JP2004341955A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology to secure a necessary communicating function, and to reduce a communication protocol owned by communication equipment. <P>SOLUTION: This communication equipment 100 uses a WebDAV protocol to provide a resource. The communication equipment 100 stores equipment information in the property of the resource specified by predetermined URL. A client 10 requests the property which can be specified by the URL to the communication equipment 100 to acquire equipment information. Also, when changing the equipment information, the client 10 performs writing in the property which can be specified by URL. Thus, the client 10 can perform writing/reading with a single protocol. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a communication technique, and more particularly to a technique for transmitting information about a predetermined communication device to another communication device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Communication devices having communication functions such as printers, scanners, facsimile machines, and MFPs (Multi Functional Peripherals) have become widespread. These communication devices are connected to a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) and are shared by a plurality of terminals. Generally, in order to use these communication devices, it is necessary to preset various information such as an IP address and registration of a user who uses the communication devices. There is a technology for performing such information setting work from a terminal via a network. (Patent Document 1)
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-186301
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In order to perform a setting operation via a network, a web server is mounted on a communication device, and a setting content transmitted from a terminal is written to a predetermined memory area using, for example, a CGI (Common Gateway Interface). There is a method in which a dedicated communication program is built in and setting contents input from a predetermined communication port are written in a memory area. Since such CGI and communication programs need to be developed for each communication device, the development period tends to be long. In addition, since it is necessary to execute a plurality of CGIs and communication programs, it may be a factor that presses a memory or the like of the communication device.
[0005]
In addition, it is important to grasp device information such as the state and function of a communication device to be communicated in advance in order to perform normal communication. However, in general, the procedure required to acquire the device information differs depending on the type of the communication device and the like, and the communication target is naturally determined. Therefore, in order to realize communication with various communication devices, it is necessary to implement a plurality of communication protocols, which squeezes a memory of the communication device and causes a decrease in security by using a plurality of communication ports. .
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for securing a necessary communication function and reducing a communication protocol of a communication device.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
One embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus having a communication function. The communication device has a unit that holds device information of the device in association with identification information uniquely determined in a network to which the device is connected, a unit that detects a device state of the device, and a device state that has changed. In the case, means for changing information indicating the device state included in the device information to the newly detected device state, and means for transmitting the device information to the request destination when data corresponding to the identification information is requested. Is provided. Thereby, the communication device can provide device information associated with the identification information such as the URL to the external device. The device information may be held as a property of a predetermined resource.
[0008]
The device may further include a receiving unit that receives a change in device information from a device different from the device via the network. Thereby, the external device can also change the device information.
[0009]
The apparatus may further include a unit that authenticates a user who operates a different device, and when the authentication is successful, the receiving unit may receive a change in device information. This allows a user who has the authority to change the device information to change the device information, thereby providing a secure device.
[0010]
It is to be noted that any combination of the above-described components and any conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, and the like are also effective as embodiments of the present invention.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
FIGS. 1A and 1B are configuration diagrams of a communication system 50 including a communication device 100 according to an embodiment. FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a process of acquiring device information from the communication device 100 in the communication system 50. In the present embodiment, the client 10 and the communication device 100 communicate using WebDAV (World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning). WebDAV is a protocol that is an extension of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), and is capable of not only acquiring a file specified by a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) but also performing file operations such as file upload and download.
[0012]
WebDAV introduces new concepts of “property”, “collection”, and “lock” in handling web resources. “Resource” indicates a file or a collection described later, which is a management target in WebDAV. The “collection” is a concept for managing a plurality of resources collectively, and is the same concept as a directory or a folder. The “property” defines the attribute of a resource as a set of a name and a value. The details will be described later, but in the present embodiment, device information is stored using the property. The properties include a live property that can be set and managed by the server and a dead property that can be set and managed by the client. The “lock” is a mechanism for preventing a plurality of clients from writing to one resource.
[0013]
The communication device 100 includes, for example, a communication function of the communication device 100, information such as an address for using the function, a telephone number, a facsimile number, a state of each communication function, an error occurrence state, the number of jobs, and a number of jobs. Device information about the communication device 100, such as status, is held as a property of a predetermined resource. The resource is associated with identification information such as a URL that is uniquely determined on the network. That is, the client 10 can acquire the device information by specifying the URL. Specifically, the client 10 sets “http: // mfp / machine_status” as an argument of a “PROPFIND” command in the WebDAV protocol, and transmits the argument to the communication device 100. As a response, the communication device 100 transmits the device information 12 to the client 10.
[0014]
The device information 12 is in an XML (extensible Markup Language) format, and individual information is surrounded by tags. Since the device information 12 is in the XML format, it is easy to extract individual information, and the client 10 controls the timing at which an operation instruction is given to the communication device 100 based on the individual information included in the device information 12 or uses the timing for communication. Or select a protocol.
[0015]
The device information list 16 is an example of a display example of the device information 12 on the client 10. As described above, a property has a live property and a dead property. Information defined as a live property is displayed in the function information display column 18, and information that cannot be rewritten on the client 10 side is displayed. In the figure, the operation state of the functional resources of the communication device 100 is set as a live property. Information defined as a dead property is displayed in the setting information display column 20, and information that can be rewritten on the client 10 side is displayed.
[0016]
In the figure, the function information display column 18 displays information for specifying the current state of various functions in the communication device 100 such as a telephone line, a scanner, and a printer. The setting information display field 20 displays information such as a source number, a caller name, and an administrator name that can be freely rewritten by the user. These pieces of device information can be appropriately set by the functions of the communication device 100.
[0017]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of response data including the device information 12 of FIG. In this figure, the range surrounded by <a: prop> and </ a: prop> is the property 34, that is, the device information 12. The device status column 30 holds the information of the function information display column 18 of FIG. 1 for each item. The setting information column 32 holds the item information of the setting information display column 20 of FIG. 1 for each item. Since the communication device 100 outputs the device information 12 in such an XML format, the client 10 that has received the device information 12 can easily extract necessary information from the device information 12.
[0018]
Returning to FIG. 1, FIG. 1B is a diagram for explaining a process of setting data in device information. The client 10 transmits the setting information 14 using a command for updating a property holding device information of the communication device 100. Specifically, the client 10 sets “http: // mfp / machine_status” and data to be set as device information in the argument of the “PROPPATCH” command in the WebDAV protocol and transmits the communication device 100 to the communication device 100. This makes it possible to set new data or change data in the device information defined as a dead property. Further, the device settings of the apparatus can be changed only by changing the properties by the same operation as the file operation without performing any special operation.
[0019]
FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of the communication device 100 of FIG. The components of the communication device 100 are mainly the CPU of an arbitrary computer, a memory, a program for realizing the components of the drawing loaded in the memory, a storage unit such as a hard disk for storing the program, an interface for network connection, and the like. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that there are various modifications in the method and apparatus for implementing the method. This figure shows a block of a function unit, not a configuration of a hardware unit.
[0020]
The domain holding unit 104 holds information that uniquely identifies the communication device 100 in the network, such as a domain name, a computer name, and an IP address of the communication device 100. The transmission / reception unit 106 is a functional block that performs communication according to the WebDAV protocol. Upon receiving the PROPFIND command, the transmission / reception unit 106 reads the property of the resource of the URL specified by the command from the file storage unit 102, and outputs it as a response. When receiving the PROPPATCH command, it writes the data specified by the command into the property of the resource of the URL specified by the command. In addition, the transmission / reception unit 106 operates resources stored in the file storage unit 102 based on commands such as COPY, MOVE, and DELETE.
[0021]
The file storage unit 102 stores resources to be managed by WebDAV. In the present embodiment, the file storage unit 102 holds a resource specified by the URL “http: // mfp / machine_status”, and the property of the resource is device information. Accordingly, the device state of the communication device 100 can be managed by an operation of referring to or changing a shared file on the network. In another example, device information may be set in the resource. However, the PROPFIND command of the WebDAV protocol can also extract only the setting information part necessary for processing and output it as a response. Therefore, it is more efficient to use the functions of WebDAV as they are than to develop such functions independently. Of course, there is no problem if you develop your own.
[0022]
Since webDAV is a protocol that is an extension of HTTP, access rights can be set for each file stored in the file storage unit 102. For this reason, by setting passwords for important resources such as device information. For example, only an administrator can make device information rewritable via a network.
[0023]
The authentication unit 108 performs authentication and permits only specific users to provide or update resources and properties. The processing unit 114 may have any of a variety of functions such as a facsimile function, a printer function, a scanner function, a workflow function, a document management function, a program recording function, a program playback function, and an air conditioning function. That is, the communication device 100 may be attached to any device having a communication function. The state detection unit 112 detects the state of the communication device 100 by the processing in the processing unit 114, and when the state has changed, outputs the fact to the update unit 110. For example, when the processing unit 114 has a facsimile function, the state detection unit 112 detects a busy state of a telephone line, a communication state of a network, a transmission state of a facsimile image, a reception state of a facsimile image, and the like. The state detection unit 112 knows in advance the device state to be detected, and notifies the updating unit 110 when the device state is detected. The updating unit updates the data by writing the detected device state to the device information, that is, the property. As a result, the device information whose status changes is constantly updated.
[0024]
The write detection unit 116 detects whether a new write has been performed on the file storage unit 102. For example, the detection may detect that the transmission / reception unit 106 writes to the file storage unit 102, or may compare the storage date and time of the resource with the current date and time and the previous write detection date and time, and If the storage date and time is closer to the current date and time than the date and time, it may be detected as a newly written resource. Then, when writing is detected, the writing detection unit 116 notifies the instruction unit 118. The instructing unit 118 instructs the processing unit 114 to perform a predetermined process according to the content of the writing. For example, when the telephone number and the shortcut button corresponding to each button of the shortcut button are rewritten as the dead property, the instruction unit 118 sends information about the newly changed shortcut button to the module for managing the shortcut button of the processing unit 114. Is read from the file storage unit 102. When the processing unit 114 has a printing function and a new resource is written in the file storage unit 102, the processing unit 114 reads the resource and performs a printing process. Thus, the communication device 100 can be controlled to handle files on the network.
[0025]
The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments are exemplifications, and that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and that such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. . As such a modification, the transmission / reception unit 106 in FIG. 3 may perform communication according to a protocol other than WebDAV to realize the above-described function.
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, acquisition and writing of device information of a communication device can be performed by one protocol.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a process of acquiring device information from a communication device in a communication system, and FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating a process of setting data in the device information. It is.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of response data including the device information of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of the communication device of FIG. 1;
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 10 client, 12 device information, 14 setting information, 16 device information list, 18 function information display column, 20 setting information display column, 30 device status column, 32 setting information column, 50 communication system, 100 communication device, 102 file storage , 104 domain holding unit, 106 transmitting / receiving unit, 108 authentication unit, 110 updating unit, 112 state detecting unit, 114 processing unit, 116 writing detecting unit, 118 indicating unit.

Claims (4)

An apparatus having a communication function,
Means for holding device information of the device in association with identification information uniquely determined in the network to which the device is connected,
Means for detecting a device state of the device;
When the device state has changed, information indicating the device state included in the device information, means for changing to a newly detected device state,
Means for transmitting the device information to a request destination when data corresponding to the identification information is requested,
A communication device comprising: The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the device information is held as a property of a predetermined resource. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising a receiving unit configured to receive a change in the device information from a device different from the device via the network. 4. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: means for authenticating a user who operates the different apparatus, wherein when the authentication is successful, the accepting means accepts a change in the device information.

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