JP2002288029A - Document managing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document managing system capable of updating a document at real time by plural users. SOLUTION: In this document managing system wherein a client computer and a server computer are connected, the client computer manages an updated area in a predetermined document as an exclusive area that can not be updated by another client computer. The server computer detects a case when the exclusive area is repeatedly updated by plural client computers, that is, in a case of the double registration, and the shared document managed by the server computer can be simultaneously updated by plural client computers by marking in the case of double registration.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a document management system capable of updating a shared document in real time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional methods of updating a shared document by a plurality of users are roughly classified into the following two methods. A method in which exclusive control of a document is not performed and the content of the last saved document is the latest content of the document. In other words, a method that does not maintain the consistency of the document contents. A method for exclusive control of documents. In other words, a method that prevents a user from opening a document in the update mode while a user opens the document in the update mode. This updating method may be provided by the OS or by application software. Mechanism in the former case (hereinafter referred to as document exclusive control mechanism)
Is provided by a file system provided as a standard in the OS. An example of the latter document exclusive control mechanism is U
RCS, which is version control software of NIX (registered trademark), may be mentioned. In this application, when you update a document, you check out from RCS,
Check in to S. The document update operation is exclusively controlled by such a check-in / check-out mechanism to maintain document consistency.

A conventional document management system employs the above-described exclusive control mechanism in order to maintain consistency of document contents, and does not permit a plurality of users to simultaneously update a managed document. In other words, a document that is being updated by a certain user is prohibited from being updated by another user. Therefore, the consistency of the shared document can be maintained, but the real-time update cannot be provided.

Here, the real-time property of the update will be described with reference to FIG. When the above-described exclusive control mechanism is employed, while the user A is updating the shared document, the user B is in a standby state for the update work. The above mechanism (method)
If user A and user B can update each other, for example, if A updates first and B updates later, the updated content of A does not remain as a shared document. That is, the data downloaded by B for updating (for making a change) does not include the updated contents of A. Then, after the user A updates the data including only the update content of B in the data not including the update content of A, the data is updated. Therefore, the changes (updates) made by the user A are not finally reflected (not included) in the shared data.

[0005] Therefore, if the degree of importance or urgency is higher than the content of the update of the user A, the user B needs to stop the update work of the user A by some means. That is, it is necessary to acquire the authority to update the shared document from the user A. Thus, the user B needs to wait until the update work of the user A ends. Alternatively, in order to end the update work of the user A, the degree of importance or urgency of the update content is determined, and extremely complicated and enormous work is required, such as requesting the user A to stop the update work.

On the other hand, in the prior art described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-137852, a person who updates a document is restricted by a password. Further, according to the prior art described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-250360, an attempt is made to solve the problem of updating a shared document by performing exclusion processing in chapter units.

[0007]

However, if a document updater is restricted by a password, the openness of the document itself is lost. Further, if a password must be entered every time updating is performed, the updating operation becomes complicated. Further, when the exclusion process is performed in chapter units, the frequency of waiting for the editor increases, and real-time performance cannot be obtained.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a document management system in which a plurality of users can update a document in real time.

[0009]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document management system in which a client computer and a server computer are connected to each other. The update area in a predetermined document is managed as an exclusive area that cannot be updated by another client computer, and the server computer detects a case where the exclusive area is updated redundantly by a plurality of client computers, that is, a case where the exclusive area is double registered. In the case of double registration, the shared document managed by the server computer can be simultaneously updated by a plurality of client computers by marking.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the document management system according to the first aspect, the exclusive area is defined by a word, a phrase,
It is characterized by being managed by exclusive units including sentences and paragraphs.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the document management system according to the first or second aspect, an optimal exclusion unit in which contention of exclusion areas during update is less likely to occur is selected.

[0012] The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claims 1 to 3.
In the document management system according to any one of the above, the server computer manages the client computers by client IDs, and manages an update history for each client ID.

[0013] The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claims 1 to 4.
In the document management system according to any one of the above, the server computer marks the area when a predetermined area in the document is updated a plurality of times by a different client computer within a predetermined time, and further marks the area. A method for determining the update content is presented.

[0014] The invention according to claim 6 is the invention according to claims 1 to 5.
In the document management system according to any one of the above, when the client computer browses the shared document using a browser, when the document is updated, the document displayed on the browser is updated to the latest content. Is displayed.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A document management system according to the present invention is a client-server type document management system, and particularly relates to a document editing function section and a management function section and has the following features.

In this document management system, a plurality of users (document editors) can simultaneously open and edit (update) a shared document managed by the document management server. More specifically, an area where another document editor is editing is set as an exclusive area, and updating other than the exclusive area is enabled. That is, the document management server manages the shared document for each exclusive unit.

An exclusive unit can be provided for each word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, and the like. For example, when an exclusive unit is set for each paragraph, a paragraph edited by one document editor cannot be changed by another document editor. Other document editors can edit other paragraphs. As the exclusion unit, any of the above-described units can be arbitrarily adopted, but it is preferable to select a unit that is optimal for the system environment, such as a unit in which competition of exclusive regions does not occur as much as possible.

The exclusive unit may be changed to "dynamic". For example, the unit is usually “paragraph”, and the unit is “sentence” when a plurality of persons edit the paragraph. If more than one person edits one "sentence", "phrase"
When a plurality of persons edit one “phrase”, “word” may be used as a unit. Then, if a conflict occurs in the smallest unit ("word" unit in this example),
Only those who have the right to edit the location can edit and update. For example, when "word" is adopted as the minimum unit, and there is a person editing the "word",
Other users are not allowed to edit the “word”.

Words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and the like are recognized by a morphological analyzer of the document management system. The document management system may exist on the document management client side or on the document management server side. The exclusive area is preferably automatically marked by the system when an editor other than the user edits the document. In other words, the document management server monitors the document management client editing (viewing) the shared document or browsing the shared document, and grasps the exclusive area where each client is editing. Then, the exclusive area edited by one client is prevented from being edited by another client. At this time, it is preferable to notify the document editor using the other client that the document cannot be edited. As this notification method,
A method of displaying the exclusive area in the shared document in a format different from that of the other areas or attaching a specific marking can be adopted. For example, an example of marking when an exclusive area is set for each “paragraph” is shown below. (First paragraph) ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ (second paragraph) ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ (third paragraph) ※ ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ (fourth paragraph) ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Indicates that the third paragraph is being edited by another client. Therefore, the user presented with such data can edit lines other than the third paragraph. As described above, when another user wants to edit the third paragraph, the unit of the exclusive area is a unit smaller (smaller) than the “paragraph”, for example, “sentence”.
It may be changed to, for example.

Further, the document management system according to the present invention comprises:
When the document content is updated and saved, the display content of the document viewer is automatically updated. That is, the latest document content is always displayed. That is, the document management server displays the contents of the exclusive area edited and updated by one document management client to another document management client. According to the above example, when the document editing in one document management client is completed and updated and stored, the updated third paragraph is displayed on another document client. In addition, it is preferable that the updated area be marked with a marking or the like for a predetermined period after the update to alert the viewer. For example, when the third paragraph is updated in the above example, the server can notify the user of the updated location by attaching a marking “*” indicating that the third paragraph has been updated as described below. (1st paragraph) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (2nd paragraph) XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (3rd paragraph) * ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ (4th paragraph) ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

When an area updated by a certain document editor is updated by another editor within a predetermined period after the area is updated, the area is set as a volatile area, that is, an area whose contents are fluid. May be. Then, this area is an area where the work of determining the update content is required. In other words, the volatile area remains in the state of the volatile area until the update content is determined. The viewer can refer to a plurality of updated contents of the Volatile area. The contents of the Volatile area are as follows: Vote (voting by majority) and Debate (e-mail of document updaters).
a discussion by an aile or the like or an offline discussion).

That is, during a predetermined period after the data is updated, the data is displayed with markings or the like so that the update can be recognized at a glance without confirming the contents of the area. Then, after a predetermined period has elapsed since the data was updated, if the content of the area is determined, users other than the editor can also grasp that the data has been updated. That is, if there is no correction or the like within this period, it can be treated that the editorial consent to the updated contents has been obtained. Also, if the same part is updated by another user within a predetermined period after one data is updated, all users discuss which update content to adopt (majority decision, discussion, etc.).
In this case, only data approved by all users can be adopted.

The update history of a document is managed on an exclusive basis.
When a document is updated and registered in the document management system, the exclusive area is managed as a difference between the new and old documents (version management). The exclusive area also includes the updater information as additional information. That is,
When one exclusive area is updated, the contents before the update are not deleted but managed as a deletion history (change history). Therefore, the user can grasp the data before the update even after the update. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, an outline up to the start of the document editing operation in the document management client 20 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the document management system of the present invention. The document editor specifies a document to be edited via the user interface unit 201 of the document management client 20. User interface unit 201
Transmits a search request for the specified document to the document search unit 203.

When the requested document is a local document (a document managed on the client side), the document search unit 203 searches the local document management database 23. If the requested document is a document (shared document) managed by the document management server 21, a search request is issued to the document management server 21 via the communication unit 205 with the document server 21. Upon receiving the search request, the document search unit 211 of the document management server 21 searches the document database 24 for the requested document. Then, the search result is stored in the document management client 20.
Pass to. Upon receiving the search result, the document management client 20 presents the search result to the user via the user interface unit 201.

The document editor selects a target document from the search results and requests the document management system (document management client / server) to retrieve the document. The document management server 21 stores the requested document in the document database 2
Remove from 4. Then, it is presented to the user via the document I / O unit 204. When editing a document, the data is written into an editing buffer.

Next, the exclusive area management will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the editing unit of the document management client. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation related to editing a shared document.

The exclusive area management daemon 32 of the document management client 20 manages the exclusive area. The exclusive area management daemon 32 resides on the memory and monitors the document being edited for each paragraph. Here, a paragraph is a line feed code (C
R, LF) to immediately before the line feed code. The update position of the document content is represented by a paragraph number and an offset position from the head of the paragraph, and is recorded in an exclusive unit (word, phrase, sentence, paragraph). As described above, the area to be monitored (exclusive area) may be managed in another unit.

For example, the exclusive area management daemon 32 creates an internal table as shown in Table 1 below, and manages document update contents. In terms of implementation, an appropriate data structure (for example, a tree structure or the like) is used from the efficiency of search, reference, update, and the like of update contents.

[0030]

[Table 1]

Editing of a shared document when the following sentence exists in paragraph number 11 of a document will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Let's go fishing tomorrow. Will it rain tomorrow? → Example sentence 1 When the editor starts changing this sentence (step S401), the editing unit 31 sends a notification of the start of change to the exclusive area management daemon 32.
Send to The exclusive area management daemon 32 copies the sentence including the change start position from the editing buffer, passes the copy to the morphological analysis unit 33, and requests morphological analysis. The morphological analysis unit 33 analyzes the sentence and divides the sentence into word units and phrase units.
The result is returned to the exclusive area management daemon 32.

When the editor changes the character string “rain” starting at the offset 0x0000001c byte from the beginning of paragraph 11 to “clear” in the example sentence 1, as shown in the third record from the top of the internal table in Table 1, Become. In the update length field, 4 is the byte string length of "sunny".
Is recorded as the update date and time, and the date and time when editing of the exclusive unit is completed (in this case, the date and time when rewriting of “rain” to “clear” is completed) is recorded.

At the moment when the character string "rain" is changed,
The exclusive area management daemon 32 determines the paragraph number, the offset from the head of the paragraph, the exclusion unit, word division of the sentence including the exclusion unit (position information of the beginning and end of the word), and phrase division information (position information of the beginning and end of the phrase). ) Is notified to the document management server 21 (step S402).

When the document management server 21 receives the exclusive area information, the client ID and the document I
Information is registered in the internal table (FIG. 6) to which the D field has been added (step S403). FIG. 6 shows an example of the exclusive area management internal table of the document management server.

Here, one record is divided into a client-specific field and a common field. The common field is divided into sub-fields including a paragraph number, an update count, a document ID, and an area attribute. The client-specific fields include an offset from the head of the paragraph, an exclusion unit, an update date,
It is divided into subfields of a character string, an update length, a client ID, and an Active flag.

Exclusive area management unit 21 of document management server 21
2. When registering the area update information in the internal table, the exclusive area management internal table checks whether the update area is already being updated by another client (step S404). In case of double registration (Step S
404 / YES), the client ID of which the update has been notified this time is added to the client-specific field of FIG. 6 (the client-specific field is a linked list), and the corresponding exclusive area of the editing screen of the client ID is set to (document). Exclusive area of management server, paragraph number of management internal table, offset from paragraph head, exclusive unit, word number including exclusive unit, offset from paragraph head, word division including exclusive unit, exclusive unit, word division, phrase (Based on division information).

The double registration check of a record is performed based on an offset field from the beginning of a paragraph, division information of words constituting a sentence, and an exclusive unit. In other words, if there is an overlap in the update area, double registration is performed. Step S4
In the case of 04 / NO, the exclusive area management daemon 32 notifies the editing unit 31 that the updated portion does not appear in the exclusive area, and the normal document update processing is performed (step S405).

When double registration occurs on the exclusive area management internal table of the document management server 21 (step S404 /
YES), the document management server 21 instructs the document management client 20 to mark the relevant portion (step S406), and the document management client 20 performs the following marking on the relevant portion (step S406).
407).

If the exclusive unit is a word (step S408 / YES), the Active flag is turned on (step S409), and other users cannot edit. In the case of another exclusive unit (step S408 / N
O), editing is possible only by marking.

Let's go fishing tomorrow. Will it rain tomorrow? → Example sentence 1 When the editor finishes editing the exclusive unit (step S4
(10 / YES, 411 / YES), if the exclusive unit is a word (step S410 / YES), the Active flag in the client-specific field of the corresponding record in the exclusive area management internal table of the document management server is turned off (step S412). ), The exclusive area is unlocked,
Other clients can edit the area.

If only one user is editing the shared document (step S413 / NO), the document management system deletes the marking of the changed location (step S4).
14). Thereafter, the area is monitored, and area update information is notified to the document management server 21. The change location is monitored by the exclusive area management daemon 32 existing on the document management client 20 side. If there is another editor of the shared document (step S413 / YES), the process ends without deleting the marking.

When an area updated by a certain document editor is updated by another editor within a predetermined time, the area becomes Vola.
It becomes a tile area (an area where the contents are fluid). Next, a description will be given of a process regarding this Volatile area. If the update time field of the exclusive area management internal table of the document management server 21 has been updated a plurality of times by a different user within a predetermined time, the update area is set to the Volatile area.

The Volatile area is set for each paragraph including the update area. The update count is counted when the update is performed by a different client ID (if the same client ID is used, the update count is not counted). The predetermined time can be determined only by a document creator or an authorized person. Unless otherwise specified, system defaults apply. In order to solve Volatile area, Vote (voting by majority) and Debate
(Discussion by e-mail or the like of document updaters or discussion by offline).

When the Volatile area occurs, the Volatile area on the editing screen of the document management client is marked. When the mouse cursor is over the Volatile area and the right mouse button is single-clicked, a menu as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed, and the user can make a selection.

When "Vote" is selected, a sub-menu appears and "O", "X" and "△" are selected.

O indicates that the user agrees with the contents of the update area. X indicates that they do not agree. Δ indicates that either is acceptable.

When the user selects "Debate", the editor selects e-
This would mean that you want a mail or offline discussion. As a result of the Vote, if there is even one X, the mode becomes the Debat mode, and if there is even one editor who desires the Debat, the mode becomes the Debat mode. In the present embodiment, the setting is made as described above, but this setting may be arbitrarily changed.

Next, selection of an exclusive unit will be described.
In the document management system of the present invention, the exclusive unit is changed according to the situation so that no conflict occurs. Exclusive units are classified according to the size of the area. Usually, the exclusive unit is a paragraph, but when a conflict occurs, it is changed to a sentence unit.

When a conflict occurs even in a sentence unit, it is changed to a phrase unit. When a conflict occurs even in phrase units, it is changed to word units. When a word becomes the minimum exclusion unit and a conflict occurs, the user cannot edit (a region other than the word portion can be edited).

Next, the reflection of the updated contents in the document management system of the present invention will be described. In the document management system of the present invention, even when a browser that has opened a document before being updated, the content is automatically updated after the update of the document. Since the update area is marked for a predetermined period of time, the user can confirm the changed portion.

At the time of document storage (when an update area is determined), the exclusive area management daemon 32 of the document management client 20
The change area is notified to the document management server 21. The document management server 21 notifies the exclusive area management daemon 32 of the document management client 20 browsing the document of the change. When the exclusive area management daemon 32 notifies the browser of the document of the location of the changed area, the browser changes the corresponding area with the notified change content and marks the area.

Next, a security problem will be described. According to the document management system of the present invention, the change history is
It is recorded in the exclusive area management table on the server side together with the user ID so that a malicious user cannot intentionally falsify it. Therefore, by looking at the change history, it becomes clear who changed the content, when, and what kind of content, so that malicious tampering can be prevented.

[0053]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the document management system of the present invention, the real-time property of updating a shared document can be improved.

According to the document management system of the present invention, the user can always refer to the latest contents of the document.

Further, according to the document management system of the present invention, when a plurality of users update the same place within a predetermined time, it is possible to determine the optimum update content. Therefore, the consistency of the document contents can be improved.

The document management system of the present invention manages the update history of the exclusive area for each updater. Therefore, it is possible to return to the pre-update state for each updater.

According to the document management system of the present invention, when a document is opened in the browsing mode by the browser, the updated content is displayed without reopening the document. Therefore, the user can always browse the latest information.

Further, according to the document management system of the present invention, a frequently updated document updated in minutes or seconds (for example, comments from the head office management section on sales data of convenience stores that are being deployed nationwide) And
Or, additional information by local store employees can be kept up to date at any time, and the user can browse necessary information in a timely manner.

According to the document management system of the present invention, the change history is recorded together with the user ID in the exclusive area management table on the server side so that a malicious user cannot intentionally falsify. Therefore, by looking at the change history, it becomes clear who changed the content, when, and what kind of content, so that malicious tampering can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a situation in which real-time properties are lost in a document update process.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a document management system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an editing unit of the document management client.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation related to editing of a shared document.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a selection menu in a Volatile area.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an exclusive area management internal table of the document management server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 20 Document management client 201 User interface unit 202 Document display unit 203 Document search unit 204 Document I / O unit 205 Communication unit with document server 206 Document editing unit 21 Document management server 211 Document search unit 212 Exclusive area management unit 22 Local document database 23 Document database 31 Editing unit 32 Exclusive area management daemon 33 Morphological analysis unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A document management system in which a client computer and a server computer are connected, wherein the client computer manages an update area in a predetermined document as an exclusive area that cannot be updated by another client computer, and the server computer Wherein the exclusive area is marked when it is updated by a plurality of client computers in an overlapping manner. 2. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the exclusive area is managed by an exclusive unit including a word, a phrase, a sentence, and a paragraph. 3. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein an optimum exclusion unit in which competition of the exclusion areas is less likely to occur at the time of updating is selected. 4. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the server computer manages the client computer by a client ID, and manages an update history for each ID. . 5. The server computer according to claim 1, wherein when a predetermined area in the document is updated a plurality of times by a different client computer within a predetermined time, the server computer marks the area, and further updates the content of the area. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein a method for determining is provided. 6. When the client computer is browsing the shared document using a browser, when the document is updated, the document displayed on the browser is updated to the latest content and displayed. The document management system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: