JP2006018667A - Electronic form system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a smooth system operation by suppressing the erroneous transmission of a document with a pending item. <P>SOLUTION: An electronic form system comprises: an electronic form control section 107 displaying an electronic form having an input column for every input item on a display screen, receiving an input done by a user, and transmitting a received input value to a server device 101 when operating a transmission button displayed on the display screen; and a client device 106 having a state setting/recognition section 108 setting an input value state on the input column to at least a temporary input or a definition-postponed state based on the operation input done by the user. The state setting/recognition section 108 permits transmission based on the operation of the transmission button when recognizing the presence of the input column setting input value state to the temporary input or the definition postponed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic form system, and more particularly to an electronic form system suitable for an application work for transmitting data input to an electronic form.

For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-260260, a character being input or stored has a character attribute indicating whether or not the document is to be transmitted, and the attribute is referred to when the document is transmitted. A document processing apparatus that can prevent a designated character from being transmitted is shown.
JP-A-6-309318

  In a system that performs application work by sending a document created by a document creation device via a communication line, the applicant fills in the application form for the time being, and some of the items are reviewed and reviewed later. Applications are often made after corrections are made, or the applicant and the examiner consult about some application contents and adjust the application contents.

  In the document processing apparatus shown in the above prior art, the input content can be edited after data input. In addition, it is described that an input character is distinguished into a character that grants transmission permission and a character that does not grant transmission permission.

  However, it is not possible to deal with work that frequently occurs in actual application work such as filling in drafts for the time being. For this reason, if there is an item that has been entered for the time being, that is, an unconfirmed entry with the intention of correcting the contents later, a document that has an unconfirmed item by operating the send button by mistake. Prone to transmission.

  As described above, in actual business situations, it is often necessary to adjust the input content between the applicant and the examiner using unfinished documents. In the prior art, in order to transfer the work to the next worker, it is necessary that all the input work of the previous process is completed. For this reason, when such a technique is utilized, the unit which can grasp | ascertain a progress situation is a process unit for every worker. For this reason, it is necessary to directly inquire the person in charge when it is desired to accurately grasp the detailed progress such as how much the input work has progressed.

  The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and suppresses erroneous transmission of a document in which unconfirmed items exist, and facilitates understanding of the progress status of input work to facilitate smooth operation of the system. An electronic form system that can be used is provided.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.

  An electronic form control unit that displays an electronic form with an input field for each input item on the display screen, accepts input by the user, and transmits the received input value to the server device when the send button is displayed on the display screen And a client device having a state setting / recognizing unit that sets at least a temporary input or a confirmed forward state based on a user's operation input, and the state setting / recognizing unit includes the input value When the presence of an input field whose status is set to provisional input or fixed forward is recognized, transmission based on the operation of the transmission button is permitted.

  Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, it is possible to suppress erroneous transmission of a document in which an unconfirmed item exists as a confirmed document, and to easily grasp the progress status of input work and to smoothly operate the system. It is possible to provide an electronic form system that can be used.

  Hereinafter, the best embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic application system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The following describes an example of applying, reviewing and approving business trip expenses using this system.

  This system is realized by a server 101 and a client 106 connected via a network 105, and a data transmission / reception unit 102, a state control unit 103, and a workflow control unit 104 are allocated to the server 101. Further, an electronic form control unit 107, a state setting / recognition unit 108, and an electronic form storage unit 109 are assigned to the client 106. In this example, a client server system including a client 106 and a server 101 connected via a network is realized by assigning elements such as a data transmission / reception unit to each computer constituting the client and the server. However, a plurality of elements may be assigned to a single computer, or all the above elements may be assigned to a stand-alone system.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the details of the client 106. In the figure, 107 is an electronic form control unit, and 201 is a transmission control unit. An electronic form editing unit 202 recognizes user input from an input device such as a keyboard and edits input data. As shown in the figure, the electronic form control unit 107 includes a transmission control unit 201 and an electronic form editing unit 202.

  Reference numeral 108 denotes a state setting / recognition unit that sets the state of input data (for example, input confirmation or confirmation destination advance) or recognizes the set state. 203 is an electronic form state recognition unit for recognizing the state of the electronic form, and 204 is a state setting unit for setting the state of the input data, which recognizes the user's mouse operation and sets the state for the input data. To do. As shown in the figure, the state setting / recognition unit 108 includes an electronic form state recognition unit 203 and a state setting unit 204. An electronic form storage unit 109 stores an electronic form that is being input or has been input.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of a data table of an electronic form, and shows a data table at the start of application work, taking an electronic form for application for business trip expenses as an example.

  The data table includes an item ID column for identifying an item, an input control mode column indicating whether the item can be input, a status setting column for the item, and a value column for the item. The electronic form editing unit 202 can edit the “value” column of the items in this table. On the other hand, the status setting unit 204 can set the “status setting” column of this table.

  The data table shown in FIG. 3 can be acquired by, for example, transmitting a download request for a new business trip travel application electronic form to the server 101 via the data transmission / reception unit 102 by the user.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a screen display example of an electronic form. The electronic form downloaded as described above is displayed on the display device of the client 108. The travel travel expense application electronic form 1201 shown in FIG. 4 includes input items such as a name 1202, a business trip destination 1203, a budget 1204, an actual result 1205, a purpose 1206, an approval / disapproval 1207, and a transmission button 1208 for data transmission. The data table corresponds to each of these input items, and includes a name record 901, a business trip destination record 902, a budget record 903, a performance record 904, a purpose record 905, and an approval / disapproval record 906. When the electronic form is initially displayed, the input control modes of records whose data table item IDs are name 901, business trip destination 902, budget 903, result 904, purpose 905, approval approval / disapproval 906 are respectively input disabled, input enabled, Input enabled, input disabled, input enabled, input enabled. In the status setting column, none of the records are set. In the value column, “Hitachi Taro” is set in the name record 901, and no value is specified in the others.

  The electronic form editing unit 202 recognizes a user's input operation for an input for an item whose input control mode is inputable, but does not accept an input for an item that cannot be input. In addition, the electronic form editing unit 202 does not accept an input operation for an input item for which “confirm” is set in the state setting. Note that the electronic form editing unit 202 can execute a data check, a script, and the like of the input data set in each input item, similarly to the state without state setting, regardless of the state setting of the input item.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating processing for setting a state for an input item of an electronic form. In order to set a state for an input item, for example, the state setting unit 204 recognizes that the user has right-clicked on the input item, and a list of states that can be selected from the pop-up menu 1303 is displayed. Here, for the setting of the state, confirmation, fixed advance, draft, temporary input, and no setting are displayed as a list. In general, there may be other states. When the user selects one of the displayed states, the state setting unit 204 recognizes the operation, and updates the state setting item of the corresponding record in the table with a value representing the selected state. Here, “Confirm” means confirmation of input, “Confirmation post” means transfer of confirmation authority to the following operator (superior, etc.), and “Draft” prohibits transmission to the server using the send button “Temporary input” represents a process of transmitting to the server and temporarily storing it in the server.

  FIG. 5 shows a screen example 1301 for setting a state for an input item by the user. The state setting unit 204 recognizes that the user has right-clicked on the input item 1302 and displays a list of selectable states in a pop-up menu 1303. is doing. The item for which the state is set is displayed in such a manner that the item is colored differently for each type of state so that it can be easily distinguished from other items. Alternatively, other means may be used to distinguish from other items. Moreover, it is not necessary to make a special distinction. Note that the state setting unit 204 does not recognize the user's state setting operation for items whose input control mode is not input, and does not update the state. The electronic form editing unit 202 recognizes the input for each input item, and updates the record value of the corresponding item in the table.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of the data table at the stage where the user has completed the electronic form input operation and the input item state setting operation. In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the state is set in the text input area, but in general, the state can be set for other types of input means such as a check box and a drop-down list.

  The data table shown in FIG. 6 is a data table obtained as a result of the user performing input and status setting for the electronic form shown in FIG. 4 and editing the data table of FIG. In FIG. 6, “Yokohama” is set in the “value” field of the business trip destination record 1002, and “confirmed” is specified in the state setting. Further, “3,000 yen” is set in the value field of the budget record 1003, and “determined advance” is specified in the state setting. In the purpose record 1005, “business trip” is set in the “value” column, and the state setting is “not set”.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the flow of processing in the transmission control unit 201. The transmission control unit 201 recognizes the user's data transmission operation, and the electronic form state recognition unit 203 determines whether or not transmission is possible as described later (step 401). Next, when the electronic form state recognition unit 203 determines that transmission is possible, the transmission control unit 201 transmits input data to the server 101. If it is determined that transmission is not possible, a pop-up window is displayed to the user indicating that data cannot be transmitted, and data is not transmitted (step 404). Note that the data transmission button may be deactivated in advance so that the user cannot perform the data transmission operation itself in the transmission disabled state.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining in detail the flow of processing of the transmission permission / inhibition determination (step 401) shown in FIG. First, it is determined whether or not the transmission permission flag is set to OFF (non-permission) (step 501), and if it is OFF, it is determined that data transmission is impossible (step 502). If not, it is determined whether or not there is one or more records whose status setting is “draft” (step 503). If even one such record exists, it is determined that data transmission is impossible (step 503). 502). If there is no record whose status setting is set to “draft”, it is determined that data transmission is possible (step 504).

  When the electronic form editing unit 202 recognizes a data saving operation by the user, the electronic form editing unit 202 saves the current input state in the electronic form storage unit 109 as a file. Other data storage means may be used. When the electronic form storage unit 109 recognizes the input resumption operation by the electronic form editing unit 202, the electronic form storage unit 109 can restore the stored electronic form to the state before saving and accept the input again.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the details of the server 101. As shown in the figure, the data transmission / reception unit 102 includes a data reception control unit 301 and a data transmission control unit 302, and the workflow control unit 104 includes a processing authority movement determination unit 303 described later.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the data reception control unit 301. The data reception control unit 301 receives the data including the data table transmitted from the client 106, and determines whether or not to move the processing node (client) by the processing authority movement determination unit 303 as described later (step 701). If the determination result (step 702) is to move to the next node, the state change processing unit 103 performs state change processing (step 703), displays that the work has moved to the next processing node, and the received data table. Is stored (step 704), and the process ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 702 that the processing node does not move, the state is not changed, the display indicating that the work is not moved with the current processing node is performed, and the data including the received data table is processed ( Step 704). In addition, as long as the preservation | save performed here is a method which can restore | restore the data before a preservation | save, you may preserve | save data in another format.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining processing of the processing authority transfer determination unit 303. The processing authority movement determination unit 303 checks whether there is an input item in the “temporary input” state in the “status setting” of the received data table (step 601). If there is an item in the “provisional input” state, the processing node is determined to remain the current node (step 602). If there is no input item in the “provisional input” state, it is determined that the processing node moves to the next node (step 603).

  FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the state change processing unit 103. The input control mode designated by each node is set in the data table for all records in the data table (step 801). For each record in the data table, the value is changed to “not set” if the status setting is “confirmed” and to “draft” if it is “confirmed forward” (step 801). For items whose status setting is set to “draft”, the input control mode is always set to enable input regardless of the input control mode specified by the node (step 803). In this way, by converting the item set by the client to the confirmed advance state and transmitted to the draft state on the server side, it is possible to prompt the next worker to perform the confirmation / correction operation for the item.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the data table after the server 101 receives the data table illustrated in FIG. 6 and processed by the state change processing unit 103.

  When the user accesses the server 101 and makes a request to display the application processing status using the electronic form, the workflow control unit 104 recognizes this request and refers to the data table shown in FIG. Display the progress of the application. At the time of display, it may be displayed to which person in charge the process has progressed using a figure or the like, or the degree of progress may be notified by e-mail or the like.

  When the server 101 receives the data including the item of the “provisional input” state, the server 101 stores the data including the received data table, and the data control unit 302 of the server 101 prevents the processing node from proceeding to the next worker. . That is, the server 101 temporarily stores electronic form data including items in the “provisional input” state.

  When a user accesses the server 101 and sends a request to resume input to an electronic form temporarily stored at a node that the user is in charge of, or a task to be in charge of, for example, a request to start examination / approval work, to the server 101, workflow control is performed. The unit 104 recognizes this request, and the data transmission control unit 302 extracts data including a data table corresponding to the request from the temporarily stored data and transmits it to the client 106.

  When a person other than the person in charge of processing at the current node transmits a request to browse the electronic form temporarily stored to the server 101, the data transmission control unit 302 sets all input items to input-impossible and simultaneously transmits data. The permission flag is set to OFF and data is transmitted to the client. As a result, each client can grasp the progress of processing of other clients in real time.

  In this example, when data with provisional input status items is received, an example is described in which temporary storage is always performed in a state where other persons in charge cannot edit. It may be set not to allow the person in charge to browse.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the application form is filled in temporarily, and the “draft” state is set for a specific item, so that the entire application data cannot be transmitted to the server. Can do. As a result, it is possible to prevent inadvertent transmission due to a confirmation mistake when filling in for the time being and confirming later. In addition, when the current person wants to request the next person to correct / confirm the contents of entry, the next person in charge can modify the contents of the item by setting the input item to “Confirmed” and sending it. Can do. Also, by setting items in the “temporary input” state and transmitting data to the server, other users can know the progress of the work by searching the server. In addition, when the confirmed postponed status is set to an item and sent, the server is set to convert the confirmed postponed status into a draft status, thereby encouraging the next person in charge to confirm and correct the item. Can do.

It is a figure explaining the structure of the electronic application system concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the detail of a client. It is a figure explaining the example of the data table of an electronic form. It is a figure explaining the example of a screen display of an electronic form. It is a figure explaining the process which performs a state setting to the input item of an electronic form. It is a figure explaining an example of the data table in the stage where the input operation | work of the electronic form by a user and the state setting operation | work of an input item were complete | finished. It is a figure explaining the flow of a process in a transmission control part. It is a figure explaining the detail of the flow of a process of the transmission permission determination (step 401) shown in FIG. It is a figure explaining the detail of a server. It is a figure explaining the process of a data reception control part. It is a figure explaining the process of a process authority movement determination part. It is a figure explaining the process of a state change process part. It is a figure which shows the data table after a server receives the data table shown in FIG. 6, and processed by the state change process part.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Server 102 Data transmission / reception part 103 State change process part 104 Workflow control part 105 Network 106 Client 107 Electronic form control part 108 State setting and recognition part 109 Electronic form storage part 201 Transmission control part 202 Electronic form edit part 203 Electronic form state recognition part 204 Status Setting Unit 301 Data Reception Control Unit 302 Data Transmission Control Unit 303 Processing Authority Movement Determination Unit

Claims (6)

An electronic form control unit that displays an electronic form with an input field for each input item on the display screen, accepts input by the user, and transmits the received input value to the server device when the send button is displayed on the display screen And a client device having a state setting / recognizing unit that sets at least a temporary input or a confirmed forward state based on the operation input of the user, based on the input value of the input field,
The electronic form system characterized in that the state setting / recognizing unit permits transmission based on an operation of a transmission button when recognizing the presence of an input field whose input value state is set to provisional input or fixed forward. The electronic form system according to claim 1.
An electronic form system comprising an input control mode field for setting whether a user can input or not for each input field. The electronic form system according to claim 2.
The server device temporarily stores the electronic form received from the client device, and when receiving a reference request for the electronic form stored from another client device, sets the input field of the electronic form to input disabled and transmits the electronic form to the client device. Electronic form system characterized by that. The electronic form system according to claim 1.
An electronic form system, wherein a state setting / recognition unit prohibits transmission based on an operation of a transmission button when recognizing the presence of an input field whose input value state is set to draft. Means for displaying an electronic form with an input field for each input item on the display screen to accept input by the user, and transmitting the received input value to the server device when operating a send button displaying the received input value on the display screen When,
A means for setting the state of the input value in the input field to at least a temporary input or a confirmed forward state based on a user's operation input;
A program for an electronic form system, which functions as a means for permitting transmission based on an operation of a transmission button when the presence of an input field whose input value state is set to provisional input or fixed forward is recognized. The electronic form system program according to claim 5,
An electronic form system program comprising an input control mode field for setting whether a user can input or not for each input field.

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