JPH08339386A - Method and device for controlling input/output of information in database - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a method for controlling the input/output of the information in a database which is capable of estimating the information providing in a wide range and quickly and exactly providing necessary information. CONSTITUTION: When desired information is taken out from a basic information storage part 61 in compliance with the information disclosure request from an input/output terminal equipment 2, the information is worked by the working information stored in a working condition information storage part 62 and the information in the state after the working is supplied to the input/output terminal equipment 2. Information to be taken out is sorted by the sorting information stored in a sorting information storage part 63. Thus, the disclosing to the public of information as it is not desired can be widely collected and information can be exactly supplied to an information user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing information input / output in a database, and more particularly to a technology for managing information in a database mainly used for travel agencies.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various travel information managed by travel agencies and the like (for example, transportation means and fares to a destination, service contents of accommodation facilities, tourist information of a destination, etc. “Travel information”) is managed by documents etc. classified according to the contents of each travel agency, and the counter is displayed according to the customer's request (for example, travel destination, period, budget, etc.) that appears at the counter. The person in charge takes out the necessary information from these documents and files stored in the computer and provides it to the customer each time.

By the way, of the information provided to the customer in this way, for example, the price of an airplane ticket changes depending on various conditions such as the time of travel, a section, the type of airline company to be used, and availability of seats. Not only that, but with the advent of cheap ticket sellers these days, the prices of tickets for the same period and the same section are inconsistent.
Such cheap ticket information is usually obtained for each travel agency (or each branch / office for large travel agencies with branches / offices). Whenever a customer receives a request for a ticket, the customer inquires about the price by telephone or the like with an airline company, a cheap ticket seller, or the like, which is his business partner.

However, under such an operation, the information that the travel agent can collect is limited to the business partners of the company, and thus the cheapest ticket information is not recognized by the travel agent. It is often buried as it is,
Customers sometimes had to buy expensive tickets. On the other hand, nowadays, overseas travel has become popular, and the destination and the purpose of travel have diversified.
The number and needs of customers visiting travel agencies are also increasing and diversifying, and it is required for each person in charge at the counter to respond to such increasing and diversifying needs of customers as quickly and accurately as possible in business processing. There is.

Therefore, it is desired to make a computer database of all such travel information. Especially, if the database is made public and can be centrally managed, many travel information from all over the country can be obtained. It is strongly desired to construct such a database because it can collect the data, but can facilitate the paperwork.

[0006]

However, when attempting to provide the above-mentioned database, there were the following problems.

That is, in order to construct the above-mentioned database, it is necessary to collect travel information in a wide range as much as possible, and in such information, information providers such as the price of the ticket for the airplane are included. It also includes information directly related to the interests of And since the providers of such information usually want to sell as many tickets as they own and as high as possible, even if they try to collect them in a public database, the collected information will be Since it is expected that some tickets will not be sold at all by being sorted in the database in order of price, there arises a problem that effective information provision cannot be expected in such a database.

On the other hand, it is easily expected that the types of information collected in such a database will be diverse and enormous, so that the customer needs the most out of such enormous information. It may be difficult to quickly and accurately select and provide the existing information, which may hinder smooth administration.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional operational problems and problems associated with the creation of a database thereof, and the purpose thereof is to provide a wide range of information and to provide necessary information. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for managing input / output of information in a database that can be quickly and accurately provided.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a method of managing information input / output in a database according to the present invention provides various information provided by an information provider and stored in a storage device as information of an information user. In a database that is extracted from the storage device and supplied according to a disclosure request, a part or all of the information extracted according to the information disclosure request is processed according to the processing condition information and then supplied to the information user. , If the processing condition additional information that determines the processing content is not added to the information provided by the information provider, the information is processed and supplied according to the preset processing condition initial information, and the information provider When the processing condition additional information is added to the provided information, it is added to both the processing condition initial information and the processing condition additional information. Characterized in that it wants the supply by processing the information.

In the information input / output management method for this database, the selection information for determining the content range at the time of supplying information is predetermined and stored in the storage device for various information stored in the storage device. Every time, when the information disclosure request is made from the information user, it is preferable to select and supply the information corresponding to the information disclosure request and a certain range of information related to this information based on the selection information.

On the other hand, the information input / output management device in the database according to the present invention has a plurality of input / output terminal devices connected via a transmission line, and various information provided by an information provider through the input / output terminal device. A storage means for storing processing condition information for determining processing contents of the various information; and corresponding information taken out from the storage means in response to an information disclosure request from an information user performed through the input / output terminal device. And processing means for processing the processing condition information according to the processing condition information.

In the information input / output management device for this database, the storage means has a basic information storage section for storing various information provided by an information provider and a processing condition information storage section for storing the processing condition information. It is preferable that the storage device further includes, in response to an information user's request for information disclosure, from various information stored in the basic information storage unit, information corresponding to the request and a certain range related to this information. It is preferable to include a selection information storage unit that stores selection information for selecting and supplying the information of 1.

[0014]

According to the method of managing information input / output in the database of the present invention, various information provided by the information provider is stored in the storage device classified by content. Then, if there is an information disclosure request from the information user, the information corresponding to the request is selected from the storage device, taken out, and supplied to the information user. At that time, a part or all of the information extracted in response to the information disclosure request is processed according to the processing condition information stored in the storage device, and is supplied to the information user in a processed state.

The processing condition information consists of information set in advance (processing condition initial information) and information added by the information provider when information is provided (processing condition addition information), and when an information disclosure request is made. , When the processing condition additional information is not added to the corresponding information, this information is processed according to the processing condition initial information, and when the processing condition additional information is added, both the processing condition initial information and the processing condition additional information are processed. The information is processed according to.

On the other hand, in the selection of the information to be supplied, when an information disclosure request is made, the information corresponding to this request and a certain range of information related to this information are selected based on the selection information. The selection information is set according to a predetermined manual at the beginning of the system operation, but the content is appropriately updated by the automatic learning function after the system operation.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The embodiments described below show examples in which the information input / output management method and apparatus in the database according to the present invention are applied to travel information management of a travel agency.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the structure of the apparatus of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is the apparatus main body,
2, 2, ... are input / output terminal devices on the travel agency side, 3, 3,
Indicates an input / output terminal device on the information provider side, and these are connected online. The device body 1 includes input / output interfaces 4 and 4 for exchanging information with the input / output terminal devices 2 and 3, and a control calculation unit (processing unit) 5 for processing the information. A storage device (storage means) 6 for storing and storing the information is provided as a main part. In addition, 7 is an RO for storing the control program of this system
M and 8 indicate RAM, and 9 indicates an input device.

Here, the apparatus main body 1 manages this system, for example, is installed at the head office of a major travel agency.
On the other hand, the input / output terminal device 2 is installed under each information user such as a general user who is expected to directly access the system through each branch / sales office of the travel agency or personal computer communication. The input / output terminal device 3 is installed under an information provider such as an airline company or a cheap ticket seller.
Each of these input / output terminal devices 2 and 3 is connected to the input / output interface 4 of the device body 1 via a transmission line such as a telephone line.

The storage device 6 comprises a basic information storage unit 61, a processing condition information storage unit 62, and a selection information storage unit 63.
The basic information storage unit 61 stores various travel information provided by the information provider. The travel information is stored in the basic information storage unit 61 classified and organized according to the contents. For example, when travel information about Paris, France, is provided by an information provider, the information is subdivided for each type of information (for example, tourist guide information, airfare information, etc.) and stored in a “Paris” file. In addition, related information such as the information provider is “information for group travel” or “information for cheap travel” can be added to the provided travel information. It is also stored as a part.

On the other hand, the processing condition information storage unit 62 stores processing condition information relating to the travel information. This processing condition information determines the processing content of the travel information as will be described later, and includes processing condition addition information and processing condition initial information. The former is added to the travel information when the information provider provides the travel information, and the latter is set in advance by the person who manages this system. The processing condition information is input from the input / output terminal device 3 on the information provider side and the input device 9 of the device body 1.

As the processing condition additional information, for example,
The validity period of the information can be considered. In other words, since the air fare and the like change depending on the time, availability of seats, etc., when the information provider specifies the valid period in the information, the relevant period becomes the processing condition additional information. In addition, information disclosure timing, ticket price surcharge rate, and the like can be added as the processing condition addition information.

Further, as the processing condition initial information, for example, in order to change the selling price of the ticket depending on the information user, it is displayed in advance by the attribute of the information user (for example, classification as a large-scale trader or a general user). When the conditional expression for changing the price is set, the conditional expression or the like is used as the processing condition initial information.

Further, the selection information storage section 63 stores selection information for selecting information to be supplied to the information user. This selection information defines conditions for determining the content range at the time of supply of the travel information stored in the basic information storage unit 61, which is set by the person who manages this system, and the information user. May be added to the information disclosure request. The former can be input by the input device 9 of the device main body 1, and the latter can be input by the input / output terminal device 2. Then, when an information disclosure request is made from the information user, a certain range of information is selected according to this selection information and is supplied to the information user.

In other words, as for this selection information, when an information disclosure request is made for certain travel information, information other than the requested information is positively added, or this is limited to a certain range. The content is to be provided by. For example, if the information user requests information disclosure only for the fare for a trip to Paris (in this case, the information disclosure request is limited, it is necessary to supplement this), and information other than the requested information is requested. Necessary information, for example, information on accommodation facilities and tourist information in Paris (note that these information are set as selection information in advance) is automatically added and supplied.

Therefore, at the head office of a travel agency in which the device body 1 is installed, information that is always required when guiding overseas travel, for example, items such as "documents necessary for travel procedures" are added in advance as selection information. In addition to the information on the fares and accommodations mentioned above, "Documents required for travel procedures"
Since information about the
It is possible to prevent omission of explanation at the sales office level. Also,
On the other hand, at the terminal branch / sales office level, for example,
If you add selection information such as "individual trip or group trip" or "cheap trip or luxury trip" to the information disclosure request,
The information to be supplied can be limited to those specified, and accurate information can be supplied.

At the beginning of the present system, the selection information is categorized as a manual listing the types of information required by the customer based on past sales experience. After the start of the operation, if an automatic learning function that automatically learns frequently used information from the information retrieval status and feeds this back to the selection information is provided, more accurate information can be supplied.

Each of the input / output terminal devices 2 and 3 is connected to the input / output interface 4 in the device 1 through a transmission line such as a telephone line, and when the operation of the system is started. Since it is fully expected that a communication failure will occur due to congestion on the telephone line, communication between them will be multiplexed, or a buffer memory will be provided to temporarily store information in this memory. It is preferable to take measures to eliminate congestion.

The operation of this system thus configured will be described below. That is, the information provider appropriately inputs the travel information to the storage device 6 (basic information storage unit 61) through the input / output terminal devices 3, 3, ... Installed at each business establishment. At that time, if a processing condition is added to this travel information, the information is stored in the processing condition information storage unit 62 as the processing condition additional information.

At the travel agency, the input / output terminal devices 2, 2, ...
The information disclosure request is made to (see FIG. 2). When this information disclosure request is made, it is first determined whether or not the corresponding information is stored in the basic information storage unit 61 (step 201). If there is no corresponding information, the fact is displayed on the input / output terminal device 2 (step 2).
02).

On the other hand, if there is the corresponding information, then it is judged whether or not the processing condition addition information is added to the information (step 203). Here, when the processing condition additional information is not added, the information is automatically processed according to the preset processing condition initial information (step 204), and when the processing condition additional information is added. Information is automatically processed according to both the processing condition initial information and the processing condition additional information (step 205), and the information is supplied to the input / output terminal device 2 of the information user.

In supplying this information, the information is sorted as described above (see FIG. 3). This information is selected based on the information disclosure request made by the travel agency based on the customer's hearing, so this request always includes all of the customer's request (information that the customer truly needs). It is not always satisfied, and even if the travel agency side responds even if an experienced person in charge may leak information that should be provided, in order to prevent such a leak It is done.

There, first, an information disclosure request is made from the input / output terminal device 2 on the travel agency side (step 30).
1). Since the selection information such as “designation of group travel” may be added to the information disclosure request, it is determined in the next step whether the selection information is not added to the information disclosure request ( Step 302). When it is determined that there is additional information, the selection information storage unit 63
If the additional information is added to the selection information stored in the selection information (step 303), and if it is determined that there is no additional information, the selection information stored in the selection information storage unit 63 is read as it is (step 304). ). After that, the information corresponding to the information disclosure request and a certain range of information related to the information are selected based on the selection information and supplied to the information user (step 305).

The type of information requested by the information disclosure request is taken into the selection information as the information extraction status, and the content of the selection information is updated based on this. That is, this selection information will be learned empirically as the information disclosure request is made from the input / output terminal device 2 on the travel agency side, and the information that the customer truly needs will be positively learned. Will be supplied.

The above-described embodiment is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this, and various design changes can be made within the range. That is, although the above-described embodiment shows an example in which the present invention is applied to the management of information in a travel agency, the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to management of other information.

Further, in this embodiment, as means for eliminating communication failure when a plurality of information disclosure requests from information users conflict at one time, means for eliminating hardware in terms of communication multiplexing or the like is disclosed. It is possible to do this on the software side. That is, for example, if index information is added to the information disclosure request in advance, and only when this information disclosure request conflicts, only this index information is accepted, and the occurrence of idle time on the transmission path is eliminated and the remaining information is retained. It is also possible to use a method such as accepting.

[0037]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
In the database, some or all of the information retrieved in response to the information disclosure request is processed according to the processing condition information and then supplied to the information user, so information that is not desired to be disclosed as it is It will be possible to collect a wide range of information from the providers and enhance the value as a database.

Moreover, since the processing of this information is automatically processed according to the processing condition information, it is not necessary to allocate human resources to the system management, and the running cost can be kept low.

Further, since the information retrieved by the information user's request is selected and supplied based on the predetermined selection information, the information user's necessary information can be supplied promptly and accurately without omission. Yes, you can hope to speed up the paperwork.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an information processing operation in the system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an information selecting operation in the same system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Device main body 2 Input / output terminal device (information user side) 3 Input / output terminal device (information provider side) 4 Input / output interface 5 Control calculation part (processing processing means) 6 Storage device (storage means) 61 Basic information storage part 62 processing information storage 63 selection information storage 9 input device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A database that retrieves and supplies various information provided by an information provider and stored in a storage device from the storage device in response to an information disclosure request from an information user and retrieved in response to the information disclosure request. The information provided is supplied to the information user after processing part or all of the information to be processed according to the processing condition information, and the processing condition additional information that determines the processing content is added to the information provided by the information provider. When not,
The information is processed and supplied according to the preset processing condition initial information, and when the processing condition additional information is added to the information provided by the information provider, the processing condition initial information and the processing condition additional information are added. An information input / output management method in a database, characterized in that information is processed and supplied according to both. 2. With respect to various information stored in the storage device, selection information for determining a content range at the time of supplying information is predetermined and stored in the storage device, and an information disclosure request from the information user is issued. 2. The information input / output management method for a database according to claim 1, wherein, when made, information corresponding to an information disclosure request and a certain range of information related to this information are selected and supplied based on this selection information. 3. A plurality of input / output terminal devices are connected via a transmission line, various information provided from an information provider through the input / output terminal device, and processing condition information for determining the processing content of the various information. Storage means for storing the information, and processing means for extracting corresponding information from the storage means in response to an information disclosure request from an information user performed through the input / output terminal device, and processing the information in accordance with processing condition information. An input / output management device for information in a database, including: 4. The storage means includes a basic information storage section for storing various information provided by an information provider, and a processing condition information storage section for storing the processing condition information. An input / output management device for information in the database according to item 3. 5. The storage device selects information corresponding to the request and a certain range of information related to the request from various information stored in the basic information storage unit in response to an information disclosure request from an information user. The information input / output management device in the database according to claim 4, further comprising a selection information storage unit that stores selection information to be supplied as a result.