以軟體代理程式為基礎之網際網路商品資訊搜尋

Abstract

網際網路的不斷成長，有越來越多的虛擬商店在網際網路上販賣商品。隨 著虛擬商店數目與商品資訊的急驟增加，使得消費者在網際網路上查詢商 品資訊更加困難，需要在各個虛擬商店去搜尋所要的商品資訊。要達到一 整合式搜尋，其困難之處在於各家虛擬商店的商品資訊儲存格式各有不同 ，而不同的產品種類會有不同的產品屬性，目前以關鍵字或或簡單資料描 述搜尋之搜尋引擎無法滿足消費者查詢各式各樣產品種類之商品資訊的需 求。本研究的目的是要發展一彈性化搜尋架構來輔助消費者在網際網路中 查詢各種產品種類的商品資訊。為達到此一目標，本文提出一個三層式的 資料描述架構來使網路商品資訊搜尋更加方便。所提出的架構可以提供資 源發掘、資料轉換以及各產品種類的屬性資訊，並且為網際網路上商品資 訊搜尋的基礎。所提出的搜尋系統架構包含了數個軟體代理程式，每一個 軟體代理程式都有一特定功能並且和其他代理程式互相溝通合作來完成搜 尋。藉由三層式的資料描述和軟體代理程式技術提供整合式搜尋，在眾多 虛擬商店組合而成的異質環境中有效地搜尋各種產品種類的商品資訊，使 消費者可以方便地查詢網路上的商品資訊。 As the Internet grows, more virtual stores are selling goods on the Internet. With the explosive growth in the number of virtual stores and goods information, customers are already experiencing difficulties in searching for goods information satisfying their needs. Searching can not be accomplished with one single query. To conduct an integrated search, data translation will be a problem because virtual stores may use their own data format to store goods information. The characteristics of goods may also vary in different goods categories. Searching by the keyword or simple metadata search can not satisfy customer needs to find goods information about various goods categories. The objective of this work is to develop a flexible search architecture to enable users to easily search for various goods information on the Internet. To carry out the goal, we propose a three-level metadata architecture to make Internet search for goods information more convenient. The metadata is able to facilitate resource-discovery and format translation, and to provide information about attributes of a goods category. The metadata architecture forms the basis of Internet search for goods information. The proposed search architecture is composed of multiple agents. Each agent is dedicated to specified function which utilizes the metadata to cooperate the search. By using the three-level metadata architecture and the agent technology, an integrated search for heterogeneous goods information located in various virtual stores can be performed effectively. The proposed system is also flexible to support diverse attributes of goods categories enabling customers to conduct search conveniently.