JPH05225240A - Document data base device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To extract partial document contents from a structured document stored in a document data base. CONSTITUTION:A document retrieval means 12 reports information which designates a set of documents out of information, which are reported from a retrieval expression analysis means 11, to a document set retrieval means 13 and reports information related to extraction of the document structure out of these information to a document structure extracting means 14. The document set retrieval means 13 retrieves a set of documents in a document storage part 2 based on reported information. The document structure extracting means 14 extracts the document structure of each element of the set of documents retrieved by the document set retrieval means 13. A document allocating means 15 allocates unallocated documents extracted and reconstituted by the document structure extracting means 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document database apparatus which enables document processing using a computer, and more particularly, document processing by reusing existing documents.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a document database using a computer has been used by many users for the purpose of accumulating and reusing documents, especially in offices. There was a document filing device as a device for storing and reusing documents, but if the document filing device does not know the storage location of the document, the desired document cannot be obtained and it should be used as a document database. I couldn't.

In order to solve such a problem, a conventional document database device is composed of a document filing device and a document search device. Attributes are registered in a document processed by such a document database device. The attribute is registered in the document before the document is stored in the document filing device. In addition, the registration of the attribute may be automatically performed by the system or manually by the user.

Here, the attribute is, for example, a keyword given by the user, a keyword automatically registered by the system, an author or a creation date which is information held by the document itself. Such attributes are registered as indexes.

At the time of the search, the document search apparatus searches the document filing apparatus by using the index with the above-mentioned attribute as a key, thereby obtaining the location and name of the document, and based on the result. Then, the whole desired document is taken out from the document filing apparatus and used as the retrieval result.

However, the conventional document database device described above has a problem that only the entire document can be retrieved.

Therefore, for example, a user or an application that needs only a certain part of a document once extracts the document from a remote document filing device to a local area (for example, a storage device) and then analyzes the entire document. After that, only the necessary parts (document contents) must be taken out based on the analysis result. For this reason, the amount of data to be transferred is much larger than the required amount of data, so that the transfer efficiency is deteriorated and the entire document is obtained, so that it is necessary to reorganize the obtained document. This is a very heavy burden for the user.

In order to solve such a drawback, a system that can handle a two-dimensional table typified by a relational database may be used, or a document may be taken out by inserting a tag in the document. Made In such a system, a document is treated as a two-dimensional table, and a function of embedding the table in a relational database or embedding a tag in the document to extract a part is realized. The table is represented as a sequence of combinations of a "key" and a "value" called "key: value" such as (title: "document database device").

In recent years, structured documents having a logical structure have come to be used instead of documents having no structure as described above. When the document conforms to the international standard ODA (Open Document Architecture; ISO 8613), for example, the document shown in FIG. 13 has a nested structure in which blocks are arranged in a frame as shown in FIG. It has an allocation structure and has an internal representation (document structure) as shown in FIG. In the document structure shown in FIG. 15, the logical structure of the document is shown above the dotted line indicated by arrow A in the figure, the document layout structure is shown below the dotted line indicated by arrow B in the figure, and further indicated by arrow A in the figure. The portion located between the dotted line and the dotted line indicated by arrow B in the figure is the content (content portion) of the document. The layout structure of the document is generated from the logical structure of the document using the layout template shown in FIG. 16 (common layout structure in ODA).
This is called allocation.

As shown in FIG. 15, the internal structure is made up of finer document parts, and each document part has a parent-child relationship such as a parent document part, a child document part, and a grandchild document part. It has a tree structure. For example, each constituent element that constitutes the logical structure and each constituent element that constitutes the layout structure shown in FIG. 15 are document parts.

Further, the document structure shown in FIG. 15 is actually shown in FIG. 17, and the logical structure for holding the document contents (actually indicated by a pointer) is shown in FIG. As described above, it is expressed as an allocation structure that holds (in fact, points by a pointer or the like) the document content.

However, in the conventional document database device, since the document can be handled only in the unit of document,
It was not possible to handle the document structure of a structured document such as the document conforming to the ODA.

Therefore, the following problems have occurred.

(1) Since the document is treated as a two-dimensional table having no hierarchy, the hierarchical logical structure of the document cannot be handled. For example, assume that the logical structure of a document is composed of a title, an author name, and a paragraph, and that paragraph is composed of a paragraph title and paragraph contents. When performing a search for extracting the paragraph title of a paragraph of such a document, the conventional document database device must retrieve the entire document or the entire paragraph in the document. Therefore, there are problems that it takes time to edit the document after the document is taken out, and that the data amount of the document transfer is large and transfer efficiency is poor.

(2) When one document is obtained as a search result of a plurality of documents, in the conventional document database device, only the author is extracted from the plurality of documents and made into one document.
As described above, the search result can only be expressed as a "table", and a document having a hierarchical structure that cannot be expressed by the "table" cannot be obtained. For this reason, the work of taking out the entire document and then editing the document to create one document must be performed, and it is necessary to edit the document after taking out the document. It was supposed to take a lot of time and impose a heavy burden on the user. In addition, there is a problem that the transfer amount of the document is large and transfer efficiency is poor.

[0016]

As described above, in the conventional document database device described above, the document structure of the structured document cannot be handled, and the document can be handled only on a document-by-document basis. After taking it out, I had to edit the document and create one desired document. Therefore, it takes time and effort to edit and assign the contents of the retrieved document.
A heavy burden was placed on the user.

Further, since unnecessary information in the document is also transmitted at the same time, there is a drawback that the data transmission amount is large and the transmission efficiency is poor.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a part of the document contents can be extracted from the structured document stored in the document database, the extracted contents can be assigned, and the transmission data amount can be increased. It is an object of the present invention to provide a document database device capable of reducing transmission time, document editing time and document allocation time.

[0019]

In order to achieve the above object, a document database device according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a designation means for designating information relating to extraction of a document structure of a structured document,
Document structure extracting means for extracting the document structure of the structured document to be searched based on the information specified by the specifying means.

A document database device according to a second aspect of the present invention is a document storage unit for storing a plurality of structured documents, a designation unit for designating a document set and information for extracting a document structure, and the document storage unit. A document set search means for searching a document set that matches the information designating the document set from the means, and each element of the document set searched by the document set search means based on the information related to the extraction of the document structure. And a document structure extracting means for extracting the document structure.

A document database device of a third invention is characterized in that, in the first invention or the second invention, it further comprises a document allocating means for allocating the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means. ..

A document database device according to a fourth invention is the document database device according to the first or second invention, further comprising document structure displaying means for displaying the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means in a predetermined display format. I am.

A document database device of a fifth invention is the document database device according to the first invention or the second invention, wherein a plurality of document structure display means for displaying the document structures in different display formats and the respective document structure display means are provided. It further comprises a display selection means for selecting one or more.

A document database device according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is the document database apparatus according to the third aspect, wherein the extracted document is created according to a document allocation template corresponding to the structured document to which the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means belongs. It is characterized by allocating structure.

A document database device of a seventh invention is the document database device of the third invention, wherein template storing means for storing a plurality of document allocation templates and template specifying means for specifying a desired document allocation template in each of the document allocation templates. Further, the document allocating means allocates the extracted document structure based on the document allocating template designated by the template designating means.

The document database apparatus of the eighth invention further comprises template editing means for editing the document allocation template stored in the template storage means in the sixth invention.

[0027]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the document structure based on the information regarding the extraction of the structured document is extracted from the structured document to be searched, only a part of the structured document can be extracted.

According to the second aspect of the invention, a plurality of structured documents are searched for a document set that matches the information designating the document set, and each element of the document set (each searched structured document is searched). ), The document structure based on the information about the extraction of the structured document is extracted, so that only a part of the content having the same document structure can be extracted from each of the plurality of structured documents.

According to the third invention, the contents of the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting device are allocated by the document allocating device, so that the allocated document can be obtained.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the content of the document structure extracted by the document structure extraction means is displayed by the document structure display means, so that the content of the extracted document structure is visually recognized. be able to.

According to the fifth invention, the display selecting means selects one or a plurality of document structure displaying means from the plurality of document structure displaying means, and the selected document structure displaying means selects the document structure extracting means. Since the content of the document structure extracted by is displayed, in the desired display format,
The content of the extracted document structure can be visually recognized.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the document structure extracting means operates according to a preset document allocation template corresponding to the structured document to which the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means belongs. Since the extracted document structure is assigned, the assigned document can be obtained.

According to the seventh invention, the document allocating means is
Since the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means is allocated according to the document allocation template specified by the template specifying means, the allocated document can be obtained.

According to the eighth invention, the document template editing means creates / deletes / changes the document allocation template stored in the template storage means. Since the document allocating means allocates the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means in accordance with the document allocation template edited by the document template editing means, an allocated document according to a desired layout can be obtained. it can.

[0035]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a first embodiment of the document database device according to the present invention.
In the figure, the document database device comprises a structured document retrieval device 1, a document storage means 2, an input / output control device 3, a keyboard 4, a mouse 5, and a display device 6.

The document storage means 2 is a large-capacity filing system including, for example, a magnetic disk, and a plurality of structured documents having an internal structure as shown in FIG. 14 are stored therein. ..

The input / output control device 3 includes a structured document retrieval device 1, a keyboard 4, a mouse 5 and a display device 6.
It controls input and output between and. For example, a document formed on the display screen of the display device 6 is stored in the document storage means 2 through the input / output control device 3. The structured document read from the document storage unit 2 by the structured document search device 1 is transmitted to the display device 6 through the input / output control device 3 and displayed on the display screen.

The keyboard 4 and mouse 5 are operated to input various data and commands, and a display corresponding to the input by this operation is displayed on the display screen of the display device 6.

The search expression analysis means 11 is for analyzing a search expression (details will be described later), divides the specified search expression into a document structure extraction expression and a document set search expression, and the document search means 12 Is instructed to perform a search.

The document search means 12 is for executing a search, and according to an instruction to search, the document set search means 13, the document structure extraction means 14, the document allocation means 1
Predetermined instructions and data transmission are given to 5.

The document set retrieval means 13 is the document storage means 2
This is for searching the documents in the document, and searches a set of documents satisfying a given condition, that is, a document set search formula in the search formula, based on an attribute or a keyword given in advance to the document.

The document structure extracting means 14 is for retrieving the document parts in the structured document, and is necessary after extracting the instructed part, that is, the part based on the document structure extracting formula in the retrieval formula. If so, change the structure. It also reads the document allocation template corresponding to the structured document.

The document allocating means 15 performs allocation according to the document allocation template. As a result of extracting the document logical structure, the allocation of the structured document, that is, the document logical structure, has been destroyed. According to, a new layout structure is added.

The document structure display means 16 is for displaying a structured document having no layout structure, that is, a document logical structure, and displays the extracted document logical structure on the display device 6.

In this embodiment, the document allocating means 1
5 and the document structure display means 16 are provided, but these respective means do not function at the same time, and only one of them is set to function. Therefore, either means can be designated and can be switched. This is because when the information designated by the user is input to the document search means 12 via the input / output control device 3 and the search expression analysis means 11, the document search means 12 switches the above-mentioned means based on the information. It has become. Here, when the document allocating means 15 is designated to function, the extracted document logical structure is allocated and displayed, while the document structure displaying means 1 is displayed.
If 6 is specified to work, a structured document that has no layout structure, that is, a document logical structure will be displayed.

Of course, the switching method is not
In the above-mentioned configuration, the document allocating unit 15 may be deleted or the document structure displaying unit 18 may be deleted. Although a plurality of document structure display means are provided, only one document structure display means may be provided.

In the above-described structure, a search expression (search condition) must be set in order to obtain a desired search result from a plurality of structured documents in the document storage means 2. explain.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the retrieval formula. This retrieval formula fulfills the function of the above-mentioned designating means, and is information for designating a document set (document set retrieval formula).
And information on document structure extraction (document structure extraction formula).

In the retrieval formula shown in FIG. 2, "From"
And "Project" are paired,
"From" 23A and "Project" 23B
"From" 24A and "Project" 24B
"From" 25A and "Project" 25B
Each is a pair. Each "From" designates a search range, each "Project" designates a part to be extracted from the search range, and "Collapse" 26 designates that one step layer is shallow. ing. Note that the information “*” 27 indicating the search range specified in the “From” 24A indicates that “anything is acceptable”.

In "Project" and "From", the range is specified by specifying the attribute name.
The instructed attribute name is given to the document component of the document logical structure so that the document component can be identified when the structured document is created. The attribute value does not necessarily have to be the name of the document part, but may be the creation date, the creator name, or the like.

The outermost "From" 23A designates a document set. A document set search formula can be specified here, and this is a document set search formula that can be specified to the document set search means 13. This document set search formula is based on the document creation date, document type such as "patent",
It is also possible to specify the attribute value of the document such as information indicating "paper on object-oriented language". Further, it may be a designation that goes into the structuring of the structured document. This is to specify the constituent elements that make up the structured document, and all structured documents having the specified constituent elements are to be searched. For example, "title" as a component
By specifying the "document database device" as, all structured documents whose "title" as a component is "document database device" are to be searched. As a result, documents in the same technical field can be searched.

According to the retrieval formula shown in FIG. 2, all the documents in the directory "/ database research-related / thesis" in the document storage means 2 are designated as a document set by the outermost "From" 23A. To be done. “Project” 23B for each element (each document) of this document set
Instructs extraction of titles, author names, and paragraphs. Further, the inner "From" 25A designates a paragraph, and the inner "Project" 25B designates further extraction of a paragraph title from the paragraph. Further, "Collapse" 27 also instructs to move the paragraph title immediately below the paragraph to immediately below the document logical root.

The retrieval formula shown in FIG. 2 may be replaced with any retrieval formula as long as it can designate a document set and a document extraction.

The retrieval formula as described above is obtained by the keyboard 4,
It is designated by operating the mouse 5 and displayed on the display screen of the display device 6. When the search formula (search condition) is set on the display screen of the display device 6 in this way, the search formula is notified to the search formula analysis means 11 via the input / output control device 3.

When the search expression shown in FIG. 2 is notified, the search expression analysis means 11 analyzes the search expression and extracts the document set search expression (document set search expression 21 shown in FIG. 2) and the document structure. The document retrieval means 12 is notified of the extraction formula (document structure extraction formula 22 shown in FIG. 2).

Note that the document structure extraction formula 22 shown in FIG.
It can be represented by a tree structure (hereinafter referred to as an analysis tree) as shown in FIG. Therefore, in this embodiment, the information about the extraction of the document structure notified from the search expression analysis unit 11 to the document search unit 12 is not in the format of the document structure extraction expression 22 (see FIG. 2) but the search expression analysis unit. The notification is made in the form of the analytic tree 30 shown in FIG. Of course, the document structure extraction formula 22 itself may be notified.

When the document set search formula 21 and the parse tree 30 are notified, the document search unit 12 notifies the document set search unit 13 of the document set search formula 21. The document set search means 13 searches for a plurality of relevant structured documents from the document storage means 2 based on the notified document set search formula 21. Of course, it may be one document in some cases. The document set search means 13 instructs the document search means 12 on the set of pointers to each structured document. An example of the set of pointers is shown in FIG.

Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the structured document 41A, 42A, 43 by the document set retrieval means 13.
It is assumed that A, 44A, and 45A are searched, and pointers 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45 pointing to the respective documents are instructed from the document set searching unit 13 to the document searching unit 12.

The document retrieving means 12 instructs the document structure extracting means 14 together with the parse tree 30 which has already been notified by the retrieval expression analyzing means 11 about the set of instructed pointers.
Then, when the set of pointers to the structured document and the parse tree 30 are instructed, the document structure extraction means 14 provides information for setting the pointer inside the file of the structured document pointed by each pointer. Each time it is sequentially read, document structure extraction processing is performed on the structured document based on the read information, and then the extracted document logical structure is transferred to the document search means 12.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the reading of the information for setting the pointer inside the file of the structured document stored in the document storage means 2.

Here, the reading of the above information when the structured document 41A pointed by the pointer 41 shown in FIG. 4 is the structured document shown in FIG. 14 will be described.

In this embodiment, an index file 52 holding an index for referring to each constituent element of the document logical structure 51 of the structured document 41A.
However, since the document storage unit 2 is stored in advance in the document storage unit 2, the document structure extraction unit 14 reads the index file 52 corresponding to the structured document 41A pointed to by the pointer 41 into itself to set the pointer. You can get information. At this point, it is not necessary to open the structured document file, but it is necessary to open the file when setting the pointer. In the same manner, it is possible to obtain information for setting the pointer inside the file of each structured document pointed by the pointers 42 to 45.

In addition to the method described above, the index file 52 may not be provided, and the file of the structured document 41A may be opened to read the document logical structure 51 of the document. At this time, the contents of the document (contents section)
53 is not read. This is because, in general, the data amount of the document contents is much larger than the data amount of the document logical structure.

Next, the document structure extraction processing by the document structure extraction means 14 will be described.

(1) First, based on the information (index file 52 in this example) for setting a pointer inside the file of the read structured document, the corresponding structuring from the parse tree 30 (see FIG. 3). A pointer (link) is set to the document (the structured document 41A in this example) according to the label of the parse tree. The state in which the pointer is set is shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 6, the constituent elements of the document logical structure 51 that match the respective labels representing the “title”, “author name”, “paragraph”, and “paragraph title” nodes that make up the parse tree 30 ( Pointers P1 to P4 are set for document parts). This is the parse tree 30
And the pointers P1 to P4 associated with the constituent elements in the logical structure 51 corresponding to the elements of the parse tree 30 are held in the document structure extracting means 14. Incidentally, in the state shown in FIG. 6, the parse tree 30 exists in the document structure extracting means 14 and the document logical structure 51.
The document content section 53 exists in the document storage means 2. The layout structure of the structured document 41A is omitted here.

(2) Next, the document logical structure is copied based on the link information. An example of the copied document logical structure is shown in FIG. The document structure extracting means 14 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (1), the copied document logical structure 71 and the document content portion 72 are read into itself. In this embodiment, since only the document logical structure 71 and the document content portion 72 are read, the layout structure corresponding to the document logical structure 71 cannot be obtained (the layout structure does not exist).

(3) Further, if there is a node in the parse tree with a tag for changing the document structure, the structure is changed according to the instruction.

As shown in FIG. 7, the parse tree 30 has "Co
Since there is a node paragraph 32 tagged with "llapse" 31, the document logical structure 71 shown in FIG. 7 is changed as shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG.
The “apse” 31 tag eliminates the hierarchy of the “paragraph title”, and the document content 81 exists immediately below the “node” 82 of the paragraph. Further, the extracted document logical structure as shown in FIG. 8 becomes a new structured document.

The document structure extraction process for one document is completed by the above processes (1) to (3). At this time, the document logical structure is not necessarily extracted from all the structured documents, and the document logical structure is extracted only from the structured document having the document logical structure that conforms to the document structure extraction formula (parse tree). Will be done. Therefore, the extracted document logical structure may be “none”.

When the structured document search processing is completed, the document search means 12 creates a list of documents if the transferred document logical structure set is at least one or more documents, and creates the list. It is transmitted to the display device 6 through the input / output control device 3. As a result, a list of document sets of search results (document logical structure as a structured document) is displayed on the display screen of the display device 6.
An example of the display state is shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG.
A list of five documents is displayed in the search result window 91.

In this display state, the keyboard 4 and the mouse 5 are
When a desired document logical structure is instructed from the displayed document logical structure (structured document) list by operating, and further reading is instructed, this instruction information is transmitted to the input / output control device 3. In response to this instruction, the document search means 12 selects a corresponding document logical structure from the data of the set of document logical structures transferred from the document structure extraction means 14.

Here, if the document allocating means 15 is designated to function, the document searching means 12 sends the selected document logical structure to the document allocating means 15. The document allocating means 15 assigns a document allocation structure to the transmitted document logical structure according to a document allocation template corresponding to the structured document to which the document logical structure (extracted document structure) belongs. The result of this allocation is displayed on the display device 6 through the input / output control device 3. An example of this display state is shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 10, since the list “What is a document database” is selected, the contents of the document structure in which the document allocation structure is added to the document logical structure shown in FIG. 8 are displayed in the document window 101. It is displayed.

On the other hand, when the document structure display means 16 is designated to function, the selected document logical structure is transmitted to the document structure display means 16. Then, the document structure display means 16 makes the transmitted document logical structure a structure which can be displayed by a predetermined display method. The displayable structure is displayed on the display device 6 through the input / output control device 3. An example of this display state is shown in FIG.
In the example shown in FIG. 11, the display window 111
"Title" in the document logical structure shown in FIG.
The search results are displayed according to the display method of displaying the corresponding document contents corresponding to the names of “author name” and “paragraph”.

As a result, the search result document is displayed on the display screen of the display device 6.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, by instructing the search condition and the structure extraction of the structured document,
A document set that matches the information that specifies the document set is searched from among a plurality of structured documents, and based on the information related to the extraction of the structured document from each element of the document set (each searched structured document). Since the document logical structure is extracted,
Only a part of the contents having the same document logical structure can be extracted from each of a plurality of structured documents.

Further, the document allocating means allocates the document logical structure extracted by the document structure extracting means in accordance with the document allocation template corresponding to the structured document to which the document logical structure extracted by the document structure extracting means belongs. Since it is set, it is possible to obtain the allocated document.

Further, since the content of the document logical structure extracted by the document structure extracting means is displayed by the document structure displaying means, the content of the extracted document logical structure can be visually recognized.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram showing a second embodiment of the document database device according to the present invention. This functional block diagram corresponds to the structure of the functional block diagram of the first embodiment shown in FIG.
6, the template storing means 121, the template designating means 122, and the template editing means 12 are deleted.
3. Multiple document structure display means 124-1, 124-2, 12
4-3, the display selecting means 1250 is added. Note that, in this figure, the same reference numerals are given to parts that perform the same functions of the components shown in FIG.

The template storage means 121 is a filing system including, for example, a magnetic disk, and stores a plurality of document allocation templates used to obtain different layout structures. A document allocation template as shown in FIG. 16, for example, is also stored here.

The template designating means 122 is for designating a document layout template when the document layout means 15 performs layout, and instructs the document layout means 15 to the document layout template designated by the user. At this time, the template storage means 121 is searched based on the instruction information designated by the user to obtain information indicating the actual document allocation template.

The template editing means 123 changes the document allocation template in the template storage means 121, and stores the template based on the instruction information of the document allocation template to be edited and the instruction information of deletion / modification from the user. The delete / change operation is executed for the document allocation template in the means 121. Further, the template editing unit 123 creates a new document allocation template according to the document allocation template creation instruction information from the user and stores it in the template storage unit 121.

A plurality of document structure display means 124-1 and 124
Reference numerals -2 and 124-3 are for displaying a structured document having no layout structure, that is, a document logical structure, and display the extracted document logical structure on the display device 6. Each document structure display means displays a document structure which is a document logical structure in a different display format.

The display selecting means 125 knows in advance the correspondence between the display format and the document structure displaying means, and selects a desired document from the document structure displaying means according to the input information indicating the display format from the user. Select the structure display means. In this embodiment, when the input information indicating a plurality of display formats is input, the display selection means 125 selects the document structure display means corresponding to each display format. Therefore, the document logical structure can be displayed in a single or plural display format.

The document search process of the document database device having the above configuration will be described. It should be noted that in the second embodiment, the process of searching for a document that matches the search condition (search formula) is basically the same as the process of the first embodiment, so a description thereof will be given here. Omit it.

The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in the following three points. (1) A document logical structure is allocated from a plurality of document allocation templates according to the rules of a desired document allocation template. (2) A document logical structure is displayed by a desired document structure display unit from a plurality of document structure display units. (3) Add a new document allocation template or delete / change an existing document allocation template.

Next, these processing operations will be described.

When the user wants to display the result of the allocation process for the extracted document logical structure, the user operates the keyboard 4 or the mouse 5 to at least
"Search formula", "allocation instruction information for performing allocation processing for the document logical structure", and "desired document allocation template instruction information" are set. If the document allocation template is not designated, a preset document allocation template is applied.

Of the input information from such a user,
The instruction information of the desired document allocation template is input to the template specifying means 122 via the input / output control device 3.
Based on the information, the template designating means 122 searches the template storing means 121 for a document allocation template that is actually applied, and stores information indicating the template (for example, identification information for identifying the template and the template). Address information etc.)
Is notified to the document allocating means 15.

On the other hand, of the input information from the user, the search formula and the allocation instruction information are input to the search formula analysis means 11 via the input / output control device 3. The search expression analysis means 11 executes the same processing as that of the above-described first embodiment based on the search expression information, and notifies the document search means 12 of the result. The allocation instruction information is notified to the document search means 12 as it is. At this time, the document search means 12 recognizes that since the layout instruction information has been input, the document layout means 15 is notified of the search result matching the search formula. The search process for obtaining a search result that matches the search formula is the same as in the first embodiment described above.

Here, for example, the document allocation template as shown in FIG.
Stored in and specified. Further, as described in the first embodiment, the search formula shown in FIG. 2 is input, and as a result, the document structure extracting unit 14 extracts the document logical structure as shown in FIG. When the search process is completed, the search result window 91 as shown in FIG. 9 is displayed.
Is displayed and then the user selects "What is a document database?" In the search result window 91.

On such a premise, since the document logical structure is input to the document search execution means 12,
The document search execution means 12 notifies the document allocation means 15 of the input document logical structure. Then, the document allocating means 15 determines the document allocating template (in this example, the document allocating template shown in FIG. 16) to be applied from the template storing means 121 based on the information indicating the notified document allocating template. At the same time as reading, the input document logical structure is allocated according to the document allocation template. Since the layout result is input to the display device 6 via the input / output control device 3, a result like the document window 101 shown in FIG. 10 is displayed on the display device 6.

Next, in order to display the structured document having no layout structure, that is, the document logical structure as it is, the user operates the keyboard 4 or the mouse 5 to at least the "search formula" and the "document logical structure". "Display instruction information" and "information indicating a desired display format" are set in order to perform the display process. If the display format is not specified, the display format is set in advance.

Of the input information from such a user,
Information indicating a desired display format is input to the display selection means 125 via the input / output control device 3. In the display selecting means 125, based on the information, the document structure displaying means 124-1,
A desired document structure display means is selected from 124-2 and 124-3.

On the other hand, among the input information from the user, the search expression and the display instruction information are input to the search expression analyzing means 11 via the input / output control device 3. Search expression analysis means 11
Then, the same processing as in the first embodiment described above is executed based on the search formula, and the result is notified to the document search means 12. Further, the display instruction information is directly notified to the document search means 12. At this time, the document search means 12 recognizes that since the display instruction information has been input, the document structure display means is notified of the search result matching the search expression. The search process for obtaining a search result that matches the search formula is the same as in the first embodiment described above.

Here, for example, the document structure display means 124
-1 is set to display the document logical structure in a table format, document structure display means 124-2 is set to display the document logical structure in a tree structure format, and document structure display means 1
24-3 is set to display the document logical structure in a hypertext format. Further, as described in the first embodiment, the search formula shown in FIG. 2 is input, and as a result, the document structure extracting unit 14 extracts the document logical structure as shown in FIG. When the search process is completed, the search result window 91 as shown in FIG. 9 is displayed.
Is displayed and then the user selects "What is a document database?" In the search result window 91.

Under such a premise, since the document logical structure is input to the document search execution means 12,
The document search execution means 12 notifies each document structure display means of the input document logical structure. If the document structure display means 124-1 is selected here, the document structure display means 124-1 changes the document logical structure to a tabular structure so that it can be displayed. This table format structure is displayed on the display device 6 through the input / output control device 3. At this time, the display device 6 is shown in FIG.
The display window 111 shown in 1 is displayed.

When the document structure display means 124-2 is selected, the document logical structure is displayed in the display window as a tree structure corresponding to the structure shown in FIG. When the document structure display means 124-3 is selected, the document logical structure is displayed in the display window as hypertext corresponding to the structure shown in FIG. Further, when a plurality of document structure display means are selected, the search result corresponding to the display format of each display means is displayed in each display window.

Finally, the editing process of the document allocation template will be described.

Information relating to the editing processing operation such as the document allocation template creation instruction information from the user, the instruction information of the document allocation template to be edited, and the deletion / modification instruction information is passed through the input / output control device 3 to the template editing means. 123 is input. Template editing means 123
Then, based on the instruction information of the document allocation template to be edited and the instruction information of deletion / modification, the document allocation template in the template storage means 121 is deleted / deleted.
A change operation is executed, a new document allocation template is created in accordance with the document allocation template creation instruction information, and this is stored in the template storage unit 121.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the document allocating means allocates the document logical structure extracted by the document structure extracting means in accordance with the document allocation template designated by the template designating means. Therefore, the allocated document can be obtained.

Further, the document template editing means edits the existing document allocation template and creates a new document allocation template, and the document allocation means extracts the document structure extraction means according to the created or edited document allocation template. Since the assigned document logical structure is assigned, it is possible to obtain an assigned document according to a desired layout.

Furthermore, since the contents of the document logical structure extracted by the document structure extracting means are displayed by the single or plural document structure displaying means selected by the selection display selecting means, the desired display format can be displayed. The content of the extracted document logical structure can be visually recognized.

[0106]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the document structure based on the information regarding the extraction of the structured document is extracted from the structured document to be searched, only a part of the structured document is extracted. There is an advantage that can be done.

Further, a document set that matches the information designating the document set is searched from a plurality of structured documents, and further,
Since the document structure based on the information regarding the extraction of the structured document is extracted from each element (each structured document searched) of the document set, a part having the same document structure from each of the plurality of structured documents. There is an advantage that only the contents of can be extracted.

Further, since the contents of the extracted document structure are assigned, there is an advantage that an assigned document can be obtained.

Further, since the contents of the extracted document structure are displayed, there is an advantage that the contents of the extracted document structure can be visually recognized.

Further, since the contents of the extracted document structure are displayed by the selected document structure display means or units, the contents of the extracted document structure can be visually displayed in a desired display format. It has the advantage of being recognizable.

Further, since the extracted document structure is allocated according to the preset document allocation template corresponding to the structured document to which the document structure belongs, the allocated document can be obtained. There are advantages.

Further, since the document allocating means allocates the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means in accordance with the document allocation template designated by the template designating means, it is possible to obtain the allocated document. There are advantages.

Furthermore, since the extracted document structure is allocated according to the edited document allocation template, there is an advantage that an allocated document according to a desired layout can be obtained.

From the above, a part of the document contents can be extracted from the structured document stored in the document database, and the extracted contents can be assigned and the transmission data amount, It is possible to provide a document database device that can reduce the transmission time, the document editing time, and the document allocation time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a first embodiment of a document database device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a search formula used in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an analytic tree obtained by analyzing the search expression shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a set of pointers to structured documents according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining reading of information for setting a pointer inside a file of a structured document according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship in which a parse tree and a structured document are linked in this embodiment.

7 is a diagram showing a logical structure of a document copied based on the linking shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a logical structure of a document extracted based on the search formula shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a list of document sets of search results in this embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a search result in which a document layout structure is added to a document logical structure of an extracted document in the present embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display example of a search result of a document logical structure (without a document layout structure) of an extracted document in the present embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram showing a second embodiment of the document database device according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a structured document.

14 is a diagram showing a layout image represented by the document allocation structure of the structured document shown in FIG.

15 is a diagram showing an internal representation (document structure) of the structured document shown in FIG.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of an allocation template.

17 is a diagram showing a document logical structure of the structured document shown in FIG.

18 is a diagram showing a document allocation structure of the structured document shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Structured document search device, 2 ... Document storage means, 3 ... Input / output control device, 4 ... Keyboard, 5 ... Mouse, 6 ... Display device, 11 ... Search expression analysis means, 12 ... Document search means, 13 ... Document Set retrieval means, 14 ... Document structure extraction means, 15 ... Document allocation means, 16, 124-1, 124-
2, 124-3 ... Document structure display means. 121 ... Template storage means, 122 ... Template designating means, 123 ...
Template editing means, 125 ... Display selecting means.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A designating unit for designating information regarding extraction of a document structure of a structured document, and document structure extraction for extracting a document structure of a structured document to be searched based on the information designated by the designating unit. A document database device comprising means. 2. A document storage unit for storing a plurality of structured documents, a designating unit for designating information for designating a document set and information for extracting a document structure, and designating the document set from the document storage unit. Document set retrieval means for retrieving a document set conforming to the information, and document structure extraction for extracting the document structure of each element of the document set retrieved by the document set retrieval means based on the information related to the extraction of the document structure A document database device comprising means. 3. The document database apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a document allocating means for allocating the document structure extracted by said document structure extracting means. 4. The document database device according to claim 1, further comprising a document structure display means for displaying the document structure extracted by said document structure extraction means in a predetermined display format. 5. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of document structure displaying means for displaying the document structures in different display formats, and a display selecting means for selecting one or more of the respective document structure displaying means. The document database device according to item 1 or 2. 6. The document allocating means allocates the extracted document structure according to a document allocation template corresponding to a structured document to which the document structure extracted by the document structure extracting means belongs. The document database device according to claim 3. 7. The document allocating means further comprises template storing means for storing a plurality of document allocating templates, and template specifying means for specifying a desired document allocating template in each of the document allocating templates.
4. The document database device according to claim 3, wherein the extracted document structure is allocated based on the document allocation template designated by the template designating unit. 8. The document database apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising template editing means for editing the document allocation template stored in said template storage means.