JP2009009567A - Service image processing system and image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cause networked devices to coordinate to perform a plurality of processes. <P>SOLUTION: A user defines a job flow of desired service coordination according to a GUI displayed in a client terminal 10. In this case it is possible to designate a plurality of jobs that can be processed in parallel to be processed in parallel. In accordance with the job flow defined, an instruction creation server 30 creates instructions that define the content of the processes and the stored position of a document to be processed, etc. The instructions are stored in an instruction management server 40. When the user selects desired instructions from the instructions stored in the instruction management server 40, the instructions are sent to a coordination process server 50. The coordination process server 50 interprets the instructions and sends a process request to each device to process the document according to the content and order of the processes described in the instruction, so that the devices coordinate to perform the plurality of processes. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a service image processing system and an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to a service image processing system and an image processing apparatus suitable for use in a workflow system that digitizes paper documents and constructs a workflow.

  Conventionally, there has been proposed a multi-function machine in which a facsimile, a scanner, and a printer function are integrated into a copier. As a result, paper-based office processing using a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and the like, and processing of an electronic document on a personal computer can be linked.

  Specifically, a paper document can be scanned and transferred to a personal computer, or a document received by facsimile can be sent to the personal computer as image data without printing. Furthermore, it is desired to automate many procedures and processes in cooperation after paper documents and facsimile received documents are digitized.

  For this reason, conventionally, there is a technique in which a job template in which desired settings are described in advance for items to be set in the multifunction peripheral is prepared, the job template is designated, and the setting value is changed as necessary before processing is performed. Proposed.

For example, a conventional image forming apparatus can store a plurality of output setting data (job templates) for setting an output format, and can form and output an image in an output format according to the selected output setting data ( For example, see Patent Document 1.)
JP-A-10-83263 (page 5-7, FIG. 2, FIG. 5)

  However, for example, the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1 sets only the “output style”, that is, the function of the apparatus itself. Therefore, the image forming apparatus cannot set the settings of other printers and scanners connected to the network and the linkage of a plurality of processes. For this reason, there is a problem that it is not possible to execute a plurality of processes efficiently by setting a processing order of the plurality of processes.

  The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-described problems, and provides a service image processing system and an image processing apparatus capable of cooperating a plurality of processes for each device connected to a network. The purpose is to do.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the service image processing system according to claim 1 is configured to generate instruction data for performing service processing on document data, and to generate instruction data generated by the generating means. An information processing apparatus comprising: instruction data transmitting means for transmitting to the image processing apparatus; interpreting means for interpreting the content of the instruction data transmitted by the instruction data transmitting means; and interpretation result of the interpreting means And an image processing apparatus comprising: service processing means for performing service processing on the document data transmitted from the information processing apparatus.

  According to this invention, the information processing apparatus includes the generation unit and the instruction sheet data transmission unit. The generation unit generates instruction data for performing service processing on the document data.

  The instruction sheet data transmission unit transmits the instruction sheet data generated by the generation unit to the image processing apparatus.

  The image processing apparatus includes interpretation means and service processing means. The interpreting means interprets the contents of the instruction data transmitted by the instruction data transmission means.

  The service processing means performs service processing on the document data transmitted from the information processing apparatus based on the interpretation result of the interpretation means. In the instruction data, for example, the position of the document data to be processed and the contents of service processing to be performed on the document data are described.

  Here, the document data may be any information related to the document, and is not particularly limited to character information such as text data or image information obtained by reading a paper document.

  The service processing means performs predetermined service processing, such as printing, FAX transmission, and mail transmission, on the document data to be processed, and is not limited to hardware. It may be a module.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the information processing apparatus includes the receiving unit that receives the document data that has been subjected to the service processing by the service processing unit of the image processing apparatus, and the service processing. By transmitting the document data to an image processing apparatus on a network that performs the next service process, service processing by a service processing unit of the image processing apparatus connected to the network may be linked.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: a document data receiving unit that receives document data; an instruction receiving unit that receives an instruction describing the contents of service processing; and an instruction received by the instruction receiving unit. Interpreting means for interpreting the service processing contents of the document, service processing executing means for executing the service processing contents interpreted by the interpreting means on the document data received by the document data receiving means, and executing by the service processing executing means Transmission means for transmitting the obtained document data to an image processing apparatus on a network.

  Further, as described in claim 4, when the service processing content interpreted by the interpretation unit is executable, the service processing execution unit executes the service processing content and interprets it by the interpretation unit. If the service process content is not executable, a predetermined executable process may be executed.

  According to the present invention, since the instructed service process is not always executable, the service process execution unit can execute the service process content when the service process content interpreted by the interpretation unit is executable. If the service process content interpreted by the interpreter is not executable, a predetermined executable process is executed. For example, processing such as stopping execution, notifying that execution is impossible, waiting until execution becomes possible, and executing when processing becomes possible is performed. Thereby, a plurality of service processes can be processed smoothly.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that a plurality of processes can be performed in cooperation with each device connected to the network.

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

  (System configuration)

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a document processing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The document processing system 1 includes devices and applications that perform various services connected via a network 5. Here, a service refers to a function that can be used for a document in response to an external request. Services include, for example, copying, printing, scanning, facsimile transmission / reception, mail delivery, repository storage, reading from a repository, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing, noise removal processing, etc. Absent.

  Specifically, the document processing system 1 includes a client terminal 10 having a user interface for instructing a user's desired processing in cooperation with a plurality of services, and a service search server 20 that searches for a user's desired service. And an instruction sheet generation server 30 that creates an instruction sheet from information related to service cooperation instructed by the client terminal 10, an instruction sheet management server 40 that manages the instruction sheet, and a cooperation that executes cooperation processing of each service according to the instruction sheet And a processing server 50.

  Further, the document processing system 1 includes an image processing device 61 that performs image processing such as noise removal processing, image rotation processing, OCR processing, and image binding of an image document, a document management server 62 that manages documents, and a document. A document distribution server 63 for distribution, a first service processing device 64 that performs first service processing, and a second service processing device 65 that performs second service processing are provided.

  The document processing system 1 has a configuration in which a plurality of servers that perform predetermined service processing are connected via the network 5 in this embodiment, but a plurality of services may be connected via the network 5. There is no particular limitation.

  Here, the instruction sheet refers to information representing the relationship between each function, interface (I / F) information for calling each function, and a series of processes when the series of processes is decomposed into a plurality of functional processes. And data for configuring a graphical user interface (GUI) related to processing.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the mutual relationship between the service processing apparatuses constituting the document processing system 1. Each service processing apparatus stores I / F information representing the content of the service provided by itself.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the I / F information. The I / F information includes <Service Type>, <Service Name>, <Service Icon>, <Service Information Location>, <Input >, <Output>, <Parameter Restriction Rules>, <Service Location>, <Method Name>, <Invocation Scheme>, <Implicit Element (Implicit Elements)>.

  <Service type> is a type of service (processing content) provided by the service processing apparatus. As the <service type>, those defined in advance are used, and examples include scan, print, repository, and flow. <Service name> is the name of a service provided by the service processing apparatus. <Service icon> is position information of an icon displayed on the GUI of the client terminal 10.

  <Service information location> is a URL used by the instruction sheet generation server 30 to acquire I / F information. <Input> is an input to the service. <Output> is an output from the service. <Parameter restriction rule> is a restriction rule applied to <input>. <Service location> is location information when the service is actually used. <Method name> describes a service processing providing method and a name indicating a service.

  The <startup method> is a method for calling and starting a service process. For example, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), which are message exchange protocols, can be used as the <startup method>. <Implicit element> is data that is not explicitly passed to the subsequent process as an output, but can be referred to in the subsequent process.

  The client terminal 10 has a graphical user interface (GUI) function for displaying a screen and performing a predetermined operation in order to instruct creation of an instruction and select an instruction to be activated.

  The service search server 20 searches for a service corresponding to the search condition from among a plurality of services connected to the network 5. The service search server 20 is a part of I / F information of various service processing devices such as the image processing device 61, the document management server 62, the document distribution server 63, the first service processing device 64, and the service processing device 65 (hereinafter, “ "Partial I / F information") is stored in advance. Here, the partial I / F information refers to information on <service type>, <service name>, <service information location>, <input>, and <output> in elements of the I / F information.

  When a search condition is transmitted from the instruction form generation server 30 or the cooperation processing server 50, the service search server 20 searches for a service using the partial I / F information of each service processing device. For example, when searching for a service similar to a predetermined service, the service search server 20 searches for a service that matches <service type>, searches for a service that matches <input> and <output>, Find a service that matches all of these.

  The instruction form generation server 30 acquires I / F information from each service processing apparatus when generating the instruction form, and generates an instruction form for linking services provided by the service processing apparatuses. Specifically, the instruction book generation server 30 executes the following processing in order to create an instruction book.

  The instruction generation server 30 requests to transmit I / F information related to each service from a predetermined service processing device distributed on the network 5 based on <service information location>. When there is no predetermined service processing device, the instruction form generation server 30 instructs the service search server 20 to search for another service processing device that performs the same service as the predetermined service processing device. put out. Then, the instruction sheet generation server 30 may acquire the <service information location> of another service processing device from the service search server 20.

  The instruction form generation server 30 manages search results from the service search server 20 and I / F information received from each service processing device. The instruction form generation server 30 generates an HTML file serving as a GUI screen for defining a job flow (cooperation process) based on the I / F information acquired from each service processing apparatus. Then, when there is a service browsing request from the client terminal 10, the instruction form generation server 30 transmits an HTML file serving as a GUI screen to the client terminal 10.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an instruction creation screen 100 that is a GUI screen for defining a job flow. The instruction form creation screen 100 includes a service window 101, a flow window 102, a logic window 103, and a property window 104.

  The service window 101 displays various service processing devices that can be used. The logic window 103 displays a job flow indicating a pattern of cooperation between services. The property window 104 displays detailed setting parameters for each icon displayed in the service window 101 and the logic window 103.

  The user can define a job flow in the flow window 102 by dragging and dropping the icon of the service window 101 and the icon of the logic window 103 to the flow window 102. The user can further set the relationship between services such as services and logic in detail by editing the contents displayed in the property window 104.

  As an example, the flow window 102 in FIG. 4 generates text data of a received document by performing OCR processing (displayed as “OCR” in FIG. 4) of a document received by FAX (displayed as “Fax In” in FIG. 4). Then, a job that performs mail transmission processing of the received document (displayed as “Mail” in FIG. 4), print processing (displayed as “Print” in FIG. 4), and processing for storing in a folder (displayed as “Folder” in FIG. 4). A flow is defined.

  Here, when a plurality of jobs that can be processed in parallel are to be processed in parallel, that is, to be executed simultaneously, the job flow can be defined as such. For example, in the example of FIG. 4, mail transmission processing, print processing, and folder storage processing can be performed in parallel, so drag and drop to the flow window 102 so that each icon is displayed side by side. Thus, each process is defined to be processed in parallel. Thereby, a complicated job flow in which serial processing and parallel processing are mixed can be easily defined. Note that it may be possible to specify whether to perform parallel processing for each icon.

  In this way, the user drags and drops the icon of the service window 101 and the icon of the logic window 103 to the flow window 102 to define the job flow, and edits the contents displayed in the property window 104, It is possible to easily create instructions for linking various and complex processes.

  The client terminal 10 transmits the job flow information defined by the user's operation to the instruction form generation server 30 according to the CGI (Common Gateway Interface) format.

  The instruction form generation server 30 is configured to request each service based on the job flow information related to the service cooperation instruction from the user and the I / F information of each service, input parameters, and how to link each service. (Job Flow), and an instruction sheet defining information for specifying a document to be processed such as a document name and storage location information. The instruction sheet is composed of an XML format file.

  FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing an instruction sheet configured in the XML format. Since the linkage processing itself of a plurality of services is also regarded as one service, the instruction form has a configuration in which <Flow> is added to the I / F information shown in FIG.

  <Flow> is an element that describes the cooperation between services. <Invoke>, elements such as control structure, logical operation, and <if> for determining conditions, and coordination between services XML operation instructions and information for specifying a document to be processed.

  <Activation> represents a specific method of the service processing apparatus, and executes a service call. As elements of <startup>, a <map> indicating position information of parameters and a method name <method> to be called are included. <If>, <and>, <eq>, and <gt> indicating a control structure, logical operation, and the like perform conditional branching during coordination processing and adjust parameters passed between services.

  FIG. 9 shows an outline of a part of description example of <Flow> of the instruction sheet. Note that the description example illustrated in FIG. 9 is merely an example, and is not limited thereto.

  The example shown in FIG. 9 is a description example of an instruction in the case of a job flow as shown in FIG. 10, and performs OCR processing (character recognition processing) on a predetermined document, FAX transmission processing, mail transmission processing, It is a description example of an instruction in the case of a job flow that outputs a report of processing results of each processing after parallel processing of print processing.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the contents of the OCR process are defined by parameters (for example, reading resolution) described between a start tag <ocr> and an end tag </ ocr> for instructing the OCR process. .

  Similarly, the contents of the FAX transmission process are defined by parameters (transmission destination FAX number and the like) described between the start tag <faxsnd> and the end tag </ faxsnd> for instructing the FAX transmission process.

  The mail transmission process is defined by parameters (such as a destination mail address) described between a start tag <mailsnd> and an end tag </ mailsnd> for instructing the mail transmission process.

  The contents of the printing process are defined by parameters (such as output resolution) described between a start tag <print> and an end tag </ print> for instructing the printing process.

  The contents of the report output process are defined by parameters (output format etc.) described between the start tag <report> and the end tag </ report> for instructing the report output process.

  Further, the content of the job to be processed in parallel is defined by a tag sandwiched between a start tag <para> and an end tag </ para>. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 9, the FAX transmission process, the mail transmission process, and the print process are performed in parallel.

  In the instruction sheet, all information related to the control of the service cooperation process is described in the <flow> element. Thereby, the cooperation processing itself represented by the instruction sheet is also regarded as one service. Note that the instruction sheet is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. 5, and it is sufficient that the services can be linked.

  The instruction book generation server 30 transmits the XML format instruction book as described above to the instruction book management server 40. In addition, the instruction form generation server 30 may directly transmit the instruction form to the cooperation processing server 50 when the execution of the service cooperation processing is instructed by the user.

  The instruction sheet management server 40 holds the instruction sheet transmitted from the instruction sheet generating server 30 and transmits the instruction sheet to the cooperation processing server 50 in response to a request from the client terminal 10. In this way, by storing and maintaining the created instruction, it is possible to call and execute the instruction as necessary, so there is no need to create the instruction each time and the document can be efficiently stored. Can be processed.

  The cooperation processing server 50 is a server that interprets and executes a specified instruction. When the instruction is transmitted, the cooperation processing server 50 interprets the instruction, and the image processing device 61, the document management server 62, the document distribution server 63, and the like according to the order and usage described in the instruction. Each service processing device is called in order to execute cooperation processing. Further, the cooperation processing server 50 stores information on the status of the cooperation processing being executed and the results of the cooperation processing that has been completed, and notifies the status and results of the cooperation processing in response to an external request.

  When the cooperation processing server 50 interprets the instruction sheet and requests each service processing apparatus, the cooperation processing server 50 generates individual instruction information including processing request contents, input parameters, information for specifying a processing target document, and the like. Note that the cooperation processing server 50 may describe the relationship with the processing before and after the processing performed by each service processing device in the instruction sheet, or a unique information exchange format for each service processing device instead of the format of the instruction sheet A processing request may be made at.

  The image processing device 61 is a computer in which a software program for performing an image processing function is installed. The image processing device 61 processes the document based on the service processing request content, the input parameters, and the processing target document information included in the processing request from the cooperation processing server 50. Further, the image processing apparatus 61 notifies the service search server 20 of the partial I / F information at the time of activation. Furthermore, the image processing apparatus 61 transmits I / F information indicating a method for using the image processing service in response to a request from the instruction sheet generation server 30. This I / F information is used when creating the instruction sheet.

  The document management server 62 has a document storage function. Based on the information included in the request from the cooperation processing server 50, the document management server 62 executes storage, retrieval, and reading of documents, change of attributes related to documents, and various processes. Further, the document management server 62 notifies the service search server 20 of the partial I / F information at the time of activation. Further, the document management server 62 transmits I / F information indicating how to use the document management service in response to a request from the instruction sheet generation server 30.

  The document distribution server 63 has a function of storing the acquired document in the instructed document management server, sending an e-mail or FAX to the instructed transmission destination, or performing a print output process to the instructed printer. ing. The document distribution server 63 performs document distribution processing based on a document instructed by the client terminal 10 and information on the distribution destination in response to a request from the cooperation processing server 50. Further, the document distribution server 63 notifies the partial I / F information to the service search server 20 at the time of activation. Further, the document distribution server 63 transmits I / F information indicating how to use the document distribution processing service in response to a request from the instruction sheet generation server 30.

  The first service processing device 64 is a device that performs predetermined service processing relating to a document in accordance with an instruction from the outside. Here, the first service processing device 64 executes the service processing to be executed by itself based on information such as the content of the processing request from the cooperation processing server 50, input parameters, and information for specifying the processing target document. To do. In addition, the first service processing device 64 notifies the partial I / F information to the service search server 20 at the time of activation. Further, the first service processing device 64 transmits I / F information indicating a service processing usage method in response to a request from the instruction form generation server 30. The second service processing device 65 operates in the same manner as the first service processing device 64 except for the contents of the service processing.

  In the document processing system 1 configured as described above, each service processing apparatus such as the image processing apparatus 61, the document management server 62, and the document distribution server 63 is installed with an application program for executing a predetermined service. And it works as follows.

  Service processing devices such as the image processing device 61, the document management server 62, and the document distribution server 63 notify the service search server 20 of partial I / F information including information indicating each service outline and address in the startup processing. .

  The service search server 20 stores partial I / F information transmitted from each service processing device such as the image processing device 61, the document management server 62, and the document distribution server 63. Accordingly, the service search server 20 can execute a search using the partial I / F information when a predetermined service search request is received from, for example, the instruction form generation server 30 or the cooperation processing server 50.

  The instruction sheet generation server 30 corresponds to a generation unit of the present invention.

  (Creation of instructions)

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the client terminal 10 and the instruction book generation server 30 when the instruction book is created.

  The client terminal 10 accesses the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the HTML file generated for the user interface screen provided by the instruction generation server 30 through the installed browser according to the user's operation (step ST1).

  In response to the browsing request from the client terminal 10, the instruction form generation server 30 transmits the HTML file of the user interface screen to the client terminal 10 (step ST2).

  The client terminal 10 displays the user interface screen based on the information constituting the screen included in the HTML file transmitted from the instruction generation server 30 (step ST3). At this time, the user can use the user interface screen displayed on the client terminal 10 to define a desired service cooperation job flow.

  The client terminal 10 determines whether or not the job flow is defined via the user interface screen, and waits until the job flow is defined (step ST4). When the client terminal 10 determines that a job flow has been created, the client terminal 10 transmits job flow information related to service cooperation defined by the user to the instruction sheet generation server 30.

  The instruction form generation server 30 is configured to request each service based on the information related to the service link job flow transmitted from the client terminal 10 and the I / F information acquired from each service processing apparatus, and input parameters. Then, an instruction is defined that defines information for identifying the document to be processed, such as how to link each service, document name, storage location information, and the like (step ST5). Then, the instruction sheet generation server 30 transmits an XML-format instruction sheet to the instruction sheet management server 40.

  The instruction management server 40 stores the instruction generated by the instruction generation server 30. The instruction sheet management server 40 stores a plurality of instructions created by the instruction sheet generation server 30 and reads out the selected instruction sheet when there is an instruction sheet selection instruction from the client terminal 10.

  (Start / execute linked processing)

  The user can select a desired instruction from a plurality of instructions stored in the instruction management server 40 and start the cooperation process. Specifically, it is as follows.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing of the client terminal 10 and the cooperation processing server 50. Here, as in the job flow shown in FIG. 9, an OCR process (character recognition process) is performed on a predetermined document, the image document is faxed to a designated fax number, printed out, and extracted text. A case will be described in which each processing result is output as a report after the document is sent to a specified email address. Here, it is assumed that the document distribution server 63 is in charge of FAX transmission processing, the first service processing device 64 is in charge of mail transmission processing, and the second service processing device 65 is in charge of print processing.

  The client terminal 10 accesses the instruction sheet management server 40 and acquires an instruction sheet list managed by the instruction sheet management server 40 (step ST11).

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of the service cooperation process selection screen 110 representing the instruction list. The service cooperation process selection screen 110 has buttons 111 to 116 for selecting an instruction for each instruction. The user can select an instruction by clicking a desired button on the service cooperation processing selection screen 110.

  The client terminal 10 selects an instruction sheet representing a predetermined service cooperation process from the service cooperation process selection screen 110 based on a user operation instruction, and instructs activation of the instruction sheet. At this time, if necessary, a parameter input screen is displayed to the user to input parameters necessary for job execution.

  The instruction management server 40 transmits the instruction specified by the client terminal 10 to the cooperation processing server 50 (step ST12). As a result, the cooperation processing server 50 starts execution of the cooperation processing.

  The cooperation processing server 50 interprets the instruction sheet transmitted from the instruction sheet management server 40, and determines whether or not a job to be processed in parallel is defined (step S13). This can be determined based on whether or not a tag <para> for instructing parallel processing is described in the instruction sheet.

  If parallel processing is not defined, the process proceeds to step ST14. If parallel processing is defined, the process proceeds to step ST16.

  In step ST14, it is determined whether there are a plurality of jobs that can be processed in parallel among the jobs designated for execution in the instruction sheet. For this determination, for example, a list of jobs that can be processed in parallel is stored in advance in the memory in the cooperation processing server 50, and the job described in the instruction is stored in the list of jobs that can be processed in parallel. This can be done by determining whether or not there are a plurality of jobs that match.

  If there are a plurality of jobs that can be processed in parallel, the process proceeds to step ST15. If there are not a plurality of jobs that can be processed in parallel, the process proceeds to step ST16.

  In step ST15, the instruction sheet is rewritten so that a plurality of jobs that can be processed in parallel that were originally described to be processed in series are processed in parallel. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, when a job flow in which all jobs are executed in series is defined in the instruction sheet, each job is displayed in <flow> of the instruction sheet as shown in FIG. A description in which tags for instructing execution are arranged in order is included.

  In this case, since the FAX transmission process, the mail transmission process, and the print process can be performed in parallel, the start tag <faxsnd> and the end tag </ faxsnd> indicating the FAX transmission process shown in FIG. 12, and the start tag indicating the mail transmission process <Mailsnd> and end tag </ mailsnd>, start tag <print> indicating end of print processing and end tag </ print> indicate start tag <para> and end tag </ The instruction is rewritten so as to be sandwiched between <para>. As a result, the job flow of only serial processing as shown in FIG. 11 becomes a job flow in which serial processing and parallel processing are mixed as shown in FIG.

  Next, the cooperation processing server 50 sequentially interprets the instructions, and requests the image processing apparatus 61 to execute the OCR process that is the first process described in the instructions (step ST16). Specifically, the cooperation processing server 50 performs processing based on information described in the instruction, for example, parameters described between the start tag </ ocr> and the end tag </ ocr> shown in FIG. Information specifying the location of the requested service processing device, the input parameter and output parameter format required for the processing request, the method name for the processing request, the activation method, and the processing target document are extracted to create individual instruction information. The cooperation processing server 50 transmits the individual instruction information to the image processing apparatus 61 that is the first processing request destination.

  FIG. 13 schematically shows a flow of a control routine executed by each device such as the image processing device 61.

  The image processing device 61 determines whether or not the processing has been requested (step ST31). If the processing has been requested, the image processing device 61 is based on the storage location information of the processing target document described in the transmitted instruction. Then, the document to be processed is copied to obtain the document (step ST32). Next, the image processing device 61 interprets the service processing request content for the acquired document image, and determines whether or not the processing can be executed (step ST33). For example, it is determined whether processing can be performed with the specified parameters, whether another job is being executed, and the like. If it can be executed, a normal OCR process is performed with the specified parameters, and the extracted text document is bound and the image document obtained by the image process and the text document are bound. The document is stored again in the original storage destination (step ST34).

  When such processing is completed, the image processing apparatus 61 transmits processing results such as processing status information (completed), output parameters, processed document storage location information, and the like to the cooperation processing server 50 (step ST36).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that it is not executable, a predetermined executable process is performed (step ST35). For example, when it is determined that processing cannot be performed with a specified parameter, OCR processing is performed with a predetermined executable parameter. In this case, the processing result transmitted to the cooperation processing server 50 includes information indicating that the specified parameter has been changed and processed. If another job is being executed, the process waits until the other job finishes executing, and performs normal processing when the other job finishes executing. In this case, you may make it alert | report to the cooperation processing server 50 that it is on standby.

  In this way, the requested apparatus determines whether or not the requested process can be executed. If the requested process cannot be executed, a predetermined executable process is performed.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the cooperation processing server 50 determines whether or not a processing result has been received (step ST17). When the processing result from the image processing device 61 is received, the first processing is performed as the corresponding processing. The request result is managed (stored) as a log (step ST18).

  Next, the cooperation processing server 50 determines whether or not all the processes have been completed (step ST19). That is, it is determined whether or not a job to be processed next is described in the instruction sheet. If there is a job to be executed, the corresponding apparatus is requested to execute the second process in step ST16 as described above.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 9, the instruction form includes a FAX between a start tag <para> and an end tag </ para> for defining parallel processing after a tag instructing execution of OCR processing. Tags for transmission processing, mail transmission processing, and print processing are described.

  For this reason, the cooperation processing server 50 performs these processes in parallel. Specifically, as in the first process, for each process, based on parameters described between the start tag and the end tag, the location of the service processing apparatus that requests the process and the input required for the process request Information specifying the parameter and output parameter format, the method name for requesting processing, the activation method, and the document to be processed is extracted to create individual instruction information.

  Then, the cooperation processing server 50 transmits the individual instruction information of the FAX transmission process to the document distribution server 63, transmits the individual instruction information of the mail transmission process to the first service processing device 64, and receives the individual instruction information of the print process. Transmit to the second service processing device 65. In other words, for jobs to be processed in parallel, the next processing request is not made after receiving the processing result, but the processing request is made all at once.

  Thereby, the document distribution server 63 transmits the specified document by FAX to the specified FAX number based on the request contents of the cooperation processing server 50, and the first service processing device 64 is specified with the specified document. The second service processing device 65 prints the designated document.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 13 described above, each device determines whether or not the requested process can be executed (step ST33). If the requested content cannot be executed, it can be executed in advance. Processing is performed (step ST35). For example, when the other party is busy in the FAX transmission process, the document distribution server 63 performs a predetermined number of retry processes that wait for a predetermined time and then perform the FAX transmission again as a predetermined executable process. If the connection with the other party is still not possible, the document distribution server 63 transmits a result of retrying a predetermined number of times to the cooperation processing server 50 as a processing result.

  In this way, the requested apparatus determines whether or not the requested process can be executed. If the requested process cannot be executed, a predetermined executable process is performed. The cooperation processing server 50 acquires the status of each device, and the cooperation processing server 50 determines whether or not the processing can be executed. When it is determined that the processing cannot be executed, a predetermined execution is performed. Execution of possible processing may be instructed from the cooperation processing server 50 to each device.

  Then, the cooperation processing server 50 determines whether or not the processing results of all the processes have been received (step ST17). When all the processing results are received, the processing results are processed as a log as a corresponding process as described above. Store (step ST18).

  Then, in the same manner as described above, when the request for the report output process, which is the last process, and the reception of the process result are completed, and when all the processes are completed, the process proceeds to step ST20. That is, when it is determined that the next process is not described in the instruction sheet, the process proceeds to step ST20. In the report output processing request, for example, individual instruction information including all received processing results is transmitted to the second service processing device 65. As a result, the processing result of each processing is collectively printed by the second service processing device 65.

  In step ST20, the cooperation processing server 50 notifies the client terminal 10 that all processing has been completed, and ends the cooperation processing.

  As described above, a service executed by each processing unit connected to the network in accordance with an instruction document in which information on an instruction for cooperation of a plurality of service processes to be performed on a document, information on a document storage location, and the like is described. Since the processes are linked, various and complicated processes can be performed efficiently.

  In addition, since the processes that can be processed in parallel are controlled to be executed at the same time, a plurality of service processes can be executed efficiently.

  Each unit such as a server connected to the network 5 described above may be configured as an independent device, or several units may be provided in a single device. All may be provided in one apparatus.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 14, a GUI function for performing various operations such as instruction creation and instruction selection of the client terminal 10, an instruction generation function of the instruction generation server 30, and an instruction of the instruction management server 40 The management function, the cooperation processing function of the cooperation processing server 50, the image processing function of the image processing device 61, the document management function of the document management server, and the document distribution function of the document distribution server 63 are a copy function or a FAX as a function for performing service processing. A configuration provided in the multi-function device 70 having functions such as a function, a scanner function, and a print function may be employed.

  In this case, instructions can be created and stored in the multi-function device 70, and image processing such as noise removal processing and OCR processing, and post-processed document data are performed on the document data stored in the multi-function device 70. Storage processing, FAX transmission, mail transmission, etc. can be processed in cooperation. Of course, it is also possible to create or select an instruction sheet by the client terminal 10 as in the above embodiment.

  Further, the document data and instructions to be processed may be stored in another external device connected to the network 5. Further, document data stored in the multifunction device 70 or document data stored in another external device is not processed by the multifunction device 70, but is connected to another multifunction device connected to the network or to the network. Alternatively, the processing may be performed by an external device having each processing function.

  In the present embodiment, the service search server 20 acquires a part of the I / F information (partial I / F information) from each service processing apparatus. However, the service search server 20 acquires all the I / F information. May be.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the document processing system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram for demonstrating the flow of the information between each part of a document processing system. It is a figure which shows the structure of I / F information memorize | stored in each apparatus. It is a figure which shows the instruction book editor screen displayed on GUI of the instruction book editor. It is a figure which shows the structure of the instruction document produced by the instruction document preparation part. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of an instruction creation process. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the cooperation process of a document processing system. It is a figure which shows an example of the instruction book list screen showing the list of instructions. It is a figure which shows the example of description of an instruction document. It is a figure which shows an example of the job flow containing parallel processing. It is a figure which shows an example of the job flow only for serial processing. It is a figure which shows the example of description of an instruction document. It is a flowchart which shows the control routine performed with each apparatus. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a multifunction machine.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Document processing system 5 Network 10 Client terminal 20 Service search server 30 Instruction document generation server 40 Instruction document management server 50 Direct cooperation processing server 50 Cooperation processing server 61 Image processing apparatus 62 Document management server 63 Document distribution server 64 First service processing Device 65 Second service processing device 70 MFP

Claims (4)

Generating means for generating instruction data for performing service processing on document data;
An information processing apparatus comprising: instruction data transmitting means for transmitting the instruction data generated by the generating means to an image processing apparatus;
Interpreting means for interpreting the content of the instruction data transmitted by the instruction data transmitting means, and service processing for performing service processing on the document data transmitted from the information processing device based on the interpretation result of the interpreting means An image processing apparatus comprising:
A service image processing system. The information processing apparatus includes: a receiving unit that receives the document data that has undergone service processing by the service processing unit of the image processing apparatus; and a network that performs the next service processing on the document data that has undergone the service processing. The service image processing system according to claim 1, wherein service processing by service processing means of the image processing apparatus connected to the network is linked by transmitting to the image processing apparatus. Document data receiving means for receiving document data;
An instruction receiving means for receiving an instruction describing the contents of the service processing;
Interpreting means for interpreting the service processing content of the instruction received by the instruction receiving means;
Service processing executing means for executing the service processing content interpreted by the interpreting means on the document data received by the document data receiving means;
Transmitting means for transmitting document data obtained by execution by the service processing execution means to an image processing apparatus on a network;
An image processing apparatus. The service processing execution unit executes the service processing content when the service processing content interpreted by the interpretation unit is executable, and when the service processing content interpreted by the interpretation unit is not executable, The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a predetermined executable process is executed.

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