Patent Application
20080215547
This application is related to and claims priority under 35 U.S.C §119(a) on Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-19916 filed on Jan. 30, 2007 in the Japan Patent Office, and incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an introduction supporting apparatus that supports introduction among a plurality of users, and a recording medium in which a computer program for causing a computer to function as the introduction supporting apparatus is recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, services providing communication places by a human network based on user-to-user relationship of trust have become popular. These services are called “social network services” (hereinafter, “SNSs”). Various companies provide diverse SNSs. The SNSs are characterized of their capabilities to designate an opening range of user information, differently from ordinary websites and blogs. User information is the information such as a user profile, a user diary, and photographs of each user. Namely, each user can designate the opening range in SNSs so as to, for example, open the user information up to friends of the user or open the user information up to friends of friends of the user. Such designation of the opening range enables a communication to be held among predetermined users.
There are also known SNSs that enable users to spontaneously create communities according to hobbies such as music or movies, or to categories such as hometowns or schools. If a user creates a specific community in which the user has an interest and other users having similar interests can participate in the community in sequence, the communication can be made more active. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-236762 discloses a general technique relating to a human network.
If a user wants to participate in a community in an SNS, the user first searches communities so as to find an community which is optimum for the user from among many existing communities. To do a community search, the user inputs a community attribute, a search keyword or the like. A server managing SNSs searches for communities and provides a plurality of community candidates using the input information. The user selects a community to which the user seeks to participate in from among the provided community candidates.
According to an aspect of the invention, an apparatus for supporting an introduction among a plurality of users includes: a receiving unit receiving both information on a community and an introduction range corresponding to first identification information on a first user from an information processing apparatus of the first user, the first user seeks introduction the community is one in which the first user is interested in joining, the introduction range is a number of max times intermediating between the first user and a target user to whom the first user seeks introduction; a member database storing identification information on the plurality of users, the identification information is including both the first identification information and the second identification information on a second user who has an established relationship with the first user; a community database storing identification information on users belonging to the community;
an extracting unit extracting target identification information on the target user from the member database using both the first identification information and the introduction range; a determining unit determining whether the extracted target identification information has been stored in the community database related to the community corresponding to the received information on the community; and a transmitting unit transmitting the extracted target identification information and the received information on the community to the information processing apparatus when the determining unit determines that the extracted target identification information has been stored in the community database.
These together with other aspects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The display unit 24 is, for example, a liquid crystal display. The input unit 23 is, for example, a keyboard and a mouse. The communication unit 26 is, for example, a modem or a local area network (LAN) card. The communication unit 26 transmits or receives information to or from the server computer 1 using a communication protocol such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). The storage unit 25 is, for example, a hard disk. The storage unit 25 stores a browser 251 such as Internet Explorer (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation) in the hard disk.
If a user is to access the server computer 1, then the user starts the browser 251 via the input unit 23 and inputs a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the server computer 1 to the user's personal computer 2 via the input unit 23. As a result, a top page of the SNS is displayed on the display unit 24. The user inputs a user ID and a password of the user computer 1 via the input unit 23 and transmits the user ID and the password of the user to the server computer 1. Using the user ID and the password of the user, the server computer 1 performs an authentication of the user. If the server computer 1 authenticates the user, then the server computer 1 transmits a page created by the user (to be described later with reference to
The communication unit 16 is, for example, a gateway that functions as a firewall. The display unit 14 is, for example, a liquid crystal display. The input unit 13 is, for example, a keyboard and a mouse. The storage unit 15 is, for example, a hard disk. The storage unit 15 stores therein not only the control program 15P described above but also a registration file 154, a notification form file 155, an intermediacy request form file 156, and an introduction request form file 157. The CPU 11 executes various processes according to the control program 15P. A community database (hereinafter, “community DB”) 151, a member database (hereinafter, “member DB”) 152, and a page database (hereinafter, “page DB”) 153 are connected to the server computer 1. In the first embodiment, relational databases are employed as the respective databases. However, the type of the databases is not limited to the relational database but may be an arbitrary type.
The CPU 11 holds a dialog using an SQL (Structured Query Language: a language for operation of the relational databases according to ANSI standard and ISO standards) in a schema in which keys in fields of the community DB 151, the member DB 152, and the page DB 153 are associated with one another (i.e., the schema defines database structure and, if the databases are relational databases, defines data formats of items of tables and relations with the other tables). The CPU 11 executes processes such as storage and search of necessary information by the dialog. In the first embodiment, the community DB 151, the member DB 152, and the page DB 153 are stored in a database server (not shown) connected to the server computer 1. Alternatively, the community DB 151, the member DB 152, and the page DB 153 may be stored in the storage unit 15.
If the friendship is made between the users A and B, the CPU 11 of the server computer 1 stores user names and user IDs of new friends of the respective users in the member DB 152. For example, the name and the ID of the user B are stored in the member DB 152 as those of a friend of the user A, and the name and the ID of the user A are stored therein as those of a friend of the user B. Furthermore, a user E (ID: 10E), a user F (ID: 10F), and a user P (ID: 10P) are stored in the member DB 152 as friends of the user B. Namely, the friend of the user A is the user B, whereas the users E, F, and P are the friends of the friend of the user A. In this case, the range of friends is two.
Moreover, a user R (ID: 10R) is stored in the member DB 152 as a friend, other than the user B, of the user P (ID: 10P). The user R is the friend of the friend of the friend of the user A. In this case, the range of friends is three. In this manner, it is seen that if the range is larger, the relation of the human network is poorer. In the first embodiment, the human network will be described, taking the user B who is the friend of the user A and the user R who is the friend of the user B as an example. In this example, no friendship is made between the users A and R yet.
Thumbnail images are stored in the photograph fields to correspond to the respective communities so as to be able to visually recognize the communities. Attributes for classifying the communities are stored in the community attribute fields to correspond to the respective community names. For example, the attribute of the community in the name of “puzzle” is “game”. The attribute of the community in the name “classic camera” is “camera”. The attributes of the communities in the name of “action movie” and “horror movie fan” are both “movie”.
Explanatory texts showing outlines of the communities are stored in the explanatory text fields to correspond to the respective community names. IDs of the users participating in the respective communities are stored in the member ID fields. For example, in the classic camera community, users whose IDs are respectively 10S, 10T, and 10U participate. It is also understood from
An administrator who creates each community describes a page including contents of the name of the community, photograph data on the community, the attribute of the community, and the explanatory text of the community in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) using the personal computer 2 of the administrator. The administrator uploads the described contents from the personal computer 2 to the server computer 1. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 stores the community name, the photograph data, the community attribute, and the explanatory text of the community in the community DB 151 on the basis of the uploaded contents. If the server computer 1 receives information indicating that users participate in communities from the personal computers 2 of the respective users with the IDs of the users, the server computer 1 accepts the IDs and sequentially stores the IDs of users in the member ID fields of the communities corresponding to the received information.
Self introductions of users are stored in the self introduction fields to correspond to the respective user names. It is to be noted that the CPU 11 of the server computer 1 stores user names, photographs, self introductions and the like transmitted from the personal computers 2 of the respective users in the page DB 153 to correspond to the respective user IDs. Names of communities in which the respective users participate are stored in the participating community fields. For example, the user A participates in the puzzle community and the horror movie fan community. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 searches the member ID fields in the community DB 151 on the basis of the ID of the user A stored in the page DB 153. The CPU 11 extracts the corresponding community names on the basis of the searched member ID fields. The CPU 11 stores the extracted community names in the participating community field corresponding to the user A in the page DB 153.
The CPU 11 reads an HTML document template which is a base for generating the page data from the storage unit 15. The CPU 11 sets names of the friends of the user A, the photograph data on the friends, the communities, the photograph data on the communities and the like which are read from the member DB 152 or the page DB 153, to the read HTML document template to generate the page data. The CPU 11 transmits a generated HTML document to the personal computer 2 of the user A. As shown in
Moreover, the community can be selected not only by directly selecting the community name of the community but also by selecting the attribute of community. For example, if the user A wants to select all the communities having the camera that is one of the attributes of the communities, the user selects “ALL CAMERA COMMUNITIES” via the input unit 3. In this case, all the communities including a digital camera community, the classic camera community, a landscape photograph fan community, and a from-train-window community are selected. In this way, every user selects the community or communities and the attribute of the community or communities via the input unit 23 as information on the community or communities of which the user wants to be notified. A hyperlink that is a trigger to transmit the information on the community or communities and the ID of the user to the server computer 1 is described on a NEXT button 81.
If the user clicks on the NEXT button 81 via the input unit 23, the CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 transmits the information on the selected community or communities to the server computer 1 so as to correspond to the ID of the user. In the example shown in
Moreover, if the user A selects “up to friends of friends of friends” as a selection item, the introduction range is three, so that the introduction range is set up to friends of friends of the respective users B, C, and D who are the friends of the user A. In the first embodiment, the selection items such as “friends of friends” are described so as to be able to intuitively understand the introduction range. Alternatively, each user may be allowed to input, for example, the number as the introduction range from the input unit 23. In case of the “friends of friends”, the user inputs 2 as the introduction range. In case of the “friends of friends of friends”, the user inputs 3 as the introduction range.
In the example of
A REGISTER button 91 is provided on the introduction range registration screen. A hyperlink for transmitting the ID of the user A and the introduction range input via the input unit 23 to the server computer 1 is described on the REGISTER button 91. If the user A clicks on the REGISTER button 91 via the input unit 23, the CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the user A transmits the introduction range to the server computer 1 so as to correspond to the ID of the user A. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the transmitted introduction range with the ID of the user A, and stores the introduction range and the ID of the user A in the RAM 12.
If the CPU 11 receives the introduction range corresponding to the ID of the user, the CPU 11 extracts IDs of the other users who are included within the introduction range by referring to the member DB 152. Further, the CPU 11 performs a process for excluding the received ID and the IDs of the other users who are already friends of the user corresponding to the received ID among the extracted IDs. The CPU 11 stores the IDs after the exclusion process in the registered ID field corresponding to the received ID in the registration file 154 as monitoring targets. For example, if the introduction range is “up to friends of the user B who is the friend of the user A”, the CPU 11 searches the member DB 152 on the basis of the ID of the user A and extracts the ID of the user B. Furthermore, the CPU 11 searches the member DB 152 on the basis of the extracted ID of the user B and extracts IDs of the users A, E, F, and P.
The CPU 11 performs the process for excluding IDs of which the other user is unnecessary to be introduced, i.e., the ID of the user A himself or herself and the ID of the user B who is already the friend of the user A among the extracted IDs. As a result, the CPU 11 finally extracts 10E, 10F, and 10P that are IDs of the other users E, F, and P. The CPU 11 stores these extracted IDs in the registered ID field corresponding to the user A in the registration file 154 as monitoring targets.
If the CPU 11 receives the community and the ID from the personal computer 2 of each user, the CPU 11 stores the received community in the community field corresponding to the user in the registration file 154 so as to correspond to the received ID. As shown in
In the present embodiment, the notification process will be described while the monitoring target user P participates in the classic camera community as an example. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 searches the community DB 151 on the basis of both the community and the registered IDs stored in the registration file 154. If the registered ID has been stored in the member ID field corresponding to the community, then the CPU 11 reads the notification form file 155 and transmits a notification form to the personal computer 2 of the user corresponding to the stored registered ID.
Moreover, an icon indicating the classic camera community that is a name and a photograph of the classic camera community in which the user P newly participated are displayed in the right of the user P across a right arrow indicating participation. Further, a sentence of a request that the intermediary user B introduce the user A to the introduction target user P is written on an upper side of the notification form data. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 writes user names and the community on the read notification form data and then transmits the notification form data to the personal computer 2 of the user A.
A YES button 111 is provided on the notification form data. If the user A clicks on the YES button 111 via the input unit 23, information on the introduction request is transmitted to the server computer 1. A hyperlink is described in definition of the YES button 111. If a user clicks on the YES button 111, the CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 transmits the ID of the user and the information on the introduction request to the server computer 1.
The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 reads an intermediacy request form from the intermediacy request form file 156 on the basis of the transmitted introduction request. The intermediacy request form is a form of an intermediacy request made for the personal computer 2 corresponding to the ID of the user who wants to be introduced, with the ID or name of the intermediary user set as a destination. In the example of
If the user A clicks on a SEND button 122 shown in
If the CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the information on the introduction request transmitted from the personal computer 2 of the user B, the CPU 11 reads an introduction request form from the introduction request form file 157. This introduction request form is a form which is created for the personal computer 2 corresponding to the ID of the intermediary user B and in which the ID or name of the introduction target user P is written as a destination.
If the user B clicks on a SEND button 143 shown in
If the CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the information on the permission of introduction, the CPU 11 makes a setting to make a friendship between the users A and P. The CPU 11 stores the name, the ID, and the photograph data of the user P in a storage region corresponding to the user A in the member DB 152. Moreover, the CPU 11 stores the name, the ID, and the photograph data of the user A in a storage region corresponding to the user P in the member DB 152.
The introduction range registration process performed by the introduction supporting apparatus including the above-stated hardware configuration according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to operation flows.
The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the ID and the password transmitted from the personal computer 2 of the user, and determines whether the ID and the password coincide with those stored in the storage unit 15 in advance (operation S162). If the CPU 11 determines that the ID and the password do not coincide with those stored in the storage unit 15 (NO, operation S162), then the CPU 11 determines that the ID and the password were transmitted by an illegal access. And the CPU 11 finishes a series of the process. If the CPU 11 determines that the transmitted ID and password coincide with those stored in the storage unit 15 (YES, operation S162), then the CPU 11 permits the user who inputted the transmitted ID to log in the SNS. And the CPU 11 reads the page of the user corresponding to the transmitted ID from the page DB 153 while referring to the page DB 153 (operation S163). Further, the CPU 11 creates an HTML document based on the read user data, and transmits the created page to the personal computer 2 of the user (operation S164).
If the personal computer 2 of the user receives the page created by the CPU 11 of the server computer 1, the personal computer 2 of the user causes the browser 251 to display the page shown in
The CPU 11 reads communities and image data corresponding to each attribute of communities from the community DB 151 shown in
The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the user who wants to be introduced causes the browser 251 to display the community registration screen as shown in
The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the information on the community transmitted from the CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the user who wants to be introduced (operation S1613). The CPU 11 stores the received information on the community in the registration file 154 as a monitoring target so as to correspond to the ID of the user who wants to be introduced (operation S1614).
The CPU 11 reads the names, the photograph data, and the IDs of the users who are the friends of the user who wants to be introduced from the member DB 152 (operation S1615). The CPU 11 reads data on the created introduction registration screen from the storage unit 15. Further, the CPU 11 writes the names, the photograph data, and the IDs of the users who are the friends of the user who wants to be introduced read in the operation S1615 in the HTML document, and the CPU 11 thereby creates the introduction registration screen shown in
The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the user who wants to be introduced causes the browser 251 to display the introduction registration screen transmitted from the server computer 1 (operation S172). As stated above, the user inputs the introduction range via the input unit 23. The CPU 21 accepts input of the introduction range via the input unit 23 (operation S173). The CPU 21 transmits the accepted introduction range to the server computer 1 (operation S174). The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the introduction range transmitted from the personal computer 2 (operation S175). Further, the CPU 11 stores the introduction range received in the operation S175 to correspond to the ID of the user A. Next, the CPU 11 searches the member DB 152 on the basis of the introduction range received in the operation S175, and the CPU 11 extracts the IDs of the users who is included within the introduction range up to the user to whom the user A wants to be introduced. The CPU 11 extracts the user IDs except for the IDs of the user A and the user B who is the friend of the user A from among the extracted IDs so as to select monitoring targets (operation S176). The CPU 11 stores the extracted IDs in the registration file 154 to correspond both to the ID of the user who wants to be introduced and to the community stored in the operation S1614 (operation S177).
On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that one of the monitoring target registered IDs has been newly stored in the member ID field corresponding to the monitoring target community (YES; operation S182), the CPU 11 reads three IDs which are stored in the ID field. The three IDs are the ID of the user who wants to be introduced, the ID of the intermediary user who is included within the introduction range received in the operation S175, and the ID of the user that is newly registered and that corresponds to the introduction target user from the registration file 154 (operation S183). The CPU 11 reads the community in which the introduction target user participates from registration file 154 (operation S184). Moreover, the CPU 11 reads the photograph data on the user who wants to be introduced, the intermediary user, the introduction target user, and the community from the member DB 152 or the page DB 153.
The CPU 11 reads a notification form from the notification form file 155 (operation S185). The CPU 11 writes information on the user and photograph data corresponding to the information in the notification form. The user is the user who wants to be introduced, the intermediary user, and the introduction target user. The CPU 11 thereby creates the notification form shown in
The CPU 11 determines whether the user who wants to be introduced has logged in (operation S188). If the CPU 11 determines that the user who wants to be introduced has not logged in (NO; operation S188), the same procedures are repeated. If the CPU 11 determines that the user who wants to be introduced has logged in (YES; operation S188), the CPU 11 reads the created notification form corresponding to the login user from the notification form file 155, and transmits the notification form to the personal computer 2 of the login user (operation S189). The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 receives the notification form transmitted from the server computer 1 (operation S1810), and causes the browser 251 to display the notification form as shown in
On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that the YES button 111 has been clicked on (YES; operation S192), the CPU 11 transmits information on the intermediary user, the introduction target user, and the community to the server computer 1 (operation S193). In this example, the information on the intermediary user B, the introduction target user P, and the classic camera community is transmitted from the personal computer 2 of the user A to the server computer 1. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the transmitted information and reads an intermediacy request form from the intermediacy request form file 156 (operation S194).
The CPU 11 sets the intermediary user to a destination, additionally writes the subject mentioning the name of the introduction target user in the subject box 123 on the intermediacy request form read in the operation S194 (operation S195), and transmits the intermediacy request form to the personal computer 2 of the user who wants to be introduced (operation S196). The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the user who wants to be introduced receives the intermediacy request form (operation S197). The CPU 21 causes the browser 251 to display the intermediacy request form shown in
The CPU 21 accepts the information that the user who wants to be introduced inputted via the input unit 23 and added to the intermediacy request form. The CPU 21 transmits the intermediacy request form in which the ID of the intermediary user is set as a destination to the server computer 1 in response to click-on of the SEND button by the user who wants to be introduced (i.e., the user A in this example) shown in
The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 determines whether the intermediary user has logged in (operation S204). If the CPU 11 determines that the intermediary user has not logged in (NO; operation S204), the CPU 11 repeats the same procedure until the intermediary user logs in. On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that the intermediary user has logged in (YES; operation S204), the CPU 11 reads the intermediacy request form in which the intermediary user set to the destination and which form is stored in the operation S202 (operation S205). The CPU 11 reads the name and the photograph data of the user who wants to be introduced (i.e., the user A in this example) from the member DB 152, adds the intermediacy request message to the intermediacy request form, and transmits the intermediacy request form to the personal computer 2 of the intermediary user (operation S206). The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the intermediary user receives the intermediacy request form transmitted from the server computer 1 (operation S207), and causes the browser 251 to display the received intermediacy request form as shown in
On the other hand, if the CPU 21 determines that the INTRODUCE button 131 has been clicked on by the intermediary user (YES; operation S212), the CPU 21 transmits the information on the user who wants to be introduced, the introduction target user, and the community to the server computer 1 (operation S213). In this example, the information on the user A, the user P, and the classic camera community is transmitted from the personal computer 2 of the user B to the server computer 1. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the information transmitted from the personal computer 2 of the intermediary user, and reads an introduction request form from the introduction request form file 157 (operation S214).
The CPU 11 sets the ID of the introduction target user as the destination and additionally writes the subject mentioning the name of the user who wants to be introduced in the subject box 141 on the introduction request form read in the operation S214 (operation S215), and transmits the introduction request form to the personal computer 2 of the intermediary user (operation S216). The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the intermediary user receives the introduction request form (operation S217). The CPU 21 causes the browser 251 to display the introduction request form shown in
The CPU 21 accepts the information which is added to the introduction request form and inputted via the input unit 23. The CPU 21 transmits the introduction request form in which the introduction target user is set as the destination to the server computer 1 in response to click-on of the SEND button 143 by the intermediary user shown in
The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 determines whether or not the introduction target user (i.e., the user P in this example) has logged in (operation S223). If the CPU 11 determines that the introduction target user has not logged in (NO; operation S223), the CPU 11 repeats the same procedure until the introduction target user logs in. On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that the introduction target user has logged in (YES; operation S223), the CPU 11 reads the introduction request form in which the ID of the introduction target user is set as the destination from the introduction request form file 157 stored in the operation S221 (operation S224). The CPU 11 sets the ID of the intermediary user (i.e., the user B in this example) as a transmitter, reads the name and the photograph data of the user who wants to be introduced (i.e., the user A in this example) from the member DB 152. And the CPU 11 adds them to the introduction request form (operation S225). The CPU 11 transmits the introduction request form to the personal computer 2 of the introduction target user (i.e., the user P) (operation S226). The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the introduction target user receives the introduction request form transmitted from the CPU 11 (operation S227), and causes the browser 251 to display the introduction request message as shown in
The CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the introduction target user determines whether the PERMIT button 144 shown in
On the other hand, if determining that the PERMIT button 144 has been clicked on by the introduction target user (YES; operation S229), the CPU 21 transmits information on the user who wants to be introduced, the introduction target user, and the intermediary user to the server computer 1 (operation S231). The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 receives the information on the user who wants to be introduced, the introduction target user, and the intermediary user transmitted from the personal computer 2 of the introduction target user (operation S232). The CPU 11 stores the name, the ID, and the photograph data of the user who wants to be introduced in the storage region corresponding to the introduction target user in the member DB 152 as a friend of the introduction target user (operation S233). Likewise, the CPU 11 stores the name, the ID, and the photograph data of the introduction target user in the storage region corresponding to the user who wants to be introduced in the member DB 152 as a friend of the user who wants to be introduced.
In the first embodiment, the example of monitoring whether the users E, F, and P who are friends of the user B who is included within the introduction range of the user A participate in the registered community has been described. Conversely, in the second embodiment, an example of monitoring whether a user (e.g., a user S whose ID is 10S) already participating in the community has become a friend of the user B who is included within the introduction range of the user A will be described.
In the second embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, it is assumed that the friends of the user B who is the friend of the user A are included within the introduction range of the user A and that the classic camera community shown in
The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 searches the community DB 151 for the classic camera community by referring to the communities stored in the registration file 154. And the CPU 11 extracts member IDs of users participating in the classic camera community. The CPU 11 determines whether one of the extracted member IDs is stored in the storage region for the user B who is included within the introduction range of the user A in the member DB 152 as a friend of the user B. Specifically, the introduction range up to the friends of the user B who is the friend of the user A is stored in the registration file 154 to correspond to the classic camera community (see
If the CPU 11 determines that one of the extracted member IDs 10S, 10T, and 10U is stored in the storage region indicating the friendship with the user B in the member DB 152, the CPU 11 performs a notification process on the personal computer 2 of the user A.
Moreover, the classic camera community that is the name and the photograph of the classic camera community in which the user A participates are displayed in the right of the user S across a thick line indicating that the user S already participates to the classic camera community. Further, a sentence of a request that the intermediary user B introduce the user A to the user S is written on an upper side of the notification form. The CPU 11 of the server computer 1 writes user names and the community on the notification form read from the notification form file 155 and then transmits the notification form to the personal computer 2 of the user A.
The YES button 111 is provided on the notification form. When the user A clicks on the YES button 111 via the input unit 23, the personal computer 2 of the user A who wants to be introduced to the user S transmits information on the introduction request to the server computer 1. A hyperlink is described in HTML on the YES button 111. When the user A clicks on the YES button 111, the CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 of the user A transmits the ID of the user A and the information on the introduction request to the server computer 1. Since the intermediacy process and the introduction request process after the YES button 241 is clicked on are similarly performed to those according to the first embodiment, their processes will not be described herein.
The CPU 11 determines whether one of the extracted member IDs is included within the introduction range (operation S253). Since the introduction range is “up to the friends of the user B who is the friend of the user A”, the CPU 11 monitors the storage region for the user B and determines whether one of the member IDs 10S, 10T, and 10U extracted as IDs of the friends of the user B is stored in the introduction range. If the CPU 11 determines that one of the extracted member IDs is not included within the introduction range (NO; operation S253), the process returns to the operation S252 and the procedures of the operations S252 and S253 are repeated. On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that one of the extracted members IDs is included within the introduction range (YES; operation S253), the CPU 11 reads a notification form from the notification form file 155 (operation S254). For example, the user S becomes the friend of the user B and is stored in the storage region for the user B in the member DB 152 as the friend of the user B.
The CPU 11 writes information on the user who wants to be introduced, the intermediary user, and the introduction target user with the photograph corresponding to each user in the notification form. The CPU 11 thereby creates the notification form shown in
The CPU 11 determines whether the user who wants to be introduced has logged in (operation S257). If the CPU 11 determines that the user who wants to be introduced has not logged in (NO; operation S257), the same procedures are repeated. If the CPU 11 determines that the user who wants to be introduced has logged in (YES; operation S257), the CPU 11 reads the created notification form corresponding to the login user from the notification form file 155. And the CPU 11 transmits the notification form to the personal computer 2 of the login user (operation S258). When the CPU 21 of the personal computer 2 receives the notification form transmitted from the server computer 1 (operation S259), the CPU 21 causes the browser 251 to display the notification form as shown in
The notification process performed by the introduction supporting system according to the second embodiment includes the configuration as stated above. The other configurations and processes are similar to those according to the first embodiment. Therefore, corresponding constituent elements are denoted by the same reference symbols and will not be described in detail herein.
An introduction supporting system according to a third embodiment of the present invention performs a notification process if the number of times of coincidence with a registered notification condition is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of times registered in advance.
For example, 2 as the numeric value is set to a predetermined number of times. In the first embodiment, if two out of the users E, F, and P who are the friends of the user B participate in the classic camera community, the notification process shown in
On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that the registered IDs are stored by as many as the read number of times (YES; operation S282), the procedures in the operations S183 and the subsequent operations described in the first embodiment are executed. It is assumed, for example, that the users P and F participate in the classic camera community. In this case, the CPU 11 performs a process for creating two notification forms in which the intermediary user is the user B and in which introduction target users are the users P and F, respectively.
The CPU 11 determines whether the extracted member IDs are including within the introduction range by as many as the read number of times while referring to the member DB 152 shown in
On the other hand, if the CPU 11 determines that the member IDs extracted by as many as the read number of times is included within the introduction range (YES; operation S293), the process goes to the operation S254 described in the second embodiment. For example, if the users S and T become friends of the user B, the information on the users S and T are stored in the storage region for the user B in the member DB 152 as the friends of the user B. In this case, the CPU 11 performs a process for creating two notification forms in which the intermediary user is the user B and in which the introduction target users are users S and T, respectively. When each user sets the number of max times which indicates the introduction range as stated above, it is possible to select favorite users as friends of each user after information is collected to some extent.
The introduction supporting system according to the third embodiment is similar in configuration and function to the first and second embodiments except for the notification process. Therefore, such constituent elements and functions are denoted by the same reference symbols as both the constituent elements and the functions according to the first and second embodiments and will not be described herein in detail.
The server computer 1 shown in
The server computer 1 according to the fourth embodiment is similar in configuration to those according to the first to third embodiments. Therefore, such constituent elements and functions are denoted by the same reference symbols as both the constituent elements and the functions according to the first to third embodiments and will not be described herein in detail.
The many features and advantages of the embodiments are apparent from the detailed specification and, thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the embodiments that fall within the true spirit and scope thereof. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the inventive embodiments to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope thereof.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-019916 | Jan 2007 | JP | national |
