JP2009129340A - Job flow processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the number of data transfer times when executing a job flow with respect to a job flow processor, a job flow processing method, and a program for document data, in particular. <P>SOLUTION: The job flow processor is provided with a job processing means for dynamically determining a job processing means which executes individual jobs in the job flow and executing the respective jobs. The order of job processing is changed so as to reduce switching of the job processing means in accordance with the order of job processing in the job flow. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a job flow processing apparatus, a job flow processing method, and a program, and more particularly to a job flow processing system that constructs a job flow that performs processing on document data continuously or in parallel.

  Conventionally, a multifunction peripheral having a printer, a scanner, and a FAX function mounted on a copier has been proposed, and a paper document and digitized document data can be linked. Technology that automatically performs processing according to registered settings by setting scan settings, scan image destination settings, etc. in a multifunction device in advance, registering them as routine jobs, and specifying those routine jobs Has been proposed.

In addition, a service processing system has been proposed in which a plurality of processes to be performed on document data are processed in cooperation with each device or service processing apparatus connected to a network (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2004-289500 A

  However, in the service processing system described in Patent Document 1, for example, the service processing apparatus that executes service processing for document data and the execution order are fixed for each job flow, and the service processing in the job flow is performed according to the situation. The service processing device to be executed cannot be switched, and the execution order of the service processing cannot be rewritten to an order with high processing efficiency accordingly.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention of the job flow processing device according to claim 1 interprets job flow description data that describes the contents of a plurality of jobs to be applied to document data to be processed along with the processing order; Based on the interpretation result of the interpreting means, one or more job processing means connected to the network sequentially execute jobs on the document data, job flow execution control means, and individual job in the job flow. A job flow for changing a job flow processing order according to an execution place determination means for determining a job processing means for executing a job according to the contents, and a job processing means for executing a job determined by the execution place determination means And an execution order changing means.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to dynamically determine job processing means for executing individual jobs in a job flow, and to change the job processing order according to the job processing means and the job processing order. Is possible.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described.

<System configuration>
FIG. 1 illustrates the overall configuration of a job flow processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The job flow processing system is a system that can execute various job flows from a multifunction peripheral having functions such as a scanner, a printer, and a FAX.

  A job in the present invention indicates a process that can be executed on document data. The job is a process of copying document data, scanning a paper document, sending / receiving a fax, printing, saving to a hard disk, This refers to mail transmission, file format conversion, signature addition, encryption, etc., but is not particularly limited. An apparatus that can execute one or more of the processes such as the job is referred to as a job processing apparatus. In the job flow processing system, it is considered that the job processing apparatus includes not only an image forming apparatus, a scanner, and a FAX, but also a server, an application, and the like, but is not limited thereto.

  The job cooperation processing system includes a job processing device management server 11, a job flow management server 12, a client PC 13, a job processing server A14, a job processing server B15, a multifunction device A16, and a multifunction device B17, which are connected via a network 18. ing. Note that the job processing server and the multifunction peripheral are the job processing apparatuses, and the number and type thereof are not limited. The job processing apparatus management server 11, job flow management server 12, and job processing apparatus can also function as one or more servers or one or more multifunction peripherals.

  Job processing devices such as job processing server A14, job processing server B15, multifunction device A16, and multifunction device B17 perform job processing on jobs that can be executed by themselves along with access information such as the IP address of the job processing device when they are activated. Register in the device management server 11.

  The job processing device management server 11 manages job processing devices such as the job processing server A14, job processing server B15, multifunction device A16, and multifunction device B17, and also manages a list of jobs that can be executed by each job processing device.

  The client PC 13 acquires a job that can be executed by the system from the job processing apparatus management server 11, creates a job flow by combining the jobs, and registers the job flow in the job flow management server 12. A job flow is a combination of a plurality of jobs, and indicates a unit of processing capable of continuously executing a plurality of jobs. The created job flow is managed on the job flow management server 12 and held together with job flow description data describing job flow processing contents and processing order, and job constraint condition description data describing job processing order constraint conditions. The Further, it is possible to acquire a list of registered job flows, job flow description data of individual job flows, and job constraint condition description data from the job flow management server 12. The MFPs 16 and 17 and the client PC 13 can acquire a job flow list from the job flow management server, acquire job flow description data of a desired job flow, and instruct the start of job flow execution.

<Job processing device registration flow>
FIG. 2 illustrates the operation of the present job flow processing system when a new job processing apparatus is added.

  The newly added job processing device 19 receives job I / F information including job information executable by the job processing device 19 and location information for accessing the job processing device when the job processing device 19 is started up. (2-1).

  After registration of a job executable by the job processing device 19 is completed, a job flow including a job executable by the job processing device 19 can be created and executed.

  Further, instead of directly registering job I / F information and job processing device information from the job processing device to the job processing device management server 11, the client PC 13 acquires job I / F information from the job processing device (2- 2) It may be registered in the job processing apparatus management server 11 (2-3).

<Job I / F information>
FIG. 3 shows job I / F information when registering a job list in the job processing apparatus management server 11 according to the present invention.

  The job I / F information includes a job name, a job type, a location of a job processing apparatus capable of executing the job, attribute information necessary for executing the job, and input data required for executing the job. Holds output data information output after job execution.

  The description format of the job I / F information is not particularly limited.

<Create job flow>
FIG. 4 shows a job flow creation flow in the present invention.

  Creation of a job flow is performed by an instruction from the client PC 13, referring to a job list registered in the job processing apparatus management server 11 (4-1), and creating and registering a job flow by combining desired jobs (4-4). 2) is performed. The registered job flow is managed on the job flow management server 12. After the job flow registration is completed, the job flow can be executed from the job processing device managed by the job processing device management server 11.

<Job flow definition information>
FIG. 5 shows an example of job flow description data and job constraint condition description data in the present invention. FIG. 6 shows an example of a job flow for explaining the job flow description data in the present invention. FIG. 7 shows an example of job constraint conditions for explaining job constraint condition description data.

  In FIG. 6, a rectangle indicates a job, and an arrow indicates the job execution order in the job flow. In this example, after executing “scan”, “OCR” is performed, the scanned image data is converted into PDF data by “PDF conversion”, a signature is added to the PDF data by “signature”, and designation is made by “save file” 3 shows a job flow of saving a PDF file in the file server.

  In FIG. 7, a rectangle indicates a job, and a dashed arrow indicates a restriction on the job execution order in the job flow. In this example, after “scan” is executed, “OCR” and “PDF conversion” are possible, “signature” can be executed after “PDF conversion” is executed, and after “OCR” and “signature” are executed This indicates a job execution order constraint that “Save File” can be executed.

  FIG. 5 shows job flow description data in which the job flow illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 is described in the XML format.

  In the present invention, job elements representing jobs included in the job flow are described in the execution order as child elements of the JobFlow element. Describe the job name of the job indicated by the job element in the name attribute of the job element. Further, a properties element can be described as a child element of the job element, and one or more property elements can be described as its child elements, and attribute information necessary for executing the job indicated by the job element can be described. Furthermore, an in element and an out element are described as child elements of the job element, and input data and output data used in the job are specified using an id attribute. For example, the input data of a job whose job name is “ocr” (indicating an “OCR” job) is data whose id is “doc”, and the output data is type (format) text (text format) It is data with id "key". This output data indicates that it is used as input data “filename” for a job whose job name is “export” (indicating a “file save” job). Specifically, the text information extracted by OCR Is used as the file name when saving the file.

  In the after element that is a child element of the job element, a job name of a job that must be processed before the job is executed is specified in the job attribute. For example, before executing a job whose job name is “ocr” (indicating an “OCR” job), a job whose job name is “scan” must be executed.

  The description format of job flow description data and job constraint condition description data is not limited to the XML format. Further, although the job flow description data and the job constraint condition description data are described together as one data, they may be described as separate data.

<Job flow execution flow>
The job flow execution user 20 instructs the job flow from the job processing apparatus or the client PC 13. FIG. 8 shows an example in which execution of a job flow is instructed from the multifunction device A16. The job processing apparatus or client PC 13 acquires (S1) the job flow list managed by the job flow management server 12 and displays it. The job flow execution user 20 selects a desired job flow from the job flow list displayed on the job processing apparatus or the client PC 13, and requests execution (S2). The job flow execution request is sent to the job flow management server 12 via the job processing apparatus or the client PC 13 (S3).

<Determine job execution location>
When the job flow management server 12 receives the job flow execution request, the job flow management server 12 acquires the job name (name attribute of the job element) of each job in the job flow, and manages the job processing apparatus that can execute the job. A search is made based on the job name of the job I / F information managed by the server 11 (S4), and it is determined which job processing apparatus to execute. FIG. 9 shows an example of a job processing apparatus that executes each job when the job flow shown in FIG. In this example, “scan”, “PDF conversion”, and “signature” are executed by the multi-function device A16, and “OCR”, “signature”, and “file save” are executed by the job processing server A14.

<Rewriting job flow>
Next, the job flow management server 12 investigates the number of locations in the job flow where the job processing apparatus that executes each job is switched. In the example of FIG. 9, there are three places: “scan” → “OCR”, “OCR” → “PDF conversion”, “signature” → “file storage”. If the number of job processing device switching locations is not 1, the following processing is performed to try to rewrite the job flow.

  First, referring to job constraint condition description data (after element), a combination of jobs whose job execution order can be changed is investigated. In the example of FIG. 5 and FIG. 7, “OCR” and “PDF conversion”, “OCR” and “signature”. “OCR” must be executed after “scanning” and before “file saving”, but there is no order restriction for “PDF conversion” and “signature”.

  Next, the job execution order in which the job processing device switching portion of the job flow is minimized is investigated by changing the order of the jobs of the order changeable job group investigated above. The job execution order that replaces the job order and does not violate the job constraint conditions can be considered as follows.

(1) Scan → PDF conversion → OCR → Signature → File storage (10-1 in FIG. 10)
(2) Scan → PDF → Signature → OCR → File Save (10-2 in FIG. 10)
As for these job processing device switching points, (1) is 3 and (2) is 1, and it can be seen that the job flow with the smallest job processing device switching point is (2). For this reason, the job flow management server 12 rewrites the job flow and decides to execute the job in the order of (2).

  Subsequently, the job flow management server 12 rewrites the job processing order of the job flow description data according to the result of the order change processing, and additionally writes the name of the job processing device that executes each job and the job processing device location. FIG. 11 shows job flow description data obtained as a result. In FIG. 11, the job processing order is rewritten as scan → PDF conversion → signature → OCR → file storage, and at attribute and location attribute are added to each job element. The job processing device location and the location attribute describe the job processing device location.

<Executing job flow>
The job flow management server 12 transmits the rewritten job flow description data to the job processing apparatus (in the example, the multifunction peripheral A 16) that executes the job at the beginning of the job flow, and instructs execution of the job flow (S5). The first job processing apparatus (multifunction device A16) interprets the job flow start job (scan) from the job flow description data, and executes the job according to the description. When the job ends, the processing result is described in the result attribute of the corresponding job element of the job flow description data. Subsequently, the next job (in PDF format) is read from the job flow description data, the name of the job processing apparatus that should execute the job is acquired, and it is determined whether it is itself. If it is determined that the next job should be processed by itself (multifunction device A16), the job is continuously executed. If it is another job processing apparatus, along with the data created as the processing result and the job flow description data, The job is transferred to the next job processing apparatus (job processing server A14) and requested to execute the subsequent processing (S6). The next job processing apparatus executes the job in the same manner. When all jobs in the job flow are completed, the job flow description data describing the results of all the job processing is transferred to the job flow management server 12 (S7). Ends the execution of the job flow.

  The job flow management server 12 saves the job flow description data received as the processing result as an execution history, transmits the job flow execution result to the job processing apparatus or client PC 13 instructed to execute the job flow, and executes the job flow execution user. 20 (S8).

1 shows a system configuration diagram of a service cooperation processing system of the present invention. FIG. 6 shows an operation flow when a job processing apparatus is added in the present invention. 3 shows job I / F information in the present invention. 6 shows an operation flow when defining a job flow in the present invention. FIG. 8 shows a description example of job flow description data taking FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 as an example in the present invention. 2 shows an example of a job flow in the present invention. An example of job constraint conditions in the present invention is shown. 3 shows an operation flow when executing a job flow in the present invention. 4 shows an example of a job execution location of a job flow in the present invention. The example of the rewriting candidate in the job execution order change process of the job flow in this invention and the job execution location in each job flow is shown. The example of the job flow description data after the job flow rewriting process in this invention is shown.

Claims (7)

  Interpreting means for interpreting job flow description data in which the contents of a plurality of jobs to be applied to the document data to be processed are described together with the processing order, and one or more jobs connected to the network based on the interpretation result of the interpreting means A job flow execution control unit that causes the processing unit to sequentially execute a job on the document data; an execution location determination unit that determines a job processing unit that executes a job according to the content of each job in the job flow; A job flow processing apparatus comprising: a job flow execution order changing unit that changes a job flow processing order according to a job processing unit that executes a job determined by the execution place determination unit.   Job flow setting means for setting the contents and processing order of a plurality of jobs to be applied to the document data, and job flow description data generation for generating the job flow description data based on the contents set by the job flow setting means The job flow processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means.   The job flow execution order changing means changes the job flow processing order based on constraint condition description data describing a constraint condition regarding an execution order for a job processing order in the job flow. Item 4. The job flow processing apparatus according to Item 1.   It further comprises: a constraint condition setting unit that sets the execution order constraint condition; and a constraint condition description data generation unit that generates constraint condition description data based on the constraint condition set by the constraint condition setting unit. The job flow processing apparatus according to claim 3.   The job flow processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the job flow execution order changing unit changes the job processing order so that the same job processing unit continuously executes jobs.   The job flow processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the execution location determination unit determines a job processing apparatus to execute a job based on job contents executable by the job processing unit.   7. The job flow processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising job processing means capability management means for holding job contents executable by the job processing means.

Images