JP2004302984A - Document management device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document management device capable of improving the convenience in use of reference information. <P>SOLUTION: This document management device 1 comprises a data storage part 11 accessible from a plurality of users and retaining at least one public document with a set access right. A control part 12 generates reference information referring to public documents and makes the data storage part 11 retain it. When deleting a public document, the control part retrieves the reference information referring to the public document to be deleted, and substitutes each piece of the reference information found as the result of retrieval by the subject of the public document to be deleted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a document management device that holds a document and provides the held document in response to a request from a user.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Devices for sharing an electronic document among a plurality of users are widely used. In some of these apparatuses, an area exclusively accessed by the user (so-called private area) is defined for each user.
[0003]
This private area is typically located in a location separate from the one that holds the document to be shared, and when a user wants to retrieve a shared document, When the user accesses a holding place (called a public area) and obtains a document in the private area, the user accesses the private area. Such a private area is used not only as an area for storing a document whose reference from other users is to be prohibited, but also as an area for holding documents frequently used by each user.
[0004]
For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when documents A and B are stored in the public area, user X stores a copy of document A in addition to personal document P in his private area. I can put it. The documents A and P held in the private area of the user X cannot be generally acquired by another user Y. By doing so, the user X can acquire both the documents A and P simply by accessing his or her private area.
[0005]
However, if each user copies a document stored in the public area to his / her own private area for convenience as described above, hardware resources such as a disk capacity of a storage for storing the document are used. It cannot be used effectively.
[0006]
Therefore, conventionally, in such a document management apparatus, reference information for a document stored in a public area can be set in a private area. When an acquisition request for this reference information is made, the document management device provides the document in the public area referred to by the reference information related to the acquisition request to the requesting user. Since the reference information only includes information for identifying the document in the public area, the reference information is generally smaller in size than the information of the entity of the document. Therefore, hardware resources can be effectively used, and convenience using the private area can be improved.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the conventional document management apparatus using the reference information as described above has a problem in the following cases. That is, when the document of interest in the public area is referred to by the reference information stored in the private area of any user, if this document of interest is deleted, the user issues an acquisition request for the reference information. Also, the original document of interest cannot be obtained.
[0008]
Specifically, a document is shared and stored in the public area, but if it becomes inappropriate to share the document later, the document is deleted from the public area. It will be. However, if the user who uses the document sets reference information in the private area in the meantime, even if the document is necessary for the user, after the document is deleted, the acquisition of the document Can not be done.
[0009]
As described above, the conventional document management apparatus has not been improved in convenience when using the reference information.
[0010]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a document management apparatus that can improve convenience when using reference information.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention for solving the problems of the above conventional example is a document management device, which is accessible from a plurality of users, and holds at least one public document to which access right is set, Reference information generating means for generating a first type of reference information referring to a public document and holding the same in the holding means, and a first information referring to the public document to be deleted when the public document is deleted First search means for searching for reference information of a type; replacement means for replacing each of the first type of reference information found as a result of the search by the first search means with the entity of the public document to be deleted; , Are included.
[0012]
Here, when replacing the reference information with the entity of the public document, the replacing means may set the access right of the entity to be the same as the access right of the reference information to be replaced. Further, the information processing apparatus may further include a second reference information generating unit that generates a second type of reference information that refers to the public document and causes the holding unit to hold the second type of reference information. Further, when the public document is deleted, a second search unit that searches for a second type of reference information that refers to the deleted public document, and a second search unit that is found as a result of the search by the second search unit. A deletion unit for deleting each of the two types of reference information may be included.
[0013]
The present invention for solving the problem of the above-mentioned conventional example is a document management method, comprising: a holding means for holding at least one public document to which a plurality of users can access and to which an access right is set. Generating reference information that refers to the public document using a document management device having the above, and causing the holding unit to hold the reference information; and when the public document is deleted, reference information that refers to the deleted public document. And the step of replacing each of the reference information found as a result of the search with the entity of the public document to be deleted.
[0014]
Furthermore, the present invention for solving the problems of the above-mentioned conventional example is a program executed by a computer having a holding means for holding at least one public document to which a plurality of users can access and to which an access right is set. A procedure for generating reference information that refers to the public document and causing the holding unit to retain the reference information, and a procedure for searching for reference information that refers to the deleted public document when the public document is deleted. Replacing each of the reference information found as a result of the search with the entity of the public document to be deleted, and causing the computer to execute.
[0015]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, a document management apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a data storage unit 11, a control unit 12, a storage unit 13, and a network interface unit 14, and a client via a network. It is connected to the device 2.
[0016]
The data storage unit 11 holds a plurality of documents and reference information. Access rights information is associated with each of the plurality of documents and reference information, and whether or not acquisition, change / deletion, or the like is set for each user is set. The control unit 12 operates according to a program stored in the storage unit 13, and processes registration, acquisition, and deletion of a document and generation of reference information in accordance with an instruction received from the client device 2 via a network. , And performs a deletion process. The control unit 12 performs a replacement process for replacing the reference information with the information of the document. The specific processing contents of the control unit 12 will be described later.
[0017]
The storage unit 13 includes a computer-readable recording medium that stores a program executed by the control unit 12. Further, the storage unit 13 includes a storage element that stores various information generated in the processing of the control unit 12. The network interface unit 14 transmits a document and various information to a designated destination according to an instruction input from the control unit 12. Further, the network interface unit 14 receives an instruction or a document arriving via a network and outputs the received instruction or document to the control unit 12.
[0018]
The client device 2 is a general computer device, receives a user operation, and transmits various information and documents to the document management device 1 based on the content of the operation. The client device 2 receives a document or the like acquired from the document management device 1 and presents it to the user.
[0019]
Here, the details of the specific operation of the control unit 12 will be described separately for each process. The control unit 12 basically performs processing for registering a document (registration processing), processing for browsing the data storage unit 11 (browsing processing), processing for acquiring a document (acquisition processing), and reference information. A process for generating (reference information generating process) and a process for deleting a document (deletion process) are described below.
[0020]
[registration process]
The control unit 12 authenticates the user on the client device 2 side using authentication information such as a user name and a password, and receives a document to be registered, a registration instruction and a registration location instruction from the client device 2. Then, the document is stored in a designated location in the data storage unit 11.
[0021]
That is, in the present embodiment, the control unit 12 forms a file system having a so-called hierarchical directory structure in the data storage unit 11, and associates each document with any directory in the file system. The information for specifying the directory to be associated corresponds to the designation of the location. The control unit 12 stores a public document in the data storage unit 11 (corresponding to a public area) and a first-level directory structure, and is formed for each user, and stores a private document and reference information of each user ( Second hierarchical directory structure (corresponding to the private area). The first hierarchical directory structure and the second hierarchical directory structure may form part of one hierarchical directory structure.
[0022]
Further, the control unit 12 sets a default access right of the document to be registered depending on whether to register in the first hierarchical directory structure or the second hierarchical directory structure. For example, in the case of a document (called a public document) stored in the first hierarchical directory structure and shared by a plurality of users, information indicating that the sharing user can acquire the document is set as access right information. Will do. When stored in the second hierarchical directory structure of the user who has made the registration request, information indicating that the user can acquire the information is set as access right information.
[0023]
Further, the control unit 12 may change the information of the access right of the document according to an instruction received from the user who registered the document.
[0024]
[Browsing process]
When the control unit 12 receives the request for browsing the directory together with the information for specifying the directory from the client device 2, the document and the reference information stored in the specified directory in the data storage unit 11, and the Obtains summary information (such as the name) of the directory immediately below the specified directory.
[0025]
Then, of the acquired summary information, the document, reference information, and directory summary information to which the access right is set as obtainable by the user who has made the browse request are selected, and a list of the selected summary information is stored in the client device. Send to 2
[0026]
Further, when the directory information is selected from the list of the overview information on the client device 2 side, the control unit 12 receives a request for browsing the selected directory, and furthermore, the control unit 12 further selects the selected directory. The above processing is performed for documents and the like under the directory.
[0027]
Further, when the client device 2 selects summary information of a document or reference information from the transmitted summary information list, the control unit 12 receives an acquisition request for the selected document or reference information, An acquisition process described later is executed.
[0028]
[Acquisition request]
When the control unit 12 receives the acquisition request from the client device 2 together with the information specifying the document, the control unit 12 acquires the access right information associated with the document related to the acquisition request, and refers to the access right information. Then, it is determined whether or not the user who has made the acquisition request is set to be able to acquire the document. Here, if the acquisition is set, the control unit 12 acquires the document from the data storage unit 11 and transmits the document to the client device 2 side.
[0029]
If the access right information sets that the user cannot acquire the document, or if the document related to the acquisition request is not stored in the data storage unit 11, the control unit 12 Then, an error message indicating the respective facts is transmitted to 2.
[0030]
Further, upon receiving, from the client device 2, a request to acquire the reference information together with the information specifying the reference information, the control unit 12 searches the data storage unit 11 for a document referenced by the reference information related to the acquisition request, and As a result of the search, the information of the access right associated with the found document is acquired, and whether or not the user making the acquisition request is set to be able to acquire the document with reference to the information of the access right is determined. Find out. Here, if the acquisition is set, the control unit 12 acquires the document from the data storage unit 11 and transmits the document to the client device 2 side.
[0031]
It should be noted that the access right information sets that the user cannot acquire the document, or that the reference information pertaining to the acquisition request is not stored in the data storage unit 11, or that the reference information refers to. When the document is not found from the data storage unit 11, the control unit 12 transmits an error message indicating this to the client device 2.
[0032]
[Reference information generation processing]
The control unit 12 receives the instruction for generating the reference information together with the information for specifying the document from the client device 2 and stores the reference information in the designated location in the second hierarchical directory structure of the user who has issued the instruction for generating the reference information. , And generates and stores reference information that refers to the specified document.
[0033]
[Delete process]
When the control unit 12 receives an instruction to delete a document from the client device 2 together with the information for specifying the document, the control unit 12 starts the process illustrated in FIG. 2, and first, obtains information on the access right associated with the specified document. It is checked whether or not the user who has made the deletion request can delete the document (whether or not the user has the right to delete) (S1). Here, if it is set that the file cannot be deleted (No), the process ends. If it is set that the document can be deleted (Yes), it is checked whether the specified document is a public document (a document stored in the first hierarchical directory structure) (S2). If the document is not a document (No), a process of deleting the document is performed (S3), and the process ends.
[0034]
Further, in the process S2, if the specified document is a public document (Yes), the data storage unit 11 searches for reference information that refers to the document (S4). Then, a process (replacement process) of replacing the reference information found as a result of the search with the entity of the document to be deleted is performed (S5). Since the information of the entity replaced here is stored in the second hierarchical directory structure of the user who generated each reference information, the information is changed to a private document of each user instead of a public document. Further, when a plurality of pieces of reference information are found as a result of the search in step S4, such as when reference information referring to the document is generated by a plurality of users, replacement processing is performed for each of the pieces of reference information.
[0035]
When the replacement process is completed, the control unit 12 deletes the document (public document) to be deleted (S6), and ends the process.
[0036]
The processing to be deleted in steps S3 and S6 is processing for erasing document data from the data storage unit 11 and moving the document data to a directory formed in the data storage unit 11 for storing the deleted document. It may be a process of storing or a process of setting the access right to a predetermined state (such as making it accessible only to some users).
[0037]
Further, the replacement process means that a request for obtaining reference information before replacement is recognized as a request for obtaining the document entity after replacement as it is. For example, when the reference information and the document in the acquisition request are specified by their titles and URLs, the title and the like of the reference information before replacement are retained as title information, and the reference information before replacement is deleted, Is replaced by copying the entity of the document to the directory where the reference information is located, and setting the title and the like of the entity of the replaced document to the held title information and the like.
[0038]
[motion]
The document management device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention is configured as described above, and operates as follows. That is, one of the characteristic operations in the present embodiment is that, when reference information is set for a document registered as a public document, the reference operation is performed before the document is deleted in response to the document deletion request. Then, the reference information that refers to the document is replaced with the document. Thus, even if the public document is deleted, the reference information is replaced with the entity of the document, so that even if the public document is deleted, the user can acquire and refer to the entity of the document.
[0039]
In consideration of the access right set by the user in the reference information, when replacing the reference information with the entity of the public document, the information of the access right set in the reference information before the replacement is obtained and the replacement process is performed. After the completion, the access right of the entity of the replaced document may be set to be the same as the access right of the acquired reference information.
[0040]
Also, based on the access right information associated with the replaced public document and the access right information set in the reference information before replacement, the access right of the replaced entity document is determined based on the access right information set in the reference information before replacement. May be set.
[0041]
[Modification]
In the above description, when the control unit 12 deletes a public document, the control unit 12 replaces all pieces of reference information that refer to the public document. However, the control unit 12 asks the user whether to perform the replacement process. The replacement process may be performed only when the user answers that the replacement process is to be performed.
[0042]
When generating the reference information, the user may specify whether or not to perform the replacement process on the generated reference information. In this case, the above-described processing is performed for the type of reference information for which the replacement process is performed (the first type of reference information of the present invention), and the type of reference information for which the replacement process is not performed (the present invention). For the second type of reference information), the processes S4 and S5 may not be performed in the above-described process illustrated in FIG. Further, as for the type of reference information for which the replacement process is not performed, the reference information found by the search may be deleted instead of the process S5 in the above-described process shown in FIG.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a document management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of the document management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a document management situation in a general document management device.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 document management device, 2 client device, 11 data storage unit, 12 control unit, 13 storage unit, 14 network interface unit.

Claims (6)

Holding means for holding at least one public document for which access rights are set as accessible from a plurality of users;
Reference information generating means for generating first type of reference information referring to the public document and causing the holding means to hold the first type of reference information;
First search means for searching for first type of reference information that refers to the public document to be deleted when the public document is deleted;
Replacement means for replacing each of the first type of reference information found as a result of the search by the first search means with the entity of the public document to be deleted;
A document management device comprising: The document management device according to claim 1,
The document management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said replacing means sets, when replacing the reference information with an entity of a public document, an access right of the entity to be the same as an access right of the reference information to be replaced. The document management device according to claim 1, wherein
A document management apparatus, further comprising: a second reference information generating unit that generates second type of reference information that refers to the public document and causes the holding unit to hold the second type of reference information. The document management device according to claim 3,
When a public document is deleted, a second search unit that searches for a second type of reference information that refers to the public document to be deleted;
Deleting means for deleting each of the second type of reference information found as a result of the search by the second search means;
A document management device comprising: Using a document management device having holding means for holding at least one public document to which access rights are set as accessible from a plurality of users,
Generating reference information referring to the public document, and causing the holding unit to hold the reference information;
When a public document is deleted, searching for reference information that refers to the deleted public document;
Replacing each of the reference information found as a result of the search with the entity of the deleted public document;
The document management method is executed by the document management apparatus. A computer having holding means for holding at least one public document to which access is set as being accessible from a plurality of users,
A step of generating reference information for referring to the public document, and causing the holding unit to hold the reference information;
When a public document is deleted, a step of searching for reference information that refers to the deleted public document;
Replacing each of the reference information found as a result of the search with the entity of the deleted public document;
A program characterized by executing

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