JP2005267479A - Document use history management system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To track a document use history even after downloading. <P>SOLUTION: A user of a client computer 200 logs in (X01). After the log-in, the user transmits a document use request to a document management server 100 to obtain an intended document (X02, X03). A document ID is embedded into the transferred document. A document use part 204 uses the transferred document, and a document use history extraction part 205 monitors the document use part 204, extracts the document use history such as user ID, operation contents and a time correlating to the document ID, and stores the document use history in a document use history storing part 206 (X04). When the user logs in the document management server 100 next time, the document use history is uploaded to the document management server 100, and registered in a document use history storing part 105 of the document management server 100 (X107). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for managing a document usage history.

  By collecting usage histories such as document browsing and printing, it is possible to know that a document has been read by many people or read many times, and the usefulness of the document can be evaluated. In the prior art, there are known ones that store and utilize access histories (Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2) and those that store and utilize print histories (Patent Documents 3 and 4). Once downloaded, a copy of the document can no longer be tracked.

There is also a document that accumulates history in a document (Patent Document 5). However, when a plurality of copies are made, the history becomes different, and it is impossible to grasp how the original document was used. A system for tracking transmission by e-mail via a mail server has also been proposed (Patent Document 6), but this system can only manage the circumstances of e-mail transmission. A workflow support system has also been proposed that tracks the history even when the user is away from the server (Patent Document 7). However, this system can only track what is put on the workflow and is not versatile.
JP-A-6-259293 JP-A-9-31802 JP 11-249777 A JP 2003-67363 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-259459 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-125841 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-63747

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a document usage history management technique capable of managing a document usage history even after downloading from a server.

  According to the configuration example of the present invention, for example, when a document viewer (browsing program) downloads a document (for example, DocuWorks document; DocuWorks is a trademark of Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.) from the document management server, The ID is embedded. The document viewer records the user ID, operation details, and time in association with the document ID. Next, when the user logs in to the document management server, the usage history is uploaded to the server.

  The operation content is as follows, for example, but is not limited thereto.

(1) Download In the document management server, for example, an access right is set so that it can only be downloaded as a DocuWorks (trademark) document (a format in which an original such as a PDF document is saved). At the time of downloading, a document ID (a server and a document that can be specified. A global unique identifier (GUID) or a universal unique identifier (UUID) can also be used) is added as a document attribute. Also, it may be set so that it cannot be opened without a password when downloading.

(2) Browsing and using a document When a document viewer opens a document, it stores the following as a usage history (log).

Document ID, (User ID), Operation content (Open), Time (, + Place)
The parentheses are optional.

  The user ID is set in the document viewer or OS (operating system). The location may be acquired by GPS (global positioning system), or may be described by the user when the document is opened (such as “A meeting room”). An ID may be set for each room, and an ID obtained from an IC tag or an entry management record may be added.

  Information related to the operation may include not only opening but also page transitions (with page numbers), selected and copied document elements, hyperlinks used in the document, added annotations, and the like.

(3) Upload of history data When the user logs in to the document management server next time, the use history of the document belonging to the server is transmitted to the document management server. The transmitted part may be deleted from the log. Further, the user may be asked for permission to transmit. The document management server records records for each document and merges them with the history that the document had so far. Even when a user ID is included in the history, when privacy is taken into consideration, the user ID or equivalent is not displayed, but is displayed only as statistical information. For example, the number of times of browsing, the number of people, the average browsing time, the average number of browsing pages, and the like are displayed.

(4) Use of history History is not only displayed as statistics, but can also be used for ranking, social filtering, and recommendation. Since it is possible to use not only the number of downloads but also the number of times of use and further the time of use, it can be used as more accurate information.

  It is also possible to track open and close at the OS level instead of the level of individual applications such as a document viewer. As a result, documents of all formats can be handled.

  It is also possible to charge for usage according to the number of times of opening, the number of times of printing, and the amount of the copied portion. Document owners can also get rewards.

  The history can also be given explicitly. For example, when a presentation is performed using a document, an opinion can be recorded for each page, added as an annotation, and then fed back to the author.

  The present invention will be further described.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, in a document usage history management system including a document management device and a document usage device, the document management device stores: a document storage means for storing a document A document use request receiving means for receiving a document use request from the document use apparatus; and reading out a corresponding document from the document storage means to the document use apparatus based on the document use request received by the document use request receiving means. Document sending means for sending; document use history receiving means for receiving a document use history in the document use apparatus from the document use apparatus; and document use history storage means for storing the document use history received by the document use history receiving means. And are provided. Further, the document use device only: a document use request sending means for sending a document use request to the document management device; a document receiving means for receiving a document sent from the document management device based on the document use request; Document usage history storage means for storing the document usage history of the document received by the document receiving means; and document usage history transmission means for transmitting the document usage history stored in the document usage history storage means to the document management apparatus. Provided.

  In this configuration, the usage history is prepared and stored in the document usage device, transferred to the document management device, and collectively managed as the document usage history in the document management device. Various usage histories can be accumulated and utilized finely throughout.

  The usage history includes, but is not limited to, for example, at least one of a user, operation contents for a document, usage time, page transition, copy location, used hyperlink information, added annotation, and usage location. .

  The document management apparatus described above is, for example, a document management server, and the document utilization apparatus is, for example, a client apparatus. A document use application is executed on the client device.

  In this case, the document usage history storage unit and the document usage history transmission unit of the client device may be configured by an application program, or provided for the operating system of the client device, and a file system by the operating system. The operation to the may be used as a document use history.

  In addition, the document management apparatus stores a document and transfers it to the document use apparatus (document management server), and the document use history management apparatus (use history management server) receives and manages the document use history from the document use apparatus. May be configured separately.

  The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, software products used to cause a computer to execute such software are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  These and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to accumulate and utilize the use history not only for the number of downloads but also for the entire life cycle.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 shows an entire document management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. For convenience, the document management server 100 and the client computer 200 connected via the network 300 are collectively referred to as a document management system, but the terminology is not particularly important. The document management server 100 may be called a document management system.

  In FIG. 1, the document management system includes a document management server 100 and a client computer 200 connected to a network 300. Although only one document management server 100 and one client computer 200 are shown, it goes without saying that a plurality of document management servers 100 and client computers 200 may be provided. The network 300 may be any communication network such as a LAN or a WAN.

  The document management server 100 includes a login management unit 101, a document usage request / document usage history reception unit 102, a document transmission unit 103, a document storage unit 104, a document usage history storage unit 105, and the like in functional blocks. ing. The login management unit 101 manages user login using the client computer 200. In addition to performing password authentication and the like, it is also possible to extract the user ID and store it in the document usage history storage unit 105 as part of the usage history. The document use request / document use history receiving unit 102 receives a document use request from the client computer 200 and receives a document use history. The document use request is a request for downloading a document by specifying a file name or the like. The document usage history is a usage history up to the time of login as described later, and is sent from the client computer 200 at the time of login. The document usage history is stored in the document usage history storage unit 105. The document usage request / document usage history receiving unit 102 may be configured separately as a document usage request receiving unit and a document usage history receiving unit. The document transmission unit 103 reads a document from the document storage unit 104 based on the document use request described above and sends it to the client computer 200.

  In terms of functional blocks, the client computer 200 includes a login management unit 201, a document usage request / document usage history transmission unit 202, a document reception unit 203, a document usage unit 204, a document usage history extraction unit 205, and a document usage history storage unit 206. The document storage unit 207 and the like are included. Each functional block of the client computer 200 is realized as a process such as an application or an OS. The login management unit 201 executes a login protocol such as password authentication. The document usage history is registered in the document usage history storage unit 206 using the user ID used for login. The document usage request / document usage history transmission unit 202 transmits a document usage request, that is, a document download request, to the document management server 100, and the document usage history stored in the document usage history storage unit 206 is sent to the document management server 100. Send. The document usage history is sent in a batch at the time of login. The document receiving unit 203 receives a document transferred from the document management server 100 in response to a document use request. The received document is used by the document use unit 204, for example, a document browsing service. A document ID is embedded in the transferred document, and a usage history is extracted by the document usage history extraction unit 205 in association with the document ID and stored in the document usage history storage unit 206. The document to be used may be stored in the document storage unit 207 under the document ID. The document usage request / document usage history transmission unit 202 may also be configured separately as a document usage request transmission unit and a document usage history transmission unit.

  FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the operation of the above-described embodiment. In this figure, the user of the client computer 200 logs in (X01). If the login is the first time, nothing is done with respect to the document usage history, but if it is the second time or later, the document usage history is transmitted as described later (see X05). In this example, the user ID is shown as “U04667” as an example. If the user ID at the time of login is used, when the client computer 200 is in a single user environment, the user ID does not have to be explicitly included as the usage history of the document usage history storage unit 206 of the client computer 200.

  After logging in, the user transmits a document use request (document download request) to the document management server 100 to acquire a desired document (X02, X03). In the document management server 100, for example, it is preferable to set an access right that can be downloaded only as a DocumentWorks (trademark) document (a format in which an original such as a PDF document is saved). Also, it may be set so that it cannot be opened without a password when downloading. In the transferred document, a document ID (server, document that can identify the document) is embedded. The document use unit 204, for example, the document viewer uses the transferred document. The document usage history extraction unit 205 monitors the document usage unit 204, extracts a document usage history such as a user ID, operation contents, and time in association with the document ID and stores it in the document usage history storage unit 206 (X04).

  The usage history stored in the document usage history storage unit 206 is, for example, a document ID, an operation content, and an operation time, as illustrated. The user ID, location, etc. may be recorded. The location information may be acquired from the GPS, or may be directly sold by the user. In this example, the operation content includes opening and closing of a document, and the time from the open time to the close time is used as the open time. Regarding operations, not only opening and closing, but also page transitions (with page numbers), selected and copied document elements, hyperlinks used in the document, added annotations, and the like may be included.

  When the user logs in to the document management server 100 next time, the document usage history up to that point (related to the document belonging to the server) is uploaded to the document management server 100 and registered in the document usage history storage unit 105 of the document management server 100 ( X07). Note that permission for transmission may be requested from the user. Further, the document usage history uploaded to the document management server 100 may be deleted from the document usage history storage unit 206 of the client computer 200 (X06).

  In the document management server 100, usage histories such as a document ID, a user ID, an open time, and an open time are managed. The document management server 100 allocates a record for each document and merges it with the history that the document had so far. In this example, the user ID is included in the history, but it is not displayed. From the document usage history displayed as statistical information such as the number of users, for example, for each document, the number of browsing (opening), the number of users, Statistics such as average browsing time and average number of browsing pages are calculated and can be used for ranking or social filtering based on the statistics. For example, when a list of search results is displayed, what has been seen for a long time can be displayed at the top of the search results.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the document use unit 204 of the client computer 200 of the above-described embodiment is typically an application program, and records and manages the document use history by the application. As shown in FIG. 3, the operating system 210 of the client computer 200 is used. A document usage history management daemon (resident program) 212 is prepared between the file system 211 and the file system 211, the document on the file system 211 of the application program 214 is accessed, and the operating system 210 operates the file system 211. When a request is made, this is monitored to obtain a document usage history and record it in the document usage history storage unit 206. A table associating the file system ID of the file system 211 and the document ID for document usage history management is stored in the file system ID / document ID database 213, and this table is tabulated to operate the file system 211. The file system ID included in the request is converted into a document ID and included in the usage history. For a document downloaded from the document management server 100 for the first time, an entry in the table is prepared from the file system ID and the document ID embedded in the document when it is registered in the file system 211, and the file system ID / document ID database 213 is prepared. register. According to this configuration, the usage history of all documents can be handled regardless of the application and its document format.

  It is also possible to charge for usage (depending on the number of times of opening, the number of times of printing, and the amount of copied portion). The document owner may be able to obtain a bounty. A history may be given explicitly. For example, an opinion can be recorded for each page and given as an annotation at the time of presentation and fed back to the author.

  In the above example, the document management server manages the usage history of the document belonging to itself. However, a document usage history management server is provided separately from the document management server, and the document management server logs in to the document management server. The document usage history may be transferred from the client computer to the usage history management server, and the document usage history management server may manage the document usage history. The document management server and the document usage history management server may be managed in duplicate.

It is a block diagram which shows the Example of this invention as a whole. It is a figure explaining operation | movement of the said Example. It is a figure explaining the modification of the above-mentioned Example.

Explanation of symbols

100 Document Management Server 101 Login Management Unit 102 Document Usage Request / Document Usage History Receiving Unit 103 Document Transmission Unit 104 Document Storage Unit 105 Document Usage History Storage Unit 200 Client Computer 201 Login Management Unit 202 Document Usage Request / Document Usage History Transmission Unit 203 Document reception unit 204 Document use unit 205 Document use history extraction unit 206 Document use history storage unit 207 Document storage unit 210 Operating system 211 File system 213 Database 214 Application program 300 Network

Claims (6)

In a document usage history management system comprising a document management device and a document usage device,
The document management apparatus
Document storage means for storing documents;
A document use request receiving means for receiving a document use request from the document use device;
A document sending means for reading out and sending out a corresponding document from the document storage means to the document using device based on the document use request received by the document use request receiving means;
Document usage history receiving means for receiving a document usage history in the document usage device from the document usage device;
Document usage history storage means for storing the document usage history received by the document usage history receiving means;
The document using device is
Document use request sending means for sending a document use request to the document management device;
A document receiving means for receiving a document sent from the document management apparatus based on the document use request;
Document usage history storage means for storing the document usage history of the document received by the document receiving means;
A document usage history management system comprising: a document usage history sending unit for sending a document usage history stored in the document usage history storage unit to the document management apparatus.   The document usage history according to claim 1, wherein the usage history includes at least one of a user, operation contents for the document, usage time, page transition, copy location, used hyperlink information, added annotation, and usage location. Management system. In a document usage history management system comprising a document management server and a client device,
The document management server
Document storage means for storing documents;
A document use request receiving means for receiving a document use request from the client device;
A document sending means for reading out and sending out a corresponding document from the document storage means to the document using device based on the document use request received by the document use request receiving means;
A document usage history receiving means for receiving a document usage history in the client device from the document usage device;
Document usage history storage means for storing the document usage history received by the document usage history receiving means;
The client device
A document use request sending means for sending a document use request to the document management server;
A document receiving means for receiving a document sent from the document management server based on the document use request;
Document usage history storage means for storing the document usage history of the document received by the document receiving means;
A document usage history management system comprising: a document usage history transmission unit that transmits a document usage history stored in the document usage history storage unit to the document management server.   4. The document usage history management system according to claim 3, wherein the document usage history storage unit of the client device and the document usage history transmission unit of the client device are configured by an application program.   4. The document usage history storage unit of the client device and the document usage history transmission unit of the client device are provided for an operating system of the client device, and an operation to the file system by the operating system is used as a document history. Document usage history management system described. In a document usage history management method for managing a document usage history when a document managed by a document management device is used by a document usage device,
Sending a document use request from the document use device to the document management device;
Sending a corresponding document from the document management apparatus to the document utilization apparatus based on the document utilization request;
Storing the document usage history in the document usage device in the document usage history storage means of the document usage device;
Sending the document usage history stored in the document usage history storage means of the document usage device from the document usage device to the document management device;
Receiving the document usage history sent from the document usage device at the document management device;
And storing the received document usage history in a document usage history storage unit of the document management apparatus.

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