JP2011233030A - Information processor and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correctly control operation executed on a paper document.SOLUTION: An output processing part 106 of a server 10 performs a process to output a paper document, in which a form ID and contents thereof are printed on a paper medium, in response to an output request of the form, which is an electronic document. A form information extraction part 1064 extracts at least a portion of the contents of the object form of the output request from the forms. A form information registration part 108 associates the form ID with the form information extracted by the form information extraction part 1064 to register in a form information DB 110. An operation accept part 112 acquires the form ID printed in paper form output by the process of the output processing part 106, and operation history information on the operation executed on the form. An operation history registration part 114 associates the form ID acquired by the operation accept part 112 with the operation history information to register them in an operation history DB 116.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a program.

  A technique for managing a business process and progress using a paper document is known. For example, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, document data in which first metadata based on a document template and a data source is embedded is printed as a paper document, and the paper document subjected to predetermined processing is scanned after printing. Acquire a scanned image, acquire various information at the time of scanning as second metadata, and use the first metadata decoded from the scanned image and the second metadata acquired at the time of scanning to manage business processes The means reflects the business processing contents relating to the paper document.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for managing the progress of work related to printed matter based on identification information. In the technique described in Patent Document 2, when the printing apparatus receives a print request, the printing apparatus creates a printed material to which identification information is assigned, reads the identification information given to the printed material at the terminal device, and reads the read identification information. Send to server. When the server receives the identification information from the terminal device, the server updates the management item corresponding to the identification information.

  Patent Document 3 discloses a system in which when a person in charge fills in a print result of an electronic document used in an electronic workflow, it reads it back and returns it appropriately to the electronic workflow. Yes. In the system described in Patent Literature 3, when an electronic document used in a workflow is printed, a code including identification information that can uniquely identify the workflow or activity that is the destination of the image read from the print result of the electronic document Is printed together with the electronic document. Then, the code is read from the image obtained by reading the print result, and the image obtained by reading the print result is associated with the workflow or activity represented by the identification information indicated by the code.

JP 2007-172584 A JP 2008-206082 A JP 2007-164224 A

  In the technique for predefining the work procedure (workflow) that can be performed on a document and managing the progress of the work on the document according to this workflow, when a work different from the predefined workflow is performed, I cannot manage my work. On the other hand, it may be difficult to accurately define in advance all the procedures of work performed on a document.

  Further, in a technique for printing an electronic document managed according to a predefined workflow on a sheet together with identification information, and identifying a workflow in which the document is used according to identification information included in image data obtained by reading the paper document with a scanner. It may be desirable to record and manage the work done on a paper document from printing to scanning. For this purpose, for example, a process to be performed between printing and scanning is defined in advance, the user enters identification information of the process on a paper document, and the identification information corresponding to each process is extracted from scanned image data. It is possible to do. On the other hand, as described above, it may be difficult to define each process in advance, and errors may occur in the entry of identification information of each process into a paper document and extraction from image data.

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that manages operations performed on a paper document more accurately compared to the case of using information extracted from image data obtained by reading a paper document without defining a workflow in advance. The purpose is to provide a program.

  The invention according to claim 1 performs processing for outputting a paper document in which identification information for identifying the electronic document and the contents of the electronic document are printed on a paper medium in response to an output request for the electronic document. Associating output processing means, extraction means for extracting at least a part of the contents of the electronic document from the electronic document, the identification information of the electronic document, and content information representing the information extracted by the extraction means Document information registration means for registering in the document information storage means, identification information printed on the paper document output by the processing of the output processing means, and operation history information relating to operations performed on the paper document are acquired. An information processing apparatus comprising: an acquisition unit; and an operation history registration unit that registers the identification information acquired by the acquisition unit and the operation history information in an operation history storage unit in association with each other. It is.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the document is in a possible state, an evaluation condition for evaluating that the document is in the state, the condition relating to the content information, and the operation history information Whether or not the document of the identification information registered in the document information storage means satisfies the evaluation condition for the evaluation conditions stored in the evaluation condition storage means that stores the evaluation conditions including at least one of the conditions relating to And a display processing unit that associates the document that satisfies the evaluation condition with the state stored in the evaluation condition storage unit in association with the evaluation condition and displays the document on the display device.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the process execution condition represented by a combination of the condition related to the content information and the condition related to the operation information and the process execution condition are satisfied Of the identification information registered in the document information storage means and the operation history storage means with reference to the processing information storage means stored in association with the contents of the process to be executed If there is a process execution means, a process execution means for executing the process of the content associated with the process execution condition is further provided.

  According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the output processing means is further configured to respond to a request for outputting a plurality of paper documents from a single electronic document. Generating a plurality of different identification information corresponding to each of the plurality of paper documents, performing processing for outputting document information including each of the generated identification information and the contents of each of the plurality of paper documents, The information registration means further extracts at least part of the contents of each of the plurality of paper documents to be output, and sets content information representing the extracted contents to a plurality of identifications corresponding to each of the plurality of paper documents. The information is registered in the document information storage means in association with each piece of information.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein identification information of the electronic document is arranged in a predetermined area in the electronic document related to the output request, and the extraction is performed. The means further extracts identification information of the electronic document from the predetermined area of the electronic document related to the output request.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein in the electronic document related to the output request, the contents of the electronic document are arranged in a predetermined area, and the extracting means Further extracts the contents of the electronic document from the predetermined area of the electronic document related to the output request.

  The invention according to claim 7 is for outputting a paper document in which identification information for identifying the electronic document and the contents of the electronic document are printed on a paper medium in response to an electronic document output request. Output processing step for performing processing, extraction step for extracting at least a part of the content of the electronic document from the electronic document, the identification information of the electronic document, and content information representing the information extracted in the extracting step A document information registration step for registering in the document information storage means, identification information printed on the paper document output by the output processing step, and operation history information regarding operations performed on the paper document, And an operation history in which the identification information and the operation history information acquired in the acquisition step are associated with each other and registered in the operation history storage unit Is a program for executing the recording step.

  According to the first or seventh aspect of the invention, an operation performed on a paper document more accurately than when using information extracted from image data obtained by reading a paper document without pre-defining a workflow. Can be managed.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to evaluate and display the state of the document registered in the document information storage means in the electronic document output process.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, the processing execution condition represented by a combination of the condition relating to information extracted from the electronic document and the condition relating to the history of operations on the paper document printed with the electronic document in the output processing of the electronic document When the above is satisfied, processing of specific contents can be executed.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to manage the history of operations on the paper document for each of a plurality of output paper documents.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to manage an operation history for a paper document on which the electronic document is printed, using the identification information included in the electronic document.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to manage the history of operations on a paper document on which the electronic document is printed, using the contents included in the electronic document.

It is a block diagram which shows the example of the outline of an internal structure of a server. It is a figure which shows the example of the form schema selection table memorize | stored in form DB. It is a figure which shows the example of a form schema. It is a figure which shows the example of the data content of form information DB. It is a figure which shows the example of the data content of operation log | history DB. It is a figure which shows the example of a part of data content of checkpoint passage determination information DB. It is a figure which shows the other part example of the data content of checkpoint passage determination information DB. It is a figure which shows the example of the mode of a display of the state of a form. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of processing executed by a server that has received a form print request. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a server in the case of registering a record operation history. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the procedure of the process which the server which received the display request of the form state performs. It is a block diagram which shows the example of a structure of the system containing a workflow system and a server. It is a figure which shows the example of the log | history of the process which a workflow system records. It is a block diagram which shows the other example of the outline of the internal structure of a server. It is a figure which shows the other example of a form schema. It is a figure which shows the other example of the data content of form information DB. It is a figure which shows the other example of the data content of operation history DB. It is a figure which shows the example of the data content of process information DB. It is a figure which shows the example of the data content of action information DB. It is a figure which shows the example of the data content of user information DB. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of processing executed by a server that has received form data to be printed from a workflow system. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the procedure of the process which the action execution part of a server performs. It is a block diagram which shows the further another example of the outline of the internal structure of a server. It is a figure which shows the other example of the log | history of the process which a workflow system records. It is a figure which shows the further another example of the data content of form information DB. It is a figure which shows the further another example of the data content of operation history DB. It is a figure which shows the other example of the data content of action information DB. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of processing executed by a server that receives form data for FAX transmission from the workflow system. It is a figure which shows the example of the hardware constitutions of a computer.

<First Embodiment>
In the situation where the information processing apparatus according to the example of the first embodiment prints an electronic document created according to a preset format, and the printed paper document is distributed to one or more users for processing. Information related to operations on the paper document is managed. The first embodiment will be described below by taking as an example the case of managing a paper document on which an electronic document created using a form file that is a template file that defines the document format is managed. In the following description, an electronic document created using a form file and a paper document on which the electronic document is printed are referred to as a “form”.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic example of the internal configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the example of the first embodiment. The server 10 in FIG. 1 functions as the information processing apparatus of the example of the first embodiment. The server 10 is connected to the printer 20. The server 10 includes a user information DB (database) 100, a user authentication unit 102, a form DB 104, an output processing unit 106, a form information registration unit 108, a form information DB 110, an operation reception unit 112, an operation history registration unit 114, an operation history DB 116, A history information search unit 118, a display processing unit 120, and a checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 are provided.

  The user information DB 100 stores information on a user (user) who creates and uses a form. The user information DB 100 stores, for example, a user ID that is identification information of each user and authentication information (password or the like) of each user. The user information DB 100 further includes the user's name, contact information (address, telephone number, facsimile number, e-mail address, etc.), identification information of the user set (group, section, department, etc.) in the organization constituted by the user, each user You may memorize | store the user ID of the user who belongs to a group, the title in the organization of each user, etc. In the following description, it is assumed that the user information DB 100 stores the user ID, password, belonging group, department, and title of each user. In this example, one “department” is composed of one or more “groups” to which the user belongs. “Title” represents the role of the user in the organization. However, there may be users who do not have a specific “position”.

  When the user authentication unit 102 receives a request to use functions of each unit described later of the server 10, the user authentication unit 102 authenticates the user who made the request. For example, by receiving the input of the user ID and password of the user who made the request and confirming whether or not the received user ID and password pair matches the user ID and password pair registered in the user information DB 100 Perform user authentication. Only when the user authentication unit 102 has succeeded in the authentication, the user who makes the request is permitted to use the functions of each unit described later of the server 10.

  The form DB 104 stores form files and form schemas. The form file is a template file that is a basis for creating a form. The form schema is information representing the layout of each form file. For example, the form schema may describe what information is arranged in which area in the form file. Details of the example of the form schema will be described later. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the form DB 104 stores a form schema selection table that associates “form file name” that is the name of each form file with “schema number” that is the number of the form schema of the form file. To do. If the form schema selection table is stored in the form DB 104, the form file itself may not be stored in the form DB 104 but may be held by a device different from the server 10.

  The output processing unit 106 performs processing for printing an electronic form on paper and outputting a paper document. It is assumed that this electronic form is generated by writing information to one of the form files in the form DB 104. For example, when the server 10 accepts an electronic form print request from a client terminal (not shown) and the user authentication unit 102 successfully authenticates the print request, the output processing unit 106 sends the print request to the printer 20. A print instruction is issued to print the form ID, which is the identification information of the form that is the target of the print request, and the form. The output processing unit 106 includes a form ID assigning unit 1060, a print instruction unit 1062, and a form information extracting unit 1064.

  A form ID assigning unit 1060 generates and assigns a form ID to the form to be printed. The form ID may be unique identification information among the forms managed by the server 10. The form ID assigning unit 1060 passes the form to be printed and the form ID assigned to the form to the form information registration unit 108.

  The print instruction unit 1062 instructs the printer 20 to print the form to be printed and the form ID assigned by the form ID assigning unit 1060 to the form. At this time, in the example of this embodiment, the print instruction unit 1062 instructs the printer 20 to convert the form ID into a machine-readable code and print it. Examples of codes representing form IDs include one-dimensional codes such as barcodes and two-dimensional codes such as QR codes. In accordance with an instruction from the print instruction unit 1062, the printer 20 outputs a paper document in which a form is printed on paper together with a code representing the form ID. When the output processing unit 106 causes the printer 20 to output a paper document on which a form is printed together with the form ID, the output processing unit 106 notifies the operation history registration unit 114 to that effect. The processing of the operation history registration unit 114 that has received this notification will be described later.

  The form information extraction unit 1064 refers to the form schema in the form DB 104 and extracts information indicated by the form schema from the form to be printed. For example, the form information extraction unit 1064 acquires the schema number of the form schema associated with the file name of the form to be printed from the form schema selection table (see FIG. 2) stored in the form DB 104. Then, the form schema of the acquired schema number is read from the form DB 104, and information arranged in each area described in the form schema is extracted from the form. The form data to be printed is data expressed in a format suitable for the printing process by the printer 20, and is described in, for example, PDL (Page Description Language). The form information extraction unit 1064 interprets form data described in PDL, for example, and specifies a character string arranged in each area described in the form schema in this form. Then, the specified character string is extracted as information on the area. The form information extraction unit 1064 passes the character string extracted from each area of the form data to the form information registration unit 108 together with the form ID of the form.

  As a specific example, referring to FIG. 2, the file name of the document to be printed is “ringisho.doc”, and the information illustrated in FIG. 3 is read as the form schema of the corresponding schema number “2”. To do. The form schema in the example of FIG. 3 is described in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format. In FIG. 3, a “rectangle” element represents a rectangular area for extracting a character string (information) from a form. The “left”, “right”, “top”, and “bottom” attributes of the “rectangle” element represent the left, right, top, and bottom coordinates of the rectangular area, respectively, and the “name” attribute specifies the name of the rectangular area To express. In FIG. 3, three rectangular areas respectively named “Agenda Name”, “Drafter”, and “Distribution Range” are described. The form information extraction unit 1064 extracts a character string included in each of the three rectangular areas described in the form schema in the example of FIG. 3 from the data of the form to be printed. The form information extraction unit 1064 passes the character string extracted from each rectangular area to the form information registration unit 108 in association with the name of the rectangular area.

  It can be said that the information extracted from the form data to be printed by the form information extraction unit 1064 is a part of the contents of the form. In the following description, information extracted from the form data by the form information extraction unit 1064 is referred to as “form information”.

  Referring to FIG. 1 again, when the form information registration unit 108 receives the form ID and the form information from the form information extraction unit 1064 of the output processing unit 106, the form information registration unit 108 associates the received form information with the form information DB 110 in association with the received form ID. Register with.

  The form information DB 110 stores the form information extracted by the form information extraction unit 1064 from the form data printed by the printer 20. FIG. 4 shows an example of data contents of the form information DB 110.

  FIG. 4 is an example when information extracted from a form is registered with reference to the form schema in the example of FIG. In the table in the example of FIG. 4, a character string representing the contents of each item of “agenda name”, “initiator”, and “circulation range” is registered in association with the form ID of each form. The names of the items “Proposal Name”, “Drafter”, and “Distribution Range” correspond to the names of the rectangular areas described in the form schema (see FIG. 3). Referring to the row of the form ID “ID1” in FIG. 4, the character string “experiment server purchase” is described in the rectangular area of “property name” and the character string “userA” is written in the rectangular area of “initiator”. It can be seen that the character string “inside” is described in the rectangular area “circulation range”.

  Referring again to FIG. 1, the operation receiving unit 112 receives information regarding operations on the paper form (paper document on which the form contents are printed together with the form ID code) output from the printer 20 by the processing of the output processing unit 106. Accept. In the example of this embodiment, a paper form is circulated to a plurality of users, and each user performs some operation on the paper form. Examples of this operation include confirmation / approval of the contents of the form and writing of handwritten information on the form. In the example of the present embodiment, a user who performs an operation on a paper form causes a reading device (not shown) connected to the server 10 to read the code of the form ID printed on the paper document. As the reading device, a device corresponding to the form of the form ID code may be used. For example, a bar code reader may be used if the form ID is printed as a barcode, and a QR code reader may be used if the form ID is printed as a QR code. The reading of the form ID code may be performed before or after the operation is executed. It is only necessary to read the form ID once for each operation on the paper form. The operation receiving unit 112 recognizes the form ID by interpreting the sign of the form ID read by the reading device. The operation reception unit 112 of the example of the present embodiment further acquires the user ID of the user who has instructed reading of the form ID, that is, the user ID of the operator who performed the operation on the paper document. Although not described above, the user authentication unit 102 performs user authentication prior to reading the form ID or when the server 10 receives the read information of the form ID. Therefore, the operation reception unit 112 may acquire the user ID of the operator from the user authentication unit 102. The operation reception unit 112 passes the received form ID and the user ID of the operator to the operation history registration unit 114.

  The operation history registration unit 114 registers information representing the history of operations performed on the form in the operation history DB 116. For example, when the operation history registration unit 114 acquires the form ID received by the operation reception unit 112 and the user ID of the operator from the operation reception unit 112, the operation history registration unit 114 associates the form ID with the user ID and the user ID. The information registered in the user information DB 100 and the date and time when the operation receiving unit 112 received the form ID are registered in the operation history DB 116. As a result, a history of operations on the paper form is recorded. When the operation history registration unit 114 is notified of the form ID of the form to be printed and the user ID of the user who made the print request from the output processing unit 106 that has caused the printer 20 to print the electronic form, the operation history registration unit 114 In association with the form ID, the user ID, the information registered in the user information DB 100 in association with the user ID, and the date and time when printing was executed may be registered in the operation history DB 116. As a result, the history of the “print” operation for the electronic form is recorded.

  The operation history DB 116 is a database that stores operation histories for paper forms. FIG. 5 shows an example of data contents of the operation history DB 116. In the table of the example of FIG. 5, the values of the item ID, operator, affiliation group, affiliation department, post, and operation date / time are registered. One row of the table in the example of FIG. 5 represents a history of one operation. The form ID is the form ID of the form to be operated, which is received by the operation history registration unit 114 from the operation reception unit 112 or the output processing unit 106. The user ID is the user ID of the operator who performed the operation. Each item of belonging group, belonging department, and post is information registered in the user information DB 100 in association with the user ID of the corresponding operator, and represents the belonging group, the belonging department, and the post in the operator's organization. The values of these items are read from the user information DB 100 and registered. The operation date / time represents the date / time when the operation was executed. For the electronic form printing operation, the date and time when the output processing unit 106 causes the printer 20 to print the form is registered as the operation date and time, and for the operation on the paper form, the operation accepting unit 112 accepts the input of the form ID. The registered date and time may be registered as the operation date and time.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 1, the history information search unit 118 accepts specification of a search condition, refers to the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, and searches for a form that satisfies the search condition. The search condition may be a condition regarding the form information registered in the form information DB 110. For example, a search condition is that a specific item of the form information such as “agenda name”, “drafter”, and “circulation range” shown in FIG. 4 has a specific value. Further, the search condition may be a condition relating to an operation history registered in the operation history DB 116. For example, the search condition is that a specific item of the operation history such as “operator”, “affiliation group”, “affiliation department”, “position”, “operation date” shown in FIG. In the case of the search condition related to the operation date / time, the operation date / time may correspond to a specific period. Further, a condition obtained by combining a plurality of search conditions in the above example with an AND condition or an OR condition may be used as the search condition. The history information search unit 118 refers to at least one of the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116 and searches for a form ID that satisfies the search condition. Then, the form information and the operation history associated with the form ID of the search result are read from the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, respectively, and passed to the display processing unit 120 together with the form ID of the search result.

  The display processing unit 120 causes the history information search unit 118 to search for a form to be displayed in response to a display request for requesting display of the form state, and uses the form information and operation history of the searched form to check the state of the form. And the evaluation result is displayed on a display device (not shown). The display request is issued, for example, from a client terminal (not shown) that has received an instruction from the user when the user involved in the business using the form desires to grasp the status of the form processing. In this case, the evaluation result is displayed on the display device of the requesting client terminal. The display request includes a search condition for searching for a form to be displayed. Examples of search conditions are as described above in relation to the history information search unit 118. Further, the display request may include information for directly specifying the form ID of the form to be displayed instead of the search condition as in the above example. When the display processing unit 120 receives a search result of a form that satisfies the search condition included in the display request from the history information search unit 118, the display processing unit 120 evaluates the state of the form using the form information and the operation history of the search result. In this evaluation, the display processing unit 120 refers to the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122.

  The checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 stores information on passage conditions when paper forms are circulated to the user, status after passage, and the like. The passage condition represents, for example, what kind of user should perform an operation on a form or what kind of operation should be performed, and specifies the contents to be a checkpoint. . Since the content should be a checkpoint, it is not always necessary to define all users who perform operations on the form and all operations to be performed. In the example of the present embodiment, different passage conditions are set according to the “circulation range” described in the form. The checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 stores information indicating which passage condition is used for which circulation range. The table shown in FIG. 6 is an example of a table that associates the circulation range and the passage determination number. The distribution ranges “within group”, “within department”, and “within headquarters” shown in the table of FIG. 6 are values that can be described in the distribution range area in the form, that is, the distribution ranges that can be registered in the form information DB 110. Corresponds to the value.

  The checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 further stores information defining the contents of the passage condition for each passage determination number. The table shown in FIG. 7 represents an example of the contents of the passage condition for each passage determination number. In the table of FIG. 7, for each passage determination number, a checkpoint number, a passage condition, and a status after passage are registered. The combination of the check point number, the passage condition, and the status after passage represents the state that the form can take in the passage condition of the corresponding passage determination number and the condition for the form to take the state. The checkpoint number represents the order in which the passage conditions are evaluated. The passage condition is represented by a combination of a condition relating to the form information and a condition relating to the operation history. For example, the passage condition “2” and checkpoint number “1” in FIG. 7 indicates that the draft group and the operator belong to the same group and the operator's title is the group head. This is satisfied when the affiliation group and the operator's affiliation group in the operation history are the same, and the operator's title in the operation history is the group head. The status after passing represents a state taken by a form that satisfies the corresponding passing condition. The data content of the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 is preset by a system administrator or the like. In this example, an operation that satisfies each passing condition is performed on the form in ascending order of the checkpoint number, and the contents of the passing condition are set assuming that the state (status) of the form changes.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 1, for example, when the display processing unit 120 receives the form ID of the search result, the form information of the form ID, and the operation history from the history information search unit 118, the display processing unit 120 refers to the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122. For each form ID, a passage determination number corresponding to the value of the circulation range in the form information is specified. Then, the passage condition of each checkpoint number associated with the passage determination number is acquired from the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122. Further, it is determined whether or not the form information and operation history of the form ID in the order of the checkpoint number satisfy the passage condition, and the “status after passage” corresponding to the checkpoint with the largest number among the checkpoints satisfying the passage condition. Is obtained from the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 and is set to the form state. If there is no checkpoint that satisfies the passage condition, information indicating that none of the checkpoints has passed is set to the form state of the form ID. When the state of the form is evaluated for all of the form IDs of the search results, the display processing unit 120 displays each form ID and the form state in association with each other on a display device (not shown).

  A specific example of evaluation by the display processing unit 120 will be described with reference to FIGS. The form ID of the form to be displayed is “ID1”. From the history information search unit 118, the form information (form name “experiment server purchase”, drafter “userA”, circulation) from the form ID “ID1” shown in FIG. It is assumed that the display processing unit 120 acquires the range “inside”) and the operation history of the form ID “ID1” shown in FIG. Since the circulation range in the form information is “inside”, the display processing unit 120 specifies the passage determination number “2” (see FIG. 6) specified in the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122. Whether the form information and operation history of the form ID “ID1” satisfy the passage conditions (see FIG. 7) in the order of the checkpoint numbers “1” and “2” defined for the passage determination number “2”. Determine whether or not. For the passing condition “checker number and operator's belonging group are the same and the operator's title is the group head” for the checkpoint number “1”, the display processing unit 120, for example, has the drafter “userA” in the form information. The affiliation group is read from the user information DB 100 (here, “1G”), and the presence or absence of an operation history including an operator of the same affiliation group as the read affiliation group is confirmed. In this example, there is an operation history including operators “userA” and “userB” whose belonging group is “1G” (see FIG. 5). For these operation histories, the display processing unit 120 confirms the value of “title” and confirms that “title” of the operator “userB” is “group head”. Thereby, it is determined that the operation history of the operator “usserB” satisfies the passage condition of the check point “1”. For the checkpoint “2” passing condition “the department of the drafter and the operator belongs to the same department and the manager's job title is the department manager”, the display processing unit 120 uses the department to which the drafter “userA” belongs in the form information Read from the information DB 100 (here, “sales department”) and confirm whether or not there is an operation history including operators in the same group as the read department. In this example, there are operation histories of operators “userA”, “userB”, and “userC” whose department is “sales department” (see FIG. 5). However, in any of these operation histories, the “title” of the operator is not the “manager”. Therefore, the display processing unit 120 determines that the passage condition of the checkpoint number “2” is not satisfied. As a result of the above processing, the display processing unit 120 satisfies the passing condition of the checkpoint number “1” for the form with the form ID “ID1”, and accordingly displays the corresponding “passing manager approval” status of the corresponding form. Evaluate the condition.

  FIG. 8 is an example of an aspect of information displayed on the display device by the display processing unit 120. The table of FIG. 8 displays the form ID, the proposal name, the drafter, the draft date, and the status in association with each other. The form ID is a form ID to be displayed. The values of the proposal name and the drafter are values included in the form information of the corresponding form ID. The draft date may be the operation date and time of the operation history of the corresponding form ID with the oldest operation date and time (the printing history of the form). The status is a state in which the display processing unit 120 has evaluated the form with the corresponding form ID. In the table of FIG. 8, the status of the form ID “ID1” is “waiting for manager approval” as in the above-described specific example. Further, the status “waiting for processing” of the form ID “ID3” in the table of FIG. 8 indicates that the form information and operation history of the form do not satisfy any of the checkpoint passing conditions.

  In addition to the form ID and the state of the form, the display processing unit 120 may further display information obtained from the form information or the operation history for the form with the form ID as in the example of FIG.

  Hereinafter, an example of the operation of the server 10 in the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of processing executed by the server 10 when a form print request is received.

  The output processing unit 106 acquires a form print request (step S10), and the form ID assigning unit 1060 generates a form ID that is newly assigned to the form to be printed (step S12).

  Next, the print instruction unit 1062 of the output processing unit 106 instructs the printer 20 to print the form on a sheet together with the form ID generated in step S12 (step S14). In this example, the print instruction unit 1062 encodes the form ID into a machine-readable code, and instructs the printer 20 to print the form ID code on a sheet together with the form. When the printer 20 prints the form, the output processing unit 106 notifies the operation history registration unit 114 to that effect.

  The form information extraction unit 1064 acquires a form schema corresponding to the form to be printed from the form DB 104 (step S16). For example, the form information extraction unit 1064 refers to the form schema selection table (see FIG. 2) in the form DB 104, identifies the schema number associated with the file name of the form to be printed, and selects the form schema of the identified schema number. Obtained from the form DB 104.

  In accordance with the form schema acquired in step S16, the form information extracting unit 1064 extracts form information from the form data to be printed (step S18). For example, the form data to be printed described in PDL or the like is interpreted, and character strings included in each area described in the form schema are extracted from the form data. The form information extraction unit 1064 obtains the character string extracted from each area of the form data, the form ID assigned to the form in step S12, and the area name specified by “name =” of the form schema. It is passed to the form information registration unit 108.

  The form information registration unit 108 registers the form information extracted in step S18 in the form information DB 110 in association with the form ID received from the form information extraction unit 1064 (step S20).

  Also, the operation history registration unit 114 receives a notification that printing has been executed from the output processing unit 106, and registers the history of printing operations in the operation history DB 116 (step S22). In step S22, the operation history registration unit 114 registers the value of each item in the example of FIG. 5 in the operation history DB 116 in association with the form ID of the form to be printed. As the operator, the user ID of the user who made the print request is acquired and registered from the user authentication unit 102, and the values read from the user information DB 100 regarding the acquired user ID are obtained as the belonging group, the belonging department, and the post. sign up. As the operation date and time, the current date and time (that is, the date and time when printing is performed) may be registered. After step S22, the process of the procedure in the example of FIG. 9 ends.

  In the procedure of FIG. 9 described above, the processing order may be partially exchanged. For example, the form information extraction / registration (steps S16 to S18) may be performed before the form printing (step S14), or the printing process and the form information extraction / registration process may be performed in parallel. . The printing operation history registration process (step S22) may be performed immediately after step S12.

  Through the processing of the procedure in the example of FIG. 9, a paper form on which the form ID code and the form contents are printed is output, and the form information extracted from the form is registered in the form information DB 110 for printing operation. The history is registered in the operation history DB 116.

  When a user who has circulated a paper form performs an operation on the form, he / she first inputs his / her user ID and password, and in response to the input, the user authentication unit 102 of the server 10 performs user authentication. . If the user authentication is successful, the user reads the code of the form ID printed on the form using the reading device. The code read by the reading device is input to the server 10, and in response to this input, the server 10 performs the processing of the procedure illustrated in FIG.

  Referring to FIG. 10, operation accepting unit 112 accepts input of a form ID (step S30). The operation reception unit 112 also acquires the user ID of the user who has instructed the input of the form ID from the user authentication unit 102. The operation reception unit 112 passes the received form ID and the acquired user ID to the operation history registration unit 114.

  The operation history registration unit 114 registers the operation history of the form with the form ID acquired from the operation reception unit 112 in the operation history DB 116 (step S32). In this example, in step S <b> 32, the operation history registration unit 114 registers the value of each item shown in the table of FIG. 5 in the operation history DB 116 in association with the form ID acquired from the operation reception unit 112. The user ID acquired from the operation reception unit 112 is registered as an operator, and the values read from the user information DB 100 regarding the acquired user ID are registered as belonging groups, departments, and positions. As the operation date and time, the current date and time (that is, the date and time when the operation receiving unit 112 received the form ID) may be registered.

  Through the processing of the procedure in the example of FIG. 10, the history of operations performed on the paper form is registered in the operation history DB 116.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of the server 10 when a display request for displaying a form state is received.

  The display processing unit 120 acquires a display request including the form ID or search condition of the form to be displayed (step S40). The display processing unit 120 passes the form ID or search condition included in the display request to the history information search unit 118, and instructs the search of the form information and operation history of the form to be displayed.

  The history information search unit 118 acquires the form information and operation history of the display target form (step S42). When the form ID of the form to be displayed is received from the display processing unit 120, the history information search unit 118 acquires the form information and operation history associated with the form ID from the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116. When the search condition for the display target form is received from the display processing unit 120, the history information search unit 118 refers to at least one of the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116 according to the search condition, and selects a form that satisfies the search condition. Search for the form ID. Then, the form information and the operation history of the form ID of the search result are acquired from the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, respectively. The history information search unit 118 passes the form ID of the form to be displayed, the form information acquired for the form ID, and the operation history to the display processing unit 120.

  The display processing unit 120 acquires the passage condition from the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 for each form ID received from the history information search unit 118 (step S44). In this example, the display processing unit 120 first identifies a passage determination number corresponding to the “circulation range” in the form information of each form ID (see FIG. 6), and the status after the passage of the identified passage determination number (see FIG. 6). 7).

  Next, the display processing unit 120 evaluates the state of each form to be displayed using the form information and operation history of each form ID and the status after passing acquired in step S44 (step S46). In this example, for each form ID, it is determined whether or not the form information and operation history of the form ID satisfy the passage condition in the order of the checkpoint number in the corresponding passage determination number. Then, the “status after passing” corresponding to the checkpoint with the largest number among the checkpoints that satisfy the passing condition is acquired from the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 and set as the state of the form. If there is no check point that satisfies the passage condition, information indicating that is set as the state of the form.

  In step S46, the display processing unit 120 evaluates in the order of the checkpoint numbers, and when a checkpoint that does not satisfy the passage conditions is found, evaluation of the passage conditions of the remaining checkpoints may be omitted. Good. In this case, the status after the passage of the checkpoint evaluated immediately before the checkpoint that does not satisfy the passage condition may be the state of the form. Alternatively, the display processing unit 120 may evaluate the passage conditions for all check points. In this case, it is possible that the check conditions for checkpoints with numbers smaller than the largest checkpoint satisfying the pass conditions are not satisfied. For example, the passage conditions of checkpoint numbers “1” and “3” may be satisfied and the passage conditions of checkpoint number “2” may not be satisfied. In such a case, for example, the status after passing the checkpoint number “3” is set to the state of the form, and the passing condition of the checkpoint number “2” evaluated before the checkpoint number “3” is set. Information indicating that the information is not satisfied may be further included in the state of the form. Alternatively, the status after passing checkpoint number “3” may be the state of the form regardless of whether or not the passing condition of checkpoint number “2” is satisfied.

  When the evaluation for each display target form is completed, the display processing unit 120 displays the evaluation result (step S48). For example, the display processing unit 120 transmits control information for controlling the contents of display to the client terminal requesting the display request, and display on the display device of the client terminal is performed according to the control information. An example of the display mode in step S48 is as described above with reference to FIG. The area name is displayed as the label of the 2nd to 5th columns of the displayed table. In this example, “Agenda name”, “Drafter”, “Draft date”, “Status” are applicable To do.

  In the first embodiment described above, a form ID is assigned and form information is extracted and registered using electronic form printing as a trigger. The form is printed on the paper together with the form ID, and the form ID is read and the operation history is registered each time an operation is performed on the paper form.

Second Embodiment
A server 10 that functions as an information processing apparatus according to the example of the second embodiment is connected to a workflow system 40 via a network 30 such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet, as illustrated in FIG. The workflow system 40 is a system that manages the flow of work using documents. The workflow system 40 includes a workflow management unit 42 and an electronic document management unit 44. A printer 20 and a scanner 50 are further connected to the network 30. The server 10 and the workflow system 40 use the printer 20 and the scanner 50 via the network 30.

  The workflow management unit 42 of the workflow system 40 creates a workflow instance (individual workflow) based on the workflow flow definition and executes it. For example, an invoice is drafted for each individual case even in the same invoice processing flow, and issued after necessary approval. In this case, an instance for the processing of an individual invoice is created based on the flow definition of the invoice processing, and the workflow related to the invoice is executed by executing this instance. Typical examples of processing for workflow management performed by the workflow management unit 42 include circulation of an electronic document, identification of a person in charge of executing an activity (processing), notification to a person in charge of the activity or a related person, and the like. . The workflow management unit 42 records a history of processing performed on the document.

  FIG. 13 is an example of a processing history recorded in the workflow system 40. In the table in the example of FIG. 13, items of item ID, operator, processing content, and operation date / time are registered in association with each other. One row of the table in FIG. 13 represents a history of one process. The case ID is identification information that identifies an instance of a workflow. In this example, since one electronic document is used in one workflow instance, the case ID may be regarded as identification information of the electronic document. The user ID represents the user ID of the user who performed the process. The processing content is the content of the activity performed on the electronic document, and corresponds to one of a plurality of activities defined in the flow definition. The operation date / time represents the date / time when the corresponding activity was executed.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 12, the electronic document management unit 44 holds and manages a group of electronic documents used in the workflow. In the workflow, for example, a document is circulated among people, and the document is commented, stamped or signed as necessary. There are also documents that are required in each activity. As described above, the electronic data of the document used in the workflow is managed by the electronic document management unit 44. Further, the electronic document management unit 44 performs access right management for each managed electronic document group according to the information provided from the workflow management unit 42. In general, access to an electronic document used by a workflow instance or an individual activity within the workflow instance is permitted only to the person in charge of the workflow instance or activity or a person concerned. Since the workflow management unit 42 manages information on workflow instances, persons in charge of each activity, and related parties, the electronic document management unit 44 executes access right management for each electronic document based on the information. In the following description, an example of the second embodiment will be described assuming that the electronic document managed by the workflow system 40 is a form created according to a preset format.

  The workflow management unit 42 and the electronic document management unit 44 described above exist in a conventional workflow management system, and existing ones may be used.

  In the second embodiment, the server 10 manages operations on a paper document generated by printing an electronic document (electronic form) to be managed by the workflow system 40. Note that when such a paper document is read by the scanner 50 to generate an electronic document, the electronic document is sent to the electronic document management unit 44 of the workflow system 40 and becomes a management target of the workflow system 40.

  When the workflow system 40 shown in FIG. 12 accepts an electronic form print request, it generates form data for printing in which a case ID is arranged in a preset area in the form, and prints the generated form data. Is transmitted to the server 10.

  FIG. 14 shows a schematic example of the internal configuration of the server 10 in the second embodiment. 14, components similar to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1, and detailed description thereof is omitted. Hereinafter, the server 10 illustrated in FIG. 14 will be described focusing on differences from the server 10 of the first embodiment illustrated in FIG.

  The server 10 in FIG. 14 includes a process information DB 130 instead of the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 in FIG. 14 further includes an action information DB 140 and an action execution unit 142. Details of the process information DB 130, the action information DB 140, and the action execution unit 142 will be described later.

  The output processing unit 106 of the server 10 in FIG. 14 does not include the form ID adding unit 1060 shown in FIG. When the output processing unit 106 receives a print instruction including the form data to be printed (the case ID is arranged) from the workflow system 40, the form information extraction unit 1064 obtains the case ID and the form information from the received form data. Extract. The case ID extracted in this way is used as the form ID of the form. The form information extraction unit 1064 reads out a form schema representing the layout of the form to be managed by the workflow system 40 from the form DB 104, and extracts information from the form data using this form schema. Here, in order to simplify the description, it is assumed that all the forms to be managed by the workflow system 40 are created according to a common layout, and one kind of form schema representing this layout is stored in the form DB 104 in advance. . Of course, also in the second embodiment, as in the example of the first embodiment, a plurality of form schemas and information for associating the form types with the form schemas are stored in advance in the form DB 104, and the form types are stored. Different form schemas may be used depending on the case.

  FIG. 15 shows an example of a form schema used by the server 10 of the second embodiment. The form schema shown in FIG. 15 is described in the XML format as in the example of FIG. However, the form schema in FIG. 15 includes a description representing an area in which the case ID is arranged in the form. In the form schema of FIG. 15, the “rectangle” element whose “name” attribute is “form ID” represents a rectangular area in which the case ID is arranged, and a character string extracted from this rectangular area is regarded as the form ID. Means. Furthermore, the “rectangle” element of “form ID” includes a description instructing printing by replacing the font of the character string extracted from the rectangular area. This instruction is described by the “replaceFontFrom” attribute and the “replaceFontTo” attribute. In the example of FIG. 15, it means that the font of the extracted character string is replaced from “MS P Gothic” to “OCRB” and printed. The replaced font is set to a font corresponding to the form ID reader. In this example, since the form ID printed on the paper form is read by the reading device capable of reading the OCRB font, the OCRB font is set. In the example of FIG. 15, the “rectangle” element whose “name” attribute is “case name”, “applicant”, “start date”, “desired completion date”, “customer name”, and “contact”. Represents a rectangular area in which a character string of the form information represented by each name is arranged.

  Referring again to FIG. 14, the print instruction unit 1062 of the output processing unit 106 converts the font described in the form schema for the form ID (case ID) extracted by the form information extraction unit 1064, and then converts the form ID. The printer 20 is instructed to print the form data including the ID. In accordance with this instruction, the printer 20 prints the form ID and the contents of the form on paper and outputs them. The output processing unit 106 notifies the operation history registration unit 114 together with the form ID that the form has been printed.

  The form information registration unit 108 receives the form ID and form information extracted from the form data to be printed from the form information extraction unit 1064 and registers them in the form information DB 110.

  FIG. 16 is an example of the data content of the form information DB 110 when form information is extracted using the form schema of the example of FIG. In the table of FIG. 16, the values of the form ID, case name, applicant, start date, desired completion date, customer name, and contact information corresponding to each “rectangle” element in the example of FIG. 15 are registered. Yes.

  Referring to FIG. 14 again, the operation receiving unit 112 in the second embodiment receives not only the form ID read from the paper form but also information indicating the type of operation performed on the form. In the example of the second embodiment, when a user performs an operation on a paper form on which a form ID that is a case ID is printed, for example, a user uses a reading device connected to a client terminal (not shown). The form ID is read, and the type of the operation is input using the input device of the client terminal. Examples of the type of operation include confirmation and approval of the contents of the form, dispatch of the form, receipt of the form returned from the form delivery destination, and the like. As an example of a procedure for accepting an input of an operation type, the operation accepting unit 112 of the server 10 displays information that prompts the user to input an operation type when the form ID read by the reading device is received from a client terminal, for example. The control information to be transmitted is transmitted to the client terminal, and the information is displayed on the client terminal. For example, the control information may be information that displays a list of preset operation types and prompts the user to select an operation type from the list. In response to the display according to the control information, the user inputs the type of operation, and the input type is transmitted from the client terminal to the server 10 and acquired by the operation reception unit 112.

  The operation history registration unit 114 acquires the form ID and operation type received by the operation receiving unit 112 and the user ID of the operator of the operation (obtained from the user authentication unit 102) from the operation receiving unit 112, The history of the operation is registered in the operation history DB 116. The operation history registration unit 114 also receives a notification that the form has been printed from the output processing unit 106 and registers the history of the printing operation in the operation history DB 116.

  FIG. 17 is an example of the data contents of the operation history DB 116 in the second embodiment. In the example of FIG. 17, the items of operator, operation, type, and operation date / time are registered in association with the form ID of each form. Among these, the meaning of each item of the operator and the operation date and time is the same as in the example of the first embodiment (see FIG. 5). In the “operation” item, the type of operation specified by the server 10 is registered. In the example of FIG. 17, one of two types of values, “print” operation for electronic forms and “confirm” operation representing operations for paper forms, is registered as the value of the “operation” item. ing. In the “type” item, information input as a type of the operation by the user who is an operator at the time of executing the operation on the paper form is registered. In FIG. 17, “approved” and “shipped” are shown as examples of the value of the “type” item.

  The process of the history information search unit 118 in FIG. 14 may be the same as that of the history information search unit 118 in the example of the first embodiment.

  The display processing unit 120 in FIG. 14 is different from the display processing unit 120 in the example of the first embodiment in that the process information DB 130 is referred to instead of the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122 to evaluate the state of the display target form. .

  The process information DB 130 stores information indicating a process to be performed on a paper form. For example, information that associates the name of the form processing step with the condition that the operation history of the form should satisfy is stored. FIG. 18 shows an example of data contents of the process information DB 130. In the table of FIG. 18, the process ID, process name, operation, and type are registered in association with each other. The process ID is identification information of a process to be performed on a paper form. In this example, the process ID also represents the order in which each processing process should be performed. That is, the table in the example of FIG. 18 indicates that each processing process should be performed on the form in the order of the process ID numbers. The process name represents the name given to the processing process to be performed on the form. The items of operation and type correspond to the operation and type in the operation history. The display processing unit 120 that refers to the process information DB 130 in the example of FIG. 18 performs an operation history of a certain form when a set of operation and type values associated with each process name is included. Evaluate that the process with the corresponding process name has been completed. For example, with respect to the operation history of the form ID “A001” shown in FIG. 17, the display processing unit 120 refers to the process information DB 130 in the example of FIG. 18, and the display processing unit 120 corresponds to the operation history of “print” and empty type. The process name corresponds to the operation history with the name "Action Start", the operation is "Confirm" and the operation type is "Approval", the operation name is "Approve / Seal", and the operation is "Confirm" and the operation type is "Shipment" Evaluates that the process of the name “shipping” has been completed. In the process information DB 130, it is not always necessary to store all process steps to be performed on a paper form, and for example, only process steps corresponding to operations to be detected may be stored. .

  Returning to the description of FIG. 14, the server 10 monitors the data contents of the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, and when a preset condition regarding the form information and the operation history is satisfied, a predetermined process (user Notifications). The action information DB 140 and the action execution unit 142 are components for such processing.

  The action information DB 140 stores a process execution condition and a process to be executed when the condition is satisfied in association with each other. FIG. 19 shows an example of data contents of the action information DB 140. In the table of FIG. 19, a set of action activation conditions and action contents is registered. “No.” in FIG. 19 is a number assigned to a set of action activation conditions and action contents. The action activation condition is a condition for starting processing of the corresponding action content, and is represented by a combination of a condition relating to the form information and a condition relating to the operation history. For example, in FIG. The first half of the action start condition of “1” is “the time until the approval deadline is 24 hours or less”, which is a condition relating to the form information. This condition determines whether or not the time from the current date to the approval deadline is 24 hours or less, with the date and time preceding the desired completion date in the form information as the “approval deadline”. It is evaluated by. No. The latter condition of the action start condition of 1 “the operation type is“ confirm ”” and the type is “approval” does not exist ”is a condition related to the operation history. This condition is determined with reference to the value of the “operation” item and the value of the “type” item in the operation history. The action content represents the content of processing to be executed by the server 10 when there is a form that satisfies the corresponding action activation condition. Although not shown in FIG. 19, for example, “processing is performed in a different order from the defined process information” is set as an action activation condition, and “processing is performed again” as an action content corresponding to the action activation condition. “Notifying related parties that it needs to be executed” may be stored, and a set of action activation conditions and action contents can be arbitrarily determined.

  Referring to FIG. 14 again, the action execution unit 142 monitors the data contents of the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, and executes the corresponding action contents when the action activation condition registered in the action information DB 140 is satisfied. The action execution unit 142 includes an activation condition evaluation unit 1420. The activation condition evaluation unit 1420 refers to the data contents of the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, and for each form ID, whether the form information and operation history of the form satisfy each action activation condition registered in the action information DB 140. Determine whether. The action execution unit 142 executes the processing of the action content corresponding to the action activation condition for the form determined by the activation condition evaluation unit 1420 to satisfy the action activation condition. For example, for a form with a certain form ID, No. 1 in FIG. When the activation condition evaluation unit 1420 determines that one action activation condition is satisfied, the action execution unit 142 sets the corresponding action content “operator of the operation history whose operation is“ print ”as an approver of the user. Execute the process “Send approval request mail to the user who has been sent”. For example, the operation history of the form ID is read from the operation history DB 116, and the user ID of the operator of the “print” operation is acquired in the read operation history. Then, referring to the user information DB 100, the user ID preset as the approver of the user of the user ID is specified, and the approval operation for the form of the form ID is performed for the user's e-mail address of the specified user ID. Send an e-mail (approval request mail) containing a message to request

  In addition, what is necessary is just to memorize | store the approver and e-mail address of the user of each user ID in user information DB100 previously. An example of the data contents of the user information DB 100 in this case is shown in FIG. In the table of FIG. 20, the e-mail address and the approver of the user are registered in association with the user ID of each user. The approver is a user who has a role of approving the operation when the corresponding user performs an operation on the document. An approver of a certain user may be, for example, a boss of the user in an organization.

  Hereinafter, an example of the operation of the server 10 in the second embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 21 shows an example of a procedure of processing performed by the server when a print instruction including the form data to be printed on which the matter ID is arranged is received from the workflow system 40.

  Referring to FIG. 21, the output processing unit 106 acquires form data to be printed (step S11).

  Next, the form information extraction unit 1064 of the output processing unit 106 acquires a form schema from the form DB 104 (step S16), and acquires a form ID (case ID) and form information from the form data to be printed according to the acquired form schema. Extract (step S17).

  The print instruction unit 1062 of the output processing unit 106 instructs the printer 20 to print the contents of the form together with the form ID on a sheet (step S19). In the example using the form schema shown in FIG. 15, the print instruction unit 1062 issues a print instruction to the printer 20 after replacing the form ID with the OCRB font in step S <b> 19. If the form schema does not include information specifying the font of the form ID, the print instruction unit 1062 may issue a print instruction without changing the form ID font extracted from the form data. Alternatively, for example, similarly to the print instruction unit 1062 in the example of the first embodiment, the printer 20 may be instructed to print a code obtained by encoding the form ID together with the contents of the form.

  The processing of steps S20 and S22 may be executed in the same manner as the processing of each step described above with reference to FIG. Further, when the printing is completed, the output processing unit 106 notifies the workflow system 40 to that effect. Thereby, also in the workflow system 40, the history regarding this printing operation is recorded and managed.

  In the procedure of the example of FIG. 21, if the process of extracting the form ID and form information from the form data (step S17) fails to extract the form ID (case ID), a warning including information indicating that fact May be displayed and the processing after step S19 may not be performed. Such a warning is displayed, for example, on the client terminal of the user who has instructed the workflow system 40 to print the form. Further, the content of this warning may be notified to the workflow system 40.

  The process of registering an operation history for a paper form may be performed according to the procedure of the example of FIG. 10 as in the first embodiment. However, in the second embodiment, in step S30, the operation receiving unit 112 receives not only the form ID but also the operation type. In step S32, the operation history registration unit 114 registers the value of each item as shown in FIG. 17, for example, in the operation history DB 116 as an operation history in association with the form ID.

  The basic procedure of the processing of the server 10 when receiving a form display request may be the same as the procedure of the example of FIG. However, in the second embodiment, instead of steps S44 and S46 in FIG. 11 that refer to the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122, the process information DB 130 is referred to, and the process name corresponding to the operation history of each form to be displayed is specified. To do. In the display process in step S48, for example, the process name specified for the form is displayed on a display device (not shown) in association with the form ID (and at least part of the form information) of each form. When a plurality of combinations of operations and types corresponding to the process names registered in the process information DB 130 are included in the operation history of a certain form, all of the plurality of process names may be displayed, or the process ID number is the maximum. Only the process name may be displayed.

  FIG. 22 shows an example of the processing procedure of the action execution unit 142. For example, the action execution unit 142 periodically executes the processing of the procedure in the example of FIG. 22 at a preset time interval. Or you may perform the process of the procedure of the example of FIG. 22 at the timing designated by the system administrator.

  With reference to FIG. 22, the activation condition evaluation unit 1420 of the action execution unit 142 evaluates the action activation condition registered in the action information DB 140 (step S60). For each form ID registered in the form information DB 110 and the operation history DB 116, it is determined whether or not the form information and the operation history satisfy the action activation conditions registered in the action information DB 140.

  If there is a form that satisfies the action activation condition (YES in step S62), the action execution unit 142 executes processing of the action content corresponding to the action activation condition (step S64).

  If there is no form that satisfies the action activation condition (NO in step S62), the procedure in the example of FIG. 22 is terminated without performing step S64.

  In the modification of the second embodiment described above, in the operation history DB 116, instead of registering two items of operation and type as items indicating the contents of the operation, only one item indicating the type of operation is registered. You may keep it. Further, instead of allowing the user to input the type of operation, the server 10 holds information that associates a specific client terminal with the type of operation in advance, and when an operation is received from the client terminal, the information is associated with the client terminal in advance. The type of operation performed may be registered as an operation history. For example, a mode is conceivable in which a client terminal for an “approval” operation is determined in advance, and a user who performs an “approval” operation always causes the client terminal to read the form ID.

  In still another modified example, a paper form on which an operation such as stamping or writing has been performed is scanned by a client terminal having a scanner function, image data of the form is generated and transmitted to the server 10. The type of operation may be specified using information extracted from the image data. In the case of this example, for example, for each type of operation (approval, confirmation, etc.) performed on a paper form, information indicating what character or figure is written in which area of the form is stored in advance. It may be defined and stored in a storage device (not shown) of the server 10. With reference to such information, the server 10 determines whether or not the image data obtained by scanning the paper form includes a character, a figure, or the like corresponding to a region corresponding to a specific operation type. If it is determined and included, an operation history indicating that the type of operation has been executed may be registered in the operation history DB 116. When the server 10 processes image data obtained by scanning a paper form, a form ID may be extracted from the image data. As a specific example of this processing, a region in which a form ID is printed is determined in advance, information on this region is stored in advance in the storage device of the server 10, and character recognition processing is performed on the region in the form image data. Alternatively, it is conceivable to extract the form ID by performing a decryption process.

  In the above description, the process information DB 130 has been described by taking as an example a case where a table (see FIG. 18) that associates the process name of each processing process with a set of operations and types in one type of work flow is stored. In the modified example, a plurality of tables such as those in the example of FIG. 18 are created and stored in the process information DB 130, and the tables differ depending on the value of a specific item (for example, an item representing the type of form) in the form information. Accordingly, the processing of the display processing unit 120 may be performed. Similarly, in the action information DB 140, a plurality of tables for associating action activation conditions and action contents may be created and stored, and these tables may be used in accordance with specific items in the form information. A plurality of tables stored in each of the process information DB 130 and the action information DB 140 may be associated with a plurality of form schemas. In this example, the display processing unit 120 and the action execution unit 142 specify a form schema corresponding to the form to be processed, and read the tables corresponding to the form schema from the process information DB 130 and the action information DB 140, respectively. I do.

<Third Embodiment>
In the third embodiment, the server 10 is connected to the workflow system 40 as in the second embodiment (see FIG. 12). In the third embodiment, the server 10 is further connected to a FAX apparatus having a function of transmitting / receiving FAX (facsimile).

  FIG. 23 illustrates a schematic example of the internal configuration of the server 10 that functions as the information processing apparatus according to the example of the third embodiment. The configuration of the server 10 in FIG. 23 is the second embodiment illustrated in FIG. 14 except that the process information DB 130 is not provided and the output processing unit 106 is provided with a form ID adding unit 1060 and a FAX transmission instruction unit 1066. It is the same as the server.

  In the third embodiment, in the workflow system 40, FAX transmission and FAX reception are managed as one of activities. FIG. 24 shows an example of a processing history recorded in the workflow system 40 of the third embodiment. The meaning of each item (case ID, operator, processing content, and operation date / time) in the table of FIG. 24 is the same as each item of the table of FIG. 13 referred to in the description of the second embodiment. The table in FIG. 24 is an example of a history when managing a workflow using a request for quotation for requesting a company or the like to estimate the cost of a product or service. 24, when a plurality of estimate destinations are input in the process of “estimate destination input” in the table of FIG. 24, the request for quotation is faxed to the plurality of estimate destinations in the process of process content “send request FAX transmission”. Sent.

  In the third embodiment, when the workflow system 40 receives a FAX transmission request for a form to be managed, the workflow system 40 generates form data for FAX transmission in which a case ID is arranged in a preset area of the form. In this example, it is assumed that the fax transmission form data includes FAX transmission destination information such as a FAX number and an address. Then, the workflow system 40 transmits the generated form data to the server 10. Further, when a plurality of FAX transmission destinations are designated for one form, the workflow system 40 of this example generates a plurality of form data including respective pieces of destination information of the plurality of destinations and transmits them to the server 10. The plurality of form data includes a common case ID.

  In the server 10 of FIG. 23, when the form data for FAX transmission is received from the workflow system 40, the form ID giving unit 1060 of the output processing unit 106 generates a different form ID for each FAX transmission destination. In this example, if there are a plurality of FAX transmission destinations, a plurality of form data corresponding to the respective destinations are generated and transmitted to the server 10. Therefore, each of the form data received from the workflow system 40 by the form ID assigning unit 1060. By generating a form ID for a different form, a different form ID is generated for each destination. Further, the form information extraction unit 1064 of the output processing unit 106 refers to the form schema and extracts the form information from each form data, as in the examples of the first and second embodiments. The extracted form information is transferred to the form information registration unit 108 in association with each form ID and registered in the form information DB 110.

  FIG. 25 shows an example of the data contents of the form information DB 110 in the third embodiment. Even if the form IDs are the same, if the FAX transmission destination is different, a different form ID is assigned depending on the destination. Referring to the table of FIG. 25, for each form ID, the values of the items of the case ID, the case name, the applicant, the start date, the desired completion date, the estimated response delivery date, the estimate destination, the person in charge, and the FAX number are FAX. It can be seen that it is extracted and registered from the form data for transmission. In the table of FIG. 25, the three items of the estimate destination, the person in charge, and the FAX number are information on the destination of FAX transmission.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 23, the FAX transmission instructing unit 1066 of the output processing unit 106 generates form data including a corresponding form ID for each FAX transmission destination, and transmits the generated form data to the destination by FAX. The FAX apparatus 60 is instructed. Further, the output processing unit 106 notifies the operation history registration unit 114 of the form ID of the form data to be transmitted by FAX and the fact that the FAX transmission has been performed. Upon receiving this notification, the operation history registration unit 114 registers the history of FAX transmission operations in the operation history DB 116 in association with each form ID.

  The FAX apparatus 60 transmits a FAX including the form ID and the form contents to each destination in accordance with an instruction from the FAX transmission instruction unit 1066. Upon receiving this FAX, each destination FAX apparatus prints and outputs the form ID and the form contents. In this example, the person in charge of each destination writes necessary information on the paper form output at each destination, and then sends the form to the FAX number of the FAX apparatus 60 connected to the server 10. (Return).

  When the FAX device 60 receives the FAX, the FAX device 60 passes the received data to the server 10. The operation reception unit 112 of the server 10 determines whether or not the form ID is included in the received data received from the FAX apparatus 60. This determination may be performed, for example, by searching the received data for a character string representing the form ID registered in the form information DB 110. If the form ID is included, the operation reception unit 112 notifies the operation history registration unit 114 that the form ID and the FAX have been received. Upon receiving this notification, the operation history registration unit 114 registers the FAX reception operation history in the operation history DB 116 for the form ID.

  FIG. 26 shows an example of the data contents of the operation history DB 116 in the third embodiment. In the table of FIG. 26, items of operator, operation, and operation date / time are registered in association with each form ID. The meanings of these items are the same as in the example of the second embodiment (FIG. 17). However, in the example of FIG. 26, “FAX transmission” or “FAX reception” is registered as the operation type in the operation item. A character string “sys” representing the system is registered as an operator of the “FAX reception” operation. This is because the “FAX reception” operation is not performed according to the instruction of the user of the form to be managed by the server 10 (the user registered in the user information DB 100), but is automatically performed by the FAX apparatus 60. The “FAX transmission” operation is performed according to a user instruction, and the server 10 acquires the user ID of the user from the workflow system 40 and registers the user ID in the operation history DB 116 as an operator of the “FAX transmission” operation. Is done.

  In the above, each component of the server 10 related to FAX transmission / reception of a form including a case ID and a form ID has been described. In the third embodiment, when a form including a case ID and a form ID is sent and received by fax, the workflow system 40 also manages workflow based on the case ID in parallel with the processing by each unit of the server 10 described above. Is performed.

  In the third embodiment, since the operation history of FAX transmission or FAX reception is registered as described above, the action information DB 140 of the server 10 in FIG. 23 has action activation conditions including conditions regarding the operation history of FAX transmission / reception. Can be registered. FIG. 27 shows an example of data contents of the action information DB 140 in the third embodiment. According to the action start condition and action content shown in FIG. 27, the “FAX reception” operation is performed on the form “FAX transmission” even within 72 hours until the “estimated response delivery date” in the form information. If there is not, FAX transmission of the form is performed again using the destination information of the estimate destination, the person in charge, and the FAX number in the form information of the form.

  In addition, the display processing unit 120 of the server 10 of the third embodiment accepts specification of a search condition for a form to be displayed, causes the history information search unit 118 to search for a form ID of a form that satisfies the search condition, and the search result. The operation history of each form ID is read from the operation history DB 116 and displayed. This search condition may be a condition relating to at least one of the form information and the operation history as in the example of the first embodiment. For example, with reference to the form information in FIG. 25, when the search condition is that the case name of the form information is “PC parts”, the form IDs “ID1” and “ID2” are the search results by the history information search unit 118. . When the data content of the example of FIG. 26 is registered in the operation history DB 116, the display processing unit 120 displays, for example, the table shown in FIG. 26 as the operation history of the form IDs “ID1” and “ID2” of the search results described above. May be displayed. The user who has confirmed this display knows that FAX transmission has been performed for the form ID “ID1”, but FAX reception has not been performed, and FAX transmission and FAX reception have been performed for the form ID “ID2”. Know what is going on.

  Hereinafter, an example of the operation of the server 10 in the third embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 28 shows an example of the processing procedure of the server 10 that has received the form data for FAX transmission from the workflow system 40.

  First, the output processing unit 106 acquires form data for FAX transmission (including case ID and destination information) (step S70). In this example, as described above, the form data generated by the workflow system 40 is acquired for each FAX transmission destination.

  Next, the form information extraction unit 1064 of the output processing unit 106 acquires a form schema representing the layout of the form data for FAX transmission from the form DB 104 (step S72), and the form data acquired in step S70 according to the form schema. Form information is extracted from (step S74).

  Also, the form ID assigning unit 1060 generates a form ID (step S76). In this example, if a form ID is generated for each form data acquired from the workflow system 40, a different form ID is generated for each destination.

  The FAX transmission instructing unit 1066 generates form data in which the form ID is arranged for the form ID generated in step S76, and instructs the FAX apparatus 60 to perform FAX transmission to the destination included in the form data (step). S78). In accordance with this instruction, the FAX apparatus 60 transmits a FAX including the form ID and the form contents to each destination.

  The form information registration unit 108 registers the form information extracted in step S74 in the form information DB 110 in association with the form ID generated in step S76 (step S80). An example of the form information is as described above with reference to FIG.

  The operation history registration unit 114 registers an operation history indicating that a FAX transmission operation has been performed in the operation history DB 116 in association with the form ID generated in step S76 (step S82). After step S82, the process of the procedure in the example of FIG. 29 ends.

  In the processing of the display processing unit 120 of the server 10 of the third embodiment, steps S44 and S46 (processing that refers to the checkpoint passage determination information DB 122) are omitted in the procedure of the example of FIG. 11 described above with respect to the first embodiment. At the same time, the operation history of the form to be displayed may be displayed in the display process of step S48. In the display process, not only the operation history of the form, but also at least a part of the form information (for example, a case name or an applicant) may be displayed.

  Note that the processing procedure of the action execution unit 142 of the server 10 of the third embodiment may be the same as the procedure of the example of FIG. 22 described above with respect to the second embodiment.

  In the example of the third embodiment described above, only two types of “FAX transmission” and “FAX reception” are shown as examples of the types of operations registered in the operation history DB 116. However, also in the third embodiment, as in the example of the second embodiment, the operation receiving unit 112 receives an input of the operation type for the paper form, and performs other “FAX transmission” and “FAX reception”. The type of operation may be registered. Further, the type of operation performed on the form relating to FAX reception may be specified using information extracted from the FAX reception data of the form. For example, for each type of operation, information indicating what character or figure is written in which area of the form is stored in advance in a storage device (not shown) of the server 10, and this information is used. It is conceivable to analyze the FAX reception data and specify the type of operation.

  In addition to the embodiment and the modified examples described above, there may be various modified examples. For example, in the example of the first embodiment that is not connected to the workflow system 40, the action information DB 140 and the action execution unit 142 may be provided, as in the second and third embodiments.

  Further, in the third embodiment, the form in which different form IDs are assigned and managed even when the form IDs are the same is shown as an example of the FAX apparatus. However, for example, a plurality of questionnaires that are electronic documents are printed. It can also be applied to the case where it is output and distributed to multiple people for collection. In this case as well, it is possible to apply a configuration in which different form IDs are assigned and managed to each of a plurality of copies of the questionnaire, and arbitrary action activation conditions and action contents are defined.

  Further, for example, the action activation conditions registered in the action information DB 140 described above indicate that the operation history corresponding to the specific condition “does not exist” (that is, that no operation is performed). This is part of the conditions for executing the processing (FIGS. 19 and 27). However, in another example, an operation history corresponding to a specific condition may “exist” (that is, a certain operation has been performed) may be part of the action activation condition. For example, the action activation condition is that there is an operation history indicating that an “approval” operation has been performed on the form, and the corresponding action content indicates to the creator of the form that the approval operation has been completed. It is conceivable to set notification.

  Moreover, the action execution part 142 demonstrated above performs the process of the procedure of the example of FIG. 22 regularly, evaluates action starting conditions, and performs the process of action content. In one modification, the action execution unit 142 always monitors the registration of the operation history in the operation history DB 116, and is registered in advance in association with the condition at the timing when the operation history satisfying a certain condition is registered in the operation history DB 116. The processing of the contents may be executed. In this case, the action content processing is executed when an operation that satisfies the conditions is performed.

  The server 10 exemplified above is typically realized by executing a program describing functions or processing contents of each unit of the server 10 described above on a general-purpose computer. In the computer, for example, as shown in FIG. 29, a CPU (central processing unit) 80, a memory (primary storage) 82, various I / O (input / output) interfaces 84 and the like are connected via a bus 86 as hardware. Circuit configuration. In addition, a hard disk drive (HDD) 88, a disk drive 90 for reading various types of portable non-volatile recording media such as a CD, a DVD, and a flash memory is connected to the bus 86 via, for example, an I / O interface 84. Connected. Such a drive 88 or 90 functions as an external storage device for the memory. A program in which the processing content of the embodiment is described is stored in a fixed storage device such as the HDD 88 via a recording medium such as a CD or DVD or via a network, and is installed in a computer. The program stored in the fixed storage device is read into the memory and executed by the CPU, whereby the processing of the embodiment is realized.

  In the above, the embodiment in which the server 10 is realized by a single computer has been described. However, the various functions of the above-described example of the server 10 may be distributed to a plurality of computers.

  10 server, 20 printer, 30 network, 40 workflow system, 42 workflow management unit, 44 electronic document management unit, 50 scanner, 60 FAX device, 80 CPU, 82 memory, 84 I / O interface, 86 bus, 88 HDD, 90 Disk drive, 100 User information DB, 102 User authentication unit, 104 Form DB, 106 Output processing unit, 108 Form information registration unit, 110 Form information DB, 112 Operation reception unit, 114 Operation history registration unit, 116 Operation history DB, 118 History information search unit, 120 display processing unit, 122 checkpoint passage determination information DB, 130 process information DB, 140 action information DB, 142 action execution unit, 1060 form ID assigning unit, 1062 print instruction unit, 1064 form information Information extraction unit, 1066 FAX transmission instruction unit, 1420 Start condition evaluation unit.

Claims (7)

Output processing means for performing processing for outputting a paper document in which identification information for identifying the electronic document and contents of the electronic document are printed on a paper medium in response to an output request for the electronic document;
Extracting means for extracting at least part of the contents of the electronic document from the electronic document;
Document information registration means for associating the identification information of the electronic document with content information representing the information extracted by the extraction means and registering it in the document information storage means;
Obtaining means for obtaining identification information printed on the paper document output by the processing of the output processing means and operation history information relating to an operation performed on the paper document;
An operation history registration unit that associates the identification information acquired by the acquisition unit and the operation history information with each other and registers them in the operation history storage unit;
An information processing apparatus comprising: A state in which the document can be taken and an evaluation condition for evaluating that the document is in the state, which includes at least one of the condition relating to the content information and the condition relating to the operation history information, are stored in association with each other. For the evaluation condition stored in the evaluation condition storage means, it is determined whether or not the document of the identification information registered in the document information storage means satisfies the evaluation condition, and is associated with the document satisfying the evaluation condition and the evaluation condition Display processing means for displaying on the display device in association with the state stored in the evaluation condition storage means,
Further comprising
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. Processing information storage means for storing a processing execution condition represented by a combination of the condition related to the content information and the condition related to the operation information and the content of the processing to be executed when the processing execution condition is satisfied And when there is a document satisfying the process execution condition among the identification information documents registered in the document information storage unit and the operation history storage unit, the process of the content associated with the process execution condition is executed. Processing execution means,
Further comprising
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus. The output processing means further generates a plurality of different identification information corresponding to each of the plurality of paper documents in response to a request to output a plurality of paper documents from a single electronic document, and the generated identification information Performing processing for outputting document information including each and the contents of each of the plurality of paper documents;
The document information registration means further extracts at least a part of the contents of the plurality of paper documents to be output, and sets content information representing the extracted contents to a plurality of paper documents corresponding to the plurality of paper documents. Registered in the document information storage means in association with each of the identification information of
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus. In the electronic document related to the output request, identification information of the electronic document is arranged in a predetermined area,
The extraction means further extracts identification information of the electronic document from the predetermined area of the electronic document according to the output request;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus. In the electronic document related to the output request, the content of the electronic document is arranged in a predetermined area,
The extraction means further extracts the contents of the electronic document from the predetermined area of the electronic document according to the output request;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus. On the computer,
An output processing step for performing processing for outputting a paper document in which identification information for identifying the electronic document and the content of the electronic document are printed on a paper medium in response to an output request for the electronic document;
An extraction step of extracting at least part of the content of the electronic document from the electronic document;
A document information registration step of associating and registering the identification information of the electronic document and content information representing the information extracted in the extracting step in a document information storage unit;
An acquisition step of acquiring identification information printed on the paper document output by the output processing step and operation history information related to an operation performed on the paper document;
An operation history registration step of registering the identification information acquired in the acquisition step and the operation history information in an operation history storage unit in association with each other;
A program for running

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