Information processing apparatus, information processing method, information processing program, and computer-readable medium

• US 8,533,795 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2008
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Nakatomi, Masashi, Nagatsuka, Tetsuro
• Primary Examiner(s): DADA, BEEMNET W
• Application Number:
  US12/050,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,002 Days
• Field of Search: 726/7, 726/6, 707/694, 707/736, 707/783
• US Class Current: 726/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing

Abstract

An information processing apparatus is disclosed that includes a user authentication unit that identifies a current user, a task acquiring unit that acquires task information of a relevant task associated with a file to be processed by the current user, and a file information storage unit that stores file information of the file to be processed in association with the task information of the relevant task.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a user authentication unit that identifies a current user;

a task acquiring unit that acquires task information of a relevant task associated with a document file to be processed by the current user;

an operation log storage unit that stores operation log information indicating executed operations and, for each specific operation of the executed operations, a particular task associated with the specific operation; and

a file information storage unit that stores file information of the document file to be processed in association with the task information of the relevant task, wherein

the task is a resource related to work or a business activity of the user and has a task ID associated with the task, and the document file has a document ID associated with the document file, and

in the stored file information of the document file, the document ID of the document file is associated with a document title of the document file, the user ID of a particular user who stored the document file, the task ID of the relevant task, and the time/date at which the document file was stored, and wherein

the information processing apparatus further comprises;

an operation command unit for designating the document file to be processed; and

a candidate operation indicating unit that determines, when the document file to be processed has been designated, one or more candidate operations, by referring to the file information stored in the file information storage unit to determine one or more task IDs associated with the document ID of the designated document file, and referring to the operation log information stored in the operation log storage unit to determine one or more logged operations associated with the one or more task IDs.

2. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a user storage unit storing a list of user information that is referenced by the user authentication unit; and

a task storage unit storing a list of task information that is referenced by the task acquiring unit.

3. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the task acquiring unit acquires task information of a plurality of tasks associated with the current user, indicates the tasks for selection, and determines a selected one of the indicated tasks as the relevant task associated with the file to be processed.

4. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the task information includes at least one of schedule information, To Do information, project information, and user group information.

5. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a candidate operation indicating unit that refers to the file information storage unit and the operation log storage unit, acquires operation information of one or more operations associated with the relevant task based on the association between the file information, the task information, and the operation log information, and indicates the one or more operations as candidate operations to be executed on the file to be processed.

6. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein

the operation log storage unit stores time/date information in association with the task information;

and

the operation candidate indicating unit acquires current time/date information, and indicates the candidate operations in order according to a proximity of the time/date information stored in the operation log storage unit with respect to the current time/date information.

7. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein

the operation log storage unit stores user information in association with the task information;

and

the operation candidate indicating unit determines whether the user information stored in the operation log storage unit corresponds to user information of the current user and indicates the candidate operations according to an outcome of the determination.

15. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the candidate operation indicating unit indicates the candidate operations on a display unit.

16. The information processing apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

a document file processing unit that performs a selected document file processing operation selected from the candidate operations displayed on the display unit.

8. An information processing method of an information processing apparatus, the method comprising:

a user authenticating step of identifying a current user of the information processing apparatus;

a task information acquiring step of acquiring, by the information processing apparatus, task information of a relevant task associated with a document file to be processed by the current user;

an operation log storing step of storing operation log information indicating executed operations and, for each specific operation of the executed operations, a particular task associated with the specific operation; and

a file information storing step of storing file information of the document file to be processed, by the information processing apparatus, in association with the task information of the relevant task, wherein

the task is a resource related to work or a business activity of the user and has a task ID associated with the task, and the document file has a document ID associated with the document file, and

in the stored file information of the document file, the document ID of the document file is associated with a document title of the document file, the user ID of a particular user who stored the document file, the task ID of the relevant task, and the time/date at which the document file was stored, and wherein

the information processing method further comprises;

designating, by the information processing apparatus, the document file to be processed; and

determining, by the information processing apparatus, when the document file to be processed has been designated, one or more candidate operations, by referring to the file information stored in the file information storage unit to determine one or more task IDs associated with the document ID of the designated document file, and referring to the operation log information stored in the operation log storage unit to determine one or more logged operations associated with the one or more task IDs.

9. The information processing method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

a user information storing step of storing a list of user information that is referenced in the user authenticating step; and

a task information storing step of storing a list of task information that is referenced in the task acquiring step.

10. The information processing method as claimed in claim 8, wherein

the task acquiring step includes acquiring task information of a plurality of tasks associated with the current user, indicating the tasks for selection, and determining a selected one of the indicated tasks as the relevant task associated with the file to be processed.

11. The information processing method as claimed in claim 8, wherein

the task information includes at least one of schedule information, To Do information, project information, and user group information.

12. The information processing method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

a candidate operation indicating step of acquiring operation information of one or more operations associated with the relevant task based on the association between the file information, the task information, and the operation log information, and indicating the one or more operations as candidate operations to be executed on the file to be processed.

13. The information processing method as claimed in claim 12, wherein

the operation log storing step includes storing time/date information in association with the task information;

and

the operation candidate indicating step includes acquiring current time/date information, and indicating the candidate operations in order according to a proximity of the time/date information stored in the operation log storage unit with respect to the current time/date information.

14. The information processing method as claimed in claim 12, wherein

the operation log storing step includes storing user information in association with the task information;

and

the operation candidate indicating step includes determining whether the user information stored in the operation log storing step corresponds to user information of the current user and indicates the candidate operations according to an outcome of the determination.