CN110580131A

CN110580131A - printing control method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN110580131A
Application number: CN201810586263.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨阳; 钟兴德; 杜杰
Original assignee: Nail Holdings Cayman Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nail Holdings Cayman Co Ltd; Dingtalk Holding Cayman Ltd
Priority date: 2018-06-08
Filing date: 2018-06-08
Publication date: 2019-12-17
Also published as: WO2019233326A1

Abstract

One or more embodiments of the present specification provide a printing control method, apparatus and system, and a method applied to a printing control device may include: receiving a printing request initiated by a user; determining a printing device for responding to the print request; and distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing requests and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

Description

printing control method, device and system

Technical Field

one or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of printing technologies, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a system for controlling printing.

Background

A Printer (Printer) is one of the output devices of a computer for printing the results of a computer process on an associated medium. By sending the document and picture to be printed to the printer, the printer can print according to the attributes such as the proportion, the number of copies and the like set by the user.

Disclosure of Invention

in view of this, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a printing control method, apparatus, and system.

To achieve the above object, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide the following technical solutions:

according to a first aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a print control method applied to a print control apparatus; the method comprises the following steps:

Receiving a printing request initiated by a user;

determining a printing device for responding to the print request;

And distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing requests and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

According to a second aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a print control method applied to a printing apparatus; the method comprises the following steps:

Receiving a printing request initiated by a user;

And generating a corresponding printing task according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing equipment.

according to a third aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a print control apparatus applied to a print control device; the device comprises:

The receiving unit receives a printing request initiated by a user;

a determination unit that determines a printing apparatus for responding to the print request;

And the distribution unit is used for distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing requests and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

According to a fourth aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a printing control apparatus applied to a printing apparatus; the device comprises:

The receiving unit receives a printing request initiated by a user;

And the generating unit is used for generating a corresponding printing task according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing equipment.

according to a fifth aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a print control method applied to a print control apparatus; the method comprises the following steps:

Receiving a printing request initiated by a user;

Determining a printing device for responding to the print request;

And distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing request and the printing capacity of the printing equipment.

According to a sixth aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a print control apparatus applied to a print control device; the device comprises:

the receiving unit receives a printing request initiated by a user;

And the distribution unit is used for distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing requests and the printing capacity of the printing equipment.

according to a seventh aspect of one or more embodiments of the present specification, there is provided a print control system including: a print control apparatus and a printing apparatus;

the printing control device is used for distributing printing tasks to the printing device through the printing control method in any one of the above embodiments.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a print control system according to an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 2A is a flowchart of a printing control method according to an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 2B is a flowchart of another print control method provided by an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of yet another print control method according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram of a print control process provided by an exemplary embodiment.

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a selective printing device according to an exemplary embodiment.

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a print control apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

fig. 8 is a block diagram of another print control apparatus provided in an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram of still another print control apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with one or more embodiments of the present specification. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of one or more embodiments of the specification, as detailed in the claims which follow.

it should be noted that: in other embodiments, the steps of the corresponding methods are not necessarily performed in the order shown and described herein. In some other embodiments, the method may include more or fewer steps than those described herein. Moreover, a single step described in this specification may be broken down into multiple steps for description in other embodiments; multiple steps described in this specification may be combined into a single step in other embodiments.

In an embodiment, the print control scheme of the present specification can be applied to a printing apparatus. In the operation process, the printing equipment responds to a printing request initiated by a user, can generate a reasonable printing task by combining the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment, and ensures that the printing equipment can keep a good working state while finishing the response as soon as possible.

In another embodiment, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a print control system according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 1, the system may include a server 11, a network 12, a number of printing devices (such as a printer 13, a printer 14, a printer 15, etc.), a cell phone 16.

the server 11 may be a physical server comprising a separate host, or the server 11 may be a virtual server carried by a cluster of hosts. In the operation process, the server 11 may operate a server-side program of a certain application to be implemented as a server of the application, so that after receiving a print request initiated by a user, the server 11 may reasonably allocate a corresponding print task in combination with single continuous printing capabilities of printing devices such as the printers 13 to 15.

The printers 13 to 15 may operate a program on a client side of an application in an operation process to be implemented as a client of the application, so that the printers 13 to 15 can receive a print task issued by the server 11 and perform a corresponding printing operation according to the print task.

it should be noted that: although part of the printing apparatus may directly run the program on the client side of the above-described application to configure the client of the application, such as the printers 13 to 14 shown in fig. 1 and the like; other printing devices, such as the printer 15, however, may not be able to directly run the client-side programs of the above-described applications due to old models and the like, in order to enable the printer 15 to be applied to the technical solution of the present specification, the printing control system may further include a printing assisting apparatus 17 as shown in fig. 1, for example, the printing assisting apparatus 17 may be called a "cloud printing box", "smart printing box", "printing expansion box", or the like, the print assisting apparatus 17 can directly run the program on the client side of the above-described application to configure the client of the application, while the print assisting apparatus 17 can be connected to the printer 15, thereby receiving the print job assigned by the server 11 and sending it to the printer 15, so that the printer 15 can execute the print job assigned by the server 11, which corresponds to configuring the printer 15 as a client of the above-mentioned application.

Therefore, in the following embodiments, as for the printing apparatus whose constitution is not explicitly described, there may be either a printing apparatus capable of being directly configured as a client, like the printers 13 to 14, or a printing apparatus capable of being indirectly configured as a client, like the printer 15, which requires assistance by the print assisting apparatus 17.

the cell phone 16 is just one type of electronic device that a user may use. In fact, it is obvious that the user can also use electronic devices of the type such as: tablet devices, notebook computers, palmtop computers, wearable devices (e.g., smart glasses, smart watches, etc.), etc., which are not limited by one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In operation, the electronic device can initiate a print request to the server 11 to cause the server 11 to assign a corresponding print job to the printers 13-15.

and the network 12 for interaction between the printers 13-15, the handset 16 and the server 11 may include various types of wired or wireless networks. In one embodiment, the Network 12 may include the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the Internet.

fig. 2A is a flowchart of a printing control method according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 2A, the method applied to a print control apparatus (e.g., the server 11 shown in fig. 1) may include the steps of:

In step 202A, a print request initiated by a user is received.

in an embodiment, the user may initiate a print request to the print control device through any type of electronic device, such as a mobile phone or a PC, which is not limited in this specification.

In an embodiment, a user may send an object to be printed (such as a file or content) to the print control device, so that the print control device determines a print requirement indicated by a print request and allocates a print job according to the object to be printed.

in an embodiment, a user may send address information of an object to be printed to the printing control device, for example, when the object to be printed is located in the cloud storage space, the user may notify the printing control device of a storage path of the object to be printed in the cloud storage space, so that the printing control device obtains the device to be printed based on the storage path, and further determines a printing requirement indicated by the printing request and allocates a printing task according to the object to be printed.

In step 204A, a printing device for responding to the print request is determined.

In one embodiment, there may be a one-to-one correspondence between the print control apparatuses and the printing apparatuses, and the printing apparatus used to respond to the print request may be directly determined as the printing apparatus to which the print control apparatus corresponds.

In one embodiment, a print control device may correspond to a plurality of printing devices, such as a printer control device that may control all printing devices within an enterprise. Then, the print control apparatus may select a printing apparatus for responding to the print request among these printing apparatuses based on a preset rule.

In one embodiment, the print control apparatus may determine the user's location and select a printing apparatus for responding to the print request from among printing apparatuses in the vicinity of the user. For example, the position of the user can be determined by using the image data of the user shot by the camera and combining the information such as the installation position and the shooting angle of the camera; for another example, the location of the electronic device may be determined according to positioning data detected by a GPS chip, a beidou navigation chip, and the like built in the electronic device used by the user, and the location of the electronic device may be used as the location of the user; for another example, the printing device may send a signal (such as a bluetooth signal) including its own ID to an electronic device within a certain range, and the electronic device used by the user may extract the ID of the corresponding printing device from the received signal and upload the ID to the printing control device, and the printing control device determines that the user is located near the printing device.

In one embodiment, the print demand may include a print volume indicated by the print request. When a plurality of printing apparatuses exist near the user, the print control apparatus may determine the expected waiting time of each printing apparatus, respectively, according to the assigned job of each printing apparatus, the single continuous printing capability, and the print amount indicated by the print request; then, the printing apparatus whose expected waiting time period is the shortest is selected as the printing apparatus for responding to the print request.

For example, under otherwise identical conditions, the more tasks that have been assigned to a printing device, the longer the corresponding expected wait time period is, and conversely, the shorter the expected wait time period is; however, if the single continuous printing capability of one printing apparatus a exceeds the printing amount indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capability of another printing apparatus B is not as high as the printing amount indicated by the printing request, even if there are allocated jobs being processed in the printing apparatus a (i.e., the expected continuous printing amount > 0) and there are no allocated jobs being processed in the printing apparatus B (i.e., the expected continuous printing amount is 0), the expected waiting time of the printing apparatus a may be smaller than that of the printing apparatus B because the printing apparatus a can complete the response to the printing request by single continuous printing and the printing apparatus B needs to perform batch printing a plurality of times to complete the response to the printing request.

For another example, under the same other conditions, the lower the single continuous printing capability of the printing apparatus, the longer the corresponding predicted waiting time period is, and conversely, the shorter the predicted waiting time period is; however, if the single continuous printing capabilities of the printing apparatuses a and B are both greater than the printing amount indicated by the print request, even if the single continuous printing capability of the printing apparatus a is stronger, the expected waiting time period of the printing apparatus B is smaller than the expected waiting time period of the printing apparatus a if there are allocated jobs being processed in the printing apparatus a and there are no allocated jobs being processed in the printing apparatus B.

therefore, the print control device needs to comprehensively consider the assigned tasks (such as task completion conditions, predicted continuous printing amounts, and the like), the single continuous printing capability, and the printing amount indicated by the print request of each printing device, and can accurately determine the predicted waiting time corresponding to each printing device, so as to select a more appropriate printing device, thereby improving the response efficiency of the print request.

in an embodiment, when the printing device is in a continuous printing working state, a large amount of working heat is generated, so that the printing device cannot be in the printing state all the time, and the printing device must be paused for a period of time to be cooled after a certain amount of work, thereby avoiding damage to the printing device. Therefore, based on the model or actual working condition of each printing device, the single continuous printing amount, the recovery time length after the single continuous printing, the printing speed and the like of each printing device can be determined to be used as the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device; in other words, the single pass continuous printing capability of the printing device may include at least one of: the amount of single continuous printing by the printing apparatus, the recovery time period after single continuous printing, the printing speed, and the like.

in an embodiment, the printing control device may recommend the printing device determined in the above manner to the user, and the user determines whether to print by using the corresponding printing device. For example, assume that a user, while in the vicinity of a certain printing device, will be able to proceed as quickly as possible to the vicinity of another printer to process other transactions, and thus the user may manually select the other printer to respond to a print request.

In one embodiment, the print control device may provide all of the alternative printing devices to the user, and manually select the printing device responding to the print request by the user.

In one embodiment, the print request may include a print mode, and the print control apparatus may determine whether each of the printing apparatuses supports the print mode according to the print mode indicated by the print request, thereby selecting a printing apparatus responding to the print request among the printing apparatuses supporting the print mode. Wherein the printing mode may include at least one of: black and white printing or color printing, the size specification of the printing paper, the material type of the printing paper, and the like.

and step 206A, distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

in one embodiment, the print volume indicated by the print request may be related to at least one of the following parameters: number of pages printed, file type. For example, when most of the print content is characters, the print amount of each page is not much different, and the print amount can be determined according to the number of printed pages; when the file type of the object to be printed is text, picture or photo, the printing amount of the picture or photo is much larger than that of the text, so that the printing amount can be determined based on the file type.

in one embodiment, assuming that the print jobs of the printing device are discrete and there is a sufficiently long interval between processing time periods for different print jobs that the assigned jobs of the printing device can be disregarded, then: when the print amount indicated by the print request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing apparatus, the print control apparatus may allocate a single print job to the printing apparatus, where the print amount of the single print job is the print amount indicated by the print request, that is, the printing apparatus may complete a response to the print request in a single continuous manner. And when the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, the printing device cannot continuously finish the response to the printing request at a single time, so that the printing control device can distribute multi-stage printing tasks to the printing device, and the printing quantity of the printing task at each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, thereby avoiding the single continuous printing quantity of the printing device from exceeding the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, preventing the printing device from being damaged due to overheating and the like, and ensuring that the response to the printing request is finished.

In one embodiment, assuming there may be continuity in processing time periods between print jobs of the printing device, for example, when the server allocates a print job to the printing device, the printing device is processing a previously allocated job, and continuity and connection are generated between the print job currently allocated by the server and the allocated job being processed, resulting in continuous operation of the printing device. Thus, the impact of an assigned job of a printing device on the assignment of subsequent jobs may be taken into account, i.e. the print control device may assign a respective print job to the printing device in dependence on the assigned job of the printing device, the print demand indicated by the print request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing device. For example:

And when the printing device does not have the allocated task being processed and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, or the printing device has the allocated task being processed and the sum of the predicted continuous printing quantity of the printing device and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, allocating a single printing task to the printing device, wherein the printing quantity of the single printing task is the printing quantity indicated by the printing request, namely the printing device can continuously finish the response to the printing request in a single time.

When the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, or the printing device has assigned tasks which are being processed, and the sum of the predicted continuous printing quantity of the printing device and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, multi-stage printing tasks are assigned to the printing device, and the printing quantity of the printing task in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, so that the single continuous printing quantity of the printing device is prevented from exceeding the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, the printing device is prevented from being damaged due to overheating and the like, and the response to the printing request is ensured to be completed.

in an embodiment, for a multi-stage print job, the print control apparatus may designate a preset resume time period for which the printing apparatus pauses between print jobs in adjacent stages, and the resume time period may be designated by the print control apparatus or may be notified to the print control apparatus by the printing apparatus, which is not limited in this specification.

In one embodiment, the print control apparatus does not need to actively set the above-described resume period, and the printing apparatus may automatically pause for a preset resume period between adjacent print jobs (a single print job or a print job of a certain stage).

Fig. 2B is a flowchart of another print control method provided by an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 2B, the method applied to a print control apparatus (e.g., the server 11 shown in fig. 1) may include the steps of:

in step 202B, a print request initiated by a user is received.

in step 204B, a printing device for responding to the print request is determined.

in an embodiment, steps 202B-204B can refer to steps 202A-204A as shown in FIG. 2A, and are not described herein again.

in an embodiment, the printing capability of the printing device is related to at least one of the following parameters: single continuous printing capability, type of printing supplies, remaining amount of printing supplies, etc., which the present specification does not limit.

In an embodiment, the printing device for responding to the printing request may be determined according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the printing capability of the printing device. For example, when the print demand includes a type of printing supplies, taking a paper type as an example, if a certain printing apparatus supports only a paper type of a4 specification when the print request indicates printing on a paper of A3 specification, the print control apparatus should avoid selecting the printing apparatus to respond to the print request, and should ensure that the printing apparatus responding to the print request supports printing on a paper of A3 specification. For another example, when the printing demand includes the remaining amount of the printing supplies, taking the remaining ink amount of the ink cartridge as an example, if the remaining ink amount of a certain printing apparatus is only enough to print 100 pages when the printing amount indicated by the printing request is 200 pages, the printing control apparatus should avoid selecting the printing apparatus to respond to the printing request, and should ensure that the remaining ink amount of the printing apparatus responding to the printing request is at least enough to print 200 pages. For another example, when the print demand includes a single continuous printing capability, the print control apparatus may select, as much as possible, a printing apparatus having a stronger single continuous printing capability to complete the response to the print request as soon as possible; of course, it is also possible to comprehensively consider the print amount indicated by the print demand, the assigned jobs of the printing apparatuses, and the like, comprehensively determine the response speed of each printing apparatus to the print request, and make the selection accordingly.

And step 206B, distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing request and the printing capacity of the printing equipment.

In an embodiment, the printing capability of the printing device is related to at least one of the following parameters: single continuous printing capability, type of printing supplies, remaining amount of printing supplies, etc., which the present specification does not limit. In other words, in addition to the task assignment based on the single continuous printing capability in step 206A shown in fig. 2A, the print control apparatus can perform a corresponding task assignment operation according to the type of printing consumables, the remaining amount of printing consumables, and the like. The printing consumables may include paper, printing materials (such as ink cartridges), and the like; the type of printing supplies may include a paper type, a printing material type, etc., and the remaining amount of printing supplies may include a remaining amount of paper, a remaining amount of printing material (e.g., a remaining amount of ink of an ink cartridge), etc.

For example, while the printing device's single continuous printing capability may meet the printing demand, if its remaining amount of printing consumables is insufficient, the printing control device may avoid assigning a print job to the printing device, or assign only a print job that the remaining amount of printing consumables can cover, other print jobs to other printing devices, or take other job assignment policies.

In the technical solution of the present specification, when the printing apparatus is controlled by the printing control apparatus, the printing control apparatus may acquire status information of the printing apparatus on a triggered basis (such as an administrator trigger) or periodically for selecting the printing apparatus or determining the printing capability of the printing apparatus. For the obtaining manner of the status information, the printing control device may actively obtain the status information from the printing device, or the printing control device may passively receive the status information reported by the printing device, which is not limited in this specification.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of another print control method provided by an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 3, the method applied to the printing apparatus may include the steps of:

Step 302, a print request initiated by a user is received.

in an embodiment, the user may initiate a print request to the printing device through any type of electronic device, such as a mobile phone, a PC, and the like, which is not limited in this specification. For example, a user may establish a bluetooth or WIFI connection with a printing device via a mobile phone, thereby initiating a print request to the printing device in a wireless manner. For another example, the user may establish a wired connection with the printing apparatus through the PC, thereby initiating a print request to the printing apparatus in a wired manner.

in one embodiment, a user may initiate a print request directly to a printing device through an electronic device; alternatively, the user may initiate a print request to the printing device through the server.

In one embodiment, a user may send an object to be printed (such as a file or content) to a printing device, so that the printing device determines a printing amount indicated by a printing request according to the object to be printed, and generates a printing task.

in an embodiment, a user may send address information of an object to be printed to a printing device, for example, when the object to be printed is located in a cloud storage space, the user may notify a storage path of the object to be printed in the cloud storage space to the printing device, so that the printing device obtains the device to be printed based on the storage path, and further determines a printing amount indicated by a printing request according to the object to be printed, and generates a printing task.

And step 304, generating a corresponding printing task according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing equipment.

In one embodiment, assuming that the print jobs of the printing device are discrete and there is a sufficiently long interval between processing time periods for different print jobs that the assigned jobs of the printing device can be disregarded, then: and when the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, generating a single printing task, wherein the printing quantity of the single printing task is the printing quantity indicated by the printing request, namely the printing device can continuously finish the response to the printing request in a single time. And when the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment, generating multi-stage printing tasks, wherein the printing quantity of the printing tasks in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment, so that the single continuous printing quantity of the printing equipment is prevented from exceeding the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment, the printing equipment is prevented from being damaged due to overheating and the like, and the response to the printing request is ensured to be completed.

In one embodiment, assuming there may be continuity in processing time periods between print jobs of the printing device, for example, if the printing device is processing a previously assigned job while generating a print job, continuity and continuity are generated between the currently generated print job and the currently processed assigned job, resulting in continuous operation of the printing device. Therefore, the influence of the assigned job of the printing device on the assignment of the subsequent job may be considered, i.e. the printing device may generate the corresponding print job according to the assigned job of the printing device, the print amount indicated by the print request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing device. For example:

And when the printing device does not have the allocated task which is being processed and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, or the printing device has the allocated task which is being processed and the sum of the predicted continuous printing quantity of the printing device and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, generating a single printing task, wherein the printing quantity of the single printing task is the printing quantity indicated by the printing request, namely the printing device can finish the response to the printing request continuously in a single time.

When the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, or the printing device has assigned tasks which are being processed, and the sum of the predicted continuous printing quantity of the printing device and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, multi-stage printing tasks are generated, and the printing quantity of the printing task in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, so that the single continuous printing quantity of the printing device is prevented from exceeding the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, the printing device is prevented from being damaged due to overheating and the like, and the response to the printing request is ensured to be completed.

In one embodiment, for multi-stage print jobs, the printing device may specify a pause of a preset resume duration between print jobs of adjacent stages; alternatively, the printing apparatus may automatically pause for a preset resumption time period between adjacent print jobs (a single print job or a stage of print jobs).

for convenience of understanding, a printing management scheme based on a cloud computing platform is taken as an example, and technical solutions of one or more embodiments of the present specification are described. The method comprises the steps that a user is supposed to trigger a printing event through a mobile phone, and task allocation is carried out on a printer through a server of a cloud computing platform, so that the printer performs printing operation; accordingly, fig. 4 is an interactive schematic diagram of a printing control process provided by an exemplary embodiment, and as shown in fig. 4, the interactive process between the mobile phone, the server and the printer may include the following steps:

Step 401, the user selects an object to be printed on the mobile phone.

In an embodiment, the object to be printed may be located in a local storage space on the mobile phone, and the user may select the object to be printed from the local storage space.

In an embodiment, the object to be printed may be located in a cloud storage space, and a user may access the cloud storage space through a mobile phone and access and select the object to be printed in the cloud storage space.

Step 402, a user initiates a print request to a server through a mobile phone.

in an embodiment, for an object to be printed in the local storage space of the mobile phone, the object to be printed may be included in the print request, so as to be sent to the server through the print request.

in an embodiment, for an object to be printed in the cloud storage space, the print request may include storage path information of the object to be printed in the cloud storage space, so that the server obtains the corresponding object to be printed based on the storage path information.

In step 403, the server selects a printing device responding to the print request according to the received print request.

In an embodiment, if there is only one printing device associated with the server, the printing device may be directly determined to need to respond to the print request. If the server is associated with a plurality of printing devices, the server needs to select from the printing devices and respond to the printing request by the selected printing device.

In one embodiment, the printing device that responds to the print request may be selected based on the distance between the user and the printing device. For example, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a pick-and-print device provided by an exemplary embodiment; as shown in fig. 5, assuming that a user a in an enterprise needs to print conference materials, 4 printing devices, i.e., printers PA to PD, are provided in the enterprise, and the server can determine the distance between the user a and each of the printers PA to PD in various ways.

In an embodiment, when the user a initiates a print request to the server through the mobile phone, the location of the mobile phone may be regarded as the location of the user a, for example, the server may request the mobile phone of the user a to report its location, and the location may be determined by the mobile phone through measurement performed by a built-in positioning chip. Meanwhile, the printers PA to PD are pre-installed at fixed positions in the enterprise, that is, the positions of the printers PA to PD are known to the server, so that the server can determine the printers whose separation distance is smaller than the preset distance as the printing apparatuses near the user a by comparing the positions of the printers PA to PD with the position of the user a, for example, when the preset distance is set to be larger, the printers PA to PC shown in fig. 5 may be determined as the printing apparatuses near the user a, or when the preset distance is set to be smaller, the printers PB to PC shown in fig. 5 may be determined as the printing apparatuses near the user a.

In one embodiment, the printers PA to PD may send a bluetooth signal to an electronic device within a certain range, where the bluetooth signal includes an ID of the printing device as a sender, for example, the bluetooth signal sent by the printer PA includes the ID of the printer PA, the bluetooth signal sent by the printer PB includes the ID of the printer PB, and so on. In one case, the mobile phone of user a may include the received bluetooth signal or the ID information in the bluetooth signal in the print request so that the server can determine the printing devices in the vicinity of the mobile phone accordingly. In another case, after receiving the print request, the server may issue an acquisition request to the mobile phone of the user a, so as to enable the mobile phone to receive a bluetooth signal sent by a nearby printing device, and report the bluetooth signal or ID information in the bluetooth signal to the server, so that the server may determine the printing device nearby the mobile phone accordingly.

in one embodiment, if printers PA-PD are far apart, then only one printer may be present near the location of user A and the server may determine that the printer is responding to the print request.

in one embodiment, if the printers PA to PD are not far apart, a plurality of printers may exist in the vicinity of the location of the user a, and the server needs to further select a printing device responding to the print request from the printers. Assuming that the printers PA to PC exist in the vicinity of the user a, the server can determine the predicted wait periods T1 to T3 for the printers PA to PC, respectively, based on the assigned jobs, the single continuous printing capability, and the print volume indicated by the print request for the printers PA to PC, and select the printer having the shortest predicted wait period as the printing apparatus for responding to the print request.

For example, assume that the expected continuous print volume and single continuous print capability indicated by the assigned jobs being processed by the printers PA to PC are as shown in table 1 below; for example, if printer PA has an allocated job being processed and the amount of continuous printing by printer PA for the allocated job is 20a (the amount of continuous printing may be from only the allocated job being processed, or the amount of continuous printing may be from the allocated job being processed and other allocated jobs that have completed processing), and the amount of remaining unprinted is 10a, then the amount of continuous printing is expected to be 30 a. Where the data in table 1 incorporates a unit print volume a that can be used to characterize such things as: the workload of the printing device in printing a page of text of the a4 specification, or other predetermined form; the single pass continuous printing capability can be illustratively characterized as a print speed, a single pass continuous print volume, and a recovery duration.

	Printer PA	Printer PB	Printer PC
				Expected continuous printing amount (a)	30	0	5
Printing speed (second/a)	1	1.5	1.5
				Single continuous printing quantity (a)	100	80	150
Recovery time length (second)	20	15	10

TABLE 1

In one embodiment, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 50 a: the predicted waiting time period T1 for the printer PA is 30 × 1+50 × 1 is 80 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T2 corresponding to the printer PB is 50 × 1.5 — 75 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T3 for the printer PC is 5 × 1.5+50 × 1.5 seconds 82.5. Thus, the expected waiting time period T2 for printer PB is the smallest, and the server may choose printer PB to respond to the print request.

In one embodiment, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 60 a: the predicted waiting time period T1 corresponding to the printer PA is 30 × 1+60 × 1 is 90 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T2 corresponding to the printer PB is 60 × 1.5 is 90 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T3 for the printer PC is 5 × 1.5+60 × 1.5 seconds 97.5. Therefore, the predicted waiting time lengths T1 and T2 corresponding to the printer PA and the printer PB are both minimum, and the server may select the printer PA or the printer PB as responding to the print request; for example, the server may randomly select the printer PA and the printer PB, or the server may select according to other preset policies, which is not limited in this specification.

in one embodiment, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 82 a: the predicted waiting time period T1 corresponding to the printer PA is 30 × 1+70 × 1+20+12 × 1 is 132 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T2 corresponding to the printer PB is 80 × 1.5+15+2 × 1.5 is 138 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T3 for the printer PC is 5 × 1.5+82 × 1.5 seconds 130.5 seconds. Therefore, the predicted wait time period T3 for the printer PC is the smallest, and the server can select the printer PC to respond to the print request.

In one embodiment, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 85 a: the predicted waiting time period T1 corresponding to the printer PA is 30 × 1+70 × 1+20+15 × 1 is 135 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T2 corresponding to the printer PB is 80 × 1.5+15+5 × 1.5 — 142.5 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T3 for the printer PC is 5 × 1.5+85 × 1.5 is 135 seconds. Therefore, the predicted waiting time lengths T1 and T3 corresponding to the printer PA and the printer PC are both minimum, and the server can select the printer PA or the printer PC to respond to the printing request; for example, the server may randomly select the printer PA and the printer PC, or the server may select according to other preset policies, which is not limited in this specification.

in one embodiment, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 100 a: the predicted waiting time period T1 corresponding to the printer PA is 30 × 1+70 × 1+20+30 × 1 is 150 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T2 corresponding to the printer PB is 80 × 1.5+15+20 × 1.5 is 165 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T3 for the printer PC is 5 × 1.5+100 × 1.5 to 157.5 seconds. Therefore, the expected waiting time period T1 for the printer PA is the smallest, and the server can select the printer PA to respond to the print request.

In one embodiment, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 200 a: the predicted waiting time period T1 corresponding to the printer PA is 30 × 1+70 × 1+20+100 × 1+20+30 × 1 is 270 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T2 corresponding to the printer PB is 80 × 1.5+15+80 × 1.5+15+40 × 1.5 is 330 seconds; the predicted waiting time period T3 for the printer PC is 5 × 1.5+145 × 1.5+10+55 × 1.5 is 317.5 seconds. Therefore, the expected waiting time period T1 for the printer PA is the smallest, and the server can select the printer PA to respond to the print request.

similarly, when the assigned job, the single continuous printing capability, and the printing amount indicated by the print request of each printing device change, an appropriate printing device may be selected to respond to the print request in a processing manner similar to that in the above embodiment, which is not described herein again.

in step 404, the server generates a corresponding print job for the selected printing device and assigns the print job thereto.

In one embodiment, it is assumed that the selected printing device is a printer PA, and how the server generates a print job is described by taking the printer PA as an example.

In an embodiment, the server may generate a print job for the printer PA in accordance with the single continuous printing capability of the printer PA and the print amount indicated by the print request, regardless of the assigned job of the printer PA. For example, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 80a and the single continuous print amount of the printer PA is 100a > 80a, the server may generate a single print job for the printer PA so that the printer PA can complete the single print job by single continuous printing. For another example, when the print amount indicated by the print request is 150a, and the single continuous print amount of the printer PA is 100a < 150a, the server may generate a multi-stage print job for the printer PA, where the print amount of the print job in each stage is not greater than 100a, so that the printer PA may enter a recovery time after the print job in each stage is completed, and damage to the printer PA is avoided.

in one embodiment, the server may take into account the assigned jobs for the printer PA and further combine the single continuous print capability of the printer PA with the print volume indicated by the print request to generate a print job for that printer PA. For example, when the expected continuous print amount of the printer PA is 30a, the print amount indicated by the print request is 80a, and the single continuous print amount of the printer PA is 100a < 80a +30a, the server may generate a multi-stage print job for the printer PA, the print amount of the print job of each stage being not more than 100 a. For another example, when the expected continuous printing amount of the printer PA is 30a, the printing amount indicated by the printing request is 60a, and the single continuous printing amount of the printer PA is 100a > 30a +60a, the server may generate a single print job for the printer PA so that the printer PA can complete the single print job by single continuous printing.

In step 405, the printer receives and executes the print job assigned by the server.

in one embodiment, for a single print job, the printer may directly execute the single print job. For multi-stage print jobs, the print job in each stage is equivalent to a single print job, and only between the print jobs in two adjacent stages, the printer needs to pause for a corresponding recovery time to avoid continuous operation for a long time.

At step 406, the printer may feed back the job completion progress of the print job to the server, and the server feeds back the progress to the user initiating the print request.

In one embodiment, when a user initiates a print request through a mobile phone, the progress of the printer in processing a print job, such as whether to start printing, the percentage of the printed portion in the print job, the remaining waiting time, and the like, can be checked on the mobile phone.

Similar to the embodiment shown in fig. 4, the user may initiate a print request to the printing device through the mobile phone (the mobile phone is directly sent to the printing device; or the mobile phone is sent to the printing device through the server, etc.), and the printing device actively generates and executes a print job, where the generation process of the print job may refer to step 404, that is, the printing device may actively generate the print job according to its single continuous printing capability and the print amount indicated by the print request, or the printing device may actively generate the print job according to its assigned job, its single continuous printing capability, and the print amount indicated by the print request, and details are not described here.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus provided in an exemplary embodiment. Referring to fig. 6, at the hardware level, the apparatus includes a processor 602, an internal bus 604, a network interface 606, a memory 608 and a non-volatile memory 610, but may also include hardware required for other services. The processor 602 reads a corresponding computer program from the nonvolatile memory 610 into the memory 608 and then runs, forming a print control apparatus on a logical level. Of course, besides software implementation, the one or more embodiments in this specification do not exclude other implementations, such as logic devices or combinations of software and hardware, and so on, that is, the execution subject of the following processing flow is not limited to each logic unit, and may also be hardware or logic devices.

In an embodiment, referring to fig. 7, in a software implementation, the printing control apparatus is applied to a printing control device; the apparatus may include:

A receiving unit 71 that receives a print request initiated by a user;

A determination unit 72 that determines a printing apparatus for responding to the print request;

And the distribution unit 73 is used for distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing requests and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

Optionally, the determining unit 72 is specifically configured to:

Determining the position of the user;

selecting a printing device for responding to the printing request from printing devices near the user.

Optionally, the determining unit 72 is further specifically configured to:

When a plurality of printing devices exist near the user, respectively determining the predicted waiting time of each printing device according to the assigned task of each printing device, the single continuous printing capability and the printing requirement indicated by the printing request;

and selecting the printing device with the shortest expected waiting time as the printing device for responding to the printing request.

optionally, the printing requirement includes a printing amount indicated by the printing request; the allocation unit 73 is specifically configured to:

When the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, allocating a single printing task to the printing device, wherein the printing quantity of the single printing task is the printing quantity indicated by the printing request;

When the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, distributing multi-stage printing tasks to the printing device, wherein the printing quantity of the printing tasks in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device.

Optionally, the allocating unit 73 is specifically configured to:

And distributing the corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the distributed tasks of the printing equipment, the printing requirements indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

when the printing device does not have an allocated task being processed and the printing amount indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, or the printing device has an allocated task being processed and the sum of the predicted continuous printing amount of the printing device and the printing amount indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, allocating a single printing task to the printing device, wherein the printing amount of the single printing task is the printing amount indicated by the printing request;

And when the printing amount indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, or the printing device has an allocated task which is being processed, and the sum of the predicted continuous printing amount of the printing device and the printing amount indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, distributing multi-stage printing tasks to the printing device, wherein the printing amount of the printing task in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device.

Optionally, the printing requirement includes a printing amount indicated by the printing request; the print amount indicated by the print request is related to at least one of the following parameters: number of pages printed, file type.

in one embodiment, referring to fig. 8, in a software implementation, the printing control apparatus is applied to a printing device; the apparatus may include:

A receiving unit 81 that receives a print request initiated by a user;

and the generating unit 82 is used for generating a corresponding printing task according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing equipment.

Optionally, the printing requirement includes a printing amount indicated by the printing request; the generating unit 82 is specifically configured to:

When the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, generating a single printing task, wherein the printing quantity of the single printing task is the printing quantity indicated by the printing request;

And when the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, generating multi-stage printing tasks, wherein the printing quantity of the printing tasks in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device.

optionally, the generating unit 82 is specifically configured to:

and generating a corresponding printing task according to the assigned task of the printing equipment, the printing quantity indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

When the printing device does not have an allocated task which is being processed and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, or the printing device has an allocated task which is being processed and the sum of the predicted continuous printing quantity of the printing device and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request does not exceed the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, generating a single printing task, wherein the printing quantity of the single printing task is the printing quantity indicated by the printing request;

And when the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, or the printing device has an allocated task which is being processed, and the sum of the predicted continuous printing quantity of the printing device and the printing quantity indicated by the printing request exceeds the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device, generating multi-stage printing tasks, wherein the printing quantity of the printing tasks in each stage does not exceed the single continuous printing capacity of the printing device.

In an embodiment, referring to fig. 9, in a software implementation, the printing control apparatus is applied to a printing control device; the apparatus may include:

a receiving unit 91 that receives a print request initiated by a user;

a determination unit 92 that determines a printing apparatus for responding to the print request;

and the distribution unit 93 is used for distributing corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing request and the printing capacity of the printing equipment.

optionally, the determining unit 92 is specifically configured to:

And determining the printing equipment for responding to the printing request according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the printing capability of the printing equipment.

optionally, the printing capability of the printing device is related to at least one of the following parameters: single continuous printing capability, type of printing supplies, and remaining amount of printing supplies.

The systems, devices, modules or units illustrated in the above embodiments may be implemented by a computer chip or an entity, or by a product with certain functions. A typical implementation device is a computer, which may take the form of a personal computer, laptop computer, cellular telephone, camera phone, smart phone, personal digital assistant, media player, navigation device, email messaging device, game console, tablet computer, wearable device, or a combination of any of these devices.

In a typical configuration, a computer includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory.

the memory may include forms of volatile memory in a computer readable medium, Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM). Memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

computer-readable media, including both non-transitory and non-transitory, removable and non-removable media, may implement information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of computer storage media include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), Digital Versatile Discs (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic disk storage, quantum memory, graphene-based storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium that can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. As defined herein, a computer readable medium does not include a transitory computer readable medium such as a modulated data signal and a carrier wave.

it should also be noted that the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

The foregoing description has been directed to specific embodiments of this disclosure. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions or steps recited in the claims may be performed in a different order than in the embodiments and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In some embodiments, multitasking and parallel processing may also be possible or may be advantageous.

The terminology used in the description of the one or more embodiments is for the purpose of describing the particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the description of the one or more embodiments. As used in one or more embodiments of the present specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

it should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used in one or more embodiments of the present description to describe various information, such information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of one or more embodiments herein. The word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "when … …" or "in response to a determination", depending on the context.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, and is not intended to limit the scope of the one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the one or more embodiments of the present disclosure should be included in the scope of the one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A print control method is applied to a print control apparatus; the method comprises the following steps:

Receiving a printing request initiated by a user;

Determining a printing device for responding to the print request;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the printing device to use to respond to the print request comprises:

Determining the position of the user;

3. the method of claim 2, wherein determining the printing device to use to respond to the print request further comprises:

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the allocating the corresponding printing tasks to the printing equipment according to the printing requirements indicated by the printing requests and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment comprises the following steps:

5. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the respective print job to the printing device according to the print demand indicated by the print request and the single pass continuous printing capability of the printing device comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the allocating, according to the allocated jobs of the printing device, the printing requirements indicated by the printing request, and the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, the corresponding printing jobs to the printing device includes:

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the print amount indicated by the print request is related to at least one of the following parameters: number of pages printed, file type.

8. A print control method is applied to a printing apparatus; the method comprises the following steps:

Receiving a printing request initiated by a user;

9. the method of claim 8, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; generating a corresponding printing task according to the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capability of the printing equipment, wherein the generating comprises the following steps:

10. the method of claim 8, wherein generating the respective print job based on the print demand indicated by the print request and the single pass continuous printing capability of the printing device comprises:

And generating a corresponding printing task according to the assigned task of the printing equipment, the printing requirement indicated by the printing request and the single continuous printing capacity of the printing equipment.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the allocating, according to the allocated jobs of the printing device, the printing requirements indicated by the printing request, and the single continuous printing capability of the printing device, the corresponding printing jobs to the printing device includes:

12. a print control apparatus is characterized by being applied to a print control device; the device comprises:

The receiving unit receives a printing request initiated by a user;

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the determining unit is specifically configured to:

Determining the position of the user;

14. the apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the determining unit is further configured to:

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the allocation unit is specifically configured to:

16. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the allocation unit is specifically configured to:

17. the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the allocation unit is specifically configured to:

18. the apparatus of claim 12, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the print amount indicated by the print request is related to at least one of the following parameters: number of pages printed, file type.

19. a print control apparatus is characterized by being applied to a printing device; the device comprises:

The receiving unit receives a printing request initiated by a user;

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the generating unit is specifically configured to:

21. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the generating unit is specifically configured to:

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the print demand comprises a print volume indicated by a print request; the generating unit is specifically configured to:

23. A print control method is applied to a print control apparatus; the method comprises the following steps:

Receiving a printing request initiated by a user;

Determining a printing device for responding to the print request;

24. The method of claim 23, wherein determining the printing device to use to respond to the print request comprises:

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the printing capabilities of the printing device are related to at least one of the following parameters: single continuous printing capability, type of printing supplies, and remaining amount of printing supplies.

26. a print control apparatus is characterized by being applied to a print control device; the device comprises:

The receiving unit receives a printing request initiated by a user;

27. The apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the determining unit is specifically configured to:

28. the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the printing capabilities of the printing device are related to at least one of the following parameters: single continuous printing capability, type of printing supplies, and remaining amount of printing supplies.

29. a print control system, comprising: a print control apparatus and a printing apparatus;

the print control apparatus is configured to assign a print job to the printing apparatus by the print control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 and 23 to 25.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

and the printing assisting equipment is connected with the printing equipment and used for responding to the printing control equipment, receiving the printing tasks distributed by the printing control equipment and sending the received printing tasks to the printing equipment for processing by the printing equipment.