JPH04362746A - Virtual directory device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the processing in accordance with the individual needs by providing a virtual directory control part which defines the store position of an electronic document and a mapping table part where the correspondence is secured to a virtual directory. CONSTITUTION:A virtual directory control part 701 can define the store position of an electronic document for each user and independently of the directory where the store position of all stored electronic documents are defined. A mapping table part 801 secures the correspondence between the virtual directory that can define the store position of an electronic document for each user and the directory where the store positions of all stored electronic documents are defined. Thus the store positions of the electronic documents are defined for each user independently of the directory where the store positions of all stored electronic documents are defined. Therefore the free relationships are secured among plural electronic documents regardless of the directory where the store positions of all stored electronic documents are defined.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a virtual directory device that supports searches of electronic documents stored in an electronic filing system for multiple users.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in electronic filing systems for a plurality of users, the directory used to search for stored electronic documents has been unique to each electronic filing system.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a conventional electronic filing system. In the figure, device A and device B are connected via a communication network. 101 is a document storage unit that stores digitized documents; 201 is a directory management unit that manages the storage locations of all digitized documents stored in the document storage unit 101; and 301 is a directory management unit that stores search results and digitized documents for users. 401 is an input section through which the user inputs operations; 501 and 502 are communication control sections for connecting device A or device B to a communication network; 60
1 is a control unit that controls the document storage unit 101, directory management unit 201, and communication control unit 501; 602 is a display unit 3;
01, the input section 401, and the communication control section 502.

Next, FIG. 6 is an operational flow diagram of the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. The operation of the directory device of the conventional electronic filing system will be explained based on this flow. The operation flow diagram in FIG. 6 shows a series of steps from when a user performs an operation on the electronic filing system to when the result is displayed. The user inputs an operation for the electronic filing system from the input unit 401 (step 10). Types of operations include registration/reading/deletion/movement/copying of electronic documents/change of access rights/change of attribute information such as document name, creation/reading/deletion/movement/copying of digitized documents, etc.
This includes changing access rights, changing directory names, etc. The operation input from the input unit 401 is sent from the communication control unit 502 to the communication control unit 501 via the communication network according to an instruction from the control unit 602 (step 20). The operation sent to the communication control unit 501 is sent to the directory management unit 201 according to an instruction from the control unit 601, and the directory is manipulated according to the contents of the operation (step 30). After that, if the control unit 601 determines that it is necessary to operate the document storage unit 101 depending on the content of the operation (step 40),
The document storage section 101 is operated according to instructions from the control section 601 (step 50). Directory management section 201
Alternatively, the operation result of the document storage section 101 is output to the control section 601 (step 60), and is sent from the communication control section 501 to the communication control section 502 via the communication network (step 70).
. The operation result sent to the communication control unit 502 is sent to the control unit 60.
2, the result of the operation input by the user is output on the display unit 301 (step 80).

[0005] Furthermore, in the prior art, there are cases in which device A and device B are housed in the same housing and are controlled by the same control section without going through a communication network.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional technology, the directories used to search for digitized documents stored in an electronic filing system are unique to each electronic filing system, and there are multiple directories. When users of an electronic filing system used one electronic filing system, the users had to search according to a fixed directory. Therefore, there has been a problem in that it is difficult to group electronic documents, define a hierarchical storage structure, and search according to individual needs.

[0007] Furthermore, since the directories are independent for each electronic filing system, there is a problem in that it is difficult to create a combined directory spanning multiple electronic filing systems. The present invention aims to enable processing that meets individual needs.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve such problems, the virtual directory device of the present invention provides a virtual directory system that allows users to store the storage locations of all stored electronic documents independently of the defined directory. It is equipped with a virtual directory management section that can define the storage location of digitized documents on a per-unit basis, as well as a directory in which the storage locations of all stored digitized documents are defined, and the storage location of digitized documents can be defined on a user-by-user basis. It is equipped with a mapping table section that corresponds to virtual directories.

[0009]

[Operation] By providing a virtual directory in which the storage location of digitized documents can be defined for each user independently of the directory in which the storage location of all stored digitized documents is defined, all the stored digitized documents can be Multiple digitized documents can be freely associated independently of the directory in which the storage location of the digitized documents is defined.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 explains the server/client model that is the premise for configuring the virtual directory device of the present invention. A device for achieving a certain purpose is divided into two devices, a server and a client, based on function. Since the server and client are connected via a communication network, they appear to be one device.

In the block diagram of the conventional device shown in FIG. 5, device A, which has main processing functions such as document storage section 101 and directory management section 201, is regarded as a server, and user interface functions such as display section 301 and input section 401 are Device B can be regarded as a client. The advantage of the server/client model is that functions can be shared by taking advantage of the characteristics of the devices, and one client can access multiple servers. For example, client 1 can access server α or server β. Further, it is also possible to implement the server and the client in the same housing, as in the case of the server β and the client 4 in FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a virtual directory device. In the figure, device A and device B
are connected via a communication network. Corresponding to the server/client model in Figure 2, device A is a server,
Device B is the client. 101 is a document storage unit that stores digitized documents; 201 is a directory management unit that manages the storage locations of all digitized documents stored in the document storage unit 101; and 301 is a directory management unit that stores search results and digitized documents for users. 401 is an input section for the user to input operations; 701 is a display section for displaying digitized documents on a per-user basis, independent of the directory in which the storage locations of all stored digitized documents are defined; A virtual directory management unit 801 that can define storage locations corresponds between a directory in which storage locations of all stored digitized documents are defined and a virtual directory that can define storage locations of digitized documents for each user. Mapping table section, 501 and 502 are communication control sections that connect device A or device B to the communication network, 601 is a control section that controls document storage section 101, directory management section 201, and communication control section 501, and 602 is display section 301 , input section 401 , virtual directory management section 701 , and mapping table section 801
This is a control unit that controls the communication control unit 502 and the communication control unit 502 . Therefore, a virtual directory management section 701 and a mapping table section 801 are installed on the client side of the conventional device.

Next, FIG. 3 is an operational flow diagram of the virtual directory device shown in FIG. 1, which is an embodiment of the present invention. The operation of the virtual directory device of the present invention will be explained based on this diagram. The operation flow diagram in FIG. 3 shows a series of steps from when a user performs an operation on the electronic filing system until the result is displayed. The user is
An operation for the electronic filing system is input from the input unit 401 (step 10). Types of operations include registration/reading/deletion of electronic documents.
These include movement/copying/change of access rights/change of attribute information such as document name, creation/reading/deletion of directory/movement/copying/change of access rights/change of directory name, etc. Depending on the content of the operation, the control unit 602 determines whether or not to use a virtual directory (step 11).
, if a virtual directory is not used, the control unit 60
2, an operation is sent from the communication control unit 502 to the communication control unit 501 via the communication network (step 21). In general, whether or not to use virtual directories depends on
Specify in the operation input by the user. The operation sent to the communication control unit 501 is sent to the directory management unit 201 according to an instruction from the control unit 601, and the directory is manipulated according to the contents of the operation (step 31). Thereafter, if the control unit 601 determines that it is necessary to operate the document storage unit 101 depending on the content of the operation (step 41),
The document storage section 101 is operated according to instructions from the control section 601 (step 51). Operations directly related to stored digitized documents, such as registration/reading/deletion of digitized documents, require operation of the document storage unit 101. Operations that are not directly related to documents do not require operation of the document storage unit 101. The operation results of the directory management section 201 or the document storage section 101 are output to the control section 601 (step 61), and the communication control section 5
01 to the communication control unit 502 via the communication network (
Step 71). The operation result sent to the communication control unit 502 is outputted as a result of the operation input by the user to the display unit 301 according to an instruction from the control unit 602 (step 80).

When a virtual directory is used (step 11), the virtual directory management unit 701 operates the virtual directory according to the operation details according to instructions from the control unit 602 (step 90). Thereafter, if the control unit 602 determines that the operation of the directory management unit 201 or document storage unit 101 of device A is unnecessary depending on the content of the operation (step 91), the operation result of the virtual directory management unit 701 is
According to instructions from the control unit 602, the result of the operation input by the user is output on the display unit 301 (step 80). Operations that are not directly related to stored electronic documents, such as virtual directory creation/reading/deletion, do not require operation of the directory management unit 201 or document storage unit 101 of apparatus A. On the other hand, if the control unit 602 determines that it is necessary to operate the directory management unit 201 or document storage unit 101 of device A after operating the virtual directory (step 91), the communication The operation is sent from the control unit 502 to the communication control unit 501 via the communication network (step 22). Registration/reading/deletion of electronic documents, generation/reading/deletion of directories managed by the directory management unit 201, etc. require operation of the directory management unit 201 or the document storage unit 101 of the device A. The operation sent to the communication control unit 501 is sent to the directory management unit 201 according to an instruction from the control unit 601, and the directory is manipulated according to the contents of the operation (step 32). Thereafter, if the control unit 601 determines that it is necessary to operate the document storage unit 101 depending on the content of the operation (step 42), the document storage unit 101
01 operation is performed (step 52). Operations directly related to stored digitized documents, such as registration/reading/deletion of digitized documents, require operation of the document storage unit 101. Operations that are not directly related to documents do not require operation of the document storage unit 101. The operation results of the directory management unit 201 or the document storage unit 101 are output to the control unit 601 (step 62),
From the communication control unit 501 to the communication control unit 502 via the communication network.
(step 72). Depending on the operation result sent to the communication control unit 502, the virtual directory management unit 701
If the control unit 602 determines that the operation of (
Step 92), the result is output on the display unit 301 as the result of the operation input by the user (Step 80). For operations that do not change the content managed in the virtual directory, such as reading digitized documents,
No operation of the virtual directory management unit 701 is required. If the control unit 602 determines that the operation of the virtual directory management unit 701 is necessary (step 92), the contents managed by the virtual directory management unit 701 and the mapping table unit 801 (
(described later) is changed (steps 93, 94). Operations that change the content managed in the virtual directory, such as deleting digitized documents, are performed by the virtual directory management section 7.
01 and the mapping table section 801 are required. The above results are output on the display unit 301 as a result of the operation input by the user (step 80
).

FIG. 4 shows a conceptual diagram of a directory and an example of its description. For convenience, the directory managed by the directory management unit 201 in FIG. 1 will be referred to as a real directory, as opposed to the virtual directory managed by the virtual directory management unit 701. Also, the symbols α, β, γ, A, A, B, C, D, Z, Y, X, 1 used in Figure 4
, 2 are names given to electronic documents and their collections that are elements constituting a directory (hereinafter referred to as directory components). As shown in the conceptual diagram of Figure 4,
When a real directory is configured in a tree structure such as β and γ under α, A and B under γ, and C and D under A, this is an embodiment in which the structure is managed by the directory management unit 201. As shown in the description example in FIG. 4, it can be described as a set of an upper directory component and a lower directory component. Similarly, when a virtual directory is configured in a tree structure such as X under Z and 1 and 2 under Y, the description in FIG. As in the example, it can be described as a set of an upper directory component and a lower directory component. The directory managed by the virtual directory management unit 701 is a directory uniquely defined for each user, and the role of the mapping table unit is to associate this with the real directory managed by the directory management unit 201. Figure 4
As shown in the conceptual diagram, if virtual directory 1 corresponds to real directory β, 2 corresponds to real directory A, and As shown in the description example in FIG. 4, it can be described as a set of a directory component of a virtual directory and a directory component of a real directory. In the description example shown in FIG. 4, the names of the directory components of the real directory are written in order from the top, separated by /, according to the directory structure, so that the names of the directory components can be uniquely identified.

[0016]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
It is equipped with a virtual directory management unit that can define the storage location of digitized documents for each user independently of the directory in which the storage location of all stored digitized documents is defined, and also provides a virtual directory management unit that can define the storage location of digitized documents for each user. By providing a mapping table section that corresponds between a directory in which the storage location of documents is defined and a virtual directory in which the storage location of digitized documents can be defined for each user, it is possible to group digitized documents according to individual needs. It becomes possible to define and search hierarchical storage structures.

Furthermore, by creating a directory that is combined across multiple electronic filing systems as a virtual directory, it is possible to handle multiple electronic filing systems in an integrated manner. Therefore, the user can treat multiple electronic filing systems connected to the communication network as one electronic filing system.

Furthermore, search history and a list of digitized documents displayed and output in the past can be recorded for each user using a virtual directory device, and only digitized documents to which a user has attached a specific mark (bookmark) can be stored virtually. Display a list grouped under a specific directory component of a directory,
It also becomes possible to manage.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a virtual directory device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a server/client model in a virtual directory device.

FIG. 3 is an operational flow diagram of an embodiment of a virtual directory device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conceptual diagram and a description example of a virtual directory.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional device.

FIG. 6 is an operation flow diagram of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Document storage department 201 Directory management department 301 Display section 401 Input section 501 Communication control unit 502 Communication control unit 601 Control unit 602 Control unit 701 Virtual directory management department 801 Mapping table section

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A directory in which storage locations of all stored digitized documents are defined in a virtual directory device that supports searching of digitized documents stored in an electronic filing system for multiple users. In addition to creating a virtual directory management unit that can define the storage location of digitized documents for each user independently of the A virtual directory device characterized by comprising a mapping table unit that takes correspondence with a virtual directory in which a storage location can be defined.