JP2002033784A - Data-transmitting destination designating method and data-transmitting managing device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide data transmitting via an optimal medium, using a simple operation. SOLUTION: A data-transmitting/receiving server 101 examines the destination of a transmitting job dispatched from a client 102. When the destination is set as a master address, containing a detailed address corresponding to a communication medium, the value of the attribute, which is designated as the selection reference among attributes attached to respective detailed address, is compared with an index value. A medium, having a maximum index value, is determined as being the one used for transmitting, and the detailed address is set as a transmitting destination address.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for transmitting document data or image data to a designated place.
The present invention relates to a destination specifying method and a data transmission management device using the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of network environments in offices, documents can be transmitted by various media such as facsimile, electronic mail, and file transfer using FTP. In such an office environment, the user selects a transmission medium according to the use of the document to be sent, specifies a destination in a method according to the selected transmission medium,
Documents had to be sent.

[0003]

However, in the conventional method, data corresponding to the selected transmission medium must be prepared, and the operation of the device handling the data must be memorized in the transmission medium. , The user had to do very complicated work.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has a simple operation to select an optimum transmission medium according to a user's purpose and realize transmission of document data by designating a data transmission destination. It is an object to provide a method and a data transmission management device using the method.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following arrangement.

A transmission destination specification method for a data transmission apparatus capable of transmitting data stored in a storage device to a desired destination via at least one of two types of communication media, comprising a specification step of specifying a transmission destination And a designated destination, when connected via a plurality of communication media, a selection step of selecting an optimum communication medium based on characteristic information of the communication media, and a communication selected by the selection step. Setting destination information according to the medium as a data transmission destination.

[0007] More preferably, the method further comprises a designation step of designating a destination selection criterion, wherein the selection step includes, based on the characteristic information for each of the plurality of communication media, a value of an item designated as a selection criterion in the designation step. Obtain and compare with each other and select the communication medium with the best value as the optimum communication medium.

[0008] More preferably, the item of the characteristic information includes at least one of transmission speed, transmission cost, transmitter density, and transmission quality.

[0009] More preferably, the communication medium includes at least two of facsimile, electronic mail, and file transfer.

[0010] More preferably, the method further comprises the step of transmitting data to the destination set in the setting step.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A document transmission / reception system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<System Configuration> FIG. 1 is an example showing the configuration of a document transmission / reception system embodying the present invention.

Reference numeral 101 denotes a data transmission / reception management server. Clients 102 and 103 connect to the client 101 and provide various services to the user.
Reference numeral 104 denotes an e-mail server that distributes e-mails and supports SMTP and POP3, which are standard e-mail transfer protocols. An FTP server 105 supports a file transfer protocol. 106
Is a facsimile apparatus having a facsimile transmission / reception function, which is connected to a public network for facsimile communication. These are all connected by a network 107, and are connected to the server 101 using the TCP / IP protocol.
Is communicating with As described above, the document transmission / reception system of FIG. 1 uses three different methods, e-mail, file transfer, and facsimile transfer via a wide area communication network such as a telephone line.
Data can be transmitted and received through various types of communication media.

Each terminal and server has basically the same configuration as a normal computer. Its configuration is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 11, a computer 300
0 denotes a CPU 1 that executes a procedure for controlling transmission of designated data to the outside or reception of data from the outside based on a communication control program of a procedure described later stored in a program ROM of the ROM 3. The CPU 1 comprehensively controls each device connected to the system bus 4. The RAM 2 functions as a main memory, a work area, and the like for the CPU 1. Keyboard controller (KB
C) 5 controls key input from the keyboard 9 or a pointing device (not shown). A CRT controller (CRTC) 6 controls display on a CRT display 10. The disk controller (DKC) 7 communicates with an external memory 11 such as a hard disk (HD) for storing a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, and editing files described later, and a floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD). Control access. The LAN control unit 8 is connected to a network,
Executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network.

However, the electronic mail server 104, the FTP
The server 105 may be configured to be connected to a wide area communication network such as a telephone line by a communication device such as a modem, or may be configured to share the communication device between the server and the terminal on the network 107. Is also good.

The facsimile apparatus is shown in FIG.
It is assumed that one computer incorporates an optical scanner, a printer, a modem, and a control program for controlling them to function as a facsimile.

Further, in the present embodiment, the data transmission / reception management server 101 itself does not have its own communication means, and is performed by requesting the electronic mail server 104, the FTP server 105, and the facsimile apparatus 106 to transmit / receive all data. However, the data transmission / reception management server 101 itself can support facsimile communication by connecting a modem board, and can support a mail transfer protocol and a file transfer protocol.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the data transmission / reception management server of the present embodiment. This configuration is, for example, shown in FIG.
Can be realized by executing a program for performing a process corresponding to each unit in FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a LAN control unit, whose basic functions are provided by a network OS in which a server application is installed.

Reference numeral 202 denotes a session management unit, which performs individual communication processing with devices and clients connected to the server, based on the result of the internal processing, by the LAN control unit 2.
01.

Reference numeral 203 denotes a request queue management unit.
Basically, various request messages asynchronously transferred from the device side and the client side are once queue-managed internally, and processing corresponding to the sequential request processing is performed.

Reference numeral 204 denotes a job management unit, which distributes a request message received from the device side and the client side to various job processing units according to the contents of the request.

Reference numeral 205 denotes a client management unit which basically performs processing relating to a job from a connected client. For example, determination of connection (login) request processing from each client, handling of document information and address information managed for each client, and the like are performed.

Reference numeral 206 denotes a transmission / reception device management unit, which performs processing relating to the job of the connected device. For example, it registers the result of the requested job and performs processing related to the received job.

Reference numeral 207 denotes a sentence management unit, which performs all document registration processing associated with jobs registered from clients and devices.

A memory management unit 208 handles various data handled by the server. Various data handled by the server are stored and managed in the database 210 under the management thereof, and are referred to and read out as needed. However, only the image file is stored in the image file unit 209 as a file, and the file name is stored in the database. FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the database.

Reference numeral 211 denotes a scheduler, which extracts a transmission job to be processed from the data stored in the database and delivers it to the destination selection unit 212.

Reference numeral 212 denotes a destination selection unit which selects an optimum destination from the transmission job data and delivers it to the transmission processing unit 213.

Reference numeral 213 denotes a transmission processing unit which requests a transmission job to various devices via a session management unit.

<Structure of Database> FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the database 210 in the document transmission / reception system of the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the database has a relational structure, and this diagram is a conceptual diagram thereof.

Reference numeral 301 denotes route information, which is the master of all data records. All data is accessible here.

Reference numeral 302 denotes shared data for managing information commonly used by all users. Shared data includes
Transmission job 303, reception job 305, event log 3
06, the address book 308 is managed as data.

In this embodiment, when a transmission job is requested from each client, all of them are managed as shared data, and job data 304 is generated. However, since an access right is set for each job data 304, only the requesting user can access the job data. The contents of the job data will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

A reception job managed as shared data is a reception job having no distribution destination. For example, a facsimile reception job in which a sub address is not set corresponds to this.

In the event log, results of various jobs, system errors, and the like are stored in the log 307 for each event.

Address data 309 of the shared address book
Is viewable by all users. The contents of the address book will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 310 denotes user data, which is prepared for each registered user. The user data includes the reception job 31
1, a trash can 313 and an address book 314 are managed as data.

The reception job managed by the user information is a mail reception job, a facsimile reception whose recipient is specified by the subaddress, and the like. These reception jobs 312 are processed as user-specific reception jobs.

The trash can is a place where job data is temporarily stored when a user deletes a job from the client. Job data is deleted from the database only when a delete operation is performed on the job data in the trash.

An address 315 that cannot be seen by other users is registered in the user-specific address book 314.

316 is another user data. In the present embodiment, there is no restriction on the number of users other than the restriction on the HD in which the database is stored.

Reference numeral 317 denotes device data, which is prepared for each device to be used. The device data is created when the device accesses the new transmission / reception management server for the first time, and has a processing job 318 as data.

The job data 319 currently being processed by the device is managed in the processing job. In-process job data is created when a device is requested to perform a process, and is deleted when the device notifies the end of the process.

Reference numeral 320 denotes other device data. In the present embodiment, there is no limitation on the number of devices other than the limitation on the HD in which the database is stored.

All of these database management is performed by an application installed on the server.

<Operation of Destination Information in Client>
FIG. 4 shows a user interface displayed on the screen of the client 103 for selecting a destination at the time of data transmission and adding / editing. The screen in FIG. 4 shows, when the user performs an operation for data transmission from the client, the address information included in the shared data and the user of the user performing the operation on the client from the database 210 of the data transmission / reception management server 101. The address information included in the data is read and displayed. The address information is displayed in a tree format reflecting the format of the address information as shown in FIG.

An address display area 411 allows a parent address and a detailed address to be displayed and selected in this area. Initially, only the parent address is displayed.

Reference numeral 412 denotes a new destination creation button. By pressing this button, the screen shifts to a new address addition screen. This will be described with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 413 denotes an address edit button which is pressed when the user wants to re-edit an already registered address. The same screen as the address addition screen of FIG. 6 is displayed on the address editing screen.

A list print button 414 prints a list of the currently registered addresses.

Reference numeral 415 denotes a destination selection criterion selection button.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

A transmission button 416 is pressed to send an actual transmission request to the server.

A cancel button 417 is pressed to cancel the operation on this screen.

Reference numeral 418 denotes a time designation button, which is pressed when immediate transmission is not performed.

FIG. 5 shows a user interface displayed when the new destination creation button 412 in FIG. 4 is pressed. From this screen, a new destination address can be added.

Reference numeral 501 denotes a destination name input box. The name input here is the name of the parent address in the present invention.

Reference numeral 502 denotes a mail address input box in which an address used for mail transmission is input.

Reference numerals 503, 504, 505, and 506 denote slider buttons used for inputting attributes in mail transmission, which can be moved right and left by operating a mouse. The left side is Low, and the right side is High. In the case of the Speed setting 503, Low indicates that the speed is low, and High indicates that the speed is high. Similarly, in the Cost setting 504, Low indicates that there is no cost, and High indicates that there is cost. Similarly, in Security, "Low" indicates that information is easily exposed, and "High" indicates that information is not easily leaked. Similarly, in Quality, Low indicates that the image data is easily degraded, and High indicates that the image data is not easily degraded.

Items 502 to 506 are grouped together, and an address corresponding to one medium, e.g., e-mail in FIG. 5, is data of a detailed address.

Reference numeral 507 denotes an FTP address input box.
An address used for FTP transmission is input.

Reference numeral 508 denotes a fax address input box.
The address used for fax transmission is input.

Note that attributes can be input to the FAX address and the FTP address as well as the mail address.

<Destination Creation or Editing Operation> FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure by the client terminal when creating or changing a destination in the client.

When the address selection is specified and the screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, first, the user specifies an operation, that is, either edits an existing address or adds a new address.
In the case of editing, a destination to be operated is selected and input (step S1201). If the destination to be edited is an existing destination already stored in the database (step S1202-YES), information on the destination is read from the database and displayed as shown in FIG. on the other hand,
If adding a new address (step S1202-N
O) A box for inputting address information is displayed in a format as shown in FIG. 5 (step S1204).

Then, the user performs a necessary input or editing operation on the display of FIG. 5 (step S12).
05). Finally, the entered or edited destination information is
Save it in the database and end the process.

<Destination Information on Database> FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of address information on the database.

Reference numeral 600 enclosed in a bold frame indicates parent address information.

Reference numeral 601 denotes a data record ID. In this embodiment, every information record has a system-specific ID, and each data record is linked by that ID.

Reference numeral 602 denotes a parent record ID, which represents link information of the data record itself, and is information that all data records other than ROOT have. The parent record ID of the parent address is the ID of the address book 314 of the user.
D.

Reference numeral 603 denotes a destination name, and the information input at 502 is stored here.

Reference numerals 604, 605, and 606 denote IDs of child records of this record, that is, link information to detailed address information. In this example, three detailed records are provided, but the number of detailed addresses can be one to three.

The mail address information 610 enclosed by a thick frame is one of the detailed address information.

Reference numeral 611 denotes a data record ID. In this embodiment, the record ID of the current address is set to 0800000 and the record ID of the detailed address is set to 0900000.

Reference numeral 612 denotes a parent record ID.

Reference numeral 613 denotes an address type, and in this embodiment, there are three types: MAIL, FTP, and FAX.

Reference numeral 614 stores address information in accordance with the rules of the address type. In this example, it is the mail address input to 502.

At 615, 616, 617, and 618, the attribute of the detailed address is stored. Attribute information is 1 to 50
It is defined that 1 is Low and 50 is High.

Reference numeral 620 enclosed by a bold frame is FTP address information which is one of the detailed address information.

FAX address information 630 surrounded by a thick frame is one of the detailed address information.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a user interface when a destination is actually designated in the destination selection dialog.

When the "+" button in the parent address list shown in FIG. 4 is clicked on with a mouse, the detailed address of the parent address is displayed as shown in FIG. 7 (A).

Here, 711 represents a facsimile address,
712 represents an FTP address, and 713 represents a mail address.

As described in the description of FIG. 6, in this embodiment, it is not necessary to register all information, so that the user 71
There is also a case where only two detailed addresses are provided as in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7B, the transmission destination is specified by checking a check box next to the icon.

As shown by the check box 721, when the check box next to the icon representing the user is checked, it indicates the selection of the parent address. When the parent address is selected, the optimum address is automatically selected according to the criterion selected in the destination selection criterion 723.

When a detailed address is selected as indicated by a check box 722, the address is transmitted to the specified detailed address without performing automatic destination selection.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of transmission job information on the database.

Reference numeral 600 enclosed in a bold frame indicates transmission job information.

Reference numeral 801 denotes a data record ID.

Reference numeral 802 denotes a parent record ID. The parent record of the transmission job is the ID of the transmission job 303 in FIG.

Reference numeral 803 denotes a pointer to a document, that is, a file name. In this embodiment, the transmission document is managed in the form of a file, and only the file name is registered in the database.

Reference numeral 804 denotes a transmission type. In the present embodiment, only two types, time-specified transmission and normal transmission, are prepared.

Reference numeral 805 denotes a transmission time. The transmission time is valid only when a timer is designated as the transmission type 804.

Reference numeral 806 denotes a destination selection criterion. Destination selection criteria include SPEED, SECURITY, QUAL
Four items of ITY and COST are prepared. For the destination selection criterion 806, automatic destination selection is performed based on the value of the item selected in the destination selection criterion column 723 in FIG.

Reference numerals 807 and 808 denote destination record IDs. Although only two destinations are shown in the figure, any number can be specified. The destination can be specified for both the parent address and the detailed address. Reference numeral 807 denotes parent address information 810, and reference numeral 808 denotes detailed address information 820. Automatic destination selection is valid only when a parent address is specified.

<Data Transmission Procedure> FIG. 10 shows a procedure for issuing a transmission job by the client.

First, the user specifies transmission data (step S1001), and then specifies a transmission destination (step S1002). Finally, a transmission job is created by combining the designated data and the destination, and is transmitted to the data transmission / reception creation server 101 (step S1003).

The data transmission / reception management server 101 that has received the transmission job stores the received transmission job in the database and executes the processing in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a processing flow chart of automatic destination selection by the data transmission / reception management server 101.

In step S901, the scheduler periodically checks whether there is a transmission job. This is the job information 30 linked to the transmission job 303 in FIG.
4 is searched. If there is no job, the process of step S901 is repeated until a job is found.

If a transmission job is found, the job data is acquired (step S902).

It is checked whether or not the destination of the job acquired in step S903 indicates a detailed address. If not, a detailed address accompanying the parent address is acquired in step S904.

In step S905, among the attributes of each detailed address, the attribute selected in the destination selection criterion column is compared, and the detailed address indicating the maximum value is selected. For example, in the case of FIG. 6, when the parent address is selected as the transmission destination, the detailed address 610, 620, 6
Select one from 30. At this time, if SPEED is selected as the destination selection criterion, the value in the Speed column, which is the index value of each detailed address, is compared. In FIG.
For type MAIL, the value of SPEED is 5, type FT
Since the value of SPEED is 30 for P and the value of SPEED is 50 for type FAX, the medium corresponding to the maximum value is selected, and the address corresponding to the selected medium, that is, the FAX number is used as the detailed address. Will be selected.

Since the detailed address of the destination has been determined at the time of step S906, job data for each destination is created in step S906. For a transmission job for which a plurality of addresses are specified as transmission destinations, the transmission job data is copied only for the detailed address, and job data for each destination is prepared.

In step S907, a job is requested to the device corresponding to each address, and the transmission job is linked to the processing job of the device (step S908), thereby terminating the process.

According to the above procedure, the user can select the optimum medium and address by a simple operation and transmit the data without having to check the medium used for data transmission and the detailed address of the transmission destination. In addition, since the user can select any one of transmission speed, transmission cost, security, and transmission quality as a criterion for determining the detailed address, data can be transmitted by selecting a medium that satisfies the conditions required by the user. Moreover, since this selection is made by comparing parameter values set in advance, no burden is imposed on the user.

[0107]

[Other Embodiments] Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copying machine) Machine, facsimile machine, etc.).

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or a recording medium) in which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (a computer) of the system or the apparatus. Alternatively, this can be achieved by a CPU or an MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. By executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. This also includes a case where some or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into the memory provided in the function expansion card inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is read based on the instruction of the program code. This also includes the case where the CPU provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the above-described flowcharts (shown in FIG. 9, FIG. 10, or FIG. 12). .

[0111]

As described above, according to the present invention,
With a simple operation, it is possible to select the most suitable transmission medium according to the purpose of the user and transmit the document data to the address corresponding to the selected medium.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a document transmission / reception system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a data transmission / reception management server.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a database.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a user interface for destination selection and addition / editing.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a user interface when a new address is added.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of address information on a database.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a user interface when a destination is specified.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of transmission job information on a database.

FIG. 9 is a processing flowchart of automatic destination selection by the server.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a data transmission designation process by a client.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a computer.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a destination data variation procedure performed by a client.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201 LAN control unit 202 Session management unit 203 Request queue management unit 204 Job management unit 205 Client management unit 206 Transmission / reception device management unit 207 Document management unit 208 Memory management unit 209 Image file storage unit 210 Database 211 Scheduler 212 Destination selection unit 213 Transmission processing Department

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Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A transmission destination specification method in a data transmission device capable of transmitting data stored in a storage device to a desired destination via one of at least two types of communication media, wherein a transmission destination is specified. A designation step, a designated destination, and, if connected via a plurality of communication media, a selection step of selecting an optimal communication medium based on characteristic information of the communication media; and Setting the destination information suitable for the communication medium as a data transmission destination. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a designation step of designating a destination selection criterion, wherein the selection step acquires a value of an item designated as a selection criterion by the designation step from the characteristic information for each of the plurality of communication media. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising selecting a communication medium having the best value as an optimum communication medium. 3. The data transmission destination designation method according to claim 1, wherein the item of the characteristic information includes at least one of transmission speed, transmission cost, transmitter density, and transmission quality. 4. The data transmission destination designation method according to claim 1, wherein the communication medium includes at least two of facsimile, electronic mail, and file transfer. 5. The data transmission destination designation method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of transmitting data to the destination set in the setting step. 6. A data transmission management device capable of transmitting data stored in a storage device to a desired destination via at least one of two types of communication media. Detailed destination storage means for storing the type, characteristic information of the communication medium, and destination information suitable for the communication medium as the detailed destination; and a parent which is an aggregate for each destination of the detailed destination as information for specifying the destination. A parent destination storage unit for holding a destination; a designation unit for designating the parent destination as a transmission destination; and when the designated parent destination stored in the parent destination storage unit includes a plurality of detailed destinations, the detail Selecting means for selecting an optimum communication medium based on the characteristic information of each communication medium stored in the destination storage means; and destination information corresponding to the communication medium selected by the selecting means as a data transmission destination. Data transmission management apparatus characterized by comprising means for setting. 7. A communication apparatus further comprising a designation unit for designating a destination selection criterion, wherein the selection unit acquires a value of an item designated as a selection criterion in the designation step from the characteristic information for each of the plurality of communication media. 7. The data transmission management device according to claim 6, wherein the data transmission management device compares the data with each other and selects a communication medium having the best value as an optimum communication medium. 8. The data transmission management device according to claim 6, wherein the items of the characteristic information include at least one of transmission speed, transmission cost, transmitter density, and transmission quality. 9. The data transmission management device according to claim 6, wherein the communication medium includes at least two of facsimile, electronic mail, and file transfer. 10. The data transmission management device according to claim 6, further comprising a unit that transmits data to a destination set by the setting unit. 11. A computer-readable recording medium storing destination information, wherein a type of a communication medium connected for each destination, characteristic information of the communication medium, and destination information according to the communication medium are detailed destinations. And a computer-readable recording medium in which a parent destination, which is an aggregate of the detailed destinations for each destination, is recorded as information for specifying the destination, wherein a plurality of the parent destinations designated as transmission destinations are recorded. If the detailed destination is included, the value of the designated item is obtained for each of the plurality of detailed destinations from the recorded characteristic information corresponding to the detailed destination and compared with each other, and the communication having the best value is obtained. A computer-readable recording medium for recording the parent destination and the detailed destination so that a medium can be selected as an optimum communication medium. 12. A computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program for transmitting data stored in a storage device to a desired destination via one of at least two types of communication media, wherein the program If the connection is made through a plurality of communication media and a specified destination code that specifies a transmission destination, a selection is made to select an optimal communication medium based on characteristic information of the communication media. A computer-readable storage medium comprising: a code of a step; and a code of a step of setting destination information corresponding to a communication medium selected in the selecting step as a data transmission destination. 13. The program further includes a code of a designation step for designating a destination selection criterion, wherein the selection step comprises:
The value of the item specified as the selection criterion in the specifying step is obtained from the characteristic information for each of the plurality of communication media and compared with each other, and the communication media having the best value is selected as the optimum communication media. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12, wherein the storage medium is a computer-readable storage medium.