Document management apparatus and method, a recording medium...

Details Document management apparatus and method, a recording medium... Document management apparatus and method, a recording medium...

1999-03-05

2002-07-16

Chaki, Kakali (Department: 2122)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C706S061000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06421691

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document management apparatus and method and a recording medium storing a document management program, which have instruction data defining a display format for documents generated during the course of transactions, and more specifically to a document management apparatus and method suitably applicable to computer-based decision making transactions on money, credit, etc., to a recording medium storing a document management program, and to a recording medium storing a decision making program.
2. Description of a Related Art
The time spent handling documents during daily business routines, including waste of time due to loss of documents and absence of an authorizer in charge, has come to be a significant problem to companies. To solve this problem a workflow management system has been developed.
The workflow management system is intended to share information related to office works among different departments and manage the flow of information. By utilizing this workflow management system in a way that matches the kind of transaction performed, it is possible to build and manage various flows of transactions, such as individual work flows differing from one department to another in a company and work flows spanning between different departments, and to transform document delivery and job management into quick and secure electronic transactions. This can eliminate handling of paper documents or bills, nuisance of their management, delay of document processing, or waste of time caused by erroneous delivery or loss of documents. Further, digital flows of transactions allow one to easily grasp the flow and situation of the entire transactions.
When using this workflow management system, the necessary procedure involves first defining a workflow suited to the transactions to be performed, persons in charge of respective transactions and the order of transfer of the transactions, and the conditions of transfer. When executing this workflow, the system is automatically started at client terminals of the staffs according to the definitions and the processed transaction is transferred to the next person in charge.
Such a workflow management system is known to be used mainly in the processing of commodity purchase applications for approval and the management of technical documents. An example of a general decision making system for approving applications of credit line will be described as follows.
The decision making system includes an application subsystem, which prepares an application document based on application data entered by an applicant, and a decision making subsystem, which references the application document from the application subsystem and giving approval accordingly. In such a decision making system, the applicant enters necessary data for application according to an input screen displayed by the application subsystem. Based on the application data thus entered, the application subsystem prepares an application document for approval.
Next, an examiner or authorizer who recognizes having received an application by starting the decision making subsystem references the application document and makes an appropriate decision on the application. The result of decision is notified to the applicant and, when it is approved, the system performs post processing according to the application. When it is not approved, the application is withdrawn. Or the application is filed again.
As described above, the decision making system performs its processing according to the predefined workflow. In such a system, it is required to predefine a data structure of the application document commonly used in the decision making process or transaction and thus the system must be designed and developed by taking the data structure into account. How data is handled by the decision making system will be explained by referring to
FIG. 17
, which shows an example on-screen display of commonly shared data in a conventional system.
In
FIG. 17
, reference numeral
101
represents an input screen, which has input fields a-f that are displayed by the application subsystem. Designated
102
is an input screen information list, which represents the correspondence between application input data entered in the input fields a-f on the input screen
101
and setting items of the application document
110
. The application input data entered on the input screen
101
are set in the corresponding setting items of the application document
110
according to the input screen information list
102
.
Denoted
111
is a display screen which has display fields A-F. The application input data to be set in the application document
110
are set and displayed in corresponding display fields according to a display screen information list
112
described later. The display screen information list
112
defines the correspondence between the application input data set in the application document
110
and the display fields A-F on the display screen
111
.
The application input data entered by the applicant into the input fields a-f on the input screen
101
are set by the application subsystem into the corresponding setting items of the application document
110
according to the input screen information list
102
. For example, the application input data entered in the input field a is recognized, from the input screen information list
102
, as the data to be set in the setting item-
1
that corresponds to the input field a, and then set accordingly. For other application input data, the similar processing is carried out to complete the application document
110
.
Displaying the application document
110
thus completed first involves generating the display screen
111
for displaying the application document
110
and the display screen information list
112
for defining the correspondence between the display fields on the display screen
111
and the setting items in the application document
110
. The display screen
111
are prepared for each type of transaction because different transactions have different display formats in terms of display fields, display information and the like. When the generated display screen
111
is to be displayed, the application input data corresponding to respective display fields are acquired from the application document
110
according to the display screen information list
112
and then set and displayed in the predetermined positions.
In more detail, in displaying the application input data for the setting item-
1
of the application document
110
, the system first references the display screen information list
112
and determines that the display field for the setting item-
1
is a display field A. Next, the system obtains the application input data from the setting item-
1
of the application document
110
and makes necessary setting to display the acquired application input data in the display field A on the display screen. For other setting items, the similar processing is performed to set and display the acquired data in the predetermined display fields on the display screen
111
.
The above-described workflow management system can be efficiently applied for transactions that use a fixed common data structure. However, as the number of users of the workflow management system increases, a need arises to cope with exceptional processing and there are increasing cases where exceptional transactions cannot be dealt with by the conventional fixed common data structure, resulting in an increase in the number of system modifications.
For example, in a system configuration where a head office LAN and branch offices' LANs are interconnected via public networks, when the decision making system that has been used only in the head office is also used in remote branch offices, the contents of the application document
110
that are good for use only in the head office may not be appropriate for use in branches. Such a case is described by referring to FIG.
17
.
In such an inconvenient case, c

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