JP2002074247A - System and method for managing and displaying documents - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make inputtable item data in each case without waiting till an indispensable input item is identified and make timely confirmable and transmittable document contents in a system for managing and displaying a group of document contents which consist of a plurality of items and where a part is constituted by the indispensable input item. SOLUTION: A means is arranged, by which the inputted document contents are the established one or not. In the case of a non-established state, an input is permitted while lacking the indispensable input item and only the identified item is inputted each time. In the meantime, establishment can be designated only when the input of the indispensable input item is completed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a document including inquiry information such that one of a plurality of items is gradually found and executed to form one unit of information by inputting necessary items on a screen. The present invention relates to a document management display system and a method for creating and managing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, when a server computer and a client computer are connected to each other via a network and a person in charge of the input item (inquiry information) inputs the item to the client computer, the input item is stored in a database on the server computer. A system is used in which the contents of input items can be confirmed, processed, and utilized by a client computer installed in the management department.

[0003] A typical example of such a system is a so-called order management system. When a department (for example, a sales department in a company) that directly obtains inquiry information or order information inputs item information obtained in a client computer installed in its own department, the order management system registers the information in a database on a server computer, In the management department (such as the head office of the company), the order information is checked by the client computer of the own department, and it is processed (such as creating an estimate) and utilized (the order status is collectively used as a reference for business policy planning). is there.

In such a system, when inputting item information, required input items (for example, price and delivery date) which must be input for each unit (for example, inquiry subject) are predetermined, and the required input items are unknown. If there was, it was necessary to wait and input.

[0005]

However, in the inquiry information and the order information, the items are not always determined simultaneously for each subject. For example, there may be a case where the price is determined first and the delivery date is determined later. In such a case, when trying to input information using the above-described conventional system, the user is forced to input all mandatory input items after they have been determined, or to input tentative values for unknown items. However, if the former method is adopted, the input of information will be delayed and the timing of utilization will be lost, and if the latter method is employed, the work of inputting and changing will be very complicated, and many people will have the same When sharing an order management system, even if one individual thinks and inputs a tentative value, another person can clearly distinguish whether the input value of that item is a fixed value or a tentative value. Rather, this led to confusion and inconsistencies in document management.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a method of inputting a unit of information in which each item is gradually identified, such as inquiry information, without losing timing and without complicated changes. An object of the present invention is to provide a document management display system and a method thereof that can be utilized.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a document management and display system according to the present invention provides a document management and display system in which input items on an input screen imitating a document format provided with a plurality of input items are operated. Input means for inputting character information in accordance with the instructions of the person, and a sign providing means for giving a sign indicating whether the content of the document created from the input character information is confirmed or unconfirmed as a unit of document, Storage means for storing the contents of the document in a pair with the attached label; and display means for displaying the contents of the document stored by the instruction of the operator in a state where the contents are confirmed or unconfirmed. .

Further, in the document management and display system according to the present invention, when a part of the input items is an essential input item and the rest are optional input items, a sign indicating confirmation is added to the document contents. Until then, storage control means is provided that permits storage in the storage means without the required input items, and after adding a sign indicating confirmation, permits storage only when the input of the required input items is completed. It is characterized by:

Further, the document management display system according to the present invention is characterized in that one mark indicating the determined or undetermined is attached to one unit of the document. Further, the sign providing means includes a detecting means for detecting which one of icons, which is displayed together with a plurality of input items, indicating a confirmed or unconfirmed, is selected by the operator, and a flag corresponding to the detected result. And flag adding means for adding to the created document data.

Further, in the document management and display system according to the present invention, two clients and a server are connected via a network, and a first client includes the input means and the sign providing means, and a second client is provided. A client including the display unit; and a server including a network client that communicates with the client via a network, a database including the storage unit, and a database server including the storage control unit. Receiving the storage request from the second client, storing the document content in the database, receiving the request from the second client, searching the document content in the database, and transmitting the found document content to the second client. The document is a creator or a department to which the document belongs. Is stored in association with an identifier indicating

According to the present invention, there is provided input means for inputting character information to a plurality of input items and instructing storage of a document created by the input, and storage means for receiving the instruction and storing the document content. In a document management and display system provided with a display means for extracting and displaying the contents of documents stored in the report storage means, an indicator is provided to indicate whether the input one unit of document contents is fixed or undetermined, and to the storage means The method is characterized in that when storing the contents of the document, it is stored in a pair with the sign, and when displaying on the display means, the sign is displayed together with the contents of the document.

Here, when a part of the plurality of items is a required input item, a storage instruction to the information storage means is permitted without the required input item until a sign indicating confirmation is given to the document content. After the confirmation sign is given, the storage instruction is allowed only when the input of the required input items is completed. The present invention also provides a first client for inputting characters through an input screen imitating a document form, a server for storing and managing document contents input from the client, and a second client for displaying the stored document contents. In a document management and display system interconnected by a network, an indicator is provided in the first client to indicate whether the input document content is confirmed or undetermined, and the marker and the document content are paired when stored in the storage means. And displaying the sign together with the contents of the document when displaying the sign on the second client.

[0013]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the overall configuration of the system will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an order receiving information transmission system embodying the present invention. The system is a client 10 for the sales department.
0 a and 100 b, an order information server 102, and a management department client 106 are mutually connected by a communication network 101. The sales department clients 100a and 100b are terminals in which a sales person in the sales department inputs, for example, order data, and a personal computer on which a WWW browser is installed is used. The management section client 106 is a terminal by which the management section checks the contents of order data.
A personal computer on which a WW browser is installed is used. 102, an order information server;
It is composed of a WW server unit 103, a database server unit 104, and an order information database 105. WWW
The server unit 103 transmits the data input / correction form and the data registration processing script to the sales department client 100 using an HTML (Hypertext Makeup Language).
e) The document is sent out in the form of a document, and the management section client 106
Then, an order data confirmation form is transmitted in the HTML document format. The script, for example, Java Sc
Described by ript. Database server unit 104
Manages the database, such as reading data from the order information database 105, writing to and changing them.

Next, an outline of cooperation between a WWW server and a database server which is a premise of the system configuration according to the present embodiment will be described. In recent years, a WWW server and a database server have been linked in order to realize, on a system, a function of providing data stored in a database in response to a search request from a user and a function of registering data input by the user in the database. The configuration is used, and the configuration is also used in the application processing system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a mechanism of exchanging data between a WWW browser installed on a client, a WWW server, and a database server. For example, the procedure of the data search process will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, first, an operator of a client who wants to access the database,
The URL of the WWW server (Uniform R
esource Locator). The WWW browser receives the input of the URL and requests the WWW server to transmit an HTML document. Then, the WWW server transmits an HTML document including a search key input form and a search script to the client who made the request.

[0015] The WWW browser receives and displays the HTML document. When the operator inputs a search key in a search key input form and instructs the start of a search script (usually performed by clicking a button display with a pointing device such as a mouse), a search request including the search key is issued. Is sent to the WWW server. In the WWW server, the search request is converted into an SQL statement that can be executed by the database server and transmitted to the database server. The database server executes the SQL statement to search the database, and transfers the search result to the WWW server. The WWW server converts the search result into an HTML document format and sends it to a WWW browser. The WWW browser displays an HTML document including the contents of the search result, so that the operator can view a desired search result. Although the search function has been described above, registration in the database can be realized by a similar mechanism by transmitting a registration request including registration data from the WWW browser to the WWW server. In addition, data search,
Regardless of data registration, the server generally requests a department ID assigned to each department before transmitting a search form and an input form in order to confirm the legitimacy of the accessing person. In this embodiment, the user is also required to input a department ID,
The validity of the input person is checked.

Next, a detailed configuration and operation of the system will be described with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 3 and 4 show that when the operator starts the WWW browser on the business office client 100, specifies the URL of the WWW server unit 103 in the order receiving information server 102, and accesses the WWW server unit 103, the HTML document is displayed. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state transmitted from a WWW server unit and displayed on a screen of a business office client 100; FIG. 3 shows an ID input screen which is first transmitted from the server and displayed on the client terminal when accessing the server. On this screen, when the department ID is entered and the server confirms the validity, the selection screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 200 denotes a new registration button which is clicked when an operator (sales person) desires new registration of order information. Reference numeral 201 denotes order information for which the operator has already been registered. Is a registration data correction button that is clicked when the user wants to correct the registered data. When the operator selects one of the buttons and presses the send button, the server creates an input form according to the selection or searches the database for the input form and sends it to the client. FIG. 5 shows an order information input form displayed on the screen of the office client 100 when the operator clicks the new registration button 200. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 300 denotes a customer input unit by which an operator inputs a customer name, a customer address, and a person in charge on the customer side. An asterisk ("*") attached to the right of the customer name and customer address input fields indicates that these are required input items. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example in which the input form obtained by the server requesting the database to be searched and acquired is displayed on the screen of the business office client 100 when the operator clicks the registration correction button 201. From the figure, it can be seen that the amount column and the number of personnel column have not been entered. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a screen displayed on the sales department client 100 when the operator has completed input of all items for one piece of order information.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show the management section client 10.
6 shows an example displayed on the screen of the management section client 106 when requesting the server to transmit an order form input from another section in order to confirm the order data. FIG. 8 shows one piece of order information in a state where the contents of the order are unconfirmed (indicating that the order is registered with the confirm button 302 not yet pressed) and there is an uninput item. FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing one order entry information in a confirmed state (when the confirm button 302 has already been pressed and registered) and all input items have been entered.

FIG. 10 shows a form in which order data is stored in the order information database 105.
In the database, it is stored in the structure of an order information table as shown in FIG. As can be understood from FIG. 10, one piece of order information is composed of a confirmation flag indicating a distinction between confirmed and unconfirmed, a department ID, customer data, and data area in which subject data is described. In the confirmed flag area, “0” is set when the state is undetermined, and “1” is set when the state is confirmed. In the section ID area, the identifier of the section to which the operator who has input necessary items in the order data input form belongs is described. The customer data area describes three items: a customer name representing a customer name (company name, personal name, etc.), a customer address, and a customer side person in charge (a person in charge of ordering procedures). The subject data area describes five items: subject, delivery date, amount, number of personnel (number of employees engaged in the subject, etc.), and remarks. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the input item table in the order information database. FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, for the input items, an item name and a flag indicating whether the item is a required input item or an optional input item (“1” for an essential input item, and “0” for an optional input item) are set. )). This input item table is mainly used to determine whether or not all necessary input items have been input when the sales office client inputs order data.

FIGS. 12 to 15 are flow charts showing the operation of the order receiving information system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 12 shows the sales office clients 100a and 10b.
0b, a flowchart showing the procedure, FIGS.
Is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the WWW server unit 103, and FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the database server unit 104. Next, the operation of the order receiving information transmission system will be described based on these drawings.

Now, in the development and sales department which is engaged in a certain system development, one piece of unconfirmed order information is found, and the customer name in the customer information is “Koyama Shoji Co., Ltd.”
The customer address is “Chuo-ku, Osaka”, the customer contact person is “Kojiro Otokawa”, the subject in the subject information is “Development of invoicing system”, and the delivery date is “October 30, 2000”
It is assumed that the amount and the number of personnel are not known.
First, the operator operates the sales department client 10.
In step 0a, a WWW browser is started, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the WWW server unit 103 is input (step S1), and connection is established via the communication network 101. Upon receiving the connection (step S21), the WWW server unit 103 transmits an ID input form (step S22). The office client 100a receives this form, displays the screen shown in FIG. 3 (step S2), and, when the operator inputs the department ID, displays it on the WW.
The data is transmitted to the W server unit 103 (step S3). WWW
The server unit 103 recognizes the validity of the ID and determines from which department the request is (steps S23 and S24). If the department ID is that of the management department, a program for order data confirmation processing is started (step S26). The processing of this program is not shown in the figure, but is roughly as follows. First, in accordance with a request from the management department, the designated data is searched for among the order data already stored in the database, and sent to the management department client 106. The management section displays the information shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 on the screen. And
Based on the displayed information, the final information will be used as the basis for statistics for preparing contracts and ascertaining business performance. The undecided information is used for labor management.

On the other hand, in step S24, the department ID
Is determined to be a sales department, a program for order data input processing is started (step S25). The processing by this program is shown in FIG. First, in step S251, an HTML document including an input form and a script for selecting one of “new data registration” and “registered data correction” is transmitted to the sales office client 1.
01a. When the HTML document is displayed on the business office client 101a, the screen display changes to the state shown in FIG. 4 (step S4). Now, if the operator desires to register new data, a new registration button 200
Click. Then, the script included in the HTML document detects the click and sends a signal indicating that the operator has selected new data registration to the WWW server 10.
3 (step S5).

In response to the signal, the WWW server unit 103 sends an HTML document including a new data registration input form and a data registration script to the sales department client 100a (S253). The HTML
When the document is displayed on the office client 100a, the screen is changed to the display shown in FIG. 5 (step S6). The operator looks at the screen display and inputs only the known items.
Remain uninput (step S7). When this operation is completed, the screen display will be as shown in FIG. further,
Since the operator desires registration without confirming the input information, the operator clicks the registration button 303 (step S8). Then, the script sends the input data and a signal indicating that the operator has instructed registration to the WWW server unit 103, and the WWW server unit creates an SQL sentence from the received data (step S257) and creates a database. The data is transferred to the server unit 104 (step S258).

The database server unit 104 executes the SQL statement according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 15 and registers the input data in the order information database server unit 105. In this case, since the input order information is not instructed to be confirmed (step S301), the corresponding confirmed flag is registered with "0" set (steps S304 and S305). Thus, the process of newly registering one order information is completed. At this stage, the management department can confirm the order information on the screen in the form shown in FIG. 8 by the management department client 106, and can immediately grasp the situation in which the negotiation is in progress.

As described above, after the order information is registered in an undecided state, the negotiation further proceeds, and the initially unknown amount is “15 million yen”, and the number of personnel assigned to the subject is “3 ", And the information on the subject is determined. In this case, it is necessary for the operator to re-enter the order information once entered and to register it by instructing confirmation. This process is performed until the screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. The same operation as described above is performed, and when the screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, the registered data correction button 202 is clicked. In response to the click, the WWW server unit 103 sets the database server unit 10
4 is requested to search for registered order information (step S254). If the database server unit 104 can search, the order information is transferred to the WWW server unit 103, and the WWW server unit 103 uses the transferred order information (step S255) to retrieve the registered data correction H
A TML document is created and sent to the business office client 100a (step S256). At this stage, the screen of the office client 100a is in the state shown in FIG. If there are a plurality of registered order information, a list is first displayed and desired order information is displayed by the operator's selection, but this mechanism is the same as that of the existing system. Alternatively, if a unique personal ID is used for each operator instead of the department ID used in the embodiment, a document created by the user can be searched and displayed by simply inputting the ID. Can be done. Of course, such an implementation is possible.

Next, the operator inputs "15 million yen" in the blank amount column and "3" in the number of personnel. At this stage, the screen of the business office client 100a is shown in FIG.
The state shown in FIG. The operator clicks the confirmation button 302 (step S8) because he / she desires confirmation. The order information corrected (supplemented) at this stage is once sent to the database server unit 104 via the WWW server unit 103 (step S258). The database server 104 refers to the received reception information and the required input item table,
If the required input items have been entered (step S30
2) Change the confirmed flag to 1 (step S30)
3) While registering the order information (step S30)
5) The determined signal is sent to the WWW server section b103 (step S306). In response to the signal, the WWW server unit 103 transmits an HTML document indicating that the order information has been confirmed to the client 100a for the business office.
(Steps S259 and S260), and the office client 100a displays a message to that effect (S11).
If the user instructs confirmation without inputting all the required input items, the database unit detects this in step S302 and issues an error instruction (step S310).
The WWW server unit 103 performs steps S261 and S262.
An error message is sent to the sales office client via. On the other hand, the business office client 100a that has received the error message displays it (step S1).
2). Further, the operator clicks a registration button 303 to instruct registration of the corrected order information (steps S7, S8, S9). In response, the database server unit 104 registers the corrected order information in the database, and sets the confirmed flag to “0” (steps S301 and S304).

With the above, the correction and final registration of the order information are completed. After that, the management department starts the management department client 1
When the order information is displayed at 06, it is displayed as shown in FIG. 8, and the management department can know that the amount and the number of personnel have been found for the order information and the information has been determined. The database server unit 104 may be requested not only to register the order information but also to search from the WWW server unit 103. Therefore, the database server unit 104
If the received information is a search request (step S300), search processing is performed (step S307). If the corresponding information is searched (step S308), the WWW server unit 1
03 (step S3).
09).

As described above, according to the order information transmission system of this embodiment, registration is performed every time even a part of the order information is found. Since it can be confirmed and registered, it is possible for the operator to enter the order information without losing time and without waiting for the necessary input items to be found. It is possible to know together with the distinction of confirmation, and to take prompt measures based on the ever-changing order information (contract processing, drafting of sales policy to instruct sales department, etc.)
You can take. If you do not know the required fields,
It is not necessary to perform a complicated operation of temporarily inputting and correcting later.

Although the above configuration shows an example in which the present invention is applied to an order management system, the present invention is not limited to this, and the contents of items are gradually determined even in other contract documents. The present invention can be applied to such a case. In the embodiment, one confirmation flag is assigned to one unit of document.
It is also possible to provide for each input item. However, if one flag is given to one document as in the embodiment, management and search become easy.

[0030]

As described above, according to the document management and display system of the present invention, among the plurality of input items, those which have not been determined are not entered, and only those which have been determined are input each time. You can go and if all the required input items are found and the contents of the document are finalized, perform the operation of instructing the finalization, distinguishing between the finalized and unconfirmed, memorize it, and transmit it to the concerned parties and display it The effect is that the contents of the document can be transmitted in a very timely manner with the distinction between finalized / unconfirmed.

Further, even if an essential input item is unknown, information can be registered without inputting the item, and a complicated operation of inputting a temporary value and correcting it later is not required.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration of an order information transmission system as an example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a mechanism of cooperation between a WWW server and a database server.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a screen for inputting a department ID.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a screen of a client for a sales department on which a new registration / registration data correction selection form is displayed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a screen of a sales department client on which an order information data input form is displayed.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a screen of a client for a sales department in a state where input of only found items in order information data is completed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a screen of a client for a sales department in a state where input of all items is completed.

FIG. 8 is a display screen of the management department client,
The figure which shows the example which displayed the order document content when there is an uninput item.

FIG. 9 is a display screen of the management department client,
Diagram showing the contents of an order document with all input items confirmed

FIG. 10 is a table structure of order information in a database.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration of a required input item table in a database.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an operation with a business office client.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation of the WWW server.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing details of order data input processing.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing processing of the database server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100a Sales department client 100b Sales department client 101 Communication network 102 Order information server 103 WWW server section 104 Database server section 105 Order information database 106 Management section client 200 New registration button 201 Registration data correction button 300 Customer input means 301 Subject input Means 302 Confirm button 303 Register button

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshikazu Togi 1006 Kadoma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Soft Research Inc. F-term (reference) 5B009 SA12 SA14

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An input means for inputting character information in accordance with an instruction of an operator on the input item in an input screen imitating a document form provided with a plurality of input items; Means for assigning a sign indicating whether the contents of a document to be fixed or unconfirmed as a unit of document, storage means for storing the contents of the document in association with the attached sign, and contents of the stored document And a display means for displaying when the display instruction is received from the operator, in a state in which it is determined whether the display is confirmed or not. 2. A part of the input items is a required input item, and the rest is an optional input item. The document management display system further requires the document management display system to add a sign indicating confirmation to the document contents. Storage means for permitting storage in the storage means without input items and providing a sign indicating confirmation, and then permitting storage only when input of required input items is completed, The document management and display system according to claim 1, wherein 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein one of the signs indicating the finalized state and the finalized state is attached to one unit of the document.
Or the document management display system described in 2. 4. The detection device according to claim 1, wherein the sign providing unit detects which of an icon, which is displayed together with the plurality of input items, is displayed together with the plurality of input items, and which indicates an unconfirmed one, is selected by the operator. 4. The document management and display system according to claim 3, further comprising flag adding means for adding a corresponding flag to the created document data. 5. A server, wherein two clients and a server are connected via a network, wherein a first client comprises the input means and the sign providing means, a second client comprises the display means, and a server comprising: A network client that communicates with the client via a network, and a database including the storage unit.
And a database server including the storage control means. The database server receives the storage request from the first client, stores the document contents in the database, and receives the request from the second client to store the database. Search the contents of the documents in the
Claim 2
Document management display system described. 6. The document management and display system according to claim 4, wherein the document is stored in association with an identifier indicating a creator or a department to which the document belongs. 7. Input means for inputting character information into a plurality of input items and instructing storage of a document created by the input, storage means for receiving the instruction and storing the document content, and information storage means. In a document management display system provided with a display means for extracting and displaying the contents of a document stored in a storage unit, a sign indicating whether the input one unit of the contents of the document is determined or undetermined is given, and the contents of the document are stored in the storage means. And displaying the sign together with the contents of the document when displaying the sign on the display means. 8. When a part of a plurality of items is a required input item, a storage instruction to the information storage means is allowed without the required input item until a sign indicating confirmation is given to the document contents, and the determination is made. 8. The storage instruction is permitted only after the input of the required input items is completed after the sign is attached.
Document management display method described. 9. A first client for inputting characters through an input screen imitating a document form, a server for storing and managing document contents input from the client, and a second client for displaying the stored document contents. In a document management and display system mutually connected by a network, a sign indicating whether the input document content is confirmed or unconfirmed is given by the first client, and when the document content is stored in the storage means, the marker and the document content are paired. An information transmission method, wherein the sign is displayed together with the content of the document when stored and displayed on the second client. 10. An information recording medium, wherein a computer software program for realizing the document management display method according to claim 9 is recorded in a mechanically readable manner.