JP2001022548A - Printing processing system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a printing processing system which reduces the labor and time of information transfer between computers or between a computer and a printer and a data amount flowing on a network and also improves the convenience of a user, and to provide a printing processing method. SOLUTION: When a representative server 106 connected to a network receives a request of a print job to a plurality of printers 102, 107, 108 and 109 from a user operating a client computer 101, the server 106 decides the opposite party to which the print job is transmitted among print servers 103 to 105 controlling the printer 102 or the printers 107 to 109 according to prescribed decision reference, thereby executing the printing by the opposite party.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a print processing system including a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a network and a computer, and a processing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when one or a plurality of printers are used on a network, which one of the printers existing on the network is used on a client computer that uses the printer is a situation at that time. Or, it is determined by a dynamic selection using an automatic selection based on a setting previously set by the user.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, it is troublesome for the user to always judge the situation at the time himself and to select a printer as an output destination in accordance with the situation. There were situations where the number of output destinations increased or the output destination was selected by mistake.

[0004] Further, even when the conventional automatic determination of the output destination is used, a computer used by a user and each printer or a computer directly connected to the printer are exchanged. As the number of computers and printers that make up the network increases,
The number of such combinations increases exponentially, and there is a problem in that the labor for exchanging the latest information of the printer and the computer also increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and reduces the trouble of exchanging information between computers or computers and printers and the amount of data flowing on a network, and at the same time reduces the number of users. It is an object to provide a print processing system and a processing method thereof with improved convenience.

[0006]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processing system comprising a plurality of printing apparatuses and a computer connected to a network, the printing processing system comprising a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to the network. It has a proxy server that manages the apparatus and processes a print request from the computer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing a print processing system including a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a network and a computer. A print request to the printing device is received, and a destination to which the print request is transmitted is determined.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a print processing system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, 10
Reference numeral 1 denotes a client computer to which no printer is connected. A printer 102 is directly connected to a network. Reference numerals 103, 104, and 105 denote computers (print servers) that control the connected printers 107, 108, and 109, respectively, and the printers can be used from other computers on the network as those that can be shared on the network. Control. Here, as a shared printer that can be used from the client computer 101,
It is assumed that the printers 107, 108, and 109 cannot be viewed.

Reference numeral 106 denotes a proxy server. In a network system configured as shown in FIG.
Information regarding printers available in the network system is centrally managed. Here, it is assumed that the client computer 101 can see the sharable printer existing on the network only through the proxy server 106. In the present embodiment, when the client computer 101 on the network requests a print job from the print server on the network, the client computer 101 communicates with the proxy server 106 managing on the network before actually issuing the request. Then, a printer or a computer (print server) that controls the printer is selected based on the information obtained by the communication.

The printing process in the printing system having the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a print request process according to the present embodiment. When the user of the client computer 101
When printing is performed using an application program or the like that operates on the above, first, in step S101, control software that operates on the client computer 101 instructs the proxy server 106 to each of the printers 102, 107, 108, and 109 at that time. Then, communication is performed to request information of the print servers 103, 104, and 105. Then, in step S102, the proxy server 106 receives the request sent from the client computer 101, and in step S103, in accordance with the received request, information about the sharable printer existing on the managed network is sent to the client computer 101. I will send it back.

Next, in step S104, the client computer 101 sets the proxy server 106
In step S105, based on the received information, the user selects a printer or a print server from the client computer 101 for actually requesting a print job to be used in the current session. Then, in step S106, a communication path with the printer or print server that is the destination of the print job determined in step S105 is opened, and whether the communication path has been opened without any trouble or the print job to be transmitted from the client computer 101 is determined. Check that printing is not hindered.

Next, in step S107, the printer or print server selected for some reason such as a network failure and the client computer 10
The communication path cannot be opened with the printer 1 or some abnormality has occurred in the printer or print server.
If the client computer 101 is notified to that effect, the client computer 101 gives up the request for the print job to the determined destination, returns to step S101 to determine another destination, and returns to the proxy server again. Communication with 106 is performed.

Thereafter, the destination to which the print job is requested is determined, and if there is no problem in the determination in step S107, the process proceeds to step S108, where the print data of the user is transmitted to the determined printer or print server, and the actual printing is performed. Execute At the same time, the user is notified of which printer has been selected, and the process ends.

[Other Embodiments] Next, other embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The configuration of the entire system in the other embodiment is the same as that of the above-described embodiment, and will be used.

In another embodiment, the print data is first sent to the proxy server 106, and the proxy server 106
Determines the destination to which a print job is requested, and sends print data to the destination.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a print request process according to another embodiment. When the user of the client computer 101
When printing is performed using an application program or the like that runs on the client computer 101, in step S101, control software that runs on the client computer 101 instructs the proxy server 106 to run on the client computer 101 and to be operated by the user. Print data generated by the application program. In step S202, the print data received by the proxy server 106 is
06 is temporarily stored in a RAM or a hard disk. In parallel with the reception of this print data, step S203
, The proxy server 106 determines a printer that actually outputs the print data. The criterion at this time may be the number of prints per minute of the printer, the type of color / monochrome, or the physical distance between the user and the printer. The details of the criterion are omitted because it is not the target.

Next, when the output destination of the print data is determined, the process proceeds to step S204, where a communication path to the selected printer or print server is opened to prepare for job transmission. In addition, check the status of the selected printer,
In step S205, it is checked that printing has not been disabled due to jamming or running out of paper.

If it is determined in step S205 that the selected printer has a failure in printing, the process returns to step S203, and another printer is determined as a candidate. Thereafter, the above processing is performed, and step S20
If it is determined in the inspection of No. 5 that there is no failure in printing, the process proceeds to step S206, and the print data temporarily stored in step S202 is transmitted to the destination selected in step S203 in order to actually print the data. And send it out.

Here, the proxy server 106 may monitor the state of the transmission destination at each section, such as each page, to determine whether there is any abnormality, or only to determine what the final result is. Attention may be paid so that all the print data is transmitted via the transmission path for the time being.

Next, in step S207, the proxy server 106 receives the final print result from the printer or print server used for printing, and transmits the print result to the client computer 101 that issued the print data. Upon receiving the print result, the client side also completes the print processing.

The proxy server 106 can receive print jobs from a plurality of client computers connected on the network. For example, the proxy server 106 sets priorities for each user or each computer, and simultaneously sets print jobs. May be regarded as one of items to be considered when selecting a printer or a print server as a printing destination.

When printing, the proxy server 10
Instead of making all decisions on the 6 side, the proxy server 106
May be presented to the user operating the client computer 101, and the user may make a selection. In this case, although there is some loss as compared with the case where all are determined on the proxy server 106 side, the load on the network is reduced as compared with the case where individual computers and printers on the network exchange information with each other. It is possible.

The present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), and can be applied to a single device (for example, a copier, a facsimile). Device).

An object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (CPU or MP) of the system or apparatus.
It goes without saying that U) can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
A ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By allocating a proxy server on the network that collectively acquires and manages information on printers and computers that control printers on the network, it is only necessary to select only the proxy server when selecting users, and the user himself / herself at the time of printing The effect that the situation in which the user has to select a printer is eliminated is obtained. At the same time, by centrally managing information, the situation is that the entire information cannot be obtained unless all the individual computers, printers, and computers controlling the printers communicate with all other than themselves on the network. Is eliminated, and the effect of suppressing the amount of information flowing on the network can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a print request process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a print request process according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 client computer 102 printer 103 print server 104 print server 105 print server 106 proxy server 107 printer 108 printer 109 printer

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A print processing system comprising a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a network and a computer, wherein the proxy server manages the plurality of printing apparatuses connected to the network and processes a print request from the computer. A print processing system comprising: 2. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the proxy server, when receiving a print request from a user who operates the computer, notifies the user of information on the plurality of printing apparatuses. . 3. The proxy server retains information and settings relating to a user who uses the network in a storage unit, and upon receiving a print request from the user, executes the printing based on a different criterion for each user. The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein a destination to which the request is sent is determined. 4. The print processing system according to claim 3, wherein the proxy server obtains information and settings relating to a user who uses the network via the network. 5. A processing method of a print processing system including a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a network and a computer, wherein a printing request for the plurality of printing apparatuses connected to the network is received from the computer, and the printing is performed. A processing method for a print processing system, wherein a destination to which a request is sent is determined.