JPH04230574A - Information management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily classify objects by generating a tree structure management record according to one or more viewpoints for the classification of information and the instruction of the order of the viewpoints and generating a tree structure based on a viewpoint management table and the tree structure management record. CONSTITUTION:An object management system 401 consists of a tree structure generation system 402, a tree structure display/editing system 403, an object display/editing system 404 and an object input system 405. A user inputs whether he wants to define a new tree structure or not, reads out the tree structure management table, displays a summary of a tree structure management record on a display 409 and tells the user to select a tree structure management record he wants to define from them. Then the user selects viewpoints for the classification and their order, registers the viewpoints and the order in the tree structure management table as another tree structure management record, generates a tree structure, classifies the object as the child node of a direct node and completes the process.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information management system for efficiently managing documents such as meeting materials, meeting minutes, design documents, and programs, as well as information such as memos and schedules.

0002

[Prior Art] When organizing documents such as meeting materials, minutes, design documents, programs, memos, schedules, etc. (hereinafter referred to as objects, this information also includes audio and video), cabinets, Sort and organize information hierarchically, such as files and folders. When managing objects on a computer, for example, "Kernigha
As described in "Unix Programming Environment, UNIX Programming Environment," written by N. Pike, supervised translation by Haruhisa Ishida, ASCII Co., Ltd. (1985.10), it is often organized using hierarchical directories in a tree structure. It is suitable for efficiently searching for information categorized in terms of information.In other words, if the target object is not found in the directory being searched, it is easy to search for semantically similar directories (sibling directories in a tree structure). It can be searched.Also, it can be searched in a semantically organized unit (directory unit).
You can process objects with . Furthermore, objects placed in different directories do not cause confusion even if they have the same name. In addition, “Personal Information-on M that can manage amorphous data”
anager, ASCII, Vol. 13, No. 7,
Some categories include objects (items in Agenda), such as Agenda (system name) introduced in "pp313-320, 1989.7".Normally, an object belongs to only one directory. However, in Agenda, items can belong to multiple categories, and the categories themselves can be hierarchical.In this respect, directories differ from categories in Agenda.In this method, users can select the desired category when browsing. Since you can specify the information, you can view the information from various angles.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] This conventional method has the following problems. The structure of UNIX hierarchical directories is not flexible. For example, (1) “Meeting A
If you try to reclassify the information that was classified from the perspective of "information about meeting B, information about meeting B, ..." as (2) "meeting materials, minutes, schedule, ...", the information will be classified from the perspective of (2). You must create a corresponding directory and move the object under that directory. Furthermore,
Once classified based on the viewpoint (2), the same process must be performed again in order to classify based on the viewpoint (1). In the above example, (
It can be classified according to either of the viewpoints 1) and (2), and the viewpoint can be freely selected when referring to it. It is also possible to hierarchize categories. However, the hierarchy cannot be freely changed when referenced. The purpose of the present invention is to enable a user to freely specify the hierarchical structure of directories (categories to which objects belong) when searching for objects, and to enable users to manipulate the relationship between objects and directories to which they belong vertically and horizontally. There is a particular thing.

0004

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention generates a tree structure as shown below. First, in preparation for generating a tree structure, a "viewpoint" is defined as follows. A viewpoint is a set of object attributes. However, one object does not have two or more attributes belonging to one viewpoint at the same time. It is assumed that a plurality of viewpoints can be defined and an order relationship can be defined between these viewpoints. A tree structure is defined as follows based on a set of viewpoints and their order relationship. The tree nodes are directory nodes corresponding to attributes (ie, node name=attribute name) or object nodes corresponding to objects. An object node is a leaf of a tree, and is an object that has all the attributes (=node name) included in the path from the root of the tree to the leaf. That is, descendant objects of a directory node named A have the attribute A. A child node of a node at depth i is an object that does not have an attribute that belongs to the (i+1)th viewpoint or any attribute that belongs to the (i+1)th viewpoint. however,
The depth of a node in the tree is defined as: - Depth of tree root = 0 - Depth of child node of node with depth i = i + 1 (i≧0)
Here, the user can freely change the viewpoint when inputting or referencing an object, the user can freely select the viewpoint used to generate the tree structure, and furthermore, the user can freely change the order of the viewpoints. .

[0005]

[Operation] According to the present invention, since the user can freely define viewpoints, select viewpoints, and define the order of viewpoints when browsing, the user can flexibly change the tree structure desired by the user when searching for objects. can easily classify objects from a desired perspective.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of object classification and operation (insertion, deletion, movement) procedures, and FIG. 2 shows the tree structure generation step (101) in FIG.
3 and 4 are flowcharts showing one example of the details of the first
12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of details of the tree structure editing step (110) in the figure. Further, FIG. 5 shows an example of a system configuration of a system for editing, classifying, and displaying objects, and FIG. 6 shows a list of commands for inputting, classifying, and editing objects. Figure 7 is an example of the structure of an object, Figure 8 is an example of a view management table that manages a set of object attributes (called a view), Figure 9 is an example of a tree structure management table, and Figures 10 and 11 are tree structure tables. This is an example.

In FIG. 5, 401 is an object management system for inputting, classifying, and editing objects;
Tree structure generation system 402, tree structure display/edit system 403, object display/edit system 404, object input system 40
Consists of 5. Further, 406 is a tree structure disk for storing a tree structure, 407 is a view disk for storing a view management table, and 408 is an object disk for storing objects. Also, 409 is a display, 4
A keyboard 10 and a mouse 411 are used for input/output of the object management system 401. Further, 412 is a microphone, and 413 is a VTR, both of which are used for inputting objects.

In FIG. 6, 51 represents a command name, and 52 represents a parameter of the command. Of the commands, 5
01 to 507 are tree structure display/edit commands for inserting, deleting, and moving nodes. Among the tree structure display/edit commands, the inter-node movement command 501 is a command to change the target node (hereinafter referred to as the current node; the initial value of the current node is the root of the tree), and 502 to 504 are directories. Inserting a node/
Commands 505 and 506 for deleting and moving objects are commands for deleting and moving objects. Further, the object input command 507 is input to the microphone 412 or VTR.
An object editing command 508 is a command for inserting the information input from 413 as an object at a position specified by a parameter, and is a command for editing an object or creating a new object. The node name is from the root of the tree,
Or specify by path from the current node.

As shown in FIG. 7, an object 61 has a header 62 as well as a body 63 such as a document. header 62
consists of a list of a finite number of attributes 64. The attribute 64 has an item 65 and an attribute value 66. The header 62 is changed by the tree structure display/edit system 403, and the main body 63 is edited by the object display/edit system 404. As shown in FIG. 8, the viewpoint management table 71 includes an item called "viewpoint name 72" representing the name of a set of attributes, and an item "attribute set 73" representing a set of attributes included in the viewpoint. As shown in FIG. 9, the tree structure management table 81 includes a tree structure ID 82 and a viewpoint order 83.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are examples in which a set of the same objects is classified by changing the order of viewpoints. 95 to 98 in FIGS. 10 and 11 are the viewpoints 74 in FIG.
It is an object that has the attribute "research on XX" included in , and the attribute "meeting material" included in viewpoint 75 in FIG. 10, and 99 "XX material" is
This is an object that does not have any of the attributes included in 4 and 75. A tree 92 in FIG. 10 is an example in which the entire set of objects including 95 to 99 is classified in order of viewpoint 91. In other words, the entire set of objects is viewed from the viewpoint 74
Classified according to ○ research, XX research, △△ committee, □□ education, others}, and further classified according to viewpoint 75 {meeting materials, minutes, research reports, literature, schedule, others}. death,
There are 92 trees when expressed hierarchically. At this time, one object does not have two or more attributes in one viewpoint. That is, 95 is the attribute "XX
It is not possible to have both a ``research'' and a ``△△ committee''. Furthermore, the object 95 has attributes "research on XX" and "meeting materials" included in the path from the root to the leaf of the tree.

In a tree, objects are always leaf nodes of the tree, such as 95 through 98. Further, a node at depth i is either a directory node corresponding to an attribute belonging to the i-th viewpoint, or an object node corresponding to an object in the i-th viewpoint that does not have any attributes. For example, in tree 92, a node at depth 2 is a node that corresponds to an object 99 that does not have an attribute or any of the attributes in second view 75. Also, whether the classification is performed using the viewpoint 74 and then the viewpoint 75, or
The user can specify whether to classify by the viewpoint 74 first and then by the viewpoint 74. The trees generated in the former order are tree 92 in FIG.
A tree generated in the latter order is tree 94 in FIG.

Next, the procedure for classifying and manipulating objects (inserting, deleting, moving) will be explained. First, a tree structure is generated according to the procedure shown in FIG. 2 (101), and one of the commands shown in FIG. 6 is input (102). If the command is the end command 509 (FIG. 6) (103), the process ends. Otherwise (103), if the command is the object input command 507 (FIG. 6) (104), the contents 63 of the object 61 shown in FIG. 7 are input by the object input system 405 (FIG. 5) (105), and the object 61 header 62 is generated (106), the object 61 is stored in the object disk 408 (FIG. 5) (107), and the process returns to step 102. Otherwise (1
04), object editing command 508 (Fig. 6) (108), object display/editing system 404 (Fig.
) to edit the object (109) Step 1
Return to 02. If not (108), the tree structure is edited according to the procedure shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 (110), and the process returns to step 102. In the header generation step of 106, when the user inputs an object into an appropriate group in an appropriate hierarchy of a pre-specified hierarchical structure, the header generated by the object is included in the path between the directory node where the object is inserted and the root of the tree structure. The list of attributes (=node names) is used as the header.

Next, tree structure generation step 1 in FIG.
The details of 01 will be explained using FIG. Note that the following processing is performed by the tree structure generation system 402 (FIG. 5). First, the user is asked to input whether or not to define a new tree structure (201), and if a new tree structure is not defined (202), the tree structure management table 81 (
9) is read and a list of tree structure management records is displayed on the display 409 (203), the user is allowed to select a tree structure management record (204), and the process of step 212 is performed. If not (202), the viewpoint management table 71 (
8) is read and a list of viewpoints is displayed on the display 409 (FIG. 5) (205), the user is asked to input whether all desired viewpoints have been defined (206), and if all desired viewpoints are not defined ( 207), input a new set of attributes to be used as a viewpoint and a viewpoint name (210), and register it in the viewpoint management table 71 (210).
11), return to step 205. If not (2
07), the user selects the viewpoint and its order to be used for classification (208), registers the viewpoint and order as a tree structure management record in the tree structure management table (Fig. 9) 81 (209), and generates the tree structure. (212), and let the object be a child node (object node) of the appropriate directory node (
213), the process ends.

When generating the tree structure in step 212,
Child node of node with node depth i (i≧0) is i+1
Generate a tree that becomes the attribute (=node name) of the th viewpoint. Further, in step 213, an object node is inserted so that an object including all the attributes (=node name) included in the path from the root to the directory node becomes a descendant of the directory node.

Next, tree structure editing step 1 in FIG.
10 will be explained in detail using FIGS. 3 and 4. Note that the following processing is performed by the tree structure display/edit system 403 (FIG. 5). First, if the command input in step 102 of FIG. 1 is the inter-node movement command 501 (FIG. 6) (301), the parameter of the command is set to the current node (302), and the process ends. Otherwise (301), if it is the directory node insertion command 502 (303), the parameters of the command are inserted into the tree as child nodes of the current node (304), and the parameters of the command are inserted as the elements of the viewpoint corresponding to the depth of the child node. A node name (=attribute) as a parameter is added (305), and the process ends. Otherwise, (30
3), with the directory node deletion command 503 (30
6) If the node specified by the parameter has a child node (307), an error message is displayed (308).
), the process ends. Otherwise (307), the node specified by the parameter is deleted (310) and the process ends.

Otherwise (306), if the directory node move command 504 is used (311), the subtree whose root is the node specified by the first parameter is made a descendant of the node specified by the second parameter (312). , changes the header of the descendant object of the moved directory node (313), and ends the process. Otherwise (311
), if it is the object deletion command 505 (314)
, delete the attributes included in the path from the root to the object from the object's header (315), and if the object's header does not become an empty list (316)
, if you end the process and end up with an empty list (31
6), deletes the object (317), and ends the process. Otherwise (314), the object node specified by the first parameter of the object node movement command is made a child node of the directory node specified by the second parameter (318), and the path from the root of the tree to the object node before movement is The attribute (=node name) included in is deleted from the header (319), the attribute (=node name) included in the path from the root of the tree to the object node after movement is inserted into the header (320), and the process ends. do. Note that the node name may be a combination of multiple attributes. Also, the i-th directory is not necessarily all i+1
There is no need to classify based on the second perspective.

Note that one of the tree structure management records (specified by the user) in the tree structure management table in FIG. , which the user may prepare in advance), and if the user does not select anything in step 204 in FIG. 2, the default tree may be used as the target. By increasing the number of layers in the default tree, an object can have more attributes when inputting the object, and by reducing the number of layers, the effort required to classify the object during input can be reduced. This can be freely selected by the user depending on the purpose. In addition, when displaying a list of current nodes, Figure 10
``Directory nodes that do not have a child node (grandchild node of the current node) may be set not to be displayed'' so that the child node of □□Education in 92 does not contain meeting materials, minutes, research reports, or patents. According to this embodiment, since the system stores frequently used tree structure management records, there is no need to generate tree structure management records every time a search is performed. Note that the object display/edit system 40 shown in FIG.
4. As the object input system 405, a conventionally known system may be applied, so a description thereof will be omitted.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 12 is a part of a flowchart showing an embodiment of object classification and operation (insertion, deletion, movement) procedures, and is a step for automatically adding attributes to objects. Step 1 in Figure 1
06 and after step 109. Further, FIG. 13 is an example of an attribute/condition management table that manages sets of attributes and conditions. In FIG. 13, the attribute/condition management table 10 consists of two items: an attribute 11 and a condition 12. Rows 13 to 16 of the management table 10 are examples of combinations of attributes and conditions. 13 indicates that an object whose input device is the VTR 413 has the attribute of moving image, 14 indicates that the object whose input device is the microphone 412 has the attribute of audio, and 15 indicates that the input device is the keyboard 410.
The object 16 has an attribute of text, and the object 16 has the attribute "minutes" or "16" in the first line of the object.
The character string "Meeting minutes" indicates that the object has the attribute of minutes. Next, the procedure for automatically defining the attributes of an object will be explained using FIG. 12. First, if all conditions 12 in the management table 10 have been verified (1101), the process ends. Otherwise (1101), focus on one unmatched condition, and if the object matches that condition (1102), add attribute 11 paired with that condition to the object header (1103), and is moved to an appropriate node in the tree structure (1104), and the process returns to step 1101. Otherwise (1102), the process returns to step 1101 without doing anything. Step 1104
Now, move the object to the position where all the attributes included in the path between the object node and the root of the tree structure are included and the length of the path is the longest. According to this embodiment, since the system automatically defines attributes for objects, it is possible to reduce the user's effort for classification.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 14 is a part of a flowchart showing an example of details of the tree structure generation step (101) in FIG. 1, which is a step in which the system automatically determines the order of viewpoints. It is inserted between step 208 and step 209 in FIG. Further, FIG. 15 is an example of an attribute/viewpoint management table representing a set of attributes and viewpoints that should be child nodes of the attributes. As shown in FIG. 15, the attribute/viewpoint management table 31 consists of two items: an attribute 32 and a viewpoint 33. The procedure for automatically defining the order of viewpoints will be described below using FIG. 14. First, if all attributes in the selected viewpoint have been processed (1201), the process ends. Otherwise (1201), if the attribute is in the management table 31 (1202)
, the management table 3 as the next view after the view including the attribute 32.
1 selects the viewpoint 33 paired with that attribute 32 (1
203), return to step 1201. If not (1202), the process returns to step 1201 without doing anything. According to this embodiment, since the system automatically determines the next viewpoint for a certain attribute in a certain viewpoint, it is possible to reduce the effort on the part of the user to define a tree structure management record.

[0020]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when organizing documents such as meeting materials, meeting minutes, design documents, programs, memos, schedules, and other information in a tree structure, it is possible to The tree structure can be flexibly changed when searching for objects, and objects can be easily classified from the user's desired viewpoint.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of an object classification and operation (insertion, deletion, movement) procedure.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of details of the tree structure generation step (101) in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a part of a flowchart showing an example of details of the tree structure editing step (110) in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is another part of a flowchart showing an example of details of the tree structure editing step (110) in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an example of a system configuration of a system for editing, classifying, and displaying objects.

FIG. 6 is a list of commands for inputting, classifying, and editing objects.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the structure of an object.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a view management table that manages a set of object attributes (referred to as a view).

FIG. 9 shows an example of a tree structure management table.

FIG. 10 shows an example of displaying a tree structure.

FIG. 11 shows another example of displaying a tree structure.

[Figure 12] Object classification and operations (insertion, deletion,
2 shows a portion of a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure (transfer);

FIG. 13 is an example of an attribute/condition management table that manages sets of attributes and conditions.

14 is a part of a flowchart showing an example of details of the tree structure generation step (101) in FIG. 1; FIG.

FIG. 15 is an example of an attribute/viewpoint management table representing a set of attributes and views that should be child nodes of the attributes.

[Explanation of symbols]

401 Object management system 402 Tree structure generation system 403 Tree structure display/editing system 404 Object display/editing system 405 Object input system 406 Disc for wooden structure 407 Viewpoint disc 408 Object disk 409 Display 410 Keyboard 411 Mouse 412 Microphone 413 VTR 61 Object, 62 Header 63 Main body 71 Viewpoint management table 81 Tree structure management table 10 Attribute/condition management table 31 Attribute/viewpoint management table

Claims (5)

[Claims] Claim 1: An input device, an output device, a processing device, and a storage device, each of which has a plurality of input information having two or more attributes, and which one of the set of attributes does the information have? In an information management system that organizes and manages information hierarchically, such as classifying information into several groups based on the attributes of the group, and further classifying information within a group into several groups based on another set of attributes, the processing device is a means for creating and registering a viewpoint management table in response to input of a set of attributes serving as a viewpoint and a viewpoint name of the viewpoint, and a method for managing a tree structure in accordance with the specification of one or more viewpoints used for classifying information and their order. means for creating a record and registering it in a tree structure management table, and means for generating a tree structure based on the viewpoint management table and the tree structure management record, and making the input information a child node of an appropriate directory node in the tree structure. An information management system comprising: 2. The information management system according to claim 1, wherein when a user inputs information into an appropriate group in an appropriate layer of a pre-designated hierarchical structure, the processing device An information management system characterized by comprising means for causing the information to have an attribute included in a path from the root of a tree representing the information to the information. 3. An input device, an output device, a processing device, and a storage device, each of which has a plurality of input information having two or more attributes, and which one of the set of attributes does the information have? In an information management system that organizes and manages information in a hierarchical manner, such as classifying information into several groups based on attributes, and further classifying information within a group into several groups based on another set of attributes, the storage device stores an attribute/condition management table having one or more pairs of the attribute and a condition for the information to have the attribute, and when inputting information, the processing device stores the input information and the attribute/condition management table. Information characterized by comprising means for collating a table, determining which condition the information satisfies or not, and automatically giving the information an attribute that is paired with the condition the information satisfies. management system. 4. An input device, an output device, a processing device, and a storage device, each of which has a plurality of input information having two or more attributes, and which one of the set of attributes does the information have? In an information management system that organizes and manages information in a hierarchical manner, such as classifying information into several groups based on attributes, and further classifying information within a group into several groups based on another set of attributes, the storage device stores an attribute/viewpoint management table having one or more pairs of attributes and views to be child nodes of the attributes, and the processing device stores:
Means for creating and registering a viewpoint management table in response to input of a set of attributes serving as a viewpoint and a viewpoint name of the viewpoint; and means for creating and registering a viewpoint management table in response to input of a set of attributes serving as a viewpoint and a viewpoint name of the viewpoint; Means for collating tables to obtain a viewpoint that should be a child node paired with an attribute that matches the attribute, and repeating the operation to create a tree structure management record and register it in a tree structure management table; An information management system comprising means for generating a tree structure based on the viewpoint management table and the tree structure management record, and making the inputted information a child node of an appropriate directory node in the tree structure. 5. The information management system according to claim 1, claim 2, or claim 4, wherein the tree structure management table in which the created tree structure management record is registered is stored in the storage device, and the tree structure management table in which the created tree structure management record is registered is stored in the storage device, and An information management system characterized in that a tree structure management record can be freely selected from a stored tree structure management table in accordance with an instruction from a tree structure management table.