JP2006184957A - Information processing device and method, information processing program, and peer system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To grasp the feature information of a document stored in another device. <P>SOLUTION: A storage 6 is provided with a management table for storing the address of a document 1 and document identification information 2 for identifying the document 1, and a store 7 is provided with a management table for storing the document identification information 2 of each document 1 before and after update and meta information such as an update date or an updater so that the document and the meta information of the document can be separated from each other. When the document 1 is updated and stored, the document identification information 2 of the document before and after update is shared by each peer by a switching agent 11. Therefore, even the document 1 updated in a certain peer 4 can be grasped by another peer 4. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, an information processing program, and a peer system.

  The conventional document management system mainly has a server / client configuration, and takes a form in which documents stored in a concentrated manner by a small number of servers are referred to by a large number of clients. Meta information is also stored on the server along with the document. Meta information is characteristic information of a document, and is information for giving meaning to the document. For example, simple meta information is also called an attribute, and examples include a document title, a creator, a creation (registration) date, a summary, and the like.

As the document management system, the following document management system in which a server and a plurality of clients are connected via a network has been proposed (see Patent Document 1). That is, in this document management system, a document database is connected to the server and stores document management information and document files. A document work area for each client is connected to the server via a file sharing program. The client has a document work area in which the document work area on the server is virtually mapped by a file sharing program.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-085020

  However, in the conventional document management system, since a small number of servers centrally manage documents, the load on the servers is large.

  In addition, since meta information used in document management is stored in the server, the document to be searched must also exist in the server. A document that exists outside the server, for example, on the client (desktop) cannot be managed by the server. That is, it is impossible to collectively manage documents being created by the client and documents managed by the server.

  In addition, since the server and the work area on the client (so-called desktop) are divided, in order for the documents in the client to be managed by the server, the user must register the file with the server. Don't be. In such registration, a user interface that prompts the client to add meta information (attribute) is often prepared. However, the input operation is complicated. Moreover, since it is complicated, some of the items to be input are often omitted. Moreover, since it is not information collected according to a certain standard, it is difficult to use it as meta information with good quality, for example, keywords are not unified.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above facts, and an information processing apparatus and method, an information processing program, and an information processing program capable of grasping feature information of a document without storing a document stored in another apparatus. And it aims at providing a peer system.

  In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to claim 1 is a storage means for storing document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing characteristics of the document, and a document. Receiving means for receiving the document identification information for identifying the document and the feature information representing the feature of the document from another device, and the storage means for receiving the document identification information and the feature information received from the other device by the receiving means. And control means for controlling so as to be stored.

  In other words, the information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes storage means for storing document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing the feature of the document in association with each other.

  When the receiving means receives document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing the characteristics of the document from another apparatus (information processing apparatus), the control means receives the information from the other apparatus by the receiving means. The stored document identification information and feature information are controlled to be stored in the storage means.

  As described above, the present invention receives document identification information and feature information from another device, and stores the received document identification information and feature information in the storage means. Therefore, the document stored in the other device is stored. Even without it, it is possible to grasp the feature information.

  The feature information stored in the storage means, including those received from other devices, may be read out by the feature information reading processing means (claim 2). Note that the feature information read processing unit may display a list of the read feature information, and may acquire a document based on the related feature information.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document storage unit for storing a document, a grant unit for giving document identification information to the document each time the document is stored in the document storage unit, and a document stored in the document storage unit. Transmission means for transmitting the assigned document identification information and feature information to another device each time the information is stored in the document storage means, and the control means each time the document is stored in the document storage means, Control is performed so that the assigned document identification information and feature information are stored in the storage means.

  Thus, every time a document is stored in the document storage means, the document identification information and the feature information given to the document are stored in the storage means and transmitted to another device. In addition, the receiving means receives these, and the other apparatus stores these document identification information and feature information in the storage means.

  Therefore, the feature information can be grasped without storing each document stored in another device.

  The invention described in claim 4 further includes document processing means for reading and processing the document stored in the storage means.

  Here, when the document processed by the document processing means is stored in the document storage means, as described above, the assigning means assigns the document identification information to the document, and also provides the document identification information and characteristics provided. The information is transmitted to other devices by the transmission means. Thus, as in the first aspect, the receiving means receives them, and the other apparatus stores these document identification information and feature information in the storage means.

  Further, the control means, when the document processed by the document processing means is stored in the document storage means, the document identification information of the document read out for processing by the document processing means as the document identification information, and the processed Control is performed so that the document identification information given to the document by the assigning means is stored in the storage means.

  As described above, since the document identification information of the document read out for processing by the document processing means and the document identification information given to the processed document are stored in the storage means, the processing history of the document can be grasped. .

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, when a plurality of documents are read by the document processing means, the control means stores document identification information of the read plurality of documents as the document identification information. It is characterized by controlling so that it may be memorize | stored in.

  As described above, when a plurality of documents are read out by the document processing means, the document identification information of the plurality of read-out documents is stored in the storage means as the document identification information, so that related documents are grasped. be able to.

  The information processing method according to claims 6 to 10, the information processing program according to claims 11 to 15, and the peer system according to claims 16 to 20 are the same as the inventions according to claims 1 to 5. It has the action and effect.

  As described above, according to the present invention, document identification information and feature information are received from another device, and the received document identification information and feature information are stored in the storage means. There is an effect that the feature information can be grasped without storing the document.

  Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 conceptually shows the network configuration of the P2P network 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the P2P network 10 has a configuration in which the peers 12 </ b> A to 12 </ b> G are virtually connected to each other. In practice, for example, the peers 12 </ b> A to 12 </ b> C are peers that are under access restriction by the firewall 14. The peers 12C to 12E may be peers connected to the Internet, and the peers 12E to 12G may be peers whose addresses are translated by NAT (Network Address Translation).

  There are various connection methods between peers, such as using TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connection using IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) or IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) functions, or using HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). Or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) can be used.

  Here, the term “peer” refers to, for example, a computer such as a personal computer, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance), a mobile phone, a printer, a copier, a hardware such as a multi-function machine having a plurality of these functions, or these functions. Software. Also, each peer can participate in a P2P network regardless of whether it is of the same type or a different type.

  As a form of the P2P network, as shown in FIG. 2, a pure P2P in which all of the peers 14A to 14K have an equal relationship and a server 14S as shown in FIG. For other services, there is a hybrid P2P form in which the peers 14A to 14H are realized in an equal relationship with respect to other services, and the present invention can be applied to any form.

  In addition, users or peers who log on to each peer participating in the P2P network can configure a group according to the purpose, as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, all of the peers 12A to 12G belong to the group 1, and the peers 12A, 12C, 12E, and 12F belong to the group 2, and the peers 12B, 12E, 12F, and 12G belong to the group 3. Each user or peer may belong to a single group or may belong to a plurality of groups. Also, a user or peer does not necessarily have to belong to a group.

  The basic configuration of the peer 4 (12A to 12G) will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the peer 4 includes a peer local storage 6 that stores a plurality of documents 1. The peer local storage 6 generally corresponds to a file system. The peer local storage 6 also stores a document identification information management table (see FIG. 10), which will be described later, for storing the document identification information (tag information) 2 and the document address in association with each other. The document identification information 2 is information that can identify a document. In general, a numerical value called a hash value obtained from a data constituting a document by a one-way function can be used. It may also have hint information indicating the location where the document exists. The hint is a URL, for example.

  The peer 4 also includes a meta information store 7 for storing the meta information 3 of the document. The meta information 3 is a set of data related to the document corresponding to the document identification information 2. These include basic attribute information such as the document title and creator, and information indicating the relationship with the user, peer, and other documents. The meta information store 7 stores a meta information management table (see FIGS. 11 and 13), which will be described later, for storing the document identification information 2 and the meta information 3 in association with each other. The meta information 3 corresponds to the document identification information 2, and the document identification information 2 corresponds to the document. Therefore, the meta information 3 corresponds to the document.

  The peer 4 includes a desktop 5 on which a user activity result collection agent 8 operates. The user activity result collection agent 8 extracts meta information to be described later from the user activity at the peer 4 and stores it in the meta information management table of the peer.

  The peer local storage 6 is monitored by the system behavior collection agent 9, extracts meta information from the system behavior such as file increase / decrease, and is stored in a meta information management table to be described later via the user activity result collection agent 8. The Note that the system behavior collection agent 9 itself may collect this meta information and store it in the meta information management table.

  The peer 4 includes a meta information search engine 10. The meta information search engine 10 searches meta information in accordance with an instruction from the user, and generates a list of document identification information. At this time, the user's instruction is not always explicitly performed, and the search may be executed semi-automatically in conjunction with an operation of opening a certain document or folder, for example. The search engine may access not only the local peer meta information store but also the remote peer meta information store, or may perform processing such as obtaining a result in cooperation with the remote peer search engine.

  The peer 4 includes a meta information exchange agent 11 that transmits / receives meta information stored in the meta information store 7 to / from other peers and shares the same meta information in each meta information management table.

  The peer 4 may include a peer shared document cache 12. The peer shared document cache 12 is an entity of a document store shared between the peers 4 and holds a copy of the document content. When the document identification information of the document selected as a result of the search indicates a document existing in this cache, the document in this cache is referred to. The peer 4 may include the document sharing agent 13. The document sharing agent 13 is an agent constituting a network for exchanging document contents on the peer shared document cache between peers.

  In addition, the peer 4 may include an external repository 14. The external repository 14 represents a conventional document management system, a shared folder on a server, or the like. Document contents can be stored, and the location can be indicated by some expression (URL or file path).

  Further, the peer 4 may include a repository registration client 15.

  Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the document update process. At step 302, the user launches an application on desktop 5 (see also FIG. 9) and loads document 1 in peer local storage 6. In step 304, the user makes changes to the document (edit).

  In step 306, the document 1 is stored on the peer local storage 6. In this embodiment, each time a document is stored, document identification information (the tag information described above) 2 corresponds to the address in the peer local storage 6 where the updated document is stored, and document management is performed. It is stored (added) in a table (see FIG. 10). For example, the address of the document loaded for editing this time is “C: ¥ My Documents ¥ document.doc”, and the document identification information is A1. When this document is edited and overwritten, document identification information A2 is given as document identification information of the edited document.

  When the document 1 is overwritten and saved on the peer local storage 6 as described above, a file update event is issued from the peer local storage 6 to the user activity result collection agent 8 (step 308). For this purpose, the user activity result collection agent 8 needs to be set in advance to receive a file update event. As a result, the user activity result collection agent 8 is activated.

  When the user activity result collection agent 8 is started as described above, it is based on the address “C: \ My Documents \ document.doc” of the updated document on the peer local storage 6 in step 312 of FIG. The document management table (FIG. 10) is searched. In this example, it is recorded that the document having the document identification information A1 was once stored at the address “C: \ My Documents \ document.doc”. By referring to this record, it is obtained that the document identification information of the document before update at the address “C: ¥ My Documents ¥ document.doc” was A1.

  Next, in step 314, a set of document identification information before update (A1 in the above example) obtained by searching and document identification information newly generated this time corresponding to the updated document (A2 in the above example) is set. The information is collected together with the update date and information of the updater, and the collected information is added to the meta information management table (see FIG. 11) in the meta information store 7. As a result, the meta information exchange agent is activated in step 316. Specifically, the meta information added this time is transmitted to each peer in step 322 of FIG. Thereby, the content of the meta information management table can be made the same at each peer.

  Finally, the item corresponding to the address “C: \ My Documents \ document.doc” in the document management table is updated with the document identifier A2 after overwriting (see FIG. 10B).

 The contents described above will be described by taking, for example, a case where there are two users (Alice and Bob) as an example. First, according to the above example, in the peer 4 used by Alice, an existing document identified by the document identification information A1 is loaded, edited, saved, and the document identification information A2 is given to the saved document. . In this case, as indicated by reference numeral K1 in FIG. 11, in the meta information management table, A1 and A2, the updater Alice, and the update date (2003/9/1 13:17) are stored in association with each other. Shared by peer.

  Next, it is assumed that the document (identified by A2) is transmitted from Alice's peer 4 to Bob's peer 4 and stored in peer local storage 6 in Bob's peer 4. At this time, in the document management table in the peer 4 of Bob, the address of the document stored this time, for example, “D: \ home \ bob \ document.doc” and the document identifier A1 of the document are associated with each other and recorded. Is done. Thus, the document identifier is used to identify a particular version of a document independent of its location in storage within different peers. Here, it is assumed that Bob further edits this document on the peer 4 of Bob, overwrites and saves the document, and the document identification information B1 is newly given to the saved document. In this case, at the peer 4 used by Bob, as indicated by reference numeral K3 in FIG. 11, the document identification information A2 and the document identification information B1 given by storing the current document are stored in the meta information management table. Is stored in correspondence with the updater Bob and the update date (2003/9/3 16:25), and is shared by each peer.

  On the other hand, when Alice loads, edits and saves the document identified by the document identification information A2 at the peer 4 used by Alice, the identification information A3 is added to the saved document. In this case, as indicated by reference numeral K2 in FIG. 11, the meta information management table stores A2 and A3, the updater Alice, and the update date and time (2003/9/8 10:35). Shared by peer.

 Then, again, the above document (identified by A3) is transmitted from Alice's peer 4 to Bob's peer 4 and stored in peer local storage 6 at Bob's peer 4. In the document management table in the peer 4, the address stored on the peer local storage 6, for example “D: ¥ home ¥ bob ¥ document (Alice revision) .doc”, and the document identifier A <b> 3 are stored as a pair. Is done. When this is further edited and saved by Bob, the document identification information B2 is given to the document and saved in correspondence with the address of the document. In this case, at the peer 4 used by Bob, as indicated by reference numeral K4 in FIG. 11, the document identification information A3 and the document identification information given by storing the edited document are stored in the meta information management table. B2 corresponds, and is further stored corresponding to the updater Bob and the update date (2003/9/15 11:43), and is shared by each peer.

  As described above, since the document identification information before update and the document identification information after update are managed in association with each other in the meta information management table (FIG. 11), it is possible to grasp the editing history of the document. FIG. 12 shows an editing history obtained based on the above series of examples. An editing history from a specific version identified by the document identifier A1 to an arbitrary version is indicated by an arrow.

  The meta information search engine 10 of the peer 4 searches the set of meta information obtained as described above according to an instruction from the user. As a search result, for example, a list of document identification information that is derived by editing by each peer from a specific version recognized by a specific document identification information is obtained as useful information. Note that this is not necessarily limited to the case where the user's instruction is given explicitly. For example, the latest version that updated the document is generated in another peer in conjunction with the operation of opening a document. In order to obtain information such as whether or not there is a search, the search may be automatically executed.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the document management table stores the document address and the document identification information for identifying the document in correspondence with each other, and the meta information management table stores the document for each document before and after the update. The document and the meta information of the document are separated by storing the identification information corresponding to the meta information such as the update date and time and the updater.

  In the above embodiment, when a document is updated and saved, document identification information is assigned to the saved updated document, and the document identification information of the document before and after the update is shared by each peer. Even if the document has been updated in, it can be understood by other peers. Therefore, it is possible to grasp the update of the document in the other peer without transmitting the updated document to each predetermined peer or the like.

  Further, in the above embodiment, when the document is stored, predetermined information such as the updater and the update date / time is automatically collected in the updated document corresponding to the document identification information, and the meta information management table is collected. And share with each peer. In this way, meta information can be unified at each peer because it introduced document identification information that can identify each version of a document without depending on document storage in peer local stores in different peers. is there.

  In the above embodiment, since each peer shares and manages meta information, the load can be distributed unlike the case where the conventional server collectively manages. Therefore, for example, conventionally, if the server does not operate, each corresponding client cannot search for a document. However, in this embodiment, each peer manages meta information, so this is dealt with when the server is not operating. The client documents can no longer be searched.

  Next, various modifications of the present embodiment will be described.

First Modification In the above-described embodiment, the update of a document is tracked in step 312 described above. However, in this modification, a document that is referred to at the same time, or a document that is referred to before or after a certain document. Collect information.

  Hereinafter, an example of meta information extracted with respect to another document referred to at the same time as a certain document will be described.

  In step 312 (see FIG. 7) in the present modification, information on the document being referred to and documents referred to before and after a certain document are collected. In step 314, as shown in FIG. 13, the document identification information of the already opened document is associated with the document identification information of the newly opened document, and added to the meta information management table. The added information is transmitted to each peer (step 322 (FIG. 8)) and shared.

  In this way, the meta information management table stores and manages the document identification information of the already opened document and the document identification information of the newly opened document in association with each other. At this time, it can be assumed that the documents referred to at the same time or close times are generally strongly related to each other, so that the relationship can be grasped. Therefore, for example, when a certain document is opened (loading operation in the above example), based on this meta information management table (FIG. 13), a highly related document is grasped, and the grasped document is also presented. Can be.

  As described above, it is not limited to the relationship between two documents, such as a document that has already been opened and a document that has been newly opened. A chain of relationships occurs, such as related to a document. Similar to the weighting by the link between pages of the Web search engine, weighting based on such a chain makes it possible to determine the strength of the relationship between documents more comprehensively.

  The related information obtained as described above can be searched by the meta information search engine 10 of the peer 4 according to an instruction from the user, and a list of related document identification information can be generated and presented to the user. Note that the present invention is not limited to the case where the user's instruction is explicitly given. For example, the search may be executed semi-automatically in conjunction with an operation such as opening a certain document or folder.

Second modification (cooperation with repository registration client)
A document management system having one or more repository servers and at least one client includes a dedicated client for registering documents in the repository. Such a client can be extended and configured as a peer as in the above embodiment. At this time, the meta information registered in the repository may be stored in the meta information store in the present system and shared between peers. In this configuration, the search based on the meta information can be performed without each peer accessing the repository server. Furthermore, by registering new meta information obtained as shown in the above-described embodiment in the repository server, it is possible to refer to the meta information even in a client not participating in the P2P network. become.

Third modification (work support by automatic selection of related documents)
In the present embodiment, meta information in each of the examples described above may be shared within a group (see FIG. 4 and the like) to naturally form a set of documents that are strongly related to a certain document. . Thus, when a certain document is opened in a state where a certain amount of “knowledge” has already been acquired, the related document is automatically displayed using the meta information management table (FIG. 11 or FIG. 13), or You may make it load by simple operation. This means that knowledge has been transmitted.

It is a network block diagram of a P2P network. It is a network block diagram of pure P2P. It is a network block diagram of hybrid P2P. It is a conceptual diagram for demonstrating the group of a P2P network. It is a block diagram which shows the basic composition of a peer. It is a flowchart of a document edit process. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a meta information management table update process started and executed in step 308 of FIG. 6. FIG. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a meta information sharing process started in step 316 of FIG. 7. It is explanatory drawing explaining the effect | action of this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows a document identification information management table, (A) shows the document identification information management table before the document identified by A1 is updated, (B) shows the document identified by A1 as a peer. The document identification information management table is shown after being updated on the same address of the local store, that is, overwritten and given the document identification information of A2. It is a figure which shows a meta information management table. It is a figure which shows the update log | history of the document derived from a certain document derived | led-out from the content of a meta information management table (FIG. 11). It is a figure which shows the meta information management table which concerns on a 1st modification.

Explanation of symbols

4 Peer 6 Peer Local Storage 7 Meta Information Store 11 Meta Information Exchange Agent 8 User Activity Result Collection Agent

Claims (20)

Storage means for correspondingly storing document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing characteristics of the document;
Receiving means for receiving document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing the characteristics of the document from another device;
Control means for controlling document identification information and feature information received from another device by the receiving means to be stored in the storage means;
An information processing apparatus comprising:   2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising feature information reading processing means for reading and processing feature information stored in the storage means. Document storage means for storing a document;
An assigning means for giving document identification information to the document each time the document is stored in the document storage means;
Transmission means for transmitting the assigned document identification information and feature information to another device each time a document is stored in the document storage means;
With
2. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein each time a document is stored in the document storage unit, the assigned document identification information and characteristic information are stored in the storage unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2. Document processing means for reading and processing a document stored in the document storage means,
When the document processed by the document processing unit is stored in the document storage unit, the control unit includes, as the document identification information, document identification information of a document read for processing by the document processing unit, and the processing 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein control is performed so that document identification information given to the given document by the assigning unit is stored in the storage unit.   The control unit performs control so that document identification information of the plurality of read documents is stored in the storage unit as the document identification information when a plurality of documents are read by the document processing unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3. Receiving document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing the characteristics of the document from another device;
Storing document identification information and feature information received from another device in storage means;
An information processing method comprising:   The information processing method according to claim 6, further comprising a feature information read processing step of reading and processing the feature information stored in the storage unit. Each time a document is stored in a document storage means for storing the document, giving document identification information to the document;
Each time a document is stored in the document storage means, transmitting the assigned document identification information and feature information to another device;
With
8. The storage step stores the given document identification information and feature information in the storage unit every time a document is stored in the document storage unit. Information processing method. A step of reading and processing the document stored in the document storage means;
In the storing step, when the document processed by the document processing unit is stored in the document storage unit, the document identification information of the document read out for processing is used as the document identification information, and the processed document The information processing method according to claim 8, further comprising: storing the document identification information given by the granting step in the storage unit.   9. The storage step of storing the document identification information of the plurality of read documents in the storage unit as the document identification information when the plurality of documents are read. The information processing method described. An information processing program for causing a computer to execute the following information processing:
The information processing
Receiving document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing the characteristics of the document from another device;
Storing document identification information and feature information received from another device in storage means;
Information processing program with   The information processing program according to claim 11, further comprising a step of reading and processing feature information stored in the storage unit. The information processing includes providing document identification information to a document each time the document is stored in a document storage unit that stores the document;
Each time a document is stored in the document storage means, transmitting the assigned document identification information and feature information to another device;
With
13. The storage step stores the assigned document identification information and feature information in the storage unit every time a document is stored in the document storage unit. Information processing program. The information processing further comprises a step of reading and processing a document stored in the document storage means,
In the storing step, when the document processed by the document processing unit is stored in the document storage unit, the document identification information of the document read out for processing is used as the document identification information, and the processed document 14. The information processing program according to claim 13, wherein the document identification information given by the granting step is stored in the storage means.   In the storage step, when a plurality of documents are read out in the document processing step, the document identification information of the plurality of read out documents is stored in the storage unit as the document identification information. An information processing program according to claim 13. A peer system with multiple peers,
Each peer
Receiving document identification information for identifying a document and feature information representing characteristics of the document from another peer;
Storing document identification information and feature information received from other peers in a storage unit;
A peer system characterized by that.   The peer system according to claim 16, wherein each peer reads out and processes the feature information stored in the storage unit. Each time a document is stored in the document storage unit that stores the document, document identification information is given to the document,
Each time a document is stored in the document storage means, the assigned document identification information and feature information are transmitted to another device, and the assigned document identification information and feature information are stored in the storage unit. The peer system according to claim 16 or 17, characterized by: Read and process the document stored in the document storage unit,
When the processed document is stored in a document storage unit, as the document identification information, document identification information of the document read out for processing, and the document identification given to the processed document by the granting step The peer system according to claim 18, wherein information is stored in the storage unit.   19. The peer system according to claim 18, wherein when the plurality of documents are read, document identification information of the plurality of read documents is stored in the storage unit as the document identification information.

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