JP4720473B2 - Document processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral.

  Recent multifunction devices are not only equipped with scanners, printer functions, and facsimile (FAX) functions, but are also connected to personal computers via a network and equipped with e-mail transmission / reception functions. Increasingly diversified. Further, by combining these functions, for example, a document read by a scanner may be instructed to be faxed to the telephone number A and sent to the e-mail address B.

  Conventionally, when such processing is performed, processing results are individually recorded as a log for each of the three processes of scanning, FAX transmission, and mail transmission.

On the other hand, various requests such as a print request and a FAX transmission request are made from a personal computer connected via a network to such a multi-function device at any time. During a series of processing of the document, In some cases, processing related to a print request of another person is performed.
JP-A-6-6656

  For this reason, conventionally, when a log is displayed in order of time series in order to view a log as a processing result, a plurality of processes for a single document are not displayed together, and whether the entire process is completed without delay. However, it is difficult to visually recognize the above, and convenience is low.

  Patent Document 1 discloses information indicating that the transmission is a broadcast transmission together with information such as a transmission result related to each destination in the case of a broadcast transmission in which the same information is transmitted to a plurality of different destinations in the FAX apparatus. , And based on the broadcast transmission information stored in the storage means, control is performed so that information such as the transmission results of a plurality of destinations is printed on the recording paper, thereby transmitting the broadcast transmission. A technique for printing records as a list is disclosed.

  In the technique of Patent Document 1, although a series of processing results continuously executed in FAX can be printed together, individual processing results and overall processing of a plurality of processing results executed intermittently are performed. The results cannot be referred to individually or simultaneously, and the convenience cannot be sufficiently improved.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a document processing apparatus capable of improving convenience.

  The present invention for solving the problems of the conventional example described above is a document processing apparatus that executes at least one specified process on a document to be processed. Means for holding individual process result information for each specified process, and means for holding overall process result information for the entire specified process for the document to be processed, the individual process The result information and the entire process result information are used for a predetermined display process.

  Here, the overall process result information includes normal end information indicating that no error has occurred in each of the specified processes, and abnormal end information indicating that an error has occurred in any of the specified processes. It is good also as being either.

  Further, the overall processing result information is information related to a result of the entire processing based on at least one of a plurality of processing instructions defined with order and a processing instruction based on a specified processing condition, and the individual processing The result information may be a result of the specified individual processing. The specified individual processing may include a plurality of types of processing.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling a document processing apparatus that executes at least one specified process on a document to be processed. Holding the individual process result information for each process, and holding the entire process result information for the entire specified process for the document to be processed, the individual process result information, The whole process result information is used for a predetermined display process.

  Furthermore, another aspect of the present invention is a program that is specified for a document to be processed by a document processing apparatus that executes at least one specified process on the document to be processed. A process for holding individual process result information for each process, and a process for holding overall process result information for the entire specified process for the document to be processed. And the entire processing result information are subjected to a predetermined information providing process.

  According to the document processing apparatus of the present invention, the information on the result of the entire processing based on at least one of the plurality of processing instructions in which the entire processing result information is specified in order and the processing instruction based on the specified processing condition. In addition, since the result of each specified process as individual process result information is displayed in a predetermined display process, the relationship between the individual process result information and the entire process result information can be easily grasped. It becomes possible. In particular, it is possible to easily and accurately grasp the result information of the overall processing defined by the user as a series of processing based on the processing order and processing conditions, and to identify the overall processing and the individual processing related thereto. The result can be confirmed in detail. As a result, it is unnecessary for the user to check whether or not the entire process that has been instructed has been completed normally, and whether or not each individual process has been completed successfully for all related individual processes. Therefore, the user's convenience is remarkably improved.

  In addition, it is difficult to grasp the relevance between individual processes compared to the case where the same type of process is repeatedly performed, and the result information of a series of entire processes including individual processes of a plurality of types and the result information of the individual processes are switched. By displaying the information, the relevance between each individual process can be easily and accurately grasped, and unnecessary burdens and confusions are not caused to the user, so the convenience is greatly improved. Become.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, a document processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention is connected to a personal computer (PC), a mail server (MX), or the like via a network. The document processing apparatus 1 is connected to a telephone line network.

  The document processing apparatus 1 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, an image processing unit 13, a printer unit 14, a scanner unit 15, a FAX function unit 16, a communication unit 17, an operation unit 18, and a display. Part 19.

  The control unit 11 is a CPU or the like, and operates according to a program stored in the storage unit 12. The control unit 11 accepts a user's document processing instruction operation input from the operation unit 18 and outputs it to the image processing unit 13. In addition, when an instruction to display log information is given from the operation unit 18, the control unit 11 reads out the log information stored in the storage unit 12 and displays it on the display unit 19. The processing of these control units 11 will be described in detail later.

  The storage unit 12 includes a storage element such as a RAM or a ROM. The storage unit 12 may include a storage device such as a hard disk. The storage unit 12 stores programs executed by the control unit 11 and the image processing unit 13. The storage unit 12 also operates as a work memory for the control unit 11 and the image processing unit 13.

  The image processing unit 13 controls the printer unit 14, the scanner unit 15, the FAX function unit 16, or the communication unit 17 in accordance with an instruction input from the control unit 11 or an instruction received from the PC via the network, and performs processing Read the target document, or print or send the processed document. When the scanner unit 15 reads a document or receives a document from a PC or the like via the communication unit 17, the image processing unit 13 issues a unique identifier, and reads or receives the document acquired by reading or receiving the document. The information is stored in the storage unit 12 in association with a unique identifier.

  Further, the image processing unit 13 accumulates processing result information for each processing for the document and processing result information for the entire processing as log information in the storage unit 12 in association with the identifier of the document to be processed. . The contents of the processing of the image processing unit 13 will be described in detail later.

  The printer unit 14 prints out an image of the document in accordance with an instruction input from the image processing unit 13. The scanner unit 15 optically reads an image of a printed material set on the reading surface, and outputs it to the image processing unit 13 as document data.

  The FAX function unit 16 is a facsimile transmission / reception unit that calls a designated telephone number in accordance with an instruction input from the image processing unit 13 and transmits a document image designated by the image processing unit 13 as a processing target by facsimile transmission. To do.

  The communication unit 17 is a network card or the like, and is connected to the network. The communication unit 17 receives an instruction received from the PC and outputs the instruction to the image processing unit 13. Further, the communication unit 17 transmits the data of the document to be processed as an e-mail to a mail server (MX) or the like according to an instruction input from the image processing unit 13 as a destination. Output.

  The operation unit 18 is a keypad or a touch panel overlaid on the display unit 19. The operation unit 18 accepts a user instruction operation and outputs information indicating the content of the instruction operation to the control unit 11. The display unit 19 is a liquid crystal display or the like, and displays information according to an instruction input from the control unit 11.

  Here, operations of the control unit 11 and the image processing unit 13 will be described with reference to FIG. The control unit 11 receives designation of the contents of a series of image processing to be executed by an instruction operation performed on the operation unit 18, and stores information describing the series of image processing instructions in the storage unit 12. (S1). Here, the image processing instruction is, for example, a simultaneous broadcast instruction in which a plurality of telephone numbers and FAX transmission instructions are described.

  The control unit 11 waits until a process start instruction is issued (S2). When the process start instruction is issued, the control unit 11 executes an image processing instruction stored in the storage unit 12 to the image processing unit 13. Request (S3). In response to this request, the image processing unit 13 executes an image processing instruction. In the present embodiment, the image processing unit 13 outputs a document image to the printer unit 14 and prints it, controls the scanner unit 15 to read the document image, and controls the FAX function unit 16. Then, a program module corresponding to each process, such as a process of transmitting a document image by FAX, is read from the storage unit 12 (S4), and a work memory for executing a user process (job) is secured on the storage unit 12. Then, one of the processes (job step) included in the instruction is executed (S6). In this example, the job step is a FAX transmission process to each destination.

  Here, each program module executed by the image processing unit 13 includes an instruction to store the processing execution result as individual processing result information in association with the identifier of the document to be processed in the storage unit 12. It is. Accordingly, the image processing unit 13 stores the individual processing result information in the storage unit 12 every time the FAX transmission processing is performed on one destination (for example, every time the job step processing is completed) (S7).

  The individual process result information includes the identifier of the document to be processed, the type information for specifying the process type, the process parameter information, and the result of the process (transmission completion, other party busy, transmission error, etc. ) Indicating information (result code) and information indicating the date and time of processing.

  Here, the type information is, for example, character string information related to the executed processing such as “FAX transmission” and “print processing”. Further, the processing parameter information is parameter information relating to the processing contents set in advance for each processing type. For example, the destination telephone number, the destination name, and a copy are selected for FAX transmission. For scanning, such as paper and reduction / enlargement ratio, it is the reading resolution and the saved document type (file type such as PDF, JPEG) of the document after reading. The result code may be numerical information representing each result, or may be character string information. The information indicating the date and time of processing is the date and time acquired at the start and end of processing from an IC chip (hereinafter referred to as a timekeeping unit) that implements a calendar / clock function (not shown).

  When the image processing unit 13 determines that the image processing requested by the control unit 11 has been completed (S8), the image processing unit 13 refers to the individual processing result information stored in the storage unit 12 and represents the result of the entire processing. The entire process result information is generated, the generated entire process result information is stored in the storage unit 12 (S9), and the series of processes ends.

  Here, the overall processing result information includes the identifier of the document to be processed, the overall information, and the information on the date and time at the start and end of processing acquired from the timing unit. For example, when the summary information indicates that all of the individual processing result information stored in the storage unit 12 in association with the identifier of the document to be processed has been successfully processed, “ Normal end information indicating “normal end”, and if any individual processing result information has an error, it is abnormal end information indicating that there is a process that has ended in error.

  In the present embodiment, the image processing unit 13 executes a plurality of processes in parallel (multitasking). When the individual process result information and the entire process result information recorded here are arranged in time series order, The individual processing result information of each FAX transmission included in the simultaneous broadcast is not necessarily continuous, and the individual processing result information related to the printing processing performed during the simultaneous broadcast processing may be arranged (FIG. 4, A).

  In addition, the image processing unit 13 aggregates the individual processing result information stored in the storage unit 12 in association with the identifier of the document to be processed, and generates information indicating the occurrence rate of at least a part of the result code. However, the information on the occurrence ratio may be included in the overall information of the overall processing result information.

  For example, the image processing unit 13 counts the total number of individual processing result information stored in the storage unit 12 in association with the identifier of the document to be processed. In addition, among the individual processing result information stored in the storage unit 12 in association with the identifier of the document to be processed, the number of result codes indicating that the processing has been normally completed is counted as a total value. Then, the ratio is calculated by dividing the total value by the total number, and the total processing result information is stored in the storage unit 12 as the normal termination occurrence ratio.

  Next, output processing of the individual process result information and the overall process result information recorded in this way will be described. For example, the control unit 11 receives a request to display information on each processing result from the operation unit 18, and starts the processing illustrated in FIG. Here, the control unit 11 checks whether or not an instruction to display the entire processing result information is given according to the request accepted here or a predetermined setting (S11). The control unit 11 selectively reads out the individual process result information stored in the storage unit 12 if the instruction to display the entire process result information is not given in Step S11 (if No). S12). A list of individual processing result information is displayed and output on the display unit 19 (S13). Here, the content of the display output is, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, in which individual processing result information is arranged and displayed in chronological order from the latest occurrence time. In consideration of the size of the display area of the display unit 19, it may be divided into a plurality of pages for display.

  One of the characteristic features of the present embodiment is that by tapping the check box column (collection of related jobs) (in FIG. 6, the check is off) in this display, the entire process is performed. It is possible to give an instruction to display the result information. That is, when an operation is performed via the operation unit 18 (S14), the control unit 11 checks whether or not it is a display end instruction (S15). The information display process ends. If it is not a display end instruction in step S15, it is checked whether or not it is an instruction to “collect related jobs” (tap operation in the check box field) (S16). Starts display processing of the entire processing result information stored in the storage unit 12 (S17). This process will be described later.

  Further, if it is not an instruction to compile related jobs in process S16, the control unit 11 executes a process according to the content of the instruction (S18), and returns to process S14 to continue the process. When an instruction to display the overall process result information is given in process S11, the control unit 11 proceeds to process S17 and starts display process of the overall process result information.

  Next, the display process of the entire process result information in the process S17 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the control unit 11 reads out the entire processing result information from the storage unit 12 (S21). Further, the individual processing result information is read from the storage unit 12 and stored in the work memory (S22). Then, referring to the identifier of the document included in the individual processing result information read out in step S22, the individual processing result information including the same document identifier as the document identifier included in the entire processing result information read out in step S21 is stored in the work memory. Is removed from the display target (S23).

  The control unit 11 rearranges the entire process result information read out in the process S21 and the individual process result information remaining in the work memory by the date and time information included therein, and the date and time information has a later time. A list is displayed on the display unit 19 in order (S24). In consideration of the size of the display area of the display unit 19, it may be divided into a plurality of pages for display. For example, the list display is as shown in FIG. Here, the date and time information is displayed in order from the latest, but instead, the date and time information may be displayed in order from the earliest (more recent). Moreover, it is not restricted to the order of date. About these display orders, it is good also as following a user's directions.

  Also in the display of the overall processing result information, a check box column (checked in FIG. 8) “Summarize related jobs” is displayed. By tapping this check box column, the entire processing result information is displayed. The processing result information may not be displayed. That is, when an operation is performed via the operation unit 18 (S25), the control unit 11 checks whether or not it is a display end instruction (S26). The information display process ends. If it is not a display end instruction in step S26, it is checked whether or not the instruction to cancel the instruction to “combine related jobs” (tap operation in the check box field) is made (S27). The control part 11 transfers to process S12 of FIG. 5, and continues a process. Furthermore, if it is not cancellation operation of the instruction | indication which should "collect a related job" in process S27, the control part 11 will perform the process according to the content of the instruction | indication (S28), will return to process S25, and will continue a process.

  That is, in the present embodiment, the check box column “collect related jobs” serves as a switching button for whether or not to display the entire processing result information. Note that when any of the individual process result information is selected (tapped) on the screen on which only the individual process result information shown in FIG. 6 is displayed, the control unit 11 performs the individual process result in process S18. Each information included in the information is displayed in detail (FIG. 9). Similarly, when any of the individual process result information is selected on the screen shown in FIG. 8, the control unit 11 performs the same detailed display as shown in FIG. 9 as the process in process S28. Further, when any of the overall process result information is selected on the screen shown in FIG. 8, the control unit 11 performs detailed display (overall detail display) related to the overall process result information as the process in process S28 (FIG. 8). 10). Note that the screen in FIG. 10 includes information for specifying the description of the instruction input from the control unit 11 (“instruction document 001”). The processing type is displayed as “job flow”.

  In addition, in the display or detailed display of the process S24, the entire process result information includes the ratio information indicating the ratio of the case where the process result is completed normally, the case where the process result is not completed normally, or the specific result code. In such a case, the display of the ratio information may be included.

  In the above description, the result code has been described for the case where a different result code is assigned for each cause of transmission failure (abnormal end of processing) even in the case of FAX transmission, for example. Normal end (no error occurs) And each result code of abnormal termination (error occurrence) may be used. In this case, ratio information of at least one result code of normal end and abnormal end may be included in the overall process result information.

  In addition, when there are multiple result codes that indicate a situation that should be determined as an error occurrence or a situation code that should be determined as no error occurrence, such as when assigning a different result code for each cause of abnormal termination, Whether or not it should be determined that an error has occurred should be set for each code. For example, when the result code is in the range of -127 to 128 and the status of the processing result relating to each cause is assigned to a value in these ranges, it is determined that an error has occurred if the value is a negative value. A value may be assigned so that it is determined that no error has occurred.

  Further, the control unit 11 may perform a process of selectively displaying the individual process result information including the result code in response to the input of the result code from the user on the screen in FIG. 6 or FIG.

  Further, when the ratio information is totaled for each result code, the control unit 11 displays each result code in a detailed display (overall detailed display: FIG. 10) or a list display when one of the overall processing result information is selected. Percentage information (occurrence rate itself or the number of occurrences) may be presented together. For example, FIG. 11 shows an example in which the ratio information is displayed on the entire detail display screen. In this case, when one of the result codes is selected, the control unit 11 acquires the document identifier included in the entire processing result information being displayed, and acquires the acquired document identifier and the selected result code. Individual processing result information including the search may be searched from the storage unit 12 and the search results may be displayed in a list. Thereby, among the individual process result information related to the entire process result information being displayed, the process that is the process result represented by the specific result code can be selectively displayed. The list display may be included in the screen shown in FIG. 10 or FIG.

  Further, in the description so far, the example in which the display switching between the individual processing result information and the entire processing result information is performed using the check box column of “collect related jobs” has been described. If displayed, it accepts an instruction to display overall process result information related to specific (for example, selected or detailed display) individual process result information, and is included in the specific individual process result information The entire process result information including the referred document identifier may be retrieved from the storage unit 12 and displayed by referring to the document identifier.

  In addition, since the individual processing result information includes the type of processing, the control unit 11 receives an instruction from the user to display the individual processing result information of the specific processing type, and relates to the instruction. Individual process result information including information on a specific process type may be selectively acquired from the storage unit 12 and used for list display. In this case, the control unit 11 may display a list of processing types that can be included on the display unit 19 and allow the user to select a processing type to be displayed.

  Also in this case, when the individual processing result information of the specified processing type is selectively displayed, the entire processing result information related to specific (for example, selected or detailed display) individual processing result information May be received, the document identifier included in the specific individual processing result information may be referred to, and the entire processing result information including the referred document identifier may be retrieved from the storage unit 12 and displayed.

  The control unit 11 further specifies at least one of the individually displayed individual process result information when performing selective display of the individual process result information of the specified process type. An instruction to display other individual processing result information related to the individual processing result information is accepted, the document identifier included in the designated individual processing result information is referred to, and the individual processing result information including the referenced document identifier is displayed. You may search from the memory | storage part 12 and display it. This provides related individual processing result information regardless of the designation of the designated processing type, making it easier for the user to search for desired individual processing result information and improving convenience.

  Further, the control unit 11 receives an instruction “display related individual processing result” from the user on the entire detailed display screen (the screen illustrated in FIG. 10 or FIG. 11), and displays the entire processing result information being displayed. With reference to the included document identifier, the individual processing result information including the document identifier may be retrieved from the storage unit 12, and the entire processing result information and the individual processing result information may be displayed as a list (related list display: FIG. 12). ). Further, on this related list display screen, when the entire processing result information column is selected and a detailed display is instructed, the screen shifts to the entire detailed display screen shown in FIG. 10 or FIG. When the information column is selected and a detailed display instruction is given, an individual detailed display as shown in FIG. 9 is performed. Further, in the display of FIG. 12, the display of the entire process result information may not be performed. FIG. 12 shows an example in which the execution / waiting job and the execution completion job are switched and displayed by tabs. However, the execution / waiting job and the execution completion job are displayed in a list on the same page. In this case, the individual processing result included in the entire processing result can be confirmed more clearly without switching the display using the tab. Further, when an instruction “display related individual processing result” is received during display of the individual detail screen shown in FIG. 9, the document identifier included in the individual processing result information being displayed is similarly referred to Individual process result information including the document identifier (may be searched together with the entire process result information) may be retrieved from the storage unit 12 and the results may be displayed as a list as shown in FIG. Thus, in this embodiment, each display can be switched by an instruction as shown in FIG.

  The control unit 11 further receives an instruction to print the displayed contents, and prints out the individual process result information and the entire process result information displayed in a list or in detail. 14 may be instructed. For example, when the control unit 11 receives an instruction to print individual process result information or overall process result information, the control unit 11 displays a screen for inquiring whether or not to “combine related jobs” (FIG. 14). When “Summarize” is selected, the same processing as that for displaying the entire processing result information may be executed to generate an image similar to the screen shown in FIG. 8 and cause the printer unit 14 to perform printing processing. .

  In this case, the control unit 11 may continuously print the individual processing result information for the processing target document related to each whole result information for each whole result information. That is, the control unit 11 may rearrange the individual processing result information according to the document identifier and instruct to print out a list of the rearranged results.

  Furthermore, when printing out the entire process result information and the individual process result information related to it (related to the same document identifier), the entire process result information is set at the head, and the individual process result information A mark (symbol, character string, etc .; M in FIG. 15) may be printed and output together (FIG. 15). Note that, for example, depending on an instruction or a prior setting, printing may be performed in a mode in which this order and mark display are not performed.

  Furthermore, although the overall processing result information and the individual processing result information have been described as being associated by the document identifier in the above description, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the image processing unit 13 secures a recording area for the entire processing result information in the storage unit 12 at the start of processing and stores the individual processing result information for each individual job step being processed in the storage unit 12, The reference information indicating the storage location of the recorded individual process result information is sequentially recorded in the storage area of the entire process result information, and at the end of the process, the entire process result information is generated and the entire process result information And information (result information set) including reference information to related individual processing result information may be generated. In this case, each result information set may include reference information indicating a storage location of a result information set to be recorded next (FIG. 16).

  The image processing unit 13 also includes, among the result information sets stored in the storage unit 12, a first pointer that represents the storage location of the most recently recorded result information set in chronological order, and the last recorded result information set. You may hold | maintain the termination | terminus pointer showing a storage place in the memory | storage part 12. FIG. In this way, the entire process result information and the individual process result information are linked and held using the reference information, so that the storage area for the entire process result information and the storage area for the individual process result information can be separately secured and read. The processing efficiency at the time can be improved. In addition, holding the head pointer facilitates processing even when the result information set is deleted in chronological order. The end pointer can be used to specify the previous result information set when a new result information set is generated. This facilitates the setting of reference information for the next result information set.

  In the above description, the control unit 11 has received an instruction to display the individual processing result information and the entire processing result information, and displays the information on the display unit 19 to provide the information to the user. In response to an instruction to provide individual processing result information or overall processing result information from a PC or the like via a network, the same processing as the above-described display processing is executed and displayed on the display unit 19. For example, the contents of a list or detailed display may be generated and provided as an HTML document or the like to the PC or the like, and displayed on the PC side and provided to the user.

  Further, each execution step of the job flow in the description so far may be an individual process, and the above job result may be recorded and provided as an entire process. At this time, different types of processing may be included in the job flow.

  Here, the job flow defines a function for executing a plurality of registered tasks as a series of tasks. The user creates a set of instructions that describe the execution sequence and processing conditions of a series of processes that are repeated over and over and a series of processes that are common throughout the company or department. The information is registered in a storage unit in the document processing apparatus or a storage unit connected to the document processing apparatus via a network. That is, the job flow is a kind of program, and a plurality of processing instructions are defined in order. Note that processing instructions may be sequentially executed according to a predetermined rule not only when processing is performed in order but also by so-called branch processing based on designated processing conditions.

  Instructions include how to import documents to be processed in the job flow (capturing by scanning, obtaining documents from folders, obtaining from the box provided in the document device, obtaining by polling reception, etc.) Document processing methods (contents and conditions of image processing, presence / absence of character recognition processing, processing of recognized character information, change of document format, etc.), document output methods (save to folder, email transmission, inside / outside of document processing device) A series of flows covering a plurality of processing types from document generation to processing to output such as cooperation with an application, print output, and fax transmission output are described together with the processing order and conditions. As a result, complicated document processing can be automated, and advanced document processing, processing, and management can be performed.

  Here, an example of the configuration of the document processing apparatus when processing the job flow will be described with reference to FIG. A user uses a personal computer (PC) connected to a document processing apparatus via a network to create an instruction describing a series of processing flows together with processing order and conditions, and registers the instruction in the storage unit 12.

  When the user operates the operation unit 18 to give an instruction for starting the job flow, the control unit 11 receives the operation performed on the operation unit 18 and receives the instruction written in the storage unit 12. The list is displayed on the display unit 19 as a list.

  The user selects an instruction defined for a desired process by operating the operation unit 18 from a plurality of registered instructions displayed on the display unit 19. In specifying, if necessary, the control unit 11 causes the display unit 19 to display the flow of processing and conditions registered in a specific instruction from the instructions displayed in a list, thereby registering the registered contents. The user may be able to confirm.

  The instruction analysis unit 20 interprets an instruction described based on a certain rule, thereby expanding the processing order and processing conditions of each individual process constituting a series of processes registered in the instruction. The instruction form analysis unit 20 outputs instruction contents to the control unit 11 and the image processing unit 13, the scanner unit 15, the printer unit 14, the FAX function unit 16, and the communication unit 17. Based on the processing order of processing, a series of processing is executed according to the described processing conditions.

  For example, when a document capturing method is described as one of a series of processes described in the instruction form, if individual processing for capturing by the scanner unit 15 is described, processing conditions such as scanning conditions Is determined by the description of the instruction, the image of the printed matter is optically read from the scanner unit 15, and if the individual process for obtaining the document from the folder is described, the instruction is transmitted via the communication unit 17. The file storage location (for example, a server on a network or a predetermined folder of a personal computer) is accessed to acquire the file and temporarily store it in the storage unit 12.

  Taking a document output method as an example, if an individual process for an output process by printing has been described, the print output condition is determined by the description of the instruction sheet, and the printer unit 14 prints out the document. If the mail transmission process is described as an individual process, an e-mail transmission process with the destination e-mail address described in the instruction is sent to the mail server connected via the communication unit 17. Do. If the FAX transmission process is described as the individual process, the FAX function unit 16 calls the destination telephone number described in the instruction and transmits the document image by facsimile.

  By executing the job flow defined by the instruction in this way, a plurality of functions (scanning, facsimile transmission / reception, file transfer, printing, copying, image processing, etc.) can be performed according to the processing conditions and processing order described in the instruction. It can be executed as a series of document processing.

  Also in such a job flow process, the relationship between the overall process and the individual process in the present invention is established, and the result of a series of jobs called job flow described in the instruction sheet designated by the user is the overall process result. Since each processing result of a series of operations registered as a flow corresponds to an individual processing result, it can be a target of display processing similar to the facsimile broadcast transmission described so far.

  That is, for example, if each process step is an individual process and the entire process is an entire process, the individual process result information and the entire process result information described above can be generated, provided to the user, and used for that purpose. it can.

  The display switching of the overall processing result and the individual processing result for the job flow will be described below by way of example.

  In this example, as a job flow, five documents are scanned, and the digitized scanned document is transferred and stored in a personal computer (PC) connected via a network, and is sent to two destinations as an e-mail. Processing result display when a job flow such as printing a scanned document after transmission is executed will be described.

  In this job flow, (1) scan a document, (2) transfer the scanned document to a PC, (3) send the scanned document to the first destination by email, (4) scan by email It can be said that the process consists of five different types of individual processing: sending a document to a second destination and (5) printing a scanned document. Now, the job flow consisting of these five individual processes has successfully completed the document scan, but failed to transfer / save to the PC, and after successfully completing the e-mail transmission to the two destinations, print Is completed normally.

  In the case where the results related to the conventional individual processing are displayed, the individual processing results are displayed, for example, in the order in which the processing is completed in time series. The processing result display at that time is shown in FIG. In FIG. 17, a common identifier 20001 is assigned as a document identifier to the job flow including the above-described five individual processes.

  In this figure, the latest individual processing result is displayed at the top, and the individual processing displayed below is displayed so that the processing has been completed after the processing has been completed. In other words, in the case of the display form shown in this figure, the job displayed at the top and having performed the five A4 prints from the printer 001 has been completed most recently. Of course, if the number of processing results is large and cannot be displayed, all processing results are displayed by scrolling the display or dividing the processing results into multiple pages and switching the page to be displayed according to the page switching instruction. You may make it do.

  Further, it may be set so that display is not performed for a processing result after a certain time has elapsed since the completion of the processing.

  At that time, in the case of individual processes constituting the entire process, it is related to the individual process until the elapsed time after the completion of the last individual process among the individual processes has elapsed for a certain period of time. Other individual processing results are displayed even if a certain time or more has elapsed since the completion of the processing, and when a certain time has elapsed since the completion of the last completed individual processing, the individual processing and other individual processing related thereto It is preferable to perform display control so as not to display the processing result.

  By controlling the display in this way, when individual processing results are displayed, a part of the individual processing results for which a certain period of time has not elapsed since completion of the processing among the individual processings constituting the overall processing are displayed. However, it is avoided that a part of the individual processing result after a certain period of time has elapsed since the completion of processing is not displayed, and a part of the whole processing result is not displayed. User confusion can be prevented.

  In the individual processing result of FIG. 17, it is assumed that a copy job unrelated to this job flow is executed after a scanned document is transmitted to two destinations by e-mail in a series of processing by the job flow. In such a case, in the individual processing result display shown in FIG. 17, the individual processing results are displayed in a time-series list in the order in which the processing was performed, and thus an e-mail that is the individual processing result by the job flow of the document identifier 20001. Individual processing of copying that is irrelevant to the job flow of the document identifier 20001 is mixedly displayed between the transmission processing result and the printing processing result.

  In this way, the display of the individual processing results of a series of processing is in a state where processing results irrelevant to them are mixed, so it is difficult to see at a glance which individual processing results are due to the job flow. As a result, it is difficult to confirm whether or not all the results of the entire process as a job designated by the user, that is, a job that can be recognized by the user, have been completed normally.

  Further, as described in the example of simultaneous broadcast transmission, when there are a large number of individual process result displays, the individual process result display may be divided into a plurality of pages and displayed. Especially in the job flow, complex processing across multiple processing types such as scan, fax transmission, polling reception, file transfer, mail transmission, printing, copying, etc. can be instructed as a series of processing, so individual processing results span multiple pages Can occur more easily than in the case of simultaneous broadcasts.

  In such a case, it is possible to check the individual processing results on other pages by changing to the previous or next page, but to confirm that all the individual processing of the job flow has been completed normally, the page It was very difficult to confirm while transitioning.

  Compared to the result of overall processing consisting of multiple individual processes with one type of processing, such as simultaneous broadcast instructions (fax broadcast transmission), a complex series of processing such as job flow over multiple processing types In the case of the result, it is difficult to understand at a glance which individual processing result constitutes a series of related processes. Therefore, the user configures the entire processing result based only on the document identifier. Time and effort to find the processing result is required. Further, as described above, since it extends over a plurality of pages, the work of confirming the overall processing result relating to the job flow is particularly burdensome to the user.

  FIG. 18 shows a display example of the overall processing result when the related jobs of the individual processing results shown in FIG. 17 are collected. The display mode switching process for switching the individual process result display to the related overall process result display can be switched by the same process as the example of the simultaneous broadcast instruction described above.

  Here, if multiple job flows are being executed simultaneously, multiple job flows may be displayed in the overall processing result. Easy-to-understand information has been improved by displaying identifiable information. Here, as an example, the job flow can be specified by the name of an instruction describing the flow of a series of processing of the job flow and information such as how many individual processes the job flow is configured. In addition, the document name of the scanned document, the mail subject in the case of a job flow including an email transmission job, the character string extracted based on the result of character recognition of the scanned document, and the instruction sheet when an instruction sheet is sent from an external terminal By displaying information that can identify the job flow executed by the user, such as transmission source information, it becomes easier to recognize the job flow executed by the user.

  In FIG. 18, the processing result of the job flow with the document identifier 20001 is displayed depending on whether all of the series of processing as the job flow has been completed normally or partly ended abnormally. In other words, according to this example, since the individual process of file transfer has ended abnormally, the entire series of processes has not ended normally, so the job flow of the document identifier 20001 has ended abnormally. ing.

It is a block diagram showing the example of a connection of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a configuration block diagram illustrating an example of a document processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart figure showing the example of the flow of the image processing of the document processing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a storage of the process result information in the document processing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart figure showing the example of the display processing of the individual / whole process result information of the document processing device concerning an embodiment of the invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a display mode of the individual process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart figure showing the example of a display process of the whole process result information of the document processing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a display mode of the whole process result information of the document processing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a detailed display mode of the individual process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a detailed display mode of the whole process result information of the document processing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing another example of the detailed display mode of the whole process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example which displayed the list of the related processing of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of the display transition between each display screen in the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a screen of the interface shown at the time of the printing of the individual / whole process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a printout of the individual / whole process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing another holding example of the process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing another example of the display mode of the individual process result information of the document processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing another example of the display mode of the whole process result information of the document processing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Document processing apparatus, 11 Control part, 12 Storage part, 13 Image processing part, 14 Printer part, 15 Scanner part, 16 FAX function part, 17 Communication part, 18 Operation part, 19 Display part, 20 Instruction sheet analysis part

Claims (6)

Individual process execution means for executing at least one specified individual process on the document to be processed ;
An instruction analysis that interprets an instruction describing a series of processes including a plurality of the individual processes, and specifies an individual process to be executed for the individual process executing means based on a result of interpretation of the instruction Means,
Individual process result holding means for holding an individual process result including information indicating whether or not the individual process executed by the individual process execution unit has been normally completed;
If the individual processing execution means completes the series of processing according to the instruction interpreted by the instruction analysis means, it is normal if all the individual processing results included in the series of processing indicate normal completion. If the individual processing result indicates abnormal termination, the entire processing result holding means for holding the entire processing result including information indicating the abnormal termination,
A first screen that displays a list of the individual processing results related to the individual processing executed by the individual processing execution means, and an entire processing result holding means that hides the individual processing results related to the series of processing and that is held by the overall processing result holding means Display control means for controlling to switch and display the processing result and a second screen that displays a list of individual processing results other than the individual processing result that has been hidden;
Document processing apparatus including: According to the setting, the display control means
The individual process result information related to the series of processes executed in accordance with the description of the instruction form is displayed until a predetermined time elapses after the last completed process is completed, and the last completed process Is not displayed when a predetermined time has elapsed since the completion of
The document processing apparatus according to claim 1 . Information indicating whether or not the individual processing has been normally completed in the individual processing result is a result code,
  The overall processing result holding means holds the overall processing result including the ratio information for each result code of the related individual processing result, and when the display control means displays the overall processing result, 3. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein ratio information is added and displayed.   When the display control means receives the instruction to display the related individual processing result when displaying the entire processing result or any one of the individual processing results, the display processing means The document processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the document processing apparatus switches to a third screen that displays a list of individual processing results related to results or individual processing results. An individual process execution step for executing at least one specified individual process on a document to be processed;
An instruction analysis step of interpreting an instruction describing a series of processes including a plurality of the individual processes, and specifying an individual process to be executed based on a result of interpretation of the instruction;
An individual processing result holding step for holding an individual processing result including information indicating whether or not the individual processing executed in the individual processing execution step has ended normally;
According to the instruction interpreted by the instruction analysis process, when the series of processing is completed, if all the individual processing results included in the series of processing indicate normal termination, it indicates normal termination. If the individual processing result indicates abnormal termination, an overall processing result holding step for holding the entire processing result including information indicating abnormal termination,
A first screen that displays a list of the individual processing results related to the individual processing executed in the individual processing execution step, the individual processing results related to the series of processing is hidden, and the held overall processing results; A display control step for controlling to switch and display a second screen that displays a list of individual processing results other than the individual processing results that are not displayed;
A method for controlling a document processing apparatus including : Computer
Individual process execution means for executing at least one specified individual process on the document to be processed ;
An instruction analysis that interprets an instruction describing a series of processes including a plurality of the individual processes, and specifies an individual process to be executed for the individual process executing means based on a result of interpretation of the instruction Means,
Individual process result holding means for holding an individual process result including information indicating whether or not the individual process executed by the individual process execution unit has been normally completed;
If the individual processing execution means completes the series of processing according to the instruction interpreted by the instruction analysis means, it is normal if all the individual processing results included in the series of processing indicate normal completion. If the individual processing result indicates abnormal termination, the entire processing result holding means for holding the entire processing result including information indicating the abnormal termination,
A first screen that displays a list of the individual processing results related to the individual processing executed by the individual processing execution means, and an entire processing result holding means that hides the individual processing results related to the series of processing and that is held by the overall processing result holding means Display control means for controlling to switch and display the processing result and a second screen that displays a list of individual processing results other than the individual processing result that has been hidden;
Program to function as .

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