Mall server and computer-readable recording medium where mall server program is recorded

【0001】

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

The present invention relates to a mall server that provides a virtual shopping mall on a network and a computer-readable recording medium that records a mall server program, and in particular, a mall server that classifies products into categories and searches for products, and such a function. The present invention relates to a computer-readable recording medium on which a mall server program is recorded.

【0002】

[Conventional technology]

With the development of information and communication means in recent years, various services are provided using a wide area information and communication network such as the Internet. One of the services is a virtual shopping mall set up on the network. If you access this shopping mall, you can purchase various products while you are at home.

【0003】

The services of a shopping mall are provided by a server computer called a mall server. If you access the mall server via the Internet, you can see the 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 desired product. A category may be used as a search key in the product search function.

【0004】

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 categories of "fashion", "gourmet", "hobby", "Christmas", and "midyear gift" are displayed as search keys. The user selects the category to which the product he / she wants 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 the desired product from the products displayed on the screen and order the product.

【0005】

In this way, by using the search function using the category as the search key, it is possible to easily find the target product and place an order.

【0006】

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, in the conventional search function by category, since the search key is displayed regardless of the time of day, there is a problem that many unnecessary categories are displayed depending on the time of day. Such unnecessary categories interfere with the customer's selection of the desired category. For example, the "Christmas" category is only available during the Christmas season. In this way, if the category that is used only for a specific time period is always displayed on the search screen, the category that the user is looking for will be buried and it will take time to find the target category. ..

【0007】

Further, if a product having a limited sales period is detected outside the sales period, the products that are not sold will be listed and the customer will be confused. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the product from being detected except during the sales period. However, for that purpose, the person in charge of the store opening company had to register and delete the products one by one according to the time, so the burden on the person in charge of the store opening company was excessive.

【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 capable of limiting the period of display on the product search screen by using each category as a search key.

【0009】

Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer-readable recording medium recording a mall server program capable of causing a computer to perform a process of limiting a period of display on a product search screen using each category as a search key. It is to be.

【0010】

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, in order to solve the above problems, in a mall server that classifies products by category and searches for products, a plurality of categories for classifying products are registered together with information on the application period of each category. When a category master table, a product master table in which products classified by category are registered, and a search screen acquisition request are received from the terminal device, a list of categories including the current date in the applicable period is used as a category selection menu. When a search command for specifying an arbitrary category in the category selection menu is received from the product search screen creation means for creating the product search screen data including the product and the terminal device for viewing the product search screen data, the specified category is received. Provided is a mall server comprising: a product search means for searching a product belonging to the above product master table from the product master table.

【0011】

According to this mall server, when a search screen acquisition request is sent from the terminal device, the product search screen creation processing unit includes a list of categories including the current date in the applicable period as a category selection menu. Search screen data is created. Then, when a search command is sent from the terminal device that browses the product search screen data, the product search means searches the product master table for products belonging to the designated category.

【0012】

In this way, the customer who operates the terminal device can browse only the categories included in the application period as the category selection menu, so that the target category can be easily found and the search command can be issued.

【0013】

Further, in order to solve the above problem, in a computer-readable recording medium in which a mall server program for classifying products into categories and performing a product search is recorded, a plurality of categories for classifying products are classified into each category. When a search screen acquisition request is received from the category master table registered with information on the application period, the product master table in which products classified by category are registered, and the terminal device, the category including the current date in the application period. A product search screen creation means for creating product search screen data including a list of items as a category selection menu, and a search command specifying an arbitrary category in the category selection menu is received from the terminal device that has viewed the product search screen data. A computer-readable recording medium on which a mall server program recording a mall server program, which comprises operating a computer as a product search means for searching a product belonging to a designated category from the product master table, is provided.

【0014】

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

【0015】

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of the principle of the present invention. The mall server 10 provides a customer accessing from the terminal device 20 with a category-based search function for products sold by stores affiliated with the shopping mall.

【0016】

Two types of tables are provided in the mall server 10. In the category master table 11, a plurality of categories that serve as search keys for classifying products are registered together with information on the applicable period of each category. The applicable period is indicated by the start date and the end date. In the product master table 12, individual products and the categories to which the products belong are registered in association with each other.

【0017】

When the search screen acquisition request is issued from the terminal device 20, the product search screen creation means 13 uses a list of categories including the current date in the application period as a category selection menu based on the category master table 11. Create product search screen data. The product search screen data is sent to the terminal device 20.

【0018】

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

【0019】

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 the search. It also has a data browsing function 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.

【0020】

According to such a system, when a customer searches for a product, a search screen acquisition request is first output from the terminal device 20. Then, the product search screen data is created by the product search screen creation means 13 and sent to the terminal device 20. When the product search screen 21 is displayed on the terminal device 20, the category selection menu 21a is displayed, but the category selection menu 21a does not display the categories that do not match the time. In the example of the figure, since the date is "12/11", "Gifts (start date: 06/01, end date: 08/31)" and "Valentine (start date: 02/01, end date)" : 02/14) category is not displayed because the time is not correct. Therefore, the customer finds the category to which the desired product belongs from the categories that match the time, selects the category, and then presses the "search" button 21b. 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 product list display screen 22 is displayed on the terminal device 20.

【0021】

In this way, since only the categories that match the time are displayed as search keys in the category selection menu 21a, the desired category can be easily selected without being buried in the unnecessary category. As a result, the burden on the customer when selecting a category is reduced. In addition, products other than the sales period are not displayed as a product list.

【0022】

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described by taking as an example a case where a shopping mall service is provided on the Internet using the mall server of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of the shopping mall system. The mall server 30 is connected to the customer terminal device 50 of the customer 42 and the computer of the exhibiting company 43 via the Internet 41.

【0023】

The customer 42 operates the customer terminal device 50 to access the mall server 30. Then, the product is searched and the product is ordered. Product order information is stored in the mall server 30. The person in charge of the store opening company 43 accesses the mall server 30 to register product information and order order information. The person in charge of the store opening company 43 grasps the order status from the order information, and ships the product after confirming the payment of the price from the customer who ordered.

【0024】

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

【0025】

In the mall server 30, as a table for registering various information, a store master table 31 in which the identification information of the store 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 are registered. It has a product master table 33. Details of the contents of these tables will be described later.

【0026】

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 there is a search screen acquisition request. 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 searches the product master table 33 according to the specified conditions. 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, and if the store is specified, the product list display screen data is created and sent to the customer terminal device 50. .. When the order management unit 36 receives the product designation information, the order management unit 36 sends the order form input screen data of the product to the customer terminal device 50. When the necessary items are input from the customer terminal device 50, the order management unit 36 stores the contents as order information in the order information storage unit 37.

【0027】

On the other hand, the customer terminal device 50 has a WWW (World Wide Web) browser 50a capable of viewing HTML documents, and each screen data received from the mall server 30 is passed to the WWW browser 50a. Then, it is displayed on the screen of the display device by the WWW browser 50a. In addition, the output of the request to the mall server 30 is also performed by the input to the WWW browser 50a.

【0028】

That is, when the customer orders a product, the WWW browser 50a is used to access the mall server 30, and the shopping mall main screen 51 is displayed on the customer terminal device 50. A search screen acquisition request can be output from this screen. Further, the WWW browser 50a displays the product search screen 52, the number of hits display screen by store 53, the product list display screen 54, and the order form input screen 55 based on the data received from the mall server 30. The product search screen 52 is a screen for selecting a store or a category and outputting a search command. The hit number display screen 53 for each store is a screen for showing the number of products that match the search conditions in each store. The product list display screen 54 is a screen for inputting specified information of the product to be purchased. The purchase order input screen 55 is a screen for inputting necessary items when ordering a product.

【0029】

Next, the information registered in each table will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a store master table. In the store master table 31, the store code and the 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 store code "IDM0001" corresponds to the store name "Store A", the store code "IDM0002" corresponds to the store name "Store B", and the store code "IDM0003" corresponds to the store name "Store C". doing.

【0030】

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the category master table. In the category master table 32, the category name, the display start date, and the display end date are registered in association with the category code. This content is registered by the operator of the mall server 30. Here, in the category for which the display period is not restricted, the display start date is set to "00/00" and the display end date is set to "99/99". In this example, there are restrictions on the display time for the categories whose category names are "Christmas", "Gifts", "New Year" and "Valentine's Day", respectively, "12/01 ~ 12/25" and "06/01 ~". The periods of "08/31", "12/20 ~ 01/05", and "02/01 ~ 02/14" are set. There are no restrictions on the display period for other categories of "food / drink", "fashion", "electric appliances / computers", "business / office supplies", "educational supplies", and "books".

【0031】

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, a product description screen URL (Uniform Resource Locator), a store code, a category code 1, and a category code 2 are registered in association with the product code. This content is registered by the operator of each store. In this example, each product can belong to multiple categories. For example, since "C0001" and "J0001" are registered in the category code of "Product 1", 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 corresponding product is described.

【0032】

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

【0033】

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the product search screen creation process. On the shopping center main screen 51, the genres of services provided by the shopping mall are displayed. There is "product search" in the genre. 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 34 acquires the name of the registered store from the store master table 31. In addition, the name of the category including the current date in the condition of the display period is acquired from the category master table 32. 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, the 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. On the right side of the search key input areas 52a and 52b for "shop" and "category", there are buttons 52aa and 52ba for displaying a menu.

【0034】

When the button 52aa to the right of "Store" is pressed, a list of store names registered in the store master table 31 shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. When you press the button 52ba to the right of "Category", the current date (assumed to be "December 11" in this example) is displayed in the category master table 32 shown in Fig. 5. The name of the category included between the display end date and the date is displayed. Therefore, "Gifts" and "Valentine's Day" in the category master table 32 are not displayed.

【0035】

When the customer inputs the category to which the target product belongs as the search key on the product search screen 52 and presses the "search start" button 52f, a search command is output from the customer terminal device 50 to the mall server 30. The search command is passed to the product search unit 35, and the product is searched.

【0036】

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of product search processing. On the product search screen 52, when various search keys are input and the "search start" button 52f is pressed, the search key is passed to the product search unit 35. Then, the product search unit 35 searches for the product with reference to the product master table 33.

【0037】

Here, when the store is not specified (when the store is not specified), the product having the specified category code is searched from the product master table 33, and the number of search hits is totaled for each store code. From the search results, the hit number display screen data for each store is created. Then, the hit number display screen 53 for each store is displayed on the customer terminal device 50.

【0038】

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

【0039】

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

【0040】

The product list display screen 54 includes a search condition display unit 54a and a product list display unit 54b. In this example, the search condition display unit 54a displays "shop A" in the "shop" item and "Christmas" in the "category" item. On the product list display unit 54b, a "product code" and a "price" are displayed in association with the product name. When the customer selects the desired product from the product list display unit 54b, the product designation information is passed to the order management unit 36, and the order form input screen 55 is displayed on the customer terminal device 50. The customer can order the target product by inputting a predetermined item on the purchase order input screen 55. The information input on the order form input screen 55 is stored in the order information storage unit 37 by the order management unit 36.

【0041】

Next, the processing procedure for creating the 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 showing a processing procedure of the product search screen creation processing unit. This process will be described along with the step numbers. [S1] Acquire standard data for the search screen. The standard data for the search screen is the search screen data in a state excluding the contents of the category selection menu, and is created in advance in HTML format. It is assumed that the list of store names is already incorporated in the standard data for the search screen. [S2] The current date is acquired from the clock function provided inside the mall server 30. [S3] Select one category that has not yet been selected from the category master table 32. [S4] Get the start date and end date of the selected category. [S5] Determine whether the start date is earlier than the current date. If the same day or the start date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S6, and if the current date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S8. [S6] Determine whether the current date is before the end date. If the same day or the current date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S7, and if the end date is earlier, the process proceeds to step S8. [S7] Register the selected category in the category selection menu as a search key. For example, add a category by tagging <OPTION> to the area between the HTML <SELECT> </ SELECT> tags. , [S8] Judge whether all categories have been selected. If all categories have been selected, proceed to step S9, and if there are unselected categories, proceed to step S3. [S9] The product search screen data is transmitted to the customer terminal device 50.

【0042】

In this way, only the categories that match the time zone are registered as search key candidates in the category selection menu. Therefore, the category that does not match the time is not displayed in the menu for the customer, and the target category can be easily selected when selecting the category as the search key.

【0043】

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 the 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 the registration of the start date and the end date in the category master table, the burden on the mall server operator is not particularly excessive.

【0044】

The above processing function can be realized by a computer. In that case, the processing content of the function that the mall server should have is described in a program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and by executing this program on the computer, the above processing is realized on the computer. To. Computer-readable recording media include magnetic recording devices, semiconductor memories, and the like. When distributing in the market, the program is stored and distributed on a portable recording medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) or a floppy disk, or stored in a storage device of a computer connected via a network. You can then transfer it to another computer over the network. When executing on a computer, the program is stored in a hard disk device or the like in the computer, loaded into the main memory, and executed.

【0045】

[Effect of the invention]

As described above, in the present invention, the applicable period of each category is registered in the category master table, and when a search screen acquisition request is made, only the category containing the current date within the applicable period is classified as a category. Since the product search screen data is created by including it in the selection menu, the customer who browses the product search screen data can select the target category from the categories that match the time, and the category can be easily selected.

【0046】

Further, 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, and the current date is applied when a search screen acquisition request is made. Since a program that creates product search screen data by including only the categories included within the period in the category selection menu is recorded, if the computer is executed by the mall server program recorded on this recording medium, Customers who browse product search screen data can select the desired category from the categories that match the time, and can build a mall server that makes it easy to select the category on a computer.

[Simple explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of the principle 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 showing an example of a product search screen creation process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of product search processing.

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

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

[Explanation of symbols]

Ten Mall server 11 Category master table 12 Product master table 13 Product search screen Creation method 14 Product search method 20 Terminal device 21 Product search screen 22 Product list display screen