Patent ID: 8301606

Claim:
A data management method for converting an item in a first hierarchical folder structure into an item in a second hierarchical folder structure, the first hierarchical folder structure being such that a single item that is either data or a folder is registered in either a single or plural folders, the second hierarchical folder structure being such that a single item is registered in a single folder, the method comprising: a relational data acquiring step of acquiring, in the first hierarchical folder structure, a plurality of relational data pieces for items, each relational data piece indicating one item as a child item and indicating one parent folder in which said child item has been registered; an attribute appending step of appending attribute information to each of the acquired relational data pieces, wherein the attribute information includes an access history, and wherein, when an item has been accessed as a child item of a parent folder, an access history included in attribute information appended to a relational data piece indicating said child item and said parent folder is updated; a selection step of, when one of the items is included in plural ones of the relational data pieces, selecting one of the plural ones of the relational data pieces based on the access history; and a conversion step of converting the item included in the selected relational data piece into an item in the second hierarchical folder structure so that the converted item is registered in a single parent folder included in the selected relational data piece, wherein a folder having no child item, which is generated as a result of the conversion, remains in the second hierarchical folder structure as a vacant folder belonging to one of folders to which the vacant folder belonged in the first hierarchical folder structure.