JPH10240606A - Document request device and document managing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To erase a document which is obtained and stored from a document supply device in accordance with the situations of respective documents by deciding the document matched with a prescribed condition among the stored documents by means of referring to recording stored in a document reference/ recording means and erasing it from a document storage means. SOLUTION: A communication part 131 executes communication with the communication part 151 of the document supply device 110 in accordance with the protocol of http, ftp and the like, for example. A document management part 134 manages the document supplied from the document supply device 110 in a document storage part 121a and stores the supplied document, generates, erases and moves the document. The document management part 134 decides the document matched with the prescribed condition among the documents stored in the document storage part 121a being a cache area by referring to recording (final update date/time and final reference date/time) against the instruction of erasure against the document stored in the recording medium 121, and it can be erased.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document requesting apparatus for requesting a document providing apparatus connected to a network to transfer a document, and a document management method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, systems that can provide / request documents such as electronic newspapers and electronic publications via a network using the WWW (World Wide Web) have become widespread. This system is a document providing program WWW
Server and a document request program WWW client (W
This system comprises a WW browser, and provides a document from the server to the client according to a predetermined communication protocol between the client (document requesting device) and the server (document providing device).

In this method, a document providing program is used for the purpose of reducing network traffic, reducing the time required for a client to use a document after requesting it, and using the document even when not connected to the network. A technique in which a client stores a provided document in a recording medium, that is, a cache is realized.

The cache stores the document provided by the document providing program in a recording medium, and when, for example, the same document as the previously requested document is re-requested, via a network. Network traffic can be reduced by reading from a recording medium and displaying it instead of being provided by the server.

By the way, since the capacity of the recording medium used for the cache is limited, when a large number of unnecessary documents are stored, the stored documents are erased to reduce the capacity for the cache. Need to secure. This is called erasing the cache.

For example, in Netscape Navigater 3.0, which is a WWW browser of Netscape, caches can be reserved and designated in each of a main storage and a secondary storage in advance. To clear documents stored in the cache, use the WWW browser GUI (Graphi
cal User Interface), it is explicitly specified whether the object to be erased is the main memory or the secondary memory. Thereby, all the documents stored in the cache area of the specified storage medium are deleted.

In Internet Explorer 3.0, which is a WWW browser of Microsoft Corporation, the cache is
It can be secured by specifying a folder name in the secondary storage. To clear cached documents,
GUI (Graphical User Interface) of WWW browser
Tells you to empty the folder. As a result, all documents stored in the folder (cache area) used for the cache are deleted.

[0008] Computers used by users tend to be smaller. Not only desktop calculators, but also laptop and notebook calculators, PDAs (Person
Al Digital Assistant) and other portable computers are increasingly used. Mobile devices are
Unlike ordinary desktop computers, they are not always used while connected to the network, but are often connected to the network only when needed.

In order to obtain information from such a computer using the WWW, the portable terminal must be connected to the network until the use of the WWW is completed. However, for example, when the user is connected to a network via a modem, the user obtains and stores documents by requesting as many documents as possible, and wants to view the contents after disconnecting the connection.

In the future, an information server will be placed on the street corner,
It is expected that a situation will be realized in which people can use this to request a desired document at any time from a user's mobile terminal for a fee or free of charge. Even in such a situation,
It would be preferable for users to request and acquire only necessary documents in advance and to view the contents when the time is available.

Therefore, especially in a portable terminal, when a desired document is obtained by connecting to a network, a document which is likely to be required later besides the document is stored in a storage medium of the terminal in advance. Even if the terminal is disconnected from the network, a function that allows the user to refer to a document as in accessing the WWW server is required.

In the case where such a function is provided, the cache includes documents obtained by a document request by a user's explicit designation and documents which are not yet used because the user intends to view them in a vacant time. Will do.

Therefore, when the cache in the conventional document request device (document request program) is erased, even if the document stored in the recording medium includes a document which has not been used yet, Documents are erased all at once.

[0014]

As described above, when a document is deleted from the cache in the conventional document requesting apparatus, all documents stored in the cache are deleted. Therefore, even if a document is obtained from the document providing device for the purpose of later use, the document may be deleted before use regardless of the state of the document from the document providing device stored in the cache. there were.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a document requesting apparatus capable of deleting a document acquired from a document providing apparatus and stored according to the status of each document. And a document management method.

[0016]

According to the present invention, there is provided communication means for transmitting a document request to a document providing apparatus, receiving a document from the document providing apparatus in response to the document request, and receiving the document request from the document providing apparatus. A document storage unit for storing a document, a document reference recording unit for storing a record of a reference to the document stored by the document storage unit, and a document matching a predetermined condition among the documents stored in the document storage unit. ,
Document management means for determining by referring to the record stored in the document reference recording means and deleting the document from the document storage means.

Thus, when deleting a document obtained from the providing device stored in the document requesting device, the document is not deleted all at once, but a reference record for the stored document, for example, After that, the document to be deleted is determined according to the situation such as whether or not the document is fully utilized. Therefore, deleting other documents while leaving unreferenced documents, or selecting and deleting only unreferenced documents, etc.
Depending on the number of times of reference (including the presence or absence of reference), it is possible to select whether or not each document is to be deleted. Also, a plurality of conditions including the number of times of reference can be set, and a document to be deleted can be selected.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system according to the present embodiment. The present system includes a document providing apparatus 110 and a document requesting apparatus 120. By transmitting and receiving a message between the document providing apparatus 110 and the document requesting apparatus 120 via a network 140, the document requesting apparatus 120 is connected to the document providing apparatus 110.
It is a system that receives the provision of documents from. The document providing device 110 and the document requesting device 120 each are realized by a computer which reads a program recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk and the operation of which is controlled by the program.

The document requesting device 120 is provided by the document providing device 11
0 is not normally connected, LAN, modem or Ir when necessary
This is suitable when the network 140 is connected using the communication devices 157 and 127 made of (infrared) or the like. In particular, the document providing device 110 serves as a server of an electronic information service that provides documents such as electronic newspapers and electronic publications.
Is installed, for example, in an office or on a street corner, and the user requests, for example, a notebook computer or a PDA (Pe
rsonal Digital Assistant)
This is effective for a system in which the document requesting device 120 is connected to the document providing device 110 to receive a document, and refers to the document obtained after disconnecting the connection.

The network 140 that connects the document providing device 110 and the document requesting device 120 includes
Ethernet, ATM (asynchronous transfer mod)
e), a wired network for data transfer by connecting with a cable such as a telephone line, infrared, PHS (personal han
Any wireless network, such as a dyphone system, that can transfer data without being connected by a cable can be used.

The document providing device 110 includes a document requesting device 12
A communication unit 151 that receives a request from the communication unit 151;
Document management unit 1 that performs processing according to the request received by
52 are provided. The communication unit 151 includes a request receiving unit 151a that receives a document request 140a from the document requesting device 120, and a request processing unit 151 that performs document transmission 140b in accordance with the request received by the request receiving unit 151a.
b. The communication unit 151 includes the document request device 120
For example, http (hyper text)
transfer protocol), ftp (file transfer protocol)
ol) and other protocols.

In the present embodiment, the CPU of the document providing apparatus 110 includes a document providing program (150) created so as to include the functions of the communication unit 151 and the document managing unit 152.
(Not shown).

A storage medium 156 is connected to the document providing apparatus 110. In this storage medium 156, a document list (111) in which information on available documents (111) and other documents related to each document are registered is registered. 112) and a menu (113) which is a list of documents that can be provided. For example, a hard disk device or the like is used as the storage medium 156.

The document requesting apparatus 120 according to the present embodiment includes a communication unit 131 connected to the document providing apparatus 110, and a communication unit 131.
, A document display unit 135 for displaying the document requested by the user, and various requests (document request, cache operation request, document deletion request, etc.) from the user. Request receiving unit 1 to receive
36 that terminates the communication with the document providing apparatus 110 and disconnects the network connection.
It has. In addition, the communication unit 131 includes the document providing device 1
A document requesting unit 131b for requesting a document from the document providing apparatus 110; and a document receiving unit 131c for receiving a document requested by the document requesting unit 131b.

In the present embodiment, a document display program (130) created so as to include the functions of the communication unit 131, the document management unit 134, the document display unit 135, the request reception unit 136, and the disconnection unit 137 is sent to a document requesting apparatus. 120 CP
U (not shown). Note that the connection unit 131a and the connection disconnection unit 137 of the document requesting device 120 are not included in the document display program 130, and may be realized by various functions such as realization as another function.

The document requesting device 120 includes the document providing device 1
A storage medium 121 for storing the provided document 111 and the like obtained from the server 10 is connected, and the storage medium 121 is provided with a document storage unit 121a serving as a cache area.
The document reference record 12 stores a record of a reference to a document stored in the document storage unit 121a of the storage medium 121.
1b is provided. The document reference record 121b includes data indicating the last update date and time and data indicating the last reference date and time. As the storage medium 121, a hard disk device is usually used.
(Digital videodisk) device or the like can be used.

The communication section 131 communicates with the communication section 151 of the document providing apparatus 110 according to a protocol such as http, ftp, or the like. The document management unit 134
The document provided by the document providing device 110 is stored in the document storage unit 1
21a, which manages the provided document, generates, deletes, and moves the document. Document management unit 134
In response to an instruction to delete a document stored in the storage medium 121, the document storage unit 121a serving as a cache area
Out of the documents stored in the document reference storage unit 121b, the document (the last update date and time, the last reference date and time) stored in the document reference storage unit 121b can be determined and deleted. The record stored in the document reference storage unit 121b can normally use attribute data of a file managed by a file system.

The document display unit 135 is provided for the document providing device 110.
From the storage medium 1 or the document storage unit 1 of the storage medium 121.
The control for displaying the document stored in the document 21a on the display device 122 connected to the document requesting device 120 is performed.

The request receiving unit 136 inputs a request or the like from a user according to an operation on an input device (not shown) such as a keyboard or a mouse, and notifies the document management unit 134 and other necessary units. The request receiving unit 136 is a GUI (graphical user i) such as a menu showing the contents of the processing operation.
interface) and input a specified request via a GUI.

Instead of the document list (112) or the provided document 111 and the document list (112) in the storage medium 156 connected to the document providing apparatus 110, a linked file of a plurality of documents or a file obtained by compressing the linked file is used. May be stored.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that a WWW server program is used as the document providing program 150 of the document providing apparatus 110, and a WWW browser program is used as the document displaying program 130 of the document requesting apparatus 120.

The outline of the operation of each device is as follows.
In the document request device 120, the connection unit 1 of the communication unit 131
Reference numeral 31a performs a process for enabling http communication with the document providing apparatus 110 connected to the communication apparatus 127 such as an Ir or a modem. After that, the menu receiving unit 131c receives the menu transmitted from the document providing apparatus 110 by transmitting the menu request. When the user selects a document from the menu and inputs a request from the user, the request is received by the request receiving unit 136. The document request section 131b transmits a document request (140a) according to the received request.

When a document transmission (140b) corresponding to the document request (140a) transmitted by the document requesting unit 131b is sent from the document providing apparatus 110, the document transmission is received by the document receiving unit 131c. Document receiving unit 131c
If the information received in step (1) is a document list, the document requesting device 120 further requests the document described in the document list by the document requesting unit 131b. Document request section 1
When a document corresponding to the document request (140a) by 31b is sent from the document providing device 110, the document is received by the document receiving unit 131c. This received document,
The document is stored in the storage medium 121 by the document management unit 134.
Further, when the information received by the document receiving unit 131c is a document requested by the user via the GUI of the request receiving unit 136, the document is displayed on the display device 122 by the document display unit 135. At this time, the document management unit 134
Stores the date and time stored in the storage medium 121 as the last update date and time for the document stored in the document storage unit 121a. When the document is displayed by the document display unit 135 requested by the user, this date and time is stored as the last reference date and time. The detailed description will be described later.

When the document requesting device 120 wants to release the connection with the connected document providing device 110, the disconnection unit 1
37 is performed. It is assumed that the user of the document requesting device 120 can always perform the disconnection processing by the disconnection unit 137. When the user makes a request for disconnection, if the transmission of the document from the document providing device 110 has been completed, a process for disconnection is immediately performed. If a document is being transmitted, abort processing is performed, and then connection release processing is performed. When the document is being transmitted, the connection release unit 137 does not perform the abort process and waits until all the documents have been transmitted, or notifies the user that the document is being transmitted. It is also conceivable to confirm whether to abort the transmission.

On the other hand, the document providing device 110 receives the document request (140a) transmitted from the document requesting unit 131b of the document requesting device 120 at the request receiving unit 151a. next,
The request processing unit 151b searches the document list of the document corresponding to the document request 140a from the document list (112), and the document list is transmitted to the document requesting device 120 by the document transmission 140b.
Send to

If the storage medium 156 of the document providing device 110 stores a linked file including a document related to a document that can be provided to the user, the document providing device 110 Document request from (140
In response to a), the linked file corresponding to the document is transmitted to the document requesting device 120 by the document transmission 140b. In this case, the document display program 130 in the document request device 120
The (WWW browser) takes out the documents from the received concatenated file and stores them in the storage medium 121.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a document request method according to this embodiment. That is, communication between the document providing device 110 and the document requesting device 120 is performed, for example, according to the procedure shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 2, http is used as a document transmission protocol.

When a user wants to receive a document, the user first connects the document requesting device 120 to an appropriate document providing device 110 using a communication device 127 such as a LAN, a modem, or Ir. Next, in order to perform a process for enabling communication by the HTTP between the document providing apparatus 110 and the document requesting apparatus 120, the document requesting apparatus 120 sends the document providing apparatus 11
0, a connection request (601) is transmitted. Document providing device 11
On the 0 side, a connection request (601) is sent from the document requesting device 120
After receiving the request, the response (60
2) is returned. The processing between the connection request (601) and the response (602) is performed by, for example, PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol).
) And DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
).

Document providing device 110 and document requesting device 120
After completion of the connection process during
This time, a connection is made to the document providing apparatus 110 via http, and a menu that is a list of documents that can be provided by the document providing apparatus 110 is requested by a menu request (603). In response to the menu request (603), the document providing device 110 transmits a menu to the document requesting device 120 by menu transmission (604). The menu is, for example, the document providing device 1.
It is provided as a home page of 10 or a page reachable by following links from the home page. The user selects a required document from the menu, and transmits a document list request (605) to the document providing apparatus 110. Upon receiving the document list request (605) from the document requesting device 120, the document providing device 110 transmits a document list corresponding to the requested document to the document requesting device 120 by transmitting the document list (606).

The document requesting device 120 requests the document providing device 110 to transmit a document by a document request (607) in accordance with the description of the document list transmitted from the document providing device 110 by the document list transmission (606). The document providing device 110 that has received the document request (607) from the document requesting device 120 transmits the requested document by document transmission (608).

In this document requesting method, basically, processing from a document list request (605) to a document transmission (608) is a process for one document request. Of these, the document request (6
07) and document transmission (608) are repeated a number of times according to the description in the document list.

The required document is received, and the document providing device 110
In order to release the connection with, the document requesting device 120 transmits a connection release request (609) to the document providing device 110. Similarly to the connection request (601), the connection release request (609) is performed using, for example, DHCP.

When a connection release request (609) is input from the user, the document requesting device 120 checks whether all necessary documents have been received, and if completed, the connection release request (609). Is transmitted to the document providing apparatus 110. If the document providing apparatus 110 is in the process of transmitting a required document, it performs an abort process, and transmits a connection release request (609) after the abort process is completed. The abort process can be performed from both the document providing device 110 and the document requesting device 120. When an abort is issued, only the document that has already been received is stored in the document requesting device 120, and the document that is being received is deleted. Alternatively, there is a method of deleting all the documents received in response to the request for the abort. Further, when the connection release request (609) is input by the user, if the necessary documents have not been received, the abort process is not performed, and the process waits until all the documents have been received. Disconnect request (60
9) may be transmitted to the document providing apparatus 110. Alternatively, it is possible to allow the user to select a process when a document is being transmitted.

Even in the case where a document list and a document are stored in the document providing device as in the present embodiment, the document providing device includes not only the document requesting device as shown in the present embodiment but also the conventional document requesting device. There is a possibility that access may be made from the document request device of the other. For example, there may be a case where a browser on a computer that is always connected to a network requests a document from a document providing device as in the related art.
Even in such a case, the document providing apparatus can provide only the requested document to the document display program 130 (WWW browser). Further, the document providing apparatus of the present embodiment can be realized by newly adding a document list (or an applet for requesting a document list and a document) to the conventional document providing apparatus. Therefore, related documents can be transferred without changing a document managed by the conventional document providing device.

FIG. 3 shows a storage medium 1 of the document providing apparatus 110.
56 shows a description example of a menu which is a list of documents that can be provided and stored in 56. The menu is for selecting a document required by the user, and is provided, for example, as a home page of the document providing apparatus 110 or a page that can be referred to by following a link from the home page.

The menu in FIG. 3 (1100 in the figure) is HT
The document is described in an ML (hyper text markup language) format, and the title of the document that can be provided by the document providing apparatus 110 (1101 in the figure) and the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) (110 in the figure) of the document list corresponding to the document
2) is linked.

When the user requests a document corresponding to the title 1101 of the document shown in FIG.
The document list described in L1102 is transferred from the document providing device to the document requesting device. At this time, at least the URL of the document requested by the user and the related document are described in the document list.

The document requesting device 120 requests the document described in the document list from the document providing device 110 and obtains it. In addition, a method is conceivable in which the URL of the document is described in the URL 1102 part of the document list, and the URL of the document list is described in the document in a form enclosed by a special tag. In this case, when the user requests a document, the document is transferred to the document requesting device 120 and displayed.

The document requesting device 120 searches the document for the URL of the document list enclosed by the special tag,
It requests the document list from the document providing device. In this case, the document list does not need to include the URL of the document.

FIG. 4 shows a storage medium 1 of the document providing apparatus 110.
5 shows an example of the document list 112 stored in the file list 56. In the document list (200 in the figure), a description indicating the location of the document requested by the user and the related document is described, separated by a predetermined delimiter.

In the document list shown in FIG. 4, the URL (201 in the figure) corresponding to the document requested by the user to the document providing apparatus 110 and the URL of the document related to the requested document (202 in the figure) are described. Have been. In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which a line feed code is used as a delimiter in the document list, and the document (URL) described at the head of the document list is a document requested by the user.

The document list may be created by a document provider or may be automatically created by extracting link information from a requested document. When automatically creating a document list, for example, a program for automatically creating a document list is stored in a document providing device. This program extracts all URL information referenced from a request document and a document that can be followed by a link from this document. At this time, the depth of the link to be followed from the request document can be set in advance.

It should be noted that another document list can be described in the document list. In this case, the document described in the other document list is also requested from the document providing device.
Next, transmission of the document request 140a from the document request device 120 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, not only a document specified by a user but also a document request 140a for a document related to the specified document is transmitted to the document providing apparatus 110.

The part of the operation of the document requesting apparatus 120 shown in FIG. 5 from the reception of the request from the user to the acquisition of the URL of the document to be requested to be transferred (steps in the flowchart shown in FIG. 7 described later). (Included in the process of C1).

First, the document display program 130 (WWW
When the request from the user is received by the request receiving unit 136 (step A1), the browser) transmits a document list corresponding to the request from the communication unit 131 to the document used by the user in the document list request process. Requests the requesting device 120 to the connected document providing device 110 (step A
2).

Next, in the document list receiving process, the document display program 130 receives the document list transmitted from the document providing device 110 in accordance with the document list request of step A2 by the communication unit 131 (step A3).

The document display program 130 analyzes the received document list (step A4), and extracts the URL of a related document (including a document specified by the user to be displayed) to be stored in the document requesting device 120 (step A4). A
5).

Thereafter, by repeatedly using the URL of the document to be stored in the retrieved document requesting device 120 and sequentially transmitting the document request 140a for each document, the corresponding document is transmitted from the document providing device 110. The acquired cache area of the document requesting device 120 (the document storage unit 12
1a).

The order of the processing for the related document and the processing for the display document may be such that the document request 140a is first transmitted using the URL of the display document, or vice versa, or in parallel. It may be processed.

Since the document request 140a for the document related to the document designated by the user is also made automatically, a document not required by the user may be obtained.

Next, referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
The operation of transmitting and receiving a file and storing the document in the cache area (document storage unit 121a) in the document requesting apparatus 120 in the system including the document requesting apparatus 120 and the document requesting apparatus 120 will be described. Here, a storage method suitable for deleting a document stored in the document storage unit 121a based on the presence or absence of reference to the document will be described.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the document providing apparatus 110, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the document request apparatus 120. First, in the document requesting device 120, the GU displayed on the display device 122 is displayed.
The URL of the document specified by the user received by the request receiving unit 136 via the I or the URL of the related document extracted by the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG.
L, the document request 14 is sent to the document providing apparatus 110.
0a is transmitted (FIG. 7, step C1).

The URL is an identifier that can uniquely designate a document. For example, “http://www.oume.toshiba.
co.jp/index.html ", the transfer protocol is http, and the name of the document providing apparatus 110 is" www.ou.
me. toshiba. co. jp "and the file name can uniquely specify the document specified by" index.html ".

The communication unit 131 has a transfer protocol http
"Www.oume.toshiba.co.j
p "is connected to the document providing apparatus 110 specified by
A request is made to provide a file indicated by the file name "index.html" (FIG. 7, step C2).

On the other hand, the document providing device 110 (www.oume.tos
hiba.co.jp) receives the document request 140a from the communication unit 131 of the document requesting device 120 by the communication unit 151 (FIG. 6, (Step B1). The request reception unit 151a of the communication unit 151 performs the document management). For the unit 152, the document request 1
File name "index.html" corresponding to 40a
Request the file indicated by.

The document management section 152 has a request receiving section 151a.
File name "index.htm"
The provided document 111 in the storage medium 156 is searched based on “1”, and it is checked whether there is a corresponding document (FIG. 6, step B2).

When the relevant document is stored in the storage medium 156 (step B3), the document management unit 152 reads out the relevant document from the storage medium 156 and sends the read document to the communication unit 151.
To the request processing unit 151b (step B4).

When there is no corresponding document, the document management unit 152 passes an error indicating that the corresponding document does not exist to the request processing unit 151b of the communication unit 151 (step B5).

The request processing section 151b of the communication section 151 sends the processing result (corresponding document or error notification) of the document management section 152 as a response to the document request 140a from the document requesting apparatus 120 by the document transmission section 140b.
20 (step B6).

The document requesting apparatus 120 receives the document transmission 140b from the document providing apparatus 110 via the communication unit 131 (FIG. 7, step C3). The document receiving unit 131c of the communication unit 131 transmits the document 1 from the document providing apparatus 110.
If 40b is not a request document but an error notification (step C4), if the document request is received by the user via the GUI and received by the request receiving unit 136 (step C5), the document display unit 135 Instruct the display of an error message.

The document display unit 135 includes a document receiving unit 131c.
In response to the instruction from, a message indicating that the requested document could not be obtained is displayed on the display device 122 to notify the user (step C6).

If the document transmission 140b from the document providing device 110 is a request document, the document receiving unit 131c
Passes the received request document to the document management unit 134. The document management unit 134 converts the URL of the document into a file name that uniquely corresponds to the
The document is stored in the cache area 21a (step C7).

For example, a part indicating the document providing apparatus 110 of the URL and a part indicating the file name are connected by adding “/”, and the directory (or folder) indicated by “/ cache /” in the cache area is connected. It is a convention to store it below.

In this example, the URL of the request document is set to “/ cache / w
ww.oume.toshiba.co.jp/index.html ", and stores the document received with this file name in the document storage unit 121a.

Further, the document management unit 134 stores the document stored in the document storage unit 121a into the document reference storage unit 12
In 1b, the current date and time are set as data indicating the last update date and time, and data "-" indicating non-reference is set as data indicating the last reference date and time (step C8).

Further, if the document request is made by the user via the GUI and received by the request receiving unit 136 (step C9), the document display unit 135 displays the request document received by the document receiving unit 131c. Display device 12
Displayed in 2. In addition, the document management unit 134 sets the current date and time when the document displayed by the document display unit 135 is displayed as data indicating the last reference date and time in the document reference storage unit 121b (step). C10). Therefore, for a document that is not displayed by the document display unit 135 and has not been referred to yet, “−” indicating unreferenced is set as the last reference date and time.

In the same manner, if another related document remains, a document request 140a is transmitted using the URL of the document as a document to be requested to be transferred, and the document is transmitted according to the above-described procedure. The request document is acquired from the providing device 110 and stored in the document storage unit 121a of the storage medium 121. At this time, data indicating the last update date and time and the last reference date and time for the document acquired from the document providing device 110 by the document management unit 134 are stored in the document reference storage unit 121b. As for the last reference date and time, unreferenced "-" is set for documents other than the document requested to be displayed by the user.

However, the request receiving unit 136 requests the display of the document stored in the document storage unit 121a, and for the document displayed by the document display unit 135, the document management unit 134 determines the last reference date and time of the corresponding document. Is changed from the unreferenced "-" to the date and time at the time of display. Therefore, the date and time when the last corresponding document is displayed by the document display unit 135 is stored in the last reference date and time. A final reference to a document which is not a document specified by the user via the GUI but is a document obtained by automatically transmitting the document request 140a as a related document and which has not been displayed by the document display unit 135 thereafter. The date and time remain unreferenced.

When a document having the same URL as the document already stored in the document storage unit 121a is received again from the document providing apparatus 110, the document management unit 134 sets the last update date and time of the document again. Update to the stored date and time.

Next, an example of a document stored in the document storage section 121a will be described. Here, FIG.
It is assumed that the document of the URL (f) is stored in the document storage unit 121a (cache area).

For each document, a document reference storage section 121b is provided in a cell format as shown in FIG.
That is, the first item of the cell for the document is the document (file) name, and the second item stores the last update date and time and the third item stores the last reference date and time corresponding to the document name. The document reference storage unit 121b is configured by the last update date and time in the second section and the last reference date and time in the third section.

FIG. 10 shows the relationship between cells for documents (including files other than text) corresponding to each URL shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, in the document storage unit 121a, each document is stored in a hierarchy under “/ cache”, and a document reference storage unit 121b (last update date and time, last reference date and time) is stored for each document. ing. In FIG. 10, a document (file) stored under a directory (or folder) of “article” is not referred to, and “-” indicating non-reference is stored in the last reference date and time.

Next, as described above, the document storage unit 121
The operation of erasing a document stored in a (cache area) will be described. When the request of the cache operation by the user is received, the request receiving unit 136, for example, as shown in FIG.
1 to provide a GUI related to cache operations. In the GUI related to the cache operation, it is possible to specify a condition for erasing a document stored in the document storage unit 121a (cache area).

As shown in FIG. 11, the conditions for deleting the cache include a first condition "delete all documents", a second condition "delete documents that are not referenced and delete others", and a third condition. One of three types of “leave the referenced document and delete the other” can be arbitrarily selected. FIG. 10 shows a state in which the condition of “leave the document not referred to and delete the others” is selected.

Here, the operation when there is a request to delete a document will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When instructed to perform document deletion,
The document management unit 134 has not yet completed checking whether or not a document (file) stored under the “/ cache” directory stored in the document storage unit 121a is a document to be deleted. If you have something (Step D
1) A document to be checked is specified, and the last reference date and time of the document stored in the document reference storage unit 121b is read (step D2).

The document management unit 134 determines whether the read last reference date and time satisfies the condition specified by the cache operation GUI shown in FIG. 11 (step D3). Here, since the second condition of “leave other documents and delete others not referred” is selected, it is determined whether the document is a “referenced” document to be deleted.

For example, as the last reference date and time of the document corresponding to the URL shown in FIG. 10A, data of “10:15, 96/10/30” is stored instead of “−” indicating no reference. Therefore, it is determined that it has been referred to. Therefore, the document management unit 134 stores the document in the document storage unit 121
a, and the data of the last update date and time and the last reference date and time corresponding to the document in the document reference storage unit 121b are deleted (step D4).

Hereinafter, similarly, the document management unit 134
The last reference date and time of each document for which the check has not been completed is sequentially read out, and it is determined whether or not the condition is satisfied.

The last reference date and time of the document corresponding to the URLs (c) to (e) shown in FIG. 10 are not erased because they are "-" indicating non-reference. Therefore, the document storage unit 121a will be described later.
Can be read out and displayed for reference.

The GU of the cache operation shown in FIG.
If the condition designated by I is the third condition of “leave the referenced document and delete others”, the document management unit 134
Determines in step D3 whether the last reference date and time of the document is "-" indicating that the document is not referenced, and deletes the document if the document is a relevant document.

Thus, in addition to the request document specified by the user from the GUI, when the document request 140a is automatically transmitted as a related document and the document acquired from the document providing apparatus 110 is stored, Document providing device 110
If the document is obtained from the document but is not referred to by the user, only the unnecessary document can be deleted from the document storage unit 121a (cache area) by specifying the third condition.

As described above, when the documents obtained from the document providing apparatus 110 are stored in the document storage unit 121a, the data indicating the last update date and time and the last reference date and time are stored in the document reference storage unit 121b for each document. Is done. At the last reference date and time, the document display unit 1
For documents that are not displayed by 35 and are not referenced, “-” indicating unreference is stored. When the deletion of the document stored in the document storage unit 121a is designated by the cache operation and the above-described second condition or third condition is selected, the corresponding condition is determined based on "-" indicating non-reference. Only the document to be deleted can be selectively deleted.

Next, a system different from the system configuration shown in FIG. 1 and the procedures of the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 7 and 12 will be described. The document request device 120 in the system configuration shown in FIG.
Is stored in the document storage unit 121 a of the storage medium 121, and the document requesting device 160 shown in FIG. 13 stores, in the document display program 170, a document reference recording unit 188 for storing the number of references to each document (file). Is provided.

That is, the document itself is stored in the document storage section 121a of the storage medium 121 (hard disk device), but the document reference recording section holding data indicating the last update date and time and the last reference date and time for each file (document). 188
Is secured in the document display program 170.

The document management unit 184 stores the document reference recording unit 18
8 with reference to the data recorded in the file 8 and the data of at least the last reference date and time of the file registered in the file register, and performs a cache operation including erasure of the document stored in the document storage unit 121a of the storage medium 121. . The same parts as those in the configuration shown in FIG.

The document reference recording unit 188 is provided for the document providing device 1.
10, for storing the data indicating the number of times of reference for each document in the document stored in the document storage unit 121a by the document management unit 184.

FIG. 14 shows an example of data stored in the document reference recording unit 188 by the document management unit 184. As shown in FIG. 14, the document reference recording unit 188 stores a document in the document storage unit 121 by the document management unit 184.
The number of references to which the corresponding document is to be displayed is stored in association with the document name given when stored in a.

Next, the operation of the document requesting device 160 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The operation of the document providing apparatus 110 corresponding to the operation of the document requesting apparatus 160 is performed in the same manner as the operation of the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the operation of the document requesting device 160 shown in the flowchart of FIG. 15, the processing of each of the steps E1 to E7 is the same as that of each of the steps C1 to C7 in the flowchart shown in FIG. The description is omitted because it is performed in the same manner as the processing.

The document management unit 134 converts the URL of the document into a file name that uniquely corresponds to the
When a document is stored in the first document storage unit 121a (cache area) (step C7), it is determined whether or not the document name of the acquired request document has already been registered in the document reference recording unit 188 (step E8).

If the document name of the requested document has already been registered in the document reference recording unit 188, the document management unit 184 sets the number of references stored corresponding to this document name to "0". That is, since a new document is obtained from the document providing apparatus 110 and rewritten in the document storage unit 121a, the number of times of reference is counted again.

On the other hand, when the document name of the requested document is not registered in the document reference recording unit 188, the document management unit 184
An entry for the document is created and the document name is stored, and the number of references corresponding to the document name is set to “0”.

Further, if the document request is made by the user via the GUI and received by the request receiving unit 136 (step E11), the document display unit 135 displays the request document received by the document receiving unit 131c. Display device 1
Displayed at 22. In addition, the document management unit 184
For the document displayed by the document display unit 135, “1” is added to the number of references corresponding to the displayed document name in the document reference storage unit 188 (step E12).

In the same manner, if another related document remains, a document request 140a is transmitted using the URL of the document as a document to be requested to be transferred, and the document is transmitted according to the above-described procedure. The request document is acquired from the providing device 110 and stored in the document storage unit 121a of the storage medium 121.

The request receiving section 136 sends the document storage section 1
For the document displayed on the document display unit 135 for which the display of the document stored in the document storage unit 21a has been requested, the document management unit 184 sequentially changes the number of times of reference of the requested document in the document reference recording unit 188 to “ 1 ”.

Next, as described above, the document storage unit 121
The operation of erasing a document stored in a (cache area) will be described. When the request of the cache operation by the user is received, the request receiving unit 136, for example, as shown in FIG.
6 provides a GUI related to cache operations. In the GUI related to the cache operation, it is possible to specify a condition for erasing a document stored in the document storage unit 121a (cache area).

As shown in FIG. 16, as a condition for deleting the cache, a document that satisfies both the condition of the period based on the reference date and the condition of the number of references based on the number of references is set as the object of deletion. Can be specified as

The period condition setting part in the GUI shown in FIG. 16 arbitrarily designates a reference date (year, month, day) for the last reference date and time, and sets “from before the reference date”,
It is possible to select “after the reference” or any number of days specified from the reference date. Also, "all periods" can be selected without specifying a reference date. Any one of them is selected as a period condition.

Further, the reference count condition setting section in the GUI shown in FIG. 16 can select either the reference count which is arbitrarily designated or less, or “all counts” irrespective of the count. Furthermore, it is possible to arbitrarily add a condition of whether or not to include a page (unreferenced document) that has not been viewed yet (it may or may not be selected).

Here, the operation in the case where there is a document erasure execution request will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, as shown in FIG. 16, the reference date “October 30, 1996” and “before the reference date” are designated as the period condition, and the reference count condition is set to four or less (not including the unreferenced document). It is assumed that

When execution of the document deletion is instructed, the document management unit 184 stores “/ c” stored in the document storage unit 121a.
If any of the documents (files) stored under the directory of “ache” have not yet been checked whether or not the document is to be deleted (step F1), the document to be checked is specified. Then, the document reference recording unit 138
The last reference date and time of the corresponding document stored in is read (step F2).

The document management section 184 determines whether or not the read last reference date and time matches the period condition specified by the cache operation GUI shown in FIG. 16 (step F).
3). Here, the reference date is “October 30, 1996
Since “date” is specified and the condition “before reference date” is selected, a document whose last reference date and time satisfies the condition before October 30, 1996 is determined as a candidate to be deleted.

For example, U of (a) to (f) shown in FIG.
"96/10" of the last reference date and time of the document corresponding to the RL
/ 30 ”is stored before (a)
(B). Therefore, each of the documents (a) and (b) is a candidate for erasure with respect to the period condition.

Next, when the document to be checked is a candidate for erasure with respect to the period condition, the document management unit 184 reads the corresponding reference count stored in the document reference recording unit 138 (step F4).

The document management unit 184 determines whether the read reference count satisfies the reference count condition specified by the cache operation GUI shown in FIG. 16 (step F).
5). Here, the number of times of reference is four or less, and it is selected that the document is not an unreferenced document.

For example, the number of times of reference to the document (a) which is a candidate for erasure shown in FIG. 10 is ten times as shown in FIG. 14 and does not satisfy the condition, and thus is excluded from erasure. On the other hand, the reference count of the document (b), which is a candidate for erasure, is as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, the number of times is one and the document is not an unreferenced document. Therefore, the document management unit 184 deletes the document from the document storage unit 121a and deletes the entry corresponding to the document in the document reference recording unit 138 (step F6).

In this way, the document management unit 184 sets the last reference date and time and the number of times of reference for each document that has not been checked.
Each of them is sequentially read out, and two of the period condition and the reference number condition are read.
It is determined whether or not one of the conditions is satisfied. If the document satisfies all the conditions, the document is deleted.

In this way, the document acquired from the document providing device 110 is stored in the document storage unit 121a, and data indicating the number of times of reference is stored in the document reference storage unit 138 for each document. Document storage unit 121a by cache operation
When the deletion of the document stored in the document is specified by a plurality of conditions (period condition, reference count condition), the reference count stored in the document reference recording unit 138 and the last reference date and time managed by the file system Based on the above, only the relevant document can be selectively deleted.

In FIG. 16, it is described that a document to be erased is selected based on two conditions, that is, a period condition and a reference count condition. GU, subject to the type of
I may be set arbitrarily. The number of conditions is not limited to two, but may be any number.

Although the number of references for each document is recorded in the document reference recording unit 188, if the number of references that can be specified as an erasing condition has an upper limit, for example, the number of references in the document reference recording unit 188 is also set. It is not necessary to record the number of times exceeding the upper limit. In this case, the document reference recording unit 18
The number of bits in the storage medium allocated as 8 can be fixed, which is practically preferable.

Also, as in the case of the system described with reference to FIG. 1, if the function of designating the number of references as a condition is not required and it is sufficient to specify only whether or not a reference has been made, the upper limit of the number of references is Should be set to “1”.

In the above description, in the document requesting devices 120 and 160, the related documents registered in the document list based on the request documents received from the user by the request receiving unit 136 via the GUI. It is described that the document request 140a is transmitted to the document providing apparatus 110 and the corresponding document is acquired, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In this embodiment, the last update date and time and the last reference date and time are managed. However, the date and time updated by the document providing apparatus 110 (WWW server) and the last reference date and time may be managed. In this case, even if a document having the same update date and time in the document providing device 110 is received again, the update date and time or the last reference date and time in the document providing device 110 are not changed. As a result, the document is re-received from the document providing apparatus 110. However, when the document is the same as the previous document, the document that should have been referred to is not treated as unreferenced.

For example, a document request from a user is sent to a GUI
, A predetermined document request 140a is transmitted to the document providing apparatus 110 at a predetermined time without receiving the document, and the corresponding document is acquired and referenced (displayed) without being referred to (displayed). (Cache area). In this case, a plurality of documents may be requested to the document providing apparatus 110 collectively instead of one document.

In short, according to the present invention, a document that a user intentionally refers to is stored in a document storage unit 121a of a storage medium 121,
This is suitable for erasing the cache when a document that has not been referred to yet or a document transmitted from the document providing apparatus 110 without the user's intention is stored in a mixed state.

Note that the method described in the above-described embodiment includes, as programs that can be executed by a computer, for example, a magnetic disk (floppy disk, hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (CD-ROM,
It is also possible to write the data on a recording medium such as a DVD or a semiconductor memory and apply it to various devices, or to transmit it via a communication medium and apply it to various devices. A computer that realizes the present apparatus reads the program recorded on the recording medium, and executes the above-described processing by controlling the operation of the program.

[0127]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the status of each document, for example, whether or not the document acquired from the document providing device and stored in the cache area is determined.
The number of references can be erased according to the combination of the number of references and other conditions.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an example of a document request method according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a description example of a menu which is a list of documents that can be provided and stored in a storage medium of a document providing apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a document list 112 stored in a storage medium 156 of the document providing apparatus 110 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining transmission of a document request 140a from the document request device 120;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of the document providing apparatus 110 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of the document requesting apparatus 120 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a view showing an example of a URL of a document stored in the document storage unit 121a according to the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a data format stored in a document reference storage unit 121b.

FIG. 10 is a view showing a relationship when documents corresponding to the URLs shown in FIG. 8 are stored in the document storage unit 121a.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary view showing an example of a GUI related to a cache operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining an operation in the case where there is a document erasure execution request in the embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 shows a document reference recording unit 1 by a document management unit 184.
The figure which shows an example of the data stored in 88.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the document requesting device 160;

FIG. 16 is a view showing an example of a GUI related to a cache operation.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart for explaining an operation in the case where there is a document erasure execution request according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 110 Document providing device 111 Document provided 112 Document list 113 Menu 120 Document requesting device 121 Storage medium 121a Document storage unit 121b Document reference recording unit 122 Display device 130 Document display program 131 Communication unit 131a ... Connecting unit 131b Document requesting unit 131c Document receiving unit 134 Document storing unit 135 Document displaying unit 136 Request receiving unit 137 Disconnecting unit 140 Network 140a Document request 140b Document transmitting 141 Document transmitting 150 Document providing program 151 communication unit 151a request receiving unit 151b request processing unit 152 document processing unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] Communication means for transmitting a document request to the document providing apparatus and receiving a document from the document providing apparatus in response to the document request; and a document storing means for storing the document received by the communication means. A document reference recording unit that stores a record of a reference to a document stored by the document storage unit; and a document that matches a predetermined condition among the documents stored in the document storage unit is stored in the document reference recording unit. A document management unit for determining with reference to the recorded record and deleting the document from the document storage unit. 2. The document according to claim 1, wherein the document reference recording unit includes a last reference date and time of the document stored in the document storage unit and a date and time stored in the document storage unit. Requesting device. 3. When the same document as the document stored in the document storage means is stored again, updating the date and time stored in the document storage means recorded in the document reference recording means. 3. The document request device according to claim 2, wherein: 4. The document requesting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document reference recording unit includes data indicating whether or not the document stored in the document storage unit has been referred to. 5. The document requesting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document reference recording unit includes data indicating the number of times of reference to the document stored in the document storage unit. 6. The document management means, based on a record stored in the document reference recording means,
2. The document requesting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a document satisfying all of a plurality of conditions is deleted from the document storage unit. 7. A request receiving means for receiving a request as to whether or not a deletion of a document stored in the document storage means by the document management unit is made to be a document which meets the predetermined condition. 2. The document request device according to claim 1, wherein: 8. A document management method for managing a document transmitted from a document providing device to a document requesting device, wherein the document transmitted from the document providing means is stored, and a reference record for the stored document is stored. A document management method comprising: determining a document that matches a predetermined condition among stored documents by referring to a record of references to the document and deleting the document.