JP2004129246A - Image forming apparatus and application information acquisition method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To acquire application information associated with an application required for judging whether the application is installable or not. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus, in which applications can be installed, is provided with an application information acquisition means for obtaining the application information to be used for judging whether or not an application can be installed in the image forming apparatus. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that provides user services related to image forming processing such as copying, a printer, a scanner, and a facsimile, and relates to an image forming apparatus that obtains application information on an application for which an installation process is performed, and an application information obtaining method. is there.

In recent years, an image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “multifunction peripheral”) in which functions of respective apparatuses such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner are housed in one housing is known. This multifunction peripheral includes a display unit, a printing unit, an imaging unit, and the like in a single housing, and three types of software corresponding to a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine, respectively. Is operated as a printer, copier, scanner or facsimile machine.

In such a conventional multifunction peripheral, all application programs are activated in units of functions such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner. In the case of these existing applications, an installation process for enabling each application to be activated is performed in advance. In other words, in the case of a conventional multifunction device, in the case of an existing application that has been installed in advance, in order to perform an installation process that makes the application bootable, the version consistency between the application and the multifunction device and the amount of resources used are determined in advance. Because I knew it, I only had to perform the installation process normally, start it up and execute it, and there was no need to check the version or resource amount before installation.
JP-A-11-112701

By the way, in such a conventional multifunction peripheral, software corresponding to a printer, a copier, a scanner, and a facsimile machine is separately provided, and therefore, it takes a lot of time to develop each software. For this reason, the applicant has an application that has hardware resources used in image forming processing such as a display unit, a printing unit, and an imaging unit and performs processing specific to each user service such as a printer, a copy or a facsimile. When providing a user service by interposing between a plurality of applications and hardware resources, management, execution control, and image forming processing of hardware resources required by at least two of the applications in common Invented an image forming apparatus (multifunction peripheral) equipped with a platform composed of various control services for performing the following.

In such a new multifunction peripheral, a control service for providing services commonly required by at least two of the applications is provided separately from the application. The third vendor develops a new application and can be installed in a multifunction device. For this reason, in addition to existing applications, such as copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile, which are installed at the time of shipment, new applications developed by users or third vendors that are different from conventional MFPs can be copied to the MFP. After that, it is necessary to perform an installation process so that the application can be started. In the case of the existing applications of the above-mentioned MFPs, the consistency of the version and the amount of resources used are known in advance, so even if the application is installed and started, malfunctions due to version inconsistency or insufficient resources may occur. It is not. However, in the case of a new application developed by a third vendor, etc., the operation of the multifunction device will not be performed when the new application is started because the application has not been developed in consideration of the status (version and resource capacity) of the multifunction device to be installed. May be unstable. Therefore, it is conceivable that if the software is installed for the time being and checked before starting, the operation can be prevented from becoming unstable. However, it is meaningless to install an application that may cause the operation of the multifunction peripheral to become unstable when activated. In this way, if a new MFP that can install a new application starts up without checking the version and resource check of the new application, the operation of the conventional MFP may become unstable or the operation may stop halfway. There are new challenges that did not become a problem with machines.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and is an application necessary for determining whether or not an application can be installed before an installation process in which a new application is mounted on a multifunction peripheral and is activated. It is an object of the present invention to obtain an image forming apparatus and an application information obtaining method capable of obtaining accurate application information regarding the image forming apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is an image forming apparatus configured to be able to install an application, and determines whether or not the application can be installed in the image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus including an application information acquisition unit that acquires application information to be used.

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately determine whether an application can be installed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the application information acquiring unit acquires application information owned by an application in the image forming apparatus.

According to the present invention, the application information obtaining means can obtain accurate information directly from the application.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the application information owned by the application is information included in an execution file of the application. Thus, accurate information can be obtained directly from the application.

The invention according to a fourth aspect is characterized in that, in the second aspect, the application information acquiring unit acquires the application information from a file different from an application in the image forming apparatus. .

According to the present invention, for example, application information can be obtained via a network.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the third aspect, the application information acquiring unit acquires the application information by temporarily activating the application.

According to the present invention, accurate application information can be obtained even for an application that is not normally activated.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the fifth aspect, the application information acquiring unit acquires the application information from the provisionally activated application by inter-process communication.

According to the present invention, accurate application information can be obtained by inter-process communication for an application before normal startup.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the fifth aspect, a step of determining whether the application is to be temporarily activated or to be normally activated based on a request from the application information acquisition unit; In this case, the step of providing the application information to the application information acquisition unit by communicating with the application information acquisition unit causes the image forming apparatus to execute the step.

According to the present invention, since the application is provided with the means for determining whether the application is provisionally activated or normally activated based on a request from the application information acquisition means, it is possible to select whether the application is temporarily activated or normally activated.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the image forming apparatus further includes a storage unit that stores the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit.

According to the present invention, the application information acquired by the application information acquiring unit is stored in the storage unit, so that the acquired application information can be retrieved at any time as needed, so that it can be used like a database. In addition, the time required for obtaining the application information can be reduced, and the processing can be speeded up.

The invention according to claim 9 is the image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the storage means is at least one of a hard disk, a nonvolatile memory, and a memory card such as an SD card. The information acquisition means acquires application information by reading information stored in the storage medium.

According to the present invention, various storage media can be used as storage means for application information, and the storage media can be properly used depending on the situation.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit includes a product ID unique to the application. Features.

According to the present invention, application information can be exchanged easily and quickly based on the product ID, and since the application information can be centrally managed, the reliability of the information can be improved.

The invention according to claim 11 is the image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the application information includes, in addition to the product ID, a vendor name and an application name of a corresponding application, and version information and used resource information. It is characterized by including at least one.

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately judge whether there is a cause of inconsistency in operation due to a lack of resources or consistency of a version, which is a problem when starting an application.

According to a twelfth aspect of the invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the tenth or eleventh aspect, the storage unit stores a product ID of an application that can be installed, and stores the product ID of the application to be determined. It is characterized in that whether or not the application is installable is automatically determined based on whether or not the application is stored in the storage means.

According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically determine whether an application can be quickly and accurately installed with a simple configuration.

In the invention according to claims 13 and 14, the image forming apparatus has a virtual application service, and the virtual application service includes the application information acquisition unit.

The invention according to claims 15 to 26 is an invention of a method for obtaining application information, and has the same operation and effect as the image forming apparatus. The invention according to claims 27 to 28 is an invention of a program for acquiring application information, and has the same operation and effect as the image forming apparatus.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the image forming apparatus acquires the application information, it is possible to determine whether or not the application can be installed using the application information.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an image forming apparatus and an application information acquisition method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “multifunction peripheral”) according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the multifunction peripheral 100 includes a monochrome laser printer (B & W LP) 101, a color laser printer (Color LP) 102, and hardware resources 103 such as a scanner, a facsimile, a hard disk, a memory, and a network interface. In addition, the system includes a platform 120, an application (hereinafter, also referred to as an application) 130, and a software group 110 including a virtual application service (VAS: Virtual @ Application @ Service) 140.

In the present embodiment, a virtual application service (VAS) 140 is arranged between the application 130 and the platform 120. The virtual application service (VAS) 140 operates as a client process using a control service as a server, and operates as a server process using an application as a client. An application information acquisition thread is included in the virtual application service 140. I have. The VAS 140 acquires application information and performs generation of the application information file on a hard disk (HD) 200 as a storage unit before performing an installation process for starting a certain application. As an example of the application information to be acquired, here, the product information is acquired, and the product ID, the vendor name, the application name, the version, the contact information (telephone number), the necessary resources, the installation judgment, and the related application information are obtained. And so on. This product information is stored in an application execution file, obtained as a file via a network, or previously obtained product information is stored in the hard disk 200, the NVRAM 104 which is a nonvolatile memory, and the application information table 106 dedicated to the application. If the product information is stored in such a location, it can be used by reading the product information.

The application information in the application execution file can be acquired by the VAS 140 by inter-process communication between the VAS 140 and the application when the VAS 140 temporarily starts the application.

Further, the application itself is copied to the hard disk 200 of the multifunction peripheral 100 or copied via various data cards such as a PC card, an IC card, and an SD card, and is then subjected to an installation process for enabling the application to be started. become. In the present embodiment, before performing an installation process, application information that is information on an application is acquired, and it is determined whether or not the application can be installed based on the application information. Whether this installation process is possible or not depends on whether the application is started after the installation process, because of the lack of resources in relation to the existing application of the installed MFP and other installed new applications. This depends on whether the operation of the multifunction peripheral itself may become unstable or stop due to a problem such as version consistency. The reason for making such a determination is that it is meaningless to install an application that cannot be started, and that if installed, it will hinder the operation of the multifunction peripheral itself if it is started by mistake.

The platform 120 interprets a processing request from an application to generate a hardware resource acquisition request, and a system resource manager that manages one or more hardware resources and arbitrates the acquisition request from the control service. (SRM) 123 and a general-purpose OS 121.

The control service is formed from a plurality of service modules, and includes an SCS (system control service) 122, an ECS (engine control service) 124, an MCS (memory control service) 125, an OCS (operation panel control service) 126, and an FCS. (Fax control service) 127 and NCS (network control service) 128. Note that the platform 120 has an application program interface (API) that enables a processing request from the application 130 to be received by a predefined function.

The general-purpose OS 121 is a general-purpose operating system such as UNIX (registered trademark), and executes each software of the platform 120 and the application 130 in parallel as a process.

The process of the SRM 123 controls the system and manages resources together with the SCS 122. The process of the SRM 123 uses hardware resources such as an engine such as a scanner unit and a printer unit, a memory, an HDD file, and host I / O (centro I / F, network I / F, IEEE 1394 I / F, RS232C I / F, etc.). Arbitration is performed according to a request from the upper layer to be used, and execution is controlled.

Specifically, the SRM 123 determines whether the requested hardware resource is available (whether it is not used by another request), and if it is available, the requested hardware resource is used. Inform the upper layer that it is possible. The SRM 123 also schedules use of hardware resources in response to a request from an upper layer, and directly implements the contents of the request (for example, paper transport and image forming operation, memory reservation, file generation, and the like by a printer engine). .

The SCS 122 process performs application management, operation unit control, system screen display, LED display, resource management, interrupt application control, and the like.

The process of the ECS 124 controls an engine of hardware resources including a monochrome laser printer (B & W LP) 101, a color laser printer (Color LP) 102, a scanner, a facsimile, and the like.

The MCS 125 process acquires and releases an image memory, uses a hard disk drive (HDD), and compresses and expands image data.

The process of the FCS 127 includes facsimile transmission / reception using PSTN / ISDN from each application layer of the system controller, registration / quotation of various facsimile data managed by BKM (backup SRAM), facsimile reading, facsimile reception printing, fusion transmission / reception. Provides an API to do so.

The process of the NCS 128 is a process for providing a service that can be used in common to applications requiring network I / O, and distributes data received from the network according to each protocol to each application, or distributes data from the application to the data. Mediation when sending to the network side. Specifically, it has server daemons such as ftpd, httpd, lpd, snmpd, telnetd, and smtpd, and a client function of the same protocol.

The process of the OCS 126 controls an operation panel (operation panel) 105 which is a means for transmitting information between an operator (user) and main body control. The OCS 126 acquires a key press from the operation panel 105 as a key event, and transmits a key event function corresponding to the acquired key to the SCS 122, and various screens on the operation panel in response to a request from the application 130 or the control service. And a function for controlling the operation panel and the like, which are registered in advance in the OCS library. This OCS library is implemented by being linked to each module of the application 130 and the control service. Note that all of the OCS 126 may be configured to operate as a process, or all of the OCS 126 may be configured as an OCS library.

The application 130 includes a printer application 111 that is a printer application having a page description language (PDL), PCL, and PostScript (PS), a copy application 112 that is a copy application, and a fax application 113 that is a facsimile application. , A scanner application 114 as a scanner application, a network file application 115 as a network file application, and a process inspection application 116 as a process inspection application. Each of these applications is an application specific to the multifunction peripheral (specific to the image forming apparatus), and transmits an application registration request message together with the process ID of its own process to the VAS 140 at the time of startup. Registration processing for the activated application is performed.

Each process of the application 130 and each process of the control service realize user services related to image forming processing such as copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile while performing inter-process communication by transmitting a function call, transmitting a return value thereof, and transmitting and receiving a message. are doing.

As described above, in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment, there are a plurality of applications 130 and a plurality of control services, all of which operate as processes. Then, one or a plurality of threads are generated inside each of these processes, and the threads are executed in parallel. Then, the control service provides a common service to the application 130. For this reason, these many processes perform parallel operation and thread parallel operation, perform inter-process communication with each other, and perform cooperative operation. User services related to image forming processes such as copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile are provided. In addition, the MFP 100 allows a third party such as a third vendor to develop and install new applications 117 and 118 in the application layer above the control service layer. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the new applications 117 and 118 are mounted.

In the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment, a plurality of processes of the application 130 and a plurality of processes of the control service are operating. However, the application 130 and the control service process each have a single configuration. Is also possible. Further, each application 130 can be added or deleted for each application.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a hardware configuration of the multifunction peripheral 100.

The multifunction peripheral 100 includes a controller 160, an operation panel 175, a fax control unit (FCU) 176, and an engine unit 177 that is a hardware resource specific to image forming processing such as a printer. The controller 160 includes a CPU 161, a system memory 162, a north bridge (NB) 163, a south bridge (SB) 164, an ASIC 166, a local memory 167, a HDD 168, a network interface card (NIC) 169, and an SD card. , A USB device 171, an IEEE 1394 device 172, and a Centronics 173. Note that the memories 162 and 167 include a RAM, a ROM, and the like. The FCU 176 and the engine unit 177 are connected to the ASIC 166 of the controller 160 via a PCI bus 178.

(4) The CPU 161 reads out a program such as an application and a control service installed in the multifunction peripheral 100 from the memory and executes the program.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the VAS 140 of the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment and the relationship between the VAS 140, each application, the control service layer 150, and the general-purpose OS 121. Although FIG. 3 shows the printer application 111, the copy application 112, and the new applications 117 and 118 as examples of the application 130, other applications have the same configuration.

The processes of the virtual application service (VAS) 140 include a dispatcher 145, a control thread 144, an application information acquisition thread 141 as application information acquisition means, a screen display thread 142 for generating an operation screen for an operation panel, and An application check thread 143 that checks whether or not an application can be installed based on the acquired application information is operating.

The dispatcher 145 monitors reception of a message from the application 130 or the control service, and issues a processing request to the control thread 144, the application information acquisition thread 141, the screen display thread 142, and the application check thread 143 according to the received message. It is. In the multifunction peripheral 100 of the present embodiment, when the dispatcher 145 receives an application activation request message for an application installed from the control service, the dispatcher 145 transmits the received application activation request message to the control thread 144, and the control thread 144 Processing requests are made to the application information acquisition thread 141, the screen display thread 142, and the application check thread 143.

The control thread 144 receives the application activation request message from the dispatcher 144, and performs an application information acquisition process, a screen display process, and an application check process. Here, the application check process is a process of checking whether or not there is a possibility of affecting the MFP when the application is started after installation. For example, by acquiring the application information of the application that requested the installation and the application information of the other installed applications, and performing a version check and resource check, it is possible to determine whether the operation will not be affected even if it is started after installation. It is possible to make a judgment. At this time, the screen display thread 142 displays the application information of each application on the operation panel 105 using the application information stored in the application information file 201 in the hard disk (HD) 200. You can grasp the situation. Therefore, even if the application check thread 143 determines that the installation is not possible, it is possible to understand the reason why the installation could not be performed.

(4) The control thread 143 controls an uninstallation process or the like that is determined to be installable by the application check thread 143 or, as described later, deletes an installed application when it becomes unnecessary.

When the application information acquisition thread 141 receives the processing request from the control thread 143, the application information acquisition thread 141 acquires application information in a state where inter-process communication is possible by temporarily starting the application before installation. In addition, by activating the installed application, application information can be obtained by inter-process communication. In this way, the obtained application information of each application is generated on the hard disk (HD) 200 as the application information file 201. Such application information is recorded as a record for each application.

The program of the VAS 140 is a file in a format executable or installable on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM or FD (flexible disk) as a part or all of a software development kit (SDK: Software Development Kit) or the like. Provided. Further, the program file of the VAS 140 in such an executable format or an installable format may be provided by a method that can be obtained via a network.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the VAS 140, the hard disk 200 storing application information, the application information table 106, and the NVRAM 104. As shown in FIG. 4, the product information stored in the hard disk 200 is managed for each application, and if the product ID can be specified, the corresponding application information can also be specified. The hard disk 200 stores data of the application A and the application C before installation copied to the multifunction peripheral, and the application B performs an installation process using data stored in an IC card or the like. Is what you do. F indicated by a broken line in FIG. 4 indicates an executable file group located at a specific path.

The NVRAM 104 is a non-volatile memory that retains the memory contents even when the power is turned off, and stores a product ID, startup information, and additional information for each application, such as an application A and an application B. Information is recorded in the NVRAM 104 by performing an application installation process. Information indicating whether or not the application is activated when the power is turned on is set as activation information.

ア プ リ The application information table stores information on applications as table data for each application. Therefore, if the product ID of the application A is input, application information such as the application name, version, and install attribute of the application A can be extracted. Then, display on the operation panel and the like can be performed.

FIG. 5 is an overall flowchart when an installation process or an uninstallation process is performed on an application in the multifunction peripheral of this embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a subroutine of the application information acquisition process in step S401 in FIG. It is.

First, in step S401 in FIG. 5, the dispatcher 145 requests the application information acquisition thread 141 via the control thread 144 to perform application information acquisition processing for an application before installation or for an installed application. The application information thread 141 performs an application information acquisition process in FIG. 6 described below to generate the application information file 201.

In step S401, the control thread 144 reads application information from the generated application information file 201, generates an operation screen to be displayed on the operation panel 105, and performs screen display (step S402). This display screen displays information such as the application name, version, and resources related to the copied application along with the information. In addition, the user simply made a selection along the selection screen, and the installation was enabled or disabled. The situation and the like in the case can be understood by the screen display. The user performs a selection process according to the screen display.

After all the items have been selected by the user, in step S403, after waiting for a user operation (step S403), it is determined whether or not there is a user request (step S404). Here, the user's request is either an application installation request or an application uninstallation request. If the user request is permitted by installation, registration processing is performed on the NVRAM 104 shown in FIG. 4 (step S405). If the user request is uninstallation, the application is deleted by deleting the application information from the NVRAM 104 shown in FIG. 4 (step S406).

FIG. 6 describes in detail the application information acquisition processing operation in FIG. Since application information cannot be acquired as it is for an application before installation or before activation, the VAS 140 temporarily activates the application for which information is to be acquired (step S501), and transmits desired information by inter-process communication. By requesting, application information can be obtained. In the present embodiment, when a product ID that allows unified management of application information is requested and acquired (step S502), it is known by referring to the NVRAM 104 whether the application is a registered application (step S502). S503).

If it is not registered in the NVRAM 104, it is determined whether there is a product information file (step S504). If there is no product information, various kinds of information are obtained from the application using inter-process communication (step S505). Thus, after the product information file is generated (step S506), the installation determination process is performed (step S507). Then, the result of the determination processing is reflected on the product information (step S508). The installation determination is performed, for example, by comparing the used resource information acquired from the application with the resource information of the system.

Then, in step S509, whether or not the installation is possible is determined based on the determination result. If there is a product information file in step S504, application information is obtained from the product information (step S510), and determination information at the time of installation is obtained (step S511). It is determined whether installation is possible.

If it is determined in step S509 that installation is possible, an installable flag is set (step S512), and writing to the application information table is performed (step S516). If installation is not possible, an installation impossible flag is set (step S513), and writing to the application information table is performed (step S516). Further, in the above-mentioned step S503, in the case of an application whose product ID is registered in the NVRAM 104, application information is obtained from the NVRAM 104 (step S514), and an installed flag is set (step S515). Writing to the application information table is performed (step S516).

If the processing for all applications is not completed, the process returns to step S501 again, and the above processing is repeated until the processing for all applications is completed.

As described above, in the MFP 100 of the present embodiment, when installing a new application, the application information is acquired for all applications using the application information acquisition thread 141 of the virtual application service 140. However, based on the acquired application information, it is possible to accurately grasp the operation status when the application is started after the installation, and even when the application is started after the installation, the operation of the multifunction device becomes unstable. It is possible to prevent a situation in which the operation stops.

Next, the temporary activation of the application will be described in more detail. The provisional activation is different from the normal activation of the application that uses the resources of the multifunction peripheral (the activation for performing the original function of the application is called the normal activation). In the provisional activation, the application does not acquire resources such as memory reservation necessary for the original operation of the application, and performs only the process of inter-process communication with the VAS. Then, the application provides information to the VAS. The provisionally activated application process ends when the communication process with the VAS ends. Further, the function related to the provisional activation of the application is a function common to the application operating in the MFP according to the present embodiment, regardless of the original function of the application. Therefore, for example, when a vendor develops an application, the vendor can be provided with a program template including a function of provisional activation, and the vendor can use the program template to develop an application for a multifunction peripheral. The above-described application information can be included in an application execution file, for example, when a vendor creates an include file in which application information is recorded and includes the file when compiling the application.

(4) Since the application has the function of provisional activation, the application information can be provided to the VAS through communication with the VAS without performing the normal activation, and the VAS can check whether the VAS can be installed.

FIG. 7 shows an outline of a program description (main function) of an application including a function of provisional activation. This description is provided as the above program template.

(7) As shown in FIG. 7, this program description specifies whether the application is provisionally activated or normally activated by an argument (-v). Thereby, when the VAS starts the application, the normal start and the temporary start can be easily used properly. That is, when the provisional activation is designated using the argument (-v), the provisional activation is executed, and the application information providing process is performed. If provisional activation is not specified, normal activation is performed to perform the original operation of the application.

In the above embodiment, the VAS acquires information from the application to determine whether or not to install the application, and registers the application. However, as shown in the sequence of FIG. After the determination, the VAS makes an inquiry to the application as to whether the installation of the application may be started (step S601). When the application returns a notice of the installation permission to the VAS in response to the inquiry ( Step S602), the VAS may register the application (step S603).

Note that the application may acquire system information (resource information or device configuration information, etc.) from the VAS between step S601 and step S602, and the application may determine whether or not installation is possible based on the information. .

Note that the VAS can acquire the application information in addition to the method of acquiring the application information included in the executable file of the application. In this method, for example, the application information is created in a file different from the application, and the contents of the file are read by the VAS. By providing the file on a server external to the multifunction peripheral, application information can be obtained via a network.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified and applied within the scope of the claims.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a VAS of the multifunction peripheral according to the present embodiment and a relationship between the VAS, each application, a control service layer, and a general-purpose OS. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a VAS and a hard disk storing application information, an application information table, and NVRAM. 5 is an overall flowchart in a case where an installation process or an uninstallation process is performed on an application in the multifunction peripheral of the present embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing a subroutine of an application information acquisition process in step S401 in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a program description (main function) of an application including a function of provisional activation. It is a figure which shows negotiation of VAS and an application.

Explanation of reference numerals

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 MFP 101 Black and white laser printer 102 Color laser printer 104 NVRAM
105 operation panel 110 software group 111 printer application 112 copy application 113 fax application 114 scanner application 115 net file application 116 process inspection application 117, 118 new application 120 platform 121 general-purpose OS
122 SCS
123 SRM
124 ECS
125 MCS
126 OCS
127 FCS
128 NCS
130 Application 140,841-848 Virtual Application Service (VAS)
141 Application information acquisition thread 142 Screen display thread 143 Application check thread 144 Control thread 145 Dispatcher 150 Control service layer 200 Hard disk (HD)
201 Application information file

Claims (28)

An image forming apparatus configured to be able to install an application,
An image forming apparatus comprising: an application information acquisition unit configured to acquire application information used to determine whether an application can be installed in the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the application information acquiring unit acquires application information owned by an application in the image forming apparatus. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the application information owned by the application is information included in an execution file of the application. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the application information acquiring unit acquires the application information from a file different from an application in the image forming apparatus. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the application information acquisition unit acquires the application information by temporarily starting the application. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the application information acquisition unit acquires the application information from the provisionally activated application by inter-process communication. The application is
Based on a request from the application information acquisition means, to determine whether to provisionally start or normal start,
6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, in the case of temporary activation, the image forming apparatus executes the step of providing application information to the application information acquiring unit by communicating with the application information acquiring unit. apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit configured to store the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit. The storage means is at least one of a hard disk, a nonvolatile memory, and a memory card,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the application information acquisition unit acquires application information by reading information stored in the storage medium. 10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the application information acquired by the application information acquisition unit includes a product ID unique to the application. 11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, in addition to the product ID, the application information includes at least one of a vendor name and an application name of a corresponding application, version information, and used resource information. The storage unit stores a product ID of an application that can be installed, and automatically determines whether the application is an installable application based on whether the product ID of the application to be determined is stored in the storage unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein: Hardware resources used in the image forming process,
A control service for controlling hardware resources,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a virtual application service that operates as a client process using the control service as a server and operates as a server process using the application as a client. 14. The image forming apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the virtual application service includes the application information acquisition unit. A method used in an image forming apparatus configured to be able to install an application,
A method comprising: acquiring application information used to determine whether an application can be installed on the image forming apparatus. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein, in the application information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains application information owned by an application in the image forming apparatus. 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the application information owned by the application is information included in an execution file of the application. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein, in the application information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains the application information from a file different from an application in the image forming apparatus. 18. The method according to claim 17, wherein, in the application information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains the application information by temporarily starting the application. 20. The method according to claim 19, wherein, in the application information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains the application information from the provisionally activated application by inter-process communication. The application is
A step of determining whether to temporarily start or to start normally based on the request;
Providing the application information in the case of a provisional activation by the image forming apparatus. 16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising: storing the application information in a storage unit. The storage means is at least one of a hard disk, a nonvolatile memory, and a memory card,
23. The method according to claim 22, wherein, in the application information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains application information by reading information stored in the storage medium. 24. The method according to claim 15, wherein the application information includes a product ID unique to the application. 25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the application information includes at least one of a vendor name and an application name of the corresponding application, version information, and used resource information in addition to the product ID. The storage unit stores a product ID of an application that can be installed, and the image forming apparatus determines whether the application is an installable application based on whether the product ID of the application to be determined is stored in the storage unit. The method according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the determination is automatically made. An image forming apparatus configured to be able to install an application,
A program that functions as an application information acquisition unit that acquires application information used to determine whether an application can be installed in the image forming apparatus. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 27 is recorded.

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