JPH06259456A - Interactive general purpose business form designing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the interactive general purpose business form designing system which can design interactively and simply a business form by user interface function of interface parts. CONSTITUTION:The interactive general purpose business form designing system is provided with a data managing means 17 for managing layout description data in which a layout structure of a business form is described, a user interface control means 12 for switching an editing mode and an execution mode by a user interface function of interface parts, deciding a user action to be a business form designing instruction in the editing mode, and deciding the user action to be a business form data input in the execution mode, a business form data generating means for generating the layout description data in which the layout structure of the business form is described in the editing mode, and a business form input data control means 11 for generating a business form the layout description data in the execution mode, and executing a data input to the generated business form.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive general-purpose form design system, and more particularly, in a dialog processing system having an interface component for executing a user interface function on a display screen of a display device, a user interface function by the interface component is provided. The present invention relates to an interactive general-purpose form design system that can be used to easily design a form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a form is created using a data processing device, the form frame is printed on a special paper on which the frame is already printed, or the form frame and the contents of the form are printed at the same time. In this case, for each form, the programmer must read the ruled line position and the character position based on the form design sheet and create the form source program. Further, when the programmer creates the form source program, there may be a case where a digit or a column is misaligned or a character is erroneously read, which requires a considerable number of man-hours for correction. Since such a form source program is very inefficient in its creation, for example, a form form creator writes it by handwriting like a “form source program creating device” described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-151731. There has been proposed a device for reading a form using an OCR (optical character reading device), automatically creating form data, and creating a form source program.

Further, as in the "general-purpose book table output system" described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-142617, the form format of the output book table has image data, and the output book of the image data is finally output at the time of printing. A proposal has also been made to overlay the table form format and output it in the form of a form. According to this, even when the book table output format is changed, only the individual output book table needs to be changed, and the software development for each output book table becomes unnecessary.

[0004]

However, in the form creation system as described above, it is not possible to immediately and flexibly deal with the change of the form. For example, JP-A-4
In the "general-purpose book table output system" described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 142617, since the form data is in the image format, it is necessary to recreate the image data in the form format from the beginning each time the form is changed. In addition, since the data included in the frame of the form and the form format are combined at the time of printing, there is a problem that the appearance of the form cannot be confirmed until the printing.

Further, in the case of the "book table source program creating device" disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-151731, the result output from the device is the book table source program.
The source program needs to be recompiled each time the form is changed. In particular, when designing a form, it is necessary to design the form for a form while repeatedly verifying the appearance and ease of input of the form by repeatedly changing the form, which is very inefficient.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a dialogue processing system having an interface component for executing a user interface function on a display screen of a display device. At
An object is to provide an interactive general-purpose form design system capable of easily designing a form by using a user interface function of an interface component.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an interactive general-purpose form design system of the present invention is an interactive processing system having an interface component for executing a user interface function on a display screen of a display device. In an interactive general-purpose form design system for interactively designing a form by a user interface function of an interface component, data management means for managing layout description data describing a layout structure of the form (17:
1) and the user interface function of the interface component to switch between the edit mode and the execution mode. In the edit mode, the user action is determined to be a form design instruction,
The execution mode includes a user interface control unit (12: FIG. 1) that determines a user action as input of form data,
Form form data creating means (16: FIG. 1) for creating layout description data describing the layout structure of a form in the edit mode, and a form for creating a form from the layout description data in the execution mode and inputting data to the created form. And an input data control means (11: FIG. 1).

[0008]

According to the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present invention, a form is interactively designed by the user interface function of the interface component in the interactive processing system having the interface component for executing the user interface function on the display screen of the display device. . When creating a form here, the data management means (17) manages the layout description data describing the layout structure of the form,
The user interface control means (12) switches between the edit mode and the execution mode by the user interface function of the interface component. In the edit mode, the user action is determined as the form design instruction, and in the execution mode, the user action is determined as the form data input. When the form form data creating means (16) creates layout description data describing the layout structure of the form in the edit mode, the form input data control means (11) creates a form from the layout description data in the execution mode and creates it. Enter data into the completed form.

As described above, when designing a form, a form is designed interactively by using a pointing device such as a mouse with an interface function of an interface component, and further, an edit mode for designing a form and an actual form are used. By providing two modes for inputting data into the form, it is possible to immediately input data into the form while designing the form form and verify the appearance and the ease of input. Switching between these two modes can be performed immediately interactively by the interface function of the interface component, and the same action is determined to be a different operation in each mode, and the user interface function of the unified interface component can be determined. You can use it to design a form with simple operations.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of an interactive general-purpose form design system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 11 is a form input data control unit, and 1
2 is a user interface control unit, 13 is an operating system, 14 is an input / output device control unit, 15 is an input / output device, 16 is a form data creation processing unit,
Reference numeral 17 is a form data management unit, 18 is a form form data file, and 19 is a printing device.

The input / output device 15 includes a CR of a display device.
A T display, a mouse as a pointing device, a keyboard as a character input device, and the like are used, and a printing device 19 is provided to obtain a printed output of a form. The input / output device control unit 14 is a driver for controlling the input / output devices connected to the hardware device of the system, controls the input / output device 15 such as a CRT display, a mouse, a keyboard, and the printing device 19 Send the printout data to. The operating system 13 includes a form input data control unit 11, a user interface control unit 12, and a form form data creation processing unit 1.
6, provides a system environment for operating the form data management unit 17, the form data file 18, etc.
Controls the entire system of hardware devices.

The user interface control unit 12 controls the user interface function by each interface component, and the form input data control unit 11 performs the form data input processing and the form form data creation processing unit 16.
Controls the user interface function when performing form form creation processing by.

The form form data file 18 is registered with the form form data created by the form form data creation processing unit 16. This form form data is, for example, layout description data that describes the layout structure of the form, and is part data of each constituent element that composes the form that accompanies the layout description data. As the part data, for example, a graphic element,
Table frame elements, text frames, text data, and interface component buttons are used. One form form data registered in the form form data file 18 is managed by the form data management unit 17.

As will be described later in detail, the user interface control unit 12 controls the user interface function of the interface component and, when designing a form, edit mode for editing form data of the form and data for the form. Switch between execution modes for input. In this case, in the edit mode, the user action is determined to be a form design instruction, and in the execution mode, the user action is determined to be form data input, and the input data that requires an input operation by the user action according to each is generated as form form data. Processing unit 16 or form input data control unit 11
Pass to.

In the edit mode, the form form data creation processing unit 16 generates the form description data of the layout description data which describes the layout structure of the form according to the input data instruction (user action) passed from the user interface control unit 12. The created form form data is stored in the form form data file 18 via the form data management unit 17.

Further, in the execution mode, the form input data control unit 11 receives from the form form data file 18 via the form data management unit 17 according to the instruction (user action) of the input data passed from the user interface control unit 12. The form data is taken out, a form is created from the layout description data, data is input to the created form, and the form image is displayed on the display screen.

Next, the operation of designing a form by the interactive general-purpose form design system having the above-described structure will be described in more detail. In this interactive general-purpose form design system, a user action such as a mouse operation or a keyboard operation by the input / output device 15 is transmitted to the operating system 13 via the I / O device control unit 14, and further user interface control is performed through the operating system 13. Reported to section 12.

In the edit mode, these user actions are judged to be instructions for form design of the form,
It is sent from the user interface control unit 12 to the form data creation processing unit 16. The form form data creation processing unit 16 is based on a user action instruction,
Form data of a form such as a table or a character string is created and saved in the form data file 18 as needed. At this time, the form designer of the form designs the form while confirming the appearance of the form on the display screen of the display device.

In the execution mode, the above-mentioned user action is judged to be the actual data input to the form and is sent from the user interface control unit 12 to the form input data control unit 11. Form input data control unit 11
Is the number or character string of the direct input data by the user action, or the data transferred from the host database etc. based on the instruction of the user action, as the input data to the form, in the table etc. in the form of the form. Perform the processing to be displayed on. This process is performed using the form data managed by the form data management unit 17.

That is, the image of the form form is displayed on the display screen by the form form data managed by the form data management unit 17, and the input processing of the input data is performed in the image display of the form form. As a result, the image of the form actually created can be displayed on the display screen, and the contents can be confirmed. The image display of this form is sent to the printing device 19 by subsequently giving a print instruction by a user action,
Since it can be printed, it can be checked as a printed matter. Here, the confirmed form form data is registered in the form form data file 18 via the form data management unit 17.

As described above, by easily switching between the edit mode and the execution mode by the user interface function, while designing the form form, data is input to the designed form and the designed form form is immediately verified. It can be performed. For these, for example, when data is input into a form once designed, and the form is too small to be corrected, the design efficiency is significantly improved when the form is designed.

FIG. 2 is a first explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example in the case of designing a form in the interactive general form design system of this embodiment, and shows an example of the operation screen in the edit mode. . Similarly, FIG. 3 is a second explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example in the case of designing a form in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment, and shows an example of the operation screen in the execution mode. 2 and 3, 20 is a display screen of a display device, 21 is an edit window for designing a form, 22 is an edit command area, 23 is a designed form image, 24 is a mouse cursor, 25 is a parts palette, 27 is a mode switch button for giving an instruction to switch between the execution mode and the edit mode,
28 is a control button for giving an instruction to end the work.

As shown in FIG. 2, when designing a form in the interactive general form design system of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the form is designed to be edited on the display screen 20 of the display device. The edit window 21 is opened, and the form is designed and created in this edit window 21. In the edit mode, a part pallet 25 displaying each form design part is displayed together with the edit window 21. The designer of the form operates the mouse and uses the mouse cursor 24 from the parts pallet 25 to form the table frame of the parts for form design necessary for creating the form, the straight line of the graphic element,
A form can be freely designed by selecting a part such as a text frame and arbitrarily arranging it on the form image 23 being created in the editing window 21.

When the work of creating a form is finished, an instruction to finish the work is given by pressing the interface part of the control button 28, which is displayed at the top of the editing window 21 as "Edit finished", with the mouse cursor, and the user interface control is performed. With the user interface function of the department, form form data is created from the data of the form image 23 designed in this editing window.

Further, in the interactive general-purpose form design system here, in the execution mode, data is input to each field of the created form before the work of creating the form is finished, and the state of data input is verified. In addition, the appearance of the finally created form is immediately confirmed. Therefore, in order to shift from the edit mode to the execution mode, the interface part of the mode switching button 27, which is displayed as “execution mode” at the top of the edit window 21, is pressed with the mouse cursor to immediately switch from the edit mode to the execution mode. Transition.

When the mode is switched to the execution mode, as shown in FIG. 3, the display of the interface component of the mode switching button 27 changes to "edit mode", and when the mode switching button 27 is pressed next, the "edit mode" is displayed. It is shown to move to. The display of the interface part of the control button 28 also changes to "end of processing". When the interface part of the control button 28 is pressed, a work end instruction is given, and as in the edit mode,
With the user interface function of the user interface control unit, form form data is created from the data of the form image 23 designed in this editing window.

In the execution mode, as described above,
The user action is judged to be the actual data input to the form, and the edit window 21 is subjected to the same interface control as the execution window when the application is executed. As a result, when the input data is actually input from the keyboard, the input data is stored and displayed on the form created here. For example,
Specifically, the data from the host is sequentially taken into the form table.

As shown in FIG. 3, as data from the host, "date data, destination" Niigata factory "," part A ", 1200, 3500, 8790, 6850," part B ", 89500, 589600, 851000. , 7
When the input data of “8956 ...” is taken into the form table, in the form form table created here, the numerical data of each “part A” looks good with respect to each column of the table. It fits well, but the column width of the table is too small for the numerical data of each of the "parts B" so that it does not fit. In this case, since it is necessary to make a correction to increase the column width of each table of the form being prepared, the mode is returned to the edit mode again and the table of the form being prepared is corrected. In this case, by pressing the interface part of the mode switching button 27 displayed as "edit mode" with the mouse cursor, the execution mode is immediately changed to the edit mode again.

Next, when the form is to be designed next, the mode is returned to the edit mode and the form being created is continued to be edited. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4, the correction is performed to increase the column width of each table in the form being created. Figure 4
Is a third example for explaining an operation example when designing a form in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment.
FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of an example of an operation screen in an edit mode. Further, FIG. 5 is a fourth explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example in the case of designing a form in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment, and shows an example of the operation screen in the execution mode. .

As shown in FIG. 4, the mode is returned to the edit mode as in FIG. 2, and the column width of the table of the form being prepared is corrected so as to be increased. In this case, when the mode switching button 27 is pressed to return from the execution mode to the edit mode again, in the form image 23 displayed in the edit window 21,
Numerical data and the like entered in the form table are erased and a form form with only a text frame or a table frame is created. Therefore, a correction operation is performed on this form form. Since the place where the character data is stored may be left as it is, a correction is made to increase the column width of each place where the numerical data is stored in the form table. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4, the target image 23 in the editing window 21 is corrected and displayed.

Next, in order to confirm the contents of the correction by inputting numerical data again to the corrected form form, a mode change is displayed at the top of the editing window 21 shown in FIG. When the interface part of the button 27 is pressed with the mouse cursor, the edit mode immediately shifts to the execution mode, and the execution mode shown in FIG. 5 is set. Then, again in the execution mode, data is input to the display of the corrected form in the same manner as in the case described above. In this case, similarly, as the data from the host, “date data, destination“ Niigata factory ”,“ part A ”, 1
200, 3500, 8790, 6850, "Part B",
89500, 589600, 851000, 78956
When the input data of "..." is captured in the table of the form,
As shown in FIG. 5, in the table of the form form created here, both the numerical data of "part A" and the numerical data of "part B" are both for each column of the table. , Right-justified to fit neatly.

Here, since it has been confirmed that the designed form form being created is correctly created, in the execution mode, the control button 28 displayed as "processing completed".
When the user presses the interface component of No. 2 with the mouse, the user interface function of the user interface control unit gives an instruction to end the work, and the data of the form image 23 in the current state created in the editing window 21 is given. Form form data.

As described above, according to the interactive general-purpose form design system according to the present embodiment, by interactively designing and modifying a form, the operation can be easily performed, and the program source is not generated. Design efficiency is improved without the need for compilation.

Next, a modification of the interactive general-purpose form design system according to this embodiment will be described. In the interactive general-purpose form design system of the above-described embodiment, the user can freely change the edit mode and the execution mode. However, when the interactive general-purpose form design system is installed in a normal interactive processing system. May add an operator authentication system so that only an operator who has been authenticated can shift to the edit mode.

Further, by providing a system start-up option so that the system can be started only in the execution mode, it is possible to prevent the end user from inadvertently changing the form of the form.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the form data management unit 17 saves the data input to the form as one file, associates the file with the form form data file, and saves the form data file. Not only can the form be printed, but it can also be stored as a kind of electronic document. In this case, the form data file and the form data file may not be separate files, but may be one form data file. That is, the form data may be included in each form data file.

An electronic document with such a form form can be shared by many users through a network or the like. Furthermore, by defining these data file formats, it is possible to share a form form even in systems of different architectures.

[0038]

As described above, according to the interactive general-purpose form design system according to the present invention, when designing a form, the form design is performed by the interface function of the interface component using the pointing device such as the mouse. It can be done interactively.

Further, since the edit mode for designing the form form and the two modes for actually inputting the data are provided, it is possible to immediately input the data into the form while designing the form form. You can do it and verify the appearance and ease of input. Switching between these two modes can be performed immediately interactively by the interface function of the interface component. Further, since the same action is determined as a different operation in each mode, it is possible to design a form with a simple operation by using a user interface function with a unified interface component.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of an interactive general-purpose form design system according to an embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a first explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example in the case of designing a form in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment,

FIG. 3 is a second explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example when designing a form in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment,

FIG. 4 is a third explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example in the case of designing a form in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment,

FIG. 5 is a fourth explanatory diagram for explaining an operation example when a form is designed in the interactive general-purpose form design system of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Form input data control unit, 12 ... User interface control unit, 13 ... Operating system, 14 ...
I / O device controller, 15 ... I / O device, 16 ...
Form form data creation processing unit, 17 ... Form data management unit, 18 ... Form form data file, 19 ... Printing device, 20 ... Display screen, 21 ... Edit window, 22 ... Edit command area, 23 ... Designed form image, Two
4 ... Mouse cursor, 25 ... Parts palette, 27 ... Mode switching button, 28 ... Control button.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An interactive general-purpose form design system for interactively designing a form by a user interface function of an interface component in an interactive processing system having an interface component for executing a user interface function on a display screen of a display device. Data management means for managing the layout description data that describes the layout structure of the form, and the user interface function of the interface component switches between edit mode and execution mode. In the edit mode, the user action is determined as the form design instruction, and the execution mode is determined. Is a user interface control unit that determines a user action as input of form data, a form form data creation unit that creates layout description data that describes the layout structure of a form in the edit mode, and an execution mode Interactive generic form design system, characterized in that to create a form from the layouts description data, and a form input data control means for performing data input to the form that was created.