JPH0939310A - Data transmission apparatus, data processor, printer and data transmission method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To receive the printing demands from a plurality of users without requiring large memory capacity by interrupting the transmission of a file at a point of time when a part of the file is transmitted to a printer by each data processor. SOLUTION: In a data processor 3, a printer driver 32 delivers a part of a document file and the discrimination data of the file to a network driver 33. A printer 1 receivers a part of the file and the discrimination data of the file and a file manager 13 allows both of them to correspond to each other to store the same in a memory 12. A user interface 14 forms a file list on the basis of the discrimination data and addition data to display the same on a display 15. A user designates the file starting printing and the user interface 14 issues a command to the file manager 13 so as to print the designated file. The file manager 13 designates the resumption of the transmission of the residual file on the printer driver 32 and reads the file from the memory 12 to print the same.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transfer in which a plurality of data processing devices and a printer are connected by a network, the data processing device transfers a file to the printer, and the printer receives and prints the transferred file. The present invention relates to a system, a data processing device as a component of the system, a printer, and a data transfer method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a LAN (local area network) has been widely used, and a single printer (including a fax machine) is often shared by a plurality of users. In such a case, if a plurality of users successively send files to the printer, a plurality of files will be concentrated in a short time. Therefore, the printer needs a large-capacity memory capable of temporarily storing a large number of files.

[0003]

However, the memory used in the printer is relatively expensive, and the larger the memory capacity, the higher the cost of the printer. On the other hand, in terms of usage, when documents from multiple users are printed consecutively, they are all stacked on the output tray without sorting by user, so finding their own documents is a hassle. There's a problem.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, the present invention can accept print requests from a plurality of users without requiring a large memory capacity, and can take a self-printed document without miscellaneous printing. Data transfer system,
An object is to provide a data processing device, a printer, and a data transfer method.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in the invention according to claim 1, each data processing device comprises:
When a part of the file is transferred to the printer, the file transfer interrupting means for interrupting the file transfer and the transfer of the remaining file part are restarted when the printer instructs to restart the file transfer. When the printer receives a part of the files transferred from each data processing device, the printer includes a file transfer restarting means, a display means for displaying a file list which is a list of information of the received files, and the displayed files. Within the range of the list, the file specification receiving means that receives the specification of the file to start printing, and when the file specification receiving means receives the file specification, the remaining files are transferred to the data processing device that transferred the specified file. File transfer restart instruction means for issuing an instruction to restart the transfer of the portion of When, characterized by comprising a printing means for printing the file indicated by the designated received files from the storage means.

According to another aspect of the invention, a data transfer system in which a plurality of data processing devices and a printer are connected via a network, the data processing device transfers files to the printer, and the printer receives and prints the transferred files. In the above, when a part of the file is transferred to the printer, the file transfer interrupting means for interrupting the file transfer and the transfer of the remaining file part are instructed by the printer to restart the file transfer. And a means for resuming file transfer for resuming.

According to the invention of claim 4, a file transfer interruption step of interrupting the transfer of the file when each data processing device transfers a part of the file to the printer, and the file transferred from each data processing device. When a part of is received, a display step for displaying a file list that is a list of received file information, and a file specification receiving step for receiving the specification of the file to start printing within the range of the displayed file list, When the file specification is accepted, a file transfer restart instruction step for instructing the data processing device that has transferred the specified file to restart the transfer of the remaining file portion, and the data processing device restarts the transfer of the file from the printer. File transfer resume to resume the transfer of the remaining part of the file when instructed to And steps, characterized by comprising a printing step for printing the file to resume transfers.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a data transfer system as an embodiment of the present invention. The data transfer system includes a printer 1, a network 2,
It comprises a data processing device 3, a data processing device 4, a data processing device 5, and a data processing device 6.

The printer 1 prints and prints files such as documents and images sent via a network 2 described later. The specific configuration of the printer 1 will be described later. The network 2 is composed of, for example, a LAN. The data processing device 3, the data processing device 4, the data processing device 5, and the data processing device 6 are computers such as personal computers and workstations.
The specific configuration will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of the data processing devices 3, 4, ... And the printer 1. Data processing device 3,
4 includes an application 31, a printer driver 32, and a network driver 33. The printer 1 also includes a network driver 11, a memory 12, a file manager 13, a user interface 14, a display 15, a printer controller 16, and a printer engine 17.

In the data processing devices 3, 4, ..., The application 31 creates a document file, receives an instruction to print a document file created by the user, and issues a printing instruction to the printer driver 32. It is an application that has functions. The printer driver 32 receives the print instruction from the application 31 and transfers the file to the network driver 33 to control the print of the file. The details of the control are shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 and will be described in the operation.

The network driver 33 receives a file to be printed from the printer driver 32 and sends it to the printer 1. Also, the instruction signal from the printer 1 is passed to the printer driver 32. In the printer 1, the network driver 11 controls transmission / reception between the printer 1 and the data processing devices 4, 5, ...

The memory 12 is an area for storing files and the like. The file manager 13 controls the memory 12 and manages files such as writing and reading of files. Specifically, it is shown in the control flow chart of FIG. 4, and will be described in the operation. User interface 14
Receives the instruction from the user and controls the printing of the file. The details of the control are shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, and will be described in the operation.

The display 15 displays a file list, which is a list of received file information, under the control of the user interface 14. The file list is
For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a file number 61, a device name 62, a user 63, a reception time 64, and a status 65.
Consists of The file number 61 is a number given to the file. The device name 62 is the device name of the data processing device 3, 4 ... That transmitted the file. User 6
3 is the user name who sent the file. The reception time 64 is the time when the printer 1 received the file. The status 65 is the status of the file. The states include, for example, "printing", which indicates that printing is currently being performed, and "registration", which is a state in which only part of the file is being received.

The printer controller 16 converts the file into a hard copy image, and the printer engine 17
Send to The printer engine 17 prints the file converted into the hard copy image by the printer controller 16 on the paper surface. Next, the file printing operation in the data transfer system will be described with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, 5, and 7.
Will be described with reference to the drawings. Here, FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing the printing operation. The vertical axis indicates the passage of time.

First, in the data processing device 3, the user gives an instruction to the application 31 to print the created document file. The application 31 passes an instruction to print the document file to the printer driver 32. The printer driver 32 receives an instruction to print a document file, as shown in FIG. 3 (step S10).
1). Next, a part of the document file, for example, the first page of the document file and the file identification information are passed to the network driver 33 (step S102). Here, the identification information of the file is, for example, the file number of the file, the device name of its own data processing device, the user name, or the like. A straight line in FIG. 7 (hereinafter referred to as (1)) which is a print sequence diagram indicates that a part of the file and the identification information of the file are passed from the printer driver 32 to the network driver 33. Next, the network driver 33 detects a part of the received file,
The file identification information is transmitted to the printer 1.

In the printer 1, the network driver 1
1 receives a part of the file and the identification information of the file transmitted via the network 2, and passes it to the file manager 13. The file manager 13 stores a part of the received file and the identification information of the file in the memory 12 in association with each other as shown in the control flow of FIG. 4 (steps S201 and S202). Further, the file manager 13 adds additional information such as the received time of reception to the identification information of the received file and notifies the user interface 14 (step S203).
A straight line (2) in the print sequence diagram shown in FIG. 7 indicates that the file manager 13 passes a part of the file and the identification information of the file to the memory 12. The straight line (3) indicates that the file manager 13 passes the file identification information and the like to the user interface 14.

Next, the user interface 14
As shown in the flow chart of FIG. 5, the file identification information and the additional information are received (step S301), and the file list shown in FIG. 6 is created based on the received file identification information and the additional information (step S302). It is displayed on the display 15 (step S303). In this case, as the status 65, a file currently being printed is displayed as "printing", and a file that has received a part of the file is displayed as "registered". The user looks at the displayed file list, confirms his or her own file to start printing, and specifies the file to start printing on the user interface 14. When the user interface 14 receives the designation of the file to start printing from the user (step S304), the user interface 14 instructs the file manager 13 to print the designated file (step S305). The straight line (4) in the print sequence diagram of FIG. 7 indicates that the user interface 14 receives the designation of the file to be printed by the user and issues a file printing instruction to the file manager 13.

When the file manager 13 receives a file print instruction from the user interface 14 as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 (step S204),
An instruction to restart file transfer of the remaining files is issued to the printer driver 32 of the data processing device (step S205). The data processing device is the data processing device designated by the device name of the data processing device included in the identification information of the file for which the printing instruction is given. Simultaneously with the transfer restart instruction, the file manager 13 reads a part of the file for which printing is instructed from the memory 12 and instructs the printer controller 16 to create a hard copy (step S206). The file manager 13 then gives the user interface 14 an instruction that the file is currently being printed. Then, in response to the instruction, the user interface 14 changes the status 65 of the corresponding file from the display "registered" to the display "printing".

Straight line (5) in the print sequence diagram of FIG.
The file manager 13 sends an instruction to restart the file transfer of the remaining files to the network 11, 2, 33.
Is output to the printer driver 32 via. The straight line (6) is the file manager 13
Indicates that a part of the print-instructed file is being read from the memory 12, and the straight line (7) indicates that the file manager 13 instructs the printer controller 16 to create a hard copy. .

Next, the printer driver 32 on the side of the data processing device uses the printer 1 via the network driver 33.
Receives an instruction to restart the file transfer as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 (step S103). The printer driver 32 that has received the file transfer restart instruction transfers the remaining files to the network driver 33 in order to transfer the remaining files (step S104). The remaining files are transferred to the printer 1 by the network driver 33.
Of the network driver 11.

Network driver 11 of printer 1
Received the remaining files and file manager 1
Pass to 3. As shown in the flow chart of FIG. 4, the file manager 13 receives the remaining files (step S207) and prints the remaining files (step S208). Specifically, the printer controller 16 is instructed to make a hard copy while storing the remaining files in the memory 12. The printer engine 17 prints a part of the file for which the hard copy is made and the remaining file on the paper.

When the transfer of all the data of the file is completed, the data processing device notifies the printer 1 that the transfer of the file is completed, as indicated by the straight line (8) in the print sequence diagram of FIG. The file manager 13 of the printer 1 receives the notification that the file transfer is completed via the networks 33, 2 and 11 and is registered in the memory 12 as shown by the straight lines (9) and (10) in FIG. Delete the registration of the file that has
Is also notified to the end of printing. The user interface 14 receives the notification and deletes the display of the corresponding file.

The data transfer system may not always operate as described above but may operate as described above only in a specific case. Specifically, an operation mode switching unit is provided, and in the normal mode, the data processing device transfers the file to the printer without interrupting the transfer of the file as in the normal data transfer system. The printer sequentially stores the received files in the memory and sequentially performs print processing. Then, when the mode is switched to another mode, the operation is performed as in the contents of the above-described embodiment.

[0025]

As described above, according to the invention of claim 1,
When each data processing device transfers a part of the file to the printer, the transfer of the file is interrupted, and the printer receives only the part of the transferred file. The print request from the user can be accepted, and the print is executed only for the specified file. Therefore, there is an effect that it does not take time to find the own document.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the transfer of the file is interrupted when a part of the file is transferred to the printer, and the printer receives only the transferred part of the file. It is possible to receive print requests from a plurality of users without requiring a large memory capacity. According to the invention of claim 3, the printing is executed only for the designated file, so that there is an effect that it does not take time to find the own document.

The invention of claim 4 has the same effect as the invention of claim 1.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a data transfer system as an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a detailed configuration diagram of the data processing devices 3, 4, ... And the printer 1. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a control flow chart of a printer driver 32.

FIG. 4 is a control flow diagram of the file manager 13.

FIG. 5 is a control flow diagram of the user interface 14.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a displayed file list.

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing a printing operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 11 Network Driver 12 Memory 13 File Manager 14 User Interface 15 Display 16 Printer Controller 17 Printer Engine 2 Network 3 Data Processing Device 31 Application 32 Printer Driver 33 Network Driver 4 Data Processing Device 5 Data Processing Device 6 Data Processing Device

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A data transfer system in which a plurality of data processing devices and a printer are connected via a network, the data processing device transfers files to the printer, and the printer receives and prints the transferred files. When a part of a file is transferred to the printer, the data processing device suspends the transfer of the file, and when the printer instructs to restart the transfer of the file, the remaining part of the file is transferred. File transfer resuming means for resuming the transfer of the file, the printer, when receiving a part of the file transferred from each data processing device, a display means for displaying a file list which is a list of the information of the received file. , File specification receiving means for receiving the specification of the file to start printing within the range of the displayed file list. , When the file designation receiving means receives the designation of the file, the file transfer resuming instruction means for instructing the data processing device that has transferred the designated file to resume the transfer of the remaining file portion, and the received file A data transfer system comprising: a storage means for temporarily storing and a printing means for reading a file indicated by a received file designation from the storage means and printing the file. 2. A data transfer system in which a plurality of data processing devices and a printer are connected via a network, the data processing device transfers files to the printer, and the printer receives and prints the transferred files. Copy transfer to the printer when the copy is transferred to the printer, and file transfer restart that restarts the transfer of the remaining part of the file when the printer instructs to restart the file transfer. And a data processing device. 3. A data transfer system in which a plurality of data processing devices and a printer are connected by a network, the data processing device transfers files to the printer, and the printer receives and prints the transferred files. When a part of the file transferred from the device is received, the display means for displaying the file list, which is a list of the information of the received file, and the specification of the file to start printing within the range of the displayed file list are accepted. A file designation receiving means, and a file transfer restart instruction means that, when the file designation receiving means receives a file designation, issues a command to the data processing device that has transferred the designated file to restart the transfer of the remaining file portion. The storage means for temporarily storing the received file and the specification of the received file are shown. Printer, characterized in that a printing means for reading printed by the Airu from the storage means. 4. A data transfer method in which a plurality of data processing devices and a printer are connected by a network, the data processing device transfers a file to the printer, and the printer receives and prints the transferred file. , When each data processing device transfers a part of the file to the printer, the file transfer interruption step of interrupting the file transfer and when the part of the file transferred from each data processing device is received, A display step that displays a file list that is a list of file information, a file specification reception step that receives the specification of the file to start printing within the range of the displayed file list, and a specification step when the file specification is received. To the data processing device that transferred the file to be transferred, restart the transfer of the remaining part of the file. File transfer restart instruction step, and the data processor restarts the transfer of the remaining file portion when the printer instructs the file transfer restart, and the file transfer restart step and the printing of the file for which the transfer is restarted. And a printing step for performing the data transfer method.