System for treating saved queries as searchable documents in a document management system

• US 6,775,665 B1
• Filed: 11/12/1999
• Issued: 08/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Piersol, Kurt W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Debbie M.
• Application Number:
  US09/439,151
• Time in Patent Office: 1,733 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/1-5, 707/9, 705/500
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A file management appliance (“FMA”) is a device that utilizes multiple processes and queues to provide document capture and indexing services as part of a document management system. Through the document capture and indexing services of an FMA-based system, documents are archived into one or more data storage devices, thereby forming a document database. One mechanism by which users may search for and access such archived data from one or more document databases is by formulating and submitting one or more queries to the FMA system. Queries formulated within an FMA system are treated as documents within the FMA system and accordingly may be archived within the document database for later retrieval and execution.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a database query to retrieve from database objects that satisfy the database query, wherein the database stores one or more archived electronic documents;

forming a content-searchable query document from the database query;

receiving comment data describing the database query; and

incorporating the comment data into the content-searchable query document, wherein at least a portion of the comment data is used as searchable text for the later retrieval;

storing the content-searchable query document as an object within the database for later retrieval,

wherein the object corresponding to the content-searchable query document is suitable to be managed by the database, as a part of the one or more archived electronic documents in accordance with a management scheme of the database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the content-searchable query document from the database in response to a second document database query, the second document database query being in a form compatible with the database;

incorporating additional information into the content-searchable query document; and

optionally storing the content-search query document having the additional information in the database in accordance with the management scheme of the database.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

executing the content-searchable query document to retrieve additional document database objects,

wherein the additional document database objects are retrieved based in part on at least a portion of the additional information incorporated within the content-searchable query document.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the database query, the second database query, and the content-searchable query document are HTML-formed queries.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a database query includes receiving as input a newly formed document database query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a database query includes retrieving a pre-formed query from another content-searchable document stored in the database.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the content-searchable query document comprises generating a graphical representation of the database query and the comment data describing the database query.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the graphical representation comprises at least one of a plurality of web-based markup languages including HTML, XHTML, XML, and SGML.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the content-searchable query document as an object within the database for later retrieval includes:

assigning to the content-searchable query document, access control attributes indicating which of a plurality of users may access the content-searchable query document within the database,

wherein the access control attributes are compatible with one or more security policies of the database, which are applied to the one or more archived electronic documents.

10. A machine readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

identify a first document database query to retrieve document database objects from a database, the database storing one or more archived electronic documents;

form a content-searchable query document from the first document database query;

receive comment data describing the first document database query;

incorporate the comment data with the content-searchable query document, wherein at least a portion of the comment data is used as searchable text for the later retrieval; and

store the content-searchable query document as an object within the database for later retrieval,

wherein the object corresponding to the content-searchable query document is suitable to be managed by the database, as a part of the one or more archived electronic documents in accordance with a management scheme of the database.

11. The machine readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

retrieve the content-searchable query document from the document database in response to a second document database query in a form compatible with the database,

incorporate additional information into the content-searchable query document, and

optionally store the content-searchable query document having the additional information in the database in accordance with the management scheme of the database.

12. The machine readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

execute the content-searchable query document to retrieve additional document database objects,

wherein the additional document database objects are retrieved based in part on at least a portion of the additional information incorporated within the content-searchable query document.

13. The machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first document database query, the second document database query, and the content-searchable query document is an HTML-formed query.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions to identify a first document database query further comprise instructions to receive as input a newly formed document database query.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 10 wherein the instructions to identify a first document database query further comprise instructions to retrieve a pre-formed query from another content-searchable document stored in the database.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions to form the content-searchable query document further comprise instructions to generate a graphical representation of the first document database query and the comment data describing the first document database query.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the graphical representation comprises at least one of a plurality of web-based markup languages including HTML, XHTML, XML, and SGML.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions to store the content-searchable query document as an object within the document database for later retrieval further comprise instructions to assign to the content-searchable query document, access control attributes indicating which of a plurality of users may access the content-searchable query document within the database, wherein the access control attributes are compatible with one or more security policies of the database, which are applied to the one or more archived electronic documents.

19. An apparatus comprising:

means for identifying a first document database query to retrieve database objects from a database, the database storing one or more archived electronic documents;

means for forming a content-searchable query document from the first document database query;

means for receiving comment data describing the first document database query;

means for incorporating the comment data into the content-searchable query document, at least a portion of the comment data being used as searchable text for the later retrieval; and

means for storing the content-searchable query document as an object within the database for later retrieval,

wherein the object corresponding to the content-searchable query document is suitable to be managed by the database, as a part of the one or more archived electronic documents in accordance with a management scheme of the database.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 further comprising:

means for retrieving the content-searchable query document from the database in response to a second document database query compatible with the database;

means for incorporating additional information into the content-searchable query document; and

means for optionally storing the content-searchable query document having the additional information in the database in accordance with the management scheme of the database.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

means for executing the content-searchable query document to retrieve additional document database objects,

wherein the additional document database objects are retrieved based in part on at least a portion of the additional information incorporated within the content-searchable query document.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein at least one of the database query, the second database query, and the content-searchable query document are HTML-formed queries.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein means for identifying a database query includes means for receiving as input a newly formed document database query.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein means for identifying a database query includes means for retrieving a pre-formed query from another content-searchable document stored in the database.

25. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein means for forming the content-searchable query document comprises means for generating a graphical representation of the database query and the comment data describing the database query.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the graphical representation comprises at least one of a plurality of web-based markup languages including HTML, XHTML, XML, and SGML.

27. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein means for storing the content-searchable query document as an object within the database for later retrieval includes:

means for assigning to the content-searchable query document, access control attributes indicating which of a plurality of users may access the content-searchable query document within the database,

wherein the access control attributes are compatible with one or more security policies of the database, which are applied to the one or more archived electronic documents.