JP2000305735A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system for preventing the occurrence of any print error by outputting data to an (access authority OK) printer device having an access authority. SOLUTION: A printing system is constituted by connecting terminal equipment through an LAN with plural printer devices. The terminal equipment is provided with a monitor interval administrating means 11, access authority administrating means 12, a printer device collecting means 13, an access authority obtaining means 14, a printer device administrating means 15, an access authority administrating means 16, a printing means 17, a printer device displaying means 18, and a selecting means 19.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system in which a terminal device requesting a designated printer device to print a document and a plurality of printer devices are connected via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A terminal device for creating a document and a plurality of printer devices are connected via a network so that a document created by the terminal device can be printed out by a designated printer device at a remote location. Printing systems have become widespread.

In such a printing system, recently,
2. Description of the Related Art There is known an apparatus in which access rights are provided to a printer device or a print server so that printing can be restricted for each user or each department. For example, JP-A-9
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 293036 proposes a printer processing apparatus which accepts printer instructions from a plurality of protocols and enables access control to a user for each protocol.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Printer devices A, B,
It is assumed that there are four users a, b, c, and d (or four departments) for C. In this case, for example, for the printer device A, the users a and c have the access right OK, the users b and d have the access right NG, and for the printer device B,
Various types of access rights are provided such that the user a has the access right NG, the other users have the access right OK, and the printer C has no access right, but the user has access to the printer. The document is printed without knowing that the right has been granted, resulting in a printing error.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system capable of eliminating a printing error by outputting to a printer device having an access right (access right).

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a terminal device for requesting a designated printer device to print a document and a plurality of printer devices are connected via a network. In a printing system, a terminal device includes a printer device collection unit that collects printer devices on a network, a printer device management unit that manages the collected printer devices, and a device that acquires an access right of each printer device. Access right acquisition means;
Access right management means for managing access rights of each printer device, printer device display means for displaying a list of printer devices having access rights when a document is requested to be printed, and selection means for selecting a printer device from the list display; And a printing means for printing the document on the selected printer device.

[0007] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a second aspect.
The invention described in claim 1 is characterized by further comprising an access right monitoring means for monitoring the access right at a constant monitoring interval.

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, a third aspect is provided.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, a monitoring interval managing means for monitoring an access right monitoring interval is further provided.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the printing system. This printing system includes a terminal device (host device) 1
And a plurality of printer devices 2 (2-1, 2-2, 2-3)
Are connected by LAN3.
The terminal device 1 creates a document by a document application, and specifies a designated printer device, for example, a printer device 2-
First, a request for printing a document is made.

FIG. 2 is a view showing access right setting contents of each printer. The printer A (corresponding to the printer 2-1 in FIG. 1), the printer B (corresponding to the printer 2-2 in FIG. 1), and the printer C (corresponding to the printer 2-3 in FIG. 1) are illustrated in FIG. The access right setting contents shown in FIG.

That is, the users are Kobe (Kobe; person or department), Tokyo (Tokyo), Osaka (Osaka), Kyoto (Kyoto), Nagoya (Nagoya), and for printer device A, Kobe and Kyoto have access rights. OK, that is, access is possible, and Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya are access rights NG, that is, access is not possible.

As for the printer B, the access right is NG for Kobe and the access right is OK for others. The access right is not set for the printer device C. That is, any user can access.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the terminal device.
The terminal device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a monitoring interval management unit 11, an access right monitoring unit 12, a printer device collection unit 13, an access right acquisition unit 14, a printer device management unit 15, an access right management unit 16, a printing unit 17, a printer A device display unit 18 and a selection unit 19 are provided.

The monitoring interval managing means 11 manages the monitoring interval of the access right. The access right monitoring means 12 monitors the access right at regular intervals. Printer device collecting means 1
3 collects the printer devices 2 on the network (LAN) 3. The access right acquisition unit 14 acquires the access right of each printer device 2. The printer device management means 15 manages the collected printer devices. Printing means 1
7 causes the printer device 2 selected by the selection means 19 to print the document. The printer display means 18 displays a list of printers 2 to which the user has access right when a document print request is made. The selection unit 19 selects a printer device from the list display.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first control example in the terminal device of the printing system. After activating the terminal device 1 of the printing system, the printer device 2 on the LAN 3 is collected (S1). For example, in the case of FIG. 1, information on the printer devices 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3 (the printer devices A, B, and C in FIG. 2; hereinafter, described as A, B, and C) is obtained.

The collected printer devices A, B, C
Is stored in the memory. For example, printer address and location, printer type (color,
(S2). Next, based on the information of each printer device A, B, C, each printer device A,
The access rights of B and C are collected (acquired) (S3).

The access rights of each printer are as shown in FIG. The collected access right information of each printer is stored and managed in a memory (S4). When printing of the document has occurred (Y in S5), the information of the printers A, B, and C and the access right information in the memory are taken out, and the printers having the access right are extracted and extracted with reference to the user name. A list of printer devices is displayed on the display means 18 or the like (S6). For example, when the user name is Kobe, the printers A and C are displayed in a list.

Next, the user selects a printer device to print a document from the printer device list display (S7). For example, when the user name is Kobe, either the printer A or the printer C is selected. Then, the document is printed on the selected printer device (S8). For example,
When the user name is Kobe and the printer A is selected, the document is printed on the printer A. If printing of the document does not occur, the process is terminated (N in S5, S9
And Y).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second control example in the terminal device of the printing system. Step S1
In steps 1 to S18, the same processing as steps S1 to S8 shown in FIG. 4 is performed. Here, the access right of the printer device may change without knowing it. If a user prints a document without knowing that the access right of the printer has changed, a print error may occur. In the present control example, the access right of the printer device can be monitored at a constant monitoring interval in order to solve such a problem.

That is, when printing of a document does not occur (S1)
If the control operation is not completed at N in 5) (S19)
N), it is determined whether to monitor the access right (S2).
0). When monitoring the access right, the process returns to step S11, and thereafter, the processes of S11 to S14 are executed.

For example, if the predetermined monitoring interval is 3 minutes, the previous time when the collection and management of the printer device and the collection of the access right were performed at 10:00, the collection of the printer device was performed at 10:03 the next time. Supervise and collect access rights.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a third control example in the terminal device of the printing system. Step S2
In steps 1 to S30, the same processing as steps S11 to S20 in FIG. 5 is performed. Here, the timing at which the access right of the printer device changes may vary depending on the user's environment. Therefore, in the present control example, the user can specify and monitor the monitoring interval.

That is, when printing of a document does not occur (S
25, N in S29, N in S30), when there is a request for changing the monitoring interval (Y in S31), the initial value of the constant monitoring interval is stored in the memory in advance, and the designated constant monitoring is performed. The monitoring interval is arranged by overwriting the interval data on the memory (S32). For example, when changing the constant monitoring interval from 3 minutes to 6 minutes, the data on the memory is rewritten from 3 minutes to 6 minutes.

[0024]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the access rights of all the printer devices on the network are checked in advance, and when a document print request is made, a list of the printer devices having the access rights is displayed. The user does not care about the access right provided to the printer device, that is, reduces the burden on the user and saves the document without waste. Can be printed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the user can accurately select the printer to which the user currently has access right, so that the burden on the user can be further reduced.

According to the seventh aspect of the invention, it is possible to specify and supervise the access right monitoring interval in accordance with the environment of the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing access right setting contents of each printer.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a terminal device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a first control example in the terminal device of the printing system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a second control example in the terminal device of the printing system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a third control example in the terminal device of the printing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal device 2 Printer device 3 LAN 11 Monitoring interval monitoring means 12 Access right monitoring means 13 Printer collecting means 14 Access right obtaining means 15 Printer managing means 16 Access right managing means 17 Printing means 18 Printer displaying means 19 Selecting means

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a printing system in which a terminal device that requests a designated printer device to print a document and a plurality of printer devices are connected via a network, the terminal device collects printer devices on the network. Printer device collecting means, printer device managing means for managing collected printer devices, access right obtaining means for obtaining access rights of each printer device, and access right managing means for managing access rights of each printer device. A printer device displaying means for displaying a list of printer devices to which the user has access right at the time of a document print request, a selecting device for selecting a printer device from the list display, and a printing device for causing the selected printer device to print the document. A printing system, comprising: 2. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising an access right monitoring unit for monitoring the access right at a constant monitoring interval. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, further comprising monitoring interval management means for monitoring an access right monitoring interval.