JPH11249849A - Printing support system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system having a high degree of freedom in a print format or the like when printing data received from a server by a client. SOLUTION: A picture data preparing means 32a prepares data for displaying a picture including a print selection item. The prepared picture data are transmitted to a user terminal 10 by a WWW server 31. At the user terminal 10, the received picture data are displayed and when the selection of printing is inputted, a printing instruction control means 10b transmits this selection to the side of a server 30. Based on the designated printing selection input, a printing data preparing means 32b of the server 30 prepares printing data. The prepared printing data are transmitted to the user terminal 10 by the WWW server 31. At the user terminal 10, a printing control means 10c instructs printing to the printing data received from the server 30 and a printer 11 prints these data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a print support system for converting a print format when a client receives print data from a server via a network and prints the print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, on a user terminal connected to the Internet as a network, a WWW (World Wide WWW) is used.
eb) The HTML page on the server is read, this page is displayed on the browser of the user terminal, and the displayed content is printed using the print function of the browser.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, since printing was performed only by the print function of the browser, there were the following problems.

Since the content displayed on the browser is printed as it is as image data, the print position and print size cannot be changed. In addition, even in the case of document printing, etc.
The number of lines, the number of lines per page, the font of characters, etc. could not be changed. Further, it has not been possible to change the print content with respect to the display content on the screen. For example, even if it is desired to print only certain information with respect to the display contents related to the database, it cannot be printed without displaying it on a browser.

[0005] In view of the above, there has been a demand for a system capable of freely setting a print format and the like in print processing on the user terminal side.

[0006]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above-mentioned problems. <Configuration of Claim 1> A printing support system in which a client and a server are connected via a network, and the client performs control when printing data of the server.
An information storage unit that stores original data for printing; a screen data creation unit that creates screen data for displaying a print designation unit on a client screen;
If you receive print specification information from the client,
Print data creating means for creating print data corresponding to the print designation information by using the original data of the information storage unit, wherein the client displays any screen data including the print designation unit received from the server. When there is a print designation input, print instruction control means for sending print designation information corresponding to the print designation input to the server, and when print data is received from the server, print control for giving a print instruction for the print data. And a printing support system.

<Description of Claim 1> A system in which a client and a server are connected via a network is, for example, a system including a WWW server and a WWW browser for exchanging HTML format files via the Internet. In addition, a client / server system connected by a LAN or the like may be used.

The screen including the print designation section is a screen provided with a print button and the like in the screen separately from the print button of the browser. In the client, when an arbitrary print designation is made by the user while such a screen is displayed, the print instruction control unit transmits print designation information corresponding to the print designation to the server. On the server side, based on the received print designation information, the print data creating unit extracts necessary information from the information storage unit and creates print data. Then, the print data is returned to the client and printing is performed.

With such a configuration, it is possible to freely change the print format such as the print position and the print size independently of the print function of the browser. Further, it is possible to print a content different from the content of the display screen of the browser.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing support system in which a client and a server are connected via a network and the client controls printing of data of the server. An information storage unit for storing data, a screen data creation unit for creating screen data for displaying a print designation unit including an output instruction to the facsimile apparatus on a screen of the client, and receiving print designation information from the client If the facsimile machine is designated as the print output destination, the print data creation means for creating print data corresponding to the print designation information using the original data in the information storage unit and the print data creation means Facsimile transmission means for transmitting print data to a facsimile machine of a print output destination,
When the client receives any print designation input while displaying the screen data including the print designation portion received from the server, the client sends print designation information corresponding to the print designation input to the server and print designation input. And a print instruction control means for transmitting information on the output instruction to the server when an output instruction is issued to the facsimile apparatus.

<Explanation of Claim 2> The invention of claim 2 is such that the facsimile apparatus is designated as the output destination of the print data, and the print data is transmitted to the designated facsimile apparatus. Thus, there is an effect that print data desired by the user can be obtained even in a place other than the place where the client is located.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. << Specific Example 1 >><Configuration> FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example 1 of the printing support system of the present invention. The system shown in the figure includes a user terminal 10 as a client, the Internet 20, which is a network connecting the client and the server, and a server 30.
, A WWW server 31, a transaction server 32, and an information storage unit 33.

The user terminal 10 comprises a general personal computer, and includes a display for displaying screen data from the WWW server 31, a keyboard and a pointing device for the user to make various inputs. Further, a printer 11 for printing data is connected to the user terminal 10. FIG.
, A display, a keyboard, and a pointing device are not shown.

The user terminal 10 has, as control functions of the computer, components such as a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and an auxiliary storage device. By using these components, the browser 10a, the print instruction control means 10b, The function part of the control means 10c is realized. In addition, CPU, RAM,
Since the configurations of the ROM, the auxiliary storage device, and the like are known, their illustration is omitted.

The browser 10a is a known browser, and has a function of displaying screen data received from the WWW server 31. When the browser 10a receives the screen data including the print designation unit from the WWW server 31 and displays it, if the browser 10a displays the screen data in the screen display state, the print instruction control means 10b Is transmitted to the WWW server 31. When receiving print data from the WWW server 31, the print control unit 10c has a function of making a print request to an operating system (not shown) on the user terminal 10 based on the print data.

The WWW server 31 is a server for communicating with the user terminal 10 using the HTTP protocol (protocol for transmitting and receiving standardized hypertext format data). The transaction server 32
It is a server that performs various data processing for transmission to the user terminal 10, and includes a screen data creation unit 32a and a print data creation unit 32b. The screen data creation unit 32a has a function of creating screen data for displaying a screen including a print designation unit on the browser 10a of the user terminal 10. When receiving the print designation input information from the print instruction control unit 10b of the user terminal 10, the print data creation unit 32b extracts the print data corresponding to the print designation information from the original data (center system information) of the information storage unit 33. Has the function of creating

The information storage section 33 is a storage section for storing various data (center system information) which is a source of a screen transmitted to the user terminal 10, and stores image data, character data, numerical data, and the like as a database. ing.

<Operation> FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the first embodiment. First, the screen including the print designation section is the browser 1
It is assumed that it is displayed by 0a (step S1).

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing this screen. This screen is assumed to be, for example, a screen comprehensively showing various types of information in a store on the Internet. In this screen, a print button for customer information, a print button for sales information, a print button for inventory information, and a print button for product information are provided separately from the print buttons of the browser 10a.

In such a screen display state, it is assumed that the user presses any print button in the screen (step S2). As a result, the print instruction control unit 10b is activated, and the print instruction control unit 10b transmits the print command and the print parameter corresponding to the pressed print button to W.
The data is transmitted to the WW server 31 (step S3). For example,
As the print command and parameters, data such as command = print, parameter = customer information, A4, portrait,... Are sent. Note that, among the parameters, information such as A4 and portrait are parameters of the print size and the print direction, and these parameters are assumed to be values designated or set by the user.

When the WWW server 31 receives a print command and print parameters from the user terminal 10,
These data are transmitted to the transaction server 32 (step S4).

In the transaction server 32, WWW
The print command and print parameters received from the server 31 are analyzed (step S5). Then, based on the analysis result, necessary data is extracted from the information storage unit 33 (step S6), and print data corresponding to the designated print command and print parameters is created (step S7). Thereafter, the transaction server 32 returns the created print data to the WWW server 31 (Step S8).

The WWW server 31 returns the received print data to the browser 10a on the user terminal 10 (Step S9).

When the browser 10a receives the print data from the WWW server 31, the print instruction control means 10b is activated, and the print instruction control means 10b transmits the received print data to the print function of the operating system to send a print request. I do. Thus, the printing process is performed on the user terminal 10 in the format specified by the user (step S10).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a print result. As shown, as customer information specified by the user,
Information such as the name and address of the customer is printed.

When printing is completed, the print control means 10c returns information to that effect to the browser 10a. Thereby, the browser 10a displays a result such as "printing has been completed".

In the specific example 1, as an example of printing, a screen of comprehensive display contents including a print designation section is displayed.
Although the case where specific information is printed has been described, a print format may be specified for a displayed screen.
For example, while a text document is displayed, a print button for designating the number of characters per line, the number of lines per page, the character size, the character font, and the like is displayed as a print format.
Then, such parameters are transmitted to the server 30, and the server 30 creates print data of the designated format in the same manner as the above operation, and returns the print data to the user terminal 10.

<Effects> As described above, according to the first embodiment,
The user terminal 10 displays a screen including a print designation section, sends the selected print designation information to the server 30, and sends the selected print designation information to the server 30.
Since the print data is created on the side and returned to the user terminal 10 and is printed on the user terminal 10, the print processing with a high degree of freedom that cannot be performed by the print function of the browser 10a can be performed.

In the first embodiment, the print data is output by the printer 11 connected to the user terminal 10. However, the print data may be output to the facsimile apparatus as print data. This example will be described below as a specific example 2.

<< Specific Example 2 >><Configuration> FIG. In the specific example 2, the facsimile machine 12 is provided as an output destination for specifying printing from the user terminal 10. Further, the screen data creation means 32a of the transaction server 32 has a function of creating a screen having print selection items including an output instruction to the facsimile machine. The print data creation unit 32b receives the print command and the print format information from the user terminal 10, and if the facsimile machine 12 is designated as the print output destination, the information storage unit 33
Facsimile machine 12 using the center system information of
It has the function of creating output data to Furthermore, W
The WW server 31 is provided with a facsimile transmission unit 31a for transmitting to a designated facsimile number.

Further, the print instruction control means 10b of the user terminal 10 allows the user to specify output to the facsimile apparatus while a screen having print selection items including an output instruction to the facsimile apparatus is displayed by the browser 10a. In this case, it has a function of transmitting a print command and print parameters including this parameter to the WWW server 31.

<Operation> Since the basic operation in the second embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment, only different operations will be described.
A screen having print selection items including an output instruction to the facsimile machine is created by the screen data creating means 32a, and this is transmitted to the user terminal 10 by the WWW server 31. It is assumed that the browser 10a displays this and the user designates the facsimile machine 12 as an output destination.
As a result, the print instruction control unit 10b transmits data such as the facsimile number of the facsimile machine 12 as a print command and print parameters.

When the transaction server 32 receives the print command and the print parameters via the WWW server 31, the print data creation means 32b extracts the corresponding information from the information storage unit 33 and creates print data. Then, the created data is transmitted to the facsimile apparatus 12 by the facsimile transmission means 31a of the WWW server 31 based on the designated facsimile number. When the transmission to the facsimile device 12 is completed, the facsimile transmission means 31a of the WWW server 31 transmits message information to that effect to the user terminal 10. Thereby, in the user terminal 10, a message such as "transmission is completed" is displayed by the browser 10a.

<Effects> According to the specific example 2 as described above,
Specify the facsimile machine 12 as the output destination of the print data,
Since the transmission means is provided, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment,
According to the designation from the user terminal 10, there is an effect that output can be made to the facsimile machine 12 at an arbitrary place.

<< Usage Mode >> In each of the above specific examples, the screen data creation means 32a and the print data creation means 32b are provided in the transaction server 32. However, they may be provided on the WWW server 31. The information storage unit 33 may be provided in a host computer or the like in addition to being provided in the server 30. However, in this case, the processing is to extract the center system information from the information storage unit 33 by communication or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example 1 of a printing support system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of a specific example 1 of the printing support system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a display screen in a specific example 1 of the printing support system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a print result in a specific example 1 of the print support system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example 2 of the print support system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 user terminal (client) 10a browser 10b print instruction control means 10c print control means 11 printer 12 facsimile apparatus 20 Internet (network) 30 server 31 WWW server 32 transaction server 32a screen data creation means 32b print data creation means 33 information storage unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printing support system in which a client and a server are connected via a network, and the client controls printing of the server data, wherein the server stores original data for printing. An information storage unit; screen data creation means for creating screen data for displaying a print designation unit on a screen of the client; and when print designation information is received from the client, a source of the information storage unit. Print data creating means for creating print data corresponding to the print designation information using the data, wherein the client displays any screen designation data including a print designation unit received from the server, A print instruction control means for transmitting, to the server, print specification information corresponding to the print specification input when there is an input; And a print control unit that, when print data is received from the server, instructs printing of the print data. 2. A printing support system in which a client and a server are connected via a network, and the client controls printing of the server data, wherein the server stores original data for printing. An information storage unit, a screen data creation unit that creates screen data for displaying a print designation unit including an output instruction to a facsimile machine on a client screen, and receives print designation information from the client, When a facsimile machine is specified as an output destination, a print data creating unit that creates print data corresponding to print designation information using the original data of the information storage unit; and a print job created by the print data creating unit. Facsimile transmission means for transmitting data to the facsimile machine of the print output destination; In a state where the screen data including the print designation section received from the server is displayed, if any print designation input is received, the client sends print designation information corresponding to the print designation input to the server, and prints the print designation information. A print support system, comprising: a print instruction control unit that sends information of the output instruction to the server when an output instruction to the facsimile apparatus is given as a designated input.