FR2812096A1 - Method of executing a task on a web page in a computer network, uses a script to control access to web pages at different times to automatically collect and update information from the world wide web - Google Patents

Abstract

The web tasks are controlled by a script prepared by the user. The script associates times with addresses, and as a time is reached the address is used to fetch a web page, from which information is gathered. The user interface has a planning window and an association window, and also displays the page gathered from the network.

Description

t-1 The present invention relates to the operation of a computer network

  such as the Internet, from a communication terminal, equipped with a

computer browser.

  From the outset, it should be noted that a "Web page" designates an information page, described by a file, for example in HTML format, containing multimedia information elements (text, graphics, image, video, sound, etc.) and possibly one or more links to other web pages. A "website", or website, hosted by a computer server of

  0o Internet 100, includes one or more web pages, linked to each other.

  Browsing the Internet, to use this example again, essentially involves visiting websites with web pages. To visit a website, under the control of a user, the terminal connects to the Internet and opens a browser window on its screen. The user supplies the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) location on the Internet of a page of the site, for example the home page of this site, in an address area of the navigation window, and launches navigation. The terminal will then search for the desired web page, on the Internet, at the indicated URL address, using its browser. After retrieving the page, the terminal displays it in the navigation window and the user can then order printing, final recording in the terminal and / or transmission to

another terminal on the page.

  All these operations are executed by the terminal, but under the manual control of the user, which forces the latter to be present during their execution. As a result, the monitoring operations concerning web pages, repetitive in nature, are particularly tedious to execute.

  The present invention proposes to overcome this drawback.

  To this end, the invention relates to a method for executing at least one task relating to at least one page of information, with an address on a computer network, using a communication terminal, in which - it is specified at terminal the computer address of the page and the profile of a mission consisting in executing the task on a plurality of dates of an execution schedule, - the address and the profile are associated and - with each date of the schedule, the terminal retrieves the page from the network

  computer and performs the task, automatically.

  -2- Thus, a user can program in the terminal a mission to execute a particular task concerning one or more pages. This task is then executed by the terminal, automatically, i.e.

  without the intervention of a user, on each date fixed by the schedule.

  User intervention is therefore limited to programming the

terminal mission.

  Advantageously, a window for defining a mission profile is opened, in which information relating to the schedule is specified.

  o of execution and information relating to the task to be executed.

  Preferably, in the window for defining a mission profile, at least one time zone is selected, in a reference calendar, and an associated repetition frequency is specified, in order to define the dates of the

execution schedule.

  The reference calendar can for example extend over a week and, for each day of the week, over twenty four hours divided into a plurality of time slots of fixed duration. You can thus, for each day of the week, select one or more time slots during which you want to execute the task. For each time slot selected, a repetition frequency is then selected, according to which the execution of

  the task will be repeated. This fixes the execution schedule in a simple way.

  In a particular embodiment, the page whose address has been defined being a root page of a page tree structure, a level of tree structure is specified in the window for defining a mission profile, in order to run the task on the pages of the page tree until

specified level.

  We can thus execute the task, automatically, on all or part of a page computer site, even if this site evolves over time. Advantageously, in the window for defining a mission profile, the task to be executed is selected from among a plurality of tasks comprising at least one of the printing, faxing, sending

  by computer and recording message.

  Preferably, - we assign an identifier to the mission profile, - we open a window for associating addresses and profiles, -3 - - in the association window, we select the address of the page, in a area for receiving addresses, and the identifier of the mission profile, in a zone for receiving profile identifiers, and - the selected address and profile are associated by activating an association command. The invention also relates to a software product for implementing the above method, comprising means for programming a mission consisting in executing a task concerning an information page, io with an address on a computer network, to a plurality of dates of an execution schedule, and means for ordering, on each date of the schedule, the retrieval of the page on the computer network and the execution

  of the task, automatically.

  The invention will be better understood using the following description

  of a particular embodiment of the method and of the product of the invention, with reference to the appended drawing in which: - Figure 1 shows a functional block diagram of the communication terminal, connected to the Internmet; FIG. 2 represents an address and profile association window and

  - Figure 3 shows a window for defining a mission profile.

  In the particular example of the description, the terminal of

  communication 1 is a Personal Computer (PC). It includes a modem 10 for connection to a telephone network 101, here the PSTN (Switched Telephone Network) network, a block 11 for connection to a computer network, in this case the Internet 100, an Internet browser 12, an interface man-machine 13, a block of Internet messaging 14, a block of

  facsimile machine 15 and a central control unit 16.

  The man-machine interface 13 includes an input keyboard, a display screen and a graphical user interface (GUI). The Internet connection block 11 is an application, a software, allowing the terminal 1 to connect to the Internet 100 by telephone connection, through the telephone network 101, to a server 2 providing access to the Internet 100. From the outset, note that server 2 is also a

Internet mail server.

  The Internet browser 12 is software, of the Internet Explorer type, allowing the terminal 1 to browse the Internet 100, in other words to retrieve web pages from Internet computer sites, with the files describing these pages, and to display these pages. on the screen of terminal 1, in a navigation window. In the following, the term "page" will be used to designate both the page itself and its descriptive file. Each web page 0o has a location address on the Internet 100, more commonly called

"URL address".

  An "e-mail" message is a computer message, in a format suitable for transmission over the Internet 100, comprising a header, a message body and, optionally, one or more attachments. The header contains an e-mail address, more commonly known as an "e-mail address", from which the message originates, and an e-mail address for the destination of the message. The message body is, in principle,

  intended to contain the actual message. In the following description,

  e-mail addresses will be called "e-mail" addresses.

  The Internet messaging block 14 is an application intended to create e-mail messages and send and receive e-mail messages via the Internet 100. The terminal 1 has an Internet messaging service,

  provided by server 2, and a mailbox, for receiving e- messages

  mail, hosted by server 2. An email address is assigned to terminal 1.

  The facsimile unit 15 includes an application for sending and receiving facsimile messages over the telephone network 101, according to a

  fax transmission protocol, in this case the T30 protocol.

  The central control unit 16 comprises a microprocessor, with an operating system, intended to control the operation of the terminal 1 and to implement the applications and software of the terminal 1. All of the

  elements of terminal 1 are connected to block 16.

  Terminal 1 is connected to an external printer 6 and includes a printer driver 17, or "driver", that is to say an application intended for

  operate the printer 6.

  The terminal 1 further comprises an automaton 18 comprising software for the automatic execution of tasks relating to one or more -5Web pages, these tasks possibly being printing, sending by fax, sending

  by e-mail message or final local registration of the web page (s).

  The software of the PLC 18 includes a programming module 180, a

  control module 181 and a processing module 182.

  The programming module 180 allows a user to program a mission, consisting in executing a predefined task relating to at least one web page, to a plurality of dates of an execution schedule. A "date" is defined here by a time and / or a day. The programming module 180 is arranged to open a window 4 for defining a mission profile and a window 5 for associating addresses and profiles, and to display in these windows different commands and areas of

  specification, data entry, explained below.

  The profile definition window 4 allows you to enter information in order to define, create a new mission profile or modify an existing mission profile. With reference to FIG. 3, this window 4 comprises - a zone 40 for entering a profile identifier, - a part 41 for defining an execution schedule comprising a reference calendar 410, a zone 411 for selecting a a repetition frequency and two zones 412, 413 for selecting options, a zone 42 for selecting a level of tree structure, a part 43 for defining a task, comprising a zone 430 for selecting a task among the tasks comprising printing, sending by fax, sending by e-mail message and final local recording, and an area 431 for specifying execution parameters of the selected task, - a button cancellation 44 and

- a validation button 45.

  The reference calendar 410 is spread out, in rows, over the seven days of a week and, in columns, over the twenty-four hours of a day. It therefore comprises seven lines, representing respectively the seven days of the

  week, and here forty-eight columns, each representing half an hour.

  Each box, formed by the intersection of a line and a column, defines a time zone, a time range, for selection. A user can select one or more calendar 410 boxes to schedule the execution of the task on the day and at the time corresponding to the selected box. He can in particular select all the adjacent boxes in the vertical direction, in a single click action, here by clicking on a given timetable. -6- The area 411 for selecting a repetition time frequency comprises a plurality of selection buttons, here six in number, associated with frequency indications, in this case "weekly", "no action", "1st of the month", "2nd of the month", "3rd of the month", "4th of the month", allowing you to select, for each month, the week or weeks during which you want to execute the task, on the day and on the time selected in calendar 410. The selection buttons each have a color associated with the corresponding repetition frequency. Each calendar 410 cell is associated with a repetition frequency, which can be zero, and colored with the color

  o0 corresponding to this frequency.

  The selection area 412 makes it possible to select an option consisting in executing the task only if the Web page has changed since the last execution of this task. The other selection area 413 makes it possible to select an option consisting in triggering the execution of the task only when the terminal is connected to the Internet, for example for transmitting

e-mail messages.

  A tree structure of x-level Web pages includes a parent page, or root, and child pages, distributed over x lower levels of tree structure. By definition, the nth level comprises the child pages linked to the root page via (n-l) child pages and therefore n links. Area 42 is used to specify a level, or depth, of the tree structure in order to execute the task on all the pages of a tree structure of pages up to the specified level. Thereafter, a page containing at least one link to another page will be called a "source page", which will be called a "target page". The job selection area 430 includes four tabs for printing, saving, sending by e-mail message, and sending by fax, respectively. To select and specify the parameters a

  task, select the corresponding tab using a pointer.

  The specification area 431 is configured according to the selected task and makes it possible to enter and define various execution parameters relating to the selected task. These execution parameters include - for printing: identification of the printer, printing properties (format, resolution, orientation, etc.) and the number of copies desired, - for registration: memory location where you wish to save the page (s), - 7 - - for sending by e-mail message: the e-mail addresses of recipients and - for sending by fax: telephone numbers of

recipient fax machines.

  The cancel button 44 allows you to cancel the creation or modification of a mission profile and the validation button 45 allows you to

  validate the creation or modification of a mission profile.

  o0 The window 5 for associating addresses and profiles allows you to associate web page addresses and mission profiles. It contains an area 50 for receiving and selecting addresses, an area 51 for receiving and selecting profile identifiers, an area 52 for entering addresses, with an "add" button, an area 53 for entering addresses. '' a profile identifier, with a "duplicate" button, a "personalized" button 54 for creating a profile, a modification button 55, a deletion button 56, an execution button

  57, an association button 58 and an exit button 59.

  The reception area 50 contains a list of URL addresses for locating on the Internet 100 web pages, possibly associated with

profile identifiers.

  The buttons 54-59 and the buttons of the input zones 52 and 53

  constitute commands to execute an action.

  In entry area 52, a user can enter a new web page address and add that address to the area address list

  , by pressing the "add" button.

  In the input area 53, a user can enter the identifier of a profile and duplicate this identifier in the reception area 51, by pressing the

"duplicate" button.

  The "personalized" button 54 opens a profile definition window 4, in order to define and create a new profile, including

  the identifier was entered in field 53.

  The button 55 also makes it possible to open a window 4 for defining a profile, but for modifying an already existing profile. The association button 58 makes it possible to associate an address, contained in the reception area 50, and a profile, the identifier of which is contained in the reception area 51. The delete button 56 makes it possible to delete a page address Web or a profile identifier in the reception areas 50, 51. The "immediate execution" button 57 makes it possible to trigger the immediate execution of the task of a mission, without taking account of the execution schedule of this mission. mission. To execute one of the actions associated with buttons 55, 56, 57 and 58, you must first select the address and / or the profile identifier, for which you want to perform the action, in the reception areas 50, 51, using a pointer, then, by pressing the button in question, the execution of the

the associated action.

  Finally, the "exit" button 58 closes the association window 5. A user of the terminal 1 can launch, activate the programming software module 180, by activating a specific command in a menu

1 s from the GUI interface.

  The terminal 1 also comprises a memory 19 for storing profiles, web page addresses and association links between these profiles and

  these addresses, linked to the PLC 18.

  The control module 181 is intended to control the connection block 11, the browser 12, the messaging block 14, the facsimile block and the printer driver 17, in order to automatically control the execution of the scheduled tasks, on the dates fixed by the schedule

execution.

  The processing module 182 is intended to process, if necessary, the web pages retrieved from the Internet 100, in order to execute the programmed tasks. It should be noted here that each link to a target web page, contained in a source web page, is associated with the URL address of this target page,

  contained in the description file of the source page. In case the

  scheduled task is transmission by e-mail message or recording and concerns a tree structure of pages, the processing module 182 reconstructs the links between the pages of the tree structure, in order to link them, in the

  terminal 1, the pages retrieved, as will be explained in the description

of the process.

  In the case where the scheduled task is the printing or sending by fax of at least one page, the processing module 182 assigns references to the links contained in this page and creates an annex file -9 containing, for each link of the page, the reference of this link and the URL address to which this link is associated, in other words the URL of the target page to which this link leads, as will be explained below. In addition, in the case where the task concerns a tree structure of pages, the processing module 182 also assigns a reference to each of the pages of the tree structure and, for each link between two pages of the tree structure, adds to the annex file the reference of the target page, by associating it with the reference

  of this link, contained in the source page, as will be explained below.

  For the transmission of a page by fax, the processing module 182 also converts the format of this page, generally the HTML format,

in a fax format.

  After the structural and functional description of terminal 1 and

  its software 18, the method for automatically executing a mission, consisting in executing a task here concerning the web pages Pl, P2, ..., PN of a two-level tree structure of an Internet site 3, according to a predefined execution schedule, will now be described in the following four cases: printing, recording, sending by e-mail message and sending by

  fax. In the particular example of the description, the pages Pl, P2 ,. .., PN

  belong to a financial site, giving stock market information.

  The N pages P1, P2, ..., PN of the tree structure include a root page P1 and (Nl) child pages P2, ..., PN, linked to the root page via one or two links . The root page Pl is here the home page of the site 3. It will be noted that the number N of pages in the tree structure is not fixed but can vary over time, and therefore between two dates of the planning

  execution of the mission, depending on the evolution of the site 3.

  1) Transmission by e-mail message The transmission by e-mail message task consists in retrieving the N pages Pl, P2, ..., PN on the Internet 100 and in retransmitting them to at least one destination terminal, here two 8A, 8B, per e-mail message, to

across the Internet 100.

  The mission of terminal 1 must first be programmed.

  To do this, a user orders the activation of the

  programming 180, by selection in the menus of the human interface

  machine 13 of terminal 1, and thus opens a window 5 for associating profiles

  and addresses on the terminal 1 screen.

- 10 -

  If the URL address of page P, in this case "http: //www.finance.lemonde. Fr", is not already contained in reception area 50, the user enters it in the input 52 and adds it to the reception area 50, by pressing the "add" button. The user can also select, in a previously opened navigation window, an area associated with the URL address of the page Pl, using a pointer, drag the pointer into the reception area 50 of the association window 5 and drop the address of the page Pl there. The zone associated with the address of the page Pl may be a link to this page Pl, contained in a 1o source page P0, or an address zone (containing the address of page Pl) of the navigation window. On receipt of the address of page Pl in zone 50,

  terminal 1 stores this address in memory 19.

  If the mission he wishes to program is new, the user assigns an identifier, here "mission 1", to a new mission profile, enters this identifier in the input area 53, duplicates it in the reception area 51, by pressing the "duplicate" button, and opens a window 4 for defining the profile on the screen of the terminal 1, by pressing the button 54 for creating a profile. In the definition window 4, to define the execution schedule for the mission "mission 1", using a pointer, the user selects a repetition frequency, here the weekly frequency, in the selection area 411, then one or more boxes of the 410 calendar, here the time slots between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Monday to Friday inclusive, thus associating the weekly repetition frequency and the selected time slots. The

  execution schedule thus defined therefore includes time slots from 19h-

  7:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, weekly. The user could

  select other repetition frequencies and associated time slots.

  The user then specifies the tree level, equal to two,

  in the selection area 42, select the transmission task by message e-

  mail, by pressing on the corresponding tab in zone 430, then specifies the e-mail addresses of recipients 8A, 8B of the message, in specification area 431. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the specification area 431 here contains a directory zone 4310, containing the e-mail addresses and the names of a plurality of correspondents of a directory of the messaging block 14, and a zone 4311 for receiving recipient e-mail addresses, intended to contain, for each recipient of an e-mail message, the e-mail address of that recipient. Scroll buttons, no

  shown, allow you to scroll through the content of zones 4310 and 4311.

  Buttons 4312 and 4313 make it possible to copy an address, contained in one of the two zones 4310 (4311), in the other zone 4311 (4310). In addition, two buttons 4314, 4315 are provided, allowing respectively to add a new recipient, by manual entry of his address, and to delete

  the recipient's email address, in reception area 4311.

  After defining the mission profile, use validates it, saves it in memory 19 and closes the definition window 4, by pressing the validation button 45. This profile can be modified later by the user, by selecting its identifier in the reception area 51

  io from the association window 5 then press the modification button 55.

  In the association window 5, the user selects the URL address "http.//vwww.finance.lemonde.fr" of the root page Pl and the profile identifier "mission 1", in the reception areas 50 and 51 respectively, then associates the selected address and profile, by pressing the association button 58. The association link between the address on page P1 and the mission profile "mission 1" is then stored in memory 19, and the identifier "mission 1" appears in the profile column of the reception area 50, associated with the address of page Pl, on the same line as this, as shown in

Figure 2.

  The mission programming is then complete and the user can

  close the association window 5, by pressing the "exit" button 59.

  On each predefined date of the mission execution schedule "mission 1", namely every week, Monday to Friday inclusive, between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the command module 181 triggers and commands the automatic execution, this is that is to say without user intervention, steps, described below, aimed at issuing the N pages Pl, P2, ..., PN of the site 3

  to the e-mail addresses of the destination terminals 8A and 8B.

  The terminal 1 connects to the Internet 100, if necessary (that is to say if it is not already connected), by telephone connection to its access provider 2, and retrieves the N pages of the '' page tree Pl, P2, ..., PN on

  site 3, using browser 12, through the Internet 100.

  After recovering the pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, the processing module 182 replaces the URL addresses, associated with the links between the pages of the tree structure, by local location addresses, while retaining these

links and tree structure.

  -12- The messaging block 14 then creates an e-mail message, addressed to recipients 8A and 8B, attaches to this message, as attachments, the pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, organized in tree structure, and sends this message through

  the Internet 100 to the destination terminals 8A, 8B.

  Terminal 1 then automatically disconnects from Internet 100. The other cases (printing, recording and sending by fax) differ from the first case, described above, only in what will now be described. 2) Printing The printing task consists of printing the N pages Pl, P2, ..., PN

  from website 3, using printer 6.

  To program the printing of pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, in the profile definition window 4, the user defines the execution schedule, specifies the level of tree structure, selects the printing tab and specifies the print parameters (printer identification 6, properties of

  printing and number of copies desired), in specification area 431.

  Then the user associates the profile thus defined and the address of the root page Pl,

in the association window 5.

  At each date fixed by the execution schedule, under the command of the command block 181, automatically, the terminal 1 connects to the Internet 100 (if necessary), successively retrieves the N pages Pl, P2 ,, PN and, here in parallel, as and when the reception of these pages, prints

  each of the N successive pages, then disconnects from the Internet 100.

  3) Fax transmission The fax transmission task consists in transmitting the N pages Pl, P2, PN by fax to at least one recipient fax machine, here towards the

fax 9.

  To program the transmission of N pages Pl, P2, ..., PN by fax, in the profile definition window 4, the user defines the execution schedule, specifies the level of tree structure, selects the tab transmission by fax and specifies the telephone number of the fax machine 9, in the specification area 431. Then the user associates the profile thus defined and

  the address of the root page Pl, in the association window 5.

  -13 - At each date fixed by the execution schedule, under the command of the command block 181, automatically, the terminal 1 connects to the Internet 100 (if necessary), successively retrieves the N pages Pl, P2 , ..., PN and, at the same time, as the pages are received, transforms them into a fax format, assembles them into a single fax and

  transmits the fax, through the telephone network 101, to the fax machine 9.

  After having recovered all the pages P I, P2, ..., PN, the terminal 1 is

disconnect from the Internet 100.

  4) Recording The recording task consists in recording in a memory location of the terminal 1, not permanently shown, the N pages Pt, P2, PN. When a web page is brought back to terminal 1, from its site, it is momentarily, stealthily saved in a location

  memory of terminal 1, by browser 12, and erased after navigation.

  The "final" recording of this page consists of saving it in another memory location of the terminal 1, so that it is kept after navigation. Of course, the user can later delete the

  page of this new memory location.

  To program the recording of pages P1, P2, ..., PN, in the profile definition window 4, the user defines the execution schedule, specifies the level of tree structure, selects the recording tab and specifies the memory location for saving the pages, in the specification area 431. Then the user associates the profile thus defined and the address of

  the PE root page, in the association window 5.

  At each date fixed by the execution schedule, under the command of the command block 181, automatically, the terminal 1 connects to the Intemrnet 100 (if necessary), retrieves the pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, saves them in terminal 1, at the predefined memory location, definitively,

  then disconnects from the Intemrnet 100.

  For the recording of pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, the processing module 182 replaces the URL addresses associated with the links between the pages of the tree structure by local location addresses, in the terminal 1, all

  keeping the links between pages and the tree structure.

  - 14- After processing pages P1, P2, .., PN, terminal 1 saves them

  then in the memory location previously specified.

  In the above description, the user sets the dates of

  triggering of the execution of the mission tasks, and thus define the execution schedule, by selection and association of repetition frequency (s) and time range (s). We could also select one of the two

options 412, 413.

  o0 If option 412 is selected, under the command of block 181, on each date of the execution schedule, before retrieving the pages, terminal 1 successively retrieves the N pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, then calculates the signature of each of these pages, constituted by an index called "CRC checksum", or CRC checksum (Cyclic Redundancy Check cyclic redundancy check), in a known manner. The terminal 1 compares this signature to that, previously recorded, of the page considered (Pl, P2 ,. - .., or PN) recovered during the last execution of the programmed task. Terminal I does not execute the programmed task concerning the page in question, if the compared signatures are identical (the page has not been modified since the last execution of the task), and executes the task if the signatures are different (the

  page having been modified since the last execution of the task).

  If option 413 is selected, terminal 1 will only execute the task on the dates set by the execution schedule if terminal 1 is already

connected to the Internet 100.

  In an alternative embodiment, for printing the pages Pl, P2, PN, the processing module 182 assigns a reference to each of the links contained in the pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, as well as to each of the pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, retrieves the URL addresses associated with these links, then inserts into each page the reference of this page and, at the location of each link, the reference of this link. The module 182 then creates the annex file containing, for each link, the reference of this link, the associated URL address and, in the case where it is a link between two pages of the tree structure, the reference of the target page. After having processed the pages Pl, P2, ..., PN, UNDER the command of the control module 181, the printer 6 prints the pages Pl, P2, .., PN and

the annex sheet.

  In another alternative embodiment, for the emission of pages Pl, P2 ,. .., PN by fax, the processing module 182 assigns references to the pages P1, P2, ..., PN and the links which they contain, inserts these references into the pages PI, P2, ..., PN and creates the additional file, in a format of

- 15 -

  fax, containing, for each link, the reference of this link, the URL address associated with this link and, in the case where it is a link between two pages of the tree structure, the reference of the target page , as previously explained for printing. The processing module 182 then converts the pages P1, P2, ..., PN into a fax format. After processing pages Pl, P2, ...

  PN, terminal 1 transmits these pages, with the annex form, by fax.

  Of course, one could associate several pages with the same task or else associate a page with several tasks. We could also plan

  o to be able to program other tasks than those described.

  We could also consider scheduling a mission consisting of performing several tasks, for example printing and sending by fax, relating to one or more web pages. In this case, at each planning date, the terminal connects to the Internet, retrieves the web page (s)

  and performs all scheduled tasks.

  Calendar 410 in definition window 4 could have a

  structure different from that previously described.

  The pages Pl, P2, ..., PN of the tree structure could belong to

different websites.

  For the emission of a page by e-mail message, instead of attaching this page, as an attachment, to the e-mail message, one could consider inserting it into the body of the message, possibly after processing and in particular

format conversion.

  The invention could be applied to any computer network, other than the Internet 100, and to any type of communication terminal (telephone,

fax machine, etc.).

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Claims (9)

claims   1- Method for executing at least one task concerning at least one information page (P1, P2, ..., PN), with an address on a computer network (100), using a communication terminal (1), in which - the terminal (1) is specified the computer address of the page (P1) and the profile of a mission consisting in executing the task on a plurality of dates of an execution schedule, - the address and the profile are associated and - at each date of the planning, the terminal (1) retrieves the page (Pl, P2, PN) on the computer network (100) and executes the task, automatically. 2- A method according to claim 1, in which a window (4) for defining a mission profile is opened, in which information relating to the execution schedule and information relating to the task at hand.   3- The method of claim 2, wherein, in the window (4) for defining a mission profile, at least one time zone is selected, in a reference calendar (410), and a repetition frequency is specified. associated (411), in order to define the dates of the execution schedule.   4- Method according to one of claims 2 and 3, wherein, the page   whose address has been defined being a root page of a page tree structure, a level of tree structure (42) is specified in the window (4) for defining a mission profile, in order to execute the task on the tree pages   pages up to the specified level.   - Method according to one of claims 2 to 4, wherein, in the   window (4) for defining a mission profile, the task to be executed is selected from a plurality of tasks (430) comprising at least one of the tasks of printing, sending by fax, sending by message IT and recording.   6- Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein   - we assign an identifier to the mission profile, - we open a window (5) for associating addresses and profiles, - in the association window (5), we select the address of the page, in a area (50) for receiving addresses, and the identifier of the mission profile, in an area (51) for receiving profile identifiers, and - 17 -   - we associate the selected address and profile by activating a association command (58).   7- Method according to claim 6, wherein, in a navigation window, an area associated with the computer address of said page is selected, using a pointer, the pointer is dragged into the area ( 50) for receiving addresses from the association window (5) and depositing said address there. îo 8- A software product for implementing the method of claim 1, comprising means (180) for programming a mission consisting in executing a task concerning at least one page of information, with an address on a computer network (100), on a plurality of dates of an execution schedule, and means (181) for ordering, on each date of the schedule, the retrieval of the page on the   computer network (100) and the execution of the task, automatically.   9- Product according to claim 8, wherein the programming means (180) are arranged to acquire the address of the page and the profile of the mission, with its execution schedule, and to associate the address and the profile.   - Product according to one of claims 8 and 9, wherein the   programming means (180) are arranged to open a window (4) for defining a mission profile, containing areas for entering information   relating to the planning and the task to be executed.   11- Product according to claim 10, wherein the programming means (180) are arranged to display, in the profile definition window, a reference calendar (410), with time zones of   selection, and an area (411) for specifying a repetition frequency.   12- Product according to one of claims 10 and 11, wherein the   programming means (180) are arranged to display, in the profile definition window (4), an area (430) for selecting a job from a plurality of jobs comprising at least one of the print jobs, fax transmission, computer transmission and recording.   13- Product according to one of claims 8 to 12, wherein the   programming means (180) are arranged to open a window (5) for associating addresses and profiles, comprising a zone (50) for receiving computer page addresses, a zone (51) for receiving mission profile identifiers and an association command (58) making it possible to associate at least one address and one profile, respectively contained in said zones reception (50, 51).