Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-06
2002-12-10
Hong, Stephen S. (Department: 2176)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06493732
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a document management system, and in particular, to a method of and an apparatus for displaying document management information as a set of elements including a plurality of documents and a plurality of programs, for example, version information of each element and configuration information of a set thereof and a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for displaying version and configuration information is recorded.
To manage a large volume of documents of a firm in a concentrated manner for efficient use thereof, there has been an increasing need of a document management system in which documents can be stored in a storage to be retrieved and read therefrom. Additionally, for example, to write documents for a large number of manuals and to develop programs, namely, for collaborative job which cannot be achieved by one person but by a plurality of people through a collaborative job, there has been a tendency of effectively utilizing the system above.
In such a collaborative job, in addition to management of versions of respective documents and programs, the persons concerned are required to collaboratively proceed the job while collaboratively managing the state and condition of writing documents. Consequently, in the document management system employed in the collaborative job, there are essentially required a version management function and a configuration management function.
In this connection, “version management” indicates management of information items such as a version number of a document or a program source and a creation date of each version such that when a user edits and updates documents and program sources, it is possible to store and to retrieve any version of documents and program sources.
Consequently, a list of version information can be displayed to restore a version of a document at an arbitrary point in the past or to obtain a process of editing operations in the past. Moreover, for an efficient editing operation, it is possible to extract and display differences between the versions.
In addition, “configuration management” means that files or objects in which documents and/or program sources are stored are gathered into sets of related elements for the management thereof. The elements may be constituent elements of documents and programs.
A set of these elements is called a project in some cases. For example, when editing a manual of a product in a file for each chapter, if relationships between the files are managed in the form of configuration information of a project “product manual”, the related files can be gathered into a document when necessary.
Moreover, in a case of development of an application program, when relationships between the program sources and object files of respective modules are managed in the form of configuration information of a project “application program”, it is possible, for example, to compile related files at a time.
In a document management system having the version and configuration management functions, when the user conducts operation to refer to version information for restoration of versions at an arbitrary point in the past, to know an editing process in the past, and to extract and display differences between versions, it is necessary for the system to present the version information to the user.
Additionally, when a user carries out operation to refer to configuration information to gather related document files into a document and to collect related program sources for compilation thereof, the system is required to present the configuration information to the user.
Furthermore, when the user desires to know information of the editing operation conducted in the past for documents and program sources of a project and information of relationships between versions of constituent elements, it is necessary to clearly present information in which version information is combined with configuration information. This is a function particularly required in a collaborative job such as a collaborative writing of documents and a collaborative development of programs.
In this situation, version information and configuration information are displayed by use of a tree structure in the conventional document management system or the like as shown in FIG.
5
. For example, PVCS Version Manager (http://www.intersolv.co.jp/PVCS/main/Function/Vm.htm) of INTERSOLV discloses a technology in which program versions are managed to display source names of each program and versions thereof in a tree structure.
In a display of
FIG. 5
, there is presented a combination of version information shown in FIG.
6
and configuration information shown in FIG.
7
. But,
FIGS. 6 and 7
are not admitted as prior art.
In
FIG. 7
,
701
indicates a name of a project as an object of management and
702
denotes constituent elements of the project. Configuration information includes a file name
704
and the like corresponding to a constituent element name
703
, and the example of
FIG. 7
indicates that Project “Product XX Manual” has constituent elements “Contents”, “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2”, and “FIG. 1.”
In
FIG. 6
,
601
to
604
indicate version information items respectively corresponding to constituent elements of “Product XX Manual”. Each version information includes a version name
605
, a creator or writer of the version
606
, a creation date thereof
607
, etc., and
FIG. 6
expresses, for example, that “Contents” include two versions of V
1
and V
2
(
601
).
FIG. 5
includes a root node of tree
501
indicating the displayed project. A sub-node
502
thereof denotes a constituent element of the project. Furthermore, a sub-node
503
of the element indicates a list of versions of respective constituent elements.
As above, information in which version information is combined with configuration information is displayed in a tree structure. Consequently, the user can recognize documents and program source names of the pertinent project as well as versions thereof.
However, the method of displaying version information and configuration information in accordance with the conventional document management system is attended with the following problems.
A first problem will be now described.
In the restoration of a document at a point of time in the past in
FIG. 5
, assume an example of a case in which “Chapter 1” is restored for a point of time of Dec. 4, 1997.
In the conventional display method using the tree structure, there is provided a graphic user interface (GUI) as shown in
FIG. 8
to obtain information of a creation date or the like of each version. That is, by pointing an arbitrary constituent element of a document, there is displayed a list of version information thereof.
In
FIG. 8
, version information
802
is displayed for “Chapter 1. Namely, it is only necessary to restore the document of V
2
by referring to the information.
However, to restore “Contents” for Dec. 4, 1997 on which “Chapter 1” was of V
2
, there is required a comparison of the creation date by referring to version information of “Contents” in this case. That is, when only the display method of
FIG. 5
is used, it cannot be known that which one of the versions of “Contents” was used for each version of “Chapter 1”.
As above, in the conventional display method, it is not possible to recognize a relationship in time between constituent elements, i.e., how these mutually related elements were edited. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to conduct operation for the restoration of the elements of a project into documents at a point of time in the past.
Description will now be given of a second problem.
Assume an example of a case in which as a constituent element of a project, there is specified not only a document or a source file but also a particular version name of the element.
This is effective, for example, in a case of management in which when a project has a version and a product manual includes several documents as its constituent elements, a first version of product
Aoyama Yuki
Takahashi Toru
Wakayama Satoshi
Antonelli,Terry, Stout & Kraus, LLP
Hong Stephen S.
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