JPH1027180A - Document search system and document search method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To enable easy search of a document intended by a user and prevent invalid search processing even when search conditions for searching a document are ambiguous or inaccurate. Provided is a document management system capable of improving the efficiency of document search processing. SOLUTION: A personnel database 10 for storing organization data including information on an organization name and an organization structure, human data including information on a name and an affiliated organization together with the past change history, and document data along with attribute information thereof. When the attribute information of the document is input to the search condition input / presentation means 2 as a search condition for searching the stored document database 11 and the document data stored in the document database 11, the search condition interpretation means 3 Corrects (relaxes) or limits (restricts) the input search conditions to valid search conditions based on the change history stored in the personnel database 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention simplifies input of search conditions by correcting search conditions input by a user for searching stored document data.
The present invention relates to a document search system and a document search method that can perform search processing efficiently.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a document database which electronically stores the contents of a document and various additional information in a storage medium on a computer, retrieves the document according to a user's request, and provides document data, has been used. Has been introduced and operated in many workplaces.

[0003] Typical conditions for searching a document are, in general, title, document number, document type, keyword, content (full-text search), creator or owner (person or organization), registration date and time or This is a combination of conditions such as creation date and time, revision, and the like regarding document attribute information or document content itself.

A user who wants to search for a document inputs search attributes relating to the attribute information or the content itself of the document in a predetermined format, and issues a search request to a document database. The document database receiving the search request calculates whether each of the stored document data matches the input search condition, and presents a document satisfying the search condition to the user as a search result.

There is a possibility that the search condition input by the user is insufficient or incorrect, and if this is used as the search condition, the search result intended by the user cannot be obtained. As a proposal for a method of addressing such a problem and automatically correcting the deficiency / error of the search condition, the "information management device"
(Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-78172) and "Data Search Processing Apparatus" (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-85073). Research on methods of storing, managing, and using data on people, organizations, documents, and the like in the workplace, including past change histories, includes "The Business Obj."
ect management System ”(M.
Schlatter et al., IBM Systems J
OURRNAL, Vol 33, NO 2, 199
4).

[0006]

In the "information management apparatus" (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-78172), when the notation of the search key and the keyword in the search condition input by the user is different from the notation specified by the database, A method has been proposed in which a search condition is corrected by using a conversion information for converting this into a notation defined by a database. According to this method, for example, if the name of a certain organization in the past is described as conversion information, it is also possible to search for a document registered with the past organization name using the current organization name as a keyword. It is possible. However, since the conversion information is not described including its temporal validity period, there is a possibility that search processing may be executed with search conditions that are actually invalid and that cannot satisfy the conditions. There is.

"Data search processing device" (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-85)
[073] has proposed a method in which, when there is a shortage in search conditions input by a user, search conditions to be added are automatically extracted to supplement the search conditions and proposed to the user. However, in this method, a candidate data group must be searched once in order to extract a search condition to be added. Since the first search process is performed with a reduced search condition, the efficiency of the search process is reduced. There is a problem that it is not good.

[0008] The above-mentioned "The Business"
Object Management System "
Although the system introduced in (1) states that information such as documents can be searched based on the situation at any time in the past, the specific method of the search process is described. Also, there is no description on how to deal with the case where the time condition set at the time of retrieval includes ambiguity.

[0009] In the document management system based on the prior art as described above, there arises a problem that the search condition becomes invalid as time passes. For documents that should be stored for a long period of several years or several decades, for example, documents such as design drawings of buildings and plant equipment, maintenance documents, etc., during the storage period, the creator, manager, and owner of the document There is a high possibility that places will be reorganized, renamed, or moved. If the information about the creator and owner of the document registered in the document database in the past does not match the current person, presence / absence, name, affiliation, organizational structure of the department, the user searches this document In order to do so, the search conditions must be entered in view of the name, structure, and affiliation of the organization at the time of registration of this document.

If the user does not know the information about the past organization / person or does not memorize the information accurately, it is impossible to input the search condition correctly.
The only way to search this document is to issue a search request under search conditions other than those related to people and organizations.

[0011] However, there is a demand for the user to search for a document based on search conditions based on inaccurate storage, such as “probably a report prepared in the section XX around 1992”.

On the other hand, in order to efficiently execute a search process, it is necessary to effectively utilize such inaccurate search conditions and narrow the search range. In view of the above, the present invention provides a method for restricting or relaxing a search condition by removing invalid information from the search condition prior to a document search based on the search condition even when the search condition of the document is ambiguous or inaccurate. An object of the present invention is to provide a document search system and a document search method capable of easily obtaining an intended document, preventing an invalid search process, and improving the efficiency of the document search process.

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided a document search system comprising: an attribute information change history storage unit for storing attribute information of a document together with a past change history; and a document data storing document data together with the attribute information. A storage unit, and when the attribute information of the document is input as a search condition for searching the document data stored in the document data storage unit, the input search condition is stored in the attribute information change history storage unit Correction means for correcting the search history into valid search conditions based on the changed change history, and when the attribute information of the document is input as a search condition for searching the document data stored in the document data storage means, the input is performed. A limiting unit that limits the searched search condition based on the change history stored in the attribute information change history storage unit, and a search condition corrected by the correction unit. Presenting means for presenting the search condition limited by the limitation means; and searching the document data from the document data storage means based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the search condition presented by the presenting means. Document data search means, even if the search condition of the document is ambiguous or inaccurate, prior to the document search based on the search condition, remove invalid information from the search condition and limit or relax the search condition By performing the above, the user can easily obtain the intended document, and can prevent the invalid search processing and improve the efficiency of the document search processing.

Further, the document search system of the present invention is a personnel database which stores at least organization data including information on an organization name and an organizational structure, and human data including at least information on a name and an affiliated organization, together with a past change history. A document database storing at least document data together with attribute information including at least a person concerned and a related organization of the document and the registration date and time of the document; and a search condition for searching the document data stored in the document database. When at least one of a document related person, a related organization, and a registration date and time of the document is input from the attribute information of the document, the input search condition is validated based on the change history stored in the personnel database. Correction means for correcting the search conditions; and document data stored in the document database. As search criteria to find the,
When at least one of a document related person, a related organization, and a registration date and time of the document is input among the attribute information of the document, the input search condition is determined based on the change history stored in the personnel database. Limiting means for limiting;
A presentation unit that presents the search condition corrected by the correction unit and the search condition limited by the limitation unit; and a search condition changed or selected by a user based on the search condition presented by the presentation unit. Document data search means for searching document data from a document database;
Even if the search condition of the document is ambiguous or inaccurate, by removing invalid information from the search condition and restricting / relaxing the search condition prior to the document search based on the search condition, the Can easily obtain an intended document, prevent invalid search processing, and improve the efficiency of document search processing.

Further, the document search method of the present invention comprises an attribute information change history storage means for storing attribute information of a document together with its past change history, and a document data storage means for storing document data together with the attribute information. When the attribute information of a document is input as a search condition for searching for document data from, the input search condition is corrected to a valid search condition based on the change history stored in the attribute information change history storage unit. Alternatively, the input search condition is limited based on the change history stored in the attribute information change history storage unit, and the corrected search condition and the limited search condition are presented. By retrieving document data from the document data storage unit based on the search conditions changed or selected by the user based on the presented search conditions, Search condition is ambiguous, even if inaccurate,
Prior to document search based on the search condition, by removing invalid information from the search condition and restricting / relaxing the search condition, the user can easily obtain the intended document and prevent invalid search processing. Thus, the efficiency of the document search process can be improved.

Further, the document search method of the present invention provides a personnel database which stores at least organization data including information relating to an organization name and an organizational structure, and human data including at least information relating to a name and an affiliation organization, together with a past change history. And a search condition for searching the document data from a document database that stores the document data together with attribute information including at least the related parties and related organizations of the document and the registration date and time of the document. When at least one of the person concerned and the related organization of the document and the registration date and time of the document is input, the input search condition is corrected to a valid search condition based on the change history stored in the personnel database, Alternatively, the input search condition is based on a change history stored in the personnel database. Presenting the corrected search condition and the limited search condition, and searching document data from the document database based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the presented search condition. Therefore, even if the search condition of the document is ambiguous or inaccurate, by removing invalid information from the search condition and restricting / relaxing the search condition prior to the document search based on the search condition, the user can obtain the intended document. Can be easily obtained, and invalid search processing can be prevented, and the efficiency of document search processing can be improved.

That is, the document search system of the present invention
Among the search conditions in document search, search conditions related to date and time, such as registration date and time, creation date and time, modification date and time and approval date and time, and search conditions related to people such as creator, registrant, owner, and circulation , Approver, etc., and search conditions related to the organization, for example, conditions such as creation organization, registration organization, owning organization, circulation organization, management organization, etc. Interpret based on information and automatically generate valid combinations of search conditions related to date / time / person / organization.

Therefore, according to the present invention, even if the date and time, person, and organization conditions among the search conditions of the document input by the user are redundant or incorrect, the validity of the conditions before executing the document search is improved. And, if necessary, limit the search conditions by removing redundancy or, conversely, relax by expanding the incorrect conditions. This allows the user to easily obtain the intended document even if the user inputs search conditions based on incorrect storage. Further, even when a plurality of valid search condition candidates are obtained as a result of the interpretation of the search condition, the user can easily select the search condition intended by the user from the candidates. Especially,
By arranging the search condition candidates in the time order of the validity period and presenting them to the user, the selection of the search condition becomes easier.

[0019] In addition, there is a request from the user that after the document search, various inquiries regarding the searched document should be made to related persons / related organizations. According to the present invention, in the process of restricting / relaxing the search condition of a document, information of a person / organization related to the document may already be obtained.
Information about the organization can be automatically presented. Therefore, the user does not have to perform a task of separately issuing a search request to the personnel database and acquiring necessary information.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the document search system according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, search condition input / presentation means 2
Is for the user to input and modify search conditions for document search via the user interface 1. The search condition input to the search condition input / presentation means 2 is sent to the document database 11 in response to a search execution command from the user, and the document is searched.

The search condition interpreting means 3 converts the search conditions input to the search condition input / presentation means 2 into the personnel database 10.
Is interpreted based on the data stored in. The search result presenting means 4 is for presenting the result of the document search of the document database 11 to the user via the user interface 1. When the user requests the presentation of the related information with respect to the search result presented by the search result presenting means 4, the search result presenting means 4 transmits necessary information from the personnel database 10 via the search condition interpreting means 3. Acquire information and present it to the user.

The personnel database 10 includes a change / change history management means 6 for managing change history of the person / organization data in the past, and a person / organization data management means 5 for managing / retrieving the person / organization data; / Person / organization data storage means 7 in which organization data is stored including past change history
Consists of

The document database 10 comprises a document data manager 8 for managing and retrieving document data, and a document data storage means 9 for storing document data. A new part of the present invention as compared with the document management system according to the prior art is that the search condition interpreting means 3 is used by linking the document database 11 and the personnel database 10 via the means.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show an example of the data format and contents of the data relating to the person / organization stored in the person / organization data storage means 7 of FIG. FIG.
FIG. 3 shows an example of organization data stored in the personnel database 10, and FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (c) and FIG.
(A) and (b) show individual tissue data A to E, respectively.

Each of the organization data A to E includes "organization name"
Attribute items such as “super organization”, “location”, and “telephone” are defined, and for each attribute item for which the past change history is to be stored, the attribute value is combined with the validity period. Are set and stored.

For example, the attribute item “organization name” 21 of the organization data A in FIG.
3 ”, that is, from April 1989 to March 1995, the“ Sales Department ”has a validity period of“ 95 / 4− ”,
After the month, it is set to "Domestic Sales Department". This data format indicates that the organization name has been changed from “sales department” to “domestic sales department”.

Similarly, for example, in the organization data C of FIG. 2, it is expressed that the organization named “sales section 4” was established from April 1995, and the organization data D of FIG. The organizational data E indicates that the original organization was “Software Development Section”, but since April 1994, it has been divided into two organizations “Software Development Section 1” and “Software Development Section 2”. ing.

FIG. 4 shows an example of human data stored in the personnel database 10, and FIGS.
Indicates individual person data A to C, respectively. Attribute items such as “name” and “affiliated organization” are defined in each of the personal data A to C. As with the organization data, the attribute items of the attribute items for which the past change history is to be stored are the same as the organization data. Multiple values are set together with the validity period.

For example, the person “Yamada @
"Man" is "Business 3" during the validity period "91 / 4-95 / 9".
Section, and “Sales 4” during the effective period “95 / 9-”
Section ".

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of document data stored in the document database 11, and FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b)
Indicates individual document data AB. In each of the document data A and B, in addition to the content of the document data, “title”, “document type”, “registration date and time”, “creator”, “owning organization”
Attribute items (additional information) such as "keywords" are defined, and all of the attribute values can be used as search conditions in document search.

In the present invention, among these, search conditions using attribute items related to time, person, and organization such as "registration date and time", "creator", and "owning organization" as objects of interpretation. It should be noted that the document data according to the present embodiment does not describe information about a past change history. This is because (1) document data has a larger number of registrations than human data and organization data, and there is a capacity problem in storing and managing past change histories for each of them, and (2) organization / organization data. Changes in human data are relatively infrequent and the time of change is limited to the beginning of the fiscal year, the beginning of the fiscal year, the beginning of the month, etc., so the data volume of the change history is small and management is relatively easy.
(3) Document changes are frequent and irregular at times,
Also, the change regarding the contents of the document is a problem to be dealt with by the conventional revision management technology, and is not directly related to the problem to be solved by the present invention. (4) The currently operating document database is In many cases, the change history is not stored, but in the present invention, the change history should be incorporated and used as it is.

Next, the processing operation of the document search system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 are branched from FIG. 6 and are again shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a flow of a process for limiting the search condition in the search condition interpreting means 3 in the process of FIG.
FIG. 11 to FIG. 11 are flowcharts showing the flow of the process of branching from FIG. 6 and rejoining FIG. 6, in which the search condition interpreting means 3 relaxes the search condition.

FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 are diagrams showing examples of inputting and presenting search conditions in the search condition input / presentation means 2 together with screen display examples of the user interface 1. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of presenting search results in the search result presenting means 4 together with an example of a screen display of the user interface 1. Hereinafter, based on the examples of the search conditions shown in FIGS. 12, 13, and 14, the flow of the process of interpreting and restricting / relaxing these search conditions will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. .

Here, "relaxing (correcting) the search condition input by the user" means that the input search condition is changed based on the organization data and the human data including the change history stored in the personnel database 10. This means that a search condition that satisfies more documents is obtained by converting the description into a description that is effective even in a time section.

On the other hand, limiting (restricting) the search conditions input by the user means that, based on the organization data and the human data including the change history stored in the personnel database 10, of the input search conditions, In other words, it removes the description that is not, that is, the description that is found in advance that there is no document that satisfies the condition, and obtains only valid search conditions.

The document search system according to the present embodiment firstly
The input of the document search condition from the user is received (step S501 in FIG. 6), and then the user is inquired whether to limit or relax the search condition (step S502).

The input / change of the search condition and the inquiry about its restriction / relaxation are performed by the search condition input / presentation means 2 whose screen examples are shown in FIGS. FIG. 12 (a)
Among them, 801, 802, and 804 are search conditions input by the user for the attribute items “document type”, “registration date and time”, and “owning organization” of the document data. The search condition 803 for “creator” has not been entered here. The restriction / relaxation of the input search condition (step S502) is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2 (a), a button “restrict search conditions” 80
6. It is activated by pressing the button "relax search conditions" 807. Similarly, execution of a search (step S50 in FIG. 7)
7), the end of all the processes (step S515 in FIG. 7) is performed by pressing the button “execute search” 805 and the button “end” 808 in FIG. 12A, respectively.

If the search condition restriction is selected in step S502, the process proceeds to step S601 in FIG. First, it is determined whether or not there is a search condition CT relating to date and time. In the case of FIG. 12A, "94-" is entered in the item "registration date" of the search condition (80 in FIG. 12).
2). That is, since a period “documents registered after 1994” is set, CT = “94−”.

If the CT is not set, the CT is set to the entire period valid for the present system (for example, the history of the person / organization data exists after April 1989 and the current time is 9 days).
Assuming that May 15, 2006, CT = “89 / 4-96 / 5”
/ 15 ") (step S602).

Next, it is checked whether or not the search condition CG relating to the organization has been set (step S603). FIG.
In 2 (a), since the condition is set that the “owning organization” of the document is “sales 4 section”, CG = “sales section 4”.

Next, organization data that satisfies this condition in the period CT is searched using the person / organization data management means 7 (step S604). Here, the search of the organization data is performed using the attribute item “organization name” of the organization data as a key. For example, since the organization data C in FIG. 2C satisfies CG in the valid period “95/4” (221 in FIG. 2) and the period “95/4” overlaps with CT, Is G1 (i = 1 only).

Next, for all the organizations Gi retrieved in step S604, the period during which Gi satisfies CG and the CT
Is obtained (step S605). Here, G1 satisfies the CG because the valid period is “95/4”.
− ”, The overlap period between this and CT, that is,“ 94− ”, is CT1 =“ 95 / 4− ”.

In step S605, when the CG is composed of a plurality of disjunctions (OR), only the condition that satisfies Gi is selected and set as CGi. In this example, CG
Is a single condition, so that CG1 = CG = “Sales 4 Section”.

Next, it is checked whether or not search conditions for a person have been set (step S606 in FIG. 9). Here, since it is not set (803 in FIG. 12), FIG.
The process proceeds to step S611.

In step S611, the retrieval condition of the document is set as a disjunction for i of (CTandCGi).
In this example, since the search condition of the document is only i = 1, (CT1 and CG1) = (“95/4” and “sales 4
Section)).

The presentation of the limited search conditions to the user as described above is performed in step S503 in FIG.
FIG. 12B shows an example of the presentation screen. FIG.
In FIG. 12B, the condition 802 of the “registration date and time” in FIG.
Is restricted as in 812. This is "Sales 4
Based on the information that the organization name "section" is valid after April 1995, all the documents registered by "sales section 4" are interpreted as having been registered since April 1995, and the search conditions have been limited. The result. As a result, the redundancy of the search condition regarding the registration date and time is eliminated.

FIG. 13 shows a condition 902 of the “creator” of the document.
Is also set. In this case, the processing for limiting the search condition is performed in steps S606 to S6 in FIG.
The process shifts to 07. In this case, step S606
CT, CG, Gi, CTi, CGi,
And CP, respectively, CT = “− 96/3” CG = (“Sales 3” or “Sales 4”) G1 = organization data B (FIG. 2 (b)) G2 = organization data C (FIG. 2 ( c)) CT1 = “89 / 4-96 / 3” CT2 = “95 / 4-96 / 3” CG1 = “Sales Section 3” CG2 = “Sales Section 4” CP = “Yamao Yamamoto”.

In step S607, i (in this example,
For each of i = 1, 2), the structure G in the period CTi
Using the person / organization data management means 7, all the person data belonging to i and satisfying the CP (in this example, the person data whose name is "Yamao Yamamoto") is searched. As the human data that satisfies this condition, the human data shown in the human data A of FIG. 3A is searched, and these are P11 and P21. Also, i in which Pij does not exist is excluded (step S608). Step S607 and step S60
8 is a process based on the rule that “the creator of the document always belongs to the organization that owns the document”.

Although this embodiment adopts this rule,
Depending on the nature of the workplace and the documentation, this rule may be incorrect. Therefore, the processing of this part of the present embodiment may be appropriately modified as long as the object of the present invention is not violated.

Next, for each of the remaining i, the person Pij
Is the period j that satisfies the CP and belongs to the organization Gi
And the overlap period of CTi is obtained, and this is newly set as CTi (step S609). In this example, P1
For 1 = P21, the period whose name is "Yamao Yamamoto" is "91/4" (31 in FIG. 4), and the period belonging to G1 is "91 / 4-95 / 9" (32 in FIG. 4). , G2 is “95 / 10−” (33 in FIG. 4), so CT1 = “91 / 4−95 / 9” CT2 = “95 / 10−96 / 3”

Similarly to step S605, if the CP is composed of a plurality of conditions, CPi is created from this. However, in this example, since the CP is a single condition, simply CP11 = CP21 = CP1 = CP2 = “Yamamoto △ O”.

Finally, (CTi and CGian)
d CPi), and a disjunction for i is set as a search condition of the document search (step S610). In this example, (CT1 and CG1 and CP1) or (
CT2 and CG2 and CP2) = (“91
/ 4-95 / 9 "and" Sales Division 3 "and
"Yamamoto Takao") or ("95/10/96/3")
and "Sales Division 4" and "Yasuo Yamamoto").

FIG. 13B shows an example of a screen on which the process proceeds to step S503 in FIG. 6 and is presented to the user. Thus, the search condition 9 input by the user in FIG.
01, 902, and 903 are limited to 911, 912, and 912 by the history information of the names and configurations of people and organizations,
And it is presented as a disjunction of two effective search conditions.

That is, “registration date” = “91 / 4-9”
In the case of “5/9”, the search conditions of “creator” = “Yamada @ O” and “owning organization” = “sales section 3” are valid,
When "Registration date" = "95/10/96/3", "creator" = "Yamada @ man" and "owning organization" = "Sales 4 Section"
Is provided as a valid search condition.

The user may change these search conditions again to limit / reduce (step S504 in FIG. 6), or select one or more of the search condition candidates. Good (Steps S505 and S505 in FIG. 6)
506).

As shown in FIG. 9B, the search condition candidates are arranged in chronological order along with the validity period (in this embodiment, the condition of “registration date and time”).
The user can easily select a search condition that suits his or her intention.

When the search conditions are determined and the user issues a document search execution request (step S507 in FIG. 7), the search conditions are transmitted to the document data management means 8 to execute the search (step S508). The search result is presented to the user using the search result presenting means 4 (step S50).
9).

FIG. 15 shows an example of a screen for presenting search results by the search result presenting means 4. This example is a presentation example of the search result when the user selects all of the created search condition candidates and executes the document search. In FIG. 15A, as shown by 1101 and 1102, information such as “title”, “document type”, “registration date and time”, “creator”, and “owning organization” of the retrieved document is obtained using the document data management unit 8. And is maintained by the user.

Further, the user can make a request to present information on the creator of the document and the owning organization as needed (step S510 in FIG. 7). As described above, the search condition interpreting means 3 uses the person / organization data management means 5 to search for information on persons / organizations among the search conditions of the document in order to limit / relax the search conditions. Step SS603 in FIG. 8, Step SS in FIG.
607, step S613 in FIG. 8), in this step,
If the user / organization data required by the user has already been searched (step S511 in FIG. 7), since the search condition interpreting means 3 temporarily stores them, the search for the attribute item of this person / organization data is performed. A valid attribute value is presented from the registration date and time of the entered document to the present (step S51 in FIG.
3). If not searched in step S511 in FIG.
The necessary person / organization data is stored as the person / organization data storage means 7 using the name of the person / organization described in the attribute item of the document as a search condition.
(Step S512 in FIG. 7), and this is presented.

In general, when a user requests information on a person or an organization related to a document, he / she wants to know a reference for the contents of the document, or when the document is stored in paper, the storage There may be a case where the user wants to know a place, a case where he requests a copy of a document, or a case where he wants to know the request destination.

However, it is conceivable that the location of a document and the affiliation of a person who is familiar with the contents have changed due to the reorganization or transfer of an organization or a person. When a person is transferred, it is not generally known whether the document created by the person is in the organization before the transfer or in the organization after the transfer. In order to deal with such a problem, in the present embodiment, information from the time of document registration to the present, among the information on the affiliation, location, and contact information of the person / organization, is presented.

FIG. 15B is an example of a screen on which information about the creator “Takio Yamamoto” of the document “XX report” 1101 is shown as an example. After presenting the document search result and its related information (step S51 in FIG. 7).
4) The user may change the search condition and search for another document, or may end the search (step S in FIG. 7).
515).

The processing for limiting the search condition in the document search has been described above. In FIG. 8, processing when there is no search condition related to an organization and there is a search condition related to a person (steps S612, S613, S614, S615)
Correspond to steps S603, S604, S605, S611
Since the processing is the same as the above processing, the description is omitted.

Next, the process of relaxing the search condition will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 10 to 11 and an example of the search condition of FIG. FIG. 14A shows a screen display example of the search condition input / presentation means 2 in which the user inputs search conditions for document search, as in FIG. 12A. As search conditions, as shown in the figure, 1001, 1002, and 1003, as document search conditions, "registration date" is "94-", "creator" is "Tanaka Yoko", and "owning organization" is "software development". Sections are set respectively.

When the user issues a request to relax the search condition (step S502 in FIG. 6), the process proceeds to step S701 in FIG. First, it is checked whether the search condition CT relating to the date and time exists (step S70).
1) If not, similarly to step S602 in FIG. 8, CT is set as the period from the earliest valid time to the present (step S702).

Even if a CT exists, if the user wants to mitigate this, step S702 is executed. In this example, CT = “94−” is set, and this is not relaxed. Thereafter, the flow of the process branches to steps S703 and S706.

The processing of steps S703 to S705 and the processing of steps S706 to S708 may be performed in parallel as shown in FIG. 10, or may be performed sequentially.

In step S703, it is checked whether or not the search condition CG relating to the organization has been set. In this example, since the condition that the “owning organization” of the document is “software development section” is set, CG = “software development section”.

Next, all the organization data Gi that satisfies the CG at any time are searched using the person / organization data management means 7 (step S704). In this example, the organization data D and E in FIGS. 3A and 3B are searched as the organization data whose organization name was “Software Development Section” at an arbitrary time. That is, G1 = organization data D (FIG. 3A) G2 = organization data E (FIG. 3B).

Next, in step S705, for each of i (i = 1, 2 in this example), Gi
Of the attribute item (in the present embodiment, the attribute item “organization name”) of the attribute item is obtained, and further, for each k, CG is performed using the attribute value of the attribute item in the period CTGik. Condition CGik which replaced
Ask for. In the case of this example, for G1, CTG11 = “91 / 4-94 / 3” and the overlapping portion of CT = “94 / 1-94 / 3” according to 231 and 232 of the tissue data D in FIG. CG11 = “Software Development Section” CTG12 = Overlapping part between “94 / 4−” and CT =
"94/4" CG12 = "Software Development 1 Section".

However, when CT = “94−”, the month was supplemented to “94 / 1−”. Similarly, for G2, CTG21 = “94 / 1-94 / 3” CG21 = “Software Development Section” CTG22 = “94/4” CG22 = “Software Development Section 2”

Steps S706, S707 and S707 in FIG.
The processing of 708 is performed in steps S703, S704, and S709, respectively.
This is a process for performing the same process as that performed on the organization for a person. By this series of processing, P1 = personal data B (FIG. 4B) CTP11 = “94 / 1-95 / 6” CP11 = “Yoko Tanaka” CTP12 = “95 / 7-” CP12 = “Yoko Watanabe” P2 = personal data C (FIG. 4C) CTP21 = “94/4” CP21 = “Tanaka Oko” is obtained.

In this example, as shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, there are two persons named “Yoko Tanaka”, and one of them is renamed to “Yoko Watanabe”. So this is the result.

Next, the process proceeds to step S709 in FIG.
A new time interval is created by combining CTGik and CTPjl. That is, all start points and end points appearing in CTGik and CTPjl are collected, overlapped, arranged in chronological order, and all sections CTn divided into these start point / end point groups are obtained. In this example, three sections of CT1 = “94 / 1-94 / 3” CT2 = “94 / 3-95 / 6” CT2 = “95 / 7-” are obtained.

Next, in step S710, all effective search conditions for each CTn are selected from CGik and CPjl.
CGPn is obtained by finding disjunctions of these conditions. In the present example, for example, the period CT3 is CTG12, CTG22, CTG
Since it overlaps with each of TP12 and CTP21, CGP3
CGP3 = (CG12 or CG22 or CP1)
2 or CP21) = ("Software Development 1" or "Software Development 2" or "Yoko Watanabe" or "Yoko Tanaka").

Similarly, CGP1 = (“software development section” or “ko Tanaka”) CGP2 = (“software development section1” or “software development section2” or “koko Tanaka”) In the process of step S710 in the present embodiment, CGPn is obtained as a simple disjunction of all the selected CGik and CPjl, but this is suitable for the purpose of relaxing the search condition. However, if there is a request to remove redundant conditions in consideration of the affiliation between a person and an organization, for example, in the case of this example, CT3
Using information that person P1 belongs to organization G1 and person P2 belongs to organization G2, CGP3 = (CG12 and CP12) or
(CG22 and CP21) = ("Software Development Section 1" and "Watanabe Yoko") or
("Software Development 2" and "Yoko Tanaka").

Finally, in step S711, (CTn
and CGPn) is disjunctive for n, and this is used as a search condition for document search. In this example, (CT1 and CGP1) or (CT2 an
d CGP2) or (CT3 and CGP3) =
("94 / 1-94 / 3" and ("Software Development Division" or "Tanaka Yoko")) or ("94 / 4-95
/ 6 "and (" Software Development Division 1 "or" Software Development Division 2 "or" Tanaka Yoko ")) or (" 95
/ 7- "and (" Software Development 1 "or" Software Development 2 "or" Yoko Watanabe "or" Tanaka ○
Child))) is found as a document search condition.

An example in which the result is presented to the user (step SS503 in FIG. 6) is shown in FIG.
2, 1013. As described above, even when the names of the “creator” and the “owning organization” are changed, and the desired document cannot be searched if the search condition input by the user is used as it is, the above-described method using the change history of the person / organization is used. By the search condition relaxation process, valid search condition candidates are automatically generated for each time section, and are presented in chronological order.

The user can search the document by selecting one or a plurality of search conditions intended by the user from the presented search condition candidates. For example, in the example of FIG. 14B, “94 / 4-95 / 6” or “
"95 / 7-", "Yoko Tanaka" as "creator",
“Software development 2 section” is selected as the “owning organization”, and the search can be executed under these conditions.

In the present embodiment, a method of collectively specifying search conditions relating to people and organizations is employed to limit or relax search conditions, but the present invention is limited to this method. Not something. That is, the present embodiment may be modified so that processing is performed by specifying whether to limit or relax each search condition. For example, a method of restricting the condition for “creator” and relaxing the condition for “owning organization” can be realized by combining the processing portions described with reference to FIGS.

As described above, according to the above embodiment, the organization data including at least the information on the organization name and the organizational structure and the human data including at least the information on the name and the organization to which the organization belongs are stored together with the past change history. A personnel database 10 for storing the document data and a document database 1 for storing the document data together with attribute information including at least the related persons and related organizations of the document and the registration date and time of the document.
1 and, as search conditions for searching the document data stored in the document database 11, the search condition input / presentation means 2 stores, in the attribute information of the document, a person related to the document, a related organization, and a registration date and time of the document. At least one of
When one is input, the search condition interpreting means 3 corrects the input search condition to a valid search condition based on the change history stored in the personnel database 10 (relaxation of the search condition), or The retrieved search conditions are limited based on the change history stored in the personnel database 10 (restriction of search conditions), and the search condition input / presentation means 2 sets the corrected (reduced) search conditions or the limitation (restriction). The retrieved search condition is presented, and the document data is retrieved from the document database 11 based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the presented search condition.
The search result is presented to the search result presentation means 4. In other words, even if the conditions related to date / time / person / organization among the search conditions of the document input by the user are redundant or inaccurate, the validity is checked before executing the document search, and if necessary, the redundant The search condition is restricted by removing the error, or conversely, is relaxed by expanding the inaccurate condition. This allows the user to easily obtain the intended document even if the user inputs search conditions based on incorrect storage. Further, even when a plurality of valid search condition candidates are obtained as a result of the interpretation of the search condition, the user can easily select the search condition intended by the user from the candidates.

Further, correction (relaxation) is performed by the search condition interpreting means 3.
Based on the change history stored in the personnel database 10, the searched search conditions or the candidates of the limited (limited) search conditions are arranged in the search condition input / presentation means 2 in chronological order (time order of expiration date). By presenting to
Selection of search conditions becomes easier.

According to the present embodiment, in the process of restricting / relaxing the document search conditions, necessary information is obtained by separately searching the personnel / organization data from the personnel database 10. Since the conventional document database does not include this process, the efficiency of document search may be reduced in this embodiment by the time required for the search process of the personnel database 10. However, people
The number of documents created and owned by an organization is tens to thousands of times the number of people and organizations, and in general, the number of data registered in the document database is much larger than the number of data registered in the human resources database . Therefore, the efficiency of the entire document search is improved by revising the search conditions to valid ones before retrieving the document, rather than retrieving the document using inaccurate and redundant search conditions.

Further, after the document search, the user has a request to make various inquiries regarding the searched document to the related persons / related organizations. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the attribute of the document selected by the user via the search result presentation unit 4 based on the search condition corrected (relaxed) or limited (restricted) by the search condition interpreting unit 3. The information change history is presented to the user via the search result presentation means 4. That is, in the process of restricting / relaxing the search condition of the document, information on the person / organization related to the document has already been acquired and temporarily stored in the search condition interpreting means 3 or the person / organization data management means 5. Therefore, by using this, information on a person / organization required by the user can be automatically presented. Therefore, the user does not need to separately perform a search request to the personnel database 10 to obtain necessary information.

Further, the information of related persons / related organizations desired by the user is limited to information from the time of document registration to the present. However, by selecting and presenting information in this range, the user can obtain only necessary information. Can be easily obtained.

In the above description, the attribute information of a document as a search condition when searching for a desired document from the document database 10 is limited to the organization and the person. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. The present invention works effectively if the attribute information of the document has a change history from the past. In other words, prior to searching for a document, first, the search conditions, which are part of the attribute information of the document, are checked for validity based on the change history, and if necessary, the search conditions are limited by eliminating redundancy. Or, conversely, by mitigating inaccurate conditions by a broader interpretation. As a result, the user can easily obtain the intended document in the same manner as described above, even if the user inputs search conditions based on incorrect storage.

[0088]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if the search conditions of the document entered by the user are redundant or incorrect, before executing the document search, the search conditions are automatically set based on the information of the person / organization at any time from the past to the present. Therefore, the user can easily obtain the intended document even if the user inputs search conditions based on incorrect storage. Further, since invalid search processing can be prevented, the efficiency of document search processing is also improved. Further, after the document search, the user can easily obtain information about the person / organization related to the searched document.

That is, even when the search conditions for searching for a document are ambiguous or incorrect, the user can easily search for the document intended by the user, and can prevent invalid search processing, Processing efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a storage example of organization data stored in a personnel database.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a storage example of organization data stored in a personnel database.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a storage example of human data stored in a personnel database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a storage example of document data stored in a document database.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system in FIG. 1; in particular, execution of a document search based on new search conditions obtained by relaxing or limiting input search conditions; Or, a processing operation for displaying a change history is shown.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system in FIG. 1, and particularly shows a processing operation for restricting an input search condition;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system in FIG. 1, particularly showing the processing operation for restricting the input search condition;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system in FIG. 1, and particularly shows a processing operation for relaxing input search conditions.

11 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system in FIG. 1, particularly showing a processing operation for relaxing input search conditions.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of inputting search conditions and an example of presenting the result of limiting the search conditions in the search condition input / presentation means.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of inputting search conditions and an example of presenting a result obtained by limiting the search conditions in the search condition input presenting means.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of inputting search conditions and an example of presenting a result of relaxing the search conditions in the search condition input presentation means.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of presenting a document search result in a search result presentation unit.

[Description of sign]

1. User interface, 2. Search condition input means,
3 ... search condition interpreting means, 4 ... search result presenting means, 5 ... person / organization data management means, 6 ... change history management means, 7 ... person / organization data storage means, 8 ... document data management means, 9 ...
Document data storage means.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An attribute information change history storage means for storing attribute information of a document together with its past change history, a document data storage means for storing document data together with its attribute information, and a document data stored in the document data storage means. When the attribute information of the document is input as a search condition for searching the received document data, the input search condition is changed to an effective search condition based on the change history stored in the attribute information change history storage unit. Correcting means for correcting, when attribute information of the document is input as a search condition for searching for the document data stored in the document data storage means, the input search condition is stored in the attribute information change history storage means Presenting the limiting means for limiting based on the change history stored in the storage means, and the search condition corrected by the correcting means and the search condition limited by the limiting means. Presentation means; and document data search means for searching document data from the document data storage means based on search conditions changed or selected by a user based on search conditions presented by the presentation means. Document search system. 2. A personnel database which stores at least organization data including information on an organization name and an organizational structure, human data including at least information on a name and an affiliated organization, together with a past change history thereof, A document database stored with attribute information including a person concerned and a related organization of the document and a registration date and time of the document; and a search condition for searching for the document data stored in the document database, among the attribute information of the document,
Correction means for correcting, when at least one of a person involved in a document, a related organization, and a registration date and time of the document is input, the input search condition to a valid search condition based on a change history stored in the personnel database. And, as search conditions for searching for document data stored in the document database, of the attribute information of the document,
When at least one of a person involved in the document, a related organization, and the registration date and time of the document is input, limiting means for limiting the input search condition based on a change history stored in the personnel database; Means for presenting the search conditions corrected by the means and the search conditions limited by the limiting means; and the document database based on the search conditions changed or selected by the user based on the search conditions presented by the presenting means. And a document data retrieval means for retrieving document data from a document retrieval system. 3. The search condition corrected by the correction unit and the search condition limited by the limiting unit are arranged in a time series based on the change history and presented to a user. The document search system according to claim 2. 4. A means for presenting to a user a change history of attribute information of a document selected by a user based on a search condition corrected by said correction means or a search condition limited by said limiting means. The document search system according to claim 1, wherein: 5. An attribute information change history storage means for storing attribute information of a document together with its past change history,
When attribute information of a document is input as a search condition for searching document data from a document data storage unit that stores the document data together with the attribute information, the input search condition is stored in the attribute information change history storage unit. The search condition is corrected based on the changed search history, or the input search condition is limited based on a change history stored in the attribute information change history storage unit, and the corrected search condition is corrected. And presenting the limited search condition, and searching the document data storage means for document data based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the presented search condition. . 6. A personnel database for storing at least organization data including information on an organization name and an organizational structure, and human data including at least information on a name and an affiliated organization, together with a past change history thereof. As a search condition for retrieving document data from a document database stored together with attribute information including at least the related parties and related organizations of the document and the registration date and time of the document, the related persons and related organizations of the document are included in the attribute information of the document. And when at least one of the registration date and time of the document is input, the input search condition is corrected to a valid search condition based on a change history stored in the personnel database, or the input search condition is corrected. Is limited based on the change history stored in the personnel database, the corrected search condition And a method of presenting the limited search condition, and searching the document database for document data based on a search condition changed or selected by a user based on the presented search condition. 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the corrected search condition and the limited search condition are arranged in a time series based on the change history and presented to a user. Document search method according to any one of the above. 8. The method according to claim 5, wherein a change history of attribute information of a document selected by the user based on the corrected search condition or the limited search condition is presented to the user. A document search method according to any one of the above.