JPH06110636A - Electronic office system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the electronic office system for supporting jobs by plural job execution parts. CONSTITUTION:This system is provided with job execution parts 5-9 for executing various jobs, agent storage part 10 for storing an interactive input picture so as to display an item related to the job in a document format, display part 5 for displaying the contents of this storage part 10, input part 4 for describing a program to operate the various jobs in the item displayed at the interactive input picture, and control part for displaying job executing conditions and the job executed result on the display part 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic office system for electronically supporting office work.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Office work is executed by a combination of a plurality of works such as various database searches, telephone inquiries, conference room reservations, and preparation of documents. Further, usually, as a result of carrying out the work, related documents are created. With regard to the regular work of the above-mentioned work due to the spread of electronic computers, a system has been proposed in which a plurality of agents that execute various works are stored and the work is automatically performed by combining them. Conventionally, these systems have generally been programmed by a system manager for each work.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional electronic office system, the system manager must create a program for each kind of work, so that the system manager must deal with each new work. As a result, each person cannot freely define their work. Further, the work execution and the document preparation are separate works, and even if the work is automated, the document preparation work accompanying it must be performed separately.

Therefore, according to the present invention, in a system for supporting work by a plurality of work executing units for performing various works, a display unit having an interactive input screen for displaying items related to the work in a document format, and each of the documents. There is provided an electronic office system including a program description unit for describing a work execution operation program in an item and a control unit for displaying a work execution status and a work execution result on the display means.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in a system for supporting a work by a plurality of work executing units performing various works, an interactive input screen for displaying items related to the work in a document format is displayed. Provided is an electronic office system including a display unit for displaying, a program description unit for describing an operation program for operating various jobs in each item of a document, and a control unit for displaying a business execution status and a business execution result on the display unit. It

[0006]

In the electronic office system of the present invention, various jobs can be displayed in the form of documents on the interactive input screen, and the job execution operation program can be described by the combination of the job execution units registered in advance. Business execution procedures can be easily defined for general users who are not system managers. Moreover, since the document information is generated as a result of performing the work, the time and effort to newly create the related document can be reduced. Furthermore, since the work performance status can be monitored through the same dialogue input screen, the progress status can be easily grasped for each item.

[0007]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram of a hardware device used in an electronic office system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the agent operation program definition unit 1 defines an agent operation program for performing office work. The agent execution control unit 2 is responsible for overall control of execution of a plurality of agents (work execution units) that perform office work and data communication between agents. The agent execution monitoring unit 3 monitors the execution status of the agent.

The agent operation program definition unit 1, the agent execution control unit 2 and the agent execution monitoring unit 3 have an input unit 4 for inputting various data by the user and an agent operation program, an execution status, a job execution result and the like in a document format. The display unit 5 for displaying is connected. In addition, an agent (business execution section) that performs various tasks such as a business A agent (business A execution section) 6, a business B agent (business B execution section) 7, a database search agent (database search execution section) 8, and external communication. Agents that perform routine tasks such as agents (typical task communication performing section) 9 are stored in the agent storage section 10. The work A agent 6 is connected to a program storage unit 11 that stores an agent operation program and a data storage unit 12 that stores data as a result of executing the agent operation program. Further, the database search agent 8 includes various databases 1
3 is connected.

2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show one display example of the document type interface (interactive input screen) of the work A agent 6. The main elements used for this display are a display character string 21 (underlined) such as a title, item name 2
2 and item 23. In the item 23, a value directly entered by the user, an agent operating program written by the user, an item value obtained from the result of program execution, and the like are displayed. The title and items are
As a result of the work execution, it can be designated whether or not to display it when it is issued as a document, and the * mark indicated by reference numeral 24 in the figure indicates that it is not displayed as an issued document. A frame 25 shows an example in which an agent operation program is described, which shows that a visitor is operating an agent who is approved to visit the company. Arguments are described in parentheses, and the "visitor" of this argument is the item name 22, and when the corresponding item value is determined, control is transferred to the agent and the actual work is performed. When the visit request agent is executed, the name of the approver is displayed in this item as a result. Box 26 shows an example of operating an agent who reserves a hotel for a visitor. When the hotel booking agent is run, the resulting booked hotel name is displayed.
Since this item is information that only the person who performs the work wants to know, it is marked with * and is not displayed as an issued document.
A frame 27 shows an example in which a visitor's interest is determined by passing a search expression “visitor → interest” to a DB (database) search agent as an argument. The result searched by the DB search agent is returned to the work A agent, and the determined item value is displayed later. A frame 28 shows an example in which a program for executing a conference room reservation agent that determines a vacant conference room is described, and a frame 29 shows an example in which a program having a plurality of lines is described. Execute a DB search agent to determine the person in charge from the tour item,
As a result, if the person in charge of the demonstration decides, the person in charge of the demonstration is notified that the demonstration is requested at the date and time, and the schedule confirmation agent for confirming the schedule is executed.

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 show an example of the display of the document type interface (FIG. 2) of the job A agent 6 during job execution. For items for which work has already been completed and the result of which is known, item values are displayed in a frame 31, for example. Further, for the work currently being performed, the agent execution status can be monitored. When the item 32 is designated, an execution monitoring field 33 for displaying the agent execution status is displayed. In the execution monitoring column 33, the agent execution step 34 is displayed, and the step 35 currently being executed is highlighted.

FIG. 8 shows a processing flow of the agent execution control unit 2. The agent execution control unit 2 controls execution of an agent designated by a user or an agent and data communication between agents.

First, if there is data in the input section 4, the data is input (S1). Here, since the agent to be executed is specified, the specified agent is identified (S2), it is checked whether this agent is an existing agent (S3), and if it is an existing agent, the specified agent is stored in the agent storage unit. 10 is searched (S5), otherwise, a new agent is registered (S4), and the process returns to S1. When the specified agent is retrieved from the agent storage unit 10, execution control is transferred to the agent (S6). After that, individual agents operate independently. For example, in the work A agent, the program specified in the document item is executed,
Item values are determined one after another. Here, when the agent to which the control is passed is executed, an operation such as executing another agent or communicating data with another agent is performed. Therefore, the agent execution control unit 2 identifies those commands transmitted from each agent. It is checked whether the data transmitted from the agent is a display command (S7), and if it is a display command, the value passed as an argument is output to the display unit 5 (S8). If the transmission data is not a display command, it is checked whether it is an agent operation command (S9), and if it is an operation command for another agent, the agent is identified and the operations after step S2 are repeated. It is checked whether the transmission data has an end command (S1
0), if the command is an end command, the execution of the agent currently being executed is ended and the next input data is waited for (S1).

FIG. 9 shows the processing flow of the business A agent. The work A agent sequentially executes the agent operation program described in the item, and outputs the result to the document interface.

First, data of one item out of a plurality of items is read from the data storage unit 9 (S21). Either the agent operation program or the item value is entered in the item, so the item is searched. Since the item value is written or updated at an arbitrary timing, it is inspected whether the item value already exists (S22), and if it does not exist, it is inspected whether the item value has been updated (S22).
23). When updated, including newly input, item value data is sent to all items in the document having a program with the item name as a variable, and variable values are set (S24). If the value entered in the item is not the item value, it is an agent operation program, so one line is read from the program storage unit 10 (S2).
5). It is checked whether all the variable values in the program have been decided (S26), and if they have been decided, the program is executed (S27). It is checked whether the program has completed all the lines (S28).
Repeat the line reading and execution. If the variable value has not yet been determined at the time the program is executed, the program for that item has not yet been executed. next,
The item pointer pointing to the item is moved to the next item (S29), and these processes are repeated until there is an end interrupt (S30). That is, all items are repeatedly monitored, and the agent operation program is sequentially executed at the timing when the variable value is determined, and the item value is determined.

FIG. 10 shows a processing flow of the agent execution monitoring unit 3. The agent execution monitoring unit 3 constantly monitors the execution status of all agents currently being executed,
Display the execution status of the specified item. FIG. 10 shows the flow of monitoring for the execution of one agent, and this processing is performed for all currently executing agents.

The execution status is inquired to the running agent (S41), and by the value returned from the agent,
The pointer is moved to the current status in the execution monitoring column (S42). Next, it is checked whether or not an item is specified (S43). If no item is specified, the process returns to step S41, and when the execution monitoring column is requested to be displayed by the item specification, the execution monitoring column is opened. It is displayed (S44). It is checked whether or not the agent execution is completed (S45), and the above operation is repeated until the agent execution is completed.

FIG. 11 shows the flow of processing of the agent operation program definition unit 1. The agent operation program definition unit 1 exemplifies an existing program or defines a new program according to an instruction from the user. FIG. 7 shows the processing after reading the instruction from the user.

It is checked whether or not the instruction from the user is "definition" (S51), and if it is "definition", a new agent operation program definition procedure is performed (S52). It is checked whether the instruction from the user is "exemplification" (S53), and if "exemplification", example data corresponding to the user's requested work is retrieved and displayed on the document interface (S54). As a result, the document interface displays the document image in which the item values are filled. The following two steps are performed in relation to this example data. The user checks whether or not there is a request for detailed explanation of the example by the "explanation" command (S55), and if there is, an agent operation program for executing the example task is illustrated (S56). As a result,
A document image in which the agent operation program is described is displayed in each item. Further, the user checks whether or not there is a request for further explanation by the "inquiry" command for the displayed program (S57). If there is, the person in charge of this work is searched and the inquiry destination is presented (S5).
8).

Next, it is checked whether or not the instruction from the user is "correction" (S59), and if it is "correction", a correction procedure of the defined agent operation program is performed (S6).
0). Finally, the defined or modified program is registered (S61).

As described above, in this embodiment, the document related to the work is used as the interface, and the agent operation program can be described in each item of the document, the agent execution status can be displayed, and the agent operation result can be displayed.

In the above embodiment, the details of the agent operation program definition are not mentioned, but the grammar of the program is not particularly limited. Also, the program is designed so that the user can describe each item, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the agent name stored in advance is presented as a menu so that it can be selected using a pointing device such as a mouse. Good. Furthermore, the method of modifying the agent operation program and the method of processing the registration procedure are not particularly limited.

[0023]

According to the present invention, a combination of business agents stored in advance can be used through a document type interface (interactive input screen for displaying business items in a document format).
Since the agent operation program can be easily described,
Business procedures can be easily defined for general users who are not system managers who manage electronic office systems, and general users can individually support the execution of business while making the most of their tastes. Further, since the execution status of the work and the result can be viewed on the same document type interface, it is possible to save the trouble of performing the work execution and the document preparation as separate works, and to manage the work easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic office system using an agent operation program description system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of a document type interface of a business A agent.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the first half of the document type interface of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the latter half of the document type interface of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a work-in-progress document-type interface during work execution.

6 is a diagram showing the first half of the document type interface of FIG.

7 is a diagram showing the latter half of the document type interface of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of an agent execution control unit.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of the business A agent.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of an agent execution monitoring unit.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of an agent operation program definition unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Agent operation program definition section, 2 ... Agent execution control section, 3 ... Agent execution monitoring section, 4 ... Input section, 5 ... Display section, 6 ... Business A agent, 7 ... Business B agent, 8 ... Database search agent,
9 ... External communication agent, 10 ... Agent storage unit, 11 ... Program storage unit, 12 ... Data storage unit, 1
3 ... Database.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing a task execution unit for performing various tasks, a dialog input screen for displaying items related to the task of the task execution unit in a document format, and contents of the storage unit. Display means, operation means in which a program for operating the various kinds of work is described in the items of the interactive input screen displayed on the display means, and the work execution status and the work execution result in the work execution means are displayed on the display means. An electronic office system characterized by comprising: