FILE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20110106846A1
• Filed: 06/25/2009
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Solutions Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Solutions Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nakashige, Ryo, Matsumoto, Toshiko, Nozaki, Yasuyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,661,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems

Abstract

Provided is a file (document) management process for efficiently understanding a summary of files in a folder without checking the contents of the individual subfolders or files. A summary of a plurality of files included in a folder is generated dynamically (each time the folder is accessed by placing a cursor on the folder, for example) and is displayed. For example, a summary of a feature of files included in a folder, which is recognized as being different from the feature of a plurality of files included in a sibling folder through comparison, determined on the basis of a feature or tendency of a file attribute, is described, and a location distribution of query-hit documents in the tiered folder is displayed.

Claims

1. A file management system for managing files that are stored in a tiered folder, comprising:

a folder content data storage unit adapted to have stored therein content data of each folder in the tiered folder;

a folder summary calculation processing unit configured to reference the folder content data storage unit and generate a character string indicating a summary of a plurality of files included in a folder that is selected by a user; and

a display processing unit configured to display the generated character string on a display device.

2. A file management system according to claim 1, wherein

the folder summary calculation processing unit, when a file attribute is specified, acquires a histogram of the specified attribute for the plurality of files instead of generating the character string, and

the display processing unit displays the acquired histogram on the display device.

3. A file management system according to claim 1, wherein the folder summary calculation processing unit generates the summary of the plurality of files included in the selected folder on the basis of a feature or a tendency of at least one attribute selected from a file size, file extension, file type, file creation date, file last update date, file last browsed date, file submission date, file creator, file creator'"'"'s group, source of the file, destination of the file, folder depth, or the number of subfolders.

4. A file management system according to claim 3, wherein the feature or the tendency includes at least one of a character string that frequently appears in file names, a character string that frequently appears in subfolder names, a character string that frequently appears in titles, sequential-number character strings that appear in file names, sequential-number character strings that appear in subfolder names, sequential-number character strings that appear in titles, a concentration of files in a subfolder, similarity of subfolders, and a distribution of files across nodes of a plurality of dimensions.

5. A file management system according to claim 1, wherein the folder summary calculation processing unit, when the selected folder has a distribution of files across nodes of a plurality of dimensions (tiers), generates a summary character string indicating the presence of a file on each node while also describing the name of each node in the summary.

6. A file management system according to claim 1, wherein the folder summary calculation processing unit, when a plurality of subfolders in the selected folder includes similar files, generates a summary character string indicating the presence of a plurality of subfolders that includes similar files while also describing the names of the subfolders in the summary.

7. A file management system according to claim 1, wherein the folder summary calculation processing unit, when the selected folder does not contain any subfolders that include similar files and when there is a concentration of files in a subfolder, generates a summary character string indicating the presence of a subfolder with a concentration of files and the name of the subfolder with the concentration of the files.

8. A file management system for managing files that are stored in a tiered folder, comprising:

a file storage unit adapted to have stored therein a plurality of files;

a search index storage unit adapted to have stored therein a search index;

a query search processing unit configured to execute a query search with reference to the search index stored in the search index storage unit, and obtain search results;

a location distribution processing unit configured to acquire, for each folder in which the plurality of files is stored, information about the number of files that match the search results; and

a display processing unit configured to display on a display device the number of the matching files for each folder.

9. A file management system according to claim 8, wherein the display processing unit displays the number of the matching files in text.

10. A file management system according to claim 8, wherein

the location distribution processing unit creates a histogram on the basis of the information about the number of the files that match the search results, and

the display processing unit displays the histogram for each folder.

11. A file management system according to claim 8, wherein the display processing unit omits display of folders that include no files that match the search results.

12. A document file management system for managing files that are stored in a tiered folder, comprising:

a file storage unit adapted to have stored therein a plurality of files;

a search index storage unit adapted to have stored therein a search index;

a folder content data storage unit adapted to have stored therein content data of each folder in the tiered folder;

a folder summary calculation processing unit configured to, when a summary display is specified as a display mode, reference the folder content data storage unit, and generate a character string indicating a summary of a plurality of files included in a folder that is selected by a user;

a query search processing unit configured to, when a location distribution display of query search results is specified as a display mode, execute a query search with reference to the search index stored in the search index storage unit, and obtain search results;

a location distribution processing unit configured to acquire, for each folder in which the plurality of files is stored, information about the number of files that match the search results; and

a display processing unit configured to display, in response to the specified display mode, the generated character string on a display device or display the number of the matching files for each folder on the display device.