FR2844071A1 - System for organizing meetings in electronic diary, comprises diary manager which finds actions and links to required documents and search engine to find key words and actions from data base - Google Patents

Abstract

A diary manager (6) allows a user to specify meetings in a table (10) and subsequently when the meeting date approaches to refer to tables of actions and links to relevant documents. A search engine (7) uses the wording of the meeting specification to extract key words and actions from a data base (14) and also to find documents from a document store (13).

Description

-1

  INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BASED ON

  DATA SPECIFIED IN AN ELECTRONIC AGENDA.

  The present invention relates to an information management system, and in particular to digital documents, as a function of data specified in a planning or electronic agenda operating on a terminal,

  example of the personal computer or personal electronic assistant type.

  It applies in particular, but not exclusively, to any document saved in the form of files in the memory of a terminal, for example on a computer hard disk, or accessible by the terminal via a

  public or private digital data transmission network.

  It is desirable for each meeting or appointment, for example scheduled in

  an agenda, to have access to information relating to this meeting or this appointment. This information can be minutes of previous meetings, administrative documents, plans, audio-visual or audio documents, depending on the professional field of the user or the user's interests.

  Currently, when a user prepares his upcoming activities or meetings, he consults his calendar, then collects all the documents he will need for each planned activity, meeting or meeting. These documents 25 can be in digitized form, stored in files on the hard disk of a local or remote computer accessible by a data transmission network. These documents can also be under any

  other form, for example paper, magnetic tape, memory card.

  As a result, the user must devote a significant amount of preparation time to find all the necessary documents, to select and sort them according to the various scheduled appointments, with a significant risk.

to forget a necessary document.

  To find a text document saved in digital form on a hard disk, in most personal computer operating systems, there are search functions allowing you to find all the files.

  containing a specified character string.

  -2 There are also more sophisticated functions, generally called "search engine", accessible in particular via the Internet, and making it possible to search for sites from more sophisticated queries combining words or groups of words in different ways. . However, these document search functions require the user to submit a selection request and are not linked to an appointment or a

meeting scheduled in a calendar.

  The object of the present invention is to eliminate this drawback. This objective is achieved by providing an information management system based on data entered in an electronic diary comprising means for storing appointment data memorizing for each appointment a date of appointment and an appointment label, calendar management means for entering and managing appointment data in the means for storing appointment data, and document storage means. According to the invention, this system further comprises: 20 - a database of keywords comprising keywords, semantic links linking the keywords together, descriptions of actions to be carried out to prepare an appointment, document keywords to be found in documents to be searched for when preparing an appointment, and action links linking keywords to action labels or document keywords, means of extracting keywords from an appointment label, - means of searching for actions and document keywords to search the database for all the keywords linked by a semantic link to the keywords extracted from an appointment label, and all the actions and all document keywords linked to the keywords found and to the keywords extracted from the appointment label, - document search means to search for from doc keywords All the documents relating to an appointment in the document storage means 35, temporary storage means for memorizing, in association with an appointment label, all the actions found by the action search means, and access paths to all the documents found by -3 the means of searching for documents relating to an appointment, and - means of preparing an appointment to display on a date specified by the user with respect to the date of the appointment, the actions and the access paths of documents, stored in the temporary storage means in association with the wording of the appointment. According to a feature of the invention, this system further comprises means for modifying and validating the data stored in the database. Advantageously, the actions are messages to be displayed on the screen of the user.

  Preferably, the messages defined in the database are generic and adapted to the wording of the appointment by the action search means.

  According to another feature of the invention, the document search means are designed to search for documents in directories

predefined by the user.

  Preferably, document search directories are accessible by

  a data transmission network.

  According to yet another feature of the invention, this system further comprises means for downloading documents into the memory of a

  portable terminal connected to the system.

  According to yet another feature of the invention, this system includes means for deleting an appointment to delete an appointment in the appointment storage means and for deleting actions and access paths. documents, relating to the appointment, in the means of

temporary storage.

  A preferred embodiment of the invention will be described below, by way of nonlimiting example, with reference to the appended drawings in which -4 FIG. 1 schematically represents a data processing system making it possible to implement the data processing system. document management according to the invention; Figure 2 shows the different programs and data sets of a management system according to the invention; FIG. 3 schematically represents the organization of the data generated by the system represented in FIG. 2 FIG. 4 illustrates an example of organization of keywords used by the system represented in FIG. 2; FIG. 5 represents in the form of a flowchart, the various processing operations carried out by the management system according to the invention. FIG. 1 represents an information management system according to the invention, as a function of data specified in an electronic diary. This system 15 comprises a computer 2, for example of the PC personal computer type, connected to a display screen 3 and control members, such as a keyboard 4a and a mouse 4b. This computer 2 can be connected to one or more networks 1 for transmitting digital data, as well as to a personal electronic assistant 5. The networks 2 can be of the private or public, terrestrial or mobile type. For example, computer 2 can be connected to a private local area network which

  provides access to local servers and the Internet.

  In FIG. 2, the computer 2 comprises an electronic agenda program 6 allowing the user to specify meetings and appointments which are entered, for example, in a table 10. As shown in FIG. 3, the table 10 comprises a plurality of sets of information or lines 11, each line specifying an appointment, that is to say in particular comprises a

  wording and an appointment date.

  According to the invention, each non-empty line 11 specifying an appointment in the table 10 is connected to a table 16 of actions and a table 17 of links to files 19. These tables are stored in temporary storage means 12 comprising a plurality of tables 16, 17 specifying each of the actions to be carried out to prepare the corresponding meeting, or access paths to documents 19 which have been identified as necessary or useful

  for the preparation or the participation in the corresponding meeting.

  Typically, actions are messages to be displayed on the screen to indicate to the user what he must do to prepare the corresponding appointment.

  The documents 19 can be in the non-volatile memory, for example the hard disk of the computer 7, or be accessible by the networks 2. They can be of the text, multimedia, binary or web pages type.

  The actions can consist of indicating objects to take to get to the appointment, for example a sports bag when the appointment is a sports session, or a health book for a doctor's appointment. As shown in FIG. 2, the computer 2 also includes a semantic search engine program 7 using a database 14 of keywords and actions containing keywords 51, action labels 52 and links 53, 54 linking the keywords and the action labels (see also FIG. 4). Links can be classified into two categories. The first category of links 53 brings together semantic links connecting two keywords, and in particular represent equivalence, inclusion or belonging relationships. The second category of links 54 brings together action links linking one or more keywords to actions or to other keywords and 25 make it possible to designate the actions to be carried out or the keywords which must be found in the documents to be searched for. of the preparation of the appointment, when the keyword at the origin of the link appears or is linked by a semantic link to

  another keyword in the appointment text.

  Thus, from an appointment label such as for example "speech therapist for Pierre", the search engine 7 is designed to search the database 14 for the keywords "speech therapist" and "Pierre" and all links connected to these two keywords. As shown in FIG. 4, the database contains for example the following semantic links 35 "speech therapist - doctor"

"Pierre - child".

  -6 In addition, the database contains the following action links: "doctor" - - "child" - - message (take health record) "" speech therapist - - address "" speech therapist - - access map "The first link above indicates that during the preparation of the appointment, the message" take the health book "must be displayed on the screen if among the keywords found in the wording of the appointment or the keywords linked to these last 10 are the keywords "doctor" and "child". The other two links indicate that during the preparation of the appointment, files containing the keywords "speech therapist" and "address" d on the one hand and on the other hand "speech therapist"

  and "access plan" should be searched.

  In a more elaborate version, the search engine 7 is designed to construct personalized messages when it encounters a message display action. So in the example above, the action is defined as follows: "message (take the health record from <child>)"

  and the search engine is designed to search in the keywords of the wording of the appointment or in the keywords semantically linked to these, the keyword which corresponds to "child" to, in the example considered, replace 25 " <child> "with" Pierre "in the label of the message to display.

  Other criteria than keyword criteria can be added to specify the documents to be searched, such as for example file date criteria or number of files to search, these criteria being stored in association with the action links. 54 to keywords to search for in

files.

  The user can thus specify that for a site appointment, he has

  need the last three site reports.

  The database 14 is preferably predefined according to the profession or the main activity of the user. It can be supplemented or modified by means of a management program 8 designed for this purpose, which allows in particular to

  the user to define his own keywords.

  In addition, a validation procedure can be provided allowing the user to validate the keywords and the links between the keywords and the actions, only the validated elements of the database 14 being then used by the search engine.

  research 7 when preparing an appointment.

  FIG. 5 represents in the form of a flowchart, a procedure 20 of the search engine 7 which is executed following the introduction of a new appointment in the agenda 10. The user has previously defined the Appointment by specifying the date and time of the appointment, the date on which he wishes the appointment to be prepared and the date on which he wishes to be reminded of the appointment, these last two dates being by example defined

  by a number of hours before the fixed date of the meeting.

  The procedure 20 is triggered following the validation by the user of the entry of a new appointment, by a request sent by the agenda program 15 to the search engine 7, this request containing the wording of the Appointment. At the first step 21 of procedure 20, the search engine

  analyzes the wording of the appointment to extract the keywords.

  In the next step 22, the engine 7 searches the database 14 for all the keywords linked by semantic links 53, directly or indirectly (via other keywords), to the keywords extracted from the description. of the appointment. In the next step 23, the engine 7 searches for all the actions linked by action links 54 to the keywords noted in the previous step 22, and creates a new action table 16 in the action and links 12 in which it stores all the actions found. In the next step 24, the search engine 25 searches in directories 13 of the computer 2 or accessible by the network 1, which can be predefined by the user, all the files containing the keywords linked by links 54 to the keywords identified in step 22 and satisfying the criteria associated with the respective action links 54 and stores the paths of the documents found in a new table 30 17. In the next step 25, the search engine 7 refers to the agenda program 6 of the links allowing it to access the action table 16 and the link table 17, created and filled in the previous steps 23 and 24. These links Access to tables 16 and 17 are stored by the agenda program in association with the data relating to the appointment. In step 23, provision can be made to download the files or documents found in a buffer memory area of the computer 2, for example when these documents are not in the storage memory of the computer, but -8

  are only accessible via network 1.

  When the agenda program 6 detects that the time for preparing an appointment has arrived, it accesses tables 16 and 17 corresponding to the appointment5 and displays on screen 3 in the form of messages the actions stored in the table 16, and an icon per document, the path of which appears in the

table 17.

  It also offers the user to delete each action message and delete the appointment, or to redisplay the messages and icons of 10 documents found for the appointment at a later time that the user can specify. By activating a document icon, the user can view the document, print it, or download it to another directory or to the memory of a laptop or personal assistant 5 to which the computer

2 is connected.

  If the user chooses to delete the appointment, the agenda program 6 deletes the line 11 corresponding to the appointment in the agenda table and deletes

  the corresponding tables 16 and 17 in the set of tables 12.

Claims (8)

  1. Information management system based on data entered in an electronic diary comprising storage means 5 (10) of appointment data memorizing for each appointment an appointment date and an appointment label you, calendar management means (6) for entering and managing appointment data in the appointment data storage means, and document storage means (13), characterized in that it further comprises: - a database (14) of keywords comprising keywords (51), semantic links (53) connecting the keywords together, action labels (52) to be carried out to prepare a appointments, keywords (51) of documents to be found in documents to be searched for in the preparation of an appointment, and action links (54) linking keywords to labels of actions or keywords of documents, - means of extracting (7) keywords from an appointment label, - search means (7) for actions (52) and document keywords (51) to search all the keywords (51) in the database (14) 20 linked by a semantic link (53) to the keywords extracted from an appointment label, and all the actions and all document keywords linked to the keywords found and to the keywords extracted from the appointment label, - document search means (7) for searching in the document storage means (13) from document keywords all the documents (19) including these keywords, - temporary storage means (12) for memorize in association with an appointment label, all the actions (16) found by the action search means, and access paths (17) to all the documents found by the document search means relating to an appointment, 30 and - means of preparation (6) of an appointment to display at an ate specified by the user with respect to the date of the appointment, the actions (16) and the access paths (17) of documents, stored in the temporary storage means (12) in association with the wording of the appointment -you. 35 2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises means (8) for modifying and   validation of the data stored in the database (14).   - 10 3. System according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the actions are messages to be displayed on the screen of the user. 4. System according to claim 3, characterized in that the messages defined in the database (14) are generic and adapted to the wording of the appointment by the search means (7) of actions.   5. System according to one of claims 1 to 4,   characterized in that the document search means (7) are designed   to search for documents in user-defined directories.   6. System according to claim 5, characterized in that document search directories are accessible   by a data transmission network (1).   7. System according to one of claims 1 to 6,   characterized in that it further comprises means for downloading (6) documents (19) into the memory of a portable terminal (5) connected to the system.   8. System according to one of claims 1 to 7,   characterized in that it comprises means (6) for deleting an appointment to delete an appointment in the appointment storage means (10) and for deleting the actions (16) and the access paths (17) documents relating to the appointment in the temporary storage means (12).