Patent ID: 8312282

Claim:
An information processing apparatus which outputs a structured document including a plurality of structural elements, the apparatus comprising: a storage unit that stores attribute information in association with an output destination of the structured document, the attribute information indicating which structural element among the plurality of structural elements is to be a target of electronic signature verification; and an inserting unit that generates tree data with reference to the attribute information corresponding to the output destination and inserts the generated tree data into the structured document to be output, wherein the tree data indicates a tree-shaped structure of the plurality of structural elements included in the structured document to be output and, in the tree data, performance of electronic signature verification is defined with respect to a structural element to be the target of electronic signature verification, wherein the structured document includes, as structural elements of the plurality of structural elements, meta information and a document, and wherein in the case where the output destination is a first output destination, the structural element of the plurality of structural elements indicating the meta information is not the target of electronic signature verification and the structural element indicating the document is the target of electronic signature verification, and in the case where the output destination is a second output destination, for which security is higher than for the first output destination, the structural elements indicating the meta information and the document are the targets of electronic signature verification.