JP4177305B2 - Network communication equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention provides a network communication apparatus having at least a HTTP communication function connected to a network and exchanging data by a predetermined HTTP protocol and a facsimile communication function connected to a public line and exchanging facsimile data by a predetermined facsimile transmission procedure. About.

  Conventionally, in a network communication apparatus having at least a HTTP communication function connected to a network and exchanging data by a predetermined HTTP protocol and a facsimile communication function connected to a public line and exchanging facsimile data by a predetermined facsimile transmission procedure, Proposals have been made so that settings inside the apparatus can be performed via a network, and history information of a communication apparatus can be referred to as a Web page (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

In such a communication device, it is possible to make settings inside the device without going directly to the installation location of the communication device. For example, an operation device having a high degree of freedom of operation such as a personal computer device is used. Operation can be performed easily.
JP 2000-92262 A JP 2002-7095 A

  However, in such a conventional apparatus, information acquisition of the network communication apparatus is performed via the Web browser. However, since the HTML file is only displayed by the browser, the data can be displayed by secondary use or a simple method. I couldn't.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide a network communication apparatus that enables secondary control of information or control such as simple display with a tool.

  The present invention provides a network communication apparatus having at least a HTTP communication function connected to a network and exchanging data by a predetermined HTTP protocol and a facsimile communication function connected to a public line and exchanging facsimile data by a predetermined facsimile transmission procedure. In FIG. 2, when the acquisition of history information is requested by the HTTP protocol, the history information is returned to the request source by a semantic XML document.

  In addition, when a search condition is specified when the history information acquisition request is made, the history information is extracted according to the search clause, and the extracted history information is returned as a semantic XML document in RDF format.

  The semantic XML document includes a description of a reference destination URL of individual page information for displaying the individual history included in the history information.

  In addition, in the display column of the subject of the semantic XML document, information display for one case of the individual history included in the history information is arranged.

  Further, the display of the time information of the individual history is arranged in the date display column associated with the subject.

  Further, the display of the document creator of the individual history is arranged in the display column of the author associated with the subject.

  In addition, the display of the thumbnail image URL of the image information corresponding to the individual history is arranged in the image image display column associated with the subject.

  When the history information is broadcast communication, one individual history is formed for each broadcast destination, and identification information is given for each individual history.

  In addition, when the semantic XML document is in the atom format, the history display information in the HTML format is included.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, the retrieval result of the device information can be acquired with the semantic XML document, so that the information can be secondarily used and can be easily displayed with a tool. The effect that you can use the information freely is obtained.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In the figure, a plurality of workstation devices WS1 to WSn, a mail server device SM, and a network facsimile device FX are connected to the local area network LAN and connected to the Internet via a router device RT. . Therefore, the workstation apparatuses WS1 to WSn, the mail server apparatus SM, and the network facsimile apparatus FX can exchange data with other appropriate terminal apparatuses via the Internet.

  Here, the mail server device SM is a known e-mail collection and distribution service for users using the workstation devices WS1 to WSn connected to the local area network LAN and the network network facsimile device FX. Is to provide.

  In the workstation devices WS1 to WSn, various programs such as facsimile application software for creating and displaying facsimile image information and various software for exchanging various data via the local area network LAN. Has been introduced and is used by specific users. Here, the specific user may be one or a plurality of users.

  The network facsimile apparatus FX is connected to the analog public line network PSTN, an electronic mail processing function for exchanging image information and various reports as electronic mails, and this public network is used as a transmission path to perform a group 3 facsimile transmission procedure. A facsimile communication function for transmitting image information according to the Internet, and a Web server function for providing various types of information to an external device using the HTTP protocol.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the network facsimile apparatus FX.

  In the figure, a system control unit 1 performs various control processes such as a control process of each part of the network facsimile apparatus FX and a facsimile transmission control procedure process. The system memory 2 is executed by the system control unit 1. The control processing program and various data necessary for executing the processing program are stored, and the work area of the system control unit 1 is configured. The parameter memory 3 is unique to the network facsimile apparatus FX. The clock circuit 4 outputs current time information.

  The scanner 5 is for reading a document image at a predetermined resolution, the plotter 6 is for recording and outputting an image at a predetermined resolution, and the operation display unit 7 operates the network facsimile apparatus FX. It consists of various operation keys and various displays.

  The encoding / decoding unit 8 encodes and compresses the image signal, and also decodes the encoded and compressed image information into the original image signal. The image storage device 9 performs encoding and compression. This is for storing a large number of image information in the selected state.

  The group 3 facsimile modem 10 is for realizing the modem function of the group 3 facsimile, and is a low-speed modem function (V.21 modem) for exchanging transmission procedure signals, and mainly for exchanging image information. A high-speed modem function (V.17 modem, V.34 modem, V.29 modem, V.27ter modem, etc.) is provided.

  The network control apparatus 11 is for connecting the network facsimile apparatus FX to the analog public line network PSTN, and has an automatic outgoing / incoming function.

  The local area network interface circuit 12 is for connecting the network facsimile apparatus FX to the local area network LAN, and the local area network transmission control unit 13 is connected to other data terminal apparatuses via the local area network LAN. It is for executing communication control processing of various predetermined protocol suites for exchanging various data between them.

  The system control unit 1, system memory 2, parameter memory 3, clock circuit 4, scanner 5, plotter 6, operation display unit 7, encoding / decoding unit 8, image storage device 9, group 3 facsimile modem 10, network The control device 11 and the local area network transmission control unit 13 are connected to an internal bus 14, and data exchange between these elements is mainly performed via the internal bus 14.

  Data exchange between the network control device 11 and the group 3 facsimile modem 10 is performed directly.

  Here, in the present embodiment, basically, data exchange between terminals connected to the local area network LAN is a transmission protocol up to a transport layer called TCP / IP, and more. This is performed by applying a combination with a higher layer communication protocol (so-called protocol suite). For example, in the exchange of e-mail data, a communication protocol called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is applied as an upper layer communication protocol.

  Further, as a protocol applied to each mail terminal device SM for confirmation of receiving or obtaining an e-mail addressed to the user, a so-called POP (Post Office Protocol) can be applied.

  Further, communication protocols such as TCP / IP, SMTP, POP, and data format and data structure of e-mail are defined by RFC documents issued from IETF. For example, RFC is defined as RFC793, IP as RFC793, SMTP as RFC821, and e-mail format as defined by RFC822, RFC1521, RFC1522 (MIME (Multipurpose Mail Extension) format), respectively.

  HTTP is an abbreviation for “Hyper Text Transfer Protocol”, and is a protocol for realizing a so-called WWW (World-Wide Web). Usually, communication is performed on TCP (port number: 80). For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a browser executed on the workstation WS by a command such as GET or POST designates processing to the HTTP server of the network facsimile machine FX, and XML ( An eXtensible Markup Language (HTML) file, an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file, or an image file is sent from the HTTP server. In this embodiment, as will be described later, communication history information or the like can be provided to the client as a semantic XML document.

  Further, XML is defined by the recommendation of W3C (WWW technology standardization organization), and SGML (ISO / IEC 8879: 1986) is simplified to support the Internet. Unlike HTML, this XML can use any tag. Data and processing (layout (design)) can be described separately.

  The semantic XML document refers to a file format for realizing a function of a so-called semantic web technology realized in XML. For example, there is RSS (Rich Site Summary “1.0 series” or Real Simple Synchronization “0.9-2.0 series”) that conforms to RDF (Resource Description Framework). Further, there is Atom that realizes the same function as RSS. Refer to http://kanzaki.com/docs/sw/rss.html (accessible as of August 5, 2004) for an explanation of RSS. Please refer to http://www.kanzaki.com/docs/sw/atom.html for explanation of Atom (accessible as of August 5, 2004).

  In this embodiment, the network facsimile machine FX creates and stores communication history information as shown in FIG. 4A every time a transmission / reception operation is performed. Here, the transmission / reception operation indicates a facsimile transmission / reception operation performed with another group 3 facsimile apparatus using the analog public line network PSTN, and an electronic mail communication operation for exchanging image information by electronic mail. A so-called scan e-mail function that transmits scanned image information to a specified destination using an e-mail is a form of e-mail communication operation.

  This communication history information indicates the file number assigned to each transmission / reception communication job, the communication mode indicating whether the communication is a facsimile transmission / reception operation or an e-mail communication operation, and the date and time when the communication operation is completed. It includes communication date and time, destination information indicating the destination of the communication, a communication result of the communication, and user information indicating a user who has set the communication.

  In the case of specifying broadcast communication, a plurality of pieces of destination information are set. For example, the destination information has a format as a destination table as shown in FIG. This destination table includes the number of destinations and k pieces of set destination information.

  Further, in the case of the above-mentioned broadcast communication, the communication result is stored as a communication result table as shown in FIG. This communication result table is composed of k communication results in which the same elements as the destination table are arranged in the same order.

  In this embodiment, the communication history information, the destination information, and the communication result are created as XML data in the XML format, so that a history information list page described later, an HTML file of an individual page, or an RSS feed And Atom feeds can be automatically converted and created. Further, when this XML data is automatically converted into an HTML file, an RSS feed, or an Atom feed, a corresponding XSLT (= XSL (= eXtensible Stylesheet Language) Transformations) file is applied.

  In the present embodiment, all image information related to the transmission / reception operation is stored in the image storage device 9. At that time, a thumbnail image (reduced image) used as an index image or the like is created and stored in the image storage device 9 (see FIGS. 5A and 5B).

  In addition, when providing various information as an HTTP server, an icon image may be arranged on the display screen so that a user on the client side can confirm display items and operation items at a glance. The image data is also saved in the image storage device 9 as shown in FIG.

  Furthermore, among the communication history information as described above, a transmission history information list page for providing as a list information what is related to the transmission operation, and a transmission history information individual page for providing each transmission history information, Each time the transmission operation is completed, it is created and saved as an HTML file (see FIG. 5D).

  In addition, among the communication history information as described above, a reception history information list page for providing as a list information items related to the reception operation, and a reception history information individual page for providing each reception history information, Each time the reception operation is completed, it is created and saved as an HTML file (see FIG. 5 (e)).

  Apart from this, the present embodiment also has a function of providing the list information and individual information of transmission history information and the list information and individual information of reception history information as a semantic XML document of an RSS document or an atom document, respectively. I have. When provided as a semantic XML document, each information element must have some meaning. Therefore, in this embodiment, each item of communication history information is arranged in an information element that seems to be suitable for it, and transmission history information or reception history information is created.

  An example of providing the list information and individual information of the transmission history information as an RSS document (RSS feed) is shown in FIG. The RSS feed format conforms to RSS 1.0.

  Also, in the figure, element names beginning with dc (dc: date etc.) are element names defined in the Dublin Core module. The Dublin Core module is defined by DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative), and defines a vocabulary for describing bibliographic information such as the author, title, and creation date of the web and documents as metadata.

  Similarly, in the figure, an element name (such as rdf: li) starting with rdf represents an element name defined by RDF.

  In this example, the URL of the network facsimile apparatus FX is arranged as the channel element, and “FAX001 communication history [transmission]” is shown so that the title element in the channel element is the transmission history information of the network facsimile apparatus FX. And a character string “FAX communication history [send] is displayed” as a description element in the channel element. Here, the URL of the icon image data is arranged as the image element in the channel element.

  A character string “FAX001” representing the network facsimile apparatus FX is arranged as a creator (dc: creator) element in the channel element. The date (date) (dc: date) element in the channel element contains the creation date and time of the RSS feed.

  The items element lists identification information of one or more pieces of transmission history individual information. The identification information used here is the identification information in the subsequent item element. In this case, three item elements are included, and the first two represent the results of broadcast communication to two destinations, and the third represents the transmission results to one destination.

  In the title element of the item element, contents that can identify the transmission history of the item element are arranged. For example, the title element of the first item element is “communication history: transmission [001-1]”. Here, “[001-1]” represents “[file number (real number) −destination table element number (suffix)]”, and transmission history information for the first destination of broadcast communication with file number 001. It means that it is. In this way, transmission history can be identified by destination even for broadcast communication with the same file number.

  Since the title element of the second item element is “communication history: transmission [001-2]”, this indicates that it is transmission history information for the second destination of the broadcast communication with the file number 001.

  Further, since the title element of the third item element is “communication history: transmission [002]”, this indicates that the transmission history information is the file number 002.

  In addition, the URL element of the transmission history information is arranged in the link element of the item element, and the contents of the transmission history information are arranged in the description element.

  In addition, in the subject (dc: subject) element of the item element, contents that can identify the transmission history information are arranged. For example, the subject element of the first item element is “transmission result -1 of file number 001”, indicating that the item element is transmission history information for the first destination of broadcast communication of file number 001. Appears. The same applies to the subject elements of the second and third item elements.

  In addition, a display of the manufacturer name of the network facsimile apparatus FX is arranged in the publisher element of the item element.

  In addition, in the creator (dc: creator) element of the item element, the user name of the user who instructed the communication operation is arranged. In the case of reception history information, identification information such as the telephone number of the other party (transmission side) is arranged in the creator element. This is because the creator element wants to include identification information of the target (sending user or sending terminal) that caused the communication.

  Also, in the date (dc: date) element of the item element, the value of the communication date and time of the transmission history information is arranged. This is because it is desired to notify (display) the date and time when the transmission operation was actually performed to the user.

  In the next image element, the URL of thumbnail image data having a file number corresponding to the transmission history information is arranged. In the link element, the URL of the image data of the file number corresponding to the transmission history is arranged.

  7, 8, and 9 show an example in the case of providing the transmission history information list information and individual information as an Atom document (Atom feed; Atom data). Note that the format of the Atom feed conforms to version 0.3.

  In this Atom format, a feed element and an entry element correspond to an RSS channel element and an item element, respectively. The role corresponding to the RSS link is indicated by an attribute “rel =“ alternate ””. An element corresponding to the RSS description element is a summary element.

  In addition, the Atom format is characterized in that content including HTML (XHTML) markup in the content element can be described as a CDATA section. In the present embodiment, this is used to configure data in a table that displays one piece of transmission history information. The layout information for the transmission history information table can be described as “”.

  Then, in the workstation devices WS1 to WSn that have received such RSS feed or Atom feed, display software (referred to as an RSS aggregator or RSS reader) for displaying the contents of these RSS feeds or Atom feeds is installed. Has been.

  For example, when the RSS feed of FIG. 6 is displayed by the RSS aggregator, the display as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B is obtained. The same figure (a) and the same figure (b) have shown the example of an application of a different display form.

  In the display example of FIG. 6A, a large pane (display field) PA1 on the left side displays a list of the contents of the title element of the channel element of the RSS feed registered in the RSS aggregator.

  When one is selected from the display in this pane (the selected element is surrounded by a broken line), a list of items elements of the RSS feed is displayed in the upper right pane PA2. Here, since the three element elements are included in the items element, the contents of the title element of each item element are displayed.

  When one (top) is selected from the display of the pane PA2, the contents of the description element of the item element are displayed in the pane PA3 below the pane PA2. Note that the icon IC displayed in the pane PA3 indicates that the corresponding image information data is obtained when the icon is operated.

  In the display example of FIG. 5B, the contents of the link element arranged in the item element, that is, the contents of the transmission history information individual page corresponding to the transmission history are acquired and displayed in the pane PA3. .

  Since the display example of the atom feed is the same, the description thereof is omitted.

  Further, when the RSS aggregator is started, the RSS aggregator accesses the RSS feed URL registered first, and acquires RSS feed information from the network facsimile apparatus FX.

  For example, if the RSS aggregator wants to obtain an RSS feed of RSS 1.0 for a user with user code 001, “http://fax001.abc.co.jp/history/transmission/history?xml=rss1.0&usercode The command corresponding to “= 001” is executed.

  That is, in this case, HTTP is applied and a command “GET /history/transmission/history?xml=rss1.0&usercode=001” is issued to the network facsimile apparatus FX of “fax001.abc.co.jp”.

  Thereby, the network facsimile apparatus FX first acquires all the transmission history information of the user with the designated user code 001 from the stored communication history information, and creates the RSS feed as described above. At this time, since RSS1.0 and the version are designated, the RSS1.0 format is applied. Note that RSS 2.0 and Atom format can also be specified separately.

  When the RSS feed is created in this way, the network facsimile apparatus FX transmits the created RSS feed to the requesting workstation apparatuses WS1 to WSn.

  Thereby, the RSS aggregator which received the RSS feed displays and outputs the content of the RSS feed in the display form as described above.

  In addition, when the RSS aggregator acquires transmission history information for all users, the command corresponding to “http://fax001.abc.co.jp/history/transmission/history?xml=rss1.0” is executed. To do. When an RSS 2.0 RSS feed is acquired, the end is “xml = rss2.0”, and when an Atom feed is acquired, the end is “xml = atom”.

  In this case, the network facsimile apparatus FX acquires all transmission history information from the stored communication history information, creates the RSS feed as described above, and sends it to the requesting workstation apparatuses WS1 to WSn. In contrast, the created RSS feed is transmitted.

  In this way, in this embodiment, since the communication history information is notified to the external device as a semantic XML document, each element of the communication history information can be handled as XML data. It becomes easy to secondary use history information, and communication history information can be displayed in various forms.

  In addition, by displaying the information in the XML file as text and displaying the details with the link destination URL, it is possible to easily obtain the detailed information of the device, so that not only the secondary use of the data but also the visual expressive power You will be able to have

  In addition, since information (subject information and description information) to be stored in the XML file is stored as text, various information can be easily transmitted.

  In addition, instead of the generation date and time of the XML file, if it is a communication history, the date and time when the facsimile transmission / reception was actually performed can be entered to display the history data in order.

  In addition, instead of the name of the communication device in the XML file, if it is a communication history, the history data can be used by entering the user name (user code) that has actually made a FAX communication.

  Also, by providing the image information with the URL of the image, the details of the history data can be viewed as a thumbnail image.

  In addition, since the Atom feed can be stored as HTML layout information, it can be notified as a Web page design, and the expressive power can be improved.

  FIG. 11 shows an example of processing when the network facsimile apparatus FX performs a facsimile transmission operation.

  When the user sets a transmission document on the scanner 5 (process 101), the user appropriately operates the operation display unit 7 to input one or more destinations (process 102), and the start key ( (Not shown) is operated to start the transmission operation (the result of determination 103 is YES).

  As a result, the network facsimile apparatus FX reads the image of the transmission original set in the scanner 5 (process 104), and the image data obtained thereby is encoded and compressed by the encoding / decoding unit 8, and thus obtained. The image information is stored in the image storage device 9 (process 105). At this time, thumbnail image data is also created and stored.

  Next, one of the designated destinations is selected (process 105), a call is made to the selected destination using the analog public line network PSTN (process 107), and a pre-transmission procedure at the time of group 3 facsimile transmission is performed (process). 108) The stored image information is transmitted to the destination (processing 109).

  When the transmission of the image information is completed, a predetermined post-transmission procedure for group 3 facsimile transmission is performed (process 109), and the line is restored (process 110). Here, it is checked whether or not the transmission operation has been completed for all destinations (determination 112). When the result of determination 112 is NO, the processing returns to processing 106 and the transmission operation is performed for the remaining destinations.

  Further, when the transmission to all destinations is completed and the result of determination 112 is YES, the communication history information (transmission history information) as described above for the previous transmission operation is created and saved (processing 113). In addition, the transmission history list information is created and saved (process 114), and the operation at this time is terminated.

  FIG. 12 shows a processing example when the network facsimile apparatus FX performs a facsimile reception operation.

  When an incoming call is detected (process 201), an incoming call response is processed (process 202), a predetermined pre-transmission procedure for group 3 facsimile reception is performed (process 203), image information is received, and the received image information is stored in the image storage device 9. (Process 204). At this time, thumbnail image data is created and stored in the image storage device 9.

  When the reception of the image information is completed, a predetermined post-transmission procedure for group 3 facsimile is performed (process 205), and the line is restored (process 206). Next, the communication history information (reception history information) as described above for the reception operation at that time is created and saved (process 207), and the reception history list information is created and saved (process 208). End the operation.

  FIG. 13 shows an example of processing when the network facsimile apparatus FX receives an HTTP connection request via the local area network LAN. That is, an example of operation as an HTTP server is shown.

  When an information acquisition request is received (YES in determination 301), the received URL is analyzed (processing 302), and the data requested to be acquired is determined (processing 303). Here, the argument of the GET command is analyzed (process 304), the specified XML format is determined (process 306), and it is checked whether it is RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, or Atom. (Decisions 306, 307).

  If RSS 1.0 is specified and the result of determination 306 is YES, an XSLT file corresponding to the XML format of RSS 1.0 is created (process 308). If RSS 2.0 is specified, determination is made. When the result of 307 is YES, an XSLT file corresponding to the XML format of RSS 2.0 is created (process 309). When Atom is specified and the result of determination 307 is NO, the XML format of Atom An XSLT file corresponding to the above is created (process 310).

  Next, the XML data requested for acquisition determined in process 303 is read (process 311), and the read XML data is combined with the XSLT file created in any of processes 308, 309, and 310 (process 312). ), XML data for response (RSS feed or Atom feed) is created (process 313), and the response data created in process 313 is returned to the information acquisition request source (process 314).

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which an RSS feed or an Atom feed is used as a semantic XML document has been described. However, the present invention is similarly applied to a case of using data in any other appropriate format. be able to.

  In the above-described embodiments, the present invention is applied to communication history information. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to various other list information, for example, device setting information. .

1 is a block diagram showing a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which showed the structural example of the network facsimile apparatus FX. The time chart which showed an example of the communication by HTTP. Schematic which showed an example of communication history information, a destination table, and a communication result table. Schematic which showed an example of the accumulation | storage aspects, such as an image file. Schematic which showed an example of the RSS feed of transmission history information. Schematic showing an example of an Atom feed of transmission history information (continued; 1/3). Schematic showing an example of an Atom feed of transmission history information (continued; 2/3). Schematic (3/3) which showed an example of Atom feed of transmission history information. Schematic for demonstrating the example of a display of an RSS aggregator. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of processing when the network facsimile apparatus FX performs a facsimile transmission operation. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of processing when the network facsimile apparatus FX performs a facsimile reception operation. The flowchart which showed an example at the time of the network facsimile apparatus FX operate | moving an HTTP server.

Explanation of symbols

FX network facsimile machine WS1 to WSn workstation apparatus 1 system control unit 2 system memory 3 parameter memory 9 image storage apparatus

Claims (9)

In a network communication apparatus having at least a HTTP communication function connected to a network and exchanging data by a predetermined HTTP protocol and a facsimile communication function connected to a public line and exchanging facsimile data by a predetermined facsimile transmission procedure,
A network communication device, characterized in that, when acquisition of history information is requested by the HTTP protocol, the history information is returned to the request source by a semantic XML document.   2. The search information according to claim 1, wherein when a search condition is specified at the time of acquisition request of the history information, the history information is extracted according to the search clause, and the extracted history information is returned as a semantic XML document in RDF format. Network communication equipment.   The network communication apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the semantic XML document includes a description of a reference URL of individual page information for displaying an individual history included in the history information.   4. The network according to claim 1, wherein display of information for one case of the individual history included in the history information is arranged in a display column of a subject of the semantic XML document. 5. Communication device.   5. The network communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a display of time information of the individual history is arranged in a date display field associated with the subject.   6. The network communication device according to claim 4, wherein a display of a document creator of the individual history is arranged in an author display field associated with the subject.   7. The network according to claim 4, 5 or 6, wherein a display of a thumbnail image URL of image information corresponding to the individual history is arranged in an image image display field associated with the subject. Communication device.   4. When the history information is broadcast communication, one individual history is formed for each broadcast destination, and identification information is given for each individual history. The network communication device according to claim 4, claim 5, claim 6 or claim 7.   When the semantic XML document is in the Atom format, the history display information in the HTML format is included. The claim 1, the claim 4, the claim 5, the claim 6, the claim 7, or the claim 8 The network communication device described.

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