JP2012014395A - File management device and file management method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable inconvenience that even a file with old meta data is searched to be prevented.SOLUTION: A file management device comprises setting means for setting a validity period for meta data of a file, searching means for searching a file in which a validity period is set for meta data by the setting means, and display control means for changing the display method of the file searched by the searching means according to whether the current date is within the validity period of the meta data or not, thereby enabling searching with meta data or the content of meta data within the validity period.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique suitable for use in a file management apparatus that handles metadata having an expiration date.

  Conventionally, it has been common to mark or mark a favorite image from a number of images or videos for viewing or editing. However, deleting a mark marked as a favorite after a certain period of time is a very cumbersome task. .

  Markers and sticky notes can be considered as marks in books and magazines, but metadata can be considered as marks in electronic files such as images and videos. Apart from this, there is a method in which an expiration date is added to the content, and the content cannot be referred to when the content is not valid when referring to the content (for example, see Patent Document 1). On the other hand, there is a need to access content even if it is outside the expiration date.

  In addition, there has been proposed a technique for requesting the user to take some measures for the metadata when the expiration date has passed (see, for example, Patent Document 2). On the other hand, there is a need to search for metadata that falls within the expiration date for files in a personal computer.

JP 2006-050105 A JP 2007-323235 A

  Conventionally, metadata once added by a user must be deleted when it is no longer used after a certain period of time, but there is a problem that the deletion operation becomes complicated if there are a large number of target files.

In addition, the same metadata may be newly added to another file while the metadata that is no longer used is left unattended. At this time, there is a problem that even files with new metadata added are caught in the search, but the files with old metadata are caught in the search.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a file metadata and an expiration date for the metadata so that the search can be performed using the metadata that matches the expiration date and the content of the metadata.

  The file management apparatus according to the present invention includes a setting unit that sets an effective period in file metadata, a search unit that searches for a file whose effective period is set in the metadata by the setting unit, and a file that is searched by the search unit And a display control means for changing a file display method according to whether the metadata is valid or not.

  According to the present invention, the metadata of the file and the expiration date for the metadata are provided, and the search can be performed using the metadata and the content of the metadata that match the expiration date. Therefore, it is easy to search for the target file.

It is a block diagram of the file management apparatus of embodiment of this embodiment. It is a block diagram of postcard creation software as one embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of an image selection dialog. It is explanatory drawing of the rating setting dialog with a 1st expiration date. It is explanatory drawing of the metadata addition method in a file. It is a flowchart of the algorithm of the process which adds metadata. It is explanatory drawing of the menu in postcard creation software. It is explanatory drawing of the image selection dialog which displayed the search result as a list. It is a flowchart explaining search and display processing of metadata with an expiration date. It is explanatory drawing of the specific use case of the file management apparatus of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the rating setting dialog with a 2nd expiration date. It is explanatory drawing of the rating setting dialog with a 3rd expiration date. It is explanatory drawing of the 4th rating setting dialog with an expiration date. It is explanatory drawing of the rating setting dialog with a 5th expiration date. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a rating search dialog according to the sixth embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the time relationship between a search object period and the expiration date of metadata.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, an embodiment of a file management apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the file management apparatus according to the present embodiment, which creates a postcard.
As shown in FIG. 1, the file management apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101 and an HDD / SSD (Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive) 102. Further, it has a ROM (Read Only Memory) 103, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 104, and a VRAM (Video RAM) 105. Furthermore, a keyboard 106, a mouse, a recording medium 108, and a monitor 110 are provided, and these blocks are connected to each other by a bus 109.

  The HDD / SSD 102 stores a postcard creation software program and image data used for the postcard illustration. The CPU 101 reads the program of the postcard creation software from the HDD / SSD 102 via the bus 109 and executes the program while developing it on the RAM 104. Further, the CPU 101 reads image data from the HDD / SSD 102 via the bus 109 and displays the image data on the monitor 110 via the VRAM 105 in response to a program instruction of the postcard creation software.

  The CPU 101 performs various processes such as image addition and image search based on data or commands input from a pointing device such as the keyboard 106 and mouse 107. The postcard creation software is an SD Card (Secure Digital Memory Card) or DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) via the bus 109. Alternatively, an image file is captured from a recording medium such as a BD (Blue-ray Disc).

  When the user designates and activates the postcard creation software on the monitor 110, the window (registered trademark) input screen 201 of the postcard creation software shown in FIG. An edit area 202 on the back of the postcard is displayed on the field of the postcard creation software, and menu items such as “file”, “edit”, “display”, and “insert” are displayed on the menu.

  The user can create a postcard by placing characters and images in the editing area 202 on the back side of the postcard. When placing an image in the postcard creation software, selecting the “Insert” → “Insert Image” menu 203 opens the image selection dialog 301 in FIG. 3, and a favorite list is displayed from the image list displayed there. Select an image. In this image selection dialog, an image stored in a recording medium such as the HDD / SSD 102, a DVD or a memory card (not shown) is displayed. In the default image selection dialog, all the image files in the path designated in advance by the user are displayed.

A method for adding a rating and an expiration date to an image will be described below.
In the image selection dialog 301, when an image to which metadata with an expiration date is to be added is selected with a mouse pointer, the selected state is entered. A frame 302 indicating the selection state is displayed around the image in the selection state. In this state, when the right mouse button is pressed, a context menu is displayed. Here, when “add rating with expiration date” 303 is selected, a rating setting dialog with expiration date shown in FIG. 4 is displayed.

The rating setting dialog 401 with expiration date is composed of a rating setting area 402, an expiration date start date setting area 403, and an expiration date end date setting area 404.
In the rating setting area 402, the user can set the degree of preference for an image from one star to three stars. Three stars have the highest degree of preference, while one star has the least degree of preference. To set one star, click the first star from the left with the mouse. To set two stars, click the second star from the left with the mouse. To set three stars, click the left. Set by clicking the third star with the mouse.

  The expiry date start date setting area 403 and the expiry date end date setting area 404 are calendar controls, and the expiry date for the rating set above can be set. The expiration date start date is set in the expiration date start setting area 403, and the expiration date is set in the expiration date setting area 404. In the calendar control, when the year and month are specified in the combo box, the calendar of the corresponding year and month is displayed, and the date to be specified is set there. When the setting of the rating and the expiration date is completed, when the OK button 405 is pressed, metadata with an expiration date is recorded in the image file.

FIG. 5 illustrates a conceptual diagram of how to attach metadata with an expiration date to a file.
The file 501 is divided into a header portion 502 and a data portion 503. The data portion 503 is an area in which data of content 506 such as an image, a moving image, and a thumbnail 509 are stored. On the other hand, the header portion 502 is an area for storing attached information as a tag.

  In the rating setting dialog with expiration date described above, the set rating 507 is recorded in the first attached information tag 504 (attached information 1) in FIG. In the rating setting dialog with an expiration date, the set expiration date 508 is recorded in the second attached information tag 505 (attached information 2). The expiration date of the attached information 2 is related to the attached information 1.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for adding metadata with an expiration date.
In S601, the user selects an image to be written on the postcard on the postcard creation software, opens a rating setting dialog with an expiration date, and specifies the rating and the expiration date.
Next, in S602, the postcard creation software sets a rating for the attached information 1 and an expiration date for the attached information 2 for the image selected by the user.

Below, the method of searching with metadata with an expiration date and the method of displaying will be described.
As shown in FIG. 7A, when the “Edit” → “Rating search with expiration date” menu 702 is selected on the postcard creation software window 701, a rating search dialog 703 is displayed as shown in FIG. 7B. Is displayed. The rating setting area 704 of the rating search dialog 703 can set the degree of preference of the image that the user wants to search from 1 star to 3 stars. To set one star, click the first star from the left with the mouse. To set two stars, click the second star from the left with the mouse. Furthermore, when setting three stars, the third star from the left can be set by clicking with the mouse.

  By pressing a search button 705 in the rating search dialog 703, an image having the same number of ratings as the user's favorite rating and matching the search condition that the rating is within the valid period is searched. Then, as a search result, a list of image selection dialogs is displayed as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 8, target files that do not match the search conditions are displayed in a translucent manner. The user can select an image to be added to the postcard, for example, the image 802 from the image list in the image selection dialog 801. In the present embodiment, the target file that matches the search condition is displayed in the first direction, and the target file that does not match the search condition is displayed in the last direction.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for searching for and displaying metadata with an expiration date.
In S901, when the user designates a rating to be searched on the postcard creation software, the postcard creation software acquires the rating and the current date (S902). Next, the postcard creation software searches the HDD in the personal computer to determine the presence or absence of the next image (S903). If the next image exists as a result of this determination, the process proceeds to S904. Ends. In S904, the postcard creation software accesses the found image and acquires attached information 1 and attached information 2 of the image (S905).

  In step S906, it is determined whether the user-specified rating and the image rating are the same. If the result of this determination is the same, the process proceeds to S907; otherwise, the process proceeds to S909. In S907, it is determined whether the current date is within the validity period of the attached information 2 or outside the validity period. In this embodiment, display control is performed to change the display method of the searched target file depending on whether the metadata is within the valid period or outside the valid period. That is, if the result of the determination in S907 is within the valid period, the process proceeds to S908, and if it is outside the valid period, the process proceeds to S909. In S908, the corresponding image is displayed in the image list dialog (Enable display), and then the process returns to S903. On the other hand, in S909, the corresponding image is not displayed in the image list (Disable display), and the process returns to S903.

In the following, the first embodiment will be described with reference to a specific use example in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 10, at the time 1001 when the image selection dialog is opened in the postcard creation software, it is the same as general postcard creation software. At the time 1002 on November 27, 2008, which is the season of the New Year's card for 2009, the user selects a number of image candidates that he / she wants to add to the New Year's card from a large number of illustration images in the image selection dialog on the postcard creation software. Select and give a rating of 3 stars. At the same time, the expiration date from today (November 27, 2008) to January 7, 2009 is set as the expiration date.

Each time the user opens the image list dialog during the New Year's card editing process, the rating search dialog reduces the number of images with a rating of three stars without searching for the target image from a large number of illustrations. It becomes possible to narrow down and search. Then, by displaying the list in the image selection dialog, it is possible to easily find images that are candidates for addition to the New Year's card.
When the time has passed and the image of the pine tree on January 8, 2009 has ended 1003, even if an image having a rating of three stars is searched in the rating search dialog of the postcard creation software, the expiration date has passed. For this reason, candidate images designated by the user in advance in the image list are not displayed.

  Further, on November 30, 2009, which is the New Year's card season of 2010, the user selects a new image that the user himself / herself wants to add as a candidate in the image selection dialog of the postcard creation software. Then, as a rating of three stars and an expiration date, an expiration date from November 30, 2009 to January 7, 2010 can be added. In this state, when searching with a rating of 3 stars, only an image with a rating of 3 stars at the time 1004 on November 30, 2009 is displayed in the image selection dialog. At this time, an image having a rating of three stars attached on November 27, 2008 is not displayed. This means that the troublesome work of deleting the old rating given by the user on November 27, 2008 becomes unnecessary.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, the user sets an expiration date for an image and its rating. On the other hand, a method in which not the image but the postcard creation software holds the expiration date is also conceivable.
As shown in FIG. 11, the postcard creation software 1101 holds a list 1102 in which keywords and periods of each season such as New Year's cards, summer greetings, and Christmas are recorded. On the other hand, each image holds a keyword related to each season in the first attached information tag of metadata.
In the example of FIG. 11, metadata of “New Year's card” 1103, “Funny during the cold” 1104, “Funny during the summer” 1105, and “Christmas” 1106 are held as the first attached information tags. Here, the attached information 2 is not added to each image.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when the postcard creation software 1101 is started, the list 1102 is checked, and if there is an image corresponding to the season, all image files having the keyword of the season as metadata are searched. And display. In this embodiment, since the expiration date for the specific keyword is already set, there is an advantage that the user does not need to add the expiration date metadata to the target file according to the event.

(Third embodiment)
In the first embodiment, the user sets two start dates and end dates for the expiration date in the calendar control of the rating setting dialog with the expiration date. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 12, only a desired period, such as “5 days later” or “3 months later”, is specified as the expiration date for the rating based on the current time. You can also.

  As shown in FIG. 12, in this embodiment, a rating setting dialog 1201 with an expiration date includes a rating setting area 1202, an expiration date parameter setting text box 1203, and an expiration date unit setting combo box 1204. In the rating setting area, the user can set the degree of preference for the image from one star to three stars. Three stars have the highest degree of preference, while one star has the least degree of preference. To set one star, click the first star from the left with the mouse. To set two stars, click the second star from the left with the mouse. To set three stars, click the left. You can set it by clicking the third star with the mouse.

  In the expiry date setting area, the expiry date parameter can be set in the expiry date parameter setting text box 1203 as an arbitrary integer between 1 and 100. Further, in the unit setting combo box 1204 for the expiration date, one item can be selected from the four items of “days later”, “weeks later”, “months later”, and “years later” as the unit of the expiration date.

  When the OK button 1205 is pressed, the postcard creation software performs the following operations. That is, the date when the expiration date ends is calculated from the current date held by the clock of the personal computer, the expiration date parameter set on the rating setting dialog 1201 with the expiration date, and the expiration date unit. Then, the current date and the expiration date calculated on the expiration date are written in the attached information 2 in FIG. At the same time, the postcard creation software writes the rating set in the rating dialog with an expiration date in the attached information 1 in FIG.

When the user specifies two stars as the rating and three weeks after the expiration date on the rating setting dialog with an expiration date on January 5, 2010, two stars are written in the attached information 1 of the image. Further, the attached information 2 is written with January 5, 2010 as the expiration date and January 26, 2010 as the expiration date.
According to the present embodiment, it is only necessary for the user to simply consider how long the expiration date of the metadata is from the present time, and it is necessary to consider two of the expiration date and the expiration date. Disappear.

(Fourth embodiment)
In the first embodiment, when the expiration date is set, the start date and the end date of the expiration date are specified. The validity start date and end date can be indefinite.
The rating setting dialog 1301 with an expiration date in FIG. 13 is an embodiment in which the expiration date and end date can be indefinite.

  In the rating setting dialog 1301 with an expiration date, the following contents are arranged. That is, a rating setting area 1302, an expiration date start date unlimited setting check box 1303, an expiration date end unlimited setting checkbox 1304, an expiration date starting date setting area 1305, and an expiration date ending date setting area 1306 are arranged.

  The functions of the portions excluding the expiry date start date unlimited setting check box 1303 and the expiry date end unlimited setting check box 1304 are the same as those in the rating setting dialog with the expiry date of the first embodiment. In the fourth embodiment, when the expiry date end date unlimited setting check box 1304 is checked, the expiry date end setting area 1306 is disabled, and the area does not accept input of a pointing device.

  When the OK button 1307 is pressed in this state, the postcard creation software writes the rating in the attached information 1 in FIG. 5 and means that the attached information 2 has an indefinite expiration date. Write. The same applies to the unlimited expiration date start date check box. When the unlimited expiration date limit check box is checked, the expiration date setting area is disabled, and the area does not accept input from the pointing device.

  When the OK button 1307 is pressed in this state, the postcard creation software writes the rating to the attached information 1 in FIG. 5 and means that the attached information 2 has no expiration date on the expiration date (0000 00 00 00). Day). It is also possible to set an indefinite period for both the expiration date and the expiration date. As a result, the user can create not only a limited period of time but also metadata with an indefinite period of validity, and can always create an image file that the user wants to be caught in the search.

(Fifth embodiment)
In the first embodiment, at the time of rating search (metadata search), the current date is acquired from the internal clock of the personal computer, and the current date is included in the expiration date of the image file to be searched. I was judging. In the present embodiment, the search is performed based on whether the date specified by the user is included in the expiration date of the image file to be searched instead of the current date.
FIG. 14 shows a rating search dialog 1401 that realizes the above-described embodiment. In this rating search dialog, a rating setting area 1402 and a search target date setting area 1403 are arranged.

  In the rating setting area 1402, the degree of user preference is set by the number of stars, and the date specified by the user is set in the search target date setting area 1403. When the search button 1404 is pressed, the postcard creation software searches for an image file whose date specified by the user is included in the expiration date, and displays a list of files that meet the conditions. Thereby, although the user is not necessary at the present time, it is possible to obtain information on the image file that has been necessary at a specific time in the past.

(Sixth embodiment)
In the fifth embodiment, the user can set a reference date for determining whether or not the expiration date is included in the rating search, but this is an example in which a specific period is used instead of a specific date.

  FIG. 15 shows a rating search dialog 1501 that realizes the above-described embodiment. In the rating search dialog 1501, a rating setting area 1502, a search target period start date setting area 1503, a search target period end date setting area 1504, and a search option radio box 1505 are arranged.

The degree of user preference is set in the rating setting area 1502 by the number of stars, and a specific period specified by the user is set in the search target period start date setting area 1503 and the search target period end date setting area 1504. A search option radio box 1505 is used to set a user-preferred search option, and a search button 1506 is pressed. In response to this, the postcard creation software searches for an image file whose period specified by the user is included in the expiration date, and displays a list of files that meet the conditions.
A search option radio box 1505 is a radio button for “search for a file including the entire expiration date of the rating within the search target period”. And a “search for files whose entire or part of the expiration date of the rating is included within the search target period” radio buttons.

  Here, it is assumed that the image file 1, the image file 2, the image file 3, the image file 4, and the image file 5 are stored in the HDD / SSD 102 of the personal computer as shown in FIG. The image file 1 holds an expiration date 1601 of “November 25 to December 10”, the image file 2 holds an expiration date 1602 of “December 5 to December 15”, and the image file 3 The expiration date 1603 of “December 12 to December 25” is held.

  The image file 4 holds an expiration date 1604 “December 20 to January 10”, and the image file 5 holds an expiration date 1605 “January 10 to January 15”. The horizontal axis in FIG. 16 represents the time axis, and the arrow represents the expiration date of each image file. The search area “December 1st to December 31st” represents the range of the search target period start date and the search target period end date set in the rating search dialog.

  The search target period start date is December 1, 2008 and the search target period end date is December 31, 2008. In the search option radio box, select “Files that include the entire expiration date of the rating within the search target period”. Set to the “Search for target” radio button and search.

  In this case, the postcard creation software detects the image file 2 and the image file 3 in which the entire arrow fits perfectly in the period from December 1 to December 31 in FIG. 16, and displays the image list. The image file 1, the image file 4, and the image file 5 are not detected in the search because the entire arrow is not included in the search period described above.

  As described above, the search target period start date is set to December 1, 2008 and the search target period end date is set to December 31, 2008 at the time of search. In addition, the search option radio box is set to the “Search for files whose entire or part of the expiration date of the rating is included within the search target period” radio button to perform the search. In this case, the postcard creation software stores the image file 1, the image file 2, the image file 3, and the image file 4 in which the entire arrow fits completely or partially during the corresponding period from December 1 to December 31 in FIG. 16. Detect and display image list. The image file 5 is not detected in the search because the arrows do not overlap even partly during the corresponding period. This example allows the user to search not only for images that were within the expiration date on a specific date, but also for images that satisfy the expiration date within a wider range of periods.

  An expiration date template is held, and an expiration date corresponding to the metadata keyword is calculated from the template when searching for the target metadata. Then, it may be determined whether the expiration date is included in the current date, the user-specified date, or the user-specified period.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to the system or apparatus via a network or various computer-readable storage media. Then, the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads out and executes the program.

501 File, 502 Header part, 503 Data part, 504 Attachment information 1, 505 Attachment information 2, 506 Content, 507 Rating, 508 Expiration date, 509 Thumbnail

Claims (10)

A setting means for setting the validity period in the file metadata;
Search means for searching for a file whose valid period is set in the metadata by the setting means;
A file management apparatus comprising: a display control unit that changes a display method of the file searched by the search unit depending on whether the metadata is valid or out of validity.   The file management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays the target file within the valid period of the metadata and does not display the target file outside the valid period.   2. The file management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays the target file in an enabled state within the effective period of the metadata, and displays the disabled file outside the effective period.   2. The file management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays a target file that matches the search condition at the beginning, and displays a target file that does not match the search condition at the end.   The search means determines whether the current date or a user-specified date falls within the validity period of the target file, and determines whether the metadata matches the metadata conditions specified by the user The file management device according to claim 1, wherein the file management device is a file management device.   The search means determines whether a user-specified period is included or not included in the effective period of the target file, and determines whether the metadata matches the metadata condition specified by the user The file management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   The search means holds an expiration date template, calculates an expiration date corresponding to the metadata keyword when searching for the target metadata, and the expiration date is the current date or a user-specified date or 7. The file management apparatus according to claim 5, wherein it is determined whether or not the period is included in a user-specified period. A setting process for setting the validity period in the metadata of the file;
A search step for searching for a file whose valid period is set in the metadata in the setting step;
A file management method comprising: a display control step of changing a display method of the file searched in the search step according to whether the metadata is valid or out of validity. A setting process for setting the validity period in the metadata of the file;
A search step for searching for a file whose valid period is set in the metadata in the setting step;
A program causing a computer to execute a display control step of changing a display method of a file searched in the search step depending on whether the metadata is valid or out of validity.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 9.

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