JPH10320422A - Computer-readable recording medium recording mall server and mall server program - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] It is possible to limit a display period by using each category as a search key. In a mall server, a plurality of categories serving as search keys for classifying products are registered in a category master table together with information on an application period of each category. In the product master table 12, each product is registered in association with the category to which the product belongs. The product search screen creating means 13 creates product search screen data based on the category master table 11, using a list of categories including the current date in the application period as a category selection menu,
Hand over to terminal device 20. The product search means 14 searches for a product belonging to the selected category with reference to the product master table 12. The terminal device 20 displays the product search screen 21 when the product search screen data is sent, and displays the product list display screen 22 when the product list display screen data is sent.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mall server for providing a virtual shopping mall on a network, and a computer-readable recording medium on which a mall server program is recorded. The present invention relates to a mall server and a computer-readable recording medium that records a mall server program for realizing such functions by a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent development of information communication means, various services have been provided using a wide area information communication network such as the Internet. One of the services is a virtual shopping mall provided on a network. If you access this shopping mall, you can purchase various products while staying at home.

[0003] Shopping mall services are provided by a server computer called a mall server. If you access the mall server via the Internet, you can see a list of products sold at the shopping mall. At this time, the mall server is provided with a product search function so that the customer can easily find the target product. A category may be used as a search key in the product search function.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a product search screen of a conventional mall server. When the product search screen 60 is opened, a list of product categories is displayed. In this example, the search keys are "fashion", "gourmet", "hobby"
The categories of "Christmas" and "Okamoto" are displayed. The user selects a category to which the desired product belongs from these categories. Then, the products belonging to the selected category are displayed on the screen of the customer's terminal device. Then, the customer can specify a desired product from the products displayed on the screen and order the product.

[0005] As described above, by using the search function using a category as a search key, it is possible to easily find a target product and place an order.

[0006]

However, in the conventional category-based search function, a search key is displayed irrespective of the time period, so that there is a problem that many unnecessary categories are displayed depending on the time period. Was. Such unnecessary categories hinder a customer from selecting a target category. For example, the “Christmas” category is used only during the Christmas season. In this way, if the category used only for a specific time is always displayed on the search screen, the category that the user is searching for is buried, and it takes time to find the target category. .

[0007] Further, if a product whose sales period is limited is detected even during periods other than the sales period, products not sold are listed up, and customers are confused. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the product from being detected during periods other than the sales period. However, for that purpose, the person in charge of the opening company had to register and delete the goods at every time according to the time, so that the person in charge of the opening company was excessively burdensome.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mall server that can limit a period of display on a product search screen using each category as a search key.

Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a computer-readable recording recording a mall server program capable of causing a computer to perform a process of limiting a period for displaying on a product search screen using each category as a search key. Is to provide a medium.

[0010]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in a mall server for performing product search by classifying products by category, a plurality of categories for classifying products are classified into each category. Upon receiving a search screen acquisition request from a terminal device, a category master table registered with information on the application period, a product master table in which products classified by category are registered, and a current date included in the application period. Product search screen creating means for creating product search screen data including a list of available categories as a category selection menu, and a search specifying an arbitrary category in the category selection menu from the terminal device that browsed the product search screen data Upon receiving the command, the products belonging to the specified category are listed in the product master table. Mall server, characterized by having a product search means for searching among is provided.

[0011] According to this mall server, when a search screen acquisition request is sent from the terminal device, the product search screen creation processing section displays a list of categories including the current date in the applicable period by the category selection menu. The product search screen data is created including Then, when a search command is sent from the terminal device that browsed the product search screen data, the product search means searches the product master table for products belonging to the specified category.

In this way, the customer who operates the terminal device can browse only the categories included in the applicable period as the category selection menu, so that the user can easily find the target category and issue a search command. Can be.

[0013] In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a plurality of categories for classifying commodities are respectively provided on a computer-readable recording medium recording a mall server program for classifying commodities by category and searching for commodities. Category master table registered with information on the application period of the category, a product master table in which products classified by category are registered, and when a search screen acquisition request is received from a terminal device, the current date is included in the application period. Product search screen creating means for creating product search screen data including a list of categories as a category selection menu, and a search specifying an arbitrary category in the category selection menu from the terminal device that browsed the product search screen data When receiving a directive, it belongs to the specified category Product search means for searching for items from the product master table, a computer-readable recording medium recording a mall server program for causing a computer to function are provided as.

If the computer executes the mall server program recorded on the recording medium, the functions of the mall server according to the present invention are realized on the computer.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention. The mall server 10 provides a customer who accesses from the terminal device 20 with a search function by category of products sold by stores affiliated with the shopping mall.

In the mall server 10, two types of tables are provided. In the category master table 11,
A plurality of categories serving as search keys for classifying products are registered together with information on the application period of each category. The application period is indicated by a start date and an end date. In the product master table 12, each product and a category to which the product belongs are registered in association with each other.

The product search screen creating means 13 is a terminal device 2
When a search screen acquisition request is issued from 0, product search screen data is created based on the category master table 11 with a list of categories including the current date in the applicable period as a category selection menu. The product search screen data is sent to the terminal device 20.

When a search command is input from the terminal device 20, the product search means 14 refers to the product master table 12 to search for products belonging to the selected category. Then, it creates product list display screen data of the detected product and sends it to the terminal device 20.

The terminal device 20 can output a search screen acquisition request for causing the mall server 10 to create product search screen data and a search command for executing a search. In addition, it has a function of browsing data provided by the mall server 10. That is, when the product search screen data is sent, the product search screen 21 is displayed, and when the product list display screen data is sent, the product list display screen 22 is displayed.

According to such a system, when a customer searches for a product, the terminal device 20 first outputs a search screen acquisition request. Then, the product search screen creating means 13 creates product search screen data and sends it to the terminal device 20. When the product search screen 21 is displayed on the terminal device 20, a category selection menu 21a is displayed. However, the category not matching the time period is not displayed in the category selection menu 21a. In the example shown in the figure, since the date is “12/11”, “Onakamoto (start date: 06/01, end date:
08/31) "and" Valentine (start date: 02/0)
1, End date: 02/14) "is not displayed because the timetable does not match. Therefore, the customer finds the category to which the target product belongs from the categories whose time period is appropriate, selects the category, and then selects the “search” button 2
Press 1b. Then, a search command is issued. When the search command is passed to the mall server 10, the product search means 14 searches for products belonging to the selected category and creates product list display screen data. The product list display screen data is sent to the terminal device 20, and the terminal device 20 displays a product list display screen 22.

In this way, only the category that matches the time is displayed as the search key in the category selection menu 21a, so that the necessary category is not buried in the unnecessary category and the target category can be easily selected. Can be. As a result, the burden on the customer when selecting a category is reduced. Further, products other than the sales period are not displayed as a product list.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to an example in which a shopping mall service is provided on the Internet using the mall server of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a shopping mall system. The mall server 30 communicates with the customer 4 via the Internet 41.
2 and the computer of the exhibiting company 43.

The customer 42 operates the customer terminal device 50 to access the mall server 30. Then, product search, product order, and the like are performed. Product order information is held in the mall server 30. The person in charge of the store opening company 43 accesses the mall server 30, registers product information, and obtains order information. The person in charge of the store opening company 43 grasps the order status based on the order information, and sends out the product after confirming payment of the price from the ordering customer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the mall server 30 and the customer terminal device 50. All screen data such as product search screen data passed from the mall server 30 to the customer terminal device 50 is HTML (Hyper Text Markup).
Language) format document data.

The mall server 30 includes, as tables for registering various kinds of information, a shop master table 31 in which the identification information of the opening company is registered, a category master table 32 in which the display period of each category is registered, and a category to which each product belongs. Has been registered in the product master table 33. Details of the contents of these tables will be described later.

The product search screen creation processing unit 34 creates product search screen data by referring to the store master table 31 and the category master table 32 when a search screen acquisition request is issued. The created product search screen data is sent to the customer terminal device 50. When the search command is issued, the product search unit 35 sets the product master table 3 in accordance with the designated conditions.
Search for 3. At this time, if the store is not specified, the hit number display screen data for each store is created and sent to the customer terminal device 50. If the store is specified, the product list display screen data is created and sent to the customer terminal device 50. . Upon receiving the product designation information, the order management unit 36 sends order form input screen data of the product to the customer terminal device 50. When necessary items are input from the customer terminal device 50, the order management unit 36 stores the contents in the order information storage unit 37 as order information.

On the other hand, the customer terminal device 50 has a WWW (World Wide Web) browser 50a capable of browsing HTML documents, and each screen data received from the mall server 30 is passed to the WWW browser 50a. And WW
It is displayed on the screen of the display device by the W browser 50a.
Output such as a request to the mall server 30 is also performed by input to the WWW browser 50a.

That is, when a customer orders a product,
The shopping mall main screen 51 is displayed on the customer terminal device 50 by accessing the mall server 30 using the WWW browser 50a. A search screen acquisition request can be output from this screen. Also, the WWW browser 50a
Are based on data received from the mall server 30, based on the product search screen 52, the hit number display screen by shop 53,
A product list display screen 54 and an order form input screen 55 are displayed. The product search screen 52 is a screen for selecting a store or category and outputting a search command. The store-specific hit count display screen 53 is a screen for indicating the number of products that match the search conditions in each store. Product list display screen 5
Reference numeral 4 denotes a screen for inputting specification information of a product to be purchased. The purchase order input screen 55 is a screen for inputting necessary items when ordering a product.

Next, information registered in each table will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a store master table. In the store master table 31, a store code and a store name are registered in association with each other. This content is registered by the operator of the mall server 30. In this example, the shop code “IDM0001” is the shop name “shop A”
The store code “IDM0002” corresponds to the store name “Store B”, and the store code “IDM0003” corresponds to the store name “Store C”.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the category master table. In the category master table 32, a category name, a display start date, and a display end date are registered in association with the category code. This content is registered by the operator of the mall server 30. Here, for the category for which the display period is not limited, the display start date is “00/00”.
And the display end date is “99/99”.
In this example, there is a restriction on the display time for the categories having the category names of “Christmas”, “Middle Year”, “New Year”, and “Valentine's Day”.
1-12 / 25 "," 06 / 01-08 / 31 "," 1
2 / 20-01 / 05 "," 02 / 01-02 / 14 "
Period is set. Other "food / drink", "fashion", "electronics / PC",
"Business / Office Supplies", "Education Supplies", and "Books"
There is no restriction on the display period for the category of.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the product master table. In the product master table 33, a product name, a unit price, and a product description screen URL (Unifo
rm Resource Locator), a store code, a category code 1 and a category code 2 are registered. This content is registered by the operator of each store. In this example, each product can belong to multiple categories. For example,
The category code of “product 1” includes “C0001”,
Since “J0001” is registered, this product belongs to two categories, “Christmas” and “food / drink”. The product description URL indicates the location of the document information in which the description of the product is described.

Next, it is assumed that the information shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 is registered in each table of the mall server 30 of FIG. 3, and the processing of the mall server 30 when a customer searches for a product is specifically described. Will be described.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a product search screen creation process. On the shopping mall main screen 51, the categories of the services provided in the shopping mall are displayed. "Product search" in that genre
There is. When the customer presses the "product search" button 51a,
A search screen acquisition request is output from the customer terminal device 50 to the mall server 30. Then, the product search screen creation processing unit 3
4 acquires the name of the registered store from the store master table 31. The category master table 32
To get the name of the category that includes the current date in the display period condition. The product search screen creation processing unit 34 creates product search screen data from the acquired information.
When the product search screen data is sent to the customer terminal device 50, a product search screen 52 is displayed on the screen of the display device of the customer terminal device 50. The product search screen 52 has search key input areas 52a to 52e. In this example, five search keys of “shop”, “category”, “product name”, “upper limit unit”, and “lower limit unit” are prepared. Search key input areas 52a, 52 for "shop" and "category"
On the right side of b, a button 52 for displaying a menu
aa and 52ba.

When the right button 52aa of "shop" is pressed,
A list of store names registered in the store master table 31 shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. When the button 52ba to the right of "category" is pressed, the current date (in this example, "December 1" in the category master table 32 shown in FIG.
1 day) between the display start date and the display end date. Therefore, “Onakamoto” and “Valentine's Day” in the category master table 32 are not displayed.

When the customer inputs a category to which the target product belongs on the product search screen 52 as a search key and presses a "search start" button 52f, the customer terminal device 5
A search command is output from 0 to the mall server 30. The search command is passed to the product search unit 35, and a search for a product is performed.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a product search process. When the user inputs various search keys and presses a “search start” button 52 f on the product search screen 52, the search keys are passed to the product search unit 35. Then, the product search unit 35
Performs a product search with reference to the product master table 33.

If a store is not specified (when no store is specified), a product having the specified category code is searched from the product master table 33, and the number of search hits is counted for each store code. . From the search result, the hit number display screen data for each store is created. Then, a hit number display screen 53 for each store is displayed on the customer terminal device 50.

On the other hand, when a product is specified (when a store is specified), the product master table 33 is searched for a product having the specified category code and store code.
Product list display screen data is created from the search result. Then, a product list display screen 54 is displayed on the customer terminal device 50.

The hit number display screen 53 for each store has a search condition display section 53a and a hit number display section 53b for each store. In this example, only "Christmas" is displayed in the item of "category" in the search condition display section 53a. On the other hand, in the store-specific hit count display section 53b, the number of products that match the search key condition among the products handled by the store is totaled and displayed as “the number of hits”. In this example, the Christmas category code "J0001"
Are displayed. The customer selects one store from the store-specific hit count display section 53b. Here, it is assumed that “shop A” has been selected. Then, a product list display screen 54 of the store is displayed on the customer terminal device 50.

The product list display screen 54 has a search condition display section 54a and a product list display section 54b. In this example, in the search condition display section 54a, "shop A" is displayed in the "shop" item, and "Christmas" is displayed in the "category" item. In the product list display section 54b,
“Product code” and “price” are displayed in association with the product name. When the customer selects a desired product from the product list display section 54b, the product specification information is passed to the order management section 36, and an order form input screen 55 is displayed on the customer terminal device 50. The customer can order a desired product by inputting predetermined items on the order form input screen 55. The information input on the order form input screen 55 is stored in the order information storage unit 3 by the order management unit 36.
7 is stored.

Next, a processing procedure for creating a product search screen will be described. This process is performed by the product search screen creation processing unit 34 that has received the search screen acquisition request. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the product search screen creation processing unit. This processing will be described along the step numbers. [S1] Obtain fixed data for a search screen. The fixed form data for search screen is search screen data excluding the contents of the category selection menu, and is created in HTML format in advance. In addition, this fixed data for search screen includes
It is assumed that the list of store names is already included. [S2] The current date is obtained from the clock function provided inside the mall server 30. [S3] One category not yet selected is selected from the category master table 32. [S4] The start date and end date of the selected category are acquired. [S5] It is determined whether the start date is before the current date.
If the same date or the start date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S6. If the current date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S8. [S6] It is determined whether the current date is before the end date.
If the same date or the current date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S7. If the end date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S8. [S7] The selected category is registered as a search key in the category selection menu. For example, the HTML <
A category is added by attaching a tag of <OPTION> to an area sandwiched by tags of SELECT></SELECT>. [S8] It is determined whether all categories have been selected.
If all categories have been selected, the process proceeds to step S9, and if there is an unselected category, the process proceeds to step S3. [S9] The product search screen data is transmitted to the customer terminal device 50.

In this way, only the category whose time period matches is registered as a search key candidate in the category selection menu. Therefore, a category that is not appropriate for the customer is not displayed on the menu, so that when selecting a category as a search key, a target category can be easily selected.

Moreover, according to the mall server of the present invention,
Since the period to be displayed can be set for each category, it is not necessary to register or delete a limited time product for each store opening company, and the burden on the store opening company is reduced. Moreover, since the work performed by the mall server administrator is only to register the start date and the end date in the category master table, the burden on the mall server operator does not become excessive.

The above processing functions can be realized by a computer. In this case, the processing contents of the functions that the mall server should have are described in a program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the above processing is realized by the computer by executing this program on the computer. You. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include a magnetic recording device and a semiconductor memory. To distribute the market, C
The program is stored and distributed in a portable recording medium such as a D-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) or a floppy disk, or stored in a storage device of a computer connected via a network, and another program is stored in the network. It can also be transferred to a computer. When the program is executed by the computer, the program is stored in a hard disk device or the like in the computer, and is loaded into the main memory and executed.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, the application period of each category is registered in the category master table, and when a search screen acquisition request is issued, the current date is included in the application period. Product search screen data is created by including only the categories that are present in the category selection menu, so that customers browsing the product search screen data can select the desired category from the categories that match the timetable, making it easy to select a category Becomes

In the computer-readable recording medium on which the mall server program of the present invention is recorded, the application period of each category is registered in the category master table. Since a program that creates product search screen data by including only the category that includes the date within the applicable period in the category selection menu is recorded, the computer executes the mall server program recorded on this recording medium. Then, the customer who browses the product search screen data can select a target category from the categories that match the time, and can construct a mall server that allows easy selection of the category using a computer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a shopping mall system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of a mall server and a customer terminal device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a store master table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a category master table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a product master table.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a product search screen creation process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a product search process.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a product search screen creation processing unit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a product search screen of a conventional mall server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Mall server 11 Category master table 12 Product master table 13 Product search screen creation means 14 Product search means 20 Terminal device 21 Product search screen 22 Product list display screen

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A mall server for performing product search by classifying products by category, comprising: a category master table in which a plurality of categories for classifying products are registered together with information on the application period of each category; When a search screen acquisition request is received from a terminal device and a product master table in which products classified separately are registered, product search screen data including a list of categories including the current date in the applicable period as a category selection menu is displayed. Product search screen creation means to be created, from the terminal device that browsed the product search screen data,
A mall server comprising: a product search unit configured to search for a product belonging to a specified category from the product master table when a search command specifying an arbitrary category in the category selection menu is received. 2. The mall server according to claim 1, wherein the category master table specifies an application period by a start date and an end date. 3. The mall server according to claim 1, wherein the product search screen creating means creates the product search screen data as a structured document in a hypertext format. 4. The commodity search means, upon receiving the search command, judges whether or not a store is designated,
2. The mall server according to claim 1, wherein when a store is not specified, the store-specific hit number display screen data is created by counting the number of products that match the search condition by store. 5. In a computer-readable recording medium storing a mall server program for performing a product search by classifying products by category, a plurality of categories for classifying the products together with information on the application period of each category. Registered category master table, product master table in which products classified by category are registered, and when a search screen acquisition request is received from the terminal device, select a category list that includes the current date in the applicable period. Product search screen creation means for creating product search screen data including as a menu, from the terminal device that browsed the product search screen data,
Receiving a search command designating an arbitrary category in the category selection menu, a product search means for searching the product master table for products belonging to the specified category, and causing a computer to function as A computer-readable recording medium recording a server program.