JP2013210862A - Retrieval method for difference information between versions of document - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To more accurately retrieve a changed version regarding a change in specific part of a document.SOLUTION: A retrieval method includes retrieval request accepting means which accepts a retrieval request together with a retrieval word with respect to a different portion between versions of a document, difference information extracting means which extracts a different portion by investigating differences between all the versions in the document subjected to retrieval, and retrieval means which performs retrieval on the different portion extracted by the difference information extracting means while using the retrieval word accepted by the retrieval request accepting means. The different portion is extracted by investigating a difference between all versions in the document subjected to retrieval where a version number of the changed version or associated attribute information is acquired with respect to the retrieval word accepted by the retrieval request accepting means as a result of retrieval by the retrieval means, retrieval is performed on the extracted different portion by using the retrieval word accepted by the retrieval request accepting means, and version information which is changed with respect to the accepted retrieval word is acquired.

Description

  The present invention relates to a search method for difference information between versions of a document in a document management system.

  In the document management system, document version management is generally possible. That is, when a document is newly registered or created, the version becomes V1.0, and by updating the document, the version increases to V2.0, V3.0,... And all the documents are retained without being overwritten.

  In order to confirm the contents of past versions, it is necessary to select one version from the version history of the document and open the version. For this reason, it is necessary to perform a very complicated work to check the document change history such as “Which version has this description changed?”. In order to solve this problem, there is a technique in which a document is searched with a search word that seems to exist in the document, and a version including a keyword and a version not including the keyword are visually displayed (see Patent Document 1). .

JP 2003-167911 A

  In the technique described above, since the entire document is simply searched, there is a high possibility that an unintended search result is obtained. For example, when there are many search terms in a document, there is a possibility that even if the user wants to know the change history on the 12th page, the search is hit on another page.

In order to solve the above problems, this proposal
Search request accepting means (S604) for accepting a search request together with a search word for a difference between versions of a document;
A difference information extracting means (S503) means for examining differences between all versions in a document to be searched and extracting a difference portion;
Search means (S605) for executing a search for the difference portion extracted by the difference information extraction means (S503) with the search word received by the search request acceptance means (S604);
As a result of the search by the search means (S605), a version information acquisition means (S607) for acquiring the version number of the version having changed with respect to the search word received by the search request reception means (S604) and related attribute information; ,
It is characterized by having.

  In the present invention, it is possible to more accurately search for a changed version of a change in a specific part of a document.

System Configuration Software configuration diagram Example of difference information Search UI example Flow chart of difference information extraction processing Search process flowchart Flow chart of difference information extraction processing and search processing in the second embodiment Flow chart of difference information extraction processing in the third embodiment

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[Example 1]
A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the system. At least the document management server 101 and the client 102 exist.

  The server 101 accumulates documents and executes document search processing, acquisition, storage processing, and the like in response to a request from the client 102.

  The client 102 issues a request such as document search to the server 101 in response to a user request. The result for the request is received and displayed on the UI.

  The server 101 and the client 102 are connected via a network such as Ethernet (registered trademark). These PCs are all configured by hardware components such as a CPU, RAM, ROM, HDD, and network interface card.

  In this embodiment, the server 101 is illustrated in a two-unit configuration, but the server 101 may be configured to execute the database function and the search function on another PC. There may be a plurality of clients 102.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the server 101. These programs operate on the CPU of the server 101.

  The client communication unit 201 receives input from the user or transmits information from the server 101 to the client 102.

  The difference extraction unit 202 accesses the DB unit 205 via the DB access unit 204 and extracts a difference between versions of each document (hereinafter referred to as difference information 300). Further, the difference information 300 is stored in the DB unit 205. The difference is extracted by a function equivalent to a known and known diff program. For this reason, in general, the versions from the line feed code to the line feed code are compared as a set, and if there is a difference, it is extracted. Also record information about the location (pages, lines, etc.). Note that the target file is not limited to a text file, and can be a binary file using a known technique.

  The search unit 203 accesses the DB unit 205 via the DB access unit 204 and executes a search for the difference information 300. The obtained result is passed to the client communication unit 201. The main information of the search result is a version, and there may be information such as operation type, contents, updater, etc. accompanying it.

  In response to an access request to the DB unit 205, the DB access unit 204 accesses the DB unit 205 to acquire or store information.

  The DB unit 205 stores various information such as documents and difference information 300.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the difference information 300. In this example, the difference information related to one document is summarized.

  Reference numeral 301 denotes a column indicating a version.

  Reference numeral 302 denotes a column indicating operations performed on the document in each version. For example, there are “addition”, “deletion”, and “correction” operations, but “correction” is recorded separately in “before correction” and “after correction” so as to be hit regardless of which one is searched. The operation records the operation performed on the document for each location. For example, when upgrading to V2.0, if two places are added to the document, two lines are created and both are recorded as “added”.

  A column 303 indicates a page on which the operation 302 is performed.

  Reference numeral 304 denotes a column indicating a row in the page 303.

  Reference numeral 305 denotes the contents of the document to be operated 302. For example, when a character string “This document is a confidential matter” is added when upgrading to V2.0, “This document is a confidential matter” is recorded in 305.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a search UI for the difference information. This UI is displayed on a browser or the like in the client 102.

  Reference numeral 401 denotes a field for receiving a search target document. The user may input directly, or may be input automatically when considering a configuration in which the UI is activated from a menu such as right-clicking the mouse with a document selected.

  Reference numeral 402 denotes a field for receiving a search keyword. The user may input directly, or while browsing the document, select the part you want to search with the mouse, etc. and enter this UI automatically from the right click menu etc. May be. In this case, the page 403 is also input simultaneously.

  Reference numeral 403 denotes a field for receiving a page searched by a keyword. If not specified, all pages may be searched.

  Reference numeral 404 denotes a button for receiving a search execution request.

  Although not shown, operation types such as “add”, “delete”, and “modify” may be designated as search parameters. Further, the search target version may be designated by a period such as “from latest to V3.0”. It may be specified by date and time.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for extracting difference information between document versions by the difference extraction unit 202. This process may be executed when a search request is made by the user, may be executed when a document is updated, or may be executed on a regular schedule.

  The difference extraction unit 202 acquires a certain version (for example, the latest version) of the designated document (S501). Next, the next version (for example, the second oldest version) acquired in S501 is acquired (S502). Then, the difference extraction unit 202 extracts differences between the two acquired versions (S503), and saves the results as difference information 300 in the DB unit 205 via the DB access unit 204 (S504).

  Next, the difference extraction unit 202 checks whether there is a version from which a difference has not yet been extracted (S505), and if it exists, acquires the next version (S506) and repeats the process.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of search processing for the difference information 300 by the search unit 203.

  The search unit 203 accepts specification of a search target document from the client communication unit 201 (S601). Then, the search unit 203 checks whether the difference information 300 exists in the DB unit 205 (S602). If not, the extraction process of the difference information 300 shown in FIG. 5 is executed (S603). If it exists, the search keyword designation is received from the client communication unit 201 (S604). Then, the search unit 203 searches the difference information 300 stored in the DB unit 205 using the search keyword received in S604 (S605). The search unit 203 checks whether or not the search is hit (S606), and if hit, acquires information such as the version number, operation type, content, and updater from the DB unit 205 (S607). Finally, the search unit 203 passes the acquired information to the client communication unit 201 (S608). If not hit in S606, it returns to the client communication unit 201 that the search was not hit (S609).

  If a plurality of hits are made, the search unit 203 acquires a plurality of pieces of information and passes them to the client communication unit 201.

[Example 2]
A second embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the difference information 300 extraction process by the difference extraction unit 202 and the search unit 203 and the flow of the search process corresponding thereto.

  In the first embodiment, the difference information between adjacent versions of a document is searched after checking between all versions. In the second embodiment, a new version and an old version (for example, the latest and oldest versions) are searched. ), The difference information is extracted, and if the search is hit, the version is divided into two and the process is recursively performed. This can improve the search efficiency. However, search results are limited to one.

  The search unit 203 receives the specification of the search target document from the client communication unit 201 (S701). Further, the search unit 203 receives a search keyword specification from the client communication unit 201 (S702).

  Next, the difference extraction unit 202 acquires the latest version of the target document (S703). This is referred to as version A for convenience. Further, the difference extraction unit 202 acquires the oldest version of the target document (S704). This is called version B for convenience. Then, the difference extraction unit 202 extracts the difference information 300 between version A and version B (S705). The result may be stored in the DB unit 205 as necessary.

  Next, the search unit 203 searches the difference information 300 obtained in S705 using the search keyword specified in S702 (S706). The search unit 203 checks whether or not the search is hit (S707), and if hit, checks whether a version exists between version A and version B (S709). If not hit in S707, it returns to the client communication unit 201 that the search was not hit (S708).

  If a version exists in S709, the difference extraction unit 202 acquires version A again (S710). Further, the difference extraction unit 202 acquires an intermediate version between version A and version B (S711). This is referred to as version C for convenience. Then, the difference extraction unit 202 extracts the difference information 300 between version A and version C (S712). Next, the search unit 203 searches the difference information 300 obtained in S712 with the search keyword specified in S702 (S713). The search unit 203 checks whether or not the search is hit (S714), and if hit, sets version C to version B (S715), and recursively performs the processing from S709 to S716. If not hit in S714, version C is changed to version A (S716), and the processing from S709 to S716 is performed recursively.

  If no version exists in S709, the search unit 203 obtains information such as the version number, operation type, content, and updater from the DB unit 205 because the version A obtained when hitting in S707 or S715 is the version to be obtained. (S717). Finally, the search unit 203 passes the acquired information to the client communication unit 201 (S718).

  In this embodiment, by acquiring version A in S710, the latest version is returned when multiple hits are made, but the oldest version may be returned. That is, in that case, version B is acquired in S710, version C is set as version A in S715, and version C is set as version B in S716.

  Although not shown in the figure, the document size may be taken into consideration instead of simply dividing the version in half. That is, the version C is determined so as to cross the boundary where the size change is large.

  From the same point of view, when version management is composed of major versions (eg V1.0, V2.0 ...) and minor versions (eg V1.1, V1.2 ...), first compare the major versions. Finally, you can compare minor versions.

[Example 3]
A third embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a flow of extraction processing of difference information 300 by the difference extraction unit 202. In the first embodiment, difference information between versions of a document is always extracted between all versions. However, in the third embodiment, if there is too much difference information 300 between certain versions, the version is not searched. To do. Thereby, noise can be reduced from the search result.

  FIG. 8 is the same as FIG. 5 except that the process of S801 is added, so only S801 will be described.

  The difference extraction unit 202 determines whether or not the amount of the difference information 300 extracted in S503 exceeds a threshold value determined in advance by the system. The amount may be the number of locations counted as a difference or the number of characters in the content of each difference. The threshold value may be specified by the administrator.

  Although not shown in the figure, the difference information extraction process may not be filtered, and a version having too much difference information may be filtered during the search.

201 Client communication unit 202 Difference extraction unit 203 Search unit 204 DB access unit 205 DB unit

Claims (3)

In a document management system that can manage versions,
Search request accepting means (S604) for accepting a search request together with a search word for a difference between versions of a document;
A difference information extraction means (S503) means for examining differences between all versions in a document to be searched and extracting a difference portion;
Search means (S605) for executing a search for the difference portion extracted by the difference information extraction means (S503) with the search word received by the search request acceptance means (S604);
As a result of the search by the search means (S605), a version information acquisition means (S607) for acquiring the version number of the version having changed with respect to the search word received by the search request reception means (S604) and related attribute information; ,
A document management system comprising: In a document management system that can manage versions,
Search request accepting means (S702) for accepting a search request together with a search word for the difference between versions of the document;
Latest version acquisition means (S703) for acquiring the latest version of the document;
An oldest version acquisition means (S704) for acquiring the oldest version of the document;
A first difference information extraction unit (S705) for examining a difference between the version acquired by the latest version acquisition unit (S703) and the version acquired by the oldest version acquisition unit (S704) and extracting a difference portion;
First search means (S706) for executing a search for the difference portion extracted by the first difference information extraction means (S705) with the search word received by the search request reception means (S702);
When the search is hit by the first search means (S706), an intermediate version between the version acquired by the latest version acquisition means (S703) and the version acquired by the oldest version acquisition means (S704) is acquired. Intermediate version acquisition means (S711),
A second difference information extraction unit (S712) for examining a difference between the version acquired by the latest version acquisition unit (S703) and the version acquired by the intermediate version acquisition unit (S711) and extracting a difference portion;
Second search means (S713) for executing a search on the difference portion extracted by the second difference information extraction means (S712) with the search word received by the search request reception means (S702);
When the second search means (S713) hits the search, the version acquired by the intermediate version acquisition means (S711) is regarded as the oldest version (S715), and the intermediate version acquisition means (S711) Means for recursively executing the processing up to the second search means (S713);
If the search is not hit by the second search means (S713), the version acquired by the intermediate version acquisition means (S711) is regarded as the latest version (S716), and the intermediate version acquisition means (S711) Means for recursively executing the processing from the second search means (S713),
When the version acquired by the intermediate version acquisition unit (S711) is equal to either the version acquired by the latest version acquisition unit or the version acquired by the oldest version acquisition unit, the first search unit (S706) Alternatively, as a result of the search by the second search means (S713), the version information acquisition for acquiring the version number of the version that has changed with respect to the search word received by the search request reception means (S702) and the related attribute information Means (S717);
A document management system comprising: In the difference information extraction means (S503, S705, S712), the difference result is not stored when the number of extracted result difference portions and the number of difference characters in each portion exceed a predetermined threshold (S801). The document management system according to claim 1 or 2.