JP2018018260A - Information processing device, image formation device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control execution of operations in which object data to be an object of operations specified by a user is used as a unit of the exclusive access control.SOLUTION: An image formation device comprises: an operation control unit 14 which controls execution of an operation using a destination (address) to be an operation target as a unit of the exclusive access control; and a conflict avoidance information storage unit 17 which stores conflict avoidance information in which a countermeasure against conflict of operation targets is set in advance. The operation control unit 14 simultaneously and parallelly performs two operations, to which different addresses registered in an address book are specified as destinations, regarding that the two operations are not conflicted. The operation control unit 14 accepts, when addresses specified as destinations of obtained two operations are the same and therefore the two operation are conflicted, respective operations without any delay and determines execution order of respective operations on the basis of the setting detail of the conflict avoidance information to execute them.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, and a program.

  In recent years, it has become possible for multifunction devices to use not only a user interface such as a control panel of the multifunction device itself but also a terminal carried by the user as a user interface of the multifunction device. In this case, since the same resource such as a file may be designated as an operation target in parallel by a plurality of users, the resources are locked and exclusive control is performed so that the operations do not contradict each other. That is, the user interface used for the other operation is in a waiting state until one operation is completed.

  Therefore, conventionally, a technique has been proposed in which the user interface of the user at the back can be immediately released by accepting a job setting reservation (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2006-237857 A JP 2009-027482 A JP 2014-007509 A

  By the way, for example, operations (reference, deletion, etc.) for the user A registered in the address book and operations for the user B are different because the object data (user A and user B) to be operated are different. It is considered that each operation may be executed in parallel even if not.

  Also, for example, if one of the operations specified in parallel at the same time is deletion of the address of the user A registered in the address book and the other operation is a mail transmission addressed to the user A, the address of the user A If the deletion is executed first, the mail transmission to the user A cannot be terminated normally. On the other hand, if the execution order of the operations is reversed, each operation can be processed normally.

  As described above, depending on the combination of the object data (users A and B in the above example) to be operated or the contents of the operation (reference, deletion, etc.) on the object data, the operation is executed using the object data as a unit of exclusive control. If controlled, there is a case where it is not necessary to wait for the designated operation or the operation can be executed normally.

  An object of the present invention is to control the execution of an operation using object data specified by a user as an operation target as a unit of exclusive control.

  The information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an operation control unit that controls the execution of an operation using object data as an operation target specified by a user as a unit of exclusive control.

  In addition, an acquisition unit that acquires an operation specified by a user, and an analysis unit that analyzes contents of the operation acquired by the acquisition unit, the operation control unit is an analysis target of the analysis unit. Even if object data to be operated is conflicted by a plurality of operations, each operation is accepted without waiting, and execution control of each operation is performed according to the contents of the conflicting operations. To do.

  Further, the operation control means determines the execution order of each operation according to the content of each operation when the content of a plurality of competing operations is different.

  Further, the operation control means controls to execute the operation only once when the contents of a plurality of competing operations are the same.

  The operation control means is characterized in that, when a plurality of competing operations are both change operations and the contents of the change are different, the operation control means notifies the user who specified each operation to that effect.

  In addition, there is information acquisition means for acquiring conflict avoidance information in which a coping method when object data conflicts for each combination of content of conflicting operations, and the operation control means sets the conflict avoidance information Execution control of each operation is performed based on the contents.

  An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a user interface unit, a user interface operation acquisition unit that acquires an operation specified by a user from the user interface unit, and a remote terminal operation that acquires an operation specified by the user from a remote terminal Acquisition means, and operation control means for controlling the execution of the operation using object data specified by the user as an object of the exclusive control, and the operation control means includes the user interface operation acquisition means. Even if there is a conflict because the object data to be operated is the same for the acquired operation and the operation acquired by the remote terminal operation acquisition means, any operation is accepted without waiting, and Specially controls the execution of each operation according to the content. To.

  The program according to the present invention causes a computer to function as an operation control unit that controls the execution of an operation using object data that is an operation target specified by a user as a unit of exclusive control.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to control the execution of an operation using the object data specified by the user as an operation target as a unit of exclusive control.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, execution control of each operation can be performed according to the combination of the contents of the plurality of operations even when object data to be operated is competed by a plurality of operations.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the contents of a plurality of competing operations are different, the execution order of each operation can be determined according to the contents of each operation.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, when the contents of a plurality of competing operations are the same, it is possible to avoid duplicate execution of the operations.

  According to the invention described in claim 5, it is possible to notify the user that there is a conflict with the contents of different operations.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, execution control of each operation can be performed based on preset content of conflict avoidance information.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when operations conflict, the execution order of the operations can be determined according to the contents of the operations.

  According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to control the execution of the operation using the object data that is the target of the operation specified by the user as a unit of exclusive control.

1 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment. FIG. It is the figure which showed an example of the data structure of the conflict avoidance information preset in the conflict avoidance information storage part in this Embodiment. It is the figure which showed an example of the data structure of the operation information registered into the operation information storage part in this Embodiment. It is the flowchart which showed the operation execution process in this Embodiment.

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

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus 10 is a multifunction machine equipped with various functions such as a copy function and a scanner function, and is an apparatus equipped with a computer (information processing apparatus). In FIG. 2, the CPU 21 controls the operation of various mechanisms mounted on the apparatus such as the scanner 24 and the printer engine 26 according to a program stored in the ROM 29. The address data bus 22 is connected to various mechanisms to be controlled by the CPU 21 to perform data communication. The operation panel 23 receives instructions from the user and displays information. The scanner 24 reads a document set by a user and accumulates it in an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 25 or the like as electronic data. The HDD 25 stores an electronic document read by using the scanner 24, an address book, and the like. The printer engine 26 prints an image on output paper in accordance with an instruction from a control program executed by the CPU 21. A network interface (I / F) 27 connects a network and performs data communication with an external device. The network interface 27 in the present embodiment connects a terminal (hereinafter referred to as “remote terminal”) 1 such as a smartphone or a PC carried by the user so as to be used as an interface unit of the image forming apparatus 10 by wire or wireless. The RAM 28 is used as a work memory during program execution and a communication buffer during electronic data transmission / reception. The ROM 29 stores various programs relating to control of the apparatus, encryption of electronic data, and transmission / reception of electronic data. By executing various programs, each component described later exhibits a predetermined processing function. The external media interface (I / F) 30 is an interface with an external memory device such as a USB memory or a flash memory.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 10 according to the present exemplary embodiment includes a local user interface (UI) control unit 11, a remote user interface (UI) control unit 12, an operation content analysis unit 13, an operation control unit 14, and job execution control. Unit 15, operation information storage unit 16, and conflict avoidance information storage unit 17. The local user interface control unit 11 acquires an operation instructed by the user from the operation panel 23 of the image forming apparatus 10. The remote user interface control unit 12 acquires an operation instructed by the user from the remote terminal 1. The operation content analysis unit 13 analyzes the operation content acquired by each user interface control unit 11, 12 to generate operation information and registers it in the operation information storage unit 16. The operation control unit 14 controls the execution of the operation using the object data that is the target of the operation instructed by the user as a unit of exclusive control. The job execution control unit 15 performs control for executing the designated operation as a job. The operation information storage unit 16 will be described together with the description of the operation.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the conflict avoidance information preset in the conflict avoidance information storage unit 17 in the present embodiment. The conflict avoidance information shown in FIG. 3 shows a setting example when the operation target is the destination (transmission destination) of data such as a scanned document. Addresses such as e-mail addresses are registered in the address book, but FIG. 3 shows the change of the address itself (Edit), reading of a copy from the address book (Duplicate) when specified as the destination of the scanned document, the address Deletion from the address book (Delete) is shown as an example of the type of operation. There are other registered addresses, which are omitted from FIG.

  By the way, in the present embodiment, “operation contents” refers to operation instruction contents such as “change user A's address from address X to address Y” and “delete user B's address”. It is. However, since “change”, “deletion”, and the like indicating the type of operation are always included in the content of the operation, in this embodiment, the type of operation may be described as the content of the operation. Also, the operation specified by the user is ScanToSend instead of Duplicate. However, when the operation (ScanToSend) is specified by the user, the operation (Duplicate) is uniquely determined by the content analysis of the operation. It is called. However, in some cases, an operation designated by a user such as ScanToSend may be described as a “user operation”.

  FIG. 3 shows conflict avoidance information that assumes a case where a conflict occurs between two operators. When the operation on the object data of a certain destination, for example, user A is Edit, Duplicate, or Delete, other conflicting operations are performed. Similarly, a coping method in the case of Edit, Duplicate, or Delete for the user A is shown in the table.

  By the way, in this embodiment, an “object” refers to a group or thing of data to be operated by a user, for example, a file storing one or a plurality of data. The “object data” refers to individual data collected as an object. When the object is an address book, the address of each user corresponds to the object data.

  In FIG. 3, since the correspondence between the two operators is shown in a two-dimensional table, the countermeasure corresponding to the column where the row direction and the column direction intersect is shown, but the operation is a combination of Edit and Duplicate. Since the coping method and the coping method for the combination of Duplicate and Edit may be the same, one description is omitted by “-”. In FIG. 3, for convenience, the conflict avoidance information is shown in a two-dimensional table showing a case of a conflict between two operators. However, the conflict avoidance information is assumed assuming a conflict between three or more operators. It may be set.

  Each component 11 to 15 in the image forming apparatus 10 is realized by a cooperative operation of a computer mounted on the image forming apparatus 10 and a program operating on the CPU 21 mounted on the computer. The storage units 16 and 17 are realized by the HDD 25 mounted in the image forming apparatus 10. Alternatively, the RAM 28 or an external storage means may be used via a network.

  Further, the program used in this embodiment can be provided not only by communication means but also by storing it in a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or USB memory. The program provided from the communication means or the recording medium is installed in the computer, and various processes are realized by the CPU of the computer sequentially executing the program.

  When the image forming apparatus specifies an operation on the same object (for example, address book) from a plurality of user interfaces, conventionally, exclusive control is performed so that inconsistency does not occur by making one operation wait until the other operation is completed. Was. That is, the operation executed first locks the object (address book), executes a predetermined process, and releases the object by unlocking it when the process is completed. Only after the object is released can the operation of the back hand be started. Thus, even if one operation is an operation for user A and the other operation is an operation for user B, since the object (address book) is conventionally used as a unit of exclusive control, one operation is in a waiting state. It was.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the object data included in the object, not the object, and according to the above example, each address of the users A and B registered in the address book is used as a unit of exclusive control. Yes. As a result, when one operation is an operation for the user A and the other operation is an operation for the user B, each operation can be executed without waiting because the exclusive control target of each operation is different. In addition, even if the two operations are both operations for the same user A, in the present embodiment, both operations are accepted without being in a standby state, and execution control of each operation is performed according to the combination of the contents of the operations after reception. I did it. Hereinafter, the operation in the present embodiment will be described.

  When a certain user performs some operation on the operation panel 23, the local user interface control unit 11 acquires the operation. The operation content analysis unit 13 analyzes the content of the acquired operation, generates operation information, and registers it in the operation information storage unit 16. When a certain user performs an operation on the image forming apparatus 10 from the remote terminal 1, the remote user interface control unit 12 acquires the operation. The operation content analysis unit 13 analyzes the operation content acquired in the same manner as described above, generates operation information, and registers the operation information in the operation information storage unit 16. As described above, operation information generated based on operations designated from the operation panel 23 and the remote terminal 1 is registered in the operation information storage unit 16.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of operation information registered in the operation information storage unit 16 in the present embodiment. The operation information is generated by associating operations, UI, target object data, parameters, and the like with the operation numbers assigned thereto. In the operation, the type of operation designated by the user is set. A user interface used for user operation is set in the UI. “Local” to be set corresponds to the operation panel 23, and “remote” corresponds to the remote terminal 1. In the target object data, an item indicating the object data targeted by the user operation is set. Information such as parameters necessary for execution of user operations is set in the parameters and the like.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which a ScanToSend operation in which “userA” is designated as the destination from the operation panel 23 and an example in which an operation for editing the address of “userA” is designated from the remote terminal 1 are shown. Yes.

  In addition, basic information such as operator identification information and operation date / time may be added to the operation information, but in this embodiment, it is omitted because it is not used for the description. In this embodiment, it is assumed that each operation is executed as a job, and information necessary for executing the job is omitted. In addition, when an operation is acquired by each user interface control unit 11, 12, the job execution control unit 15 may generate a job based on the operation, but the job generation itself is a feature of the present embodiment. Since it is not, it abbreviate | omits from a figure and description.

  Next, in the present embodiment, processing when a designated operation is executed will be described using the flowchart shown in FIG. An application that executes this processing is resident in the RAM 28, and the processing described below is always executed repeatedly.

  The operation control unit 14 extracts operation information from the operation information storage unit 16 (step 101). Basically, they should be taken out one by one in the order of registration. Then, with reference to the target object data of the operation information, the presence of the operation information with the same target object data is checked. Here, when the operation information does not exist (N in Step 102), the operation control unit 14 displays a message indicating that the operation is accepted and the execution is started in the same manner as before, the user interface means (the operation panel 23 or the operation panel 23). It is displayed on the remote terminal 1) (step 108). When the operation control unit 14 instructs execution of the operation, the job execution control unit 15 starts executing the job of the operation in accordance with the instruction (step 107).

  On the other hand, when the same operation information exists in the target object data (Y in step 102), the operation control unit 14 recognizes that there is a competitor and performs the following process. Here, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that there is only one operation of the competitor.

  The operation control unit 14 extracts operation information in which the same target object data is set from the operation information storage unit 16 (step 103), and analyzes the relationship between the operation information and the operation information extracted in step 101. For example, when the operation is a ScanToSend operation, a copy of the address of the user designated as the destination may be taken from the address book, and therefore the type of operation is specified as “Duplicate”. If the operation is a destination editing operation, the address registered in the address book is changed, so that the type of operation is specified as “Edit”. When the type of each operation is specified, the operation control unit 14 refers to the conflict avoidance information to determine a countermeasure method for each operation (step 104), and displays a screen according to the determined countermeasure method on each user interface. At the same time, a response to the display content is received (step 105). For example, in the case of the combination of “Duplicate” and “Edit” exemplified above, the operation control unit 14 performs processing according to the coping method set in the column 31 in the conflict avoidance information shown in FIG.

  Here, when the operation specified from the operation panel 23 is a ScanToSend operation (the operation type is “Duplicate”) in which the address of the user C is specified as the destination, the operator who has performed the destination editing operation from the other remote terminal 1 The user C's address may be changed depending on the personal reason of the user C, or may be corrected because there is an error in the registered user C's address. Therefore, the operation control unit 14 causes the remote user interface control unit 12 to display a screen for inputting an editing purpose in accordance with the setting content of the conflict avoidance information.

  When an editing purpose is input from the input screen displayed by the operator of the remote terminal 1, the operation control unit 14 acquires the editing purpose. Then, the operation control unit 14 causes the local user interface control unit 11 to display the acquired editing purpose and the editing content already recognized on the operation panel 23. The display screen may be an inquiry screen for inquiring whether the ScanToSend operation is executed before the address change, executed after the address change, or cancelled. The operator looks at the display content of the inquiry screen and selects one.

  When receiving the selection result, the operation control unit 14 determines the order of the address editing operation according to the selection result (step 106). In the case of two operators, which operation is to be executed first is determined. Alternatively, it is determined to stop the ScanToSend operation according to the operator's selection. In FIG. 3, although the determination of the execution order of the operations is not described in detail, the execution order of the operations is determined according to the result of the response to the inquiry as described above. The job execution control unit 15 causes the designated operation to be executed by the job according to the determination by the operation control unit 14 (step 107).

  In the present embodiment, the operation is as described above. However, although there is an exchange with the operator in step 105, no operator is made to wait. In other words, the destination editing operator causes the remote user interface control unit 12 to display a message indicating that the operation has been accepted after completion of the editing purpose input. On the other hand, the operator of ScanToSend displays a message indicating that the operation has been accepted on the local user interface control unit 11 after responding to the inquiry. Strictly speaking, the execution of one of the operations may be waited inside the image forming apparatus 10, but the operator is not notified of the waiting state.

  In the present embodiment, when a conflict occurs in the operation, the operation is accepted for the first time in step 105 as described above. Therefore, this operation is regarded as “acceptance”, and each user interface control unit 11, 12 Receiving an operation is expressed as “acquisition” rather than “reception”.

  In the case of an operation with different object data to be operated, in the present embodiment, unlike the conventional case, there is no conflict relationship (N in step 102), so that each operation can be executed in parallel.

  The above description is for the combination of “Duplicate” and “Edit”, but other combinations of operations may basically be processed according to the content of the contention avoidance information. In the case of a combination of “Duplicate” and “Delete”, both operations can be normally executed by executing the “Duplicate” operation first and then deleting the address. However, if the purpose of deleting the address is to uninstall the mail software, transmission is impossible. Therefore, as shown in the conflict avoidance information, the deletion purpose is first inquired to the operator of “Delete”, and the response content is displayed. Accordingly, the execution order may be appropriately determined. In this way, when the contents of a plurality of competing operations are different, the execution order of the operations may be determined according to the contents of each operation according to the setting contents of the conflict avoidance information.

  “No Action” shown in FIG. 3 means that one operation need not be performed. For example, in the case of a combination of “Delete”, if the address is deleted by one operation, the other deletion operation need not be executed. In the case of a combination of “Duplicate”, if the mail is transmitted by one operation, it is not necessary to transmit the same scanned document twice, so the other transmission operation does not have to be executed. In this way, when the contents of a plurality of competing operations are the same, it is only necessary to perform control so that the matching operation is executed only once. In the case of different documents, it is necessary to transmit them, but since the image forming apparatus 10 is normally equipped with only one scanner 24, it can be expected that the same document. The same applies to the combination of “Edit”. However, there is no problem as long as the change contents are the same, but if the change contents of each operation are different, the change made first is overwritten. Therefore, it is necessary to make adjustments by notifying both operators and making inquiries as set in the conflict avoidance information.

  According to the present embodiment, as described above, by using object data as a unit of exclusive control, the opportunity for occurrence of contention is reduced, and thereby it is possible to reduce the chance of waiting and waiting time. . Further, since the execution order of the competing operations is controlled even when a conflict occurs, the chance that the operation ends abnormally is reduced. As is clear from the setting example of the conflict avoidance information, the operation control according to the present embodiment can set an appropriate execution order according to the combination of the content of conflicting operations rather than setting the priority order of the content of operations. I have to.

  In this embodiment, the operation specified from each user interface control unit 11 or 12 has been described as an example. However, the present invention can also be applied to an operation specified in a batch, for example.

  In this embodiment, the image forming apparatus 10 is described as an example of an apparatus that executes processing according to an operation. However, instead of the image forming apparatus 10, various apparatuses equipped with an information processing apparatus (computer) or a computer. It is also applicable to.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Remote terminal, 10 Image forming apparatus, 11 Local user interface (UI) control part, 12 Remote user interface (UI) control part, 13 Operation content analysis part, 14 Operation control part, 15 Job execution control part, 16 Operation information storage , 17 Conflict avoidance information storage unit, 21 CPU, 22 address data bus, 23 operation panel, 24 scanner, 25 hard disk drive (HDD), 26 printer engine, 27 network interface (I / F), 28 RAM, 29 ROM, 30 External media interface (I / F).

Claims (8)

  An information processing apparatus comprising operation control means for controlling execution of an operation using object data specified by a user as an operation target, as a unit of exclusive control. An acquisition means for acquiring an operation specified by the user;
Analysis means for analyzing the content of the operation acquired by the acquisition means;
Have
The operation control means accepts without waiting for any operation even when object data to be operated competes by a plurality of operations analyzed by the analyzing means, and details of the conflicting operations The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein execution control of each operation is performed according to the operation.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when the contents of a plurality of competing operations are different, the operation control unit determines an execution order of each operation according to the contents of each operation.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the operation control unit performs control so that the operations are executed only once when the content of a plurality of competing operations is the same.   3. The operation control means according to claim 2, wherein when a plurality of competing operations are both change operations and the contents of the change are different, the operation control means notifies the user who specified each operation of the change. Information processing device. An information acquisition means for acquiring conflict avoidance information in which a coping method when object data conflicts for each combination of conflicting operation contents,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation control unit performs execution control of each operation based on a setting content of the conflict avoidance information. User interface means;
User interface operation acquisition means for acquiring an operation designated by the user from the user interface means;
Remote terminal operation acquisition means for acquiring an operation designated by the user from the remote terminal;
An operation control means for controlling the execution of an operation using object data as an operation target specified by the user as a unit of exclusive control;
Have
Even if the operation control means competes because the object data to be operated is the same for the operation acquired by the user interface operation acquisition means and the operation acquired by the remote terminal operation acquisition means. An image forming apparatus characterized in that any operation is accepted without waiting, and execution control of each operation is performed according to the contents of each operation. Computer
An operation control means for controlling the execution of an operation using object data specified by a user as an operation target, as a unit of exclusive control;
Program to function as.

Images