JP2002352006A - Method and system for giving and accepting order for software, and program for them - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the time and the cost required for customization and specifi cation definition for it by utilizing ready-made software as much as possible. SOLUTION: A client 102 and a server 103 are connected through a communication network 101. Ready-made goods data related to a lot of customized software is preserved in a ready-made gods database 104 connected to the server 103. Outline data of ready-made goods is presented by an outline output part 106 before an ordering for customization is given; and when a user selects available ready-made goods, this selection indication is discriminated by a selection input part 107, and specification data of the ready-made goods according with the selection indication is provided for the user by a specification output part 108 allow the user to edit the specification data to a desired form. Edited specification data is preserved on a specification data file 110 by a specification input part 109. Thus ready-made goods are customized in accordance with preserved specification data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for ordering software requiring individual customization over a communication network, and more particularly to a form requiring customization according to various layouts and text data formats. The present invention relates to a software ordering method and system for ordering created software.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent progress and spread of computer networks typified by the Internet and intranets, a large amount of data has been digitized, and electronic data has been exchanged on the network as it is.
Nevertheless, in certain fields or at certain stages of the business flow, it is required to output data on paper, especially when dealing with various forms such as application forms and slips, paper submission and storage is required. Often.

[0003] Conventionally, a data format widely used for browsing electronic forms on a computer or outputting to paper is PDF or the like. Electronic data is arranged in a predetermined layout and converted to PDF or the like. Software has been proposed.

[0004] Also, a form essentially includes a layout and a text data format as its constituent elements. Here, the “layout” is a visual design such as a data description position, a character font, a color, a size, a ruled line position, a length, a type, a logo mark, and the like. The “text data format” is an expression format of text data given as the contents of a form. For example, in the case of numeric string data, the data is represented by a decimal number and three digits are separated by commas. It is an expression format such as dividing.

[0005]

Since the specifications of the layout and the text data format in the form differ depending on the form actually used, various forms creation software such as the above-mentioned conversion software to PDF and the like are used. Requires customization according to individual forms.

However, defining the specifications for customizing the form creation software requires considerable time and cost. In the past, the specification was defined from the beginning by letting the user use a form design tool or by interviewing a professional engineer with the user, but the former has the problem that it takes time due to lack of skill. In addition, the latter has a problem that the dispatch of specialized engineers increases costs.

[0007] On the other hand, there are quite a few cases where existing forms can be used as long as the minimum specifications are satisfied. For such a user, the burden on the specification definition can be reduced by using an existing product of the form creation software as it is or by using it with only a slight modification. Naturally, many types of off-the-shelf products need to be prepared in order to increase the possibility of users finding usable off-the-shelf products. To this end, it is desirable to enhance the lineup of ready-made products by sequentially adding customized form creation software to the ready-made products, but there has been no useful technology for easily realizing this.

[0008] The above-mentioned problems are not limited to the form creation software, but also exist in software generally requiring individual customization according to the needs of the user. Further, depending on the ordering method, not only the definition of the specification but also the ordering itself takes time and time, which may increase the burden on the user.

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. The first object of the present invention is to make it possible to make use of off-the-shelf software as much as possible for customization and It is an object of the present invention to provide an ordering system that can reduce the time and cost required for defining the specifications and can immediately respond to user needs. And the second purpose is to enable the gradual enhancement of ready-made products,
An object of the present invention is to provide an ordering system capable of improving the probability that a user uses an off-the-shelf product.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method and system for receiving and ordering software that requires individual customization over a communication network, by preparing a plurality of off-the-shelf data in advance, The outline data is presented to the user, and when the user selects an available ready-made product, the specification data of the ready-made product is provided to the user to be edited in a desired form, and the existing data is edited according to the edited specification data. The product can be customized.

[0011] The invention described in claim 1 is a software ordering method characterized by having an outline transmission step, a selective reception step, a specification transmission step, and a specification reception step. Here, the summary transmission step includes, when a connection request is received from the terminal, summary data representing a summary of a plurality of ready-made products, which are software customized in advance, and ready-made data including specification data of the plurality of ready-made products. Is a step of acquiring from the stored ready-made product database or generating from the acquired data, and transmitting the generated data to the connection requesting terminal. Then, the selection receiving step is a step of receiving one of a selection instruction for designating a ready-made product and a custom-made selection instruction from the connection request source terminal after transmitting the summary data in the summary transmission step.

Further, in the specification transmitting step, if the selection instruction specifies an off-the-shelf product in response to the selection instruction received from the connection request source terminal in the selection receiving step, the specification of the specified off-the-shelf product is changed. The specification data to represent,
If the instruction is a custom-made selection instruction, this is a step of acquiring specification data consisting of default values from a ready-made database or generating the acquired data from the acquired data, and transmitting the data to the connection requesting terminal. The specification receiving step is a step of transmitting the specification data obtained as a result of editing the specification data from the connection request source terminal after transmitting the specification data in the specification transmission step.

[0013] The invention described in claim 6 is obtained by grasping the invention of claim 1 from the viewpoint of a system. In addition to the ready-made database corresponding to the ready-made database in the invention of claim 1, claim 1 of the present invention. The invention is characterized in that it has a communication means, a summary output means, a selection input means, and a specification output means as means having functions corresponding to each step in the invention. According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the inventions of the first and sixth aspects are grasped from the viewpoint of a program, and are characterized by causing a computer to realize functions corresponding to each step in the first aspect of the invention. .

According to the first, sixth, and tenth aspects of the present invention, a plurality of customized ready-made products are prepared in advance, and summary data representing an overview of the plurality of ready-made products is transmitted to the terminal. Therefore, the user can refer to the summary data of a plurality of off-the-shelf products and determine whether or not there are off-the-shelf products that can be used as is or by making some changes. Can obtain the specification data of the ready-made product by a selection instruction for designating the ready-made product. When there is no ready-made product available to the user, specification data including default values can be obtained by a selection instruction specifying custom-made.

In any case, after defining the specification by editing the acquired specification data as needed, it is possible to order software corresponding to the specification data obtained as a result of editing. Therefore, since off-the-shelf software can be utilized as much as possible, it is possible to reduce the time and cost required for customization and specification definition therefor. Also, since the procedure from the user's specification definition to ordering is performed continuously on the communication network, the time from the specification definition to ordering can be reduced as much as possible, and the user's needs can be met immediately. Can respond.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the software ordering method according to the first aspect, characterized in that the off-the-shelf data stored in the off-the-shelf database, the summary transmitting step, and the specification transmitting step. . That is,
The off-the-shelf data includes at least specification data representing the specifications of the off-the-shelf product, outline data generated in advance to represent the outline of the off-the-shelf product, and identification information for identifying the off-the-shelf product. In the outline transmitting step, necessary outline data is acquired from the ready-made database, and the acquired outline data is transmitted to the connection request source terminal. And
In the specification transmitting step, necessary specification data is acquired from the ready-made product database, and the acquired specification data is transmitted to the connection requesting terminal.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the invention of the second aspect is grasped from a system point of view. In the software ordering system according to the sixth aspect, the ready-made data stored in the ready-made database is stored. However, in addition to corresponding to the ready-made data according to the second aspect of the invention, the outline output means and the specification output means have a function corresponding to each step in the second aspect of the invention.

According to the second and seventh aspects of the present invention, since the outline data representing the outline of a ready-made product is generated in advance, there is no need to generate data when transmitting the outline data. Data can be transmitted as it is. In this case, since the data amount of the outline data can be significantly reduced as compared with the specification data, even the outline data of many existing products can be acquired in a short time.
As a result, at the time of a connection request from the user, the summary data can be presented to the user in a short time.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the software ordering method of the first or second aspect, a customizing step, a deliverable product providing step, and a ready-made product storing step are provided. Here, in the customizing step, according to the specification data received in the specification receiving step, if the specification data is obtained based on the selection instruction for specifying the ready-made product, the customizing the specified ready-made product is performed. If the specification data is obtained based on a bespoke selection instruction, this is a step of customizing software consisting of default values.

The product providing step is a step of providing the product obtained by the customizing step to a destination specified by the connection request source terminal. Further, the off-the-shelf product storage step is a step of saving data on the software as new off-the-shelf data in the off-the-shelf database, when the result of the customization step is software obtained by customizing software including at least a default value. is there.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the software can be customized according to the specification data received from the terminal. Therefore, the specification definition by the user can be surely reflected in the software customization. Further, software as a product obtained by customization is provided to a user who is a providing destination specified by a user terminal. That is, it is shipped as a customized product.

Further, when the software that is the product of customization is at least a customized product that is made to order, the data relating to the software is stored in the existing product database as new existing product data. Therefore, the ready-made data stored in the ready-made database can be gradually enhanced.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the software ordering method according to any one of the first to third aspects, the type data is stored in the ready-made product database, and the type transmission is performed before the summary transmitting step. It has a step and a type receiving step, and has a feature in the outline transmitting step. That is, the ready-made database contains
Type data representing a plurality of types according to the use is stored,
At least one or more types are associated with each of the plurality of ready-made products.

The type transmitting step is a step of, when a connection request is received from the terminal, obtaining type data representing a plurality of types from the ready-made database and transmitting the type data to the connection requesting terminal. The type receiving step is a step of receiving a type instruction designating the type from the connection request source terminal after transmitting the type data in the type transmitting step. Further, in the summary transmitting step, in accordance with the type instruction received in the type receiving step, only summary data relating to the ready-made product associated with the specified type is obtained from the ready-made product database or generated from the obtained data. , To the connection requesting terminal.

The invention described in claim 8 is an understanding of the invention of claim 4 from the viewpoint of a system. In the software ordering system according to claim 6 or 7,
Similar to the fourth aspect of the invention, in addition to storing the type data in the ready-made product database, a type output means and a type input means having functions corresponding to the type transmission step and the type reception step in the invention of the fourth aspect. And the outline output means has a function corresponding to the outline transmission step in the invention of claim 4.

According to the fourth and eighth aspects of the present invention, the type data representing a plurality of types is transmitted to the terminal before transmitting the outline data representing the outline of the plurality of ready-made products to the terminal. Therefore, the user can select a type according to the purpose by referring to the plurality of types. Then, according to the type instruction indicating the selected type, only the outline data of the type can be acquired. Therefore, by narrowing down the number of summary data to be presented to the user, the user can determine the presence or absence of usable ready-made products from the limited number of summary data, thereby reducing the user's data selection work.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the software ordering method according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the software is software for creating an electronic form that can be viewed and printed. , The specification data,
It includes a form layout and a text data format to be input to the form.

The ninth aspect of the present invention grasps the invention of the fifth aspect from the viewpoint of a system.
In the software ordering / ordering system according to any one of the eighth to ninth aspects, the software may be,
Software for creating an electronic form that can be viewed and printed, wherein the customization includes processing of control information relating to the layout of the form and a text data format input to the form.

According to the fifth and ninth aspects of the present invention, since the ready-made form creation software can be utilized as much as possible, the time and cost required for customizing the form creation software and defining the specifications therefor can be reduced. .

[0030]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. However, the embodiment described here does not limit the present invention in any way,
It merely illustrates one embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention is typically realized by controlling a computer with software. The software in this case realizes the operation and effect of the present invention by physically utilizing the hardware of the computer, and a suitable conventional technology is applied to a portion to which the conventional technology can be applied.

Further, the specific types and configurations of hardware and software for realizing the present invention, the range of processing by software, and the like can be freely changed. For example, a program for realizing the present invention is an embodiment of the present invention. It is. Therefore, in the following description, virtual circuit blocks that realize the functions of the present invention and the embodiments are used.

[First Embodiment] [System Configuration] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of a form creation software ordering system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. . As shown in FIG. 1, via a communication network 101 including the Internet, a client (terminal) 102 installed on a user side who is an orderer or an order agent, and a server installed on an order receiving / software provider side The server 103 is connected to a ready-made database 104.

Here, the client 102 has a function of ordering form creation software and editing existing specification data in order to define software specifications. Although only a single client 102 is shown in the figure for simplicity, a plurality of clients may actually exist.

In the system shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of customized softwares are prepared in advance as form creation software for creating an electronic form that can be browsed and printed. Data on the plurality of customized softwares is stored as off-the-shelf data of a plurality of off-the-shelf products. In this case, the ready-made product data
It includes outline data generated in advance to represent an outline of a ready-made product, specification data representing specifications of a ready-made product, and identification information for specifying a ready-made product. The specification data of the form creation software includes a form layout and a text data format input to the form.

On the other hand, the server 103 has a function of receiving an order for form creation software and providing specification data for causing the client 102 to perform specification definition. The server 103 has a function as a WWW (World Wide Web) server, and exchanges data with the client 102 using the HTTP protocol.

The server 103 is connected to the communication network 1
01, a communication control unit (communication means) 105, an overview output unit (summary output means) 106 for exchanging data with the client 102 on the communication network 101 through the communication control unit 105, and a selection input unit (selection input). Means) 107, specification output unit (specification output means)
108, and a specification input unit (specification input means) 109. Among them, the summary output unit 106 and the specification output unit 108 are connected to the ready-made database 104, and the specification input unit 109 is connected to a specification data file 110 provided in the server 103.

The individual functions of the input / output units 106 to 109 are as follows. When the communication control unit 105 receives a connection request from the client 102, the summary output unit 106 acquires summary data representing an overview of a plurality of ready-made products from the ready-made database 104, and performs communication control on the acquired summary data. A function of causing the connection requesting client 102 to transmit through the unit 105. When the communication control unit 105 receives one of a selection instruction for designating a ready-made product and a custom-made selection instruction from the client 102 that is the connection request source by the communication control unit 105, the selection input unit 107 inputs and determines the selection instruction. Has functions.

The specification output unit 108 obtains specification data according to the selection instruction input from the selection input unit 107 from the ready-made product database 104, and converts the obtained specification data into
Client 1 as connection request source through communication control unit 105
02 is transmitted. Here, the specification output unit 1
08 acquires specification data representing the specification of the specified ready-made product when the input selection command is a selection command for specifying a ready-made product, and when the input selection command is a custom-made selection command, Specification data consisting of default values is acquired.

When the specification data obtained as a result of editing the specification data from the connection requesting client 102 is received through the communication control unit 105, the specification input unit 109 inputs the specification data. Has a function of saving in the specification data file 110 provided in the.

In general, the server 103 and the client 104 shown in FIG. 1 are composed of general-purpose computers, and the communication control unit 105 and the input / output units 1
The functional units such as 06 to 109 are realized by a program on a computer. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a typical hardware configuration of a computer.

As shown in FIG. 2, the network interface 201, ROM 202, RAM 203, CP
Elements such as a U 204, a display 205, a keyboard 206, a hard disk 207, and a CD ROM 208 are connected to form computer hardware. In such a computer, the program is stored in the hard disk 207 from a network or a recording medium such as the CD ROM 208, and is executed by the CPU 2 when executed.
The program is loaded on the RAM 203 under the control of the CPU 04 and executed.

[Outline of Order Receiving and Ordering Procedure] FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram showing an outline of a procedure for ordering and receiving form creation software between the server 103 and the client 102 in FIG. 1 by a data exchange procedure between the two. . As shown in FIG. 3, the server 103 transmits summary data to the client 102 in response to a connection request (S301) from the client 102 (S302).

When the client 102 receives the summary data and the user refers to the summary data and selects either custom-made or ready-made product designation, the client 102 sends a selection instruction indicating the selection to the server 1.
03 (S303), and the server 103 transmits the specification data corresponding to the selection instruction to the client 102 (S304). When the client 102 receives the specification data and the user edits the specification data into a desired form, the client 102 transmits the edited specification data to the server 103 (S305). Server 1
03 transmits an order confirmation to the client 102 in response to receiving the edited specification data (S306).

[Details of Order Receiving / Ordering Procedure] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure on the server 103 side for realizing the data exchange procedure of FIG. Hereinafter, the ordering procedure of the form creation software will be described in detail with reference to this flowchart. Here, as an example, the outline data is a thumbnail (reduced) image file of a blank form, and the specification data is a storage file for the tool that can be edited using an existing drawing tool. A case where the product specific information is a unique ID number for each form will be described.

Specifically, FIG. 5 is an image display diagram showing an example of a thumbnail image file of a “transportation expense settlement application” as a thumbnail image file of an unfilled form as summary data. FIG. 6 is an image display diagram showing an example of a drawing tool file of the “Transportation Expense Application Form” corresponding to the thumbnail image file of FIG. 5 as a drawing tool file as specification data. Print characters, variable data specified comments, etc. are drawn.

As shown in FIG. 4, when a user who is an orderer or an ordering agent accesses the server 103 through a Web browser operating on the client 102, the server 103 transmits a request for connection by the communication control unit 105. In response to the reception (S401), the summary output unit 106 reads each set of the thumbnail image file and the ID number as the summary data from the ready-made database 104 (S401).
402), the client 10 through the communication control unit 105
2 (S403).

In the client 102, as shown in FIG. 7, a list of summary data is displayed. Note that FIG. 7 shows a display example of a selection instruction screen when one Web page is used as one existing product selection instruction screen and summary data of the existing product is displayed.
Two buttons for selecting and using the "use the specification of this form" and "made to order" are displayed.

With respect to the list display of the summary data, the user searches the plurality of displayed summary data for the summary data which can be used as it is or if it is slightly modified. When the data is found, the user presses the "Use the form specifications" button on the screen displaying the summary data. On the other hand, if no usable summary data is found, the "custom made" button is pressed on any screen.

When the user performs an operation of pressing a button in this way, a selection instruction character string corresponding to the pressed button is transmitted from the client 102 to the server 103 by this operation. Specifically, when the user presses the “Made to Order” button, the character string “Order” is sent,
When the "use this form specification" button is pressed, the ID number corresponding to the selected form is sent.

Upon receiving the selection instruction character string sent from the client 102 by the communication control unit 105 (S404), the server 103 determines the character string by the selection input unit 107 (S405). A drawing tool file, which is specification data corresponding to the determination result, is read from the ready-made product database 104 (S406, S407).

That is, when the character string is "Order" (YES in S405), the specification data with the default value set is acquired. Here, a blank drawing tool file that has no drawing object stored in the file system of the server 103 is acquired (S406). On the other hand, when the character string is not “Order” but an ID number (S40)
In the case of No. 5), the ready-made product database 104 is searched using the ID number as a key, and a drawing tool file as specification data of a form having the ID number is acquired.

When the server 103 obtains the drawing tool file corresponding to the blank page or the ID number in one of S406 and S407, the server 103 transmits this file to the client 102 (S408). The client 102 downloads the sent file.

At the client 102, the user
Start the drawing tool and edit the file sent. Here, in the case of a blank sheet, a new one is created from scratch, and in the case of the existing specification data, the existing setting is corrected to a desired form. After the specification data in a desired format is completed, the data is stored in a file system on the client 102 with an appropriate file name.

Thereafter, the user accesses an input window for inputting a file name or a web page of an upload screen including an “upload” button as shown in FIG. 8, and sets the file name of the specification data in the input window. Then press the "Upload" button. Then, the browser reads the contents of the file and sends it to the server 103.

In the server 103, the edited specification data sent from the client 102 is transmitted to the communication control unit 105.
(S409), the received specification data is transmitted to the specification data file 110 by the specification input unit 109.
And sends an order confirmation message to the client 102 through the communication control unit 105 (S41).
0). For example, as shown in FIG.
The page is presented to the user to inform that the order processing has been completed.

The software provider then retrieves the specification data stored in the specification data file of the server 103 and customizes the software so that a form is defined according to the specification data. That is, if the specification data is obtained as a result of editing the specification data of an existing product, the existing product is customized and the specification data is obtained as an editing result of the specification data including default values. If so, customize the software consisting of the default values. The form creation software, which is the result of customization,
It is shipped as a customized product to the user who is the destination specified by the client 102.

Further, if the form creation software, which is the product of customization, is a custom-made product, that is, if the selection instruction character string is "Order" in S405, the product is A copy of the form creation software is appropriately stored, an ID number is assigned to a form corresponding to the form creation software, and a thumbnail image of the form is generated.

Then, specification data corresponding to the form,
The thumbnail image, that is, the outline data, and the ID number are used as new ready-made data as the ready-made database 1.
04. In this way, the present invention can be used not only for providing the orderer with the form creation software, which is a custom-made customized product, but also for enhancing existing products.

[Effects] According to the present embodiment as described above, the following effects can be obtained. First, in order to transmit summary data representing a plurality of customized ready-made products to the client 102 on the user side, the user refers to the plurality of ready-made products and makes changes as it is or to some extent. Can be used to determine the presence or absence of ready-made products.

If a ready-made product is available to the user, the ready-made product can be easily obtained by designating the ready-made product using a button on the Web page. When there is no ready-made product available to the user, the specification data including the default value can be obtained by designating the order-made with the button of the Web page. In any case, after defining the specifications by editing the acquired specification data into a desired form as necessary, the user may order form creation software according to the specification data obtained as an editing result. it can.

Therefore, since the ready-made form creation software can be utilized as much as possible, it is possible to reduce the time and cost for customizing the form creation software and defining specifications for the software. Also, since the procedure from the user's specification definition to ordering is performed continuously on the communication network, the time from the specification definition to ordering can be reduced as much as possible, and the user's needs can be met immediately. Can respond.

In particular, in the present embodiment, since the outline data representing the outline of the ready-made product is generated and prepared in advance, there is no need to generate the data when transmitting the outline data, and the existing outline data is used as it is. Can be sent. In this case, since the data amount of the outline data can be significantly reduced as compared with the specification data, even the outline data of many existing products can be acquired in a short time. As a result, at the time of a connection request from the user, the summary data can be presented to the user in a short time.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, when the software which is a product of customization is a custom-made customized product, data on the software is stored in the existing product database as new existing product data. . Therefore, the ready-made data stored in the ready-made database can be gradually enhanced.

[Second Embodiment] [System Configuration] FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of a form creation software ordering system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. . As shown in FIG. 10, in the present embodiment, a type output unit (type output unit) 111 and a type input unit (type input unit) 112 are added to the server 103 of the order receiving / ordering system shown in FIG. In the ready-made product database 104, type data representing a plurality of form types corresponding to applications is stored, and at least one or more form types are associated with each of the plurality of ready-made products. Here, as the plurality of form types, for example, in addition to the “transportation expense application” as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5,
`` Transfer request form '', `` Business trip expense report '', `` Equipment purchase request form '', `` Decision request form '', `` Target performance report form '', `` Address change notification '', `` Monthly report form '', etc. are set. ing.

When the communication control unit 105 receives a connection request from the client 102, the type output unit 111 acquires and outputs type data representing a plurality of form types from the ready-made database 104, and outputs the type data. Part 1
A function of transmitting the connection request to the client 102 that has issued the connection request through the client 05 is provided. In addition, the type input unit 112
The client 10 of the connection request source is transmitted by the communication control unit 105.
2 has a function of receiving the type instruction from the device 2 and inputting the type instruction to make a determination.

The type output unit 111 having such a function
And the summary output unit 10
6 acquires and outputs only the summary data relating to the ready-made product associated with the specified form type from the ready-made product database 104 in accordance with the type instruction determined by the type input unit 112, and outputs the data through the communication control unit 105. The request is transmitted to the requesting client 102.
The other parts are configured exactly the same as in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

[Outline of Order Receiving / Ordering Procedure] FIG. 11 is a data flow diagram showing a data exchange procedure when ordering / receiving the form creation software between the server 103 and the client 102 in FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, the server 103
Is a connection request from the client 102 (S1101)
, The type data is transmitted to the client 102 (S1102).

When the client 102 receives the type data and the user refers to the type data and selects a specific form type, the client 102 transmits a type instruction indicating the specific form type to the server 103. (S
1103). In response to the type instruction from the client 102, the server 103 transmits to the client 102 only summary data of ready-made products classified into the form type indicated by the type instruction (S1104). A series of procedures after transmission of the summary data (S1105 to S1108)
Are exactly the same as the corresponding procedures (S303 to S306) in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

[Details of Ordering Procedure] FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure on the server 103 side for realizing the data exchange of FIG. As shown in FIG. 12, in the present embodiment, the user
In response to receiving the connection request (S1201), the server 103 reads type data representing a plurality of form types from the ready-made product database 104 by the form output unit 111 (S1202), and through the communication control unit 105 The message is transmitted to the client 102 (S1203).

In the client 102, as shown in FIG. 13, a list of form types is shown. In FIG. 13, as an example, a plurality of form types described above, that is, “transfer request form”, “transportation expense settlement application form”, “business trip expense settlement form”, “equipment purchase request form”, “decision request form” book",
"Target result report form", "Address change notice", "Monthly report form" are displayed, and the form type selection screen display example when each form type display functions as a click operation part for type selection is shown. Have been.

For such a list of form types,
The user selects and clicks a type that matches or is close to the use of the form to be used from the displayed plurality of form types. By this operation, the type instruction corresponding to the clicked form type is transmitted to the client 102.
Is sent to the server 103.

When the server 103 receives the type instruction sent from the client 102 (S1204), the type input unit 112 determines the type instruction, and the summary output unit 1
In step 06, only the summary data of the ready-made product classified into the form type indicated by the type instruction is read from the ready-made product database 104 (S1205), and transmitted to the client 102 through the communication control unit 105 (S1206). A series of procedures after transmission of the summary data (S120
7 to S1213) are exactly the same as the corresponding procedures (S404 to S410) in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

[Effects] According to the present embodiment as described above, the following effects can be obtained in addition to the effects of the above-described first embodiment. That is, before transmitting the outline data representing the outline of a plurality of ready-made products to the terminal, to transmit the type data representing the plurality of form types to the terminal, the user refers to the displayed plurality of form types, It is possible to select a form type according to the use and acquire only the summary data classified into the form type. Therefore, by narrowing down the number of summary data to be presented to the user, the user can determine the presence or absence of usable ready-made products from the limited number of summary data, thereby reducing the user's data selection work.

[Other Embodiments] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various other modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention. Examples are feasible and all such variations are encompassed by the present invention.

That is, the specific configuration of the server can be selected as appropriate, and the specific data structure of the ready-made data stored in the ready-made database and the specific processing procedure can be selected as appropriate. . For example, in the above-described embodiment, only the data relating to the custom-made customized product is added to the ready-made database as new ready-made data, but there are many changed parts among the non-custom-made ready-made customized products. It is also possible to add the data on the product in that case or the data on all customized products to the ready-made database as new ready-made data.

In the above embodiment, the outline data of the ready-made product is prepared in advance. However, when the specification data can be obtained and processed at a high speed, the outline data is generated after the specification data is obtained. It is also possible to transmit the generated summary data. Further, as described above, the present invention is extremely useful for ordering of form creation software. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be similarly applied to software generally requiring individual customization according to the needs of the user. This provides an excellent effect.

[0078]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By presenting the outline data of the ready-made product to the user before ordering the customization, if the user selects an available ready-made product, the specification data of the ready-made product is provided to the user and edited in a desired form. , You can make use of ready-made software as much as possible. Therefore, it is possible to provide an ordering system that can reduce the time and cost required for customization and definition of specifications for the customization and can immediately respond to user needs.

Further, by sequentially registering the custom-made products as ready-made products, the ready-made products can be gradually enhanced, so that the probability of the user using the ready-made products can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a form creation software order receiving / ordering system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a typical hardware configuration of a computer used for the server and the client in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram showing an outline of a procedure for receiving and ordering form creation software between a server and a client in FIG. 1 by a data exchange procedure between the two.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure on the server side for realizing the data exchange procedure of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an image display diagram showing an example of a thumbnail image file of an unfilled form as outline data of a ready-made product used in the ordering system of FIG. 1;

6 is an image display diagram showing an example of a drawing tool file corresponding to the thumbnail image file of FIG. 5 as specification data of a ready-made product used in the ordering system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an image display diagram showing a display example of a selection instruction screen presented from the server of FIG. 1 to the client.

8 is an image display diagram showing a display example of an upload screen presented from the server of FIG. 1 to a client.

9 is an image display diagram showing a display example of an order confirmation screen presented from the server in FIG. 1 to the client.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a form creation software ordering system according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

11 is a data flow diagram showing an outline of a procedure for receiving and ordering form creation software between the server and the client in FIG. 10 by a data exchange procedure between the two.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure on the server side for realizing the data exchange procedure of FIG. 11;

13 is an image display diagram showing a display example of a form type selection screen presented from the server in FIG. 10 to the client.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Communication network 102 ... Client (terminal) 103 ... Server 104 ... Ready-made database 105 ... Communication control part (communication means) 106 ... Summary output part (summary output means) 107 ... Selection input part (selection input means) 108 ... Specification Output unit (specification output unit) 109 ... Specification input unit (specification input unit) 110 ... Specification data file 111 ... Type output unit (type output unit) 112 ... Type input unit (type input unit)

Claims (10)

[Claims] In a method of receiving and ordering software requiring individual customization over a communication network, when receiving a connection request from a terminal, outline data representing an outline of a plurality of off-the-shelf products, which are software customized in advance, is provided. A summary transmission step of acquiring from a ready-made database in which ready-made data including the specification data of the plurality of ready-made products is stored or generated from the acquired data, and transmitting the generated data to a terminal of a connection request source; After transmitting the summary data by the transmission step, the selection requesting step of receiving one of a selection instruction for designating a ready-made product and a customization selection instruction from the terminal of the connection request source; and the connection request by the selection reception step. Selection instruction to specify ready-made products according to the selection instruction received from the original terminal In the case of, the specification data representing the specification of the specified ready-made product, and, in the case of a custom-made selection instruction, the specification data consisting of the default value, from the ready-made database, or A specification transmission step of generating from the acquired data and transmitting the specification data to the connection request source terminal; and transmitting the specification data by the specification transmission step to the specification data obtained as an editing result of the specification data. And receiving a specification from the terminal. 2. The off-the-shelf data stored in the off-the-shelf product database includes at least specification data representing the specifications of the off-the-shelf product, outline data generated in advance to represent the outline of the off-the-shelf product, and an off-the-shelf product. In the summary transmitting step, necessary summary data is acquired from the ready-made database, and the acquired summary data is transmitted to the connection request source terminal. 2. The software ordering method according to claim 1, wherein necessary specification data is obtained from the ready-made database, and the obtained specification data is transmitted to the terminal of the connection request source. 3. According to the specification data received in the specification receiving step, when the specification data is obtained as a result of editing the specification data of the ready-made product, the specified ready-made product is customized, If the specification data is obtained as a result of editing the specification data consisting of the default values, a customizing step of customizing the software consisting of the default values, and a product obtained by the customizing step is specified by the terminal of the connection request source. A product providing step to be provided to the provided providing destination, and when the product obtained by the customizing step is software obtained by customizing software including at least the default value, the data relating to the software is set as new off-the-shelf data. Ready-made database Software ordering method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it has a ready-saving step of saving the scan, the. 4. The ready-made product database stores type data representing a plurality of types corresponding to applications, and at least one type is associated with each of the plurality of ready-made products. Before the step, when a connection request is received from a terminal, a type transmission step of acquiring type data representing the plurality of types from the ready-made database and transmitting the type data to the connection request source terminal; A type receiving step of receiving a type instruction specifying a type from the connection request source terminal after transmitting the type data in the transmitting step, wherein the summary transmitting step includes the type instruction received in the type receiving step. In accordance with, to obtain only the summary data pertaining to the ready-made product associated with the specified type from the ready-made product database or Generated from the resulting data, and transmitted to the connection requesting terminal, software ordering method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the. 5. The software for creating an electronic form that can be browsed and printed, wherein the specification data includes a form layout and a text data format input to the form. The software ordering method according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 6. A system for receiving and ordering software requiring individual customization over a communication network, comprising: an off-the-shelf database that stores off-the-shelf data including specification data of a plurality of off-the-shelf products that are pre-customized software; A communication unit for transmitting and receiving data to and from a communication network; and, when a connection request from a terminal is received by the communication unit, whether to acquire, from the ready-made product database, summary data representing a plurality of ready-made products. Or a summary output means for generating and outputting the obtained data from the acquired data and transmitting the data to the connection requesting terminal by the communication means; a selection instruction for specifying a ready-made product from the connection requesting terminal and a custom-made selection When any one of the instructions is received by the communication means, the selection instruction is A selection input means for force, according to the input selection instruction by the selection input means,
In the case of a selection instruction for specifying a ready-made product, specification data representing the specification of the specified ready-made product, and in the case of a custom-made selection instruction, specification data including default values, the ready-made product database. Or output from the data obtained or obtained from the obtained data, the specification output means to be transmitted to the terminal of the connection request source by the communication means, from the terminal of the connection request source, as a result of editing specification data And a specification input unit for inputting the specification data when the obtained specification data is received by the communication unit. 7. The off-the-shelf product data stored in the off-the-shelf product database includes at least specification data representing the specifications of the off-the-shelf product, outline data generated in advance to represent the outline of the off-the-shelf product, and an off-the-shelf product The summary output means is configured to acquire necessary summary data from the ready-made database, and to output the acquired summary data, and the specification output means is required from the ready-made database. The software ordering system according to claim 6, wherein the software is configured to acquire specific specification data and output the acquired specification data. 8. The ready-made product database stores type data representing a plurality of types corresponding to applications, and at least one or more types are associated with each of the plurality of ready-made products. Type output means for, when a connection request is received by the communication means, acquiring and outputting type data representing the plurality of types from the ready-made database, and transmitting the type data to the connection request source terminal by the communication means; And when the communication unit receives a type instruction specifying a type from the connection request source terminal, the type input unit inputs the type instruction. Acquiring, from the ready-made product database, only summary data relating to ready-made products associated with the specified type, according to the type instruction received by the means; 8. The software ordering system according to claim 6, wherein the software is configured to generate and output the data, and to transmit the generated data to the terminal of the connection request source by the communication unit. 9. The software is software for creating an electronic form that can be browsed and printed, and the specification data includes a form layout and a text data format input to the form. The software ordering system according to any one of claims 6 to 8. 10. A program for ordering software that requires individual customization over a communication network, wherein when a connection request is received from a terminal to a computer, an outline of a plurality of off-the-shelf products that are software customized in advance. Is transmitted from an off-the-shelf database that stores off-the-shelf data including specification data on the plurality of off-the-shelf products, or is generated from the obtained data, and is transmitted to the terminal that requested the connection A selection receiving function of receiving one of a selection instruction specifying an off-the-shelf product and a custom-made selection instruction from the connection request source terminal after transmitting the summary data by the summary transmission function; and According to the selection instruction received from the connection request source terminal by the function, the ready-made product is If it is a selection instruction to specify, the specification data representing the specification of the specified ready-made product, and if it is a custom-made selection instruction, the specification data consisting of the default value, from the ready-made database, A specification transmission function to be obtained or generated from the obtained data and transmitted to the terminal of the connection request source.After transmitting the specification data by the specification transmission function, the specification data obtained as an editing result of the specification data is transmitted. A program for realizing a specification receiving function of receiving from the connection request source terminal.