... Mail server, 23 ... WWW server, 30 ... Internal segment,
31 ... Mail content server, 33 ... Newspaper article server, 35 ... Paper image server, 37 ... Results management server, 39 ... User / billing management server, 41 ... Mail content DB, 43 ... Newspaper article DB, 45 ... Paper image DB , 47 ... Display achievement DB, 48 ... Individual achievement D
B, 49 ... User / billing DB, 50 ... Internet network, 60 ... A home, 61 ... CATV modem, 62 ... Viewing PC

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An article providing system for providing articles, such as magazines and newspapers, to a plurality of article viewing terminals via a wide area network, such as headings, texts and photographs constituting the space of magazines, newspapers, etc. Articles in which article information in which information on constituent parts is grouped for each article, display restriction information indicating whether or not the constituent parts can be displayed, and search index information for searching the article information are stored in advance. Holding means, article selection information providing means for providing the article browsing terminal with article selection information required to select any article information stored in the article holding means on the article browsing terminal side, and the article An article providing unit that obtains the article information from the article holding unit and provides the article information to the article browsing terminal when any article information is requested from the article browsing terminal based on the selection information; When the column provides article information to the article browsing terminal, the display restriction information stored in the article holding means determines whether or not there is a component that cannot be displayed among the components that make up the article information. If there is a component that cannot be displayed, the article providing means replaces the component as it is with the information that the provision is inappropriate and provides the component. An article providing system, comprising: an article limiting unit that limits information on components provided by the article providing unit to the article browsing terminal. 2. The article selection information provided by the article selection information providing means to the article browsing terminal is for article browsing whether to display the entire page including the requested article or only the requested article. The article providing unit is configured to be selectable by a terminal, and the article providing unit requests the article browsing terminal to display the entire page of the article on the basis of the article selection information. When the article information of the entire page including information is acquired from the article holding means and provided to the browsing terminal and only the requested article is displayed, only the article information requested by the article browsing terminal is specified. The article providing system according to claim 1, wherein the article providing system is configured to acquire the article from the article holding unit and provide the article to the browsing terminal. 3. The article selection information providing means, according to a request from the article browsing terminal, provides article search information for designating a search condition on the article browsing terminal side. When the search condition is transmitted from the article browsing terminal based on the article search information provided by the article search information providing means, the article information matching the search condition is searched from the article holding means. 3. The article providing system according to claim 1, further comprising: a search unit that provides the article browsing terminal with a list of the search results as the article selection information. 4. A member information holding unit that holds a member code that is information that uniquely identifies a member and information about the member, wherein the article selection information providing unit and the article providing unit are the member information holding unit. Is configured to provide the article selection information or the article information to a member registered in, and further, when article information is provided from the article providing means to the article browsing terminal, information indicating the provision is displayed. The article providing system according to claim 1, further comprising: a result storing unit that stores the member code together with the member code as result information. 5. The achievement storing means stores an article code, which is information for uniquely specifying an article, in addition to the achievement information when the article information is provided, and the searching means stores the article information provided in the past. When the article browsing terminal is designated as a search target, the article information searched from the article holding means is restricted using the performance information as designated, and the article information matching the search condition is searched. The article providing system according to claim 4, wherein the article providing system performs a search. 6. The achievement storing means stores an article code, which is information for uniquely identifying an article, in addition to the achievement information, when the member specifically designates, and the searching means stores the article particularly designated by the member. When the article browsing terminal is designated to search from the information, the article information searched from the article holding means is restricted using the performance information as designated, and the article information matching the search condition is searched. The article providing system according to claim 4, wherein the article providing system searches. 7. The article corresponding to the search condition specified by the article browsing terminal when the search means is operated, and then the article corresponding to the article information provided from the article providing means to the article browsing terminal is uniquely specified. Search information storage means for storing, as search information, an article code that is information to be provided, and the search means provides the list of search results rearranged in the order in which they match the search condition based on the search information. 7. The article information system according to claim 3, wherein the article information system is provided. 8. The article selection information providing means sends an email, which includes a headline stored in the article holding means and a URL for specifying the article, to the article browsing terminal. And a URL changing unit that randomly changes the URL each time it is sent, wherein the article providing unit is a URL that composes the e-mail from an article browsing terminal.
When the article information is requested by the article information, the article information corresponding to the URL is acquired from the article holding means and provided to the requested article browsing terminal.
~ Article providing system according to claim 7. 9. The electronic mail sending means sends an electronic mail in which member information is added to the URL, and the article providing means includes a member specifying means for specifying a member who requested the article information from the URL. The article providing system according to claim 8, wherein: