JP2002083262A - Electronic form and storage medium with utilization program for therefor stored therein - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To clarify details of the content for the correction of each item in the circulation of an electronic form or the like, and who is responsible. SOLUTION: In this storage medium with an electronic form using program readable by a computer stored therein, the program operates the computer as an electronic form gaining means for gaining an electronic form containing a plurality of items, a forming means for forming an edited data from the item edited by a user to the gained electronic form, a signature preparing means for preparing an electronic sign to the edited data each item by use of the electronic sign key of the user, and a means for including the edited data and the electronic sign in a part of the electronic form.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to the provision of a signature on an electronic form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some documents, such as in-house circulation documents and contracts created between different companies, are circulated, edited, and modified by a plurality of persons in the course of document distribution. If such a document is converted into digital data and distributed (circulated) in the form of an electronic form using a computer network, work efficiency is improved.

[0003]

However, in the form of an electronic form, if there is no information on when and who added or corrected the contents, it is necessary to clarify the responsibility for the contents of the document. Can not.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to clarify the details of the contents and the responsibility for the modification of each item in the circulation of an electronic form.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic form for acquiring an electronic form including a plurality of items in a storage medium storing a computer readable electronic form utilizing program. Acquisition means, creation means for creating edit data from a matter edited by the user with respect to the acquired electronic form, signature creation for creating an electronic signature for the edit data for each item using a user's electronic signature key Means for operating the editing data and the electronic signature in a part of the electronic form.

According to the above storage medium, an electronic form including a plurality of items is obtained, and a user edits necessary items in the obtained electronic form. Edited data is created from the edited items. An electronic signature for the edited data is created for each item using the user's electronic signature key, and is made a part of the electronic form together with the edited data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the storage medium according to the first aspect, the electronic form utilizing program acquires a time at which a user has performed editing, and identifies the edited data. The computer is operated as means for creating edit history data including information, the edit time information, and the user identification information. As a result, the editing histories of a plurality of users can be stored in detail.

[0008] The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2.
The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the electronic form utilization program causes the computer to operate as display means for displaying the electronic form, and display control means for displaying a signature mark corresponding to the electronic signature on the display means. As a result, when the user displays the electronic form, a signature mark that visually indicates the item with the electronic signature is displayed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the storage medium according to the third aspect, the display control means displays the signature marks in order of the time at which the corresponding editing was performed.
As a result, the temporal order of editing performed by a plurality of users can be grasped at a glance.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the storage medium of the second aspect, the electronic form utilization program operates the computer as history display means for displaying the edit history data in response to a user request. Let it.
Therefore, the user can easily see the detailed editing history.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic form, data constituting a plurality of items in the electronic form, edit data including edit items of the user for the items, and edit items of the user for each of the items about,
And an electronic signature created for each item. Accordingly, it is possible to confirm the editing items and the electronic signature by the user for each item included in the electronic form, and when the editing is performed by a plurality of users, the contents of each editing item and the editor thereof can be accurately known. .

[0012]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a distribution environment of an electronic form according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an electronic form distribution system 2 and a plurality of user terminals 4 are connected via a network 1. A preferred example of the network 1 is the Internet.

The electronic form distribution system 2 sends various electronic forms 10 to a user terminal in response to a user request. The electronic form distribution system 2 has an electronic form library 3, and various electronic forms are stored in the electronic form library 3.

The user terminal is, for example, a personal computer at the user's home or a terminal at work, and necessary software for connecting to the electronic form distribution system 2 through the network 1 is installed. If the network 1 is the Internet, this software is of a type called a browser. Further, the user terminal downloads a desired electronic form from the electronic form distribution system 2 and opens and browses it on the user terminal.
A program (hereinafter, referred to as an “electronic form utilization program”) that performs editing and the like and, if necessary, executes processing for transmission to a predetermined destination is introduced. The electronic form utilization program can be installed in the terminal 4 in the form of a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, or can be downloaded from the electronic form distribution system 2 via the network 1.

The user terminal includes an IC card reader (not shown), and can input and output data by inserting the user's IC card 7. The IC card 7 includes authentication information necessary for a user to connect to the electronic form distribution system 2 and obtain a desired electronic form, and an electronic signature key (secret) used when the user signs an edit item. Key) and data such as a signature mark for visually displaying the electronic signature of the user. By using the IC card 7 in this manner, the user can use the electronic form even when using a terminal other than the terminal owned by the user, such as a shared terminal installed at work or a terminal on the go. Become like Note that I
Various storage media other than the C card can be used.

Next, the data structure of the electronic form according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 2A schematically shows a data configuration of an electronic form used in the present invention. The electronic form 10 includes items, fields,
Original data 11 including characters, decorations, etc., and edited data 12 corresponding to additions and corrections made during circulation.
And editing history data 13 indicating the history of such editing
And signature data 14 including an electronic signature given by the person who edited the document.

FIG. 2B schematically shows the structure of the edit data 12. The editing data 12 is input by each user, added,
A set of items (characters, symbols, etc.) that have been modified (hereinafter, also collectively referred to as “editing”), and are managed as independent data for each editing process.

FIG. 2C shows an example of the editing history data 13. The editing history data 13 includes, for each item included in the electronic form, an editing data number, an editing time, an editor, and the like performed on the item.

Next, an example using the electronic form distribution system and the electronic form described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows an example of a display screen on each user terminal 4 in this example, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts of processing. First, an overview will be given. In this example, as shown in FIG. 1, a user A acquires a predetermined electronic form 10 from the electronic form distribution system 2 and inputs necessary items. By transmitting the input electronic form 10 using the network 1, the electronic form 10 is circulated with the user B and the user C, and necessary editing is performed. The following processing is basically performed by the terminal 4 executing the electronic form utilization program.

First, the user A sends a desired electronic form (“ABC application form”) from the electronic form distribution system 2 using the electronic form utilization program installed in the terminal 4.
Is acquired and displayed on the terminal 4 (step S
2) Input necessary items (step S4). FIG. 3A shows a display example at this time. In FIG. 3A, the electronic form 10 is displayed substantially at the center of the display screen 20.
Electronic form 10 includes items 1-3. Here, item 3
Is an item to be input by another user, and the user A inputs items 1 and 2. When the input is completed, the user A specifies the user B in the transmission destination column 21 and presses the transmission button 22 (step S6).

When the send button 22 is pressed, the terminal of the user A performs data processing (step S8). FIG. 5 shows details of the data processing. First, the terminal 4 saves the items input by the user A as edit data 12 (corresponding to edit1 in FIG. 2) (step S30). Further, the time at which the user pressed the send button 22 is acquired and set as the editing time (step S32). Then, based on the number of the edited data and the editing time, and the information of the editor (user A), FIG.
Edit history data as shown in (C) is created (step S34). FIG. 2C shows the editing history data at the final stage for convenience of explanation, and at this stage, only edit1 by the user A is displayed.

Next, the terminal 4 creates an electronic signature for the input item for each item. The key of the electronic signature is in the terminal 4 of the user A or the IC card 7 of the user A, and the terminal 4 uses this to calculate a hash value for the edited data for each item and create an electronic signature for each item I do. The created digital signature is stored as a part of the signature data 14 shown in FIG. Further, the terminal 4 acquires the signature mark (image data or the like) of the user A from the terminal 4 or from the IC card 7 and includes the signature mark in the signature data 14 of FIG. 2A (step S36). Then, the electronic form 10 including these is transmitted to the terminal 4 of the user B as the transmission destination (step S).
38).

The user B receives the electronic form transmitted from the user A and opens the electronic form using the electronic form utilization program (step S10). An example of the display screen at this time is shown in FIG.
It is shown in (B). As illustrated, items (items 1 and 2) input by the user A on the displayed electronic form 10 are marked with the signature mark 25 of the user A. That is, the items with the signature mark 25 of the user A are:
This means that the user A has been responsible for editing.

Next, the user B performs an editing operation (step S12). That is, input the item 3 to be input,
Further, necessary corrections are made for item 2. In this example,
The description “XX” in item 2 shall be corrected to “Δ”. When the editing is completed, the user B enters the destination field 2
Specify the user C who is the next circulator to 1 and click the send button 2
Press 2 (step S14). Upon detecting that the send button 22 has been pressed, the terminal 4 performs data processing (step S16).

This data processing is basically the same as that of step S8 described above (see FIG. 5). That is,
The editing items (input of item 3 and correction of item 2 described above) by user B are stored as individual editing data 15 (edit2) (step S30), and the editing time is determined (step S30).
32), update the edit history data 13 (step S3)
4). At this point, edit data of edit2 by user B is created, and the edit history data includes the edit time and the editor. Next, for the items 2 and 3 to be edited by the user B, a digital signature is created using the key of the user B for each item, and a signature mark of the user B is acquired and included in the signature data 14. (Step S3
6). Next, the terminal 4 transmits the electronic form data 10 thus created to the terminal 4 of the user C who is the next circulation destination (step S38).

The user C receives the electronic form transmitted from the user B, and opens the electronic form using the electronic form utilization program (step S18). An example of the display screen at this time is shown in FIG.
It is shown in (C). As illustrated, in the displayed electronic form 10, items edited by the user A (item 1, item 1,
2) is marked with the signature mark 25 of the user A,
Are marked with the signature mark 26 of the user B (items 2 and 3). Also, the details of the correction performed by the user B on the item 2 are shown (a double line portion). Thus, it is possible to know who has edited each item. In addition, when editing is performed by a plurality of users, rules such as displaying a signature mark of a new editor on the right side can be created, so that it is possible to know who edited and in what order. Also, as shown in FIG. 3C, a history button 27 may be displayed, and when this button is pressed, the editing history data as shown in FIG. 2C may be displayed. This allows the user to know the details of the editing history for each item.

When the user C makes necessary additions and corrections (for example, correction of item 3) (step S20), specifies the next transmission destination, and presses the transmission button 22 (step S22), the same as steps S8 and S16 Is performed to generate edit data 12 (edit3), and edit history data 1
3 is updated. Further, the electronic signature and the signature mark of the user C are included in the signature data. Then, the electronic form 10 containing these is sent to the next destination.

The circulation is completed when the last person sends the electronic form 10 to the user A. The user A can display the electronic form 10 to see the signature mark or the like, and further see the editing history data to know in detail who edited what item and when.

In the above example, when a signature is attached, a signature mark indicating the signature is displayed. Due to the nature of the electronic form, for example, it is necessary to know whether or not there is a correction, but if it is not desired to clarify who the editor is among the circulators other than the creator, the signature mark may not be displayed. Even in this case, only the electronic signature of each editor can be included in the electronic form, so that only a certain person such as the creator can know the editor.
A dedicated button may be added to switch between displaying and hiding the signature mark.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When the electronic form is circulated and edited by a plurality of users, it is possible to clarify who edited the content and when. Further, since the editor's electronic signature indicates responsibility for editing, the circulation of documents can be performed accurately and efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 schematically shows a distribution environment of an electronic form according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a data configuration example of an electronic form according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a display screen when an electronic form is used.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing at the time of circulation of an electronic form.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing at the time of circulation of an electronic form.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Network 2 ... Electronic form distribution system 3 ... Electronic form library 4 ... Terminal 7 ... IC card 10 ... Electronic form

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A storage medium storing an electronic form utilization program readable by a computer,
An electronic form acquisition unit for acquiring an electronic form including a plurality of items; a creation unit for creating edit data from a matter edited by the user with respect to the acquired electronic form; using a user's electronic signature key A storage medium storing an electronic form utilization program that operates as a signature creating unit that creates an electronic signature for the edited data for each item, and a unit that includes the edited data and the electronic signature as part of the electronic form. 2. A time acquisition unit for acquiring a time at which editing by a user is performed; and a unit for creating editing history data including identification information of the editing data, the editing time information, and identification information of the user. The storage medium according to claim 1, wherein an electronic form utilization program for operating a computer is stored. 3. An electronic form utilization program for operating the computer as display means for displaying the electronic form, and display control means for displaying a signature mark corresponding to the electronic signature on the display means.
Or the storage medium according to 2. 4. The storage medium according to claim 3, wherein the display control means displays the signature mark in the order of time when the corresponding editing is performed. 5. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein an electronic form utilization program for operating said computer as history display means for displaying said edit history data in response to a user request is stored. 6. An electronic form created for each of the plurality of items in an electronic form, edit data including a user's edit item for the item, and a user edit item for each item. Electronic forms, including signatures.