Patent ID: 7984027

Claim:
A document management server configured to communicate with an image processing apparatus and a client apparatus via a communication medium, and manage a document read by the image processing apparatus, the document management server comprising: a management unit configured to manage a first document of which document entity data and document property information are stored in the document management server, wherein the entity data and the property information are managed in correlation with each other, and a second document of which document entity data is not stored in the document management server but stored in the image processing apparatus that reads the document and of which document property information and information indicating a place where the entity data is stored are stored in the document management server, wherein the property information and the information indicating a place where the entity data is stored are managed in correlation with each other by discriminating each other; a receiving unit configured to receive a document registration request for requesting registration of the document read by the image processing apparatus as an object managed by the management unit, the document registration request including at least the document property information; a registration unit configured to register the property information and the document entity data such that the document, which is registered as an object managed by the management unit according to the document registration request, is managed by the management unit as the first document when the document entity data, in addition to the document property information, is included in the registration request, and to register the property information, information indicating the storage destination of the document entity data in the image processing apparatus where the document entity data is stored, and information for determining authority to the document entity data such that the document, which is registered as the object managed by the management unit according to the document registration request, is managed by the management unit as the second document when the document entity data is not included in the document registration request; a first reply unit configured to receive a request from the client apparatus that requires the document entity data of the second document registered in the registration unit and transmit information indicating a storage destination of the document entity data to the client apparatus; and a second reply unit configured to receive, from the image processing apparatus storing the document entity data of the document, inquiry information about authority to the document entity data of the second document registered in the registration unit, and determine authority to the document entity data of the second document with reference to information for determining authority to the registered document based on the inquiry information, and transmit the determined authority to the image processing apparatus.