JPH10301748A - Information processor and medium storing information processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate useless operations by changing the display method of a link depending on whether or not the data of a linking destination are stored in a cache in hypertext display. SOLUTION: A program medium 7 stores the respective kinds of programs to be loaded to a memory 2. By reading the program from the program medium 7, the program relating to a link specification judgement means 21, a hypertext obtaining means 22, a hypertext display means 23 and a network connection propriety judgement means 24 is stored inside the memory 2. The link is displayed in blue in the case that the data of the linking destination are not present inside the cache, it is displayed in yellow in the case that the data present inside the cache are new and it is displayed in red in the case that they are old respectively. A user judges whether or not displayed data are to be obtained from the cache in the case of tracing the link and whether or not the data are old in the case that they are obtained from the cache just by viewing the display of the link.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display process in an information processing device connectable to a communication network, and more particularly to a process for displaying an associated hypertext across devices connected through a network. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The Internet, WWW (World Wide Wealth)
With the spread of b), WWW browsers that display distributed hypertext on networks have become widespread. In a WWW browser, it is possible to move between hypertexts by pointing a link on the screen with a mouse. Such WWW browsers are installed not only in workstations and personal computers, but also in small portable information terminals.

In such a device, hypertext data is fetched by a cache by connecting to a network in advance, and the data is read from the cache when carrying the device such as a commuter, so that hypertext can be viewed in a place where the network cannot be connected, so-called offline browsing. Is possible.

[0004] Such offline browsing itself is not particularly limited to portable information terminals. For example, when a network connection is made by an individual using a personal computer or the like via a provider, a cost (charging) may be required for the network connection time.

In such a case, in order to reduce the cost, it is necessary to shorten the network connection time as much as possible. At the time of network connection, the content of the acquired data is merely read into the cache without looking at the content. It is also conceivable to watch slowly by offline browsing.

In the case of performing such offline browsing, if data of a target link destination is stored in a cache, the data can be viewed by following the link, but if the data is not stored in the cache. , Can not follow the link.

The hypertext display system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-265678 indicates whether or not a link has been previously referred to by a user, and displays information relating to the previous reference.

[0008]

However, in the above publication, it is possible to know whether or not the data of the link destination has been previously referred to by the user in the hypertext display. However, the data of the link destination is stored in the cache. Cannot be determined. For this reason, in the case of the above-mentioned offline browsing, there is a problem that when a user tries to follow a link, a situation occurs in which data does not exist in the cache and the link cannot be followed.

Therefore, in the present invention, in the hypertext display, a normal link and a display of the link are distinguished and displayed according to whether or not the data of the link destination is stored in the cache. It is possible to easily identify whether or not the user can follow the link, and to prevent a situation in which the user tries to follow an unreachable link and fails.

[0010] In a browser from which cache data is read with priority, when data to be accessed is stored in the cache even in an online state where the network can be accessed, the link destination data on the network is updated. It may read old data in the cache. Therefore, the user needs to access the updated data via the network at an appropriate timing to acquire new data.

Therefore, in the present invention, when data can be accessed in a network, when the data of the link destination is stored in the cache in the hypertext display, the elapsed time since the data is written into the cache, that is, Changes the link display method so that the user can determine the age of the cache data. Such a link display method is useful for the user to determine whether to access the link destination data via the network even if the data is in the cache.

[0012]

According to the present invention, there is provided a link designation determining unit for receiving a link designation from a user, and a hypertext acquiring unit for acquiring hypertext data from a network and storing the data as cache data in a storage device. The above problem is solved by hypertext display means for outputting and displaying the acquired hypertext data and network connection availability determination means for determining whether access to the network is possible.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a general example of a conventional hypertext link display and link designation. In some cases, a link is displayed on the hypertext display screen (FIG. 9A). When the user performs an operation such as clicking on the link to follow the link via the input device, the hypertext display screen is displayed. Is switched to the screen display of the hypertext document of the link destination associated with the link (FIG. 9B).
In this example, in the link display, text is displayed in a rectangular area, but the area may not be rectangular, and the link element may be an element other than text such as an image.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of what a link display in the present invention looks like. FIG. 10 (a)
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a link display example in an offline state where network access is not possible. If the data at the link destination is in the cache, for example, the link is displayed as a blink, and if there is no data in the cache, the link is displayed in a shaded manner. I can judge.

FIG. 10B is a diagram showing an example of a link display in an online state where network access is possible.
Users can only see the link display by displaying the link in blue when the linked data is not in the cache, yellow when the data in the cache is new, and red when the data is old in the cache. It is possible to determine whether the data displayed when the link is followed is obtained from the cache, and whether the data is old when obtained from the cache.

Hereinafter, the processing of the present invention for realizing such display will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus according to the present invention. This apparatus is connected to a network and has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1 for controlling the entire apparatus.
And a memory 2 for storing and executing various programs that configure each unit such as a hypertext text display unit 23, which will be described later, by software, and a keyboard and a mouse for operating the application by the user.
An input device 3 such as a pen, a display 4 on which hypertext is output and displayed, and a network device 5 connected to a network and performing network access
And a storage device 6 including a hard disk and a flash memory.

The program medium 7 stores various programs to be loaded into the memory 2 described above. By reading the program from the program medium 7, the program for the link designation determining unit 21, the hypertext acquiring unit 22, the hypertext displaying unit 23, and the network connection availability determining unit 24 are stored in the memory 2.

The program medium 7 is an information recording medium that is configured to be separable from the main body.
An OM, a floppy disk, or the like is suitable, and the program medium 7 stores an executable program read and executed by the main body, a source program for constructing the executable program, and an intermediate program.

In the apparatus according to the present invention, the hypertext data obtained via the network is stored in the cache data storage area in the storage device 6 in the form of a cache file.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the data structure of the cache index information held by the hypertext acquisition means 22. This cache index information is index information relating to the above-mentioned cache file. The cache index information includes request data, which is data cached in the storage device 6, a cache file name indicating which cache file the data is stored in, and a storage time indicating the time when the data was stored in the cache file. Have been. In this example, one cache file is assigned to one data. However, for example, a format in which a plurality of data are stored in one cache file can be adopted.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a specific data structure of link information created by the hypertext display means 23, that is, information on a link currently displayed on the screen. Here, for each hypertext link displayed on the screen, where the link display area is, specifically, the coordinate data of the upper left point and lower right point of the rectangular area, and the link indicated by the link It stores what the previous data is as a pair. This link information is cleared each time the link is followed, and link information is newly created from the hypertext data of the link destination.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart schematically showing the flow of the processing of the present invention in the apparatus shown in FIG. The apparatus according to the present invention is performed by repeating the following processing. Step00 is a user waiting process in which, when a link is instructed from the user via the input device 3, the type of the link is determined, and the link specified by the input coordinates is determined by the link specification determining unit 21. is there.

In step 01, when a link is designated by the user, the hypertext acquisition means 22 stores the hypertext data of the link destination from the external network via the network device 5 or stores the hypertext data based on the link information. This is a hypertext data acquisition process for acquiring from the cache data in the device 6.

In step 02, the network connection availability determination means 24 checks the network connection state, determines a link display method based on the network connection state, and based on the acquired hypertext data, hypertext display means 23. Is a display process for displaying a link on the display 4 according to the present invention, and the present invention basically repeats the above process.

In the process of waiting for the link designation in step 00, the link designation judging means 21 receives the user designation from the input device 4, and determines which link on the user screen has been designated from the coordinate data designated by the user. Judgment from the link information. There are two types of instructions from the user, one of which is a normal specification and the other is a cache update specification. These two instructions can be distinguished by, for example, a single click and a double click of the mouse. This determination is made by the link designation determining unit 21. The link designation determining unit 21 notifies the hypertext acquiring unit 22 of the data of the link destination and the type of the link designation. The data at the link destination is determined by comparing the coordinate data of the link display area of the link information stored in FIG. 3 with the coordinates input to the input device 3.

FIG. 5 shows a hypertext acquisition process for a link destination when the user designates a link normally (FIG. 4).
21 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process of step01).
If the user's link specification is a normal specification, first, the hypertext acquisition means 22
It is checked by checking the request data whether the item of the link destination data notified from is included in the cache index information shown in FIG. 2 (step 1).
1).

In step 11, if there is no link destination data, the hypertext acquisition means 22 acquires the link destination data via the network via the network device 5 (step 12), and further stores the acquired data in the storage device 6. After writing as a cache file in the cache data storage area (step 13), the cache index information items of the acquired data, ie, the request data, the cache file name, and the storage time shown in FIG. 2 are added (step 1).
4), and pass the acquired data to the hypertext display means 23 (step 16).

In step 11 described above, if there is link destination data in the cache index information, the hypertext acquisition means 22 acquires the target cache data from the cache data storage area of the storage device 6 (st
ep15).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of the link destination hypertext acquisition processing (step 01 in FIG. 4) when the link specification by the user is the cache update specification. The difference from the processing in FIG. 5 (normal link designation processing) is that hypertext data is obtained via a network even when the data at the link destination is stored as cache data. The details are the same as the processing in FIG.

When the link specification is a cache update specification, first, the hypertext acquisition unit 22 sets the item of the link destination data notified from the link specification determination unit 21 in the cache index information as shown in FIG. Check if there is any (step 21).

In step 21, if there is a link destination data item in the cache index information, the cache file of the link destination data is deleted from the cache data storage area of the storage device 6 (step 22), and the link destination data is deleted from the cache index information. The item related to (step 23) is deleted, and the process proceeds to step 24. This processing is for updating the cache file and the cache index information. If there is no linked data item in the cache index information, st
Proceed to ep24.

In step 24, the link destination data is obtained via the network, the obtained data is written in the cache file (step 25), and the obtained data item is added to the cache index information (step 26). It is passed to the display means 23 (step 27).

The hypertext display means 23 which has received the hypertext data of the link destination displays the data on the display 4. When displaying the links in the hypertext data, link display processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7 below is performed for each link.

First, the network connection availability determination means 24
Determines whether a network connection is possible through the network device 5. In this determination, if it is determined that the connection is not possible, the link display mode is set to "mode indicating presence in cache" (step 31).
In other words, data that does not exist in the cache cannot be displayed during offline browsing or the like that is not connected to the outside.Therefore, in order to prevent a link instruction to data that does not exist in the cache from being issued, check whether data exists in the cache. This is a mode in which the display of the link can be identified based on whether or not the link is displayed. In this determination, if it is determined that connection is possible, the link display mode is set to "mode indicating the age of cache data". In this case, it is a mode in which it is possible to identify whether or not data exists in the cache and how long before the data was stored in the cache.

In this example, it is configured to check whether network connection is possible every time a link is displayed. However, this is not always performed, but it is determined whether network connection is possible only once at first. It is also possible to automatically set the link display mode and then manually switch the display mode setting by the user.

Next, an item relating to a link to be displayed is added to the link information shown in FIG.
32). In this method, information on a link is obtained from the hypertext data, and the coordinates of the display area of the link and the data of the link destination are stored as link information in the link information shown in FIG.

Then, link display is performed based on the link display mode and whether or not the link destination data is in the cache (step 33 to step 39). In step 33, the mode is determined. If it is determined that the mode is the “in-cache presence mode”, the process proceeds to step 34 to determine whether the data at the link destination is in the cache data in the storage device 6. The determination as to whether or not the data exists in the cache data is performed by searching the cache index information shown in FIG.

If it is in the cache data, step
At 35, "display method when in cache", for example, a link is displayed by blinking (blinking) display to notify that the link is followed. If the data at the link destination is not found in the cache in step 34, the link is displayed in step 36 in a "display method when the data is not found in the cache", for example, by shading to notify that the link cannot be traced.

If the mode is not the "mode indicating presence in cache" in step 33, that is, if the mode is "mode indicating oldness of cache data", it is determined in step 37 whether or not the data of the link destination is in the cache by the cache index information. By doing a search.

If it is in the cache data, step
In 38, a link is displayed in the "display method for indicating the age of data". In this step 38, the storage time of the corresponding data is further extracted from the searched cache index information, and the elapsed time is calculated by comparing with the current time. When the elapsed time has passed a certain period of time, for example, one week or more, the data is displayed in red to indicate that it is old, and when it has not passed, the data is displayed in yellow to indicate the age of the data. You can judge. This time can be arbitrarily set by the user.

In step 37, if it is determined from the cache index information that the data at the link destination is not in the cache, the link is displayed in "normal link display method" in step 39.

FIG. 8 shows a specific example of the above link display. If the link display mode is "mode indicating presence in cache", that is, if network access is not possible and only data in the cache can be obtained, if the link destination data is in the cache, the link is Blink (flashing) is displayed. The user can confirm that the link is blinking and confirm that the link can be followed. If the data at the link destination is not in the cache, the link is shaded. The user confirms that the link is shaded and can confirm that the link cannot be followed.

When the link display mode is "mode indicating cache data oldness", that is, when data can be obtained via the network, when the data of the link destination is in the cache, the elapsed time is, for example, The link is displayed in yellow for less than one week, and red for more than one week. The user can confirm from the display color of the link that the data at the link destination is stored in the cache and whether the data has been stored for a predetermined time after being stored in the cache. If the linked data is not in the cache, the link is displayed in blue. The user confirms that the link is displayed in blue and, following the link, confirms that the data at the link destination is obtained via the network.

As another embodiment, the above-mentioned "mode indicating presence in cache" and "mode indicating oldness of data"
May be displayed in yellow or red depending on the age of the data if it exists in the cache, and blue if it does not exist.

[0045]

According to the present invention, a link is displayed as described above, so that a large amount of information is not displayed on the display screen or the screen is difficult to see. The user can know whether or not to follow the link, so that the user can avoid unnecessary operation of trying to follow the link that cannot be followed, and can perform comfortable browsing. In a situation where the user can access the network, the user can know from the link display whether the link data is in the cache and stored for a long time. The user can determine whether or not to update the data based on the age of the data, and by updating the old cache data as appropriate, it is possible to avoid acquiring old data from the cache forever.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of cache index information according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of link information according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a hypertext data acquisition process when a normal link is designated.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a hypertext data acquisition process when a cache update link is designated.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a link display process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a link display process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional hypertext link display.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of hypertext link display in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 Memory 3 Input device 4 Display 5 Network device 6 Storage device 7 Program media 21 Link designation judgment means 22 Hypertext acquisition means 23 Hypertext display means 24 Network connection availability judgment means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus connected to a network and processing hypertext on a network, a link specification determining unit for receiving a link specification from a user, obtaining hypertext data from the network, and storing the hypertext data in a storage device. Hypertext acquisition means for storing as cache data, and hypertext display means for outputting and displaying the acquired hypertext data. In the hypertext display means, when the hypertext data is displayed, the data of the link destination is stored in the storage device. An information processing apparatus characterized in that a link display method is distinguished depending on whether or not the link is stored. 2. The hypertext display means according to an elapsed time since data of a link destination is stored in a storage device when displaying hypertext data.
2. A method for distinguishing a link display method.
An information processing apparatus according to claim 1. 3. A network connection availability determining means for determining whether access to a network is possible. If the network is accessible, the hypertext display means displays data of a link destination when displaying hypertext data. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a method of displaying a link is distinguished according to an elapsed time after being stored in the storage device. 4. An information processing apparatus which is connected to a network and processes hypertext on a network, comprising: a link designation determining unit for receiving a link designation from a user; and acquiring hypertext data from the network. A hypertext acquisition unit that stores the hypertext data in a storage device as cache data, and a program that functions as a hypertext display unit that outputs and displays the acquired hypertext data. A medium that stores an information processing program for distinguishing a link display method depending on whether data of a link destination is stored in a storage device at the time of display.