VIRTUAL CATALOG SYSTEM, AND MEDIATING AGENT, CATALOG AGENT AND PROGRAM STORAGE MEDIUM FOR THE SYSTEM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress an increase in the load of data base structuring on each server side and to make easy and efficient catalog retrieving operation on each user side. SOLUTION: Advertisement information on local data bases 25 to 28 of catalog agents 21 to 24 is held by medicating agents 13 and 14 and the mediating agents having received retrieval requests for articles and services from user agents 5 to 8 send retrieval requests to selected catalog agents according to the advertisement information; and the catalog agents having received them perform retrieval from their local data bases and send retrieval outputs back. The mediating agents after decomposing the contents of the retrieval requests send the decomposed elements as units to the catalog agents and further generate retrieval results in the integrated form of the retrieval outputs from the catalog agents, thereby sending them back to the user agents.