A method of assigning retention and deletion criteria to electronic documents stored in an electronic information handling system.

This invention relates in general to methods for storing and deleting electronic documents in an electronic information handling system.

The prior art has disclosed various interactive information handling systems which store electronic documents. These systems vary in complexity and sophistication from the very simple personal computer employed in the home for writing letters to the very large main frame data processing systems in which thousands of users nodes interact with each other and with a centralized library or file of information. An example of a sophisticated system that is currently in use by several large governmental agencies and private corporations is the system referred to as PROFS that is marketed by the IBM Corporation. These types of system store and manage millions of documents ranging from one page memos and messages to multi-page reports that might involve several printed volumes. In many of these systems, the need for hard copy no longer exists, so the only copy of the information is the originally generated electronic copy.

The management and control of the paper flow in any large enterprise, be it a governmental agency or a private corporation, requires a set of procedures which define how various types of communications or documents are to be handled. This is a necessity in both manually implemented systems which deal in nothing but hard copy as well as electronically implemented systems that deal only with electronic copies.

It is generally recognized by both types of systems, that there are two basic document control strategies that must be enforced in order to have an effective and efficient system. The first is that documents that are no longer needed should be deleted from the system as soon as possible and the second is that a document that is required should be maintained as long as it is needed by the document owner or the enterprise.

It is obvious that in implementing these two basic concepts it is not always possible to obtain agreement on such items as to who makes the decision to keep or delete a document, whether this decision apply to all documents types or changes with the type of document, whether there can be exceptions and changes in the criteria, who determines the time period for document types, etc.

The prior art systems that involve a large number of users who create electronic documents that are stored in the system at a logically centralized location, do generally impose a number of structured formatting constraints on the manner by which documents are identified in the system. In most systems, some type of manual document classification system is established, either on a formal basis or a de facto basis. A bank might use a functional business classification for documents. For example a customer's loan folder might include a "loan application", a "credit history", a "payment history" etc. These various documents have different retention requirements and there is generally no provision made to permit any deviations from the established retention criteria. In prior art systems, a search is performed on a specific term contained in a plurality of documents and documents are deleted based thereon. The term may have a different meaning within each of the documents. Thus, this form of document management may result in the deletion of document which should be retained or the omission of documents which do not contain the term and should be deleted.

A batch type of approach to document retention where the date to delete the document is controlled by the enterprise creates a problem when the date has to be changed. If the date that the document is to be deleted is shortened, there may be persons who are relying on the fact that the document is to be available up to the previously established date. How does the system administrator evaluate whether these documents can be destroyed? If the documents are deleted there is likely to be some direct adverse consequence to those persons who were relying on the document for their work. A more serious long term consequence however results when documents are destroyed early, in that there is a loss of integrity of the system which soon results in users operating their own backup document storage system which defeats the many advantages of a centralized system.

It is therefore important in electronic document storage system to provide the user with as much flexibility as possible in as many areas as possible. Providing flexibility to the user however almost always adds to the complexity of the process and requires the user to obtain and retain an understanding of all the various options available and the nuances of their differences. It is extremely important to have the data that is used to manage the retention and deletion of the documents entered correctly into the system. The data entry process for the end user of the system must therefore be simple to use, yet permit a more sophisticated user to take advantage of the more advanced features. The data entry process must also be fail safe to insure that only valid descriptors are entered into the system.

The present invention is directed to an improved method for use in an interactive information handling system in which the the data entry process for the descriptors that are used in the retention and deletion of documents is simple, flexible, and fail safe, and therefore avoids many of the problems that occur with the prior art document storage systems.

According to the invention, there is provided a method of operating an electronic information handling system for storing data in the form of documents which are retained in, or deleted from, the system under the control of a plurality of end users employing interactive terminals, each comprising a keyboard and a display, coupled into the system, comprising the steps of generating, on a said display, a screen image to control the interactive entry of a set of document criteria used by the system to manage automatic entry, or deletion, of a document; entering at least one, but not all, of the criteria in the screen image through the associated keyboard; and entering the remaining criteria automatically based on logical analysis by the system on the entered criteria and pre-established information stored in the system.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li>Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an information handling system in which the method of the present invention may be advantageously employed;</li><li>Fig. 2 is a block diagram of one of the interactive terminals employed by a user in the system of Fig. 1;</li><li>Figs. 3a and 3b illustrate an overview of the document generation and storage process;</li><li>Figs. 4a and 4b illustrate screens for the main action menu, the sub-action menu for a document, and the select action for document menu, referred to in Fig. 3b;</li><li>Fig. 5 illustrates the screen that is presented the end user at the time a document is to be filed in the system;</li><li>Fig. 6 illustrates the screen that is presented to a designated end used when a list of allowable document labels is requested;</li><li>Fig. 7 illustrates the screen that is presented to a designated end user when a list of allowable ownership labels is requested;</li><li>Fig. 8 illustrates the ownership label section of a user's profile;</li><li>Fig. 9 illustrates the document label section of a user's profile;</li><li>Fig. 10 illustrates the ownership expiration date table for a user profile;</li><li>Fig. 11 illustrates the document expiration date table for a user profile;</li><li>Figs. 12a and 12b illustrate tables of expiration date calculation rules for a user profile;</li><li>Figs 13a through 13d illustrate tables of default rules for the document retention criteria rules;</li><li>Figs. 14a to 14d is a flow chart illustrating the various steps of the method of the present invention.</li></ul>

Fig. 1 illustrates an information handling system comprising a network of interactive type terminals or workstations of the type shown in detail in Fig. 2. As illustrated, the network includes a plurality of terminals which are interconnected with each other and to a host central processing unit 23. As shown in Fig. 1 host 23 in turn is connected via communication link 24 to a second host processing unit 25, which also connects to another network 26 of interactive workstations. Functionally, the system operates to allow each terminal to communicate with the host and to one or more other terminals using established communication protocols, so that the various serially connected communication links are transparent to the users. A user at one terminal can generate a document such as a letter and send that letter to the addressee at a designated node on the network. The user can then store the document in the system at some logically central system location. Each user of the system has the theoretical capability of retrieving that document at a later time. Such systems are well known in the art, and are currently in extensive commercial use. Since the general organization and operations of such systems is well known, only those details that are necessary for an understanding of the document storage method of the present invention will be described. It should therefore be assumed in the following description, that each workstation on the network has a system node address and a "post office" address, and that to simplify the description, there is only one individual assigned to each node on the network. It should further be assumed that conventional communication services are provided by the system, such as directory listings of individual users or owners etc. It may also be assumed that the system shown in Fig. 1 processes information as various types of data objects such as text data objects, graphic data objects, and calendar data objects etc..

Fig. 2 illustrates the functional components of one of the interactive type data processing terminals shown in Fig.. 1. The terminal comprises a processing unit 31 which includes a microprocessor block 32, a semiconductor memory 33, and a control block 34 which functions to control input/output operations in addition to the interaction between the micro processor block 32 and the memory unit 33.

The terminal further includes a group of conventional peripheral units including a display device 36, a keyboard 37, a printer 38, a disk storage unit 39, and a modem 40. Since the details of the above described functional blocks form no part of the present invention and can be found in the prior art, only a brief function-al description of each block is set forth, along with a description of their interactions, sufficient to provide a person of ordinary skill in the art with a basis of understanding applicants' improved electronic document storage method.

Processing unit 31 corresponds for example to the "system unit" of a personal computer system such as the IBM XT, IBM AT or an IBM PS/2 system. Unit 31 is provided with an operating system program which may be one of the many versions of DOS (Disk Operating System) which is normally employed to run the systems. The operating system program is stored in memory 33 along with one or more application programs that the user has selected to run. Depending on the capacity of memory 33 and the size of the application programs, portions of these programs, as needed, may be transferred to memory 33 from the disk storage unit 39 which may include, for example, a 30 megabyte hard disk drive and a diskette drive. The basic function of the disk storage unit is to store programs and data that are employed by the system and which may readily be transferred to the memory unit 33 when needed. The function of the diskette drive is to provide a removable storage function for entering programs and data into the system, and a vehicle for storing data in a form that is readily transportable for use on other terminals or systems.

Display device 36 and keyboard 37 together provide for the interactive nature of the terminal, in that in normal operation, the interpretation that the system gives to a specific keystroke by the operator depends, in substantially all situations, on what is being displayed to the operator at that point in time.

In some situations, the operator, by entering commands into the system, causes the system to perform a certain function. In other situations, the system requests the entry of certain data, generally by displaying a prompt type of menu/message screen. The depth of the interaction between the operator and the system varies by the type of operating system and the application program, but is a necessary characteristic of terminals on which the method of the present invention may be employed.

The terminal shown in Fig. 2 further includes a printer 38, which functions to provide hard copy output of data developed or stored in the system at some central location. Lastly, the modem 40 functions to transfer data from the terminal of Fig. 2 to a host system through one or more communication links which may be a commercial type link or a dedicated communication link.

Fig. 3a represents an overview of the system from the standpoint of the major interactive steps involved in storing a document that has been created by an End User (EU). Block 50 represents the EU. Blocks 51 and 52 represent programs stored at the terminal while block 53 represents local disk storage. Blocks 54 and 55 represent the library server function located at the host and is the central depository for stored system documents. The program represented by block 51 is referred to as the Dialogue Manager application and functions to provide the necessary menus and prompts to obtain information from the user. It is essentially the interface to the user from the terminal. The program represented by block 52 is referred to as the requester application and functions to build requests and send them to the library server. The function of the library server is to validate/set labels and expiration dates and to file the document. The flow chart of Fig 3b shows the major steps of first creating a document; second selecting the sub-action menu in order to set the document descriptors; thirdly setting the actual descriptors in the set document descriptor menu; and lastly filing the document.

The main action menu is shown in Fig. 4a. As shown, the menu illustrates three separate actions that the EU can designate. The screen cursor is represented by an X in Fig. 4a and as illustrated is adjacent the "Create a Document" action. The action is selected in the normal manner by positioning the cursor adjacent the line on the menu and hitting the "enter" key. The system responds with a series of prompts which allows the user to create a document. For purposes of this description it can be assumed that the document is sent to another EU on the system and the author now wants to store the document.

In order to store the document, descriptors must be assigned which assists in controlling the retention of the document up to a specified time and automatic deletion of the document after that time, in accordance with some predetermined strategy. The sub-action menu shown in Fig 4b. includes an option to "SET DESCRIPTORS" which is selected to enter the criteria that will be used to manage the retention and automatic deletion of documents from the system. When this option is selected the screen shown in Fig. 5 is displayed to the EU. The end user responds to the various prompts displayed in Fig. 5 by entering a name for the document label and a name for the ownership label. It should be assumed for the moment that the respective names have been preestablished. The expiration dates for the document and the ownership may be provided in a number of different ways.

As indicated on the screen of Fig. 5, a list of allowable values can be obtained by placing the cursor under the appropriate field and pressing a predesignated key such as the "HELP" key. The allowable values which have been preestablished then appear in a "window" or on a separate screen which permits the user to copy or just select the choice by positioning the cursor and pressing the "ENTER" key. Fig. 6 illustrates the screen that is provided when the end user places the cursor under the field "DOCUMENT LABEL" in Fig. 5 an presses the HELP key. Fig. 7 illustrates the screen that is provided when the end user places the cursor under the field "OWNERSHIP LABEL" in Fig. 5 and presses the HELP key. The set of allowable ownership labels that are displayed in Fig. 7 are unique to the document label BUDGET. A different set of allowable ownership labels would generally be displayed for a different document label.

It should be noted that the end user has the flexibility to enter in all four criteria manually, or the end user can obtain assistance in selecting an ownership label or a document label. As will be explained in detail later, all data that is entered directly into the system by the end user is verified by the system to insure the integrity of this data. The entry of the criteria data automatically based on one or more criteria that have been entered manually will now be described.

Each end user in the system has a profile that is developed by the end user and the system administrator and which is stored in the system. The profile has the following sections: <ul id="ul0002" list-style="none"><li>1. An ownership label section, illustrated in Fig. 8.</li><li>2. A document label section, illustrated in Fig. 9.</li><li>3. An ownership expiration date table illustrated in Fig. 10.</li><li>4. A document expiration date table illustrated in Fig. 11.</li><li>5. A table of rules for calculating expiration dates, illustrated in Figs. 12a and 12b.</li></ul>

The function of each of these sections and their interrelationships to the other sections and to the process of automatic data entry and verification of manually entered data will now be described.

The ownership label section shown in Fig. 8 comprises four columns: INPUT LABEL; OUTPUT LABEL; DESCRIPTION; and DEFAULT DOCUMENT LABEL.

The INPUT LABEL column lists a set of possible input labels that, a) the end user would possibly enter directly and b) labels approved for use by another end user or used by another system that are assigned to documents that are sent to this end user that will be stored in his system.

The OUTPUT LABEL column includes the set of approved ownership labels that are actually assigned to documents as they are stored. The functional relationship of the two columns is to automatically convert an unapproved ownership label to an approved ownership label. The last two entries cover the situation of miscellaneous labels OTHER and NONE. The OTHER entry is used when a label is entered but no match is found. The NONE entry is used when no label is entered.

The DESCRIPTION column is self explanatory and is used only in the process of creating the profile and as an aid to understanding the labels when a profile is reviewed.

The DEFAULT DOCUMENT LABEL column lists a set of approved document labels for each of the approved ownership labels listed in column two. The function of the default document label is to permit the automatic entry of a document label into the set document descriptors menu shown in Fig. 5 in those situations where the end user has elected for some reason not to enter the data directly.

The document label section shown in Fig. 9 comprises four columns: INPUT LABEL; OUTPUT LABEL; DESCRIPTION; and DEFAULT OWNERSHIP LABEL.

The INPUT LABEL column lists a set of possible input labels that, a) the end user would possibly enter directly and b) labels approved for use by another end user or used by another system that are assigned to documents that are sent to this end user that will be stored in the end user's system.

The OUTPUT LABEL column includes the set of approved document labels that are actually assigned to documents as they are stored. The functional relationship of the two columns is to automatically convert an unapproved document label to an approved document label. The last two entries in the INPUT LABEL column cover the situation of a miscellaneous label OTHER and the situation where the end user did note enter an ownership label.

The DESCRIPTION column is self explanatory and is used only in the process of creating the profile and as an aid to understanding the labels when a profile is reviewed.

The DEFAULT OWNERSHIP LABEL column lists a set of approved ownership labels for each of the approved output document labels listed in column two. The function of the default document label is to permit the automatic entry of an ownership label into the set document descriptors menu shown in Fig. 5 in those situations where the end user has elected for some reason not to enter the data directly.

The ownership expiration date section as shown in Fig. 10 comprises five columns: the OUTPUT OWNERSHIP LABEL column; the MINIMUM column; the MAXIMUM column; the PERMISSIBLE VALUES column; and the DEFAULT column. This section has two functions, namely to verify that an ownership expiration date that was entered directly by the end user is a permissible date value, and to provide a default date in the event that data is not entered directly.

The OUTPUT OWNERSHIP LABEL column contains a set or list of approved ownership labels.

The MINIMUM column contains an entry which indicates a minimum time period that a document containing the label in column 1 must be owned by the end user. The implication is that ownership may be maintained at least until the end of the period specified.

The MAXIMUM column contains an entry which indicates a maximum time period that ownership may be maintained. The implication is that after the stated period, this end user does not have responsibility for the document nor control over it.

The PERMISSIBLE VALUES column contains an entry which indicate the values that may be entered. The implication is that time periods must be expressed in predetermined units, i.e. days, not hours, between the minimum and maximum values set forth in column 2 and 3.

The DEFAULT column contains an entry for each label in column 1 which indicates the time period that is entered automatically into the set descriptors menu of Fig. 5 when that data is not entered directly by the end user. The time period is converted into an expiration date by the system using the current date as the starting time for the calculation.

The MINIMUM, MAXIMUM and PERMISSIBLE VALUES columns are employed to verify an ownership expiration date that has been entered directly by the end user. The DEFAULT column is employed in the process of automatic data entry when the end user has elected not to enter the expiration date directly. verify

The document expiration date section as shown in Fig. 11 comprises five columns: the OUTPUT DOCUMENT LABEL column; the MINIMUM column; the MAXIMUM column; the PERMISSIBLE VALUES column; and the DEFAULT column. This section has two functions, namely to verify that a document expiration date that was entered directly by the end user is a permissible date value, and to provide a default date in the event that data is not entered directly.

The OUTPUT DOCUMENT LABEL column contains a set or list of approved document labels.

The MINIMUM column contains an entry which indicates a minimum time period that a document containing the label in column 1 must be maintained by the system. The implication is that the document will be maintained at least until the end of the period specified.

The MAXIMUM column contains an entry which indicates a maximum time period that the document may be maintained by the system. The implication is that after the stated period, the document may be deleted from the system. nor control over it.

The PERMISSIBLE VALUES column contains an entry for each label which indicates the values that may be entered. The implication is that time periods must be expressed in predetermined units, i.e. days, not hours, between the minimum and maximum values set forth in column 2 and 3.

The DEFAULT column contains an entry for each label in column 1 which indicates the time period that is entered automatically into the set descriptors menu of Fig. 5 when that data is not entered directly by the end user. The time period is converted into an expiration date by the system using the current date as the starting time for the calculation.

The MINIMUM, MAXIMUM and PERMISSIBLE VALUES columns are employed to verify a document expiration date that has been entered directly by the end user. The DEFAULT column is employed in the process of automatic data entry when the end user has elected not to enter the document expiration date directly.

The TABLE OF RULES FOR EXPIRATION DATE CALCULATIONS as shown in Figs. 12 a and 12b comprise two columns: the LABEL column and the RULE column. The labels listed in column 1 of Fig 12a are approved ownership labels and correspond to the set of labels listed in column 1 of Fig 10. The Rules are established by the enterprise in accordance with the document retention strategy and reflect the understanding that the document expiration date and the ownership expiration date will generally have a quantifiable relationship for any given document type. The Rule tables of Figs. 12a and 12b are used to verify that the two expiration dates assigned to the document either directly by the end user or automatically by the system meet the predetermined relationship that has been established by the system.

Figs 13a through 13d illustrate the rules for applying defaults for each of the four criteria that is entered into the set descriptors menu of Fig. 5. Fig. 13a sets forth the rules for applying a default ownership label and comprises four columns: the INPUT OWNERSHIP LABEL MATCHES PROFILE column; the INPUT DOCUMENT LABEL MATCHES PROFILE column; the DEFAULT OWNERSHIP LABEL EXISTS column; and the RESULT column. The Rules summarized in the chart are as follows: <ul id="ul0003" list-style="none"><li>1. If the input ownership label entered directly by the end user is a valid input ownership label as listed on the profile of the end user then enter the corresponding output ownership label.</li><li>2. If the input ownership label entered is not a valid input ownership label, then the document is not filed. The end user is given a chance to resubmit the request.</li><li>3. If under case 2, the file is rejected.</li><li>4. If either the ownership label and document label that were entered directly by the end user is invalid, the file is rejected. The end user is given a chance to resubmit the file. The invalid values are highlighted.</li></ul>

Rules similar to rules 14 listed above can be articulated from the other default rules tables illustrated in Figs. 13b, 13c and 13d.

Fig. 14 is an extensive flow chart illustrating the various steps that occur in the method of the present invention to cause the automatic entry and verification of retention and deletion criteria data for each document that is stored in the system. The flow chart is in sufficient detail to permit a person skilled in the art to understand the sequence of steps that are performed for the different scenarios that the end user would encounter. A detailed description of the operation setting forth the steps of the flow chart is therefore considered unnecessary for an understanding of the invention.

The following is a list of pseudocode statements which may be used by a programmer to implement the present invention in a typical electronic document storage system.

File Document with Classification Information:

Called by:

This routine is called from a routine that interfaces with the End User (EU) or System Administrator (SA) to provide a file document with a specified classification, e.g. business classification.<img file="EP0323025A2_D0001.tif" /><img file="EP0323025A2_D0002.tif" /> The following comments relate to the numbers at the end of the statements; <ul id="ul0004" list-style="none"><li>(1) The user profile table for the OL can include a "catch all" entry which means "use this entry if the label is specified, but it doesn't match any value explicitly entered into the table." A "null" entry can be specified which means "use this entry if no label is specified".</li><li>(2) The output OL can be the same or different value from the input OL.</li><li>(3) The DL is processed like the OL. See (1).</li><li>(4) The output DL can e the same or different value from the input DL.</li><li>(5) The DL can be defaulted by knowing the OL.</li><li>(6) The OL can be defaulted by knowing the DL</li><li>(7) The OED can be defaulted by knowing the OL.</li><li>(8) The DED can be defaulted by knowing the DL.</li><li>(9) The DED can be defaulted by knowing the OL.</li><li>(10) If the table is et up so some values are invalid then the user must enter a valid OL.</li><li>(11) If the table is et up so some values are invalid then the user must enter a valid DL.</li><li>(12) Allowable OEDs depend upon the OL. The DED may be required to have a defined relationship to the OED.</li><li>(13) Allowable DEDs depend upon the DL. The DED may be required to have a defined relationship to the OED.</li></ul>

The output of the process is: A filed document with appropriately set labels and expiration dates, or A rejected file operation.