JP2000155743A - Processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically change the processing of individual systems without changing settings to the individual systems when changes in a series of processing occur accompanying the events. SOLUTION: An agent generating mechanism 241 of an agent server generates an agent according to agent definitions generated by an agent defining mechanism 211 of an agent client in response to a user's input. A trigger monitoring mechanism 242 or a trigger monitoring mechanism 251 of other servers monitors and detects a trigger designated by the agent, a filtering mechanism 243 or a filtering mechanism 252 of other servers extracts the trigger designated by the agent, and an action request processing mechanism 244 requests an action corresponding to the extracted trigger to a corresponding server and sends the process result information of the server to a report processing mechanism 245, which generates and sends report information out to a report mechanism 212. Each DB stores relative agent information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to groupware managed by software, and more particularly to a system in which a schedule mechanism, a mail mechanism, a document management mechanism, a workflow mechanism, and the like cooperate by an agent mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A schedule system for registering schedules as electronic data and managing the schedules, a mail system for sending and receiving and editing e-mails, a workflow system for defining routine tasks in advance according to a work flow, and electronically managing documents. The document management system that can register, search, and refer to is Hitachi Review System VOL. 77 No. 5
It exists individually as in “Integrated Groupware Package” on page 31 of (1995-5). Further, there is a system in which these systems are simultaneously operated on a network, and a plurality of users can use the systems simultaneously by a client mechanism. FIG. 1 shows an example of a mechanism for realizing a groupware system according to the related art. The server device 130 includes a schedule server 131, a mail server 132,
A document management server 133 and a workflow server 134 are installed, and a schedule management D
B135 is connected, and mail management D is performed on the mail server 132.
B136 is connected and the document management server 133
B137, and a workflow management DB 138 to the workflow server 134. The client devices 110 and 120 have schedule clients 111 and 121 and mail clients 112 and 12 respectively.
2. Document management clients 113 and 123 and workflow clients 114 and 124 are installed. Then, the server device 130 and the client devices 110 and 12
0 through a network, and the schedule function is performed by the schedule server 131 and the schedule client 11.
1, 121 and the schedule management DB 135, and the mail function, the document management function, and the workflow function are similarly realized individually.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Schedule information, mail information, document information, and workflow information are updated, or schedule, mail, document management, and workflow processing are changed depending on the state of each client or each server. If so, definitions or information had to be updated for each individual system. For example, when it is desired to change the processing by e-mail, the processing by document management, and the processing by workflow in accordance with the change of the content of the schedule, after registering a new schedule in the schedule management DB managed by the schedule server by the schedule client, According to this new schedule, the mail management DB managed by the mail server is individually updated by the mail client to change the processing of the mail, the document management, and the workflow according to the new schedule, and the document managed by the document management server is managed by the document management client. Management D
B, and the workflow client needs to update the workflow management DB managed by the workflow server. Thus, an event (for example,
Schedule change) (hereafter),
When a series of processes is changed, it is necessary to change the definition or the information for each mechanism that supports each process, which is extremely inconvenient in operation. An object of the present invention is to change a series of processes associated with individually occurring events that can be predicted in advance, without changing the definition of individual systems or setting of information each time an event occurs. By automatically changing the processing of each system, the inconvenience of a series of operations that must be performed in association with the occurrence of an event is eliminated.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides at least one client device comprising a plurality of clients each having a different function, and a server comprising a server provided for the plurality of clients. In a groupware system in which devices are connected via a network, an agent client and an agent server are provided, and the agent client includes an agent definition mechanism that receives input from a user and creates agent definition information.
An agent generation mechanism, a trigger monitoring mechanism, a filtering mechanism, and an action request processing mechanism, wherein the agent generation mechanism receives agent definition information from the agent client, divides the agent definition information, and , A filtering mechanism, and means for distributing to an action request processing mechanism, wherein the trigger monitoring mechanism includes means for monitoring and detecting a trigger specified by the distributed agent definition information,
The filtering mechanism includes means for extracting a trigger that meets a condition specified by the distributed agent definition information from the detected trigger, and the action request processing mechanism includes a distributed agent definition corresponding to the extracted trigger. A means for requesting an action specified by information from a specified server is provided. Further, each server other than the agent server includes a function monitoring agent having a trigger monitoring mechanism and a filtering mechanism. The trigger monitoring mechanism receives agent definition information distributed from an agent generating mechanism of the agent server, and receives the agent definition information. Means for monitoring and detecting a trigger specified by the information, wherein the filtering mechanism receives the agent definition information distributed from the agent generation mechanism of the agent server, and receives, from the detected trigger, a condition specified by the agent definition information. A means for extracting a matching trigger is provided, and the functional agent sends the extracted trigger to an action request processing mechanism of the agent server. Further, the agent server includes a report processing mechanism, and the agent client includes a report mechanism. The report processing mechanism receives agent definition information distributed from an agent generation mechanism of the agent server, and receives an action request from the agent server. Means for generating a report based on the agent definition information when receiving the action result information from the server that has received the report, and transmitting the report to the agent client. A means for outputting a report is provided. Further, each of the mechanisms other than the agent definition mechanism and the agent generation mechanism includes storage means for storing the distributed agent information.

[0005]

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a groupware system according to the present invention. Here, in order to realize a function related to a schedule on a network, the server device 130 is provided with a schedule server 131, a schedule management DB 135 managed by the schedule server is connected to the schedule server, and schedule clients are connected to the client devices 110 and 120, respectively. The server device 130 includes a mail server 132 in order to implement functions related to mail.
A mail management DB 136 managed by the mail server is connected to the mail server, and the client device 110
120 includes mail clients 112 and 122, respectively, and a server device 130 includes a document management server 133 to implement functions related to document management, and the document management server includes a document management DB 137 managed by the document management server.
And client devices 110 and 120 are provided with document management clients 113 and 123, respectively.
The workflow server 134 is connected to a workflow management DB 138 managed by the workflow server.
Are provided with workflow clients 114 and 124, respectively.
An agent client 210 and an agent 220 for outputting a report, respectively, are provided in the server device 130, an agent server 230 for executing the agent is provided, and an agent management DB 231 managed by the agent server is connected to the agent server. Here, the above agent means agency processing,
When an event occurs, the process performed in response to the occurrence of the event is performed on behalf of the user, including the work performed by the user. Then, the server device 130 and the client devices 110 and 120 are connected via a network.

FIG. 3 shows a more detailed configuration of the present embodiment. The agent client 210 includes an agent definition mechanism 211 and a report mechanism 212. The agent server 230 includes an agent generation mechanism 241
Trigger monitoring mechanism 242 and trigger DB 246, filtering processing mechanism 243 and filter DB 247,
Action request processing mechanism 244 and action DB 248
And a report processing mechanism 245 and a report DB 249. Here, monitoring of a trigger refers to monitoring of occurrence of an event, and filtering processing refers to checking a trigger condition and extracting a trigger that meets the condition. Mail server 132, schedule server 131,
Each of the document management server 133 and the workflow server 134 includes a trigger monitoring mechanism 251 and a trigger DB 253.
, Filtering processing mechanism 252 and filter DB 25
4 and an action processing mechanism group 263. FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a mail server. In the case of a mail server, the action processing mechanism group 263 includes a mail transmission processing mechanism 260, a mail reception processing mechanism 261, a mail deletion processing mechanism 262, and the like. Schedule server 131, document management server 13
3. The workflow server 134 also has an action processing mechanism group corresponding to each function. Mail client 112, schedule client 111, document management client 113, workflow client 114
Have a mechanism for processing each function. FIG. 3 shows a case of a mail server, and includes mechanisms such as a mail transmission processing mechanism 270, a mail reception processing mechanism 271, and a mail deletion processing mechanism 272. ing.

Next, the processing in this embodiment will be described. The agent definition mechanism 211 creates agent definition information according to the input by the user, and transfers the agent definition information to the agent generation mechanism 241 of the agent server 230. The agent definition information includes trigger information, filtering information, action request information, and report processing information. Specific examples of the agent definition information are shown in FIGS. 16, 17, and 18 described later. The agent generation mechanism 241 uses the transferred agent definition information as trigger information, filtering information,
The request information is divided into action request information and report processing information, and the information is divided into a trigger DB 246, a filter DB 247, an action DB 248, and a report DB 2 which are part of the agent management DB 231 on the agent server.
49, a trigger DB 253 in a function agent 250 on a server such as the mail server 132, and a filter D.
B254. And the agent server 23
The trigger monitoring mechanisms 242 and 251 and the report processing mechanism 245 which are a part of 0 are activated.

In this state, a trigger DB 246 is executed by a server such as the agent server 230 or the mail server 132.
When a trigger occurs under the monitoring of the trigger monitoring mechanism 242 based on the information of the trigger DB or under the monitoring of the trigger monitoring mechanism 251 based on the information of the trigger DB 253, the filtering process is performed based on the information of the filter DB 247. The filtering processing mechanism 252 performs a filtering process based on the information in the mechanism 243 or the filter DB 254, determines whether or not the condition for causing the action is satisfied. Based on the information in the processing DB, it requests action processing from each server such as the mail server 132. The action processing mechanism group of each server such as a mail server performs action processing according to the action processing request. In the case of the mail server 132, processing such as mail processing is executed or the subsequent contents are changed by executing actions such as the mail transmission processing 260, the mail reception processing 261, and the mail deletion processing 262. Thereafter, based on the contents of the report DB 249, a report is created by the report processing mechanism 245 according to the execution of the action processing, and the report is sent to the user via the report mechanism 212 of the client.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a flow of an agent definition process in the agent definition mechanism 211. Here, the process is started from step 300, and an agent definition screen is displayed to the user in step 302. In step 304, the agent definition mechanism 211 waits for input information from the keyboard, mouse, or the like from the user. Step 304
Are repeated until the input end is determined in step 306. If the input is determined to be completed in step 306, the input information is translated into agent definition information in step 308, the agent definition information is transferred to the agent server 230 in step 310, and the process ends in step 312. Each piece of agent definition information is provided with agent definition identification information for identifying the agent definition information itself. For example, in the agent definition information of the specific example 1 illustrated in FIG. 16, “0001” in 0010: id # “0001” ′ @ n ′ on the first line is the agent definition identification information. In the agent definition information of the specific example 2 shown in FIG. 17, “0002” in 0011: id # “0002” ′ @ n ′ on the first line is agent definition identification information.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a flow of an agent generation process in the agent generation mechanism 241. Here, the process is started from step 320, and the agent definition information received from the agent definition mechanism 211 is processed in step 322 as trigger information, filter information, action information,
Divide into report information. If the trigger information and the filter information are the conditions related to the time and time in step 324, the process proceeds to step 326, where the trigger information is stored in the trigger DB 246 in the agent server, and the filter information is stored in the filter DB 247 in the agent server. Further, at step 328, the time is registered in a timer in the agent server 230. On the other hand, if the trigger information and the filter information are not conditions relating to time and time in step 324, the process proceeds to step 330, where the trigger information is stored in the trigger DB 253 in the function agent 250, To be stored. Next, in step 332, the action information is stored in the action DB 248, and the report information is stored in the report DB 2
49, and the process ends at step 334.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a flow of trigger monitoring in the agent server by the trigger monitoring mechanism 242 in the agent server. Here, the process starts from step 340 when the agent is generated, and waits for the arrival of the timer registration time or the notification of the server stop in step 342. If the server is stopped in step 344, the process proceeds to step 352, and the process ends. If the time registered in the timer has come in step 344, the flow advances to step 346 to input trigger information from the trigger DB 246. In step 348, the filtering processing mechanism 243 is activated, and identification information of agent definition information corresponding to the generated trigger. And the trigger (in this case, the time). After this, step 35
At 0, the next time is registered as a timer, and the process returns to step 342.

FIG. 7 shows a trigger monitoring mechanism 2 in the function server.
5 shows an example of a flow of a monitoring process of a trigger in a function server at 51. Here, the process is started from step 360 when the agent is generated, and in step 362, a notification of the occurrence of a trigger or the stop of the server is waited. If the server is stopped in step 364, the process proceeds to step 372, and the process ends. If a trigger is generated in step 364, the process proceeds to step 366, where trigger information is input from the trigger DB 253. If the trigger information matches the trigger information in step 368, step 370 is performed.
Then, the filtering processing mechanism 243 is started, the identification information of the agent definition information corresponding to the generated trigger is communicated with the trigger, and the process returns to step 362. If they do not match,
The process returns to step 362 without executing step 370.

FIG. 8 shows a flow example of the filtering processing in the filtering processing mechanisms 243 and 252. Here, in step 348 or 370, step 380 is executed.
To start. In step 382, when the process is started from step 348, the filter information is input from the filter DB 247, and when started from step 370, the filter information is input from the filter DB 254. In step 384, the filter condition is checked. That is, filter information corresponding to the identification information of the agent definition information notified from the trigger monitoring mechanism is extracted, and the filter information and the trigger notified from the trigger monitoring mechanism are compared and checked. If the condition is met at step 386, the process proceeds to step 388, where the action request processing mechanism 244 is activated, the identification information of the agent definition information that meets the condition is reported, and the process is terminated at step 390. Step 3
If the condition is not satisfied at 86, the process proceeds to step 390,
The process ends. That is, when the filter condition is met, the action request processing is started.

FIG. 9 shows a flow example of the action request processing in the action request processing mechanism 244. Here, the processing is started from step 400 by step 388. In step 402, action information corresponding to the identification information of the agent definition information notified from the filtering processing mechanism is input from the action DB 248. In step 404, the action processing in the action processing mechanism group is started based on the action information, and the action information is notified. If there is no action processing that has not been started in step 406, the process proceeds to step 408 and ends. FIG.
In step 404, based on the action information, the action processing is started in the mail transmission processing mechanism 260, the mail reception processing mechanism 261, the mail deletion processing mechanism 262, etc., and the action information is notified. If there is no activation action process, the process proceeds to step 408 and ends. If there is an unstarted action, the process returns to step 404. As a result, all the action processes specified by the action information can be executed.

FIG. 10 shows a flow example of a mail transmission process in the mail transmission processing mechanism 260 in the mail server as an example of the action process. Here, when the mail body, the attached file, and the destination information are received, the process starts from step 420. In step 422, the mail body, the attached file, and the destination information are received from the action request processing mechanism 244, and the flow advances to step 424 to notify a mail transmission trigger to the function agent 250 of the mail server 132, that is, the mail agent. As a result, a trigger is generated in step 362. If there is no remaining destination in step 426, the process proceeds to step 434 and ends. If there are remaining destinations, the process proceeds to step 428, where the mail text and the attached file are written to the destination mailbox, the status of the transmission list is changed to transmitted in step 430, and the completion of the mail transmission process is determined in step 432 by the agent server. 230 and return to step 426.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a report processing flow in the report processing mechanism 245. Here, the processing is started from step 440 when the agent is generated. In step 442, the process waits for the notification of the action result, the report request, and the server stop. If the result of determination in step 444 is that the server has been stopped, the process proceeds to step 450 and ends. As a result of the determination in step 446, step 432
If it is a communication of the action result such as, step 448
To record the action result in the report DB 249, and return to step 442. If it ’s a report request,
Proceed to step 452 to store the report information in the report DB2
49 and forwarded to the reporting mechanism 212 of the agent client 210 and return to step 442.

FIG. 15 shows an example of triggering, filtering, and action. Filtering includes individual triggers,
A specific value of the filtering item, a range of the upper limit value and the lower limit value, and a combination of a logical product and a logical sum can also be specified.

Next, FIG. 12 and FIG.
Will be described. In this specific example 1, “Every Friday at 23: 0
When it becomes 0, the mail server automatically deletes the opened mail. It has been realized. 12, the user uses the agent definition mechanism 211 of the agent client 210 to generate agent definition information as shown in FIG. Here, 0 in FIG.
Time is 2 on the agent server in lines 060 and 0070
It is defined that the trigger becomes valid at 3:00. Also, Friday is designated as filtering information in line 0080. Further, 0090, 010
Line 0 specifies to the mail server to delete the opened mail.

The agent definition information is sent from the agent definition mechanism 211 to the agent generation mechanism 241, and information 0010 to 0040 and information 0070 are stored in the trigger DB 246.
Are stored in the filter DB 247, and the information from 0010 to 0040 is
0100 is stored in the action DB 248,
Information from 010 to 0040 and information from 0050 are stored in the report DB 249. The trigger monitoring mechanism 242 starts trigger monitoring processing, and the report processing mechanism 245 starts report processing.

In the trigger monitoring mechanism 242, a trigger DB
When the time becomes 23:00 based on the information and the trigger of 246, the filtering processing mechanism 243 is activated, and the trigger is communicated with “0001” which is the identification information of the agent definition information. The filtering processing mechanism 243 determines whether it is Friday based on the information of the filter DB 247 corresponding to the identification information “0001” and the trigger, and in the case of Friday, activates the action processing request mechanism 244 and notifies the identification information “0001”. I do. Action request processing mechanism 24
4, the action D corresponding to the identification information "0001"
Based on the information of B, a request is made to the mail deletion processing mechanism 262 of the mail server 132 to delete the mail. When the agent server 230 receives the completion report of the mail deletion processing, it issues a report request to the report processing mechanism 245.
The report processing mechanism 245 displays, for example, a message “4/12 18 records have been deleted” to the user via the report mechanism 212 based on the information in the report DB 249.

Next, a specific example 2 of the processing will be described with reference to FIGS.
Will be described. In the second specific example, it is realized that "when a document is added to a newly arrived book binder on the document management server, the user is automatically notified of the addition by the mail server." In FIG. 13, the user uses the agent definition mechanism 211 of the agent client 210, and
As shown in FIG. 7, agent definition information is generated. Here, it is defined that the trigger is made valid when a document is added by the document management server in lines 1060 and 1070 in FIG. Also, a newly arrived book is specified as filtering information on the 1080th line. In addition, 109
Lines 0 and 1100 specify that a mail is sent to the mail server.

The agent definition information is sent from the agent definition mechanism 211 to the agent generation mechanism 241, and information of 1010 to 1040 and information of 1070 are stored in the trigger DB 513, and 1010 to 1040
Are stored in the filter DB 514, and information from 1010 to 1040 and 1090,
The information of 1100 is stored in the action DB 248,
Information 010 to 1040 and information 1050 are stored in the report DB 249. The trigger monitoring mechanism 511 starts trigger monitoring processing, and the report processing mechanism 245 starts report processing.

The trigger monitoring mechanism 511 includes a trigger DB
When a document is added based on the information 513 and the trigger, the filtering processing mechanism 512 is activated, and the trigger is communicated with “0002” which is the identification information of the agent definition information. The filtering processing mechanism 512 determines whether or not the newly arrived book is a document addition to the binder based on the information of the filter DB 514 corresponding to the identification information “0002” and the trigger, and activates the action processing request mechanism 244 in the case of the newly arrived book. And the identification information “0002”. In the action request processing mechanism 244, the identification information "000
Based on the information in the action DB 248 corresponding to “2”,
It requests the mail transmission processing mechanism 260 of the mail server 132 to transmit the mail. Mail transmission processing mechanism 260
Is sent to the user via the mail receiving mechanism 271 of the mail client 112, for example, “Document“ Book introduction (3) ”
Was added. Is sent. When the agent server 230 receives the completion report of the mail transmission processing, it issues a report request to the report processing mechanism 245.
The report processing mechanism 245 displays, for example, a message “4/8 e-mail has been sent” to the user via the report mechanism 212 based on the information in the report DB 249.

Next, a specific example 3 of the processing will be described with reference to FIGS.
Will be described. In this specific example 3, "When a business trip schedule of one week or more is registered in the schedule server, the workflow is automatically transferred to the workflow server to perform the processing, and the mail is transferred to the mail server by the mail server. To the person. " In FIG. 14, the user uses the agent definition mechanism 211 of the agent client 210 to generate agent definition information as shown in FIG. Here, 206 in FIG.
Lines 0 and 2070 define that the trigger is valid when a schedule is added by the schedule server. Further, the filtering information in lines 2080 and 2090 specifies that the additional schedule is one week or more on a business trip. Further, in lines 2100 and 2110, a proxy process is designated for the workflow server, and
Lines 120 and 2130 specify the proxy processing for the mail server.

The agent definition information is sent from the agent definition mechanism 211 to the agent generation mechanism 241 and the information from 2010 to 2040 and 2060, 20
70 is stored in the trigger DB 563, information from 2010 to 2040 and information from 2080 and 2090 are stored in the filter DB 564, and information from 2010 to 2040 and information from 2100, 2110, 2120, and 2130 are stored in the action DB 248. The information from 2010 to 2040 and the information from 2050 are stored in the report DB2.
49. The trigger monitoring mechanism 561 starts trigger monitoring processing, and the report processing mechanism 245 starts report processing.

The trigger monitoring mechanism 511 includes a trigger DB
When a document is added based on the information 513 and the trigger, the filtering processing mechanism 512 is activated, and the trigger is communicated with “0002” which is the identification information of the agent definition information. The filtering processing mechanism 512 determines whether or not the newly arrived book is a document addition to the binder based on the information of the filter DB 514 corresponding to the identification information “0002” and the trigger, and activates the action processing request mechanism 244 in the case of the newly arrived book. And the identification information “0002”. In the action request processing mechanism 244, the identification information "000
Based on the information in the action DB 248 corresponding to “2”,
It requests the mail transmission processing mechanism 260 of the mail server 132 to transmit the mail. The trigger monitoring mechanism 561 activates the filtering processing mechanism 562 when the schedule is registered based on the information of the trigger DB 563 and the trigger, and notifies the trigger to "0003" which is identification information of the agent definition information. The filtering processing mechanism 562 determines whether or not the business trip is for one week or more based on the information of the filter DB 564 corresponding to the identification information “0003” and the trigger. If the business trip is for one week or more, the action processing request mechanism 244 is activated. Then, the identification information “0003” is notified. Action request processing mechanism 24
4, the action D corresponding to the identification information "0003"
Based on the information in B248, it requests the case proxy processing mechanism 600 of the workflow server 134 to change the state of the case tray to “being transferred”, and after the change, the case proxy processing mechanism 600 sends a request to the agent server 230. Reports the end of processing. In addition, based on the information in the action DB 248 corresponding to the identification information “0003”, the mail request processing unit 610 of the mail server 132 is requested to change the mailbox state to “being substituted”.
After the change, the mail proxy processing mechanism 610 reports the end of the processing to the agent server 230. The matter designated as a substitute is sent to the matter receiving mechanism 620 of the workflow client 124, and the designated mail is sent to the mail receiving mechanism 271 of the mail client 122.
An agent using the client device 120 processes the matter and the mail. Upon receiving the processing completion report, the agent server 230 issues a report request to the report processing mechanism 245. The report processing mechanism 245 is a report DB
249, via the reporting mechanism 212,
For example, a message such as "Work flow has been set for proxy" and "Mail has been set for proxy" are displayed to the user.

[0027]

According to the present invention, by defining an agent in an agent client, when an event related to the definition occurs in a groupware system, processing to be performed in response to the occurrence of the event is defined in the agent definition. Since the process is automatically executed according to the content, when the event occurs, the work conventionally performed by the user to execute the corresponding process is not required, and the work load of the user in the groupware system is greatly reduced. The processing can be reduced and the processing in the groupware system can be automated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an implementation mechanism of a conventional groupware system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an implementation mechanism of a groupware system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed example of an implementation mechanism of the groupware system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of an agent definition process.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of an agent generation process.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of a trigger monitoring process in an agent server.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of a trigger monitoring process in a function server.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a flow example of a filtering process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of an action request process.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a flow example of a mail transmission process.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of a report process.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of an implementation mechanism of a groupware system according to a first specific example;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of an implementation mechanism of a groupware system according to a specific example 2.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of an implementation mechanism of a groupware system according to Example 3;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a list of triggers, filtering, and action examples.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of agent definition information of a specific example 1.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of agent definition information of a specific example 2.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of agent definition information of a specific example 3.

[Explanation of symbols]

110, 120 Client device 111, 121 Schedule client mechanism 112, 122 Mail client mechanism 113, 123 Document management client mechanism 114, 124 Workflow client mechanism 130 Server device 131 Schedule server mechanism 132 Mail server mechanism 133 Document management server mechanism 134 Workflow server mechanism 135 schedule management DB 136 mail management DB 137 document management DB 138 workflow management DB 210, 220 agent client mechanism 211 agent definition mechanism 212 reporting mechanism 230 agent server mechanism 231 agent management DB 241 agent generation mechanism 241 monitoring of trigger in agent server Mechanism 243 file in agent server Filtering processing mechanism 244 Action request processing mechanism 245 Report processing mechanism 246 Trigger DB in agent server 247 Filter DB in agent server 248 Action DB 249 Report DB 250 Function agent mechanism 251 Monitoring mechanism of trigger in server 252 Filtering processing in server Mechanism 253 Trigger DB in server 254 Filter DB in server 260 Mail transmission processing mechanism in mail server 261 Mail reception processing mechanism in mail server 262 Mail deletion processing mechanism in mail server 263 Action processing mechanism group 270 E-mail transmission processing mechanism 271 E-mail reception processing mechanism in e-mail client 272 E-mail deletion processing mechanism in e-mail client 500 Document management age 511 Trigger monitoring mechanism in the document management agent 512 Filtering processing mechanism in the document management agent 513 Trigger DB in the document management agent 514 Filter DB in the document management agent 550 Schedule agent mechanism 561 Trigger monitoring mechanism in the schedule agent 562 Filtering processing mechanism in the schedule agent 563 Trigger DB in the schedule agent 564 Filter DB in the schedule agent 600 Item proxy processing mechanism 610 Email proxy processing mechanism 620 Item receiving mechanism in the workflow client

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiki Matsuda 890 Kashimadacho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa 12 Information and Communication Development Division, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mail system for controlling transmission and reception of mail between a plurality of clients, and a processing system including the mail system and an application program, wherein the application program receives a mail transmitted from the client and includes the mail in the mail. A processing system for executing a predetermined process based on information to be processed. 2. The processing system according to claim 1, wherein said application program is an agent program.