Document information management system

• US 6,381,593 B1
• Filed: 05/06/1999
• Issued: 04/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Yano, Takashi, Tabata, Yasuhiro, Ishijima, Hisashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Application Number:
  US09/305,473
• Publication Number:
  US 20020049699A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-10, 707/100-104, 707/207, 707/202, 707/203, 707/204, 707/205, 707/501, 707/513, 707/531, 707/352, 345/356, 345/764, 345/349, 345/357, 345/760, 345/854, 345/856, 370/352, 705/80, 709/239, 709/202, 709/318, 709/218, 709/205, 709/219, 709/227, 709/328, 709/217, 704/270.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/332 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

A document information management system in which a search-engine-compatible interface unit makes a word in a document displayed on the screen to be specified, transfers the specified word to a search engine as a keyword to be used in the search engine, receives a search result from the search engine, and displays the search result on the screen, while a browser-compatible interface unit performs a search (a keyword search and/or global search) by using the keyword transferred from a browser and transfers a search result to the browser.

Claims

1. A document information management system comprising:

at least one database or filing unit for storing therein a plurality of document files comprising at least one of a hypertext document written with a hypertext-description language and a non-hypertext document prepared with a word processing application;

a browser having a browsing function for displaying and operating the at least one of the hypertext document and the non-hypertext document on a screen; and

a search engine having a search-engine function configured for searching for a corresponding document through the database or the filing unit according to a,

said browser having a search-engine-compatible interface unit for extracting a specified word in the document displayed on the screen as the keyword, transferring the keyword to said search engine, receiving a search result from said search engine, and displaying the search result on the screen, and

said search engine having a browser-compatible interface unit for performing a search using the keyword transferred from said browser and transferring the search result to said browser.

2. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein said browser-compatible interface unit prepares a list for a pop-up menu from the search result and transfers the list to said search-engine-compatible interface unit, and

said search-engine-compatible interface unit receives the list for the pop-up menu from said browser-compatible interface unit and displays the pop-up menu on the screen.

3. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein a document file of the document displayed on the screen and used for specifying the keyword by said browser has a word table prepared by previously cutting out words included in the document file.

4. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein the document displayed on the screen includes a dummy button obtained by previously cutting out a word included in the document and setting a link between the word and address information used to actuate said search engine.

5. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein said search-engine-compatible interface unit cuts out, from the document displayed on the screen, a character string identified by a cursor and identifies the cut-out character string as the keyword to be used in said search engine.

6. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein said search-engine-compatible interface unit evaluates, from the document displayed on the screen, an expanded character string obtained by adding characters or character strings before and after a character identified by a cursor based on a word cut-out technology, cuts out an optimal word from the expanded character string, and identifies the optimal word as the keyword to be used in said search engine.

7. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein a document file of the document displayed on the screen and used for specifying the keyword by said browser has a word table prepared by previously cutting out words included in the document file, and

said search-engine-compatible interface unit selects, from the document displayed on the screen, a plurality of expanded character strings each obtained by adding characters or character strings before and after a character identified by a cursor, compares the selected expanded character strings to the words in the word table in order to evaluate the selected expanded character strings, and identifies an optimal word from the selected expanded character strings as the keyword to be used in said search engine.

8. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein the document displayed on the screen includes a dummy button obtained by previously evaluating a word included in the document based on a word cut-out technology, cutting out the word, and setting a link between the word and a URL used to actuate said search engine, and

said search-engine-compatible interface unit identifies, when the dummy button is identified by a cursor, the word corresponding to the dummy button as the keyword to be used in said search engine and actuates said search engine according to the URL.

9. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein the search-engine-compatible interface unit displays a menu for specifying search criteria and output criteria for said search engine in a space adjacent to the keyword and performs a search and outputs the search result according to the keyword and menu items specified by the cursor.

10. A document information management system according to claim 1, wherein the database or the filing unit comprises a Web server connected to another Web server through the Internet or an intranet.

11. A document information management system comprising:

at least one database or filing unit for storing therein a plurality of document files comprising at least one of a hypertext document previously written with a hypertext-description language and a non-hypertext document written with a word processing application;

a browser having a browsing function for displaying and operating the at least one of the hypertext document and the non-hypertext document on a screen; and

a search engine having a search-engine function for searching for a corresponding document through the database or the filing unit according to a keyword,

said browser having a search-engine-compatible interface unit for extracting a specified word in the document displayed on the screen as the keyword, actuating said search engine and performing a search using the keyword, receiving a search result from said search engine, and displaying the search result on the screen.

12. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein a document file of the document displayed on the screen and used for specifying the keyword by said browser has a word table prepared by previously cutting out words included in the document file.

13. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein the document displayed on the screen includes a dummy button obtained by previously cutting out a word included in the document and setting a link between the word and address information used to actuate said search engine.

14. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein said search-engine-compatible interface unit cuts out, from the document displayed on the screen, a character string identified by a cursor and identifies the cut-out character string as the keyword to be used in said search engine.

15. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein said search-engine-compatible interface unit evaluates, from the document displayed on the screen, an expanded character string obtained by adding characters or character strings before and after a character identified by a cursor based on a word cut-out technology, cuts out an optimal word from the expanded character string, and identifies the optimal word as the keyword to be used in said search engine.

16. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein a document file of the document displayed on the screen and used for specifying the keyword by said browser has a word table prepared by previously cutting out words included in the document file, and

said search-engine-compatible interface unit selects, from the document displayed on the screen, a plurality of expanded character strings each obtained by adding characters or character strings before and after a character identified by a cursor, compares the selected expanded character strings to the words in the word table in order to evaluate the selected expanded character strings, and identifies an optimal word from the selected expanded character strings as the keyword to be used in said search engine.

17. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein the document displayed on the screen includes a dummy button obtained by previously evaluating a word included in the document based on a word cut-out technology, cutting out the word, and setting a link between the word and a URL used to actuate said search engine, and

said search-engine-compatible interface unit identifies, when the dummy button is identified by a cursor, the word corresponding to the dummy button as the keyword to be used in said search engine and actuates said search engine according to the URL.

18. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein the search-engine-compatible interface unit displays a menu for specifying search criteria and output criteria for said search engine in a space adjacent to the keyword and performs a search and outputs the search result according to the keyword and menu items specified by the cursor.

19. A document information management system according to claim 11, wherein the database or the filing unit comprises a Web server connected to another Web server through the Internet or an intranet.