Patent Application
20080015918
Aspects, features, benefits and advantages of the present invention will be apparent with regard to the following description and accompanying drawings, of which:
In an embodiment, the electronic document may be accessed 110 via a computer software application. The computer software application may perform one or more operations on or with at least a portion of the computer document. For example, computer software applications include, for example and without limitation, Microsoft Word®, Adobe Acrobat®; and numerous other programs.
The computer software application may display 115 a representation of one or more workflows when requested by a user. For example, a user may enter a key sequence, select a menu item or the like when the user desires to process a document using a workflow. When the user performs such an operation, a list of available workflows may be displayed 115 to the user. In an embodiment, a list of available printers and workflows may be displayed to a user concurrently. The list of available workflows may include textual or graphical representations for each workflow to enable a user to distinguish between the displayed representations. In an embodiment, a workflow may be represented by a description of the operations performed by the workflow. In an alternate embodiment, a workflow may be represented by a schematic of the operations performed by the workflow. In another alternate embodiment, a workflow may be represented by a user-assigned description for the workflow. Additional and/or alternate methods of displaying and/or initiating the display of workflows will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art based upon the present disclosure.
In an embodiment, a workflow may be added to the list of available workflows in a manner similar to that by which a print driver is added to a list of print drivers. For example, an operating system script may be performed to associate an identifier with a particular workflow and provide a path resolution for the workflow to accessing applications. Other methods of generating and/or adding to a list of available workflows will be apparent to those of skill in the art based upon the present disclosure.
A workflow for the electronic document may then be selected 120. The workflow may be selected 120 via, for example a drop-down menu, a key sequence, a button press or any other method of selecting an item on a computer known to those of ordinary skill in the art. In an embodiment, selecting 120 the workflow may be performed within the computer software application.
The workflow may perform 125 one or more operations on the electronic document. For example, the workflow may perform 125 operations for determining whether the electronic document conforms to one or more rules, contains one or more errors, has a proper format, has a proper color scheme, and/or the like. The workflow may filter and route the electronic document to one or more of a plurality of workflow agents based on one or more characteristics of the electronic document. The workflow may additionally and/or alternately format and order output images for an electronic document. The ordering and formatting operations may be performed as part of a printing process within the workflow.
In an embodiment, the workflow may include selection of a particular workflow agent based on, for example, a file type of the electronic document. A work flow agent may be a software process used to perform one or more functions of the workflow. Different workflow agents may reside in different files and/or on different machines. Other methods of assigning a workflow agent based upon a file characteristic will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art based upon the present disclosure.
If a document does not conform to particular rules, contains errors or cannot be processed by the workflow, a notification may be provided 130 via, for example, an e-mail, a pop up window, a visual and/or audible signal, and/or the like. Alternately and/or additionally, a notification may be provided 130 to provide status information, such as noting that a particular operation has been or is being performed as part of the workflow.
In an embodiment, an icon depicting an operation being performed on the electronic document may be displayed in a graphical user interface. For example, an icon depicting a processing step, a formatting step and/or a printing step of the workflow may be displayed.
In an embodiment, a Microsoft Word® document may be accessed using Microsoft Word® (or any other compatible word processing application). A user may select a workflow from within the Microsoft Word® application in a manner similar to selecting a print function for the document. The workflow may perform one or more operations on the Microsoft Word® document. In an embodiment, one or more of the operations may be user-specified.
In an embodiment, a workflow may be selected directly from a file browser application within an operating system. For example, in a Microsoft Windows Explorer® file browser, a user may right-click on an electronic document, select a print/workflow option and select a workflow to which the electronic document is submitted. In an embodiment, a list of available printers and workflows may be displayed to a user. If a workflow is selected, the workflow may then be performed on the electronic document as described above. Additional and/or alternate methods of directing an electronic document to a workflow from an operating system file browser will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art based upon the present disclosure.
In an embodiment, computer software application may be embodied in an electronic document access module and each of one or more workflows may be embodied in corresponding workflow implementation modules. A user may access an electronic document in its native format using the electronic document access module. In an embodiment, the electronic document access module may be used to view, modify, save, etc. the document in its native format. The electronic document access module may further display a representation of the one or more workflow implementation modules to the user. In an embodiment, the display of the representations of the one or more workflow implementation modules may be performed in response to a request from the user. The user may select a workflow implementation module from the representations presented by the electronic document access module, and may transmit the electronic document in its native format to the selected workflow implementation module. The selected workflow implementation module may then perform its workflow on the electronic document. In an embodiment, the selected workflow implementation module may provide one or more notifications to the user regarding an operation substantially as an operation is being performed or upon completion of the operation. In an embodiment, the selected workflow implementation module may provide a notification to the user regarding an error that occurs during the performance of the workflow on the electronic document. In an embodiment, the selected workflow implementation module may select a workflow agent based on the native format of the electronic document.
A disk controller 204 interfaces with one or more optional disk drives to the system bus 228. These disk drives may be external or internal CD ROM drives 206, hard drives 208 or DVD drives 210. As indicated previously these various disk drives and disk controllers are optional devices.
Program instructions may be stored in the ROM 218 and/or the RAM 220. Optionally, program instructions may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a USB key or a digital disk or other recording medium, a communications signal or a carrier wave.
An optional display interface 222 may permit information from the bus 228 to be displayed on the display 224 in audio, graphic or alphanumeric format. Communication with external devices may optionally occur using various communication ports 226. An exemplary communication port 226 may be attached to a communications network, such as the Internet or an intranet.
In addition to computer-type components and their equivalents, the hardware may also include an interface 212 which allows for receipt of data from input devices such as a keyboard 214 or other input device 216 such as a remote control, pointer and/or joystick.
A multiprocessor system may optionally be used to perform one, some or all of the operations described herein. Likewise, an embedded system may optionally be used to perform one, some or all of the operations described herein.
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. It will also be appreciated that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the disclosed embodiments.
