JP2003288365A - Additive information management method and additive information management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an additive information management method and an additive information management system capable of separately managing original information and additive information and easily managing the relation between the both to enable an efficient retrieval or extraction of information. <P>SOLUTION: A structured original document and the additive information to be added to the original document are managed on individual structured databases having hierarchized logic structures, respectively. The hierarchized logic structure of each structured database is made mutually equal, thereby, the positions on each structured database of the original document and the additive information are made to correspond to each other, so that either one can be easily referred to from the other. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structured information management system for managing structured information in a structured database having a hierarchical logical structure, and more particularly to a plurality of different managed structured information management systems. The present invention relates to an additional information management method and an additional information management system for managing additional information representing impressions and impressions of information in association with its structured information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in the conventional document management method, since a method of collectively managing a large amount of information is mainly used, there is a problem in efficiency in utilizing the information.

Therefore, in recent years, among the know-how and company data held by a specific individual or department, those that are important for the management of the company are accumulated and used as "management assets", that is, knowledge management. Has been proposed.

The technology expected as the core technology of this knowledge management is XML (eXtensible M
arkup Language). XML is a standard document description language with flexible usability and cooperation, and is supported by major vendors.

The XML database manages the respective constituent elements of a plurality of structured documents under management as constituent elements constituting the document structure of one huge structured document.
It has a hierarchical data structure on the tree specialized for ML.

When the XML database structured in this way is used for knowledge management,
It is necessary to register more information in order to accumulate the information held by a specific individual or department, which is a characteristic of knowledge management. Therefore, the burden of the administrator on the information registration becomes very heavy, and the efficiency is lowered.

However, if information registration or management is opened to the user in order to reduce the burden on the administrator, there is a problem in terms of safety such as damage to the database.

As a solution to this problem, a method of managing data registered by an administrator as original information and managing data registered by a user as additional information is considered. However, in this case, in order to separately manage the original information and the additional information added to the original information, it is necessary to manage the information indicating the mutual relationship between the two pieces of information. The management of this information depends on the administrator and becomes extremely complicated in proportion to the amount of additional information.

As a known technique, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-175 is available.
In the document management system described in Japanese Patent No. 649, the additional data management unit associates the additional data attached to an arbitrary area of the document managed by the document management unit with the document, and creates the additional data. It manages each.

When a reference request is received from the user,
The page of the requested document is taken out from the document management unit, and the additional data associated with the document is taken out from the additional data management unit. At this time, it is possible to restrict the additional data to be extracted according to the user who has requested the reference or the setting of the user.

In this patent, since the document and the additional data added to this document are managed on the same database, it is necessary to manage the information so that each one refers to the other, and the management is complicated. The problem arises that

Further, in the method of sharing personal additional information to an online document described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-22749, a tagged online document is targeted,
The document ID to which the personal additional information is added, the sequential number of the tag, the target character string, and the type and content thereof are managed together.

Next, a personal addition sheet for collectively managing a plurality of personal additional information for each user is introduced. Then, for each sheet, the ID of the user who created the sheet
And the access conditions of the sheet to other users are managed together with the document ID and the above-mentioned personal additional information. When another user newly adds the personal additional information to the existing sheet, the attachment destination is uniquely determined by the ID of the existing sheet instead of the document ID.

In this patent, since the additional information added to the document is managed for each user, it is necessary to charge the database when referring to the information of other users, and the processing is slow. The problem arises.

Further, in the content and additional information management system and the content and additional information display system managed by the system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-40258, the content stored in the database and The target is a management system that manages additional information given to contents.

Then, a content set designating means for designating a plurality of contents as a content set, a content set management means for managing a content set consisting of a plurality of contents designated by the content set designating means, The additional information management means for managing the provided additional information is provided so that the additional information given to each content belonging to the content set managed by the content set management means can be specified.

In this patent, since the additional information is not in a one-to-one correspondence format with respect to the documents, it is necessary to separately manage the information indicating the relationship between each document and the additional information associated with a plurality of documents. Therefore, there arises a problem that the management is complicated.

[0018]

As described above, when the original information and the additional information added to this original information are stored and managed in the database, the additional information is integrated with the original information and managed. In this case, although it is easy to refer to the corresponding additional information from the original information, the reliability of the original information is likely to be impaired, and it is difficult to ensure the security of the database.

There is also a method of separately managing the original information and the additional information, but it is necessary to manage the information for associating the original information and the additional information with each other. There is a problem that the burden on the administrator increases and the convenience is impaired. Further, when the amount of additional information is large, it becomes complicated to organize them, and there is a disadvantage that it takes a long time to search and extract information.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and the original information and the additional information can be managed separately, and moreover, the mutual relationship between the two can be easily managed, resulting in efficient information. It is an object of the present invention to provide an extremely good additional information management method and additional information management system that enables the search and extraction of.

[0021]

The present invention has the following solutions to the above-mentioned conventional problems. That is, the original information and the additional information added to this original information are managed on separate databases, and the structures of the databases are made identical to each other. Make sure the location of information is known. Therefore, information management for associating the original information with the additional information is not necessary.

The additional information with respect to the original information internally holds all the information of other users. Therefore, the position can be easily specified, and the other user information can be easily viewed. The problems such as the complexity of management due to the increase in information accompanying this can be avoided because management can be performed for each element (tag) using a structured document (XML).

The additional information corresponding to the original information is the original information and 1
Since it is managed on the database by the above method in a one-to-one relationship, it is easy to acquire necessary information, and information management for maintaining the relationship is unnecessary. In addition, the problem that the additional information becomes complicated due to this is avoided by managing the element (tag) unit using the structured information (XML).

In other words, the present invention provides the management method of the original information managed by the structured database and the additional information added to the original information managed by the structured database as described above. It is characterized by having a method for solving the above problems.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, the original information and the additional information attached to any element constituting the original information are stored in different databases while maintaining their mutual relations. It manages and searches for and outputs the corresponding additional information when there is a reference request for the original information, and searches and outputs the original information for the corresponding additional information when there is a search. It is a feature.

Specifically, an enormous number of structured information for both the original information and the additional information are integrally managed as one huge structured information each, and a unified management structured by the original information is formed. By making the internal structure of the information and the centralized managed structured information composed of the additional information the same, the additional information corresponding to the reference request for the original information is extracted, and the additional information for the additional information is extracted. A wide area information retrieval system capable of extracting original information corresponding to a reference request can be easily constructed.

The logical area where each structured information exists on the database is designated by using the structured information path.
That is, although the original information and the additional information have different database names, they have the same path to facilitate the extraction and retrieval.

In this way, by separately managing the original information and the additional information, the original information is not affected even when the additional information is edited, and the additional information has a one-to-one correspondence with each original information. Since it is managed by, the user can browse the information of other users to centrally manage the information of multiple users for one source information, and the source information unit is based on the additional information. It is possible to analyze and collect knowledge.

Although XML is used as a structured information construction method for constructing the original information and the additional information, it is possible to have an external output format as a feature of XML, and XSL is used.
(EXtensible Stylesheet Language).

The relationship between the original information and the additional information in the present invention is applied to this, and XSL which is the output information of XML is added as additional information to arbitrary structured information composed of XML as the original information. By doing so, the original information and the output format can be efficiently managed.

Further, since the additional information is managed in units of information with respect to the original information, it is possible to associate a plurality of XSLs with one information by centrally managing a plurality of XSLs.

Therefore, according to the user's request, it is possible to output the additional information based on the corresponding information in a corresponding output format according to the user's request.

XML is used as a method of constructing structured information for constructing the original information and the additional information. What element is used as a feature of XML to construct the structured information is as follows.
DTD (Document Type Defini) which is information structure definition information
tion).

The relationship between the original information and the additional information in the present invention is applied to this, and when the administrator changes the XML as the original information, the DTD which is the information structure definition information is applied as the additional information. , It is possible to easily support the creation of a predetermined information structure for maintaining the identity of the information structure with respect to the information.

As for the additional information, a plurality of DTDs can be managed in an integrated manner in order to manage the original information in information units, and thus a plurality of DTDs can be prepared for one original information. Thereby, when the administrator changes the original information, it is possible to work according to a plurality of predetermined DTDs.

XML is used as a method of constructing structured information for constructing the original information and the additional information, but the feature of XML is that the entire information is composed of each element.

In the present invention, it is possible to add additional information with the constituent elements of the original information as the minimum unit.

When the internal elements that make up the original information are output to the user's environment at the request of the user, the additional information of the elements that make up the original information has a step of whether or not it is possible to output the information. On the other hand, it becomes possible to put an output restriction on each element of the original information.

[0039]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, I will explain the structured document management system.
The aforementioned XML and SGML (Standard Generalized Mar)
Examples include documents described in kup Language).

XML means W3C (World Wide Web Con
It is a standard defined by sortium). What is SGML?
ISO (International Organization for Standardiza)
standard). It is a structured document convention that enables each document to be structured.

Hereinafter, as a structured document, a document described in XML will be described as an example. Data that defines the document structure of a structured document (document structure definition data) is called a schema. In XML, schema languages such as XML-Schema and XDR (XML Data Reduced) have been proposed to define the schema. Here, for example, XDR
An example is given for describing the schema in.

The schema is also a structured document that is a management target of the structured document management system, and is sometimes called a schema document. To distinguish it from this schema document,
For example, a document having various miscellaneous contents such as a patent specification, mail, weekly report, advertisement, etc. may be referred to as a content document.

In the structured document management system, the above-mentioned schema document, the above-mentioned content document, and a query describing the content of a search request from a user as described later, that is, a query document is also a management target, and these are collectively referred to as “query”. "Document". Hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, a “document” is referred to as a content document, a schema document,
Refers to all query documents.

Next, the XML will be briefly described. FIG. 2 shows an example of “patent” information as an example of a structured document described in XML. XML and SGML
In, tags are used to represent the structure of a document. The tag includes a start tag and an end tag, and by enclosing the constituent elements of the document structure information with the start tag and the end tag, the character string (text) delimiter in the document and the constituent element in the structure Can be clearly described as belonging to.

Here, the start tag is the element name closed with the symbols "<" and ">", and the end tag is the element name with the symbols "</" and ">". It's closed. The content of the component that follows the tag is a text (string) or repeating child component.

Attribute information can be set in the start tag, such as “<element name attribute =“ attribute value ”>”. Further, a constituent element that does not include text, such as “<patent DB></ patent DB>”, can be expressed as “<patent DB />” as a simple notation.

The document shown in FIG. 2 has an element starting from a "patent" tag as a root (root), and a set of elements starting from "title", "filing date", "applicant", and "summary" tags as its child elements. Exists. In addition, one text (character string) such as "XML database" exists in the element starting from the "title" tag.

A structured document such as XML repeatedly includes arbitrary constituent elements, and the document structure is not predetermined [cannot be defined by RDB (Relational Data Base) or OODB (object oriented database) schema]. Is normal.

In order to logically represent the structured document as shown in FIG. 2, the tree representation as shown in FIG. 3 is used. The tree is composed of nodes (numbered and indicated by circles), arcs (lines with data connecting circles representing nodes), and text surrounded by a rectangle.

A node corresponds to a document object, and a plurality of arcs to which labels corresponding to tag names and attribute names are given are output from this node. The tip of this arc is connected to another node or a character string (text) as an element value. In addition, the alphanumeric characters (#
0, # 49, etc.) is the object ID.

The tree structure shown in FIG. 3 is referred to as the document object tree of the structured document shown in FIG.

FIG. 1 shows an additional information management system described in this embodiment. 1, the additional information management system is roughly divided into a request control unit 1, an access request processing unit 2, a search request processing unit 3, a data access unit 4, an additional information storage unit 5, and an original document storage unit 6. Has been done. The additional information storage unit 5 and the original document storage unit 6 are configured by using, for example, an external storage device. The system configuration of FIG. 1 can also be realized using software.

The request control section 1 is composed of a request receiving section 11 and a result processing section 12. The request receiving unit 11 adds additional information from a user, acquires additional information and an original document,
Accepts requests for additional information and searches for original documents,
The access request processing unit 2 is called. The result processing unit 12
A process of returning the result processed by the access request processing unit 2 to the requesting user is performed.

The access request processing section 2 is composed of a plurality of processing sections corresponding to addition of additional information from the user, acquisition of additional information and original document, and the like. That is, the access processing unit 2 includes the additional information storage unit 21 and the additional information acquisition unit 22.
And the original document acquisition unit 23.

The additional information storage unit 21 includes the additional information storage unit 5
The process of storing the document in the logically designated area is performed. When a logical designated area in the additional information storage unit 5 is designated, the additional information acquisition unit 22 performs a process of obtaining a document existing in the designated area. The original document acquisition unit 23, when a logically designated area in the original document storage unit 6 is designated, performs processing for obtaining a document existing in the designated area.

The additional information storage unit 5 and the original document storage unit 6 are
This is a structured document database. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, additional information and original documents are hierarchically stored in a tree structure like a UNIX (registered trademark) directory structure.

As shown in FIG. 4, the original document storage unit 6 can be expressed in the same way as the tree structure of one structured document shown in FIG. That is, a partial hierarchical tree (partial tree) below an arbitrary node is a structured document cut out from the original document storage unit 6, and here, this is referred to as an original document object tree.

An object ID is assigned to each node. This object ID has a unique numerical value in the original document storage unit 6. It is assumed that an object ID “# 0” for identifying that it is the root node is assigned to the root node of the hierarchical tree.

A link is established from the root node, that is, the node "# 0" to the node "# 1" having the "root" tag at the head. A link is established from the "# 1" node to the "# 2" node having the "patent DB" tag at the head. A link is established from the "# 2" node to the "# 42" node having the "patent" tag at the head.

The "patent" information shown in FIG. 2 is "# 42".
Corresponds to the partial tree under the node of. From this node, a link is set up to each node having a "title" tag, a "application date" tag, an "applicant" tag, a "summary" tag, etc. at the head, and from the end node, an "XML database", Links are provided to character strings (element values) such as "T company" and "to manage additional information for XML in a unified manner".

By the way, for example, the element value "XML database" linked to the node "# 43" is:
It is connected to the node "# 43" with a special tag name "#value". Since this tag name starts with "#", it cannot be used as a standard tag name in the XML standard.

A structured document path is used to specify such a specific node of the original document storage unit 6. The structured document path is a character string starting with "// root". For example, “// root / patent DB” corresponds to the node indicated by the arc to which the “patent DB” is assigned from the node “# 1”, that is, the node “# 2”. In this way, by considering the partial character string delimited by “/” from “root” as the tag name, the corresponding arc is descended from the node of “# 0” along the order of the tag names, and the last arc. The node pointed to by points to the location of the path.

For example, "// root / patent DB / patent" is a node of "# 42", "/ root / patent D".
"B / application date / year" indicates the node of "# 45".

When a plurality of "patent" information is stored under the "# 2" node, that is, in the "patent DB",
An indexed representation is possible in the structured document path to identify individual "patent" information.

The first "patent" information in the "patent DB" is "/ root / patent DB / patent [0]", which is the same as "/ root / patent DB / patent". I regard it.

If it is the second "patent" information in the "patent DB", then "/ root / patent DB / patent [1] DB" is the fifth "patent" information, then "/ root /" Patent DB / patent [4] ”.

As shown in FIG. 6, the additional information storage unit 5 also
It can be expressed similarly to the tree structure of one structured document shown in FIG. That is, a partial hierarchical tree (partial tree) below an arbitrary node is a structured document cut out from the additional information storage unit 5, and this is referred to as an additional information object tree here.

The ID of the node to be added is used for each additional information node, and the ID unique to the additional information is added to the ID. The additional information ID is a unique numerical value under the node to be added, and the node to be added has a unique numerical value in the structured document database. As a result, the additional information ID is also structured database. It will have a unique number within.

The node serving as the root of the hierarchical tree is assigned the object ID "# 0" for specifying that it is the root node.

A link is established from the root node, that is, the node "# 0" to the node "# 1" having the "root" tag at the head. A link is established from the "# 1" node to the "# 2" node having the "patent additional information DB" tag at the head. A link is established from the "# 2" node to the "# 42" node having the "patent" tag at the head.

The additional information added to the "patent" information shown in FIG. 5 corresponds to the partial tree below the "# 42" node. The partial tree under “# 42” also has the same structure as the partial tree under “# 42” in the original document storage unit 6, and the additional information is divided for each element of the original document to be added and Is affixed with a link.

That is, from the node "# 42",
A link is established to a node having a "validity" tag which is the information added to the "patent" tag which is "# 42",
From the end node, a link is provided to a character string (element value) such as "very useful" which is additional information.

As described above, in order to specify the specific node of the additional information storage unit 5 added to the original document, the structured document path is used similarly to the method of specifying the specific node in the original document storage unit 6. Is possible.

For example, "// root / patent additional information DB
"/ Patent" indicates the additional information added to the node of "# 42".

When using the structured document path, by changing the name of the database part, the structured document path for designating a specific node of the original document storage unit 6 is used. It is possible to specify the additional information node corresponding to the specific node.

Returning to the description of FIG. Data access unit 4
Is a set of basic interfaces for accessing the additional information storage unit 5 and the original document storage unit 6. The data access unit 4 includes an additional information object tree storage unit 41,
The additional information object tree acquisition unit 42, the original document object tree acquisition unit 43, and the document parser unit 44 are included.

Additional information object tree storage unit 41
Performs a process of storing additional information in a physically designated area in the additional information storage unit 5. The additional information object tree acquisition unit 42 performs a process of acquiring additional information existing in a physically designated area in the additional information storage unit 5.

The original document object tree acquisition section 43
The original document data existing in the physically designated area in the original document storage unit 6 is acquired. Document parser unit 44
Is for converting the original document object tree and / or the additional information object tree acquired in response to the user's original document acquisition request or additional information acquisition request into an XML document for output to the display unit 103 of the client 102. is there.

The physically designated area in the additional information storage section 5 is internal data indicating the location of unique document data in the structured document database. The data is unrecognizable to the user.

The physically designated area in the original document storage unit 6 is internal data indicating the location of unique document data in the structured document database. The data is unrecognizable to the user.

Further, the search request processing unit 3 performs a process of searching the respective data stored in the additional information storage unit 5 or the original document storage unit 6.

In the case of a search request to the additional information storage unit 5, when the request receiving unit 11 of the request control unit 1 receives a search request for additional information from the user, the search request processing unit 3 adds through the data access unit 4. The information storage unit 5 is accessed to acquire the additional information set that matches the search request, and the original document data corresponding to the additional information set that matches the search request is acquired from the original document storage unit 6. The acquisition result is output via the result processing unit 12 as the target of the search request.

In the case of a search request to the original document storage unit 6, when the request receiving unit 11 of the request control unit 1 receives a search request for additional information from the user, the search request processing unit 3 causes the data access unit 4 to operate. The original document storage unit 6 is accessed through to obtain the original document set that matches the search request, and the additional information corresponding to the original document set that matches the search request is obtained from the additional information storage unit 5. The acquisition result is output via the result processing unit 12 as a target of the search request.

FIG. 7 shows a form of use of the structured document management system shown in FIG. FIG. 7 shows a case where the additional information management system 100 having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 is operating in the WWW back end.

A plurality of (three in FIG. 7) client terminals (for example, personal computers, mobile communication terminals, etc.) 1
02, the WWW browser 103 is operating. The user can access the additional information management system 100 by accessing the WWW server 101 from each client terminal 102.

WWW browser 103 and WWW server 10
1 is in communication with HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).

Requests for document storage, document acquisition, document search, etc. from the user are transmitted from the WWW browser 103,
Additional information management system 10 through WWW server 101
0 is accepted and processed by the WWW server 1
It is returned to the requesting WWW browser 103 through 01.

(1) Additional Information Storage Processing Next, the additional information storage processing operation of the additional information management system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, when the document storage request transmitted from the client terminal to the additional information management system is accepted by the request acceptance unit 11, the processing operation shown in FIG. 8 is performed.

Here, for example, when the original document is in the state shown in FIG. 4, “<A> additional information </A>” is added to “/ root / patent DB / patent [0]”. A case where (hereinafter referred to as additional information) is passed to the additional information storage unit 21 (step S1) will be described.

The additional document storage unit 21 passes the structured document path to the original document object tree acquisition unit 43. The original document object tree acquisition unit 43 identifies a physical area in the original document storage unit 6 from the structured document path, so that the node (original document object) represented by the structured document path existing in the area is specified. An original document object tree including Ox0) is acquired (step S2).

When the acquisition processing is completed and it is proved that the original document data to which the additional information is to be added exists (Yes in step S3), the process proceeds to step S5.

Further, if the corresponding original document object Ox0 is not found from the designated structured document path (NO in step S3), an error occurs and the additional information storage unit 21 and the result processing unit 12 send the result to the client terminal. A message indicating "additional information storage failure" is returned (step S4).

The additional document storage unit 21 confirms the existence of the original document data to which the additional information is added by the original document object tree acquisition unit 43. A structured document path that specifies a physical area of the original document to which the additional information is added in the original document storage unit 6, and a structured document path that specifies a physical area of the additional information in the additional information storage unit 5 Are the same except for the database specification part.

Therefore, in order to acquire the structured document path for storing the additional information, the additional document storage unit 21
The database description portion of the structured document path designated by the user is converted so as to designate the additional information database which is the additional information storage unit 6 (step S5).

After converting the structured document path, the additional document storage section 21 passes the structured document path to the additional information object tree acquisition section 42. The additional information object tree acquisition unit 42 specifies a physical area in the additional information storage unit 5 from the structured document path, and thereby the node (additional node) represented by the structured document path existing in the area is added. An additional information object tree including the information object Ox0) is acquired (step S6).

If the structured document path is correct, the object ID of the additional information object Ox0 can be acquired (YES in step S7). In that case, the process proceeds to step S9.

If the corresponding additional information object Ox0 cannot be found from the designated structured document path (NO in step S7), an error occurs and the client terminal is passed through the additional information storage unit 21 and the result processing unit 12. A message indicating "additional information storage failure" is returned to (step S8).

In step S9, the additional information object tree of the additional information stored is the additional information object Ox0.
Added below. That is, the additional information storage unit 21 gives an object ID to each additional information object (file thereof) that constitutes the additional information object tree of the additional information to be stored, and the additional information object Ox0 to the head of the additional information object tree of the additional information object to be stored. A link is put to the additional information object of.

Then, the additional information object tree storage unit 41 (each file) of each additional information object forming the additional information object tree of the stored additional information.
Is stored in the additional information storage unit 5.

(2) Original Document Acquisition Process Next, the acquisition process operation of the original document to which the additional information is added in the additional information management system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. . That is, the client terminal sends an acquisition command as an original document acquisition request to the additional information management system,
When accepted by the request acceptance unit 11, the processing operation shown in FIG. 9 is performed.

Here, a case will be described as an example where the work of acquiring "/ root / patent DB" is performed when the original document is in the state shown in FIG. The request reception unit 11
When the original document acquisition command is accepted, the structured document path "//
"root / patent DB" is passed to the original document acquisition unit 23 (step S11).

The original document acquisition unit 23 passes the structured document path to the original document object tree acquisition unit 43. The original document object tree acquisition unit 43 specifies the physical area in the original document storage unit 6 from the structured document path,
The node (original document object Ox5) represented by the structured document path existing in the area is taken out (step S12).

If the designation of the structured document path is correct, the object ID of the original document object Ox5 can be obtained (YES in step S13), and in that case, the process proceeds to step S15.

In step S12, if the corresponding original document object Ox5 is not found in the designated structured document path (N in step S13).
O), an error occurs and “Original document acquisition failure” is sent to the client terminal via the original document acquisition unit 23 and the result processing unit 12.
Is returned (step S14).

In step S15, step S12
An object tree below the original document object Ox5 is acquired from the original document object Ox5 acquired in.
The acquired original document object tree is the document parser unit 4
It is converted into an XML document in step 4 (step S16).

A structured document path for designating the physical area of the original document to which the additional information is added in the original document storage unit 6 and a structured document path for designating the physical area of the additional information in the additional information storage unit 5. The document path is the same except for the database specification part.

For this reason, the original document acquisition unit 23 acquires the database description portion of the structured document path designated by the user in order to acquire the structured document path for storing the additional information. Is converted to specify the additional information database (step S17).

After changing the structured document path, the original document acquisition section 23 passes the structured document path to the additional information object tree acquisition section 42. Additional information object tree acquisition unit 42
Identifies a physical area in the additional information storage unit 5 from the structured document path to extract the node (additional information object Ox5) represented by the structured document path existing in the area (step S18).

If the structured document path is correctly specified, the object ID of the additional information object Ox5 can be obtained (YES in step S19), and in that case, the process proceeds to step S20.

In step S18, if the corresponding additional information object Ox5 cannot be found from the designated structured document path (NO in step S19).
Since there is no additional information for the original document, the original document acquisition unit 23 is notified of the message, and the process proceeds to step S21.

From the additional information object Ox5 obtained in step S18, the object tree of the additional information object Ox5 and below is obtained. The acquired original document object tree is converted into an XML document by the document parser unit 44 (step S20). For example, the acquired original document and the additional information are integrated and the information X as shown in FIG.
It becomes an ML document.

The original document acquisition unit 23 acquires the acquired X
For example, an ML document is converted into an XSL (Extensible Stylesheet La
nguage) together with a predetermined style sheet (step S21). The client terminal converts the XML document shown in FIG. 11 into HTML data using a style sheet and displays it in the client area.

By using XSL, an XML document can be converted into various forms. It is possible to convert it into an XML document having a different structure, and it is also possible to generate an HTML page from the XML document.

(3) Additional Information Acquisition Processing Next, the additional information acquisition processing operation in the additional information management system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, when the client terminal transmits an acquisition command as an additional information acquisition request to the additional information management system and the request reception unit 11 receives the acquisition command, the processing operation shown in FIG. 10 is performed.

Here, a case will be described as an example where a work for acquiring additional information corresponding to "/ root / patent DB" is performed when the original document is in the state shown in FIG.
When the request receiving unit 11 receives the additional information acquisition command,
The structured document path “// root / patent DB” is passed to the additional information acquisition unit 22 (step S31).

The additional information acquisition unit 22 passes the structured document path to the additional information object tree acquisition unit 42. The additional information object tree acquisition unit 42 identifies a physical area in the additional information storage unit 5 from the structured document path, and thereby the node (additional information) represented by the structured document path existing in the area. The object Ox5) is taken out (step S32).

If the structured document path is correctly specified, the object ID of the additional information object Ox5 can be acquired (YES in step S33). In that case, the process proceeds to step S35.

In step S32, the additional information object O corresponding to the specified structured document path
If x5 is not found (NO in step S33), an error occurs, and a message of "original document acquisition failure" is returned to the client terminal via the additional information acquisition unit 22 and the result processing unit 12 (step S34).

In step S35, an object tree below the additional information object Ox5 is acquired from the additional information object Ox5 acquired in step S32. The acquired additional information object tree is converted into an XML document by the document parser unit 44 (step S3).
6).

A structured document path for designating a physical area of the additional information in the additional information storage unit 5 and a structured document path for designating a physical area of the original document to which the additional information is added in the original document storage unit 6. The document path is the same except for the database specification part. Therefore, in order to acquire the structured document path for storing the original document to which the additional information is added, the additional information acquisition unit 22 uses the database description part of the structured document path specified by the user as the source. Conversion is performed so as to specify the additional information database that is the document storage unit 6 (step S37).

After changing the structured document path, the additional information acquisition unit 22 passes the structured document path to the original document object tree acquisition unit 43. Original document object tree acquisition unit 43
Identifies the physical area in the original document storage unit 6 from the structured document path, and extracts the node (original document object Ox5) represented by the structured document path in that area (step S38).

If the structured document path is correctly specified, the object ID of the original document object Ox5 can be acquired (YES in step S39). In that case, the process proceeds to step S41.

In step S38, if the corresponding original document object Ox5 cannot be found in the designated structured document path (N in step S39).
O), an error occurs because the original document to which the additional information should be added does not exist, and the additional information acquisition unit 22 and the result processing unit 1
“Additional information acquisition failure” on the client terminal via 2
Message is returned (step S40).

From the original document object Ox5 obtained in step S38, the object tree below the original document object Ox5 is obtained. The acquired original document object tree is converted into an XML document by the document parser unit 44 (step S41). For example, the acquired original document and the additional information are integrated, and the XM of the information as shown in FIG.
It becomes an L document.

The additional information acquisition unit 23 returns the acquired XML documents to the client terminal together with a predetermined style sheet such as XSL (step S4).
2). The client terminal converts the XML document shown in FIG. 11 into HTML data using a style sheet and displays it in the client area.

Hereinafter, an example of the display for the user will be shown in FIG.
Will be explained. FIG. 12 shows the client terminal 1 when the original document acquisition process or the additional information acquisition process is performed.
2 shows an example of a display form of the original document and the additional information displayed on the display unit 103 of 02.

In FIG. 12, F1 is a title part indicating the contents of the original document, F2 is a summary part displaying a part of the contents of the original document, and F3 is a button group for editing additional information for the original document. In this example, it is assumed that the acquisition process is completed and the relevant result is displayed.

In the title portion F1, the title portion of the original document is extracted and displayed. As a result, it is possible to grasp which element has been acquired. Further, information that can be distinguished from other original documents such as date and time information may be added.

In the outline portion F2, sentences showing the contents of the original document are displayed under certain restrictions. As a result, it is possible to grasp the information and the outline of the original document which are unknown only by the title. Although the elements displayed in the outline portion are arbitrary, it is possible to provide a large amount of information to the user within a limited range by designating an element having a text format and a large amount of information.

The additional information edit button group F3 has a one-to-one correspondence between elements and buttons that form additional information for the original document. The user can edit any element in the additional information by pressing the button of the additional information to be edited.

By pressing the button, the additional information is displayed on another screen. When displayed, instead of directly displaying the structured document that constitutes the additional information, XSL
It is displayed in a format that is easy for the user to understand according to any rule such as.

It is also possible to output the result of applying an arbitrary analysis process such as a graph based on each element of the additional information. By pressing each button, the additional information is displayed on another screen, and the displayed additional information can be edited.

Then, when the editing is completed, it is confirmed that the information has been updated, the additional information is stored in the additional information storage section 5, and the processing for updating the result is performed.

The layout of the display screen shown in FIG. 12 is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this. Further, although some operation examples have been shown, these examples are also merely examples and may have various functions.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be variously modified in the implementation stage without departing from the spirit thereof. Further, the embodiments described above include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent requirements.

For example, even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in the embodiment, the problem (at least one of) described in the section of the problem to be solved by the invention
Can be solved and the effect described in the section of the effect of the invention (at least one) can be obtained, the configuration in which this constituent element is deleted can be extracted as the invention.

As an example, application of the additional information management system under the following conditions will be described.

(Application to Binary Data) Binary data exists as data corresponding to text data composed of ASCII code. Due to its characteristics, text data can be divided into characters, but in the case of binary data, when divided internally, it often becomes meaningless after being divided. , It is difficult to structure the inside with binary data as an original document and add additional information.

However, by using the additional information management system, it is possible to treat the binary data as an element internally after the original data has an arbitrary document structure, and thus it can be treated as a structured document.

In the case of binary data, it is difficult to directly add information on an element-by-element basis when the data is divided internally and the divided data often has no meaning. By applying an arbitrary rule (coordinates, number of bytes, etc.), it is possible to associate the additional information based on the applied rule.

(Various Notation Methods Using XSL) XSL
By using, it is possible to convert the XML document into various forms. XSL exists independently of the XML document and is applied by being referenced from inside the XML document.

When using the additional information management system,
By applying the original document as an XML document and applying the additional information as XSL, the XML document selected by the user can be output after being changed.

Further, since the additional information management system can hold a plurality of additional information for an arbitrary original document, the XML managed by the additional information management system is used.
A document can have a plurality of XSLs.
As a result, when the user outputs an arbitrary XML document, it becomes possible to select the output format from a plurality of XSLs by the user's intention.

(Document Definition Using DTD) DTD (Docu
ment Type Definition) defines the format of elements that can be included in the XML document, and the X where DTD exists.
An ML document cannot deviate from its defined format.

The DTD exists in a form independent of the XML document, and is applied by being referenced from inside the XML document.

When using the additional information management system,
By applying the original document as an XML document and applying the additional information as a DTD, it becomes possible to give the XML document an arbitrary DTD.

Further, since the additional information management system can hold a plurality of additional information with respect to an arbitrary original document, the XML managed on the additional information management system is used.
A document can have a plurality of DTDs. Accordingly, when the administrator changes the original document, it is possible to select an arbitrary DTD from the plurality of DTDs and edit the original document according to the definition.

(Addition of Security Information in Element Unit in Original Document) A document managed as an original document by the additional information management system is a structured document and is composed of elements.

The additional information for the original document can be added to the elements of the original document. In the additional information management system, by adding security information to information to be added to an arbitrary structured document, it becomes possible to maintain security in the element unit of the original document.

When the user issues an acquisition request for the original document, the additional information management system acquires the additional information corresponding to the designated original document and compares the security. Then, it becomes possible to reject a user who does not satisfy the condition by using a format in which a message indicating that browsing is not possible is sent. Further, since the security information is additional information, it can be easily changed with respect to the original document.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the original data is not changed from the unspecified user to the database constructed in XML which is the document structure description language. Information can be added. Therefore, the user can use the database without imposing restrictions while maintaining security.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0153]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
An extremely good additional information management method capable of separately managing original information and additional information, easily managing mutual relation between the two, and enabling efficient information retrieval and extraction, and An additional information management system can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram shown for explaining an additional information management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram shown for explaining an example of a structured document described in XML.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating the document structure of the structured document shown in FIG. 2 in tree representation.

FIG. 4 is a diagram shown for explaining a state in which one document object tree of “patent” information is added to the structured document database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of information added to the structured document described in FIG.

6 is a diagram for explaining a state in which the information shown in FIG. 5 is added to the document object tree described in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a form of use of the additional information management system shown in FIG. 1, showing a case where the additional information management system is operating at the WWW back end.

8 is a flowchart shown to explain additional information storage processing of the additional information management system shown in FIG.

9 is a flowchart shown for explaining an original document acquisition process of the additional information management system shown in FIG.

10 is a flowchart shown for explaining additional information acquisition processing of the additional information management system shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram shown for explaining an example of a structured document described in XML that is sent to a client in the acquired additional information and the original document.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a display example of a screen as a user interface.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Request control unit, 2 ... access request processing unit, 3 ... Search request processing unit, 4 ... Data access unit, 5 ... additional information storage unit, 6 ... Original document storage unit, 11 ... Request reception unit, 12 ... Result processing section, 21 ... additional information storage unit, 22 ... Additional information acquisition unit, 23 ... Original document acquisition unit, 41 ... Additional information object tree storage unit, 42 ... Additional information object tree acquisition unit, 43 ... Original information object tree acquisition unit, 44 ... Document parser section.

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06F 17/21 G06F 17/21 570R (72) Inventor Takuya Kanawa 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Stock number Company Toshiba Research & Development Center (72) Inventor Katsuhiko Nonomura Komukai Toshiba Town No. 1, Komukai-shi, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Stock Company Toshiba Research & Development Center (72) Inventor Hiroshi Komukai Toshiba, Saitama-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Town No. 1 In stock company Toshiba R & D Center (72) Inventor Shozo Isobe Komukai-shi, Kawasaki City Kanagawa Prefecture Komukai Toshiba Town No. 1 F company in Toshiba Research & Development Center (reference) 5B009 SA03 SA12 SA14 VA09 5B075 ND03 NK02 NK43 NK46 NR06 NR20 PQ02 PQ32

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. Structured original information and additional information added to this original information are managed on separate structured databases each having a hierarchical logical structure, and the structured information of each structured database is managed. A method for managing additional information, characterized in that the positions of original information and additional information in each structured database are made to correspond by making the hierarchical logical structures the same. 2. The additional information management according to claim 1, wherein the additional information is managed in the same unitary logical structure as the original information in units of the original information to which the additional information is added. Method. 3. The additional information management method according to claim 1, wherein the original information is data called binary data corresponding to text data composed of an ASCII code. 4. The additional information according to claim 1, wherein the additional information includes information for selecting an output format when the original information to which the additional information is added is read from the structured database and output. Information management method. 5. The additional information management method according to claim 1, wherein the additional information includes information for selecting an information definition method when changing the original information to which the additional information is added. 6. The additional information management method according to claim 1, wherein the additional information includes information indicating a security level for the original information to which the additional information is added. 7. The read / write availability of the original information from the structured database is determined by comparing a security level indicated by the additional information with a preset security level. The additional information management method according to claim 6. 8. The additional information management method according to claim 1, wherein the additional information includes information serving as a reference for classifying the original information to which the additional information is added to manage the original information by content. 9. The additional information management method according to claim 1, wherein the additional information is formed by a structured document. 10. A first structured database having a hierarchical logical structure for managing structured original information, and a first structured database installed separately from the first structured database and added to the original information. A second structured database having the same hierarchical logical structure as the first structured database for managing the additional information to be stored, and the original on the first and second structured databases. An additional information management system characterized in that the positions of information and additional information are associated with each other.