JP2005242924A - Document management computer program, and document management device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically perform setting and registration of a desired access right in a desired storage place in registration of a mail to a document management device. <P>SOLUTION: A user's account and password of a mail server 10 are registered to the document management device 11. A folder for storing a mail, the access right to the stored mail, and the frequency of fetching the mail are registered in conformation to the account. The document management device 11 logs in the mail server 10 with the registered account to fetch the mail, and stores it in the set folder. The access right is set also at the time of storage. According to such a structure, the mail is automatically fetched and stored in the document management device 11, whereby the mail can be shared among users or in a group. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a document management technique for registering and managing an e-mail message in a document management apparatus, and in particular, a mail management server automatically retrieves and stores mail from a mail server so that mail can be sent between users or groups. Is to be shared.

  In a conventional document management apparatus, in order to share an e-mail (hereinafter also simply referred to as an e-mail) between users or groups, the user individually registers the e-mail in the document management apparatus and sets the access right to the e-mail. There was a need to do. It is desired to improve the efficiency of group collaborative work by automatically registering mail in the document management apparatus without user intervention.

  Patent documents related to the present invention include the following.

  Patent Document 1 describes a method for registering electronic mail information in a storage unit and setting an access right. In the present invention, user information (for example, a sender and a receiver) related to transmission / reception is extracted from an electronic mail, and an access right is set based on the user information so that only the sender and the receiver can access. However, this proposal only sets the access right based on user information related to transmission / reception, and does not set an arbitrary access right. Therefore, it is not possible to set an access right that is not based on user information related to transmission / reception. In general, user information related to transmission / reception of e-mail and user information registered in the document management apparatus are often different. Therefore, in order to set an access right with user information registered in the document management apparatus, electronic information It is necessary to set access rights that are not based on user information related to mail transmission / reception.

  In this proposal, no consideration is given to where the electronic mail is stored in the storage means. As a result, e-mails could not be stored in multiple locations.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-260260 proposes to take out an e-mail from a communication device, convert the format, and store it in a storage device that can be identified by an identifier such as a URL. However, in this proposal, no consideration is given to setting the access right of the stored e-mail. For this reason, it has been impossible to freely set the range for storing stored e-mails.
JP 2002-7287 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-232192

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a mail document management technique that can automatically register mail in a document registration apparatus and can arbitrarily set access rights and storage locations. It is intended to provide.

  In the configuration example of the present invention, a user account (also referred to as user ID or user name) and password of the mail server are registered in the document management apparatus. Corresponding to the account, register the folder for storing the mail, the access right of the stored mail, and the frequency of retrieving the mail. The document management apparatus logs in with an account registered in the mail server, retrieves the mail, and stores it in the set folder. Also, access rights are set when storing. With this configuration, the mail can be shared between users or groups by automatically taking out the mail and storing it in the document management apparatus. Since the stored mail is given access rights, it can be set so that an unwanted user cannot read the mail.

  The present invention will be further described.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in a document management computer program: a mail registration information storage means for a mail to be registered, a user ID and password in a mail server, and a document management apparatus main body Storing an access right; reading a user ID and password in the mail server stored in the mail registration information storage means by the mail acquisition means and acquiring a target mail from the mail server; Reading the access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the mail registration information storage means and registering the mail acquired by the mail acquisition means in the document storage means with the access right to the computer. I am trying to execute it.

  In this configuration, the mail can be managed by the document management apparatus, and the access right can be automatically set in an arbitrary manner. The user ID (user name) of the mail server is also called a mail account (simply an account).

In this configuration, the mail registration information storage unit may store a storage location for the mail to be registered, and the mail registration unit may register the mail in the storage location.
Further, pattern analysis means for analyzing a pattern included in the mail may be further provided, and an access right may be set for each pattern or a storage location may be set.

  Further, information extracted from the mail, for example, the location of the “From:” line or the location of the “To:” line may be used as the document property. The document property may be registered as a search index.

  Further, when a document is registered in a predetermined storage location, a user registered in advance may be notified by e-mail. In this case, information obtained by analyzing the mail may be included in the mail.

  The present invention is not limited to the case where the mail of the mail server is registered and managed in the document management apparatus, and can be widely applied to the case where the message managed by the message management server is registered and managed in the document management apparatus. For example, it can be applied to a news server or a mail list server.

  Further, the document management apparatus of the present invention may be configured as a document management server, or may be configured by combining the document management server and other functional parts. In the latter case, access management to the document management server may be required separately.

  The present invention can be implemented as an apparatus, a system, or a method in addition to being implemented as a computer program.

  These and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

  According to the present invention, mail can be automatically registered in the document registration apparatus, and the access right can be arbitrarily set. In a specific example, the storage location can be arbitrarily set.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  First, Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described. The document management apparatus according to the first embodiment constitutes the basis of another embodiment.

  FIG. 1 shows an environment in which the document management apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention is used, and FIG. 2 mainly shows the document management apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 shows an operation example at the time of mail registration of the document management apparatus of the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, a mail server 10, a document management apparatus 11, and a client (client terminal) 12 are connected to a network 13. The mail server 10 manages mail delivery / reception and mail retrieval based on, for example, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP. In the mail server 10, the user ID (account) and password are registered and managed. Mail for users (received mail) is stored in a mailbox in a shared spool directory or a spool directory in the user's home directory. The user can input the user ID and password and retrieve the received mail according to POP3. The client 12 can receive services of the mail server 10 and the document management apparatus 11 via the network 13. In this embodiment, the received mail addressed to the user is registered and managed in the document management apparatus 11, so that the client 12 does not need to directly retrieve the mail from the mail server 10. However, when the client 12 also allows the mail to be directly taken out from the mail server 10, it is preferable to leave the mail in the mailbox after the mail is taken out.

  2, the document management device 11 includes a mail access unit 110, a mail registration unit 111, a document file system 112, an access request processing unit 113, a document management device user information database 114, a job database 115, a setting input unit 116, and the like. It consists of

  The document management apparatus 11 stores and manages a plurality of documents. The document management apparatus 11 also manages users and groups that access documents. Further, the document management apparatus 11 sets access rights (ACL1, ACL2, ACL3 in the figure below) for each document in order to manage whether a user or a group member can access a document. That is, the document management apparatus 11 (access request processing unit 113) refers to the document management apparatus user information database 114 and the access control list (hereinafter also referred to as ACL) of the document file system 112 as shown in FIG. It manages the reading, changing, etc. of documents (mail) registered in the file system 112. In the example of FIG. 3, document 1, document 2, and document 3 are registered in ACL1, ACL2, and ACL3, respectively. User 1 and user 2 belong to user group 1, and user 2 and user 3 belong to user group 2.

  In this example, mail registration is managed in units of jobs (see FIG. 4). The administrator of the document management apparatus 11 first registers the user (user A) and password of the mail server 10 in the document management apparatus 11 as shown in FIG. For example, registration is performed using the setting input unit 116, but the present invention is not limited to this. At this time, the registration destination folder (folder A) and access right (ACL-A) for registering the mail are also registered. Also, the frequency of retrieving mail from the mail server 10 (in this example, the time interval is not limited thereto) is also registered. This set of user, password, folder, access right, and frequency is called a job. Multiple job registrations can be performed. The job is registered in the job database 115.

  The document management apparatus 11 checks the frequency of each job at regular time intervals. If the difference between the previously retrieved time and the current time is less than the frequency, the job is executed (email is retrieved). The previous extraction time may be managed by the job or may be acquired from the log information. When the frequency is checked, even if the job has never been executed, the job is executed.

  When the job is executed, as shown in FIG. 5, the document management apparatus 11 logs in to the mail server 10 with the user and password, and takes out the mail (x01). The retrieved mails are stored one by one in a designated folder in the document file system 112 (x02). At this time, the access right is also set. If no access right is set, the folder access right is the same.

  The stored mail is browsed as follows.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the user 1 logs in to the document management apparatus 11 (x03) and displays the folder in which the mail is stored. A list of emails is displayed and you can read each email. If the user does not have access to the email, the email is not displayed in the folder.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, when a job is registered, a pattern included in a mail subject is associated with a folder to be stored and an access right. The document management apparatus 11 includes a mail analysis unit 117 (FIG. 8). Since the basic configuration of the document management apparatus 11 is the same as that shown in FIG. 2, the description thereof will not be repeated.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of associating a pattern with a folder and an access right in the second embodiment. In the job A in this example, when “[ML-A” is included in the subject of the mail, the mail is a folder. 1 is defined to be stored with the access right ACL1. Further, when “[ML-B” is included in the subject of the mail, the mail is defined to be stored in the folder 2 with the access right ACL2.

  When executing the job, the document management apparatus 11 analyzes each mail taken out by the mail analysis unit 117 and takes out a subject part as shown in FIG. Then, the character string included in the subject is examined to determine the folder for storing the mail.

  In the example of FIG. 8, the mails 1 to 4 are taken out, and for mail 1 and mail 3, since “[ML-A” is included in the mail subject, it is stored in the folder 1 and set to the access right ACL1. ing. For mail 2 and mail 4, since “[ML-B” is included in the subject of the mail, it is stored in the folder 2 and set to the access right ACL 2.

  In this example, different access rights can be set for subjects containing “[ML-A” and those containing “[ML-B” ”, so the range to be disclosed is determined according to the contents of the email. can do.

  In this embodiment, the registration location and the access right are changed according to the pattern included in the email subject. However, the registration location and the access right are changed according to the content of the email other than the subject. Also good. The registration destination and the access right may be similarly determined by analyzing the pattern included in the envelope instead of the content part of the mail.

  Next, Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, when mail is stored, the mail subject, date, and the like are stored as mail (document) properties. The document management apparatus 11 creates an index for searching for document (mail) properties. The basic configuration of the third embodiment is also the same as that shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 9, when executing a job, the document management apparatus 11 analyzes each taken out mail by the mail analyzing unit 117 and takes out a header portion of the mail such as a subject. The analyzed result is stored as a mail (document) property. Which header is registered in which property is registered in the document management apparatus 11 in advance.

  Since the header information of the mail is stored as the mail property in the document management apparatus, the user can search by referring to the index 118 by specifying the header information of the mail.

  Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, there is provided a function (notification unit 119 in FIG. 10) for sending mail to a preset user when a document is added to a specific folder. Of course, when a document is registered in any folder, it may be notified by e-mail. The basic configuration of the fourth embodiment is similar to that of FIG.

  As illustrated in FIG. 10, the notification unit 119 registers a notification destination for each folder, and can forward an email sent to a certain user to one or more users registered in the document management apparatus 11. It becomes possible. At this time, by sending only the notification mail, even when the original mail has a large capacity, the transfer cost can be reduced. The user who receives the notification mail accesses the document management apparatus 11 and reads the mail.

  Further, the contents of the notification mail can include data obtained by analyzing the original mail by the mail analysis unit 117. For example, by including the contents of the subject extracted from the original mail in the subject of the notification mail, the notification mail can be easily understood by the user. Further, the notification mail may include all parts other than the attached document of the original mail.

  Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the fifth embodiment, when an attached document is attached to the mail, the attached document is taken out and stored. Since the basic configuration of the fifth embodiment is the same as that of FIG. 2, the description will not be repeated.

  As shown in FIG. 11, the document management apparatus 11 according to the fifth embodiment has a function of extracting an attached document from an email (attached document extracting / registering unit 120) in addition to the first embodiment. The document management apparatus 11 checks whether an attached document is included in the mail when the mail is taken out from the mail server 10. When an attached document is included, the attached document is taken out, registered in the mail registration destination, and the access right is set. For example, create a folder with the same name as the email title and store the attached document in this folder, store both the email and attached document in the folder with the same name as the email, or simply store in the same storage location as the email Store attachments. In addition to the mail registration destination, the attachment destination registration destination may be specified and set in the job.

  By registering an attached document as a document in the document management apparatus 11, it becomes possible to manage the attached document and to perform a search.

  When the attached document is registered separately from the original mail, the original mail may be registered with the data excluding the attached document registered as the original mail. Alternatively, instead of the attached document, a link to the registered attached document may be embedded in the original mail and registered. Further, links may be managed as shown in FIG. In the attached document link information of FIG. 12, for example, attached documents of mail 1 and mail 2 can be handled as shown in FIG. When browsing the mail, the attached document is displayed based on the link information, and the attached document can be browsed as the destination document using the link information.

  Similarly, it is possible to associate a mail and its reference with a link and take out a related mail in a reply mail or the like. For example, when the mail has a reference header, the document ID (for example, URL) of the document corresponding to the message ID is registered as the destination. FIG. 14 shows an example of a reference link that associates a mail with a reference. The reference link information in FIG. 14 can handle the reference documents of mail 1 and mail 2 as shown in FIG. The reference document is displayed in the mail based on the reference link information, and the reference document of the reply or transfer can be viewed as the destination document using the link information. This is also applicable when managing news server article references.

  The present invention is not limited to the specific configuration of the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in the above description, a job is set for each user, but may be set for each user group (for example, a group in a document management apparatus). In this case, the job information includes access right, frequency, and the like, and separately manages user group information of the document management apparatus, mail server user information (user ID and password), and the like. When the user of the mail server and the user of the document management apparatus are managed separately, the corresponding relationship is also managed.

  If the access right of the mail registration destination is not set, the access right of the upper folder (upper layer registration destination) may be set by default. In this case, the user may be allowed to specify a user whose access authority is to be deleted using a scheduled user interface. When the access right of the mail registration destination is not set, the design may be specified directly by the user.

  Further, the document management apparatus shown in FIG. 2 may be composed of a document management server 11a and a document registration apparatus 11b as shown in FIG. In this case, the document registration device 11b is a user (including a guest user) of the document management server 11a, and stores a password if necessary. In FIG. 16, portions corresponding to those in FIG.

It is a figure explaining the environment where the document management apparatus of Example 1 of this invention is utilized. FIG. 2 is a block diagram mainly illustrating a configuration example of a document management apparatus according to the first embodiment. It is a figure explaining the document storage aspect of the document management apparatus of the said Example 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining the job registration of the said Example 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining job execution of the above-mentioned Example 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining the document browsing of the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the job registration of Example 2 of this invention. It is a figure explaining job execution of the above-mentioned Example 2. It is a figure explaining the job execution of Example 3 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the job execution of Example 4 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the job execution of Example 5 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the example of the attached document link which manages the attached document of the said Example 5. FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the mail managed by the attached document link of FIG. 12, and an attached document. It is a figure explaining the example of the reference link which manages the reference of mail. It is a figure explaining the example of the mail managed by the reference link of FIG. 14, and a reference. It is a figure explaining the example which comprises a document management apparatus from a document management server and a document registration apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

10 mail server 11 document management device 11a document management server 11b document registration device 12 client 13 network 110 mail access unit 111 mail registration unit 112 document file system 113 access request processing unit 114 document management device user information database 115 job database 116 setting input unit 117 Mail Analysis Unit 118 Index 119 Notification Unit 120 Attached Document Extraction / Registration Unit

Claims (18)

A step in which a mail registration information storage means stores a user ID and password in a mail server and an access right in a document management apparatus body for a mail to be registered;
A step in which a mail acquisition unit reads a user ID and a password in the mail server stored in the mail registration information storage unit and acquires a target mail from the mail server;
A step of reading an access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the mail registration information storage unit by the mail registration unit and registering the mail acquired by the mail acquisition unit in the document storage unit with the access right; A computer program for document management, which is used for causing a computer to execute.   2. The computer program for document management according to claim 1, wherein the mail registration information storage means stores a storage location in the document storage means for a mail to be registered, and the mail registration means registers the mail in the storage location.   The document management apparatus main body manages the access right to the storage place for each storage place, and the mail registration means has the same access right as the access right of the storage place when the access right is not registered in the mail registration information storage means. The computer program for document management according to claim 2, wherein: is added to the stored mail.   4. The computer program for document management according to claim 1, further comprising pattern analysis means for analyzing a pattern included in the mail, and setting an access right for each pattern.   3. The computer program for document management according to claim 2, further comprising pattern analysis means for analyzing a pattern included in the mail, wherein a storage location is set for each pattern.   The computer program for document management according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein information extracted from mail is registered as a document property.   7. The computer program for document management according to claim 6, wherein the property of the document is registered as a search index.   The computer program for document management according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein when a document is registered in a predetermined storage location, a notification mail is sent to a user registered in advance.   9. The computer program for document management according to claim 8, wherein information obtained by analyzing the mail acquired by the mail acquisition means is included in the notification mail. An attached document obtaining unit obtaining an attached document of a target mail from the mail server;
The attached document registration unit reads the access right in the document management apparatus main body stored in the mail registration information storage unit, and registers the attached document acquired by the attached document acquisition unit in the document storage unit with the access right. The computer program for document management according to any one of claims 1 to 9, which is used for causing the computer to further execute steps. Document storage means for storing a document;
Mail registration information storage means for storing a user ID and password in the mail server and an access right in the document management apparatus main body for the mail to be registered;
Mail acquisition means for reading out a user ID and password in the mail server stored in the mail registration information storage means and acquiring a target mail from the mail server;
A mail registration unit that reads the access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the mail registration information storage unit and registers the mail acquired by the mail acquisition unit in the document storage unit with the access right; A document management apparatus characterized by that. A step in which the mail registration information storage means stores a user ID and password in the mail server and an access right in the document management apparatus main body for the mail to be registered;
A step in which a mail acquisition unit reads a user ID and a password in the mail server stored in the mail registration information storage unit and acquires a target mail from the mail server;
A step of reading an access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the mail registration information storage unit by the mail registration unit and registering the mail acquired by the mail acquisition unit in the document storage unit with the access right; A document management method comprising: A message registration information storage unit storing a user ID and password in a message management server and an access right in a document management apparatus main body for a message to be registered;
A message acquisition means for reading a user ID and password in the message management server stored in the message registration information storage means and acquiring a target message from the message management server;
The message registration means reading out the access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the message registration information storage means, and registering the message acquired by the message acquisition means in the document storage means with the access right; A computer program for document management, which is used for causing a computer to execute. Document storage means for storing a document;
Message registration information storage means for storing the user ID and password in the message management server and the access right in the document management apparatus main body for the message to be registered;
Message acquisition means for reading out a user ID and password in the message management server stored in the message registration information storage means and acquiring a target message from the message management server;
A message registration unit that reads an access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the message registration information storage unit, and registers the message acquired by the message acquisition unit in the document storage unit with the access right; A document management apparatus characterized by that. A message registration information storage unit storing a user ID and password in a message management server and an access right in a document management apparatus main body for a message to be registered;
A message acquisition means for reading a user ID and password in the message management server stored in the message registration information storage means and acquiring a target message from the message management server;
The message registration means reading out the access right in the main body of the document management apparatus stored in the message registration information storage means, and registering the message acquired by the message acquisition means in the document storage means with the access right; A document management method comprising: In a document registration computer program for registering messages managed by the message management server in the document management server,
A message registration information storage means for storing a user ID and password in the message management server and a user ID, password and access right in the document management server for a message to be registered;
A message acquisition unit that reads out a user ID and password in the message management server stored in the message registration information storage unit and acquires a target message from the message management server;
The message registration unit reads the user ID, password, and access right in the document management server stored in the message registration information storage unit, and sends the message acquired by the message acquisition unit to the document management server with the access right. A computer program for registering a document, which is used for causing a computer to execute the step of registering. In a document registration device used together with a message management server and a document management server,
Message registration information storage means for storing a user ID and password in the message management server and a user ID, password and access right in the document management server for a message to be registered;
Message acquisition means for reading out a user ID and password in the message management server stored in the message registration information storage means and acquiring a target message from the message management server;
Message registration means for reading the user ID, password and access right in the document management server stored in the message registration information storage means and registering the message acquired by the message acquisition means in the document management server with the access right And a document registration device. In the document registration method for registering messages managed by the message management server in the document management server,
A message registration information storage means for storing a user UD and password in the message management server and a user ID, password and access right in the document management server for a message to be registered;
A message acquisition unit that reads out a user ID and password in the message management server stored in the message registration information storage unit and acquires a target message from the message management server;
The message registration unit reads the user ID, password, and access right in the document management server stored in the message registration information storage unit, and sends the message acquired by the message acquisition unit to the document management server with the access right. A document registration method comprising: a step of registering.

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