Patent ID: 6424980
Filing Date: 2002-07-23
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
An apparatus for retrieving data contained in a plurality of semi-structured documents item by item over open networks, comprising:(a) a unit for storing meta data referred for describing item information of each semi-structured document containing location data about the location of each of the semi-structured documents, document structure data about the structure of each of the semi-structured documents, used to delimit document into items to be extracted, data attribute data about the data attributes of each of the items to be extracted, used to conditionally retrieve the items, and style conversion data that contains item presentation styles of user and each semi-structured document and conversion function used to convert item presentation styles of the search item described in query from user and item presentation styles of the search item described in query for the semi-structured documents from one into another; (b) a unit for finding, according to the location data, the location of a semi-structured document that contains all search items specified in an entered query that consists of the search items and search conditions; (c) a unit for converting item presentation styles of the entered query into item presentation styles of the search item in location found semi-structured documents according to the style conversion data, and forming queries for the location found semi-structured documents by referring the conversion function, if needed; (d) a unit for transmitting the queries provided by the unit (c) to the found locations and acquiring the semi-structured documents; (e) a unit for extracting item data from the acquired semi-structured documents according to the document structure data, selecting the extracted item data, if necessary, according to the attribute data for the search condition, and preparing a search result; (f) a unit for converting item presentation styles of the search result into the item presentation styles of each user according to the style conversion data by referring the conversion function, if needed; and (g) a unit for outputting converted search result in prescribed display format for each user.