Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Key(s)
Virtual
Document
DBMS
Key(s)
History
Te x t
Signed
Contract
Picture
Voice
Annotation
Exhibit 36-2. The virtual document.
time each was added to the document collection, who entered it, and from
which application.
CONCLUSION
The combination of DBMS and EDMS certainly offers advantages over ei-
ther in stand-alone mode; however, the degree of the advantage can be de-
ceptive. The metadata in the database is just that, data about the document
and not about all of the information within the document. Here is the crux
of the matter. What is metadata but distillation? If the only way to find a
wealth of information is through the limited perspective of its metadata,
then the information is not nearly as valuable as if one could find it from the
multitude of perspectives contained within the information itself.
The challenge facing most document management application vendors
today is how to minimize even this more expanded data distillation. The
development of new search engines may be part of the answer. Develop-
ment of such technologies as pattern-recognition applications, which can
scan the uncoded components of documents, may be another part.
Whatever the solution to reducing the effects of data distillation, it is not
something that will be totally eliminated within the near future. Combining
the strengths of a DBMS and an EDMS, however, definitely provides better
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