Abstract:
A system and method for automatically generating documents used in an Internet e-business environment. In the present invention, using document components that may be jointly used between e-business systems and that are stored in a document component library, a document generation rule formulating tool based on a graphic user interface is employed to generate business documents. Document components are assembled based on these rules, after which context rules are applied to revise the assembled components to match desired conditions to thereby generate grammar neutral documents. Finally, conversion is performed into grammar for a specific business system to generate business documents. As a result, the differences between business systems are overcome, and the re-usability of business documents is maximized to enable e-business to be performed efficiently.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
         [0001]    This application is based on Korea Patent Application No. 2002-83736 filed on Dec. 24, 2002 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    (a) Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to a system and method for automatically generating electronic documents used in an e-business environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method that generates documents that allow re-usability of electronic business documents and provides for compatibility between different business domains based on document components, which are stored in a document component library that may be jointly used by different e-business systems.  
           [0004]    (b) Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    In Internet-based e-business, electronic documents such as “product catalogs”, “purchase request forms”, and “purchase request reply forms” are sent and received between parties (performing a business transaction) through the Internet using established procedures.  
           [0006]    Documents needed to perform business transactions vary greatly and may be extremely complicated depending on various factors such as geopolitical location, product classification, and business role or industry classification. Such factors are referred to as business context.  
           [0007]    For example, in a conventional e-business environment, if the parties involved are from different countries, the monetary units and exchange rates used in the business documents are different, and distinct expressions may be used for different industries and may even mean different things for different industries.  
           [0008]    Therefore, in a conventional e-business environment, if the business environments of parties involved in a business transaction are dissimilar, it is possible for the different parties to have contrasting interpretations of the expressions used in the business documents.  
           [0009]    Further, there are instances when in different business domains, the same business documents or business documents having identical portions are designated and used for business transactions.  
           [0010]    If such difficulties are encountered in large and various business domains, the costs associated with storing and managing documents increase, and the business becomes complicated. Overall efficiency is reduced as a result.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a system and method in which document components are designated and stored in a document component library that may be jointly used in each business system, and necessary components are accumulated and automatically assembled based on assembly rules and context rules in a document generation rule formulator.  
           [0012]    Further, differences between systems are overcome with respect to performing e-business, and re-usability of business documents is maximized to enable e-business to be performed efficiently.  
           [0013]    In one aspect of the present invention, an automatic document generation system in an e-business environment includes a document generation rule formulator that a user employs to designate document generation rules through a graphic user interface; a document component library storing and managing document component summary information and document components that represent specific concepts; a document generation rule processor accumulating document components needed for document assembly and that are received from the document component library, and generating grammar neutral document objects, the document generation rule processor performing these operations on the basis of document generation rules; and a document grammar connector that converts the grammar neutral document objects, which are suitable for processing in a computer system, into grammar-connected documents that are in a string form for use in an actual business.  
           [0014]    The present invention maximizes the re-usability of business documents, and uses components as building blocks that may be re-used and that form documents to thereby allow cooperation between different businesses.  
           [0015]    The documents express specific concepts that are independent of each other. That is, the document component “postal address” refers to a mailing address but, depending on the circumstances, may mean the “sender address”, the “receiver address”, the “business address”, “home address”, etc.  
           [0016]    For example, a document component having the meaning of “sender address” in one business domain may have the meaning of “business address” in another business domain. This may cause problems if the different parties involved interpret “sender address” differently. However, if the same “address” document component is used, no confusion will arise.  
           [0017]    In another aspect of the present invention, an automatic document generation method in an e-business environment includes storing document component summary information and document components that represent specific concepts; designating document generation rules through a graphic user interface; accumulating document components needed for document assembly from a document component library, and generating grammar neutral document objects based on the document generation rules; and converting the grammar neutral document objects, which are suitable for processing in a program of a computer system, into grammar-connected documents in a string form used in an actual business. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]    The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention:  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a component-based automatic document generation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a document component library of FIG. 1.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a document generation rule formulator of FIG. 1.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a document generation rule processor of FIG. 1.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an operation for processing assembly rules in a component assembler of FIG. 4.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an operation for processing context rules in a context processor of FIG. 4.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a document grammar connector of FIG. 1. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0026]    An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a component-based automatic document generation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0028]    With reference to the drawing, in order to generate business documents, a user first uses a document generation rule formulator  100  to generate document generation rules  110 .  
         [0029]    The document generation rule formulator  100  is a tool that allows users to conveniently designate document generation rules through a graphic user interface.  
         [0030]    Further, the document generation rule formulator  100  searches document component summary information  310  in a document component library  300  to formulate the document generation rules  110 .  
         [0031]    The generated document generation rules  110  are used by a document generation rule processor  200  to generate grammar neutral document objects  210 .  
         [0032]    During this process, the document generation rule processor  200  accumulates and uses document components  320 , which are required for document assembly, from the document component library  300 .  
         [0033]    Lastly, the grammar neutral document objects  210 , which are in a suitable form for processing by a program of a computer system, are converted by a document grammar connector  400  into a grammar connected document  410 . The grammar connected document  410  is in the form of a string, which is recognizable by the user.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the document component library  300  of FIG. 1.  
         [0035]    The document component library  300  is a public storage area for storing and managing document components that can be jointly used in each business system.  
         [0036]    The document component library  300  stores a variety of the document components  320  that constitute business documents, and the document component summary information  310  that records detailed information with respect to all the components included in the present library.  
         [0037]    Further, the document component library  300  includes a component library interface  340  for connection to external modules. The document generation rule formulator  100  searches the document component summary information  310  through the component library interface  340 , and the document generation rule processor  200  uses document component IDs  330 , which are numbers specific to each component, to accumulate document components required for document assembly.  
         [0038]    The document components of the embodiment of the present invention are simple components of a single type and complex components realized through a plurality of simple components.  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the document generation rule formulator  100  of FIG. 1.  
         [0040]    The document generation rule formulator  100  is a tool that allows users to conveniently designate document generation rules through a graphic user interface as described above. As shown in the drawing, the document generation rule formulator  100  includes a document component assembler  101 , a component selector  102 , and a context condition compiler  103 .  
         [0041]    Based on the document component summary information  310  searched in the document component library  300 , the component selector  102  displays usable component items that are provided by a corresponding library.  
         [0042]    The contents of the document component summary information  310  must necessarily include component IDs, component names, and component type, and may also include various different types of information that represent other components.  
         [0043]    The document component assembler  101  is an area where component structures are modeled based on user input through a graphic user interface. The user drags the needed document components appearing in the component selector  102  and drops them at a suitable location in the document component assembler  101  to thereby generate document structures. Such structures are formulated as assembly rules  111 .  
         [0044]    The assembly rules  111  include IDs of all document components and structural information between each component. The context condition compiler  103  is an area where context conditions realized through pairs of conditions and actions are compiled to enable insertion into document structures. The context condition compiler  103  enables the formulation of context rules  112 , which allow the processing of actions, in the document generation rule processor  200  in the case where conditions are satisfied for a specific business context during document assembly.  
         [0045]    The assembly rules and context rules are output as a single document generation rule  110 .  
         [0046]    [0046]FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the document generation rule processor  200  of FIG. 1.  
         [0047]    The document generation rule processor  200  is a module for generating the grammar neutral document objects  210  based on the document generation rules  110  made in the document generation rule formulator  100 . As shown in FIG. 4, the document generation rule processor  200  includes a component assembler  201  that processes the assembly rules  111 , and a context processor  202  that processes the context rules  112 .  
         [0048]    The component assembler  201  reads assembly rules in the document generation rules  110 , and using the document component IDs  330 , accumulates from the document component library  300  the document components  320  required in the assembly rules. The component assembler  201  then assembles the document components  320  using the structural information between components, after which the resulting assembled components  203  are output.  
         [0049]    The context processor  202  reads context rules in the document generation rules  110 , and if a specific business context  220  satisfies the conditions of the context rules, applies the designated actions in the assembled components to thereby ultimately generate the grammar neutral document objects  210 .  
         [0050]    As an example of a context condition, “Condition(Geopolitical=‘IT’), Rename(‘Address’, ‘Indirizzo’)” is an instruction to change, in the case where the geopolitical environment of the business document is Italy(IT), the component name of ‘Address’ in the assembled component structure to ‘Indirizzo’, which means address in the Italian language.  
         [0051]    [0051]FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an operation for processing the assembly rules  111  in the component assembler  201  of FIG. 4. The detailed processes involved in reading the assembly rules  111  and assembling the document components  320  are illustrated in the flow chart.  
         [0052]    The component assembler  201  generates a root group to generate an assembly component in step S 501 .  
         [0053]    Next, the component assembler  201  establishes the present location as the root group in step S 502 , reads a subsequent line of an assembly rule in step S 503 , and determines if it is a group generation sentence in step S 504 .  
         [0054]    If not a group generation sentence, the component assembler  201  determines if the next line of the assembly rule is an item generation sentence in step S 505 . If the next line of the assembly rule is not an item generation sentence, the component assembler  201  determines that there is an assembly rule error in step S 506 .  
         [0055]    On the other hand, if the next line of the assembly rule is a group generation sentence, the component assembler  201  determines if the present location is a group in step S 507 . If the present location is a group, the component assembler  201  adds a lower group to the present location in step S 510 , and establishes the present location as the lower group in step S 511 .  
         [0056]    If the present location is not a group, the component assembler  201  determines if the present location is a complex item in step S 508 . If the present location is not a complex item, the component assembler  201  determines that there is an assembly rule error in step S 509 .  
         [0057]    If the present location is a complex item, the component assembler  201  adds a lower group to the present location in step S 510 , and establishes the present location as the lower group in step S 511 .  
         [0058]    In step S 505 , if the line that is read is an item generation sentence, the component assembler  201  determines if the present location is a group in step S 512 . If the present location is a group, the component assembler  201  downloads a component on the basis of a component ID that an item references in step S 515 , then adds the component downloaded to the present location as a new item in step S 516 .  
         [0059]    If the present location is not a group, the component assembler  201  determines if the present location is a complex item in step S 513 . If the present location is a complex item, the component assembler  201  performs steps S 515  and S 516  respectively of downloading a component on the basis of a component ID that an item references and adding the component downloaded to the present location as a new item.  
         [0060]    However, if the present location is not a complex item, the component assembler determines that there is an assembly rule error in step S 514 .  
         [0061]    After the completion of any one of the steps S 509 , S 511 , S 514 , S 516 , and S 506 , the component assembler  201  determines if there is an additional line in step S 517 . If there is an additional line, the process is repeated starting with step S 503 . If there is no additional line, control is given to the context processor  202 .  
         [0062]    [0062]FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an operation for processing the context rules  112  in the context processor  202  of FIG. 4. The detailed processes involved in reading the context rules  112  and generating the document objects  210  are illustrated in the flow chart.  
         [0063]    The context processor  202  reads a subsequent line of a context rule in step S 601 , and determines if it is a conditional sentence in step S 602 .  
         [0064]    If the subsequent line of a context rule is a conditional sentence, the context processor  202  calculates a condition designated in the conditional sentence based on the business context in step S 606 , then determines if the conditional sentence is satisfied in step S 607 .  
         [0065]    If the conditional sentence is satisfied, the context processor  202  reads an action sentence contained in the conditional sentence in step S 608 , then performs an execution sentence designated in the action sentence in step S 609 .  
         [0066]    If the line that is read is not a conditional sentence in step S 602 , the context processor  202  determines if the read line is an action sentence in step S 603 .  
         [0067]    If the read line is an action sentence, the context processor  202  performs an execution sentence designated in the action sentence in step S 609 .  
         [0068]    However, if the read line is not an action sentence, the context processor  202  determines that there is a context rule error in step S 604 .  
         [0069]    Following any one of steps S 604 , S 609 , S 607 , and S 608 , the context processor  202  determines if there is an additional line in step S 605 . If there is an additional line, the process is repeated starting from step S 601 , while if there is no additional line, document generation is discontinued.  
         [0070]    [0070]FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the document grammar connector  400  of FIG. 1.  
         [0071]    With reference to the drawing, the grammar neutral document object  210  generated in the document generation rule processor  200  is a memory structural object in a form suitable for processing in a program of a computer system. The grammar neutral document object  210  is converted into a grammar-connected document object through a grammar converter  401 , which supports grammar (e.g., XML schema, XML DTD, EDI MIG) suitable for a specific business system. Next, the grammar neutral document object  210  is made into a grammar-connected document  410  through a document output unit  402 . The grammar-connected document  410  is used in an actual business and is in the form of a string recognizable by a user.  
         [0072]    In the embodiment of the present invention described above, the differences between business systems are overcome with respect to performing e-business, and the re-usability of business documents is maximized to enable e-business to be performed efficiently.  
         [0073]    Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail hereinabove, it should be clearly understood that many variations and/or modifications of the basic inventive concepts herein taught which may appear to those skilled in the present art will still fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention, as defined in the appended claims.