JPH11110391A - Document management method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] In a document model proposed by DMA, a method for expressing a structure in which constituent elements are arranged in a flat manner has been proposed, but the constituent elements form a tree structure like SGML. No framework has been proposed to represent structured documents such as A component constituting a structured document is represented by an object defined as a subclass of a DMA base class, a document instance is represented by a tree structure, and an object serving as a root of the tree structure is referred to as an “inside of a document”. Access to the logical structure of the document via the interface specified by DMA is realized by making it possible to refer from a single Transfer Element representing "structure".

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computerized document management system on a computer, and more particularly to a method for managing a document set including a structured document that expresses a logical structure in an explicit form. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art One of the architectures under consideration for establishing a standard document management framework in the future is DM.
There is A (Document Management Alliance) architecture. DMA is a consortium involving most of the major users and vendors in document processing systems and is promoting standardization of industry specifications for document management systems. One of the goals of the DMA architecture is to realize an open application system architecture by unifying the document model and the application interface for operating it,
A standard document model for that has been proposed. DMA
And its document model, see the DMA homepage (URL "h
ttp: //www.aiim.org/dma/ ").
Here, the document model specified in the DMA will be described first.

FIG. 1 shows a document model of a DMA (hereinafter, referred to as a “DMA document model”) representing a document object and a hierarchical directory structure. Reference numeral 101 denotes a "Container" object, which serves as a folder for classifying and managing documents. Reference numeral 102 denotes a "ContainmentRelationship" object, which plays a role in linking a Container object to an object to be stored therein. This object is, for example, "stored person""storagedate"
Such information relating to the storage act itself is stored.

[0004] Reference numeral 103 denotes a "Document Version" object, which corresponds to an individual document object in the DMA document model. A "Rendition" object 104 manages data in a single expression format of a document. By managing a plurality of Renditions, the Document Version can collectively manage data of a plurality of expression formats of the same document. 105 "TransferElem
The "ent" object is an object for managing the individual components when the document is expressed in a certain expression format, exists in a 1: 1 relationship with each component, and stores the corresponding component in the actual data. Control access.

Next, main properties of each object will be described.

FIG. 2 shows main properties of Container (101). The Children property (201) is the ContainerRelatio that links the Container and the object to be stored when the Container stores another Container or DocVersion.
Property for holding a list of nship objects. The application can access the object stored in a certain Container by referring to this property. The Parent property (202) is a property indicating a ContaineremntRelationship linking the Container object, when there is a Container object that further stores the Container object.

FIG. 3 shows main properties of the ContainerRelationship (102). This object is an object that links the object to be stored with the object to be stored, and the Head property (301) is a property indicating the object to be stored therein. Also
The Tail property (302) is a property indicating a Container object that stores an object indicated by the Head property.

FIG. 4 shows main properties of Document Version (103). Parent property (401)
ent Version and Conta storing this Document Version
This property indicates the ContainerRelationship that links iner. Also, the Renditions Present property (4
02) is a list of character strings indicating what expression forms are present in this Document Version. Each string corresponds to a Rendition.

FIG. 5 shows the main properties of Renditoin (104). The Rendition Type property (501)
This is a character string indicating the expression format managed by dition. Also Tr
The ansfer Elements Presetnt property (502)
This is a list of character strings indicating what components are present in the dition. Each individual string is TransferEl
Corresponds to emnet.

FIG. 6 shows main properties of the Transfer Element (105). Reference Type property (601) is R
This is an integer code that defines the meaning and grammar of the contents of the eference property (602). Specifically, an integer code indicating a path name of various file systems or an object ID of a DMA object is a value of this property. Also Refere
The nce property (602) is a property in a character string format for storing a reference to a position where the content data was present when the content data was stored. Component Type
The property (603) is a character string indicating the position of the content data managed by the Transfer Element in the entire data managed by a certain Rendition, and indicates what kind of constituent element it corresponds to. For information on how the Transfer Element manages stored data, see DM
Not specified in A.

The outline of the objects appearing in the DMA document model has been described above. In the model defined by the DMA, there is a “document space object” corresponding to the logical concept of “document space” including all these objects. Exists. For example, if the application knows the object ID of an object, the object corresponding to the ID can be accessed by calling the ConnectObject method of the document space object using the ID as an argument.

Next, an example of content management of a document will be described in detail (see FIG. 7). In this figure, each object is presented only for a document content management mechanism. The rectangle in the figure represents one instance of the object,
The information contained within the rectangle represents the properties of that object. Reference numeral 701 denotes an instance of the Document Version (103), which expresses that the Document Version manages data in three types of formats, Word, HTML, and PDF, by using the Renditions Present property. To obtain a Rendition object (104) corresponding to each expression format, use the GetRendition method for DocumentVersion.
Issue (702). As an argument of this method, the corresponding Rendition is Renditions Present of Document Version
Get the desired Rendition object by giving an integer that represents the number of the string in the property.

703, 704, 705 are Word format and HTML, respectively.
Renditi corresponding to each expression format of PDF format and PDF format
An instance of the on object. A Rendition object is a set of Rendition Type properties that indicate which representation format it supports, and character strings that indicate each of the document components in that representation format.
Holds Transfer Elements Present property.
To obtain a Transfer Element object (105) corresponding to each of these components, use GetTransfe
Issue the rElement method (706). As an argument of this method, the corresponding Transfer Element is the Rendition's Tra
The desired TransferElement object is obtained by giving an integer indicating the number of the character string corresponding to the nfer ElementsPresent property.

707 to 709, 710 to 712 and 713 are Transfer Elem
instances of ent (105), Word format, HT respectively
It corresponds to each component that constitutes each expression format of ML format and PDF format. The Transfer Element has a Reference property that indicates a reference to the original data, a ReferenceType property that indicates the type of the Reference, and a “Component Type property” that indicates how this component is positioned in the entire document. .

How to access each component corresponding to the Transfer Element (105) depends on Tr.
It depends on which method is issued when requesting the data entity from the ansfer Element.

1. To acquire data as a file, a GetFileAccess method (714) is issued to the Transfer Element, thereby obtaining the File Access Object (715).
Get. CopyTo method (71
By issuing 6), the data can be copied as a local file that can be viewed and edited by the application program.

2. Due to the large size of the data,
If you want to access some of them by Seek or Read, GetStream method for Transfer Element
By issuing (717), a Stream Access Object (718) is obtained. Seek or Read method (7
By issuing 19), data manipulation in byte units can be realized.

3. To acquire a reference (URL, object ID, etc.) to the data, issue a GetReference method (720) to the Transfer Element,
You can get the reference to access the data itself. By giving "code indicating file path" or "code indicating object ID" as an argument of this method, a reference to data in a format that Transfer Element can provide can be obtained. For example, the DMA object corresponding to the object ID can be accessed using the object ID of the DMA object obtained as a clue.

Next, a “structured document” which is a document including information that explicitly indicates the logical structure of the document will be described.

One of the formats of a structured document is a method of embedding information explicitly representing a logical structure in a text. In general, a structured document created by a user (hereinafter, referred to as a “document instance”) often includes a logical structure definition part that defines a logical structure of the document and a content text part that represents the contents of the document. The logical structure definition includes the logical structure of the document,
A mark (hereinafter, referred to as a “tag”) representing the component is defined. In the content text part, the tag defined by the logical structure definition part is inserted so that the character string which is the content of the logical structure corresponding to the tag is uniquely determined, and the logical structure of the document is explicitly expressed. .

When laying out a document instance structured in this way and outputting it on paper or a screen, what format is used to output each component of the logical structure (hereinafter referred to as "element") An image to be output is generated by referring to a file that describes an output format definition that defines the format. According to this method, since the document instance and the output format definition are independent, the document instance can be exchanged regardless of the individual device or system used for output.

The content of the character string in such a structured document is explicitly expressed by inserting a tag such as "<author name>" or "<title>" which corresponds to the element on a one-to-one basis. Therefore, by combining with a tool such as a full-text search system that supports structured documents,
A set of document instances can be used as it is as a database. For details on structured documents and their use, see, for example, the document "Recommendations for SGML" (ed.
Ohmsha) and others.

Due to these advantages, as a document management format in a document processing system that stores and uses a large amount of documents,
The adoption of structured document format is progressing. Also, instead of managing a structured document as simple text data, individual components of the document are represented by objects, and the entire document is managed in the form of a tree structure of objects, so that access rights to individual components are controlled. Such as properties not described in the original document,
Document management systems have also been developed to increase the reusability of components.

FIG. 8 shows an international standard for structured documents (ISO-8879).
Here is an example of a document described in SGML format. Reference numeral 801 denotes an example of a logical structure definition described in the file “patent.dtd”.
Reference numeral 802 indicates that the element "patent" has two elements "specification" and "drawing" as content data. Reference numeral 803 indicates that the element "specification" further has elements such as "invention name", "claims", and "detailed description" as content data. 804 is
The element “figure” has an attribute named “entity”, and indicates that the attribute value is an entity reference for referring to data with a certain name.

Reference numeral 805 denotes an example of a document according to the logical structure definition of 801. 807, file "patent .d as logical structure definition
It uses the definition described in "td" and indicates that the element encompassing the entire document is the "patent" element.

Reference numeral 806 denotes a document instance that actually describes the logical structure of the document. 809 and 810 are tags indicating the start and end of the element "description", respectively.
This indicates that the portion sandwiched between the tags corresponds to the content of the element “specification”. If there is no ambiguity, some tags may be omitted.

811 indicates that the element "figure" is "en".
tity "and its attribute value is" Fig.
It refers to the entity (entity) with the reference name "1". 808 is an entity declaration indicating that the entity with the reference name "Fig1" is non-SGML external data and exists as an external file "Fig. 1.bmp". In this way, non-
SGML data is associated with an SGML document by defining the location and type of external data, and a reference name for referring to it in the SGML document by an entity declaration, and using the reference name as the value of the attribute of the element. .

FIG. 9 shows a tree-like representation of the structure of the document instance shown in FIG.

[0029]

In the document model proposed by DMA (hereinafter abbreviated as "DMA document model"), FIG. 7 shows a framework for expressing the contents of a document composed of a plurality of components. As shown, there has been proposed a method for expressing a structure in which components are arranged in a flat manner such that one document is composed of a plurality of files. However, a framework for expressing a structured document in which components form a tree structure like SGML has not been proposed.

In the DMA document model, it is difficult to manage structured documents without damaging the existing DMA specification framework for the following reasons.

For example, in an SGML document, Transfer Eleme
The following two methods are conceivable to make nt correspond to document components 1: 1.

Method 1: 1: 1 for the elements of the logical structure of the structured document
Assign Transfer Element with.

Method 2: The entire document instance (text as a source) is regarded as one component like a DTD or SGML declaration, and a single TransferElement is assigned.

FIG. 10 corresponds to method 1.
Considering that "structural document component = element"
This is an example in which a Transfer Element is assigned to each element. The problem in this case is that when the number of elements increases, one Rendition manages T
Not only is the number of ransfer elements enormous, but also that the tree structure due to the inclusion relationship between elements such as "a certain element is composed of multiple elements" cannot be expressed.

FIG. 11 corresponds to the method 2 in which the entire document instance (source text) is stored in the DTD or S
Transfe is regarded as one component like GML declaration etc.
This is an example in which rElement is assigned. In this case, when trying to browse the structure of the structured document, it is necessary to check out the source and browse through a tool such as a structured document editor.

[0036]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, elements and their character strings are represented by a DMA base class (all superclasses of classes appearing in DMA).
Define as a subclass of. The tree structure of the document instance of the structured document is represented by a tree structure of objects representing elements, entities, and character string data.

Further, an object corresponding to the root (top node) of the tree structure of the object representing the structured document is replaced with a single TransferElem representing the “internal structure of the document”.
Make it accessible from ent. Specifically, this Trans
By giving the fer Element the ID of the object corresponding to the top node of the tree structure of the document instance, the object can be obtained by the "GetReference" method.
Get an ID.

With such a configuration, the above-mentioned problem is solved as follows. First, by expressing the concepts that appear in a structured document as objects and expressing the logical structure of the document as a tree structure of the objects, applications can refer to the tree-type logical structure without using an SGML parser. it can.

A single Tr representing the "internal structure of the document"
By making it possible to refer to the element that is the root of the logical structure through the ansfer Element, the problem that the number of Transfer Elements increases according to the number of elements is solved.

Further, since the object representing the logical structure is an instance of a subclass of the DMA base class, there is an advantage that the tree structure of the structured document can be referred to via an application interface defined by DMA. .

[0041]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Here, an SGML format is taken as an example of a structured document format, and an example of an extended DMA model for incorporating an SGML format document into a DMA model is shown.

First, FIG. 12 shows an example of an apparatus configuration for realizing the present invention. Reference numeral 1201 denotes an input / output device for receiving a document data processing request from a user and presenting the processing result to the user. Reference numeral 1202 denotes a control device that actually executes document processing. Reference numeral 1203 denotes an external storage device for storing document data.

In the control unit 1202, a control unit 1204 controls a series of processes relating to document processing. Specifically, in accordance with the document data processing request input from the input / output device, the procedure held by the document processing unit 1205 is expanded in the internal memory 1208 to execute the document processing, and the document data required in the process of the document processing is processed. Is retrieved from the external storage device 1203 and the processing until the requested processing result is output to the input / output device 1201 is controlled.

The document processing unit 1205 holds a document management procedure 1206 and a document management procedure 1207. Document management procedures 1207
Is a procedure for providing document data stored in the external storage device 1203 realized by, for example, a file system or a relational database to the document use procedure 1206 as an object group having a method. It provides functions such as management of access to the server and management of change history. Document processing procedures
1206, using document data provided by the document management procedure 1207 as an object, to view, edit, convert,
It is a procedure for performing processing such as distribution, and document management procedure
It is positioned as an application program that uses the function of 1207.

The present invention relates to a document management procedure 1207, and relates to a class configuration of objects and a method of using the same when providing an SGML document, which is a structured document, as a group of objects in component units to a document use procedure 1206. It is an invention.

Next, a method for expressing the logical structure of an SGML document by an object will be described. In order to be able to manipulate the contents of the SGML document via the DMA application interface, the class of the object used to represent the SGML document is defined as a subclass of the DMA object. FIG. 13 shows the classes used for expressing the SGML document and the class hierarchy between them. In the figure, the origin of the arrow represents a superclass, and the tip of the arrow represents a subclass.

Reference numeral 1301 denotes a DMA base class defined by DMA, and all DMA objects accessible through the DMA application interface are subclasses. Objects of this class are properties
Holds various data such as object ID,
Its properties are the IdmaP that this DMA class supports
It can be referenced using the methods of the roperties interface. Since all the classes in Fig. 13 are subclasses of the DMA class, the property of the instance is Id
It can be referred by the method of maProperties interface.

The SGML Base class 1302 is a virtual class that is a subclass of the DMA class and is a superclass of all SGML-related classes. Using the IsOfClass method (a method of the DMA base class) to check whether an object belongs to a particular class,
If it turns out to be an instance of the L Base class,
It turns out that the object is an object introduced to represent the SGML document.

The NonSgmlData class 1303 is a subclass of the SGML Base class, and is used for non-data such as binary data.
This is a class for storing SGML data. FIG.
Indicates the main properties of nSgmlData. 1401 Notation
Is a property that holds a character string indicating the data notation. BinaryData 1402 is a property for holding actual data in binary format.

The SGML declaration class 1304 is a subclass of the SGML Base class and is a class for storing the SGML declaration. The SGML declaration describes how a certain SGML document is described, and includes a character set, a control code, and the like for describing the document. FIG. 15 shows the main properties of the SGML declaration object. The name 1501 is a character string format property that holds the name given to this SGML declaration. 1502 Content
The property is a character string format property for holding actual data of a text format SGML declaration.

The DTD class 1305 is a subclass of the SGML Base class, and is a DTD that is a logical structure definition in SGML.
(Document Type Definition) class. FIG. 16 shows the main properties of the DTD object. The name 1601 is a character string format property that holds the name given to this DTD. The 1602 Content property is a character string property for holding the actual data of the text DTD. 1603 FormatInf
Is the visualization information (130
It is an object for holding the list of 7).

The 1306 SgmlNode class is a subclass of the SGML Base class. “SgmlNode” is a generic term for node objects that constitute a logical tree structure of an SGML document, and this class is a virtual class that is a superclass of those class groups. The actual instance is
Subclasses ElementNode, EntityNode, and DataNo
Be one of the instances of de.

The visualization information class 1307 is a subclass of the SGML Base class, and is a class for storing visualization information necessary for outputting an SGML document to a screen or paper. FIG. 17 shows main properties of the visualization information object. The name 1701 is a property in a character string format that holds the name given to the visualization information. 1702 of
The Content property is a property in a character string format for retaining actual data of visualization information in a text format.

The 1308 Attribute class is a subclass of the SGML Base class, and each attribute (Attri
class for managing bute). Holds attribute names, declared values, and attribute values. FIG. 18 shows the main properties of the Attribute object. The attribute name 1801 is a property for holding a character string indicating the name of this attribute (Attribute). The declared value of 1802 is the type of attribute value
This is a property for storing a character string that defines (information corresponding to the type). The attribute value 1803 is an object that holds the actual data of the attribute value. Specifically, in the case of character string data, it becomes DataNode, and in the case of binary data, it becomes NonSgmlData.

The ElementNode class 1309 is a subclass of the SgmlNode class, and is a class for managing element information of the SGML document. This object holds a list of SgmlNodes as content data of the element, thereby constructing a logical tree structure of the document. It also provides element attributes in the form of a list of Attribute objects. FIG. 19 shows the main properties of the ElementNode object. The name 1901 is a property in a character string format that holds the name of this element. Contents of 1902 is a property for holding a list of SgmlNode objects representing the content data of the element. Specifically, ElementNode, DataNod
e, and any sequence of EntityNodes. 1903 Attribu
tes is a property for holding a list of Attribute objects representing the attributes of the element.

The EntityNode class 1310 is a subclass of the SgmlNode class and is a class for expressing a general entity reference in an SGML document. In the input SGML document, the entity reference of SGML data is expanded to SgmlNode, and non-SG
Only entity reference to ML data is managed by EntityNode. FIG. 20 shows the main properties of the EntityNode object. Name of 2001 is a property in the form of a character string indicating the name given to this entity reference. 2002
NonSgmlData is a property for holding a NonSgmlData object that holds non-SGML data to be referenced by this entity reference.

The DataNode class 1311 is a subclass of the SgmlNode class, and is a class for managing text data corresponding to the leaves of the logical tree structure of the SGML document. FIG. 21 shows the main properties of the DataNode object. Type of 2101 is the type of character string data to be stored
(ex.CDATA, SDATA, etc.) is a property in the form of a character string. TextData 2102 is a property for holding actual data in a character string format held by this DataNode object.

FIG. 22 shows an ElementNode object and Attri
The structure of the bute object is shown in detail. ElementNode (22
01) is an object for managing the information of the elements of the SGML document. This object holds a list (2204) of child nodes (SgmlNode including ElementNode) as a value of the Contents property (2202) indicating the content data of the element, thereby forming a logical tree structure of the document. ElementNode is Att as an element attribute
It has an Attributes property (2203) whose value is a list of ribute objects. Attribute object (2205,220
6,2207) is an object that holds at least three pieces of data: an attribute name, a declared value, and an attribute value. The attribute value is
If the declared value (data corresponding to the "type" of the attribute value) is Entity, it is EntityNode (2209); otherwise, it is DataNode (2208, 2211) that manages text data. Ent
ityNode (2209) has a NonSgmlData object (2210) as a property to enable non-SGML
Represents an entity reference to data.

FIG. 23 shows an example in which the logical structure of the SGML document shown in FIG. 8 is expressed using the objects in FIG. The logical structure of the document is ElementN corresponding to the element "Patent"
It is represented by the tree structure of SgmlNode whose root is ode (2301). ElementNode 2301 has ElementNode (2302) corresponding to element "specification" and ElementNode (2303) corresponding to element "drawing" as lower elements.
Elements 2302 and 2303 are E
It can have a sequence of SgmlNode such as lementNode.
In this way, ElementNode recursively
Having a mentNode forms a tree-like structure.

The element corresponding to the character string is El of 2304.
As shown in ementNode and 2305 DataNode, DataNode (2305) holding the content character string is expressed as a lower element of ElementNode (2304).

The entity reference of the non-SGML data is expressed through the attribute of the element. In the extended DMA document model, this is expressed in the form shown by 2306 to 2309. Specifically, the ElementNode holds a list of Attrribute objects representing individual attributes of the element, and a certain Attribute (2307) in the ElementNode represents an attribute for referring to the entity. 2307 of
This Attri indicates that the declared value of Attribute is "ENTITY".
Indicates that the type of attribute value of bute is EntityNode. And the value of NonSgmlData property indicating the target of entity reference in EntityNode (2308) which is the attribute value,
Object for storing data originally stored in an external file named "Figure 1.bmp" NonSgmlData (2309)
become.

In this extended model, Trasnfer
Element is implemented as shown in FIG. In other words, in addition to the properties specified by DMA, this TransferElemen
A TargetOIID property (2401), which is a property for managing the object ID (OIID) of the content data managed by t in the document management system, is implemented.

FIG. 25 shows an SGML including the logical structure shown in FIG.
Here is an example in which the entire document is represented by an extended DMA document model. 2501 to 2507 are all objects defined by the DMA model. Reference numeral 2501 denotes a DocVerion object representing a patent document “Japanese Patent Application No. xx-xxxx”. 2502-250
Reference numeral 4 denotes a Rendition object for managing data representing the patent in HTML, SGML, and JPEG formats. Reference numerals 2505 to 2508 denote Transfer Element, which controls access to individual components constituting the document in the SGML format.
Object. 2505 and 2507 are SGML declarations, and
Transfer Element for accessing DTD, SGML declaration object for storing SGML declaration respectively
2508, the object ID of the DTD object 2509 for storing the DTD is held by the TargetOIID property (2401). Also, from DTD object 2509, FormatInf
By referring to the property (1603), the visualization information (2510) applicable to the document along the DTD can be accessed.

Reference numeral 2506 denotes a Transfer Element for accessing the logical structure of the SGML document, and provides the application with access to an ElementNode object (2511) which is the root of the tree structure representing the logical structure. 2513, 2512
The relationship between Transfer Element and ElementNode is shown more specifically. 2514 and 2515 show the contents of 2506 and 2511 in detail, respectively. Ta for Transfer Element (2514)
The value of the rgetOIID property is the root of the logical structure
Stores the object ID of ElementNode (2516).

FIG. 26 shows that the application is Transfer Ele
The flow from accessing ment (2515) to accessing ElementNode (2516) is shown. Application is Tr
When you access anferElement (2601), its Transfer E
The GetReference method of the lement is called with the "code indicating the object ID" as an argument (2602). And Transfer
Get the value of the TargetOIID property of the Element "Object ID of the node that is the root of the logical structure of the SGML document"
(2603). Next, the corresponding ElementNode is obtained (2605) by calling the ConnectObject method of the document space object using the object ID as an argument (2604).

This procedure is based on the Transfer E of 2505 and 2507.
It is similarly used when accessing objects of 2508 and 2509 from lement.

The objects introduced in this extended document model for expressing the logical structure are all subclasses of the DMA object, and the methods supported by the DMA object are also supported in the same manner. Therefore, each object supports "methods for referencing object properties" supported by the DMA object. With this, the application that has gained access to the node that is the root of the logical structure can use these methods to refer to the sub-elements of ElementNode or to use the Attri
DataNode that references bute and holds text data
You can refer to the contents of. This allows the DM
The entire logical structure of the document can be referenced using the methods defined in A.

FIG. 27 shows a processing procedure for the application to refer to the contents of a document having a logical structure in the extended model. The application first obtains a DocVersion corresponding to one document (2701). In the DMA document model, there are provided a method of obtaining this by searching, and a method of calling the ConnectObject method of the DocSpace object using the object ID as an argument if the object ID is known.

After acquiring the DocVersion, the Renditions Present property of the object is acquired (270).
2). This property is a list of strings, each string is a Rendition managed by this DocVersion
Is expressed. The application selects a character string corresponding to the desired Rendition from this list, acquires the position of the character string in the list (2703), and calls the GetRendition method of DocVersion with the position as an argument. As a result, the corresponding Rendition object is obtained (27
04).

When the Rendition is obtained, the Transfer ElementsPresent property of the object is obtained (2705). This property is a list of strings, each string is a Trans managed by this Rendition
expresses fer Element. In this extended model, SGML declaration, logical structure and
We prepare three Transfer Elements corresponding to DTD,
The character string expressing each is Transfer Elements Presen
Set as the value of the t property. The application selects the character string corresponding to the desired Transfer Element in this list, obtains the position of the character string in the list (2706), and uses the position as an argument to get the Rendition
Call the TransferElement method. As a result, the corresponding T
A ransfer Element object is obtained (2707).

When the Transfer Element is obtained,
Get the object pointed to by Transfer Element.
For this purpose, first, the GetReferece method of the Transfer Element is called with the "code indicating the ObjectID" as an argument, and the ObjectID of the object indicated by the Transfer Element
Is obtained (2708). In addition, DocS
An object corresponding to the ObjectID is obtained by calling the ConnectObject method of the pace object (270).
9).

If the type of the object acquired in 2709 is either SGML declaration or DTD (2710), the content can be obtained by acquiring the Content property of the object (2711).

When the type of the object acquired in 2709 is ElementNode (that is, when the Transfer Element corresponding to the “logical structure” is selected), the processing differs depending on what information about the element is desired to be obtained ( 2712). When accessing the lower element of the element, get the Contents property of ElementNode
(2713). Since the value of this property is a list of SgmlNodes corresponding to the lower elements of the element, the SgmlNode to be accessed is acquired from the list (2714). If the type of the SgmlNode is ElementNode (2715), the process recursively returns to the process of 2712 and refers to the content of the ElementNode. In 2715, the type of SgmlNode is Da
If it is a taNode, the content character string can be obtained by obtaining the TextData property of the object (2716).

The processes 2712 to 2716 are for accessing the lower element of the element. To access the attribute of the element, the Attributes property of the ElementNode is acquired (2717). Since the value of this property is an Attribute object, the Attribute to be accessed is acquired from the list (2718). Attri acquired further
Get the desired property from bute (2719). At this time,
If the property to get is the attribute value property of Attribute, the value is a DataNode object or Entity
Become a Node object (2720). If the value of the attribute value property is a DataNode object, the content character string can be obtained by acquiring the TextData property. If the value of the attribute value property is an EntityNode object, acquire the NonSgmlData object that is the value of the NonSgmlData property of the EntityNode (27
21) Then, by obtaining the value of the BinaryData property of the object, it is possible to refer to non-SGML data that is the target of entity reference.

As described above, according to the processing flow shown in FIG. 27, the application can browse the contents of the document along the tree of the logical structure.

In the case of expressing a PI indicating a processing instruction specific to a specific application in SGML, a PI class as shown in FIG. 28 may be introduced. 2801
Is a Content that holds string-type data that represents the contents of the PI
t property. Since this PI can appear in the same hierarchy as the element located at the highest level, the node at the top of the tree structure of the logical structure is not an element but a node holding the highest-level element and the PI. This node can be realized by, for example, the DocNode class shown in FIG. This node holds a DTD object and an SGML declaration property object ID (OIID) in a DTD property 2901 and an SGML declaration property 2902, respectively. this
ConnectObjec of DocSpace object with OIID as argument
By calling the t property, the DTD object or SGML
Can access declarative objects. In other words, if this DocNode is used, there is no need for a Transfer Element to access the DTD or SGML declaration, and this DocNode
You only need to prepare Transfer Eelment to access.

Transfer Elemen accessing DocNode
FIG. 30 shows a configuration example of a document model when only t is prepared. Objects 3001 to 3005 are all objects defined in the DMA model. Reference numeral 3001 denotes a DocVerion object representing a patent document “Japanese Patent Application No. xx-xxxx”. 3002-300
Reference numeral 4 denotes a Rendition object for managing data representing the patent in HTML, SGML, and JPEG formats. 3005 is Transfer E that controls access to objects that represent SGML format documents in a tree format.
lement object. Provide the application with access to the DocNode object (3006) that is the root of the tree structure representing the logical structure. 3008, 3007 Transfer
The relationship between Element and ElementNode will be shown more specifically. 300
9 and 3010 detail the contents of 3005 and 3006, respectively. In the Transfer Element (3009), the value of the TargetOIID property is ElementNod which is the root of the logical structure
The object ID of e (3010) is stored. TransferEleme
The application can obtain the OIID of the DocNode by calling the GetReference method with the "code indicating the object ID" for the nt as an argument. This OII
By calling the ConnectObject method of the DocSpace object with D as an argument, the application
(3006) can be accessed.

From the DocNode object 3006, the DTD object 3011 and the SGML declaration object 301 via the OIID
3 from the DTD object, and the visualization information 301 via the FormatInf property (1603).
2 can be accessed. DocNode is Conten
In the ts property (2903), the top element of the document
(3015) and an arbitrary number of PIs (eg, 3014). The structure below the top-level element is exactly the same as the model in FIG.

As described above, the present invention can also be realized by the object configurations shown in FIGS. 30, 28 and 29.

[0080]

As described above, according to the present invention, the elements constituting a structured document, the content character strings associated with the structured documents, Attribute, and the like are represented by an object defined as a subclass of the DMA base class, and the document instance is represented. Access to existing DMA specification compliant document data by representing them by a tree structure of those objects and making the top node of the tree structure visible from a single Transfer Element representing the "internal structure of the document" And access to the internal structure of structured documents
It can be realized by the unified access method of the interface specified in A.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a document model defined in DMA.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing main properties of a Container object.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing main properties of a ContainerRelationship object.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing main properties of a Document Version object.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing main properties of a Rendition object.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating main properties of a Transfer Element object.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of document content data management in a DMA document model.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a specific example of a document in the SGML format.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a logical structure of an SGML document is expressed in a tree format.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a Transfer Element is assigned to each element when expressing an SGML document by a DMA document model.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example in which an entire document instance is regarded as one component when an SGML document is to be expressed by a DMA document model.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a device configuration for realizing the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a class of an object introduced to express an SGML document.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing main properties of a NonSgmlData object.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing main properties of an SGML declaration object.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing main properties of a DTD object.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating main properties of a visualization information object.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating main properties of an Attribute object.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating main properties of an ElementNode object.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing main properties of an EntityNode object.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating main properties of a DataNode object.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of an ElementNode object and an Attribute object in more detail.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the logical structure of an SGML document is represented by an object.

FIG. 24: TargetOI when implementing Transfer Element
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of adding an ID property.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the entire SGML document is represented by an extended DMA document model.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating processing for an application to access an ElementNode that is the root of the logical structure of a document.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing a processing procedure for an application to refer to the contents of a document having a logical structure in the extended model.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating main properties of a PI class.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing main properties of a DocNode class.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a document model using a Transfer Element that refers to a DocNode.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Container object in the DMA document model. 102… Containment Relationship in DMA Document Model
Object. 103: Document Version object in DMA document model, 104: Rendition object in DMA document model, 105: TransferElement object in DMA document model, 201: Specification of Children property of Container object, 202: Specification of Parent property of Container object, 301 ... Specification of the Head property of the ContainmentRelationship object, 302 specification of the Tail property of the ContainmentRelationship object, 401 specification of the Parent property of the Document Version object, 402… Renditions Pres of the Document Version object
ent property specification, 501… Rendition object Rendition Type property specification, 502… Rendition object Transfer Elements Pres
etnt property specification, 601… Reference Type of Transfer Element object
Property specifications, 602… Reference property of Transfer Element object, 603… Component Type of Transfer Element object
Property specifications, 701… Example of Document Version object, 702… GetRendition method of Document Version object, 703… Example of Rendition object corresponding to data in Word format, 704… Example of Rendition object corresponding to data in HTML format, 705 … Example of Rendition object corresponding to PDFd format data, 706… GetTransferElement method of Rendition object, 707-709… Transfer Eleme corresponding to Word format data
Example of nt object, 710-712 ... Transfer Eleme corresponding to HTML format data
Example of nt object, 713 ... Example of Transfer Element object corresponding to PDF format data, 714 ... GetFileAccess method of Transfer Element object, 715 ... File Access Object in DMA document model, 716 ... CopyTo method of File Access Object, 717 ... GetStream method of Transfer Element object, 718… Stream Access Object in DMA document model, 719… Seek method and Read method of Stream Access Object, 720… GetReference method of Transfer Element object, 801… described in file “Patent.dtd” Example of logical structure definition, 802 ... Example of definition of element "patent", 803 ... Example of definition of element "specification", 804 ... Example of definition of element "figure", Example of document along the logical structure definition of 805 ... 801 , 806 ... Example of a document instance that actually describes the logical structure of the document, 807 ... Example of a Doctype declaration, 808 ... Example of an entity declaration, 809: Start tag of element "description", 810 ... Start tag of element "description", 811 ... Example of element "figure", 1201 ... Accept document data processing request from user and use the processing result An input / output device for presenting to a user 1202 a control device for actually executing document processing 1203 an external storage device for storing document data 1204 a control unit for controlling a series of processes related to document processing 1205: A document processing unit that holds a document management procedure 1206 and a document management procedure 1207. 1206: Processes such as browsing, editing, converting, and distributing documents using the document data provided by the document management procedure 1207 as objects. Document use procedures to be performed, 1207: Document management procedures that provide functions such as management of book composition information, management of access to content data, and management of change history, etc., 1208: Internal memory, 1301: DMA specified by DMA 1302 SGML Base class in the extended document model 1303 NonSgmlData class in the extended document model 1304 SGML declaration class in the extended document model 1305 DTD class in the extended document model 1306 SgmlNode class in the extended document model 1307 ... Visualization information class in the extended document model, 1308 ... Attribute class in the extended document model, 1309 ... ElementNode class in the extended document model, 1310 ... EntityNode class in the extended document model, 1311 ... DataNode class in the extended document model, 1401 ... NonSgmlData class Specification of Notation property, specification of BinaryData property of 1402… NonSgmlData class, specification of Name property of 1501… SGML declaration class, specification of Content property of 1502… SGML declaration class, specification of 1601… Name property of DTD class, 1602… DTD Content property of class Specifications, 1603 ... Specification of FormatInf property of DTD class, 1701 ... Specification of Name property of visualization information class, 1702 ... Specification of Content property of visualization information class, 1801 ... Specification of attribute name property of Attribute object, 1802 ... Attribute object Specification of declared value property of 1803… Specification of attribute value property of Attribute object, 1901… Specification of Name property of ElementNode object, 1902… Specification of Contents property of ElementNode object, 1903… Specification of Attributes property of ElementNode object, 2001… Specification of Name property of EntityNode object, 2002… Specification of NonSgmlData property of EntityNode object, 2101… Specification of Type property of DataNode object, 2102… Specification of TextData property of DataNode object, 2201… Example of ElementNode object, 2202… Element Contents property of Node object, 2203 ... Attributes property of ElementNode object, 2204 ... Example of contents of Contents property of ElementNode object, 2205-2207 ... Example of Attribute object, 2208 ... DataN corresponding to attribute value of Attribute object
Example of ode, Entit corresponding to attribute value of 2209… Attribute object
Example of yNode, 2210 ... NonSgmlData object containing non-SGML format data, 2211 ... DataN corresponding to attribute value of Attribute object
Example of ode, 2301 ... Example of ElementNode object corresponding to element "patent", 2302 ... Example of ElementNode object corresponding to element "description", 2303 ... Example of ElementNode object corresponding to element "drawing", 2304 ... Character Example of ElementNode object with column as content data, 2305… Example of DataNode object, 2306… Example of ElementNode object corresponding to element “figure”, 2307… Example of Attribute object, 2308… Example of EntityNode object, 2309… NonSgmlData object , 2401 ... Specification of the TargetOIID property of Transfer Element object, 2501 ... Example of DocVersion object, 2502 ... Example of Rendition object that manages HTML format data, 2503 ... Example of Rendition object that manages data of SGML format, 2504 … Example of a Rendition object that manages JPEG data, 2505 Transfer Element for access to the SGML declaration
Example of object, 2506 ... Tran for accessing the top node of the logical structure
Example of sfer Element object, 2507… Example of Transfer Element object to access DTD, 2508… Example of SGML declaration object, 2509… Example of DTD object, 2510… Example of visualization information object, 2511… Example of ElementNode object, 2512… Transfer Element object and it points to
Indicates ElementNode. 2513 ... 2512 in detail, 2514 ... 2506 Transfer Element in detail, 2515 ... 2511 ElementNode in detail, 2601 ... Transfer Element access step, 2602 ... Calling the GetReference method of the Transfer Element, 2603: Obtaining the object ID of the highest node of the logical structure from the Transfer Element, 2604: Calling the ConnectObject method of the document space object, 2605: The corresponding ElementNod from the document space object
e, 2701… Get DocVersion, 2702… Get Renditions Present property of DocVersion, 2703… Renditions Pres, a string representing the desired Rendition
Step to get the position in ent, 2704… Step to get the applicable Rendition by calling the GetRendition method of DocVersion, 2705… Step to get the Transfer Elements Present property of Rendition, 2706… String of the desired Transfer Element , Transfer
Step to get the position in Elements Present, 2707… Step to get the corresponding Transfer Element by calling the GetTransferElement method of Rendition, 2708… Step to call the GetReference method of Transfer Element, each Transfer Element
Obtaining the ObjectID, 2709 ... obtaining the object pointed to by the Trasnfer Elemnent by calling the ConnectObject method of DocSpace, 2710 ... determining the type of the obtained object, 2711 ... obtaining the Content property of each object, Step to get the contents, 2712 ... Step to select the information you want to get, 2713 ... Value of the Contents property of ElementNode (SgmlNode
2714... Obtaining the desired SgmlNode from the list of SgmlNodes, 2715... Determining the type of SgmlNode, 2716... Obtaining the TextData property from the DataNode, and obtaining the contents character string. … Elements Attributes property value (Attribute
2718… Step to get the desired Attribute from the Attribute list, 2719… Step to get the desired property from the obtained Attribute, 2720… Step to determine the type of attribute value, 2721… EntityNode N that is the value of the NonSgmlData property
Step to get onSgmlData object, 2722… Step to get BinaryData property of NonSgmlData object and get binary data, 2801… Specification of Content property of PI class, 2901… Specification of DTD property of DocNode class, 2902… SGML declaration of DocNode class Property specifications, 2903… Contents property of DocNode class, 3001… Example of DocVersion object, 3002… Example of Rendition object that manages HTML format data, 3003… Example of Rendition object that manages data of SGML format, 3004 … Example of a Rendition object that manages JPEG format data. 3005… Tran to access the top node of the logical structure
sfer Element object example, 3006… DocNode object example, 3007… Transfer Element object and it points to
DocNode. 3008… 3007 in detail, 3009… 3005 Transfer Element in detail, 3010… 3005 DocNode OIID property in detail, 3011… Example of DTD object, 3012 … Example of visualization information object, 3013… example of SGML declaration object, 3014… example of PI object, 3015… example of ElementNode object.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tetsu Wakayama 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Software Development Division, Hitachi, Ltd. No. Public Information Division, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A DMA (Document M) for managing a plurality of components of a document by an object of a Transfer Element class.
Anagement Alliance), a concept that appears in structured documents that have a logical structure
A means for expressing a logical tree structure of the entire document by expressing it as a subclass of the A base class and associating instances of the class, and a node in which an object of the Transfer Element class expresses the logical tree structure of the entire document Means for referring to an object which is a root of a tree structure in an object group. 2. A DMA (Document M) for managing a plurality of components of a document by an object of a Transfer Element class.
use a document model that is a class configuration of the document model specified by the Anagement Alliance, and has a class of node objects that express the concept that appears in a structured document that has a logical structure as a subclass of the DMA base class. A document management method characterized by the following. 3. A class of a node object expressing a concept appearing in a structured document, an object class for expressing at least an element which is a unit of a logical structure, and a class of an object for expressing data. 3. The document management method according to claim 2, wherein a document model having the following is used. 4. A class of a node object expressing a concept appearing in a structured document, a class of an object for expressing an element serving as a unit of a logical structure, and a class attached to the element serving as a unit of a logical structure. An object class for expressing attributes to be represented, an object class for expressing references to external data, an object class for expressing text data, and an object class for expressing non-text data. 3. The document management method according to claim 2, wherein a document model having the following is used.