JP3194691B2 - Multimedia compound document management system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multimedia compound document management system useful for interactively referencing and retrieving multimedia compound documents in a distributed environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a multimedia compound document management system capable of integrally handling different media data such as images, sounds, and texts has begun to be realized. Above all, in a distributed environment, a technique for interactively referencing and retrieving multimedia compound documents is of particular importance.

[0003] A conventional multimedia compound document management system will be described below. Conventionally, for any object constituting a multimedia compound document, document data described in a description language that describes a reference relationship between any multimedia compound document including the object and any object in the document is described. Interpretation and execution are performed to interactively search and refer to multimedia compound documents scattered on a network based on the described reference relationship. The reference information between objects / documents having a reference relationship and between objects / objects is described at the same level as the description of the object in the document, and is used by an interactive language processing mechanism for interpreting and executing the above description language. In response to a reference request from a user, a multimedia compound document having a reference relationship is referred to.
Since the referenced multimedia compound document is similarly described in the above description language, the language processing mechanism can further refer to the multimedia compound document using the reference information in the referred multimedia compound document.
By repeatedly referencing such multimedia compound documents, it is possible to sequentially search for arbitrary multimedia compound documents distributed on the network based on the reference information. And the referenced multimedia compound document is
In the near future, the same document is buffered for a certain period of time in order to shorten the time required for the reference process when the same document is referenced again.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional multimedia compound document management system, any object composing the multimedia compound document can be added to any multimedia compound including the object and itself. The creator of the document must set in advance the entire reference relationship between the document and any object in the document. When it is not known where a multimedia compound document or an object in the document to be referred to exists, it is not possible to construct a reference relationship between the object / multimedia compound document and the object / object.

In a conventional multimedia compound document system, reference information between objects having a reference relationship and between objects is described at the same level as the description of the object in the document.
When searching for an arbitrary multimedia compound document, all the multimedia compound documents to be referred to had to be read before the search was completed. For this reason, a sufficient processing speed could not be secured as a search process for a multimedia compound document having color images, audio data, and the like as objects.

Further, in a conventional multimedia compound document system, reference information between objects having a reference relationship and between objects is described at the same level as the description of the object in the document. The reference relationship between multimedia compound documents and between objects is fixed, and there is a dependency between the management structure of the multimedia compound document and the management structure of the referenced multimedia compound document. For this reason, even if the multimedia compound document is stored, if the document management structure of the reference destination is changed, it cannot be referenced.

Further, in the conventional multimedia compound document management system, the reference relation between objects and documents and between objects and objects depends on the document creator, and only one-to-one reference relation is possible. . Therefore, the same object in different multimedia compound documents can have different multimedia compound documents and objects.
Reference relations to a plurality of related multimedia compound documents and objects could not be provided.

As described above, in the conventional multimedia compound document management system, the reference relation between objects / documents and between objects / objects depends on the document management structure, and the system lacks flexibility. If you do not know where the multimedia compound document or the object in the document that you want to refer to is located,
A reference relationship between objects and objects could not be established.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problem, and it is possible to undefine a reference destination with respect to a reference relationship between multimedia compound documents, thereby enabling a searcher of the multimedia compound document to communicate with a multimedia compound document. Multimedia compound document management system that enhances the efficiency of multimedia compound document creation by collaborating with the creator or manager of media compound documents and enables advanced and flexible management of multimedia compound documents in a distributed environment. The purpose is to provide.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of referring to an object constituting a multimedia compound document, an arbitrary multimedia compound document including the object, and an arbitrary object in the document. Reference information that defines a relationship is positioned as an object and is managed independently of other objects.

[0011] Further, by storing reference information of a multimedia compound document referred to in the past, the reference destination can be undefined with respect to the reference relation between the multimedia compound documents.

[0012]

According to the present invention, it is possible to make the reference destination undefined with respect to the reference relationship between multimedia compound documents by the above-mentioned structure, and to search for the multimedia compound document and the creator of the multimedia compound document. Alternatively, by cooperating with an administrator, the efficiency of multimedia compound document creation is improved, and advanced and flexible multimedia compound documents can be managed in a distributed environment.

Also, the reference information becomes one independent object, and can be operated independently of other objects. In the search for an arbitrary multimedia compound document, the multimedia compound document referred to by the time the search ends is searched. Need not necessarily be read.

Further, by storing reference information of a multimedia compound document referred to in the past, one object can have a plurality of different reference destinations.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a multimedia compound document management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a communication control unit for communicating with individual nodes distributed on a network and transmitting and receiving a multimedia compound document and reference information. 2
Is a control unit for controlling the entire multimedia compound document management system, and performs expansion of the multimedia compound document in the document buffer 7 and control of the communication control unit 2, the language processing unit 4, and the database control unit 9. Reference numeral 3 denotes an execution unit for interpreting and executing a multimedia compound document, and includes a language processing unit 4 and a work space 5. Reference information 6 read from the communication control unit 1 or the database control unit 9 is developed in the work space 5 as a storage unit. Reference numeral 7 denotes a document buffer as another storage unit for developing a multimedia compound document. The multimedia buffer 8 read from the communication control unit 1 and the database control unit 9 is expanded. Reference numeral 9 denotes a database control unit which searches the multimedia compound document 12 based on the reference information 11 in the database 10 and inputs / outputs reference information to the work space 5 and sends it to the document buffer 7 according to an instruction from the control unit 2. Of the multi-media compound document 8 of FIG. Reference numeral 10 denotes a database, which manages the reference information 11 and the multimedia compound document 12 based on an instruction from the database control unit 9. In addition, a display unit (not shown) is provided, and the retrieved multimedia compound document or the like is displayed on the screen.

Next, an outline of the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, storage of a multimedia compound document will be described. The multimedia compound document received by the communication control unit 1 is expanded in the document buffer 7 by the control unit 2. The communication control unit 1 instructs the execution unit 3 to interpret and execute the multimedia compound document. Next, the language processing unit 4
Thus, the reference information is expanded in the work space 5. The control unit 2 instructs the database control unit 9 to update the reference information 11 in the database after the language processing unit 4 completes the expansion processing of the reference information 6. The update of the reference information 11 can be performed at any time by the user instructing the control unit 2 and can be suppressed.

Next, the logical structure of the reference information 11 in the database 10 will be described. First, in the database 10, the reference information 11 is stored in a structure shown in FIG. Reference 11 mainly is constituted by the object information 24 and multimedia compound document reference information 2 9, it is centrally managed by the multimedia compound document definition information 22 in the multi-media composite each document.
Further, the multimedia compound document definition information 22 is centrally managed by the database management information 20.

[0018] All objects of the multimedia compound document.
Reference relationships between objects are structured in this way. Therefore, the user seeks a reference relationship between any object constituting the multimedia compound document, the object, any other multimedia compound document including the object, and any object in the document. In the case, first, the database management information 2
0, a document definition pointer 21 is obtained, multimedia compound document definition information 22 is obtained from the document definition pointer 21, object information 24 is obtained from the object pointer 23, and an object name 25, a reference attribute 26, and a reference pointer 27 are obtained. Is obtained, the reference attribute information 28 is obtained from the reference attribute 26, and the reference pointer 2
7 to obtain the multimedia compound document reference information 29, and the reference multimedia compound document name 30, the reference object name 31, and the reference destination address 32, thereby obtaining necessary object information and reference information.

As shown in FIG. 3, the object information 24 is centrally managed in the database by the object management information 40 existing in the database management information 20 irrespective of the multimedia compound document including the same.
The object management information 40 includes a plurality of object information pointers.
Object information 4 in which the reference pointer 27 is defined
3 indicates the head of the list, and the object information pointer 4
2 indicates the end of the list of the object information 43 in which the reference pointer 27 is defined. The object information pointer 46 indicates the head of the list of the object information 48 whose reference pointer 27 is undefined, and the object information pointer 47 indicates the end of the list of the object information 48 whose reference pointer 27 is undefined. I have. The defined object information 43 and the undefined object information 48 each include an object name 44 and an object information pointer 45 which is a pointer to a related object. The related object information pointer 45 may be only one or plural.

Also, multimedia compound document reference information 2
9 as well as the object information 24, as shown in FIG.
Regardless of the multimedia compound document that refers to the document, it is centrally managed by the reference information management information 50 existing in the database management information 20. Reference information management information 50
Consists of a plurality of multimedia compound document reference information pointers, and a multimedia compound document reference information pointer 51.
Indicates the head of the list of the multimedia compound document reference information 53, and indicates the multimedia compound document reference information pointer 5.
Reference numeral 2 denotes the end of the list of the multimedia compound document reference information 53. Each multimedia compound document reference information 53 includes a reference multimedia compound document name 54, a reference object name 55, a reference destination address 56, and a multimedia compound document reference information pointer which is a pointer to another multimedia compound document reference information 53. It consists of 57.
This multimedia compound document reference information pointer 57 is
There may be only one case or plural cases. The reference information 6 developed in the work space 5 has substantially the same structure as the reference information 11 in the database.

Next, a search for a multimedia compound document will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, an object reference request from a user is transmitted to the language processing unit 4. If the reference pointer 27 in the object information 24 is undefined (step 61), the language processing unit 4 determines, among the object information managed by the object management information 40, the object information 43 in which the reference pointer 27 is defined. Is searched using the object name as a key (step 62). If there is no matching object name (step 63), a search request is sent to another node on the preset network storing the multimedia document (step 6).
8). If there are a plurality of objects having the same object name (step 64), the information of all the multimedia compound document reference information 29 indicated by the reference pointer 27 defined therein and the reference attribute indicated by the reference attribute 26 The information 28 is presented to the user and a selection is requested (steps 64 and 65). The reference attribute information 28 is information that can be freely set by the multimedia compound document creator with respect to the reference reason, the reference purpose, and the like. After the user's selection processing, it is checked whether or not the selected object information is undefined (step 66). If the object information is undefined, a search request is sent to another node on the network (step 68). If not defined, a search request is made to the reference destination address 32 in the selected multimedia compound document reference information 29 via the communication control unit 1 (step 6).
7). If there is only one multimedia compound document reference information in step 64, a search request is made via the communication control unit 1 without presenting it to the user (step 67). In this way, in the search for the multimedia compound document, the network can be searched without accessing the document data by transmitting and receiving only the reference information by the communication control unit 1.

Next, updating of the reference information 11 in the database 10 by the database control unit 9 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The database control unit 9 registers the reference information 6 specified by the control unit 2 according to the structure in the database 10 described above. Next, in the object information managed by the object management information 40, one object information is extracted from the list of the object information 48 in which the reference pointer 27 is undefined, and
A list of the object information 43 in which the reference pointer 27 is defined by using the object name 44 as a key is searched (steps 71 to 75). If the object information 43 with the matching object name 44 exists in the search list (step 76), the object information is moved from the undefined list to the definition list (step 77), and the multimedia compound document reference information 29 is stored. In addition to the creation, the reference pointer 27 corresponding thereto is updated (step 78).
If there is no object information having the same object name in the definition list, the reference pointer 27 of the multimedia compound document reference information 29 set in advance by the user is set (step 79). The above processing is performed on all object information for which the reference pointer 27 in the object information 24 is undefined. Thus, even if there is undefined information in the reference information input by the communication control unit 11, if the same object has been referenced in the past, the same object is stored as the reference information 11 in the database 10 and can be referred to. Becomes

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to make the reference destination undefined with respect to the reference relationship between multimedia compound documents. In this way, it is possible to perform collaborative work with a user and a multimedia compound document manager, to improve the efficiency of multimedia compound document creation, and to manage sophisticated and flexible multimedia compound documents in a distributed environment.

Furthermore, in searching for an arbitrary multimedia compound document, it is not always necessary to read out the referenced multimedia compound document until the search is completed, so that a large amount of data such as color images and audio data is handled. A sufficient processing speed can be ensured in the multimedia compound document system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a multimedia compound document management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a data structure diagram for explaining a logical structure of reference information in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a data structure diagram for explaining a management structure of object information in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a data structure diagram for explaining a management structure of multimedia compound document reference information in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining reference information search processing in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining reference information updating processing in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Communication control part 2 Control part 3 Execution part 4 Language processing part 5 Work space 6 Reference information 7 Document buffer 8 Multimedia compound document 9 Database control part 10 Database 11 Reference information 12 Multimedia compound document 20 Database management information 21 Document definition pointer 22 Multimedia compound document definition information 23 Object pointer 24 Object information 25 Object name 26 Reference attribute 27 Reference pointer 28 Reference attribute information 29 Multimedia compound document reference information 30 Multimedia compound document name 31 Reference object name 32 Reference address

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-44447 (JP, A) JP-A-7-121427 (JP, A) JP-A-7-219835 (JP, A) JP-A-6-314230 (JP) JP-A-6-251065 (JP, A) JP-A-6-243167 (JP, A) JP-A-5-108459 (JP, A) JP-A-5-20363 (JP, A) 4-340167 (JP, A) JP-A-3-95673 (JP, A) JP-A-3-40173 (JP, A) JP-A-3-34067 (JP, A) U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,344 (US, A) Fujikawa Kazutoshi, Shinji Shimojo, Toshio Matsuura, et al., "Construction of Hyper-Media System Harmony Based on Object Orientation", IEICE Transactions on Electronics, Vol. 11 (November 25, 1992), pp. 1015-1024 Senharu, Tanizaki Masaaki et al., "Dynamic and Step-by-Step Construction Function of Objects and Schemas in HyperText Database System TextLink / Gem", IEICE Technical Report Vol. 527 (DE92-39-42) (March 19, 1993), pp. 1-8 Hiroaki Kasai and Joe Tanaka, "Functional Extension and Synthesis of Links in Hypermedia", Proc. Of the 1993 Informatics Symposium, January 13, 1993, pp. 75-83 Hideyuki Tsutsumi, Toru Terauchi, et al., "Integration of Multimedia by Object-Oriented Database", Information Processing Society of Japan, Vol. 91, No. 93 (91-DBS-86) (November 8, 1991) pp. 27-35 (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/30 180 G06F 17/30 170 G06F 17/30 419 G06F 12/00 547 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A reference relation between an object constituting a multimedia compound document, an arbitrary multimedia compound document including the object, and an arbitrary object in the document is described. A multimedia compound document management system that interprets and executes document data described in a description language capable of interactively searching and referencing multimedia compound documents scattered on a network based on the described reference relationship. , positioned as a reference information defining the reference relationship of objects constituting the multimedia compound document and any object other multimedia compound document and the document containing the object as the object
Only, the display management means for managing independently a language processing means for interpreting and executing the description language, a retrieval means for retrieving multimedia compound document based on the reference information, multimedia compound document retrieved from the document data Display means for
Storage means for storing reference information of a multimedia compound document referred to in the past, and communication means for communicating with individual nodes dispersedly present on a network and transmitting and receiving the multimedia compound document and the reference information The reference information positioned as the object to another
Multimedia compound document management system characterized in that it can be operated independently of objects . 2. The reference information is mainly composed of a name of an arbitrary object constituting the multimedia compound document, and any other multimedia compound document including the object in a reference relationship with the object and in the document. Consists of information that pairs with the name of any object,
The storage means stores the reference information received from the communication means,
2. The multimedia compound document management system according to claim 1, further comprising means for resolving undefined information in the reference information already stored in the storage means with the received reference information. 3. The language processing means, when referring to the multimedia compound document, form a pair with an arbitrary object constituting the multimedia compound document in the reference information received from the communication means. If any other multimedia compound document including the object and any object information in the document is undefined, search the storage means and, if present in the storage means,
A search request is made to a reference destination address storing a multimedia compound document, and when it does not exist in the storage means, an inquiry is made to another node on the network by a predetermined method. 3. The multimedia compound document management system according to claim 2, wherein: 4. Reference information is stored in a storage means, and the storage means is searched in response to a reference and search request from an arbitrary node on a network including its own node received from the communication means. Related information is transmitted to a node, and when the reference information does not exist in the storage means, a reference and search request is made to an arbitrary node on the network by a predetermined method. The multimedia compound document management system according to claim 2 or 3. 5. When there are a plurality of arbitrary objects that mainly constitute a multimedia compound document, an arbitrary multimedia compound document including the object in a reference relationship with the object, and a plurality of arbitrary objects in the document. The feature is that the user can display them all, select any one of the displayed items, and edit the reference relationship such as adding or deleting objects to the reference information. The multimedia compound document management system according to any one of claims 1 to 4.