Data management method and apparatus thereof, as well as program

【0001】

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

The present invention relates to a data management method and a data management device for associating and managing data, and a program for the same.

【0002】

[Conventional technology]

Various methods have been proposed for associating and managing data. For example, in order to reflect a change to one content in another content, a master-slave relationship is set in the content, and the change in the main content is reflected in the dependent content. Further, in order to manage a plurality of contents, a system has been proposed in which the relationship between the plurality of contents is held in a management file and the relationship between the contents can be known by referring to this management file (for example, a patent). Reference 1).

【0003】

On the other hand, the data (contents) stored in the hard disk of a computer is subjected to various processing depending on the user, such as copying, some processing, or image processing in the case of image data. Therefore, in one computer, various data created from one original data (hereinafter referred to as derived data to distinguish it from the original) often exists. When a user wants to do something with one piece of data, it is important to know the relevance of this data to the other. For example, when trying to delete one data, if you can know that there is original data of this data, you can delete it with confidence, and processing that requires time and expertise for one data ( For example, when performing image processing on image data), if it is possible to know that there is already data that has undergone the same processing, that data can be used, and wasteful time can be prevented. That is, when managing a data group consisting of the original data and its derived data, clarifying the correlation between the original data and the derived data can improve the safety and convenience of the user's use.

【0004】

[Patent Document 1]

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-98374 [0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, in the above-mentioned data management method in which the master-slave relationship of the contents is provided, the change to the main contents can be reflected in the subordinate contents, and the integration between the master-slave contents can be achieved, but the original data is lost. There is a problem. For example, when a color conversion process is performed on image data that is a certain main content, the image data that is a subordinate content of the image data is also color-converted and the original data is changed. Therefore, when data that has undergone other image processing, such as gradation conversion processing or density conversion processing, is required for the image data that will be the main content later, the original data is no longer available, and the desired data is obtained. I can't. Therefore, when the user performs some processing on the main content, it is necessary to perform an operation such as copying and leaving the original data by himself / herself, which causes a problem that the work is troublesome. Also, if any processing is performed on the dependent content, the change due to this processing will not be reflected in the main content, so when referring to the main content, the status of the dependent content cannot be known, and therefore, which user is It is inconvenient to remember which content is the main content and which is the subordinate content.

【0006】

Further, when a management file that maintains the correlation between contents is used, it is inconvenient because the user must refer to this management file when trying to perform some processing on one content. Furthermore, since the management file is system-dependent, it can only manage the content that exists on the same system. For example, it is possible to maintain and manage the correlation between content stored on one computer, but when one content is copied to another computer, the computer that stores the copied content The existence of the original content cannot be known by referring to this content.

【0007】

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a data management method and a data management device capable of safely and conveniently managing data, and a program for the same.

【0008】

[Means for solving problems]

The data management method of the present invention is a data management method for managing original data and derived data obtained by editing the original data in association with each other, and is link information between the original data and the derived data. It is characterized in that the editing information indicating the content of the editing process is created, and the link information and the editing information are attached to the original data and the derived data as ancillary information, respectively.

【0009】

The data management device of the present invention is a data management device that manages the original data and the derived data obtained by editing the original data in association with each other, and is the link information between the original data and the derived data. Ancillary information creating means for creating ancillary information consisting of edit information indicating the content of the editing process, and ancillary information attachment for attaching the ancillary information created by the ancillary information creating means to the original data and the derived data, respectively. It is characterized by having means.

【0010】

The program of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a procedure of associating and managing the original data and the derived data obtained by editing the original data with each other, and the procedure is the same as the original data. The procedure comprises a procedure for creating link information with the derived data and editing information indicating the content of the editing process, and a procedure for accompanying the original data and the derived data with the link information and the editing information as ancillary information, respectively. It is a feature.

【0011】

Here, the "editing process" means a process for generating the derived data from the original data, a copy process for generating derived data having the same contents as the original data, or some kind of process for the original data. Examples include processing for obtaining derived data by making changes and image processing performed on original data that becomes image data. Further, in the sense of generating derived data having the same contents as the original data, the copy process is a process of transmitting the original data to a system other than the system in which the original data exists, for example, the original data is transmitted by the original data. It includes a process of transmitting data from an existing computer to another computer serially or network-connected to the computer. Of course, the network connection is not limited to LAN, but also includes WAN such as the Internet.

【0012】

In addition, "link information" refers to the other data indirectly or directly from any one of the two data (here, the original data and its derivative data) that the user pairs with. Means information that makes it possible to do so. For example, if the name and storage location of the derived data are used as the link information of the original data, the user can refer to the derived data based on this link information. The method of reference in this case is indirect. In addition, if a pointer including the name and storage location of the derived data is used as link information in the original data (for example, the URL of the derived data stored in the web server), the user can enter the name and storage location of the derived data. Derived data can be referenced by operations such as clicking the pointer without storing it. The method of reference in this case is direct.

【0013】

Further, as a method of attaching the attached information to the data (original data or derived data), any method may be used as long as the attached information can be referred from the data. For example, the header information and the image of the data. It is possible to use a method of embedding as data tag information or a method of writing ancillary information created in XML text in a predetermined area of data.

【0014】

Of course, the present invention can also be used in the case where the derived data (data 2) created from the original data (data 1) is further edited to obtain the next derived data (data 3). Can be applied. At this time, the data 2 becomes the original data with respect to the data 3, and the attached information for the data 2 and the data 3 is created and attached to each corresponding data. Further, in this case, the data 1 can be used as the original data of the data 3, and it is preferable to create ancillary information pairing the data 1 and the data 3 and attach them to each. In this case, the "editing information" of the data 3 includes both the content of the editing process when obtaining the data 2 from the data 1 and the editing content when obtaining the data 3 from the data 2, and is attached to the data 1. It is possible to know all the editing history until data 3 is obtained just by referring to the information, and data 1 and data 2 are made only with the content that " was edited for data 2". You may be able to know the editing history until the data 3 is obtained by referring to the attached information of.

【0015】

Furthermore, when multiple derived data (data 2 and data 3) are obtained by performing different editing processes on one original (data 1), data 1 and data 2 and data 1 and data are obtained. It is more preferable to create ancillary information in which 3 is paired and attach it to the corresponding data, and also to create ancillary information in which data 2 and data 3 are paired and attach them to data 2 and data 3. By doing this, the existence of other derived data can be detected by simply referring to the attached information of any one of the derived data generated from one original data without going through the original original data (data 1). It is convenient to know.

【0016】

[Effect of the invention]

According to the data management method and the data management device of the present invention, as ancillary information between the original data and the derived data obtained by editing the original data, the link information between the original data and the derived data and the derived data Since the editing information indicating the content of the editing process performed when obtaining the data is created and attached to each data, if you refer to the attached information of either the paired original data or the derived data, You can know the existence of the other party's data, and you can also know the attributes of the other party's data (what kind of editing was done, original data or derived data, etc.), so you can manage the data conveniently and safely. can do. For example, when trying to delete certain data, by referring to the attached information of this data, it may be a copy of the original data or it may be obtained by editing the original data. You can know that and it is easy to decide whether to delete it or not, so you can rest assured.

【0017】

Further, when performing time-consuming editing processing on the original data, for example, image processing on the image data, if the attached information of the image data to be processed is referred to, the same image processing is performed on the image data. It is possible to know whether or not there is the derived image data obtained, and in some cases, the derived image data can be used, so that time can be saved and efficiency can be improved.

【0018】

The program of the present invention can realize the data management method of the present invention by implementing it on a computer.

【0019】

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

【0020】

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a file system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the file system of the present embodiment includes a computer 1 and a computer 100, and the computer 1 and the computer 100 are connected to each other via the Internet 30. Computer 1 is given the global IP address J1. For convenience of explanation, in the present embodiment, an image file will be described as a processing target as an example.

【0021】

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the computer 1. As shown in FIG. 2A, the computer 1 includes a storage unit 10 that stores image files, a keyboard for giving operation instructions for operating these image files, an external input device such as a mouse, and operations. It has an operation processing unit 15 composed of an application, hardware, etc. for operating an image file according to an instruction, and a file management unit 20 for managing the image file operated by the operation processing unit 15. The file management unit 20 implements the program of the present invention, and FIG. 2 (b) shows the configuration. As shown in Fig. 2 (b), the file management unit 20 creates ancillary information to be attached to the image file (original file) to be operated by the operation processing unit 15 and the image file (derivative file) after the operation processing. It has an information creation unit 25 and a synthesis unit 26 that embeds the created accessory information in the original file and the derivative file, and the accessory information creation unit 25 creates link information between the original file and the derivative file. It is composed of a link information creating unit 21 for creating a link information creating unit 21 and a processing content information creating unit 22 for creating information indicating the contents of processing performed on the derived file.

【0022】

The link information creation unit 21 creates information indicating the file name and storage location of the derived file as the link information of the original file, and also creates information indicating the file name and storage location of the original file as the link information of the derived file. The processing content information creation unit 22 creates information (processing content information) indicating the content of the processing performed on the derived file. In the attached information of each file, the link information and the processing content information are paired.

【0023】

The computer 2 is provided with a web server (not shown), and can receive and store the image file uploaded from the computer 1. The address of the web server provided on the computer 2 is URL-100.

【0024】

Next, the operation of the file system of the present embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

【0025】

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the computer 1 in the file system of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the computer 1 starts when the user gives an operation instruction in the operation processing unit 15 (S10). Here, it is assumed that the copy process is taken as an example and it is instructed to send the file A stored in the storage unit 10 to the web server of the computer 100. According to the operation instruction, the operation processing unit 15 first reads the file A from the storage unit 10 into a memory (S15) (not shown), and creates a copy file of the file A (referred to as the file A1) (S20). The attached information creation unit 25 of the file management unit 20 provides the attached information consisting of the link information of "File A1, URL-100" and the processing content information indicating "copied" to the file A which is the original file. At the same time as creating, ancillary information consisting of the link information of "File A, IP address J1" and the processing content information of "Copy file A" is created for the file A1 to be a copy file (S25). The compositing unit 26 attaches the attached information created by the attached information creating unit 25 to the file A and the file A1, respectively (S30). The operation processing unit 15 outputs the file A in which the attached information is embedded by the synthesis unit 26 to the storage unit 10, overwrites the original file A, and sends the copy file (file A1) to the web server provided in the computer 100. Send (S35).

【0026】

Figure 4 shows the process of sending the original file (file A) to the web server of computer 100, the process of color-converting file A, and the process of reducing file A2 obtained by color-converting file A. The structure of file A and each derived data (file A1, file A2, file A3) is shown. As shown in the figure, when file A is sent to computer 100, the attached information F1 of file A is generated and attached, and its contents are the link information of "file A1, URL-100" and the processing content information of "copied". It indicates that "File A1 obtained by copying this file was sent to URL-100". At the same time, the content of the attached information F'1 of the file A1 that is sent to the computer 100 and stored in the computer 100 is based on the link information of "File A, address J1" and the processing content information of "Copy file A". It shows that "this file is a copy of file A on the computer at address J1". Since the file A1 is a copy of the file A, the content B1 of the data is the same as the content B0 of the data of the file A.

【0027】

File A2 is a file A that has undergone color conversion processing and is stored in the storage unit 10 of the computer 1. When file A2 is obtained by performing color conversion on file A, the attached information F2 of file A is generated and attached, and the contents are the link information of "File A2, local computer" and "color conversion. Color conversion contents". It consists of the processing content information of ": XXX", and indicates that "the file A2 obtained by performing XXX color conversion on this file is in the computer". At the same time, the contents of the attached information FF1 of the file A2 stored in the computer 1 obtained by color conversion are the link information of "File A, local computer" and "Color conversion of file A. Color conversion contents: XX It is composed of the processing content information of "XX", and indicates that "this file is obtained by performing color conversion of XXX on the file A in the computer". The data content B2 of the file A2 is obtained by performing XXX color conversion on the data content B0 of the file A.

【0028】

The file A3 is a reduced version of the file A2 and stored in the storage unit 10 of the computer 1. In this case, file A2 becomes the original file of file A3, and when file A2 is reduced to obtain file A3, the attached information FF2 of file A2 is generated and attached, and the content is "File A3, local computer". It consists of the link information of "" and the processing content information of "reduced. Reduced content: XXX", and "the file A3 obtained by reducing XXX for this file is on the computer." "It is shown that. At the same time, the contents of the attached information FFF1 of the file A3 stored in the computer 1 obtained by reducing the contents are the link information of "File A2, local computer" and "The reduced contents of the file A2: ××××". It is composed of the processing content information of, and indicates that "this file is obtained by reducing the file A2 in the computer by XXX." The data content B3 of the file A3 is obtained by reducing the data content B2 of the file A2 by XXX.

【0029】

As described above, in the computer 1 in the file system of the present embodiment, the correlation between the original file and the derived file is shown for each of the original file and the derived file obtained by performing some editing process on the original file. Since the attached information is generated and attached, by referring to the attached information of the file, whether or not this file is an original file, what kind of processing was applied to the original file, and whether the file was obtained from this file You can know whether the file you want (for example, a color-converted file) is generated, and you can manage the data safely and conveniently. In addition, since link information and processing content information (editing information) are attached to the file, the need for a dedicated file for managing data is eliminated, and even if the original file and the derived file are stored in different systems, You can know the correlation with each other.

【0030】

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made as long as the gist of the present invention is not changed.

【0031】

For example, in the file system of the above-described embodiment, when a derivative file is generated, ancillary information is created and attached only to the pair of this derivative file and the direct original file of this derivative file. There is. That is, when the file A is subjected to the color conversion process to generate the file A2, the file A2 is reduced in the same manner as the attached information is created only for the file A and the file A2. When generating file A3, the attached information is created only for file A2 and file A3. For example, when the file A2 is reduced and the file A3 is generated, the attached information (FF2, FFF1) is created for the file A2 and the file A3, and the attached information of the file A is "File A2". File A3 obtained by reducing the file is saved in the computer "or" File A3 obtained by further reducing the file obtained by performing color conversion of this file by XXX. May be attached to file A by creating ancillary information stating that "is stored in the computer".

[Simple explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a file system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a computer 1 in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the computer 1 shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the original file and each file generated from the original file [Explanation of symbols]

1,100 Computer 30 Internet 10 Storage 15 Operation processing 20 File management 21 Link information creation 22 Processing content creation 25 Attached information creation 26 Synthesis