JP2000163439A - Device and method for electronic file retrieval - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic file retrieving device which enables speedy and proper retrieval by narrowing down retrieval objects by using a history of operations of electronic files. SOLUTION: A retrieval condition input part 3 allows a user to input retrieval conditions composed of conditions regarding full-text retrieval and conditions regarding operation history retrieval and a document list generation part 4 retrieves documents meeting the conditions regarding the operation history retrieval inputted from the retrieval condition input part 3 from an operation history storage part 2 and generates a list of the identifiers of the detected documents. Then a full-text document retrieval part 3 reads the contents of the corresponding documents in a document storage part out of the document ID of the document list generated by the document list generation part 4 and retrieves documents including the key words of the conditions regarding the full-text retrieval inputted from the retrieval condition input part 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a technique for narrowing down a search object by using an operation history of a document file when detecting a document file including a designated character string from a large number of document files. The present invention relates to an electronic file search apparatus and an electronic file search method that enable quick and appropriate search.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the spread of computers in offices and the like has been remarkable, and computerization of information, for example, creation of documents by word processors, has been rapidly advanced. For these reasons, various methods for quickly and appropriately searching for a desired electronic file have been devised.

[0003] Conventional electronic file search methods include:
Searching by specifying attributes such as titles and keywords given at the time of registration, and a full-text database search method described in JP-A-8-320874,
There is a full-text search or the like that searches a full text in a document by also following a linked document.

Further, in these methods, since sufficient search performance cannot be obtained due to frequent detection omissions or excessively long time, a history of operations performed on an electronic file is used for search and management. Ways to begin are being developed. For example, in the document presentation device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-071455, search support is aimed at by displaying icons of documents operated by a user who is a searcher in the past. In the electronic document management apparatus described in the official gazette, search efficiency is improved by detecting a document that satisfies search conditions such as a specified time and an operation user from an operation history. Further, in the storage device contents organizing system and the storage device contents organizing method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-034755, an electronic file with low access frequency that can be regarded as unnecessary is detected and deleted or compressed from the operation history. Such management is performed.

[0005]

However, a method of displaying a document operated in the past with an icon or detecting or deleting an unnecessary file from the operation history to delete or compress the operation history is effective for a quick search of the operation history. In other words, the method of detecting from the operation history documents that satisfy search conditions such as the specified time and the operating user cannot be used to detect electronic files containing desired contents. there were.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a desired electronic file can be quickly and appropriately searched from a large number of electronic files by using the operation history of the electronic file. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic file search device and an electronic file search method of the device.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a method for detecting a document file containing a designated character string from an enormous amount of document files. After narrowing down the search target based on the operation history, a search for a document file including desired contents, such as a full text search, that is, a so-called content search is executed. The search target narrowing conditions based on the operation history include, for example, the operation user, the operation date and time, and the operation type.

According to the present invention, since the number of electronic files to be searched for contents can be greatly reduced, the response time can be drastically reduced.

Further, according to the present invention, when a search object is narrowed down based on a history of operations on a document file, in addition to an electronic file satisfying the narrowing-down conditions, an electronic file stored in the same directory (or folder) as the electronic file is stored. Files are also searched.

[0010] The present invention further considers that similar electronic files are often stored in the same directory.
Enables more appropriate search.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a document file search apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a document storage unit 1 stores all documents in the apparatus, and an operation history storage unit 2 stores a history of operations performed on documents in the document storage unit 1 by a user. The search condition input unit 3 allows the user to input a condition for searching for a document. The condition in the present apparatus is of two types, a condition for a full-text search and a condition for an operation history search. The document list creation unit 4 searches the operation history storage unit 2 for a corresponding document based on the operation history search condition, and creates a list of corresponding document identifiers (document IDs). Reference numeral 5 is for reading out the contents of the corresponding document in the document storage unit 1 from the document ID of the document list created by the document list creation unit 4, and searching for a document including the keyword entered under the full text search condition. . The result display unit 6 displays the document searched by the full text document search unit 5.

FIG. 1 does not show the user's access to the document storage unit 1 and the part for extracting the user's operation and recording it in the operation history storage unit 2. The access from the user and the document storage unit 1 and the operation history storage unit 2 may be distributed on a network.

Further, the document file search device has a CP
U, main memory, external storage, keyboard, mouse, CRT display, etc.
It is configured as a processing program that is loaded from the external storage into the main memory by the CPU and is executed and controlled.

FIG. 2 shows an example in the document storage section 1, in which each document is stored in a line unit. Each row stores a document ID for identifying each document, a document storage hierarchy, a document name, and a document content.

For example, a document having a document ID of “1” has a storage hierarchy of “sales department”, a document name of “sales report June”,
It can be seen that the document content is a document "sales". In this example, the storage hierarchy has only one hierarchical structure (tree structure) as shown in FIG. 3, but it may be a multi-hierarchy. Although the contents are directly described in the document contents, a pointer to another storage unit may be stored.

FIG. 4 shows an example in the operation history storage unit 2.
The operation history of the user's document for each line is stored. Each row includes an operation ID for identifying the operation history, the date and time when the operation was performed, the name of the user who performed the operation, the type of operation (creation, reference, and change, etc.) on the document, and the document ID of the document on which the operation was performed. It is remembered.

For example, an operation history with an operation ID of “1” has a date and time of “1998-06-0110: 00”, a user of “Aida”, a type of “create”, and a document ID of “1”. You can see that there is. And the document name is document I
By referring to the document storage unit 1 using D as a key, it can be seen that "sales report is June".

FIG. 5 shows an example of a screen displayed by the search condition input unit 3 for the user to input search conditions. The user can input two types of conditions, that is, a condition relating to a full-text search and a condition relating to an operation history search. It has become.

Specifically, for full-text search,
Enter a keyword (character string) for full-text search included in the document contents. On the other hand, for the operation history search, the name of the operation user who performed the operation, the operation date and time indicating the period during which the operation was performed, and the type of operation performed on the document are input. Then, the document list creation unit 4 searches the operation history storage unit 2 for an operation history that satisfies the search condition, using the operation user, the operation date and time, and the operation type as search conditions. Here, it is assumed that the operation history is searched for under AND conditions that satisfy all three types of search conditions.

The search order specifies the order of the documents when the document list is created from the search conditions. When the operation date and time and the ascending order are specified, the document list is created in the oldest operation date and time. You. Then, the full-text document search unit 5 performs a search process in the order of the document list.
If the results can be displayed at any time while the search is in progress and the search can be terminated in the middle, by specifying the order of this document list, the processing can be performed when the desired document is displayed. , And a desired document can be searched at high speed. In addition, since the search results are also displayed in the specified order, it is possible to display the search results so that the user can easily see them.

The same-layer document is for inputting whether to include in the document list other documents in the storage hierarchy where each document in the document list created from the operation history search condition is stored. . In an environment in which documents of the same type are stored in the same storage hierarchy, specifying the same hierarchy document as “include” makes it possible to further prevent search omissions.

The document search process is executed by instructing the search execution button, and is canceled by instructing the cancel button.

In the example shown in FIG. 5, Mr. Kato explained that
From 6-01 0:00 to the present, a condition for searching for a document containing “FAX” as a keyword from among the created or referenced documents is input. As for the search order of the full-text document search, it is specified that the document with the new operation date and time is to be searched first, and the other documents in the same storage hierarchy are not to be full-text searched.

FIG. 6 is an example of a screen displaying the result of the document search processing under the conditions specified on the screen of FIG. Document I
Documents in which D is “4” and “3” are displayed. Each time a corresponding document is found in the full-text document search, it is added to the table one line at a time, and the processing can be controlled with the suspend and resume buttons. By instructing a document display button, the content of the selected document can be displayed.

FIG. 7 is an example of a search result screen when the same hierarchy document is set to “include” again among the conditions specified on the screen of FIG. 5, and the storage hierarchy is “design section”. It can be seen that the document ID “6”, which is the document of “1”, has been added.

Next, an operation procedure of the document file search device will be described with reference to a flowchart.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the entire document search process. First, a screen for inputting document search conditions as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed, and the user is caused to input search conditions (step A1). Next, the operation history storage unit 2 is searched using the operation history search conditions in the input search conditions, and a list of documents satisfying the search conditions is created (step A2). Thereafter, using the full-text search condition in the search condition, the document content in the document storage unit 1 is searched for each document in the created document list (step A3). Finally, the search results are shown in FIG.
(Step A4).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a document list creation process using operation history search conditions. Here, as the work memory, a work storage unit that stores operation history search results and a document list storage unit that stores a list of documents, not shown in FIG. 1, are used. At first,
An operation history that satisfies all three conditions of the operation user, the operation date and time, and the operation type of the operation history search condition is searched from the operation history storage unit 2 and stored in the work storage unit (step B).
1).

The operation history search conditions shown in FIG. 5, that is, "operation user: Kato", "operation date and time: 1998-0"
10 shows an example of the operation storage unit storing the operation histories searched for “6-01 0: 00 to present” and “operation type: create or reference.” In this example, four operation histories are stored. ing.

Next, duplicate operation histories having the same document ID are deleted from the work storage unit (step B).
2). At this time, the operation history with the latest operation date and time is left,
Delete other operation history. FIG. 11 shows an example of a state in which duplicate operation histories have been deleted. Since the operation histories with operation IDs “5” and “8” in FIG. 10 have the same document ID “5”, the operation history with the latest operation date and time is “8” and the operation ID is “5”. The operation history of "5" is deleted.

Next, the number of operation histories satisfying the operation date and time of the operation history search condition is obtained from the operation history in the operation history storage unit 1 having the same value as the document ID of each line in the work storage unit, and this value is used as the work number. Store the number of operations in the storage unit (step B
3). Further, from the operation history in the operation history storage unit having the same value as the document ID of each row in the work storage unit, and the operation history satisfying the operation date and time of the operation history search condition, the number of users accessing the document is obtained. This value is stored in the number of users in the work storage unit (step B4).

The number of operations and the number of users stored in the work storage unit are used when determining the order of documents to be subjected to full-text search. FIG. 12 shows an example in the work storage unit in a state where the number of operations and the number of users are stored. Operation ID
It can be seen that the number of operations on the document with the document ID “5” accessed in the operation history of “8” is “4”, and the number of users is “3” of Mr. Kato, Mr. Aida and Mr. Sato.

Next, the document ID value of each row in the work storage unit is stored in the document list storage unit in the order specified by the search order of the operation history search condition (step B5). As the search order, the operation date and time, the number of operations, or the number of users, and ascending or descending order can be specified. FIG. 13 shows an example in the document list storage unit stored when the operation date and time and the descending order in the example shown in FIG. 5 are designated. In this document list storage unit, three documents with document IDs “5”, “4” and “3” are stored in descending order of operation date and time.

Next, the specification of the same hierarchical document in the operation history search condition is checked (step B6), and if "include" is specified (YES in step B6), the document stored in the document list storage unit is checked. The document IDs of other documents stored in the same storage hierarchy as the document indicated by the ID are added to the document list storage unit (step B7), and the document list creation processing ends. On the other hand, if "not included" is designated (NO in step B6), the process ends.

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of the full text document search process. The corresponding document contents in the document storage unit are searched by the keyword of the full text search condition in the order of the document IDs in the document list storage unit created by the document list creation process (step C1). The document list storage unit shown in FIG. 13 stores three document IDs “5”, “4”, and “3”. Using this document list, the keyword “FAX” shown in FIG. When the full text search is performed, document IDs “4” and “3” are searched.

The document list in FIG. 15 is a case where the same hierarchy document in the operation history search condition in FIG. 5 is designated as “include”, and a document ID “6” whose storage hierarchy is “design” is added. Have been.

FIG. 16 shows a block diagram of a conventional document file search apparatus, and FIG. 17 shows an example of a conventional document search condition input screen. The difference between the conventional block configuration and the block configuration of the present embodiment is that, conventionally, the operation history storage unit 1 and the document list creation unit 4 are not provided. The difference between the conventional document search condition input screen and the document search condition input screen of the present embodiment is that there is no operation history search condition input item in the related art.
Therefore, the conventional document file search apparatus has a drawback that the processing time is longer than that of the present application because all the documents in the document storage unit are subjected to the full text document search.

On the other hand, in the document file search device of the present embodiment, as described above, the number of document files to be searched for a full-text document can be narrowed down from the operation history, so that the number can be reduced as compared with the conventional case. The search can be performed at high speed.

[0040]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when a search for a document file containing desired contents such as a full-text search is performed, that is, when a so-called content search is executed, the history of operations on the document file is stored. Since the search target can be narrowed down based on the search, the response time can be drastically reduced.

Further, by further taking into account that similar electronic files are often stored in the same directory, search omission is prevented, and more appropriate search is enabled.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a document file search device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view illustrating the inside of a document storage unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view showing a hierarchical structure (tree structure) in a document storage unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view showing the inside of an operation history storage unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view exemplifying a screen displayed by a search condition input unit according to the embodiment for allowing a user to input search conditions;

FIG. 6 is a view exemplifying a screen displaying a result of performing a document search process under the conditions specified on the screen of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view exemplifying a search result screen when the same hierarchical document is reset to “include” among the conditions specified on the screen of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary flowchart showing the entire document search process according to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a document list creation process using the operation history search condition according to the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the inside of a work storage unit that stores an operation history searched by the operation history search condition illustrated in FIG. 5;

11 is a diagram exemplifying a state in which duplicate operation histories have been deleted from the state of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the number of operations and the number of users are stored from the state of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a diagram exemplifying the inside of a document list storage unit stored when an operation date and time and a descending order are designated in the example shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 14 is an exemplary flowchart of a full-text document search process according to the embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a document list in a case where “including” is specified for documents in the same hierarchy of the operation history search condition in FIG. 5;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a conventional document file search device.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional document search condition input screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Document storage part 2 ... Operation history storage part 3 ... Search condition input part 4 ... Document list creation part 5 ... Full text document search part 6 ... Result display part

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuaki Kojiro 70, Yanagimachi, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa F-term in Toshiba Yanagimachi Plant (reference) 5B075 ND03 ND35 PP12 PQ02 PQ29 PQ32 PQ46 PR03 QP05 QS01 UU06

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An electronic file search device for detecting an electronic file containing desired contents from a plurality of electronic files, wherein: an operation history storage means for storing a history of operations on the electronic file; A first search unit that detects an operation history that satisfies a specified search condition from the stored operation history; and a content specified from an electronic file in which the operation history is detected by the first search unit. An electronic file search device comprising: a second search unit that detects an electronic file including the electronic file. 2. The electronic file search device according to claim 1, wherein the specified search condition includes at least one of an operation user, an operation date and time, and an operation type. 3. An electronic file search device for detecting an electronic file containing desired contents from a plurality of electronic files, wherein: an operation history storage unit for storing a history of operations on the electronic file; First search means for detecting an operation history satisfying a specified search condition from stored operation histories; an electronic file whose operation history is detected by the first search means; and a file in the same directory as the electronic file. And a second search unit for detecting an electronic file including the specified content from the electronic files stored in the electronic file search apparatus. 4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sorting unit for rearranging the search order of the electronic files by the second searching unit based on at least one of an operation date and time, the number of operations, and the number of operating users. The electronic file search device according to claim 1, 2 or 3. 5. An electronic file search device for detecting an electronic file including desired contents from a plurality of electronic files, the electronic file search device including an operation history storage unit for storing an operation history of the electronic file. In the electronic file search method of the apparatus, an operation history that satisfies a specified search condition is detected from operation histories stored in the operation history storage unit, and the operation history is specified from among the detected electronic files. An electronic file search method characterized by detecting an electronic file containing contents. 6. An electronic file search device for detecting an electronic file including desired contents from a plurality of electronic files, the electronic file search device including an operation history storage unit for storing an operation history of the electronic file. In the electronic file search method of the apparatus, an operation history that satisfies a specified search condition is detected from operation histories stored in the operation history storage unit, and the electronic file in which the operation history is detected and the same as the electronic file are detected. An electronic file search method characterized by detecting an electronic file including specified contents from electronic files stored in a directory.