JP3484018B2 - Document search system and document search method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a document database that electronically accumulates the contents of a document and various additional information in a storage medium on a computer and retrieves the contents according to a user's request to provide the document data is actually used. Have been introduced and operated in many workplaces.

Typical conditions for retrieving a document are generally title, document number, document type, keyword, content (full-text search), creator or owner (person or organization), registration date and time, or It is a combination of conditions relating to document attribute information such as creation date and time, revision, or the content itself of the document.

A user who wants to search for a document inputs a search condition relating to the attribute information of the document or the content itself in a predetermined format, and issues a search request to the document database. The document database that has received the search request calculates whether or not each of the stored document data matches the input search condition, and presents the document satisfying the search condition to the user as the search result.

There is a possibility that the search condition input by the user is insufficient or incorrect, and if the search condition is used as it is, the search result intended by the user cannot be obtained. As a suggestion on how to deal with such problems and automatically correct the lack / error of search conditions, see “Information Management Device”.
(Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-78172), “Data Search Processing Device” (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-85073), and the like. Also, as a research on a method of accumulating, managing, and using data about people, organizations, documents, etc. in the workplace, including past change history, “The Business Obj
ect Management System ”(M.
Schlatter et al., IBM SYSTEMS J
OURRNAL, Vol 33, NO 2, 199
4) etc.

[0006]

In the "information management device" (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-78172), when the notation of the search key and the keyword in the retrieval condition input by the user is different from the notation defined by the database, A method of correcting the search condition by converting the notation defined by the database using conversion information for converting this has been proposed. According to this method, for example, if the name of a certain organization in the past is described as conversion information, it is possible to search for documents 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 the time validity period, there is a possibility that the search process will be executed under the search condition that there is actually no invalid data that satisfies the condition. There is.

"Data retrieval processing device" (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-85)
No. 073) proposes a method of automatically extracting a search condition to be added and providing it to the user when the search condition input by the user is insufficient. However, in this method, the candidate data group must be searched once in order to extract the search condition to be added, and since the search condition is relaxed in the first search process, the efficiency of the search process is improved. There is a problem that it is not good.

In addition, the above-mentioned "The Business"
Object Management System "
Although it is described that it is possible to search documents and other information based on the situation at any time in the past, the system introduced in the article does not describe the specific method of the search process. Nor is there any description of how to deal with the case where the temporal condition set at the time of search includes ambiguity.

In the document management system based on the conventional technique as described above, there arises a problem that the search condition becomes invalid as time passes. Documents that should be stored for a long period of several years or decades, such as design drawings of buildings and plant equipment, documents for maintenance, etc., should be maintained during the storage period. It is highly possible that the location will be reorganized, renamed, or transferred. If the information about the creator of the document and the office owned by the document registered in the document database in the past does not match the current person, presence / absence of the department, name, affiliation, or organizational structure, the user searches for this document. To do so, search conditions must be entered in consideration 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 on the past organization / person or does not correctly store the information, it is impossible to input the search condition correctly.
The only way to search this document is to issue a search request using search conditions other than those for people and organizations.

However, there is a demand for the user to search for a document by a search condition based on an incorrect memory, such as "probably a report prepared by XX section around 1992".

On the other hand, in order to efficiently execute the search process, such an incorrect search condition should be effectively utilized to narrow down the search range. Therefore, according to the present invention, even if a document search condition is ambiguous or inaccurate, prior to the document search based on the search condition, the invalid information is removed from the search condition to restrict / relax the search condition. It is an object of the present invention to provide a document search system and a document search method capable of easily obtaining an intended document, preventing invalid search processing, and improving the efficiency of document search processing.

[0013]

A document retrieval system of the present invention is an attribute information change history storage means for storing attribute information of a document together with its past change history, and document data for storing document data together with the attribute information. When the attribute information of the document is input as a storage unit and 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. A correction unit that corrects the effective search condition based on the changed history, and when the attribute information of the document is input as the search condition for searching the document data stored in the document data storage unit, the input Limiting means for limiting the retrieved search conditions based on the change history stored in the attribute information change history storage means, search conditions corrected by the correction means, and The presenting means for presenting the search condition limited by the limiting means, and the document data storage means for searching the document data based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the search condition presented by the presenting means By including the document data search means, even if the document search conditions are ambiguous or inaccurate, prior to the document search based on the search conditions, invalid information is removed from the search conditions to limit or relax the search conditions. By performing the above, the user can easily obtain the intended document, and it is possible to prevent invalid search processing and improve the efficiency of the document search processing.

Further, the document retrieval system of the present invention stores the organization data including at least the information about the organization name and the organization structure and the person data including at least the information about the name and the affiliated organization together with the past change history. And a document database that stores the document data together with attribute information including at least a person concerned with the document, an associated organization, and the registration date and time of the document, and the search condition for searching the document data stored in the document database, When at least one of the person concerned with the document, the related organization, and the registration date and time of the document is input from the attribute information of the document, the input search condition is valid based on the change history stored in the personnel database. Correcting means for correcting the search conditions and the document data stored in the document database. As search criteria to find the,
When at least one of the document related information and the related organization of the document and the registration date and time of the document is input from among the attribute information of the document, the input search condition is based on the change history stored in the personnel database. Limiting means to limit,
Based on the search condition modified by the user based on the search condition presented by the presenting means, the presenting means for presenting the search condition corrected by the correcting means and the search condition limited by the limiting means, 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 including the above, by removing invalid information from the search condition and restricting / relaxing the search condition before the document search based on the search condition, the user can The target document can be easily obtained, and the invalid search process can be prevented to improve the efficiency of the document search process.

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

Further, the document retrieval method of the present invention is a personnel database for storing organization data including at least information on organization name and organization structure and person data including at least information on name and affiliated organization together with the past change history. Of the document attribute information as a search condition for retrieving the document data from a document database that stores the document data together with attribute information including at least the parties and related organizations of the document and the registration date and time of the document. When at least one of the person concerned with the document, the related organization, 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, based on the change history stored in the personnel database, the entered search conditions are used. Presenting the corrected search conditions and the limited search conditions, and searching the document data from the document database based on the search conditions changed or selected by the user based on the presented search conditions. Even if the search condition of a document is ambiguous or inaccurate, the user can remove the invalid information from the search condition and restrict / relax the search condition before the document search based on the search condition. Can be easily obtained, and invalid search processing can be prevented to improve the efficiency of document search processing.

That is, the document retrieval system of the present invention is
Of the search conditions in the document search, search conditions related to date and time, such as registration date and time, creation date and time, modification date and time, approval date and time, and search conditions related to people, such as creator, registrant, owner, and reader. History of change / reorganization / renaming of person / organization in the past, such as conditions such as authorizer, approver, and search conditions related to organization, such as creating organization, registered organization, owning organization, circulation organization, management organization Interpret based on the information and automatically generate valid combinations of search conditions for date / time / person / organization.

Therefore, according to the present invention, even when the conditions regarding the date / time / person / organization among the document retrieval conditions input by the user are redundant or inaccurate, the validity of the conditions before the document retrieval is executed. , And if necessary, limit the search condition by removing the redundancy, or conversely, relax by expanding the inexact condition. Thereby, the user can easily obtain the intended document even if the search condition is input based on the incorrect storage. In addition, even when a plurality of valid search condition candidates are obtained as a result of the interpretation of the search conditions, the user can easily select his or her intended search condition from the candidates. In particular,
By arranging the search condition candidates in the order of the effective period and presenting them to the user, the search condition selection becomes easier.

Further, after the document search, the user has a request to make various inquiries about the retrieved document to the related parties / related organizations. According to the present invention, in the process of restricting / relaxing the search condition of a document, the information of the person / organization related to the document may have already been acquired.
Information about the organization can be automatically presented. Therefore, the user does not have to separately perform a work of issuing a search request to the personnel database and acquiring necessary information.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION 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 this embodiment.

In FIG. 1, search condition input / presentation means 2
Is for a user to input / correct 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 user's search execution instruction, and the document is searched.

The search condition interpretation means 3 stores the search conditions input to the search condition input / presentation means 2 in the personnel database 10.
This is interpreted based on the data stored in. The search result presentation unit 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 related information with respect to the search result presented by the search result presenting means 4, the search result presenting means 4 is required 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 person / organization data management means 5 for managing / retrieving person / organization data, including a change history management means 6 for managing a change history of person / organization data in the past. / Person / organization data storage means 7 in which organization data is stored including past change history
Composed of.

The document database 10 is composed of a document data manager 8 for managing / retrieving document data and a document data storage means 9 for storing document data. The novel 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 and the document database 11 and the personnel database 10 are used in cooperation with each other.

2 to 4 show an example of the data format and contents of the person / organization data stored in the person / organization data storage means 7 of FIG. 2,
FIG. 3 shows an example of organization data stored in the personnel database 10, and is shown in FIGS.
(A)-(b) has shown each organization data AE.

In each of the organization data A to E, "organization name"
Attribute items such as "upper organization", "location", "telephone", etc. are defined, and for each attribute item whose past change history is to be stored, its attribute value is combined with its effective period. Are set and stored.

For example, the attribute item "organization name" 21 of the organization data A shown in FIG. 2 has a validity period of "89-4-95 /
3 ", that is," Sales Department "from April 1989 to March 1995, and the effective period is" 95 / 4- ", that is, April 1995.
After the month, it is set as the "Domestic Sales Department". Such a data format represents that the organization name has been changed from "sales department" to "domestic sales department".

Similarly, for example, the organization data C in FIG. 2 represents that an organization with the organization name “Sales Section 4” was established from April 1995, and the organization data D in FIG. The organization data E shows that the original "Software Development Section" was divided into two organizations "Software Development Section 1" and "Software Development Section 2" after April 1994. ing.

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

For example, the person "Yamada △" described by the person data A
"Men" will be in "Sales 3" during the valid period "91 / 4-95 / 9"
Belonging to the section "Sales 4 during the effective period" 95 / 9- "
It is said to belong to the section.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the document data stored in the document database 11, and is shown in FIGS.
Indicates individual document data A to B, respectively. In each document data A to B, in addition to the contents of the document data, "title", "document type", "registration date", "creator", "owning organization"
Attribute items (additional information) such as “keyword” are defined, and each of the attribute values can serve as a search condition at the time of document search.

In the present invention, of these, search conditions with attribute items related to time / person / organization such as “registration date / time”, “creator”, and “owned organization” as keys are to be interpreted. Note that the document data in this embodiment does not describe information about past change history. This is because (1) document data has a larger number of registrations than human data / organization data, and there is a capacity problem in storing and managing past change history for each of them. (2) Organization / The change of human data is relatively infrequent, and the change time is limited to the beginning of the year, the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, etc., so the amount of change history data is small and the management is relatively easy.
(3) Document changes are frequent and irregular,
Also, changes regarding the contents of documents are problems to be dealt with by conventional revision control technology and are not directly related to the problems to be solved by the present invention. (4) The currently used document database In many cases, the change history is not stored, but in the present invention, this 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 flow charts shown in FIGS. Of these, FIG. 8 to FIG. 9 branch from FIG.
10 is a flowchart showing a flow of a process of restricting search conditions in the search condition interpretation means 3 in the process of merging with FIG.
11 to 11 are flowcharts showing the flow of processing for branching from FIG. 6 and joining again with FIG. 6, in which the search condition interpretation means 3 relaxes the search conditions.

FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 are diagrams showing examples of search condition input / presentation in the search condition input / presentation means 2 together with screen display examples of the user interface 1. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a search result presentation example in the search result presentation means 4 together with a screen display example of the user interface 1. Hereinafter, based on the examples of the search conditions shown in FIGS. 12, 13, and 14, the flow of processing for interpreting these search conditions and limiting / relaxing them will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 6 to 11. .

Here, to relax (correct) the search condition input by the user means that the input search condition is changed to another based on the organization data and the personnel data including the change history stored in the personnel database 10. This means obtaining search conditions that satisfy more documents by converting them into descriptions that are effective even in the time interval.

On the other hand, to restrict (limit) the search condition input by the user means that the search condition input based on the organization data and the personnel data including the change history stored in the personnel database 10 is valid. It means that only valid search conditions are obtained by removing the description that does not exist, that is, the description that it is known in advance that a document that satisfies the condition cannot exist.

The document search system of this embodiment is as follows.
Input of document search conditions from the user is accepted (step S501 in FIG. 6), and then the user is inquired whether to limit or relax the search conditions (step S502).

Input / change of the search condition and inquiry about its constraint / relaxation are performed by the search condition input / presentation means 2 shown in the screen examples of FIGS. 12, 13 and 14. Figure 12 (a)
Mediums 801, 802, and 804 are search conditions input by the user for the attribute items “document type”, “registration date / time”, and “owning organization” of the document data. The search condition 803 for “creator” is not entered here. The restriction / relaxation of the entered search conditions (step S502) is as shown in FIG.
As shown in 2 (a), the button “Search condition restriction” 80
6, it is activated by pressing the button "relaxation of search conditions" 807. Similarly, execution of the search (step S50 in FIG. 7)
7) and the end of all the processes (step S515 in FIG. 7) are performed by pressing the button “execute search” 805 and the button “end” 808 in FIG. 12A, respectively.

If the restriction of the search condition is selected in step S502, the process proceeds to step S601 in FIG. First, it is checked whether there is a search condition CT regarding date and time. In the case of FIG. 12A, "94-" is entered in the item "registration date and time" of the search condition (80 in FIG. 12).
2). That is, since the period of “documents registered after 1994” is set, CT = “94−” is set.

If the CT is not set, the CT is used for the entire period (for example, the history of the person / organization data exists after April 1989, and the present time is 9).
Assuming May 15, 6th, CT = “89 / 4-96 / 5
/ 15 ") (step S602).

Next, it is checked whether or not the search condition CG regarding the organization is set (step S603). Figure 1
In 2 (a), since the condition that the "owning organization" of the document is "Sales Section 4" is set, CG = "Sales Section 4".

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

Next, for all the organizations Gi retrieved in step S604, the period during which Gi satisfies CG and CT
Then, the overlap period CTi is calculated (step S605). Here, G1 satisfies CG in the effective period “95/4”.
Since it is "-", the overlap period between this and CT, that is, "94-" is CT1 = "95 / 4-".

Further, in step S605, when the CG consists of a disjunction (OR) of a plurality of conditions, only the condition satisfying Gi is selected as CGi. In this example, CG
Is a single condition, CG1 = CG = “Sales Section 4”.

Next, it is checked whether or not the search condition regarding the person is set (step S606 in FIG. 9). Since it is not set here (803 in FIG. 12),
To step S611.

In step S611, the document search condition is a disjunction of i in (CTiandCGi).
In this example, the document search condition is only i = 1, so (CT1 and CG1) = ("95/4" and "Sales 4"
Section ").

Presentation of the search conditions restricted as described above to the user is performed in step S503 in FIG.
FIG. 12B shows an example of the presentation screen. 12
In FIG. 12B, the condition 802 of “registration date and time” in FIG.
However, it is limited like 812. This is "Sales 4
From the information that the organization name "section" is valid after April 1995, it was interpreted that the registration date and time of the documents owned by "sales section 4" were all after April 1995, and the search conditions were restricted. The result. As a result, the redundancy of the search condition regarding the registration date and time is removed.

FIG. 13 shows the condition 902 of the "creator" of the document.
Is also an example set. In this case, the process of limiting the search condition is performed from step S606 to step S6 in FIG.
The processing shifts to 07. In this case, step S606
CT, CG, Gi, CTi, CGi calculated up to
And CP are respectively CT = “− 96/3” CG = (“Sales section 3” or “Sales section 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 = “Yamamoto △ Male”.

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

Although this embodiment adopts this rule,
Depending on the workplace and the nature of the document, this rule may be incorrect. Therefore, the processing of this part of the present embodiment may be appropriately modified without departing from the purpose of the present invention.

Next, for each of the remaining i, the person Pij
Of the period of time when the user satisfies the CP and belongs to the organization Gi.
And the overlapping period of CTi are obtained, and this is newly set as CTi (step S609). In this example, P1
For 1 = P21, the period in which the name is “Yamamoto ΔM” 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), CT1 = “91 / 4-95 / 9” CT2 = “95 / 10−96 / 3”.

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

Finally, (CTi and CGian
d CPi) is the search condition for the document search that is the disjunction of i (step S610). In this example, (CT1 and CG1 and CP1) or (
CT2 and CG2 and CP2) = ("91
/ 4-95 / 9 "and" Sales Section 3 "and
"Yamamoto △ man") or ("95 / 10-96 / 3"
and "Sales Section 4" and "Yamamoto △ Man").

FIG. 13B shows an example of the screen which is presented to the user in step S503 of FIG. In this way, the search condition 9 entered by the user in FIG.
01, 902, and 903 are restricted to 911, 912, and 912 by the history information of the names and configurations of people / organizations,
Moreover, it is presented as a disjunction of two effective search conditions.

That is, "registration date and time" = "91 / 4-9
In the case of “5/9”, the search condition of “creator” = “Yamada △ man” and “owning organization” = “sales department 3” is valid,
When "registration date and time" = "95 / 10-96 / 3", "creator" = "Yamada △ male" and "owning organization" = "sales department 4"
This search condition is suggested to be valid.

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

As shown in FIG. 9B, the search condition candidates are arranged in chronological order together with their valid period (condition of "registration date and time" in the present embodiment).
You can easily select search conditions that match your intentions.

When the search condition is determined and the user issues a document search execution request (step S507 in FIG. 7), the search condition is 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 search result presentation screen by the search result presentation means 4. This example is an example of presentation of search results when the user selects all the search condition candidates created in FIG. 13B and executes a document search. As shown by 1101 and 1102 in FIG. 15A, information such as “title”, “document type”, “registration date / time”, “creator”, “owning organization” of the retrieved document is stored in the document data management means 8. Acquired and maintained by the user.

Further, the user can request the presentation of information regarding the creator of the document and the owning organization, if necessary (step S510 in FIG. 7). As described above, the search condition interpretation unit 3 searches the information about the person / organization in the document search conditions by using the person / organization data management unit 5 in order to limit / relax the search condition. Step SS603 of FIG. 8 and step SS of FIG.
607, step S613 in FIG. 8), in this step,
If the person / organization data required by the user has already been searched (step S511 in FIG. 7), since those are temporarily stored in the search condition interpreting means 3, the search for the attribute item of this person / organization data is performed. The valid attribute values from the registration date and time of the registered document to the present are presented (step S51 in FIG. 7).
3). If not searched in step S511 of FIG.
Person / organization data storage means 7 for obtaining necessary person / organization data using the name of the person / organization written in the attribute item of the document as a search condition.
Is retrieved (step S512 in FIG. 7) and presented.

When a user requests information on a person / organization related to a document, in general, when the user wants to know the contact information about the contents of the document, or when the document is stored on paper, the storage is performed. There are cases where the user wants to know the place, who wants to request the copying of a document, and who wants to know the destination of the request.

However, it is conceivable that the location of a document or the affiliation of a person who is familiar with the contents may change due to the reorganization or transfer of the organization or person. When a person is transferred, it is generally unknown 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, of the information regarding the affiliation / location / contact information of a person / organization, information from the time of document registration to the present is presented.

FIG. 15B shows an example of a screen presenting information about the creator “Yamamoto ΔM” of the document “XX report” 1101 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 to perform another document search, or may end (step S in FIG. 7).
515).

The processing for limiting the search conditions in the document search has been described above. In FIG. 8, processing when there is no search condition regarding an organization and there is a search condition regarding a person (steps S612, S613, S614, S615)
Indicates steps S603, S604, S605 and S611.
Since the processing is the same as the processing described in step 1, the description thereof will be omitted.

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

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

Even if CT exists, if the user wants to alleviate it, step S702 is executed. In this example, CT = “94−” is set, which is not relaxed. After that, the flow of processing branches into step S703 and step 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 the search condition CG regarding the organization is 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, the person / organization data managing means 7 is used to retrieve all the organization data Gi satisfying the CG at an arbitrary time (step S704). In this example, the organization data D and E of FIGS. 3A and 3B are searched as the organization data whose organization name is “software development section” at an arbitrary time. That is, G1 = organization data D (FIG. 3A) and G2 = organization data E (FIG. 3B).

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

However, CT = “94−” is set to “94 / 1−” by supplementing the month. Similarly for G2, CTG21 = “94 / 1-94 / 3” CG21 = “Software Development Section” CTG22 = “94/4” CG22 = “Software Development Section 2” is required.

Steps S706, S707 and S of FIG.
The processing of 708 is S703, S704, and S709, respectively.
This is a process for a person that is similar to the process performed for an organization in. By this series of processing, P1 = personal data B (FIG. 4B) CTP11 = “94 / 1-95 / 6” CP11 = “Tanaka ○ child” CTP12 = “95 / 7−” CP12 = “Wako Watanabe child P2 = person data C (FIG. 4 (c)) CTP21 = “94/4” CP21 = “Tanaka Oko” is required.

In this example, as shown in FIGS. 4 (b) and 4 (c), there are two persons with the name "Tanaka Oko", and one of them is renamed "Watanabe Oko". Therefore, the result is as follows.

Next, in step S709 of FIG. 11,
Create a new time interval by combining CTGik and CTPjl. That is, all the start points / end points appearing in CTGik and CTPjl are collected, overlapping is eliminated, and these are arranged in chronological order to obtain all sections CTn divided into these start point / end point groups. 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 search conditions valid in each CTn are selected from CGik and CPjl,
The disjunction of these conditions is sought to be CGPn. In this example, for example, the period CT3 is CTG12, CTG22, C.
Since it overlaps with each of TP12 and CTP21, CGP3
As a disjunction of search conditions effective in these sections, CGP3 = (CG12 or CG22 or CP1
2 or CP21) = (“Software Development 1st Section” or “Software Development 2nd Section” or “○ Watanabe” or “○ ko Tanaka”)

Similarly, CGP1 = ("Software Development Section" or "Tako Tanaka") CGP2 = ("Software Development Section 1" or "Software Development Section 2" or "Otako Tanaka"). In addition, 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 matches the purpose of relaxing the search condition. However, if there is a request to eliminate redundant conditions in consideration of the relationship between people and organizations, for example, in the case of this example, CT3
In the above, using the information that the person P1 belongs to the organization G1 and the person P2 belongs to the organization G2, CGP3 = (CG12 and CP12) or
(CG22 and CP21) = ("Software Development 1st Section" and "Wako Watanabe") or
(“Software Development Section 2” and “Oko Tanaka”).

Finally, in step S711, (CTn
And disjunctive about n in and CGP n) is taken as the search condition of the document search. In this example, (CT1 and CGP1) or (CT2 an
d CGP2) or (CT3 and CGP3) =
("94 / 1-94 / 3" and ("Software Development Section" or "○ Tanaka")) or ("94 / 4-95
/ 6 "and (" Software Development 1st Section "or" Software Development 2nd Section "or" Tanaka Oko ")) or (" 95
/ 7- "and (" Software Development 1st Section "or" Software Development 2nd Section "or" ○ Watanabe "or" Tanaka ○ "
"Child")) is obtained as a condition for document search.

An example of presenting this result to the user (step SS503 in FIG. 6) is 1011 and 101 in FIG. 14B.
2, 1013. As described above, even when the names of “creator” and “owned organization” are changed and the desired document cannot be searched if the search condition input by the user is used as it is, the change history of the person / organization is used. By the search condition relaxing process of, valid search condition candidates are automatically generated for each time section and presented in order of time.

The user can search for a document by selecting one or more 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 “registration date / time” is set.
"95 / 7-", "Creator Tako" Tanaka,
By selecting "Software Development Section 2" as the "owning organization", the search can be executed under this condition.

In this embodiment, whether the search conditions are restricted or relaxed is set by collectively specifying the search conditions for people and organizations, but the present invention is limited to this method. Not a thing. That is, the present embodiment may be modified so that processing is performed by designating whether to limit or relax each search condition. For example, a method of restricting the conditions for the "creator" and relaxing the conditions for the "owning organization" can also be realized by combining the processing parts described in FIGS. 8 to 11.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the organizational data including at least the information about the organizational name and the organizational structure, and the human data including at least the information about the name and the affiliated organization together with the past change history. A personnel database 10 to be stored, and a document database 1 to store document data together with attribute information including at least persons concerned with the document, related organizations, and registration date and time of the document
1 and as a search condition for searching the document data stored in the document database 11, the search condition input / presentation means 2 causes the search condition input / presentation means 2 to include the relevant person of the document, the related organization, and the registration date and time of the document. At least one of
When one is input, the search condition interpretation 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 input The retrieved search condition is limited based on the change history stored in the personnel database 10 (restriction of the retrieval condition), and the retrieval condition input / presentation means 2 is the corrected (relaxed) retrieval condition or the limitation (restriction). The presented search condition is presented, and the document data is searched 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 presenting means 4. That is, even if the date / time / person / organization conditions among the document search conditions input by the user are redundant or inaccurate, the validity is confirmed before executing the document search, and if necessary, redundant The search condition is restricted by removing the slack, or conversely, it is relaxed by expanding and interpreting the inaccurate condition. Thereby, the user can easily obtain the intended document even if the search condition is input based on the incorrect storage. In addition, even when a plurality of valid search condition candidates are obtained as a result of the interpretation of the search conditions, the user can easily select his or her intended search condition from the candidates.

Also, correction (relaxation) is performed by the search condition interpretation means 3.
The retrieved search conditions or limited (restricted) search condition candidates are arranged in time series (expiration time order) in the search condition input / presentation means 2 based on the change history stored in the personnel database 10. By presenting
Selection of search conditions becomes easier.

Further, according to the present embodiment, in the process of restricting / relaxing the document search condition, the necessary information is acquired 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 the document search may be reduced in the present embodiment by the time required for the search process of the personnel database 10. However,
The number of documents created / owned by an organization is tens to thousands of times the number of people / organizations, and generally the number of data registered in the document database is much larger than the number of data registered in the personnel database. . Therefore, rather than searching for a document with an incorrect / redundant search condition, the efficiency of the entire document search is improved by modifying the search condition in advance and then searching the document.

Further, after the document search, the user has a request to make various inquiries about the searched document to the related parties / 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) by the search condition interpretation unit 3 or the limited (restricted) search condition. 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 a document, the information of the person / organization related to the document is already acquired and temporarily stored in the search condition interpreting means 3 or the person / organization data managing means 5. Therefore, using this, it is possible to automatically present the information regarding the person / organization required by the user. Therefore, the user does not have to separately perform a work of issuing a search request to the personnel database 10 to acquire necessary information.

Further, the information of the related person / related organization desired by the user is limited to the information from the time of document registration to the present, but by selecting and presenting the information in this range, the user can obtain only the 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 an organization or a person, but the present invention is not limited to this case. The present invention works effectively as long as it is attribute information of a document accompanied by a change history from the past. In other words, prior to searching for a document, first check the validity of the search conditions that are part of the document attribute information based on the change history, and if necessary, limit the search conditions by removing redundancy. Or, conversely, mitigates by expanding the interpretation of inaccurate conditions. Thereby, the user can easily obtain the intended document in the same manner as described above even if the search condition is input based on the incorrect storage.

[0088]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if the search condition of the document entered by the user is redundant or inaccurate, this search condition is automatically calculated based on the information of the person / organization at any point from the past to the present before executing the document search. Since the effective documents are limited or relaxed, the user can easily obtain the intended document even if the search condition is input based on the 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 condition for searching the document is ambiguous or inaccurate, the document intended by the user can be easily searched, and the invalid search processing is prevented, and the document search is performed. The processing efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the 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 person data stored in a personnel database.

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

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

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

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

9 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the document search system of FIG. 1, and particularly shows the processing operation of limiting the input search condition.

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

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

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

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an input example of search conditions and an example of presentation of a result of limiting the search conditions in the search condition input / presentation means.

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

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of presentation of document search results by the search result presentation means.

[Explanation of sign]

1 ... User interface, 2 ... Search condition input means,
3 ... Search condition interpretation means, 4 ... Search result presentation 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 (12)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of organization names existing at present and in the past, effective periods of the plurality of organization names, and past organization names corresponding to the current organization name as a change history of the organization are stored. For each of the plurality of persons, the first and last person names as the person name change history of the person, the valid period of each person name, and the person name of the plurality of organization names of the person. A second memory for storing past and present belonging organizations as change history of the belonging organizations and a period of belonging to each belonging organization
And a third storage means for storing the document data together with attribute information including at least a person's name of a person related to the document data, an organization name to which the person belongs, and a registration date and time of the document. As the first search condition for searching the document data stored in the storage means, the first search condition for specifying the registration date and time of the desired document data and the person and the organization related to the desired document data Based on the information stored in the period, the first person name, and at least one of the first organization name and the information stored in the first and second storage means, at least the first First generating means for generating a second search condition that further limits the period of, and at least the first organization name is relaxed based on at least the information stored in the first storage means. Second generation means for generating the third search condition, presentation means for presenting the second search condition and the third search condition, second search condition presented by the presentation means, and third Search means for searching the document data stored in the third storage means for document data having attribute information satisfying the search condition based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the search condition; The first generation unit includes a unit for obtaining a first overlapping period that is an overlapping period between the effective period of the first organization name and the first period; and the first overlapping period. And a means for obtaining a second overlapping period which is an overlapping period with a period in which the person having the first person name belongs to the organization having the first organization name within the first overlapping period, The second overlap period and the first organization Means for generating the second search condition consisting of a name and the first person name, wherein the second generation means is the first storage means stored in the first storage means. Of the organization name, the organization name having the first organization name as a past organization name, and the past organization name of the first organization name, a valid period having an overlapping period with the first period is provided. A means for obtaining a plurality of search target organization names, each of which is one of the plurality of search target organization names
And a means for generating a plurality of the third search conditions including an effective period of the organization name of the search target and an overlapping period of the first period, and the document search system. 2. The second generation means, the first person name stored in the second storage means, and a person name having the first person name as a past person name, Means for obtaining a plurality of search target person names having an overlapping period with the first period among the past person names of the first person name, and the overlapping period of each of the plurality of search target organization names. And a means for obtaining a plurality of time intervals separated by a start point and an end point of each of the overlapping periods of the plurality of person names to be searched, each of which is one of the plurality of time intervals, The means for generating a plurality of the third search conditions including the organization name of the search target and the person name of the search target corresponding to the time section, further comprising: Document search system 3. The first generation means further comprises means for generating the second search condition including the first overlap period and the first organization name. 1. The document search system described in 1. 4. The first generation means comprises a third overlapping period which is an overlapping period between the first period and the effective period of the first person name, and the first person name. The document search system according to claim 1, further comprising means for generating the second search condition. 5. The plurality of search target organization names and the overlapping period of the valid period and the first period of each of the plurality of search target organization names are calculated based on a change history of the organization. The document retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the document retrieval system is arranged in a series and presented to the user. 6. The plurality of search target organization names, the plurality of search target person names, and the plurality of time intervals are arranged in time series based on the organization change history and the person name change history. The document retrieval system according to claim 2, wherein the document retrieval system is presented to the user. 7. A change history of an organization name to which a person corresponding to a person name included in the attribute information of the document data searched by the search means belongs and a change history of the person name is presented to a user. The document retrieval system according to claim 1, further comprising: 8. A plurality of organization names existing at present and in the past, effective periods of the plurality of organization names, and past organization names corresponding to the current organization name as a change history of the organization Stored in the storage means for each of a plurality of persons, the past and present person names as the person name change history of the person, the effective period of each person name, The past and present affiliation as the change history of the affiliation and the period of time belonging to each affiliation are stored in the second storage means, and the document data is at least the person of the person who is related to the document data. A first step of storing in a third storage means together with attribute information including a name, an organization name to which the person belongs and a registration date and time of the document; and document data stored in the third storage means. As a first search condition for searching, a registration date and time of desired document data, a first period for specifying a person and an organization related to the desired document data, a first person name, and a first person name Second to specify at least one of the organizational names of
And a third step of generating a second search condition that further limits at least the first period based on the information stored in the first and second storage means, at least the first A fourth step of generating at least a third search condition in which at least the first organization name is relaxed based on the information stored in the storage means, and the second search condition and the third search condition. A fifth step of presenting, and a third storage unit that stores the third storage unit based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the second search condition and the third search condition presented in the fifth step. A sixth step of searching for document data having attribute information satisfying the search condition from the obtained document data; and the third step, wherein the effective period of the first organization name is The above Determining a first overlapping period which is an overlapping period with the first period, the first overlapping period, and the person having the first person name is the first organization within the first overlapping period. Obtaining a second overlapping period which is an overlapping period with the period of time belonging to the organization of the name; and the second overlapping period, the first organization name, and the first person name. Generating a search condition of No. 2, and in the fourth step, the first organization name stored in the first storage unit and the first organization name are past organizations. A step of obtaining a plurality of search target organization names having an effective period having an overlapping period with the first period, of the organization name as a name and the past organization names of the first organization name, respectively. , One of the plurality of search target organization names
And a step of generating a plurality of the second search conditions each including an effective period of the organization name of the search target and an overlapping period of the first period, the document search method. 9. The fourth step comprises: storing the first personal name stored in the second storage means; a personal name having the first personal name as a past personal name; A step of obtaining a plurality of search target person names having an overlapping period with the first period among the past person names of the first person name; and the overlapping period of each of the plurality of search target organization names, Determining a plurality of time intervals separated by a start point and an end point of each of the overlapping periods of the plurality of person names to be searched, each of which includes one of the plurality of time intervals, 9. The document inspection according to claim 8, further comprising: a step of generating a plurality of the second search conditions including the search target organization name and the search target person name corresponding to a time section. Method. 10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the third step further includes a step of generating the second search condition including the first overlapping period and the first organization name. Document search method. 11. The third step comprises: a third overlapping period, which is an overlapping period of the first period and an effective period of the first person name; and the first person name. 9. The document search method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of generating a second search condition. 12. A plurality of names existing at present and in the past, first term of validity of each of the plurality of names, and a history of name change, and a plurality of persons A second history storing history of change of person name of person, effective period of each person name, history of change of name of the plurality of names related to the person, and period related to each name. Storage means and third storage means for storing the document data together with attribute information including at least a person name of a person related to the document data, a name related to the person, and a registration date and time of the document, and a third storage means. As the first search condition for searching the document data stored in the storage unit, the registration date and time of the desired document data and the person and the name related to the desired document data are specified. Based on the information stored in the first period, the first person name, and at least one of the first person name and the first name, and the first and second storage means, At least the first name is relaxed based on at least the first storage unit that generates a second search condition that further limits the first period, and at least the information stored in the first storage unit. Second generation means for generating a third search condition, presenting means for presenting the second search condition and the third search condition, second search condition presented by the presenting means, and third Search means for searching for document data having attribute information satisfying the search condition from among the document data stored in the third storage means based on the search condition changed or selected by the user based on the search condition ,, and 1 generation means, means for obtaining a first overlapping period which is an overlapping period of the effective period of the first name and the first period, the first overlapping period, the first person A means for obtaining a second overlapping period which is an overlapping period with a period in which the person having the name has been involved in the first name within the first overlapping period; and the second overlapping period and the first overlapping period. And a means for generating the second search condition consisting of the first name and the first person name, wherein the second generation means is the first storage means stored in the first storage means. And the name of
Means for obtaining a plurality of search target names having a valid period having an overlapping period with the first period from among names having the first name as a past name and past names of the first name. And each generate a plurality of the third search conditions including one of the plurality of search target names and an overlapping period of the valid period of the search target name and the first period. A document retrieval system comprising means and.