JPH0844766A - Document retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the speed of retrieval for specifying a desired document and reduce a retrieval noise on the retrieval device for a document requiring version management. CONSTITUTION:A document storage means stores a document as a group of document constituent elements and can store plural versions for one document. A version management means 1-132 manages the derivation relation of versions by documents stored in a document storage means 1-131 by using an order tree. Namely, data on versions are managed by using the data structure which regards each node of the order tree in tree structure as one version and a train of nodes obtained by tracing from a root or elder brother node to the eldest son as a branch of versions. The retrieval device retrieves a document or document constituent element as to the version specified by the version management of the version management means 1-132. The object of the retrieval is narrowed down to a specific version, e.g. the latest version through the version management, so the efficiency of the retrieval is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a retrieval device for retrieving documents and document components.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development and popularization of electronic documents, it is required to improve the document creation efficiency by reusing a part of the existing document when creating and editing the document. Conventionally, in order to use this kind of use, a document including a portion to be reused is displayed in advance, and the target portion is cut or copied and pasted to be incorporated (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-76664). Issue). When doing this, it is good if it is clear which document contains the document component you want to reuse, but if not, view each document and search for the desired document component. There must be. In order to solve such a problem, it has been attempted to selectively store only the document constituent elements that are desired to be reused and to efficiently reuse them (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-1482).
No. 50 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-8087). Further, by making it possible to search the constituent elements of the stored document at the constituent element level, an attempt has been made to quickly find a desired document constituent element to be reused (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-348468). Issue). Further, version management of documents has come to be performed in order to manage the change history of documents.

Further, in the case where a sentence, a diagram, etc. having exactly the same contents are to be created in a plurality of documents, the contents of the documents can be shared by pointing the same contents in a plurality of documents using a pointer or the like. Therefore, in addition to accuracy and time reduction, the effect of reducing the storage capacity is obtained. When reusing a document such as copying or sharing, how to efficiently acquire a part of the target document becomes a problem. For the part of the document that is the unit of reuse in the conventional method, search the document that is supposed to contain it by keyword or document name, display the entire document, and then reuse part of the document By a method of determining whether or not, or a method of searching the document component by describing the condition of the document component to be reused and the content of the process in the document program in advance (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-2475). A method of selecting and automatically creating a new document by reuse without user intervention has been adopted.

[0004]

However, in the conventional example (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-148250, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-8087, etc.), in order to reuse the document constituent elements, each of the document constituent elements has to be reused in advance. Must be registered in the database.
For this, it is necessary to judge at the time of registration whether the document components are individually registered and whether they are reused. There is a problem that it cannot be reused unless it is registered as a document component. Further, the conventional example does not consider management in the case where there are a plurality of document versions. In addition, another conventional example (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-34846)
However, there is no consideration for version management of the document to be searched. For a document whose version is managed, how to handle the version becomes a problem. If each edition of a document is set as an independent search target, the search can be performed, but in such a case, the search noise increases. Since different versions of the same document often have the same content,
Several versions are searched as the search result, and it takes time to specify a desired document. Further, there is a problem that the amount of data to be searched increases.

When the conventional method using the document search and the document content search is used, in order to obtain the information of the constituent elements of the document which are candidates for reuse, first, the document which is supposed to include it is searched. , After the document is displayed, the required part of the document must be searched inside the document, two searches must be performed, and the data of the entire document must be read in order to display the entire document first. Therefore, there are problems that the operation is complicated and the processing cannot be performed at high speed. In addition, a conventional method for automatically performing a reuse process (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-34)
No. 8468 gazette), it is necessary to check the contents of the document components to be reused, or the search is thoughtless and error without knowing in which document the document components to be reused are stored. It is difficult to deal with when it is necessary to do it many times.

The present invention is directed to overcoming these problems of the prior art. That is, the present invention is to increase the speed of search for identifying a desired document or document component in a document search device involving version management.
And to reduce search noise. Another object of the present invention is to enable retrieval and display of a document in units of constituent elements, and to interactively and efficiently support document data reuse processing.

[0007]

The first invention is obtained by tracing the eldest son from a node having a root or an elder brother with a document storing means for storing a document consisting of document constituent elements and each node as one version. Version management means for managing the derivation relationship of versions by version management information for each document based on an order tree having a row of nodes as version branches, and version management means for managing documents or document components stored in the document storage means. The document retrieval apparatus includes a retrieval unit that retrieves the version specified by.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a document storage means for storing a document composed of document constituent elements and each node as one version are provided.
The version management means for managing the derivation relationship of the version and the version to be searched by the version management information for each document based on the order tree with the sequence of nodes obtained by tracing the eldest son from the node with the root or elder brother Storage means for storing search data including information designating information, update means for updating the search data in response to update of the version management information, and search means for searching the document constituent element by the search data. A document retrieval device equipped with.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a document storage means for storing a document composed of document constituent elements, and heading information of a document constituent element is searched by a search condition, and the heading information of the document constituent element satisfying the search condition and the document structure thereof. A constituent element search means for obtaining a pointer to the element, and a document constituent element pointed by the pointer to the document constituent element obtained as a result of the search by the document constituent element search means are read from the document storage means, and the contents thereof are read. And a display means for displaying.

[0010]

In the first aspect of the invention, the document storage means stores the document as a set of document constituent elements. Further, the document storage means can store a plurality of versions for one document. The version management unit manages, for each document stored in the document storage unit, version management information in which the derivation relationship of versions is represented by a sequential tree. That is, the version management means uses a data structure in which each node of an ordered tree that is a tree structure is one version, and a sequence of nodes obtained by tracing the eldest son from a node with a root or elder brother is a version branch. Manage version data. For example, FIG. 4 shows an example of a tree structure of version management of document A. The root node main1 and the version node created from it, which is the eldest son, are linked to main2, and then the version of the oldest version of node main2 is linked. Node ma
In3 is linked to show how the version was created. Furthermore, from node main2, the second-edition version of node eda1 was created, and then another version of the version named eda2 was created. It is shown with nodes and links. The root version main1, the eldest son's version main2, and the eldest son's version main3 make up one branch of the tree-structured version, and the older version node eda1 and its eldest son node branch from main2. ed
The process represented by the link a2 constitutes another branch. The search means searches for a document or a document component with respect to the version specified by the version management of the version management means. For example, when searching for a document or a document component that meets the search condition, the search means checks the version management information of the document and limits the search target version of the document to a specific version, for example, the latest version. To do. According to the present invention, by limiting the search target version of a document whose version is managed in this way to a specific version, the amount of data to be searched is reduced and a search is performed using similar information of the same document. Noise can be improved and search efficiency can be improved.

A document retrieval apparatus of a second invention is the document retrieval apparatus of the first invention, further comprising retrieval data storage means and retrieval means for performing retrieval using the retrieval data. Further, a search data updating means is provided in case the version is updated. The search data includes information that specifies the version to be searched, in addition to the normal search attribute information. Figure 7
In the example, the search data has a set for document search and a set for component search. The set for document search is Docat
It is a set of elements of tr. The set for component search is a set of Elements of ElementAttr. DocAttr71 is doc, bod, nam
e, other_attrs, etc. doc is the document to be searched, bod corresponds to the branch of the version to be searched, name is the document name, other_attrs
Is an attribute value for performing a search such as a creation date and a keyword. E
elementAttr72 is element, bod,
It has title, other_attrs, and the like. el
element is an element that is the top of the subtree of the document component, bod is version management data that manages the branch of the document to which the document component belongs, title is the heading or caption of the document component, and other_attrs is the search target. Other attributes such as creation date and keyword.
When the search condition is specified and the search is instructed, the search means
Search the search data. Obtain information about the storage location of a document or document component that meets the search conditions for the version to be searched. Based on the obtained information, the document or the document component can be accessed. Since the search data has information indicating the version management data, and the version management data has the latest version information in each branch,
When accessing a document during a search or accessing a document content from a search result, the version can be specified as the latest version by using the version management data. The updating means updates the search data when the version of the document is updated and the version management information is updated. For example, when the version of a document is updated, the search data is updated so that the latest version of the document is the search target. If a branch is created in the document,
Add the latest version of that branch as a search target. Also, if the branch version is deleted, the branch is deleted from the search target. The second invention, like the first invention, narrows down the search targets of the documents for which version management is performed, thereby reducing the amount of data to be searched and improving search noise due to similar information of the same document. be able to. Further, since the present invention uses the search data associated with the version management information, it is possible to perform the search at a higher speed and further improve the search efficiency.

In the third invention, the constituent element searching means searches the document constituent elements stored in the document storing means by the search condition, and the heading information of the document constituent element satisfying the search condition and the pointer to the document constituent element. (If there are a plurality of document constituent elements that satisfy the condition, the list thereof is obtained) as a search result. When the user wants to see the heading information of the document constituent element that satisfies the search condition and also wants to see the content information of the document constituent element, the user gives an instruction to display the content. In response to this, the display means reads the document constituent pointed by the pointer to the document constituent obtained as the search result of the document constituent search means from the document storage means and displays the contents thereof. As a result, a part of the document that is a candidate for reuse can be efficiently confirmed by a simple operation, and the reuse of the document constituent element can be supported.

[0013]

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention. This device, as shown in FIG.
1, document designation unit 1-2, search unit 1-3, display unit 1-4,
Document editing unit 1-5, printing unit 1-6, memory 1-7, document storage control unit 1-8, document reading unit 1-9, temporary document storage unit 1-10, document registration unit 1-11, document operation Section 1-12, document management section 1-13, and search data updating section 1-
14 and so on. When the document designation unit 1-2 designates the name of the document and the version, the document operation unit 1-12 identifies the target data using the version management unit, and the operation (process) designated by the input unit 1-1. Do. The designated operation includes fetching a document in the document storage unit 1-131 managed by the document management unit 1-13 to the document temporary storage unit 1-10, deleting the document, and deleting the document version. is there. The data in the document management section is accessed by a plurality of users. The document temporary storage unit 1-10 is a personal work space and is used for editing a document. From the document management unit 1-13,
The document fetched in the document temporary storage unit 1-10 is exclusively locked to the writing operation in the document management unit 1-13. However, the read operation can be performed. The document captured in the document temporary storage unit 1-10 is
The editing work is performed, and when the editing work is completed, it is returned to the document management unit 1-13.

The document reading unit 1-9 is a document temporary storage unit 1-.
Document data is read from the memory 10 into the memory 1-7. The display of the document by the display unit 1-4 and the editing by the document editing unit 1-5 are performed on the document data read in the memory 1-7. The temporary editing result is stored in the document temporary storage unit 1-10 by the document storage control unit 1-8. When the document editing work is completed, the document registration unit 1-11
From the temporary document storage unit 1-10 to the document management unit 1-13
Then, the updated document is registered and the version is updated.
The document management unit 1-13 includes a document storage unit 1-131, a version management unit 1-132, a version structure storage unit 1-133, a search data storage unit 1-134, and the like.
In addition to managing the structured document stored in 131, it also manages the version of the document. The version management unit 1-132 manages the versions of the document stored in the document storage unit 1-131 in a tree structure, and stores the management data in the version structure storage unit 1-133. The version management unit 1-132 can specify the version of a document from the name of the document and the version. The document data storage unit 1-131 stores the document constituent elements as a tree structure, and the version management unit can store a plurality of versions in the document. The search data storage unit 1-134 stores a set for document search and a set for component search. Search unit 1-3
Searches for documents and document constituent elements through the search data, and displays the results on the display unit 1-4. The search data update unit 1-14 stores the search data so that the search data can correspond to the update of the data in the document storage unit 1-131 by the operation of the document registration unit 1-11 or the document operation unit 1-10. The data of the part 1-134 is updated.

The operation of the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described below step by step. FIG. 2 shows an example of a document. The document described in this embodiment is a structured document composed of elements divided into logical structures such as chapters, sections, paragraphs, and frames, and is represented by a tree structure. The document constituent element in the present invention is one that is divided by a logical structure such as a chapter, a section, a paragraph, and a frame. The document storage unit stores the document shown in FIG. 2 in a logical structure format as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the version management unit 1-132 manages, for each document, a plurality of versions of the document by a tree structure composed of nodes representing versions and links representing derivation relationships of the versions. In the example of FIG. 4, the first version of document A named main1 is created from the version named main2,
It shows how the version named main3 was created, and from main2 the version named eda1 was created, and then the version named eda2 was created. ing. main1, mai
The history of n2 and main3 constitutes one branch of the tree structure, which is called the main branch in this example.
Eda1 and eda2 branching from ed
Call it a branch.

The object of version management is a value other than the bodlist of Doc in FIG. The data that is the target of version management is managed by the document version management unit, and by specifying a specific version, the value of that version can be obtained from the version management unit. The version in the document is managed by the name, the desired version is specified by designating the name of the document and the version, and the document data of the version is accessed.

For the purpose of searching and specifying the version of a document, Bod (Burch of Docu) is used as document version management data.
ment) is used. The Bod exists for each branch of the plate and is used for managing the plate in the branch. The data structure of the Bod is doc, cb_na as shown in 51 of FIG.
It includes data of me, b_name, and v_list. doc is the document management data of the target document, cb_
name is the name of the latest version of the branch, b_name is the name of the version that became the branch point of the branch, and v_list is a list of the names of the versions that belong to the branch. In the main branch of FIG. 5, since the latest version is main3, cb_name holds main3, and the main branch has main1 and main3.
V_list holds them because they consist of 2, main3. The Bod is 1 when the stencil is created.
Is generated and added to the Doc's bodylist. Figure 5
In the example of FIG. 6, since the version branch is only the main branch, the document version management data is only the corresponding Bod_1, but in the example of FIG. 6 in which the branch is added, the Bod_1 that manages the main branch and the eda Of the document management data Doc.
Bod_1 and Bod_2 are listed in t.

The search data storage unit 1-134 has a set for document search and a set for component search. The set for document search is a set of elements of Docattr.
The set for component search is a set of Elements of ElementAttr. As shown in FIG. 7, DocAttr
71 is doc, bod, name, other_at
with trs etc. doc is a document to be searched, bo
d is the one corresponding to the branch of the version to be searched, name is the document name, and other_attrs is the attribute value for performing the search such as the creation date and the keyword. ElementAttr
72 is element, body, title, and the
r_attrs and the like. element is an element that is the top of the subtree of the document constituent element, and bod is a Bod or title that manages the branch of the document to which the document constituent element belongs.
Is a document component heading, caption, other_
attrs are other attributes to be searched, such as a creation date and a keyword.

The search data is created for each branch of the document version, and the latest version is used as the search target. FIG. 8 shows an outline of the relationship between the search data, the document accompanied by version management, and the document constituent elements. Element da of the search set for the version shown in FIG.
1 corresponds to main3 of document A, and da2 corresponds to eda1 of document A. The elements e1 and e2 are the mai of the document A
n3 is a constituent element, and e3 and e4 are eda1 of document A
Is a component belonging to. In FIG. 9, da1 shown in FIG.
The relationship between da2, e1, e2, e3, e4 and Bod is shown. In this example, b of the element da1 of the document search set
od is the version management data B corresponding to the main branch of FIG.
It also refers to od_1, and the bods of the elements e1 and e2 of the set for component element search also point to the version management data Bod_1 corresponding to the main branch in FIG. Similarly, the elements da2, e3, and e4 indicate the version management data Bod_2 corresponding to the branch of eda in FIG. In this way, each element of the search set points to the Bod to which the element belongs, so when accessing a document during a search or when accessing the document contents from a search result, the Bod is used. The version can be specified.

The search unit 1-3 performs a search through the search data and holds an element that meets the search condition. The search result display section displays the elements of the search result. Versions main1, main2, main3, and the like of the document with the document name "Document A"
When eda1 exists, two branches exist, and therefore, two document search data da1 and da2 are searched by searching the document name "document A". It is possible to display the version name from the cb_name of the bod for this search result and determine which document is designated. Each of these documents is the latest version of the version branch. Therefore, when the document content search is performed thereafter, the content of the latest version of the branch becomes the search target.

It should be noted that the search unit 1-3 allows all editions to be designated as a search target, and v of each Bod of the search element is designated.
By using _list, it is possible to configure not only the latest version but all the versions as search targets. Further, if the document and the version name are designated by the document designating section 1-2, an intermediate version of the document can be operated using the version managing section 1-132 even if it is not the latest version.

In the document component search, a set for component search is searched to obtain an element that meets the search condition. Elements of the obtained search data (e1, e2, etc.)
El that points to the document element that is the vertex of the subtree in
Based on the element, the document component can be accessed. That is, in order to access a document constituent element, the subtree can be accessed by tracing the vertices of the subtree of the document constituent element.

Since the document data is managed by version, when the version is updated or deleted, the search data must be updated. Search data update unit 1-
When the version of the document in the document storage unit 1-131 is updated, 14 updates the search data so that the latest version of the document becomes the search target. If a branch is created in the document,
Add the latest version of that branch as a search target. Also, if the branch version is deleted, the branch is deleted from the search target.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for registering and updating the search data and the document version when registering the document. Step (10-1) When registering a document, it is checked whether it is the first document registration. Step (10-2) When the document is registered for the first time, data Bod for version management is created and a value is set. Set the name of the version to be registered in cb_name of Bod. Also, the name of the version is added to v_list. Step (10-3) If it is found in step (10-1) that this is not the first document registration, it is determined whether or not the version of the same branch is updated. Step (10-4) When the version of the same branch is updated, the value of the version management data Bod is updated. That is, cb_name indicating the latest version is set to the name of the version to be registered. Also, the name of the version to be registered is added to v_list. Step (10-5) Update the search data. Step (10-6) If it is determined in step (10-3) that the version of the same branch is not updated, version management data Bod is created and a value is set. Bo
Set the name of the version to be registered in cb_name of d, and b_
The name of the original version is set in name, and the version name is added to v_list. Step (10-7) Step (10-7) is set in the Bodlist of the document management data Doc corresponding to the document to be registered.
-2) or B created in step (10-6)
Add od. Step (10-8) Then, the data is registered in the search data.

FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 are diagrams showing a flow of processing for deleting a document, search data when a version is deleted, and a version of the document. Step (11-1) It is determined whether the deletion target is the entire document including all the editions. Step (11-2) When the entire document is to be deleted, all the elements related to the deletion target document are deleted from the search data. Step (11-3) In addition, the entire document, the Doc that manages the document, and the Bo that manages the document version
Delete all d. Step (11-4) If it is determined in step (11-1) that the entire document is not deleted, it is further determined whether the latest version is deleted. Step (11-5) When it is determined in step (11-4) that the latest version is not deleted, it is determined whether or not the root of the branched version is deleted. Step (11-6) When it is not the deletion of the branching route, the value of Bod is reset. That is, v_list
Remove the name of the edition that will be deleted from. Step (11-7) When it is determined in step (11-5) that the root of the edgy is deleted, the version is not deleted. Step (11-8) When it is determined in step (11-4) that the latest version is deleted, it is determined whether there is another version on the branch. Step (11-9) If it is determined that there is no other version in the branch to which the version to be deleted belongs, then it is determined whether there is another branch. Step (11-10) No in Step (11-9)
If it is judged that the version to be deleted is the latest version, there is no version in the branch to which it belongs, and there are no other branches, delete all the elements of the version to be deleted from the search data. To do. Step (11-11) Further, in this case, since the document of the version to be deleted is the entire document, the Bod managing the entire document, the management data Doc of the document, and the version of the document. Delete all. Step (11-12) Yes in Step (11-9)
When the determination of s is made, that is, when the version to be deleted is the latest version, there is no other version in the branch to which it belongs, and there is another branch, the version to be deleted from the search data is Delete all elements. Step (11-13) Also, the version management data Bod of the version of the document to be deleted is deleted. Step (11-14) Yes in Step (11-8)
When s is determined, that is, when the version to be deleted is the latest version and there is another version in the branch to which it belongs, all the elements of the version to be deleted are deleted from the search data. Step (11-15) Next, the value of the version management data Bod corresponding to the branch to which the version belongs is reset. That is,
Set the name of the previous version in cb_name of the Bod. Also, the name of the version to be deleted from v_list is deleted. Step (11-16) Then, the search data is updated to the value of the previous version.

As described above, with respect to the document whose version is managed, the latest version of the document and the document component can be searched. Furthermore, by designating all the editions as search targets, it is possible to perform a document search for all the editions.

[Second Embodiment] The second embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except that the document constituent elements are searched from the document storage section using the index character string or the like as a search key, and the search result element or its element is searched. By reading the contents of the elements related to the document from the document storage unit and displaying the contents, it is possible to confirm a part of the document that is a candidate for reuse, and to judge when the document components are reused. This is an example in which a configuration for supporting is added. The second embodiment also has the schematic configuration of FIG. 1 similarly to the first embodiment, but the configuration of FIG. 13 which is the additional portion is added as a part of the function of the document retrieval apparatus of FIG. . The second embodiment will be described focusing on this additional portion. The relationship between the functions of FIG. 13 and the constituent elements of the apparatus according to the first embodiment is shown below. Search condition input section 13-1
Is included in the input unit 1-1. Document component search unit 13
-2 is included in the search unit 1-3. The document storage unit 13-4 is included in the document management unit 1-13. Search result storage unit 13-
4 is included in memories 1-7. Document component selection unit 13
-5 is included in the document designation section 1-2. The document component display unit 13-6 is included in the document display unit 1-4.

In FIG. 13, a search condition input unit 13-1
Is for inputting a condition for searching a document constituent element with an input device such as a keyboard. The document constituent element searching unit 13-2 has a function of searching the data for a document constituent element according to the condition obtained by the search condition input unit 13-1 and returning a list of pointers to the document constituent element as a result. The document storage unit 13-3 is a storage unit that stores a plurality of pieces of document data as a set of document constituent elements, and the document storage unit 1- of FIG.
It is the same as 131. The document data has a data structure that enables retrieval of document constituent elements and reading in document constituent element units. The search result storage unit 13-4 is a unit for storing a list of pointers to document components, which are output of the search results of the document component search unit 13-2.
The document component selection unit 13-5 is a search result storage unit 13-4.
This is a part for selecting a document component to be displayed from the search results stored in. The document component display unit 13-6 is a unit for reading only the required portion of the document component selected by the document component selection unit 13-5 from the document storage unit 13-3 and displaying it on the display unit 1-4 such as a display. is there.

Here, as an example of document constituent elements, chapters, sections,
I will handle the charts. The document is stored in the document storage unit 13-3.
In FIG. 3, it is stored in a tree structure as shown in FIG. The document search set and the document component search set are associated with the document information in the relationship shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. This relationship will be further described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 14A, index information indicating the correspondence between the document name and the pointer (storage position) to the root in the tree structure of the document is created, and this index information is used to create the root of the document. Is searched at high speed, and as shown in FIG.
As shown in (a) and (b), index information for searching a document component is created in advance, which indicates the correspondence between the index character string of the document component and the pointer (storage position) to the document component. To speed up the retrieval of document components.

The process steps in the document processing apparatus of the present embodiment thus constructed will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Step (15-1) First, the document condition search conditions are input by the search condition input unit 13-1 which is an input means such as a keyboard. The search condition here is, for example,
The conditions include paragraphs that include the character string “structured document” in the content, tables that include the “data structure” in the heading character string, and the figures included in Chapter 1. Step (15-2) Document component search unit 13-3
Performs a search according to the search condition acquired in step (15-1). As a search method, there are a method of searching with a headline character string or the like using the set for search described in FIG. 14 and a method of determining each document constituent element by tracing a structure tree. The former method is used to search at high speed. As a search result, a pointer to a document constituent element that satisfies the search condition and a character string that represents the document constituent element, such as a chapter or section heading character string or a figure caption, are output as a pair. Step (15-3) It is determined whether or not one or more search results have been obtained. If no search result has been obtained, the process ends, and if one or more search results have been obtained, the process proceeds to step 15-4. Step (15-4) The search result acquired in step (15-2) is temporarily stored in the search result storage unit 13-4. Step (15-5) A character string corresponding to the document constituent element of the result list stored in step (15-4) is displayed on the display unit 1-4 such as a display. Step (15-6) Select the character string of the document component whose contents are to be actually displayed. Here, it is possible to select all or a plurality of candidate document constituent elements.

Step (15-7) Step (15-
The document component selected in 6) is displayed. As a display realizing method, a subtree corresponding to the selected document constituent element is read into the temporary storage, a document composed of the subtree is constructed in the temporary storage, and the document is displayed in the same manner as the normal display method. When a plurality of document constituent elements are selected from the search result, the first element is displayed first, and the next element can be instructed to be displayed. Step (15-8) Step (15-7) It is determined whether or not processing such as editing or copying is performed on the document component displayed in step (15-7). If no operation is performed, processing is performed. To finish. Step (15-9) When performing an operation, the operation is performed on the displayed document constituent element.

According to the second embodiment, it is possible to directly access the vertex of the subtree of the document component to be searched for the document component which is the search result of the document component. By accessing the data of the subtree that constitutes the document constituent element from, the contents of the document constituent element can be displayed and confirmed without reading the entire document. When it is desired to reuse a part of a document, the judgment can be made interactively and in a short time.

[0034]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the search device searches for a document or a document component with respect to the version specified by the version management of the version management means.
Since the search target can be narrowed down, the amount of data to be searched can be reduced, and the search noise due to the similar information of the same document can be improved, and the search efficiency can be improved. Further, since the version management is performed by the tree structure having the branch of the version and the node of the version belonging to the version, even if the version is updated, the specific version, for example, the latest version of the document and the document component can be searched. Furthermore, by designating all editions as search targets, document retrieval can be performed for all editions.

Further, according to the second invention, the same effect as that of the first invention can be obtained, and since the search is performed by using the search data associated with the version management, the search speed can be improved. Further improve.

Further, according to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to search and read the contents of each document component, and therefore the contents of a document can be searched and confirmed without reading the entire document. If you want to reuse a part of the, you can make the decision interactively and in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a document targeted by the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a logical structure of a document.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining plate management.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining plate management.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining plate management.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a data structure of search data.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an outline of a relationship between search data, a document accompanied by version management, and document constituent elements.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a relationship between search data and version management data.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for registering and updating search data and a document version at the time of document registration.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for deleting a document, a search data at the time of version deletion, and a version of a document.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the flow of processing for deleting document, search data and version of a document when deleting a version (continuation of FIG. 11).

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration of a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

14A and 14B are diagrams showing index information of a document and document constituent elements.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1-1 ... Input unit, 1-2 ... Document designation unit, 1-3 ... Search unit, 1-4 ... Display unit, 1-5 ... Document editing unit, 1-6 ... Printing unit, 1-7 ... Memory, 1-8 ... Document storage control unit, 1-
9 ... Document reading unit, 1-10 ... Temporary document storage unit, 1-11
... search data update unit, 1-12 ... document operation unit, 1-1
3 ... Document management unit, 1-131 ... Document storage unit, 1-132
... Plate management unit, 1-133 ... Plate structure storage unit, 1-134 ...
Search data storage unit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Nobuhiro Yamazaki 3-2-1, Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture KSP R & D Business Park Building Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A document storage unit for storing a document composed of document constituent elements, and a plurality of versions for each document are managed in a tree structure, each node of the tree structure being one version, and a node having a root or an elder brother. From the eldest son, the version management information expressed by a sequence tree with a node sequence obtained as a version branch, and version management means for managing the derivation relationship of versions, and documents or documents stored in the document storage means A document search device comprising: a search unit that searches a version whose component is specified by the version management unit. 2. A document storage unit for storing a document composed of document constituent elements, and a plurality of versions for each document are managed in a tree structure, each node of the tree structure is one version, and a node having a root or an elder brother. A version management information that manages the derivation relationship of the version by the version management information expressed by the order tree with the node sequence obtained by tracing the eldest son from the version, and the search including the information that specifies the version of the search target Storage means for storing data for use, update means for updating the search data in response to update of the version management information, and search means for searching for a document constituent element by the search data. Document retrieval device that does. 3. Document storage means for storing a document composed of document constituent elements, heading information of the document constituent elements is searched by a search condition, and heading information of the document constituent element satisfying the search condition and a pointer to the document constituent element. And a display unit for reading the document component pointed by the pointer to the document component obtained as the search result of the document component search unit from the document storage unit and displaying the content information. A document retrieval device characterized by being provided.