Electronic device, information processing system, and information processing method

Abstract

To provide an electronic device, an information processing system, and an information processing method, etc. that appropriately share a change in the contents of an address book.SOLUTION: An electronic device includes a storage unit that stores a personal address book, and a processing unit, and the processing unit determines whether a second personal address book includes corresponding address information when the update input of first address information included in a first personal address book is performed by a first user, and performs notification processing of inquiring a second user about whether to permit updating the corresponding address information when the second personal address book includes the corresponding address information, and updates the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book when a permission response is made to the notification processing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic device, an information processing system, an information processing method, and the like. [Background technology]

[0002] Various methods for managing address books used in image forming devices and the like have been known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an image forming device that determines whether to reflect personal setting values ​​or shared setting values ​​depending on the user's login status. The personal setting values ​​include a personal address book, and the shared setting values ​​include a shared address book. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-174298 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Patent Document 1 describes a method that assumes switching between a shared address book and a user's personal address book, and does not disclose how to efficiently change the personal address books of multiple users.

[0005] According to some aspects of the present disclosure, it is possible to provide an electronic device, an information processing system, an information processing method, and the like that appropriately share changes to an address book. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] One aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device that includes a memory unit that stores a personal address book and a processing unit, wherein the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user, and wherein the processing unit, when the first user updates first address information included in the first personal address book, determines whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information corresponding to the first address information, and if the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, performs a notification process to inquire the second user as to whether to allow the corresponding address information to be updated, and if an approval response is given to the notification process, updates the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book.

[0007] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an information processing system that includes a first image forming device, a second image forming device, and a server system that performs processing on a personal address book, wherein the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user, and wherein the server system, when the first user updates first address information included in the first personal address book on the first image forming device, determines whether the second personal address book contains corresponding address information corresponding to the first address information, and if the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, performs a notification process to ask the second user whether to allow the corresponding address information to be updated, and if an approval response is given to the notification process, updates the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book and transmits the updated second personal address book to the second image forming device.

[0008] Yet another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an information processing method for performing processing on a personal address book, the personal address book including a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user, and when the first user updates first address information included in the first personal address book, the method determines whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information corresponding to the first address information, and if the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, performs a notification process to inquire the second user as to whether to allow the corresponding address information to be updated, and if an approval response is given to the notification process, updates the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] An example of the configuration of an information processing system. [Figure 2] 1 shows an example of the configuration of an image forming apparatus. [Figure 3] An example of a server system configuration. [Figure 4] An example of a shared address book. [Figure 5A] An example of a personal address book. [Figure 5B] An example of a personal address book. [Figure 6] Example of authentication data. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an address book display task. [Figure 8] Example of data used for display processing targeted at User A. [Figure 9] Example changes made by User A. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart illustrating a change notification task. [Figure 11] FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a process of searching for corresponding address information. [Figure 12] An example of an email used to notify other users. [Figure 13] 1 is a flowchart illustrating a web processing task. [Figure 14] 10 is a flowchart illustrating a change approval task. [Figure 15A] An example of the web screen that is displayed when an approval response is given. [Figure 15B] An example of the web screen that appears when a hold response is made. [Figure 15C] An example of the web screen that appears when a rejection response is made. [Figure 15D] An example of the web screen that is displayed when an ignore response is made. [Figure 16A] An example of an ignore list. [Figure 16B] An example of an ignore list. [Figure 17] Another example of a shared address book. [Figure 18] Another example of a personal address book. [Figure 19] Another example of notification handling. [Figure 20A] Example of an approved list. [Figure 20B] Example of an approved list. [Figure 21] An example of the configuration of an information processing system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] Hereinafter, the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, identical or equivalent elements are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicate explanations will be omitted. Note that the present embodiment described below does not unduly limit the content described in the claims. Furthermore, not all of the configurations described in the present embodiment are necessarily essential components of the present disclosure.

[0011] 1. System configuration example FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an information processing system 10 including an electronic device according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing system 10 according to the present embodiment includes an image forming apparatus 100, a server system 200, and a terminal apparatus 300. The image forming apparatus 100 is, for example, an MFP (Multifunction Peripheral). However, devices other than an MFP may also be used as the image forming apparatus. Note that the system configuration is not limited to that shown in FIG. 1, and various modifications are possible, such as omitting some components or adding other components. The same applies to the following drawings, such as FIGS. 2 and 3, in which modifications such as omissions and additions are possible.

[0012] The electronic device in this embodiment may be the image forming apparatus 100 or the server system 200. The electronic device may also be realized by a plurality of devices including the image forming apparatus 100 and the server system 200. That is, the processing unit of the electronic device may be the processing unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100 (described later with reference to FIG. 2), the processing unit 210 of the server system 200 (described later with reference to FIG. 3), or both. Similarly, the storage unit of the electronic device may be the storage unit 130 of the image forming apparatus 100 (described later with reference to FIG. 2), the storage unit 230 of the server system 200 (described later with reference to FIG. 3), or both. When the electronic device is the image forming apparatus 100, the server system 200 may be omitted from the system according to this embodiment.

[0013] For simplicity of explanation, the following description will be mainly given of an example in which the electronic device in this embodiment is the server system 200. However, in the following description, the processing executed by the server system 200 may be executed by the image forming apparatus 100, or may be executed by distributed processing between the image forming apparatus 100 and the server system 200.

[0014] The image forming apparatus 100 is, for example, an apparatus having at least one of a printing function and a scanning function. The image forming apparatus 100 may be a printer having a printing function, a scanner having a scanning function, or both of these functions. That is, the image forming apparatus 100 according to this embodiment may be an image forming apparatus or an image processing apparatus. The image forming apparatus 100 may also be a device having other functions such as a facsimile function or a copy function.

[0015] The server system 200 may be a single server or may be configured with multiple servers. For example, the server system 200 may include a database server that stores a shared address book and a personal address book, and a processing server that performs address management, including processing to change the personal address book. The server here may represent a physical server or a virtual server. Multiple servers may also be distributed, and the specific configuration of the server system 200 can be modified in various ways.

[0016] The terminal device 300 is a device provided for each user who uses the information processing system 10 according to this embodiment, and is, for example, a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone. However, the terminal device 300 may be a PC (Personal Computer), a tablet terminal, or a wearable device, and various modifications of the specific embodiment are possible.

[0017] The image forming apparatus 100, the server system 200, and the terminal device 300 are connected to a network NW. The network NW here is, for example, a public communication network such as the Internet. However, the network NW may also be an intranet or the like, and various modifications are possible in specific embodiments. The image forming apparatus 100 and the server system 200, the server system 200 and the terminal device 300, and the image forming apparatus 100 and the terminal device 300 may be able to communicate via the network NW.

[0018] For example, the image forming apparatus 100 is a device used in an organization such as a company. The image forming apparatus 100 may be installed in an office or the like and shared by members of the organization. The server system 200 is a device for managing the organization's address book. The server system 200 may be managed within the organization or provided by an external service provider. The terminal device 300 is a device used by members of the organization. It is assumed that there are multiple members. Therefore, while FIG. 1 illustrates a single terminal device 300 for convenience, the information processing system 10 may include multiple terminal devices 300. Depending on the size of the organization, an image forming apparatus 100 may be installed on each floor of an office, or multiple image forming apparatuses 100 may be installed on one floor. Therefore, although FIG. 1 illustrates a single image forming apparatus 100 for convenience, the information processing system 10 according to this embodiment may include multiple image forming apparatuses 100. An example including multiple image forming apparatuses 100 will be described later using FIG. 21.

[0019] 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of image forming apparatus 100. Image forming apparatus 100 includes a processing unit 110, a communication unit 120, a storage unit 130, a display unit 140, and an image reading unit 150. However, image forming apparatus 100 may also have a printing function, and may include, for example, a printing unit (not shown).

[0020] The processing unit 110 is configured by the following hardware. The hardware can include at least one of a circuit for processing digital signals and a circuit for processing analog signals. For example, the hardware can be configured by one or more circuit devices or one or more circuit elements mounted on a circuit board. The one or more circuit devices are, for example, an integrated circuit (IC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), etc. The one or more circuit elements are, for example, a resistor, a capacitor, etc.

[0021] The processing unit 110 may also be implemented by the following processor. The image forming apparatus 100 of this embodiment includes a memory that stores information and a processor that operates based on the information stored in the memory. The information may be, for example, a program and various data. The processor includes hardware. Various types of processors may be used, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or a digital signal processor (DSP). The memory may be a semiconductor memory such as a static random access memory (SRAM) or a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a register, a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD), or an optical storage device such as an optical disk drive. For example, the memory stores computer-readable instructions, and the processor executes the instructions to realize the functions of the processing unit 110. The instructions may be instructions from an instruction set that constitutes a program, or instructions that instruct the hardware circuitry of the processor to operate.

[0022] The processing unit 110 controls each unit of the image forming apparatus 100 shown in Fig. 2. For example, the processing unit 110 performs communication control, data reading and writing control, display control, etc. The processing unit 110 may also perform printing control, scanning control, facsimile sending and receiving control, etc.

[0023] The communication unit 120 is an interface for communicating via a network. The image forming apparatus 100 is connected to the network NW via the communication unit 120. The communication unit 120 includes, for example, an antenna, an RF (radio frequency) circuit, and a baseband circuit. The communication unit 120 operates under control of the processing unit 110. The communication unit 120 may also include a processor for communication control that is different from the processing unit 110. The communication unit 120 may be an interface that performs communication in accordance with, for example, IEEE802.11, specifically, Wi-Fi (registered trademark). However, the communication unit 120 may also be a communication interface that performs wireless communication in accordance with other methods, or a communication interface that performs a wired connection. The image forming apparatus 100 of this embodiment may also be capable of communication via facsimile. For example, the communication unit 120 may include a telephone line connection unit that performs communication using a public switched telephone network. The communication unit 120 of this embodiment may include any one of connection units with different communication methods, such as a wireless LAN connection unit, a wired LAN connection unit, and a telephone line connection unit, or may include two or more of these.

[0024] The storage unit 130 is a work area for the processing unit 110 and stores various pieces of information. The storage unit 130 can be realized by various types of memory, and the memory may be a semiconductor memory, a register, a magnetic storage device, or an optical storage device.

[0025] Display unit 140 is a display that displays video information. Display unit 140 can be realized by, for example, a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display. Display unit 140 may also be a UI (User Interface) for using functions of image forming apparatus 100, such as a printing function or a scanning function.

[0026] The image reading unit 150 corresponds to, for example, a scanning function, reads a document, and acquires an image as a result of the reading. The image reading unit includes, for example, a transport unit that transports the document to be read, a light source unit that irradiates light onto the document on the transport path, and a light receiving unit that receives light reflected by the document. The transport unit includes, for example, a transport roller. The light source unit is, for example, a light emitting element such as an LED (light emitting diode). The light receiving unit is, for example, a photoelectric conversion element such as a PD (photodiode). Furthermore, the image reading unit is not limited to transporting a document, and may include a mechanism that drives the light source unit and the light receiving unit. The image reading unit acquires an image based on the detection result in the light receiving unit.

[0027] 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the server system 200. The server system 200 includes a processing unit 210, a communication unit 220, and a storage unit 230.

[0028] The processing unit 210 is configured by hardware including at least one of a circuit for processing digital signals and a circuit for processing analog signals. For example, the hardware can be configured by one or more circuit devices mounted on a circuit board or one or more circuit elements.

[0029] The processing unit 210 may be realized by various processors such as a CPU, a GPU, or a DSP. The server system 200 of this embodiment includes a memory that stores information and a processor that operates based on the information stored in the memory. For example, the memory stores computer-readable instructions, and the processor executes the instructions to realize the functions of the processing unit 210 as processing.

[0030] The processing unit 210 controls each unit of the server system 200 shown in Fig. 3. For example, the processing unit 210 controls communication and data reading and writing. The processing unit 210 may also execute address book management processing. Details of the management processing will be described later.

[0031] The communication unit 220 is an interface for performing communication via a network. The server system 200 connects to the network NW via the communication unit 220. The communication unit 220 includes, for example, an antenna, an RF circuit, and a baseband circuit. The communication unit 220 may be an interface for performing communication in accordance with, for example, IEEE802.11, and more specifically, for performing communication in accordance with WiFi. However, the communication unit 220 may also be a communication interface for performing wireless communication in accordance with another method, or may be a communication interface for performing a wired connection.

[0032] The storage unit 230 is a work area for the processing unit 210 and stores various pieces of information. The storage unit 230 can be realized by various types of memory, and the memory may be a semiconductor memory, a register, a magnetic storage device, or an optical storage device.

[0033] Furthermore, storage unit 230 may store a shared address book and a non-shared personal address book. Figures 4 to 6 are examples of information stored in storage unit 230. Note that Figures 4 to 6 are information stored in a storage unit of an electronic device, and if the electronic device is, for example, image forming apparatus 100, storage unit 130 may store this information.

[0034] FIG. 4 shows an example of a shared address book. A shared address book is a collection of address information shared by multiple users. For example, the shared address book may contain information that can be accessed by all employees of a company where the image forming device 100 is located. However, as will be described later, the range of information that can be accessed within the shared address book may vary depending on the user's authority. Alternatively, as will be described later, there may be multiple address books as the shared address book, and the address book that can be accessed may vary depending on the user's authority.

[0035] The shared address book may be table data containing the following items: "ID," "user," "name," "telephone number," "fax number," "email address," and "address." Hereinafter, one record contained in the shared address book, which is table data, will be referred to as "shared address information." The shared address information is a collection of values ​​for each item shown in FIG. 4. However, the items contained in the shared address book are not limited to the example in FIG. 4; some items may be deleted and other items may be added. Furthermore, the shared address book is not limited to table data, and may be data in other formats.

[0036] The "ID" is information that uniquely identifies the shared address information. The value of the "ID" is, for example, numeric data that does not overlap, but other types of data that can uniquely identify the shared address information may also be used.

[0037] "User" is information that identifies a user who can use the target shared address information. As mentioned above, shared address information is information that is shared by multiple users, so the value of "User" is information that indicates this. For example, the value of "User" in a shared address book may be text data such as "Shared."

[0038] "Name" is the name of the entity of interest. The entity may be a company, another organization, or an individual. The value of "Name" may be text data representing the name of the entity, such as "AA Shoji."

[0039] "Phone number" is information that represents the telephone number of the target entity and is data consisting of a list of multiple numbers. "Fax number" is information that represents the facsimile number of the target entity and is data consisting of a list of multiple numbers.

[0040] "Email address" is information that represents the email address of the target entity. The value of "email address" is data that includes, for example, an @ sign and lists multiple numbers or letters.

[0041] "Address" is information that indicates the address or residence of the target entity. The value of "Address" may be text data that specifies, for example, the name of a prefecture, city, town, street, or the like.

[0042] FIG. 5A is an example of a personal address book for user A, and FIG. 5B is an example of a personal address book for user B. In this way, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user. The first user is, for example, user A, and the first personal address book is, for example, the address book shown in FIG. 5A. The second user is, for example, user B, and the second personal address book is, for example, the address book shown in FIG. 5B. The first personal address book is available to the first user, but not to other users, including the second user. The second personal address book is available to the second user, but not to other users, including the first user. However, this does not prevent users, such as an organization administrator, from being set with the authority to view the personal address books of other users.

[0043] For example, a personal address book is created and updated by users belonging to an organization by adding information about customers and the like that they acquire in the course of their work. For example, when each user acquires new customer information, the user adds the new personal address information to his or her own personal address book by inputting the information using the display unit 140 and an operation unit (not shown) of the image forming apparatus 100. Therefore, the personal address book contains different information for each user.

[0044] The items in the personal address book may be table data including, for example, "ID," "user," "name," "telephone number," "fax number," "email address," and "address," just like the shared address book. Hereinafter, one record included in the personal address book, which is table data, will be referred to as "personal address information." The personal address information is a collection of values ​​for each item shown in Figures 5A and 5B. However, the items included in the personal address book are not limited to Figures 5A and 5B; some items may be deleted and other items may be added. Furthermore, the items in the shared address book and the personal address book may differ.

[0045] As shown in Figures 5A and 5B, an "ID" is information that uniquely identifies personal address information. The "ID" may be, for example, numeric data that is unique in the shared address book and the personal address books of all users. Alternatively, the "ID" may be unique within a given personal address book, but may be allowed to be duplicated between the personal address books of other users.

[0046] "User" in a personal address book is information that identifies a user corresponding to the target personal address information. For example, the value of "User" in User A's personal address book may be data that identifies User A, and the value of "User" in User B's personal address book may be data that identifies User B.

[0047] The "Name," "Telephone Number," "Fax Number," "Email Address," and "Address" are the same as those in the shared address book described above with reference to Figure 4. Note that Figures 5A and 5B show an example in which the entities in the personal address book are individuals. For example, a customer company (corporation) may be managed in the shared address book, and individual contact persons belonging to the customer company may be managed in each user's personal address book. However, the type of address information stored in the shared address book and the personal address book is arbitrary, and the specific method is not limited to this.

[0048] As shown in Figures 5A and 5B, the format of the value for a given item in the personal address book may differ for each user. For example, the value of "Name" may use both the last name and first name as shown in Figure 5A, or may use a combination of the last name and title as shown in Figure 5B. In addition, the value of "Name" can be variously modified, such as a combination of the last name and title, or a combination of the last name, first name, and title. In this way, the values ​​of some items related to the same entity may differ depending on the user using the personal address book.

[0049] 4 to 5B, it is possible to improve the convenience when using the image forming apparatus 100. For example, when sending a facsimile to a specific customer or when sending image data obtained by scanning to the customer's email address, the user can specify the fax number or email address based on the address book, thereby reducing the burden of inputting information.

[0050] Figure 6 shows an example of authentication data. As mentioned above, in order to properly manage a personal address book, it is necessary to identify the user who uses the personal address book. To do this, it is desirable to perform authentication processing such as login processing when displaying the personal address book. Authentication data is information used in this authentication processing.

[0051] The authentication data includes the following items: "User ID," "User name," "Password," and "Contact information." "User ID" is information that uniquely identifies a user, and is, for example, unique numeric data.

[0052] "User name" is text data that represents the name of the user, and is information in the same format as the value of "user" in a personal address book, for example.

[0053] A "password" is information that each user inputs when using their own personal address book, and is information that the user sets, for example. A "password" is, for example, a set of numbers, letters, symbols, etc.

[0054] The "contact information" may be, for example, the email address of each user. The email address may be used as information for determining the destination of emails in, for example, a change notification task, which will be described later.

[0055] 2. Sharing changes to your personal address book In the method of this embodiment, when a first user updates first address information included in a first personal address book, a processing unit of the electronic device determines whether the second personal address book contains corresponding address information corresponding to the first address information. If the corresponding address book information is included in the second personal address book, the processing unit performs a notification process to inquire of the second user whether to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information. If the second user responds with "permission" to the notification process, the processing unit updates the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book. The first address information and the corresponding address information here correspond to the personal address information described above. For example, the first address information is any address information included in the first personal address book. In a strict sense, the first address information is information representing an address different from the address of the first user. For example, the first address information represents the address of a third party different from both the first user and the second user. The third party here is, for example, an external entity that does not belong to the organization to which the first user and the second user belong. The third party is, for example, a customer served by the first user, and may be an organization such as a company or an individual.

[0056] The technique of this embodiment can also be applied to an information processing method for processing personal address books. The information processing method includes the steps of: when a first user updates first address information included in a first personal address book, determining whether or not a second personal address book includes corresponding address information corresponding to the first address information; when the second personal address book includes the corresponding address book information, performing a notification process to inquire of the second user whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information; and, when an approval response is given to the notification process, updating the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book.

[0057] According to the method of this embodiment, even if the personal address book itself is not shared with other users, changes to the personal address book can be shared with other users. For example, if a customer moves and an address change is discovered, one person in the organization can update the personal address book, and the change will be reflected in other users who have the same customer registered in their personal address books. As a result, the burden on users of making changes can be reduced.

[0058] Furthermore, because this process targets personal address books, not shared address books, it is highly likely that each user is actually using the address information contained in their own personal address book. For example, the entities contained in a user's personal address book are customers with whom the user has a direct professional relationship. This allows the appropriate decision to reflect changes made by other users in the user's own personal address book, ensuring the accuracy of the address book.

[0059] For example, the processing unit of the electronic device may execute each of the following tasks to realize the above-described processing: an address book display task, a change notification task, a web processing task, and a change approval task. The processing flow will be explained in detail below using a specific example. As mentioned above, the following will explain an example in which the electronic device is the server system 200.

[0060] <Address book display task> 7 is a flowchart illustrating an address book display task. The address book display task is a task that, for example, when a member of an organization operates the image forming apparatus 100, causes the display unit 140 to display an address book that the member can view. Note that a user may also view or change the address book using his or her own terminal device 300. For example, by using application software for the image forming apparatus 100 installed on the terminal device 300, the user can refer to a shared address book or a personal address book associated with the image forming apparatus 100. In this case, the image forming apparatus 100 and its respective components in the following description can be replaced with the terminal device 300 and its respective components.

[0061] First, in step S101, the processing unit 210 performs user authentication processing. For example, the processing unit 210 executes processing to display an image on the display unit 140 of the image forming apparatus 100, prompting the user to enter a user ID and password. The processing unit 210 may generate the image itself and transmit the image to the image forming apparatus 100, or may transmit information for image generation to the image forming apparatus 100 and have the processing unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100 generate the image. Alternatively, the image forming apparatus 100 may acquire only the necessary data from the server system 200 in advance, and the processing unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100 may generate the image and display it on the display unit 140. The same applies to the display processing from step S102 onwards; the processing unit 210 may perform the processing, or the processing unit 210 and the processing unit 110 may perform distributed processing, or the processing unit 110 may perform the processing. The image forming apparatus 100 acquires the input user ID and password using the image. The processing unit 210 acquires the user ID and password from the image forming apparatus 100 and performs processing to compare them with the authentication data shown in FIG.

[0062] In step S102, the processing unit 210 determines whether authentication has been performed properly. If the acquired user ID and password match any record in the authentication data, the processing unit 210 determines that authentication is OK. In this case, the processing unit 210 identifies which user has logged in by using the "user ID" or "user name" of the matching record. Furthermore, if the acquired user ID and password do not match any record in the authentication data, the processing unit 210 determines that authentication is NG.

[0063] If the authentication is not successful (No in step S102), the processing unit 210 returns to step S101 and performs user authentication again.

[0064] If the authentication is successful (Yes in step S102), in step S103, the processing unit 210 performs processing to display a list of the address book of the authenticated user on the display unit 140.

[0065] FIG. 8 shows an example of information used in the display process in step S103, for example, when user A is authenticated. As shown in FIG. 8, the address book presented to user A may be a combination of the shared address book and user A's personal address book. This allows user A to appropriately present the address books that he or she has permission to view. While user A's address book is shown here as an example, the same applies to other users, such as user B, and the shared address book and the personal address book of the authenticated user are displayed. While FIG. 8 illustrates information including "ID" and "user," these are management-related fields and may be excluded from the display process. While FIG. 8 illustrates a list sorted by ID, the display process may also sort by other fields, such as user name. When a user selects an item, a process may be executed to re-sort the list using the selected item.

[0066] While the list display is being performed, in step S104, the processing unit 210 determines whether an instruction to end the display has been given. For example, a display end button (not shown) is displayed on the list display screen, and the processing unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100 determines whether the display end button has been pressed. When the display end button has been pressed, the image forming apparatus 100 transmits information indicating this to the server system 200. When the processing unit 210 receives information indicating that the display end button has been pressed, it determines that an instruction to end the display has been given (Yes in step S104), and returns to step S101.

[0067] If there is no instruction to end the display (No in step S104), in step S105, processing unit 210 determines whether a detailed display instruction has been issued. For example, each piece of address information included in the list display screen can be selected individually, and processing unit 110 of image forming apparatus 100 determines which piece of address information has been selected, or whether none has been selected. Image forming apparatus 100 transmits the determination result to server system 200.

[0068] If no address information is selected, the processing unit 210 determines that a detailed display instruction has not been issued (No in step S105), and returns to step S104. That is, the list display continues.

[0069] If any address information is selected, the processing unit 210 identifies the selected address information as the designated address and determines that an instruction to display details of the designated address has been issued. In this case, the answer is Yes in step S105, and in step S106, the processing unit 210 displays the detailed information of the designated address on the display unit 140 of the image forming apparatus 100.

[0070] The details of the detailed display screen can be various, for example, a screen that displays the specified address but does not display other address information. However, the detailed display screen may be a screen that displays the specified address in more detail than the list display screen. For example, the detailed display screen may be a screen that has a relatively large area for displaying the specified address, a screen that displays a relatively large number of items, or another screen.

[0071] While the detailed display is being performed, in step S107, the processing unit 210 determines whether or not the back button has been operated. Specific processing is the same as, for example, the detection of the operation of the display end button in step S104. If the back button has been operated (Yes in step S107), the processing unit 210 returns to step S103. That is, the display returns from the detailed display to the list display.

[0072] If the back button has not been operated (No in step S107), in step S108, processing unit 210 determines whether a content change instruction has been issued. For example, the value of each item of the specified address included in the detailed display screen can be selected and rewritten. For example, when an operation to select the change confirmation button included in the detailed display screen is performed after a value has been rewritten, image forming apparatus 100 may transmit to server system 200 a notice that a content change instruction has been issued and the content of the change.

[0073] The change content here is, for example, a set of a changed item and a value after the change. Note that the change content may also be a set of a changed item, a value before the change, and a value after the change. Furthermore, the change is not limited to one item, and the values ​​of multiple items may be changed simultaneously.

[0074] FIG. 9 shows an example of a change made by user A to part of user A's personal address book, with the colored background indicating the changed parts. Comparing FIG. 8 with FIG. 9, the values ​​of "telephone number," "fax number," and "address" have been changed for the address information for "ID" = 202. The "telephone number" was "34-5678" before the change and "66-7890" after the change. The "fax number" was "34-5000" before the change and "66-7000" after the change. The "address" was "5-5, ZZ-cho, XX-city" before the change and "6-3, ZZ-cho, XX-city" after the change. The changes are information that identifies these. The changes may also include values ​​of unchanged items, such as "name" and "email address."

[0075] If there is no instruction to change the contents (No in step S108), the processing unit 210 returns to step S106. That is, the detailed display continues. If there is an instruction to change the contents (Yes in step S108), in step S109, the processing unit 210 performs control to display the changed contents on the display unit 140 of the image forming apparatus 100.

[0076] In step S110, the processing unit 110 performs processing to notify the change notification task of the changes entered by user A so that the changes are reflected in the personal address books of other users. After processing in step S110, the process returns to step S103.

[0077] <Change notification task> FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the change notification task. The change notification task is, for example, a task for notifying other members of an organization of changes made to their personal address book. For ease of explanation, the user who made the changes to the personal address book will be referred to as the “original user.” In the example of FIG. 9, User A is the original user. The user who receives the changes made by the original user will be referred to as the “recipient user.” Note that the following describes an example in which the processing of each step in the change notification task is performed by the processing unit 210 of the server system 200. However, at least a portion of the following processing may be performed by the processing unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100. For example, the image forming apparatus 100 may acquire only necessary data from the server system 200 in advance, execute the processing described below using the processing unit 110 and the communication unit 120, and notify the processing unit 210 of the server system 200 of the execution results.

[0078] First, in step S201, the processing unit 210 determines whether a notification has been received from the address book display task. Specifically, the processing unit 210 determines that a notification has been received when the processing of step S110 in FIG. 7 has been performed.

[0079] If there is no notification from the address book display task, no change to be shared within the organization has occurred. Therefore, the processing unit 210 determines No in step S201 and performs the process of step S201 again. In other words, in the change notification task, the processing unit 210 waits until there is a notification from the address book display task.

[0080] When a notification is received from the address book display task (Yes in step S201), the processing unit 210 initializes the designation of the address book to be searched. The address book to be searched is a personal address book that is the target of the determination of whether or not the changes need to be reflected, and is any of the personal address books of users other than the user who made the change. In other words, the user of the address book to be searched is the user to whom the change is made.

[0081] In step S203, the processing unit 210 determines whether the notification from the address book display task is due to a change operation by a user designated as ignored. For example, if user A and user B have a weak relationship, such as being in different departments or places of employment, user B may think that it is unnecessary to notify user A even if user A changes the personal address book. In this case, user B designates user A as ignored. The designation of ignorance will be described later with reference to Figures 15D, 16A, 16B, etc.

[0082] For example, the processing unit 210 determines whether the new user has specified the new user as being ignored. If the new user has specified the new user as being ignored (Yes in step S203), the processing unit 210 skips steps S204-S209 and proceeds to step S210, since notification regarding the current address book to be searched is unnecessary.

[0083] If the address is not specified as ignored (No in step S203), in step S204, the processing unit 210 searches the specified search target address book for corresponding address information corresponding to the personal address information changed by the change source user. The corresponding address information here is personal address information that is presumed to be the same entity as the changed personal address information.

[0084] Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating the search process for corresponding address information. As described above with reference to Figure 9, consider an example in which user A changes the address information for "ID" = 202. Therefore, the processing unit 210 sequentially specifies the personal address books of users other than user A as the address books to be searched. For example, if the personal address book of user B is the address book to be searched, it determines whether each piece of personal address information for "ID" = 301-308 belongs to the same customer as the personal address information for "ID" = 202.

[0085] For example, the processing unit 210 sets the pre-change value of the personal address information of "ID" = 202 as the comparison source. Then, for each item other than "ID" and "user", it determines whether the value of the comparison source matches the value of each personal address information in the address book to be searched. Note that "ID" and "user" are excluded because these are management items and it is considered that values ​​may not match even for the same entity. For example, if values ​​match for a predetermined number or more of the items to be compared, the processing unit 210 determines that the personal address information is corresponding address information.

[0086] 11, the colored areas indicate matching items, and the personal address information for "ID" = 302 matches the comparison source in four items: "telephone number," "fax number," "email address," and "address." Therefore, the processing unit 210 determines that the address for "ID" = 302 is the corresponding address information.

[0087] Note that there may be cases where different customers have the same first and last name, or where multiple customers belong to the same company and therefore have the same address, so the values ​​of some items may match even if the entities are different. Therefore, it is desirable that the predetermined number in the above determination be 2 or more. Also, as shown in Figure 11, even within the same entity, there may be items that do not match, such as items with different "name" formats. Therefore, the above predetermined number may be a value smaller than the total number of items to be compared.

[0088] In step S205, the processing unit 210 determines whether the search has found corresponding address information. If the search has not found corresponding address information (No in step S205), the specified address book to be searched does not need to be updated with the changes, and therefore no notification is required. Therefore, the processing unit 210 skips steps S206-S209 and proceeds to step S210.

[0089] If corresponding address information is found (Yes in step S205), in step S206, the processing unit 210 acquires the contact information of the user associated with the specified address book to be searched. For example, the processing unit 210 may compare the value of "user" in the address book to be searched with the value of "user name" in the authentication data in FIG. 6. For example, if the address book to be searched is the personal address book of user B, the contact information is the email address "qqq@nnn" shown in FIG. 6. Note that "user" in each personal address book is information representing a user ID, and the user ID may be used to identify the contact.

[0090] In step S207, the processing unit 210 notifies the change approval task of the user ID of the target user and the content of the change after the change. In this way, the change approval task can appropriately manage the content of the change to be notified to the target user.

[0091] In step S208, the processing unit 210 creates an email notifying the new user of the changes. Fig. 12 is an example of the email created in step S208. As shown in Fig. 12, the email is addressed to the new user corresponding to the personal address book for which the corresponding address information was found, and the email address is the information identified in step S206. The email may also include information identifying the new user and the contents before and after the change.

[0092] In this embodiment, the target user may be able to decide how to respond to this email. For example, each user may select one of the following responses: an approval response indicating that the changes will be applied; a hold response indicating that the changes will be put on hold; a rejection response indicating that the changes will not be applied; or an ignore response indicating that the changes will not be applied and that future notifications from the same user will be ignored. Therefore, the email may include four objects representing each response. For example, in FIG. 12, OK corresponds to the approval response, hold corresponds to the hold response, not required corresponds to the rejection response, and ignore in the future corresponds to the ignore response.

[0093] Each of the four objects may include a link to a different URL (Uniform Resource Locator). That is, the notification of the changes may be sent by email, and each target user may respond to the email using a web browser or the like. However, the method of this embodiment is not limited to this, and at least one of the notification of the changes and the response of each target user may be performed using dedicated application software.

[0094] In step S209, the processing unit 210 performs processing to send the email created in step S208. Specifically, the electronic device includes a communication unit that communicates with the terminal device 300 used by the second user. The communication unit is, for example, the communication unit 220 of the server system 200. The processing unit 210 executes a notification processing to have the communication unit 220 send information indicating that an update has been made to the terminal device 300 of the second user based on contact information indicating the second user's contact information. This makes it possible to appropriately notify users who have corresponding address information in their personal address books of the changes.

[0095] For example, by the process of step S209, the email shown in Fig. 12 is sent to user B. User B receives the email on his / her own terminal device 300 and responds to the notification by selecting one of the four objects described above.

[0096] If the answer is Yes in step S203, or No in step S205, or after the processing of step S209, in step S210, the processing unit 210 determines whether the processing for all personal address books has been completed. If there are any unprocessed personal address books (No in step S210), in step S211, the processing unit 210 changes the address book to be searched and then returns to step S203. That is, a different user is set as the target user, and the above-mentioned processing is repeated for the personal address book of the target user. Therefore, a single content change made by a given source user may be notified to multiple target users.

[0097] Also, when the processing for all personal address books is completed (Yes in step S210), the processing unit 210 ends the processing based on one notification from the address book display task and returns to step S201. That is, the processing unit 210 waits until the next notification from the address book display task, and when the next notification arrives, executes the above-described processing.

[0098] <Web Processing Task and Change Approval Task> FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining the Web processing task, and FIG. 14 is a flowchart for explaining the change approval task. The Web processing task performs processing for obtaining, via the Web, the response of the destination user to the notification processing of the change content, and processing for notifying, via the Web, the destination user of the processing result of the server system 200 based on the response. The change approval task performs processing according to the response content of the destination user obtained by the Web processing task. Hereinafter, an example in which each step of the Web processing task and the change approval task is executed in the processing unit 210 of the server system 200 will be described. However, the processing unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100 may execute at least a part of the processing in the Web processing task and the change approval task shown below.

[0099] First, the Web processing task in FIG. 13 will be described. In step S301, the processing unit 210 determines whether there has been a Web access. For example, the server system 200 functions as a Web server and accepts access to the URLs corresponding to the four objects shown in FIG. 12. That is, having a Web access means that the destination user who received the notification email has selected one of the objects.

[0100] When there is no Web access (No in step S301), the processing unit 210 returns to step S301. In other words, the processing unit 210 waits until there is a Web access.

[0101] If a web access has occurred (Yes in step S301), in step S302, the processing unit 210 identifies the changes based on the accessed URL. The processing unit 210 also notifies the change approval task of the identified changes. For example, the URL here may differ depending on the changes and the response selected by the target user. In this way, the processing unit 210 can appropriately identify and notify, based on the URL, what changes have been notified and what response the target user has made to the notification.

[0102] In step S303, the processing unit 210 determines whether there has been a response from the change approval task in response to the notification in step S302. If there has been no response (No in step S303), the processing unit 210 returns to step S303. In other words, after the notification in step S302, the processing unit 210 waits until there is a response from the change approval task.

[0103] If there is a response (Yes in step S303), in step S304, the processing unit 210 determines whether there is a response indicating that processing is OK from the change approval task. If the response indicates that processing is OK (Yes in step S304), in step S305, the processing unit 210 displays on the Web a message that the user's response has been properly reflected. If the response indicates that processing is not OK (No in step S304), in step S306, the processing unit 210 displays on the Web a message that the user's response has not been properly reflected. Specific examples of steps S304-S306 will be explained together with the explanation of the change approval task in FIG. 14.

[0104] The change approval task in Fig. 14 will now be described. First, in step S401, the processing unit 210 determines whether or not a notification has been received from the Web processing task. The notification here is the notification in step S302 in Fig. 13.

[0105] If there is no notification (No in step S401), in step S402, the processing unit 210 determines whether there has been a notification from the change notification task. The notification here is the notification in step S207 of FIG. 10. If there has been a notification from the change notification task (Yes in step S402), in step S403, the processing unit 210 stores information indicating the changes in the storage unit 230. As described above, in step S207, information identifying the target user and the specific changes, etc. are notified. The processing in step S403 enables the processing unit 210 to accumulate and manage the changes notified to the target user.

[0106] If there is no notification from the change notification task (No in step S402), or after the processing in step S403, the process returns to step S401.

[0107] If a notification is received from the Web processing task (Yes in step S401), the processing unit 210 branches the processing depending on the response content from the change-destination user. First, in step S404, the processing unit 210 determines whether the response content is an approval response.

[0108] If the response is an acceptance (Yes in step S404), in step S405, the processing unit 210 performs processing to reflect the changes in the target personal address book. For example, as shown in Fig. 11, if the corresponding address information is the address of "ID" = 302 included in the personal address book of user B, the processing unit 210 attempts processing to change the "telephone number," "fax number," and "address" of the corresponding address information in the same manner as in Fig. 9.

[0109] In step S406, the processing unit 210 determines whether the change was successfully reflected in step S405. If it was successful (Yes in step S406), in step S407, the processing unit 210 notifies the Web processing task that the processing was successful.

[0110] As a result, the determinations in steps S303 and S304 in Fig. 13 are Yes. In this case, since the changes made by user A have also been reflected in user B's personal address book, in step S305 the processing unit 210 may, for example, display on the Web a message that user B's personal address book has been changed and the contents before and after the change.

[0111] Figure 15A is an example of a screen that is displayed in this case. For example, when the "OK" object in the email shown in Figure 12 is operated, user B's terminal device 300 launches a web browser and accesses the URL corresponding to the selected object. Then, server system 200, which is a web server, performs processing to display the screen shown in Figure 15A on the web browser running on terminal device 300. In this way, when user B selects "OK," an object that represents an approval response, user B is notified that his or her personal address book has been appropriately changed.

[0112] On the other hand, if the change reflection in step S405 fails (No in step S406), in step S408, the processing unit 210 notifies the Web processing task of processing failure. As a result, step S303 in FIG. 13 is determined as Yes, and step S304 is determined as No. In this case, although user B permitted the reflection of the changes made by user A, the reflection failed. Therefore, in step S305, the processing unit 210 may display text on the Web such as "Failed to update personal address book."

[0113] After processing step S407 or step S408, in step S409, processing unit 210 deletes the corresponding information from storage unit 230. In the above example, of the information stored in storage unit 230 by the processing of step S403, information indicating that the changes shown in FIG. 9 will be reflected in user B's personal address book is deleted. By the processing of step S409, a response is obtained from the change-destination user, and the information for which processing has been performed in response to that response is deleted. As a result, information for which an appropriate response has not been obtained from the destination user remains in storage unit 230, making it possible to appropriately manage unprocessed information. After processing step S409, processing unit 210 returns to step S401 and continues processing.

[0114] If the response content of the user notified from the Web processing task is not a permission response (No in step S404), in step S410, the processing unit 210 determines whether the response content is a hold response.

[0115] If the response is a hold response (Yes in step S410), the processing unit 210 starts a retransmission timer in step S411. After the processing of step S411, the processing unit 210 proceeds to step S407 and notifies the Web processing task of processing OK.

[0116] As a result, the determinations in steps S303 and S304 in Fig. 13 are Yes. In this case, the changes made by user A are not reflected immediately, and after a predetermined time has elapsed based on the resend timer, an email similar to that in Fig. 12 is sent again. Therefore, in step S305, the processing unit 210 may display on the Web, for example, a message indicating that the user will be contacted again after a predetermined time has elapsed.

[0117] Figure 15B is an example of a screen that is displayed in this case. The screen shown in Figure 15B includes a message indicating that the user will be contacted again after a specified time, along with the details of the change. In this way, the pending response from the new user is appropriately sent to the server system 200, and the new user is notified that the decision on whether to make the change has been postponed for a specified time.

[0118] Even if a hold response is made, after the processing of step S407, the processing unit 210 deletes the corresponding information in step S409. Note that if the retransmission timer determines that a predetermined time has elapsed, for example, the change notification task may execute the processing of steps S207-S209 in Fig. 10 again. In this way, it becomes possible to re-notify the change approval task of the information indicating the change content and re-send the email to the changed user.

[0119] If the response content of the user notified from the Web processing task is not a hold response (No in step S410), in step S412, the processing unit 210 determines whether the response content is a rejection response indicating that no change is required.

[0120] If the response is a rejection (Yes in step S412), the processing unit 210 proceeds to step S407 and notifies the Web processing task that the processing is OK.

[0121] 13, steps S303 and S304 are determined to be Yes. In this case, the changes made by user A are not reflected in the personal address book of user B. Therefore, in step S305, the processing unit 210 may display on the Web that the address of "ID"=302, for example, will remain in the state before the change.

[0122] Figure 15C is an example of a screen that is displayed in this case. The screen shown in Figure 15C includes a message indicating that the contents of the personal address book will be maintained, along with specific values. In this way, a rejection response from the new user is appropriately sent to the server system 200, and the new user is notified that the personal address book has been maintained without any changes.

[0123] If the response content of the user notified from the Web processing task is not a rejection response (No in step S412), in step S413, the processing unit 210 determines whether the response content is an ignore specification response.

[0124] If the response is an ignore specification response (Yes in step S413), in step S414, the processing unit 210 updates the ignore target list. FIGS. 16A and 16B are examples of the ignore target list. The ignore target list may include, for example, the source user, the destination user, and a user ID representing the destination user. The source user in the ignore target list indicates that the destination user has been specified as ignored.

[0125] In the state shown in Figure 16A, the source user is set to "none" for all destination users. In other words, none of the users have set any users to ignore. On the other hand, if user B specifies user A as ignored, the ignore list will be updated as shown in Figure 16B. Specifically, user A will be added to the "source user" of the record where user B is the "destination user."

[0126] In the process of step S203 described above with reference to FIG. 10, this ignore list is used for determination. The processing unit 210 reads out the record of the user corresponding to the search target address book from the ignore list. For example, if user B's personal address book is the search target address book, the data in the second row of the ignore list is read out. The processing unit 210 then determines whether the user who made the change to the personal address book is included in the value of "change source user" in the record. After the ignore list has been updated to the state shown in FIG. 16B, user A is included in the value of "change source user," and the determination result in step S203 is Yes. As a result, the processes of steps S204-S209 targeting user B's personal address book are not executed, and therefore user B is not notified of the changes made by user A, and the changes are not reflected in user B's personal address book.

[0127] In this way, after receiving an ignore designation response from the second user indicating that notification processing based on the first user will be ignored in response to the notification processing, the processing unit of the electronic device excludes the second user from the targets of notification processing based on the update input of the first user. This makes it possible to suppress notification processing that is less necessary, thereby improving convenience. In particular, because the ignore designation response is made by the second user, it is possible to increase the accuracy of the ignore target list.

[0128] After the process of step S414, the processing unit 210 proceeds to step S407 and notifies the Web processing task that the process is OK.

[0129] 13 returns "Yes." In this case, the changes made by user A are not reflected, and user A is added to the ignore list for user B. Therefore, in step S305, the processing unit 210 may display a message to that effect on the Web.

[0130] Figure 15D is an example of the screen that is displayed in this case. The screen shown in Figure 15D, like Figure 15C, includes a message that the contents of the personal address book will be maintained and specific values. Furthermore, the screen in Figure 15D includes text that the changes made by user A will not be notified or reflected. In this way, the ignore designation response from the new user is appropriately sent to server system 200, and the new user can be notified that the personal address book has been maintained and the ignore designation list has been updated.

[0131] If the user's response notified from the Web processing task is not an ignore-specified response (No in step S413), then in step S415 the processing unit 210 notifies the Web processing task that processing is not possible. In this case, for example, the response notified from the Web processing task is an unknown response to the change approval task. The change approval task cannot execute processing according to the response, so it notifies that processing is not possible.

[0132] As a result, the determination in step S303 of Fig. 13 is Yes, and the determination in step S304 is No. In this case, the processing unit 210 may display text such as "An inappropriate response was made" on the Web.

[0133] 3. Shared Address Book While the above describes an example in which changes to a personal address book are shared among multiple users, in this embodiment, a shared address book may also be updated. However, because the shared address book is data shared by multiple users, the impact of an incorrect update can be significant. Therefore, changes to the shared address book may be reflected only after approval from an administrator with update authority.

[0134] For example, the processing unit 210 performs user authentication, displays the shared address book, and accepts changes through processing similar to the address book display task shown in Fig. 7. For example, if the authenticated user A is a user who does not have the authority to update the shared address book and the value of "User" in the changed address information is "Shared," it is determined that a request to change the shared address book has been made.

[0135] The processing unit 210 may also perform notification processing to the administrator using processing similar to the change notification task shown in Fig. 10. Note that since the shared address book is shared by multiple users, the search processing for the corresponding address information can be omitted. For example, the processing unit 210 uses the administrator's contact information to send an email to the administrator's terminal device 300, informing the user who made the change to the shared address book and the details of the change. This email may include objects corresponding to, for example, an approval response, a hold response, or a rejection response.

[0136] The administrator determines whether to approve the change request based on the contents of the email, and selects one of the objects based on the result of the determination. Subsequent processing is similar to the example of the personal address book, for example, and may involve determining the response content using a web processing task, processing according to the response content using a change approval task, and notifying the administrator using a web processing task. The user who requested the change may also be notified of the administrator's determination result and the processing result of the change approval task.

[0137] However, the administrator with the authority to update the shared address book may be the head of a department or division, or a person in charge of information management. These administrators are likely to have fewer opportunities to interact directly with customers than field staff who do not have the authority to update. As a result, even if a field staff member submits an update request, it may be difficult to determine whether the update content is correct.

[0138] Therefore, if the first user does not have the authority to update the shared address book and updates the first shared address information contained in the shared address book, the processing unit of the electronic device may perform a notification process to inquire with a user who has a usage history of the first shared address information as to whether or not to allow the update, and may notify an administrative user who has the authority to update the shared address book of the response from the user who has the usage history.

[0139] Fig. 17 is another example illustrating the data structure of the shared address book. As shown in Fig. 17, the shared address book may include "Administrator" and "Use History Exist" in addition to the items shown in Fig. 4.

[0140] "Administrator" is information that identifies a user who has the authority to update the target shared address information. In the example of Figure 17, the administrator of the shared address information with "ID" = 101 is user P, and the administrator of the shared address information with "ID" = 102-104 is user Q.

[0141] "Use history" is information that identifies users who have used the target shared address information within a specified period of time. The specified period is, for example, several months, but it can be shorter or longer.

[0142] Furthermore, the term "use" here may refer to, for example, using the facsimile function of image forming apparatus 100 to send a facsimile to the "FAX number" value as the destination. Alternatively, the term "use" here may refer to, for example, sending image data acquired using the scan function of image forming apparatus 100 via communication unit 120 to the "Email address" value as the destination. In either case, the functions of image forming apparatus 100 are utilized, so that processing unit 110 of image forming apparatus 100 can identify the user who used the shared address and the timing of use based on the results of user authentication and the operation history of the logged-in user. However, the term "use" here may also include other aspects, such as displaying detailed information about the target shared address in an address book display task. Furthermore, manual input of the usage history is not prevented.

[0143] In the example of Figure 17, the shared address information with "ID" = 101 has a history of being used by user A. The shared address information with "ID" = 102 has a history of being used by user B and user C. The shared address information with "ID" = 103 has a history of being used by user A and user B. The shared address information with "ID" = 104 has a history of being used by user D.

[0144] For example, if user A performs an operation to change the shared address information for "ID" = 102, the processing unit 210 sends an email containing the changes to the shared address information to the terminal devices 300 of user B and user C, based on the contact information of user B and the contact information of user C.

[0145] Since User B and User C have a history of using the shared address in question, they are considered to have a close relationship with "BB Construction." For example, User B and User C are the people in charge of "BB Construction." Therefore, there is a high probability that it will be possible to accurately determine whether the changes made to the shared address by User A are appropriate.

[0146] The processing unit 210 obtains the responses from user B and user C through processing similar to that of the web processing task, and notifies the administrator, user Q, of the responses along with the changes. User Q himself may not be familiar with "BB Construction," but as mentioned above, the responses from user B and user C are highly reliable. Therefore, the method of this embodiment makes it easier for the administrator, who has the authority to update the shared address book, to make decisions, thereby reducing the burden on the administrator and improving the accuracy of the shared address book.

[0147] 4. Variations Some modifications will be described below.

[0148] 4.1 Scope of disclosure of changes (shared scope) In the above, as shown in step S203 of Figure 10, an example has been shown in which notification processing is not performed when the original user is designated as ignored by the new user. In other words, the personal address books of all users who are not designated as ignored may be searched for corresponding address information. However, the original user may also be able to set the scope of sharing of the changes.

[0149] For example, the processing unit of the electronic device may perform processing to identify the target range of the notification processing based on the setting input by the first user, and skip the notification processing if the second user is not included in the target range.

[0150] FIG. 18 is another example of user A's personal address book. As shown in FIG. 18, the personal address book may include a "shared range" in addition to the items shown in FIG. 5A. The shared range here is information that identifies part or all of an organization. For example, if a company has a hierarchical structure of department-division-section, the value representing the shared range may be within the company, within a department, within a department, within a section, etc. However, the organizational structure is not limited to this, and the specific values ​​can be modified in various ways.

[0151] For example, the storage unit 230 may store information associating users within an organization with the department, division, section, etc. The processing unit 210 can identify, based on the information, a group of users in the same department as the change-originating user, a group of users in the same department as the change-originating user, a group of users in the same section as the change-originating user, etc.

[0152] For example, in the address book display task, the processing unit 210 performs processing to identify the source user and the "shared range" of the personal address information for which the change has been confirmed, and notifies the change notification task of the processing result. In the change notification task, the processing unit 210 identifies a group of users included in the shared range based on the notified information, and determines whether the target user is included in the user group. The processing unit 210 may perform processing from step S204 onwards if the target user is included in the user group, and may skip the processing of steps S204-S209 if the target user is not included in the user group.

[0153] In this way, the scope of public notification of changes can be set, which allows for appropriate information management, such as narrowing the scope of sharing for information that you want to keep confidential. Note that while Figure 18 shows an example in which information regarding the scope of sharing is included in the items of a personal address book, the scope of sharing may also be set using other information.

[0154] The scope of sharing may also be set based on a shared address book. As described above, a shared address book is information shared by multiple users, but it is not limited to a system in which all shared address information is shared by all users. For example, different shared address books may be used for different user attributes, such as for each department or each job title. The different shared address books may each be implemented as different table data. Alternatively, the shared address book itself may be a single piece of table data, and a different shared address book may be presented depending on the user's attributes by extracting part or all of it at the time of use. The specific data format may be modified in various ways.

[0155] The processing unit of the electronic device may perform processing to identify the target range of the notification processing based on the shared address book used by the first user, and may skip the notification processing if the second user is not included in the target range.

[0156] For example, the storage unit 230 may store information associating users in an organization with the shared address books used by those users. Based on that information, the processing unit 210 can identify a group of users who use the same shared address book as the change source user.

[0157] For example, in the address book display task, the processing unit 210 notifies the change notification task of the source user. In the change notification task, the processing unit 210 identifies a group of users who use the same shared address book as the source user based on the notified information, and determines whether the target user is included in the group of users. The processing unit 210 may execute the processing from step S204 onwards if the target user is included in the group of users, and may skip the processing of steps S204-S209 if the target user is not included in the group of users.

[0158] This also allows you to set the range of public notification of changes. Furthermore, since the range can be determined based on the shared address book, processing can be performed efficiently when using a combination of shared and personal address books.

[0159] 4.2 Notification Processing The above describes an example in which the notification process to the new user is performed using email, as shown in Figures 10 and 12. However, the mode of notification process is not limited to this.

[0160] For example, the processing unit of the electronic device may execute, as the notification process, a process of displaying a notification screen on the display unit inquiring whether or not to allow updating of the corresponding address information when the second user performs a display operation of the second personal address book. The notification screen is displayed on the display unit 140 of the image forming device 100, for example.

[0161] For example, the processing unit 210 may omit the processes of steps S206, S208, and S209 in the change notification task of Fig. 10. In this case, the notification process by email is omitted. Furthermore, in addition to the process of step S207, the processing unit 210 may notify a second change notification task (not shown) of the user to whom the change was made and information identifying the change content.

[0162] For example, if the answer to step S105 in Figure 7 is Yes, the address book display task may notify the second change notification task of information identifying the user logged in to the image forming device 100 and the address book information that is the target of detailed display.

[0163] That is, the second change notification task stores information associating the new user with the corresponding address information, and acquires information associating the user who has logged in to the image forming apparatus 100 with the personal address information to be displayed in detail. Therefore, in the second change notification task, the processing unit 210 determines whether the user who has logged in to the image forming apparatus 100 and the personal address information to be displayed in detail match the new user and the corresponding address information.

[0164] Fig. 19 is a diagram illustrating the processing in the second change notification task. For example, assume that the change shown in Fig. 9 was made by user A as described above, and that user B was the new user and the personal address information of "ID" = 302 was stored as the corresponding address information using the same procedure as in Fig. 11. Then, at a later time, user B logs in to image forming apparatus 100, and the data shown in Fig. 19 is identified as information for displaying user B's address book, and further, the personal address information of "ID" = 302 is selected as the target for detailed display.

[0165] In this case, the new user and the logged-in user match, and the corresponding address information matches the address information to be displayed in detail. Therefore, the processing unit 210 displays a notification screen on the display unit 140 of the image forming device 100, including information identifying the user who made the address change and the contents before and after the change. The notification screen may also include four objects representing the responses described above. The image forming device 100 transmits, for example, the results of the object selection made by the new user to the server system 200.

[0166] In this way, the changes made by the original user can be notified to the new user using the display unit 140. In particular, if the notification process is triggered by displaying the details of the corresponding address information, the changes can be properly presented in situations where the corresponding address information may be used for sending facsimile or scanned data, etc. Furthermore, since there is no need to send email, the network load can be reduced.

[0167] Note that the conditions for displaying the notification screen on display unit 140 are not limited to the above examples. For example, the notification screen shown in Fig. 19 may be displayed when a user registered as a change-destination user logs in to image forming apparatus 100, or may be displayed at another time.

[0168] Although the above example shows a case where notification processing is performed on a notification screen instead of notification processing by email, both notification processing by email and notification processing on a notification screen may be used.

[0169] For example, the processing unit 210 may first execute the change notification task shown in FIG. 10 to perform the email notification process, and then execute the second change notification task if the change destination user responds with a "hold" response. For example, the change destination user may receive the email on their own terminal device 300, respond with a "hold" response to the email, and then move to the image forming device 100 to log in or display details. This allows for different notification processes, allowing the destination user to respond flexibly. For example, for emails where it is easy to determine whether to reflect the changes, the destination user may respond with "permit" or "reject" and, for emails where it is difficult to determine, the destination user may decide to postpone the decision and decide on a response before actually using the corresponding address information.

[0170] 4.3 Authorization Responses that Trust the User Although the above has described the allow response, hold response, reject response, and ignore response as responses that the new user can input in response to the notification process, the responses that the new user can input are not limited to these.

[0171] Contrary to the example of the ignore response, there are also cases where the relationship between the source user and the target user is close. For example, this may be the case when the source user and target user belong to the same department and are responsible for the same customers. For example, if user A and user C are in the same department and have similar work duties, changes made by user A are considered to be sufficiently trustworthy for user C. User C is likely to respond with an allowance to notifications that list user A as the source user. In such cases, notifying user C of every change made by user A may cause user C to feel annoyed.

[0172] Therefore, after receiving an approval designation response from the second user approving the first user in response to the notification process, the processing unit of the electronic device may perform an update process for the second personal address book without performing a notification process to the second user based on the update input of the first user.

[0173] 20A and 20B are examples of approval target lists. The approval target list may include, for example, a source user, a target user, and a user ID representing the target user. The source user in the approval target list indicates that the target user has been approved as a trustworthy user.

[0174] In the state shown in Figure 20A, the source user is set to "none" for all target users. In other words, none of the users have set any trusted users. Therefore, when reflecting the changes, each user must receive a notification process and respond with an approval. On the other hand, if user C specifies user A for approval, the approval target list is updated as shown in Figure 20B. Specifically, user A is added to the "source user" of the record where user C is the "target user."

[0175] In this case, in the change notification task, the processing unit 210 reads out the record of the user corresponding to the search target address book from the approval target list. For example, if the search target address book is user C's personal address book, the data in the third row of the approval target list is read out. The processing unit 210 then determines whether the user who made the change to the personal address book is included in the value of "user who made the change" in that record. If the approval target list has been updated to the state shown in Figure 20B, user A is included in the value of "user who made the change."

[0176] In this case, the processing unit 210 skips the processes of steps S204 to S209, for example, and then executes the reflection process shown in step S405 of Fig. 14. In this way, the change in the user designated for approval is reflected without notification process, thereby improving user convenience.

[0177] 4.4 Timing specification, etc. In the above, in the change notification task shown in Fig. 10, specific processing including sending an email was performed using the receipt of a notification from the address book display task (Yes in step S201) as a trigger. Therefore, when the change source user issues a content change instruction (Yes in step S108 in Fig. 7), it is expected that the notification processing will be executed promptly. However, the method of this embodiment is not limited to this.

[0178] For example, when the first user performs an update input including a timing specification, the processing unit of the electronic device may perform notification processing at the timing specified by the timing specification.

[0179] For example, suppose a customer is planning to move and it is discovered that the address will be changed to a new one on October 1st. In this case, the previous address will be used until September 30th, so it is not desirable to immediately update the address change just because the customer has learned of it. On the other hand, it would be inconvenient if the changes could not be entered until October 1st. In such a case, the user making the change may specify October 1st and then perform an operation to update the personal address information corresponding to the customer.

[0180] For example, instead of step S201 in Fig. 10, the processing unit 210 may determine whether the timing specified by the change-making user has passed. Alternatively, the processing unit 210 may perform part of the change notification task in Fig. 10, such as searching for corresponding address information and creating an email, before October 1st, and send the created email after October 1st. In this way, it is possible to register the changes in advance and then flexibly adjust the timing for sharing the changes. Note that the processing unit 210 may also perform processing to reflect changes to the change-making user's personal address book on the condition that the specified timing has passed.

[0181] Furthermore, if data in the personal address book is changed, the data before the change may be deleted. However, if the change is incorrect, or if the timing is set earlier than expected, there may be a desire to return to the data before the change.

[0182] Therefore, when given personal address information is updated, the processing unit 210 may store the old data before the update in the storage unit 230. For example, when the processing unit 210 determines that the user has issued a rollback instruction, the processing unit 210 may roll back the personal address information using the old data. Alternatively, the processing unit 210 may display both the updated information and the information before the update on the list display screen or the detailed display screen of the address book.

[0183] 4.5 Changes by service personnel, etc. When municipalities merge or change, it becomes necessary to change the "address" of all entities that have addresses or residences in the municipality. When there are changes to a large number of address information, it can be a heavy burden on users if each person in charge has to make the changes individually.

[0184] Therefore, in this embodiment, a special user with authority to make bulk changes, such as a specific administrator or serviceman, may be set. When a content change instruction is received from a user with authority to make bulk changes, the processing unit 210 executes a change notification task for all personal address books stored in the storage unit 230. For example, when the old city / town name and the new city / town name are entered, the processing unit 210 selects all personal address books containing the old city / town name as the target address information. The target of change here may also include shared address books. This reduces the burden on the user even when a large amount of address information changes may occur.

[0185] In this case, the processing unit 210 may also execute notification processing using email, etc. Since a change in the name of a city, ward, town, or village may be reflected only in part of the target area, executing the notification processing allows each user to determine whether the change is appropriate.

[0186] 4.6 Information Processing Systems FIG. 21 shows another example of the configuration of an information processing system 10 including electronic devices. As shown in FIG. 21, the information processing system 10 may include multiple image forming apparatuses 100. The multiple image forming apparatuses 100 are, for example, image forming apparatus 100-1, image forming apparatus 100-2, ..., image forming apparatus 100-n, where n is an integer equal to or greater than 2. The multiple image forming apparatuses 100 are each connected to a network NW. Alternatively, the multiple image forming apparatuses 100 may be connected hierarchically. For example, among the multiple image forming apparatuses 100, an image forming apparatus 100 that is a slave may be connected to the network NW via another image forming apparatus 100 that is a master. The server system 200 and the terminal apparatus 300 are the same as those in FIG. 1.

[0187] In this manner, the information processing system 10 may include a first image forming apparatus, a second image forming apparatus, and a server system 200 that executes processing for the personal address book. Here, the first image forming apparatus and the second image forming apparatus are, for example, MFPs (multifunction peripherals). The first image forming apparatus is, for example, image forming apparatus 100-1, and the second image forming apparatus is, for example, image forming apparatus 100-2.

[0188] When a first user updates first address information included in a first personal address book on a first image forming device, the server system 200 determines whether the second personal address book contains corresponding address information corresponding to the first address information. If the second personal address book contains corresponding address book information, the server system 200 performs a notification process to inquire of the second user whether to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information. If the second user responds with "allow" to the notification process, the server system 200 updates the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book. The server system 200 then transmits the updated second personal address book to the second image forming device.

[0189] The specific processing in the server system 200 has been described above. In this way, in the information processing system 10 including multiple image forming devices 100, it becomes possible to appropriately reflect changes input using any image forming device 100 in the personal address books of other users, and to share the changes with image forming devices 100 other than the image forming device 100 used to make the changes. In other words, when multiple image forming devices 100 are used as shown in Fig. 21, users within an organization can appropriately use the latest address book information regardless of which image forming device 100 they use.

[0190] 4.7 Background As described above with reference to Figures 7 to 9, display of the address book and input of changes are performed using, for example, the display unit 140 of the image forming apparatus 100. On the other hand, the display process for reflecting the changes in the personal address books of other users is performed using a mailer or a web browser on the terminal device 300 of the target user, as described above with reference to Figures 10 to 16B.

[0191] That is, the display unit displays an update screen used for inputting updates, but does not display a screen related to the notification process or a screen related to the second user's response to the notification process. The display unit here is display unit 140 of image forming apparatus 100, but may also be a display unit (not shown) included in server system 200. In this way, for example, when user A makes changes to his or her personal address book, the process of sharing the changes with other users is executed in the background for user A. That is, the process of sharing the changes does not interfere with the operation of the user who made the changes, thereby improving convenience.

[0192] Although the present embodiment has been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily understand that many modifications are possible without substantially departing from the novel features and advantages of the present embodiment. Therefore, all such modifications are intended to be within the scope of the present disclosure. For example, a term described at least once in the specification or drawings with a different term having a broader or equivalent meaning may be replaced with that different term anywhere in the specification or drawings. Furthermore, all combinations of the present embodiment and modifications are also within the scope of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the configurations and operations of electronic devices, image forming apparatuses (MFPs), server systems, terminal devices, information processing systems, and the like are not limited to those described in the present embodiment, and various modifications are possible. [Explanation of symbols]

[0193] 10...information processing system, 110...processing unit, 120...communication unit, 130...storage unit, 140...display unit, 150...image reading unit, 200...server system, 210...processing unit, 220...communication unit, 230...storage unit, 300...terminal device, NW...network

Claims

1. a storage unit for storing a personal address book; a processing unit; Including, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user; The processing unit When the first user updates the first address information included in the first personal address book, it is determined whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information that corresponds to the first address information; If the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, a notification process is performed to inquire the second user as to whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information, and if an approval response is given in response to the notification process, the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book is updated; the storage unit stores a shared address book; When the first user does not have the authority to update the shared address book and the first user updates the first shared address information included in the shared address book, The processing unit An electronic device that queries a user who has a usage history of the first shared address information as to whether or not to allow the update, and notifies an administrative user who has the update authority for the shared address book of the response from the user who has the usage history.

2. In claim 1, The processing unit An electronic device that performs a process to identify the target scope of the notification process based on the shared address book used by the first user, and skips the notification process if the second user is not included in the target scope.

3. In claim 1 or 2, Further including a display unit, The processing unit An electronic device that executes, as the notification processing, a process of displaying a notification screen on the display unit inquiring whether or not to allow the corresponding address information to be updated when the second user performs a display operation on the second personal address book.

4. A storage unit for storing a personal address book; a processing unit; a communication unit that communicates with a terminal device used by a second user; Including, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with the second user; The processing unit When the first user updates the first address information included in the first personal address book, it is determined whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information that corresponds to the first address information; If the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, a notification process is performed to inquire the second user as to whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information, and if an approval response is given in response to the notification process, the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book is updated; The processing unit An electronic device that executes, as the notification process, a process in which the communication unit sends information indicating that the update has occurred to the terminal device of the second user based on contact information representing the contact information of the second user.

5. A storage unit for storing a personal address book; a processing unit; Including, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user; The processing unit When the first user updates the first address information included in the first personal address book, it is determined whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information that corresponds to the first address information; If the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, a notification process is performed to inquire the second user as to whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information, and if an approval response is given in response to the notification process, the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book is updated; The processing unit After receiving an ignore designation response from the second user indicating that the notification processing based on the first user will be ignored, the electronic device excludes the second user from the target of the notification processing based on the update input of the first user.

6. A storage unit for storing a personal address book; a processing unit; Including, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user; The processing unit When the first user updates the first address information included in the first personal address book, it is determined whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information that corresponds to the first address information; If the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, a notification process is performed to inquire the second user as to whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information, and if an approval response is given in response to the notification process, the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book is updated; The processing unit After receiving an approval designation response from the second user in response to the notification process, indicating that the first user is approved, the electronic device executes the update process for the second personal address book without performing the notification process for the second user based on the update input of the first user.

7. In any one of claims 1 to 6, The processing unit An electronic device that performs a process of identifying a target range of the notification process based on a setting input by the first user, and skips the notification process if the second user is not included in the target range.

8. a first image forming apparatus; a second image forming apparatus; a server system that executes processing on a personal address book; Including, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user; The server system includes: In the first image forming apparatus, when the first user updates the first address information included in the first personal address book, it is determined whether or not the second personal address book includes corresponding address information that corresponds to the first address information; If the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, a notification process is performed to inquire the second user as to whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information, and if an approval response is given in response to the notification process, the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book is updated; An information processing system that transmits the updated second personal address book to the second image forming apparatus.

9. An information processing method for performing processing on a personal address book, the personal address book includes a first personal address book associated with a first user and a second personal address book associated with a second user; When the first user updates the first address information included in the first personal address book, it is determined whether the second personal address book includes corresponding address information that corresponds to the first address information; If the corresponding address information is included in the second personal address book, a notification process is performed to inquire the second user as to whether or not to allow the second user to update the corresponding address information, and if an approval response is given in response to the notification process, the corresponding address information included in the second personal address book is updated; and executing, as the notification process, a process of transmitting information indicating that the update has occurred to a terminal device used by the second user based on contact information indicating a contact point of the second user. Information processing methods.

Images