Cross-tier intelligent document generation and management

• US 20080104501A1
• Filed: 10/27/2006
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Demant, Hilmar, Sattler, Juergen, Gaffga, Joachim
• Application Number:
  US11/588,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104501A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

This application relates to document generation and management and, more particularly, cross-tier intelligent document generation and management. Various embodiments provide systems, methods, and software to quickly generate document templates with fields associated with data items, instantiate documents from such document templates, and submit the documents for processing and dispatch to intended recipients.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

submitting a data-populated template to be processed;

rendering a document as a function of the data-populated template;

dispatching the rendered document; and

sending a message to a correspondence management system to log the dispatching of the document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data-populated template is submitted for processing by a client to an application platform to cause the application platform to:

perform the rendering and dispatching of the document; and

the sending of the message to the correspondence management system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a client performs the rendering and dispatching of the document and the sending of the message to the correspondence management system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

rendering the document includes placing the text of the document in an SMS message; and

dispatching the rendered document includes sending the SMS message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein submitting the data-populated template includes:

transmitting a template identifier; and

transmitting the data of the data-populated template, wherein each data item is associated with a template field within which each data item is populated to.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein dispatching the rendered document includes:

generating an email message and populating an email address field of the email message with an email address included in the data to be processed;

attaching the rendered document to the generated email message; and

sending the email message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the data populated template is submitted to the correspondence management system; and

submitting the data populated template to the correspondence management system causes to the correspondence management system to render and dispatch the document.

8. A system comprising:

a data searching tool;

a document editing tool;

an application-level data source interface library providing data access services to the data search tool and the document editing tool; and

a platform-level data source interface library including platform-level data access services, wherein the application-level data source interface library data access services are mapped to the platform-level data access services.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the platform-level data source interface library is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL).

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the platform-level data source interface library includes methods to access services of one or more objects of an application platform.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the data search tool provides searching functionality to allow searching for and selection of an entity to receive a document.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the data search tool provides searching functionality to allow searching for and selection of a document template from which to generate a document.

13. A system comprising:

a platform level including;

an entity data store;

a document template data store, wherein a document template stored in the document template data store is associated with one or more entities stored in the entity data store; and

a platform-level data store interface library including platform-level data access services; and

an application level operative to generate a document as a function of a document template stored in the document template data store, wherein the application level includes an application-level data interface library including data access services mapped to platform-level data access services.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the application level includes a data search tool providing data searching and selection functionality to allow searching of data stored in the entity data store and the document template data store and selection of an entity and a document template from which to generate a document.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a document template includes an association to data accessible by the platform level.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the document template, when instantiated within the application level, causes the application-level data interface library to retrieve data as a function of the document template association to data by calling one or more of the platform-level data store interface library data access services and populate the retrieved data into the instantiated document template.

17. A system comprising:

a document editing application;

a platform application, wherein the platform application includes stored document templates and data;

a correspondence management application;

wherein the document editing application;

generates a document for editing as a function of document templates and data retrieved from the platform application, and

submits generated and edited documents to the platform application for processing; and

wherein the platform application renders and dispatches a document submitted from the document editing application and sends a message to the correspondence management application to log the document.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the platform application and the correspondence management application are components of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application suite.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the document editing application is Microsoft Word.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the document editing application includes a platform application specific module to provide data access services between the document editing application and the correspondence management system.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the document editing application includes a document template search and selection interface to allow searching and selection of document templates associated with an entity.

22. A system comprising:

a platform application including data sources and a document template data store;

a document template generation module including a series of user interfaces to guide a user through generation of a document template, wherein the series of user interfaces allow a user to;

select a document template type,

view available data sources and select fields from the data sources to include in the document template,

add standard and custom text to the document template,

organize the selected data source fields and added text within the document template, and

store the document template in the document template data store;

a document editing application capable of instantiating a document template from the document template data store, wherein a document template, when instantiated, is populated with data associated with the document template.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the data sources include one or more objects.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the document template generation module'"'"'s series of user interfaces further includes a user interface through which to receive text translation of text added to a document template.

25. A machine-readable medium, with encoded instruction, which when executed, cause a machine to:

submit a data-populated template to be processed;

render a document as a function of the data-populated template;

dispatch the rendered document; and

send a message to a correspondence management system to log the dispatching of the document.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, wherein submitting the data-populated template includes:

transmit a template identifier; and

transmit the data of the data-populated template, wherein each data item is associated with a template field within which each data item is populated to.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, wherein dispatching the rendered document includes:

generate an email message and populating an email address field of the email message with an email address included in the data to be processed;

attach the rendered document to the generated email message; and

send the email message.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, wherein:

the data populated template is submitted to the correspondence management system;

the correspondence management systems renders and dispatches the rendered document.

29. A system comprising:

a document editing application;

a platform application, wherein the platform application includes stored document templates, data, and integration services to interface with one or more other applications, wherein the document editing application inserts data retrieved from at least one or more of the other applications via the integration services of the application platform into a document.