JP2001180051A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an efficient printing system without burdening printer users and system managers with work. SOLUTION: The system with a spool function for printers has means for reading identification information of papers for printing which is preliminarily printed to the set papers, and an output means for outputting the identification information and a paper setting notice that papers are set. A spool has means for selecting to print a printing request printable by the printer which outputs the notice among printing requests registered in a queue based on the identification information when the spool receives the paper setting notice outputted from the printer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an improvement in a printing system having a spool.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a server computer system such as a print server, when data to be printed out to a printer is generated by an application program in the server computer or an application program in a client computer, the print data is stored in a program called a spool. , And the spool controls the subsequent printing of the printer. By entrusting print control to the spool in this way, the application program can start other processing, and thus the processing efficiency of the application program can be increased.

In such a spool, when data is printed on paper in which a specific format is set in advance (paper on which a specific form is printed), the following is performed. As one method, in a certain printer,
When printing of certain print data (hereinafter referred to as a report) is completed and the next report is printed, if the paper on which the next report is printed is different from the paper that has been printed, the spool A change message may be displayed on a display device of a console (a client personal computer that controls the system of a server) to notify a printer user of changing sheets.

As another technique, the correspondence between a printer and a specific sheet is defined in advance in a table in order to specify a sheet to be printed for each printer registered in a spool, and a specific sheet is specified. The report to print to
That is, the report is scheduled to be printed by a printer defined to print the specific paper. In the case of the former method, the work of changing paper frequently occurs, and the work load is imposed on the user of the printer. In the case of the latter method, if the printer that has free space for processing is set to print another specific sheet and printing is to be performed, the correspondence between the printer and the specific sheet in the above table is used. Setting must be performed by the system administrator each time, which puts a burden on the system administrator.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an efficient printing system without imposing a burden on a printer user or a system administrator. With the goal.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a plurality of printers and print requests for print data are received and registered, and a printer capable of printing the registered print requests is selected from the plurality of printers. In a system having a spool to be printed by the selected printer, at least one of the printers includes means for reading identification information of a printing paper previously printed on the loaded paper, and setting of the paper together with the identification information. Means for outputting a paper change notification indicating that the printing has been performed, and when the spool receives the paper change notification output from the printer, the spool changes the print request among the registered print requests based on the identification information. A print request that can be printed by the printer that has output the notification is selected, and a mark based on the print request is given to the selected printer. Characterized in that by having a means to print the data. The present invention also receives and registers a plurality of printers and a print request for print data, selects a printer capable of printing the registered print request from the plurality of printers, and causes the selected printer to print. In a system having a spool, at least one of the printers has a unit for reading identification information of a sheet previously printed on a set sheet, and the spool is identified by an idle printer waiting for a print instruction. Means for acquiring identification information of the set sheet, and selecting a print request that can be printed by the empty printer from the registered print requests based on the acquired identification information, The printer has means for causing a printer to print print data based on the selected print request.

According to such a configuration, an efficient printing system can be realized without imposing a burden on the user of the printer or the system administrator.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration showing an embodiment of the present invention. For example, a server computer 10 composed of a PC server or the like constructing a print server, client computers 14 and 15 composed of two personal computers and the like, and four printers A
16, printer B17, printer C18, printer D1
9 and a local area network (LAN) 1
3 are connected. A spool system 11 composed of a program is installed in the server computer 10. The server computer 10 has a spool file 12 composed of a file device such as a magnetic disk device for storing print data (hereinafter referred to as a report) scheduled by the spool system 11.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the relationship between the main functions of the present invention. The spool system 11 includes a report queue 20, a printer table 21, a scheduler 2,
2. It is composed of an output writer A, an output writer B, an output writer C, and an output writer D. The report queue 20 is a queue held for scheduling a report that has received a print request from the client computers 14 and 15.

The printer table 21 is a table for setting definition information for each printer incorporated in the system, and will be described later in detail. The scheduler 22
The priority of the reports held in the report queue 20 is managed, and when an idle printer waiting for a print instruction is generated, a predetermined report is selected by referring to the printer table 21 and the empty status is selected. In order to cause the selected printer to print the selected report, the report is designated to the output writer corresponding to that printer and a print instruction is issued. Output writer A, output writer B, output writer C, output writer D,
Printer A16, Printer B17, Printer C1 respectively
8. The printer is provided corresponding to the printer D19, and controls to read the report instructed from the scheduler 22 from the spool file 12 and print the report by the corresponding printer.

The printer A16, the printer B17, the printer C18, and the printer D19 have a function of reading identification information, such as a bar code, which is printed in advance on a set printing paper (hereinafter, referred to as a form). When a form is set in the printer, the type of the form set by the reading function is identified, and a form change notification indicating that a form is newly set in the printer is identified to the scheduler 22. And a function of notifying the information together with the information indicating the type. or,
Some printers have a function of reading identification information, but do not have a function of notifying the change of a form. In such a printer, information indicating the type of the identified form is provided in response to an inquiry from another device. Printers with these functions are already available on the market.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the report queue 20. The report queue 20 contains the report number 20
a, a group ID 20b, and a form ID 20c. Note that the description of information for managing the priority of the report is omitted. The prioritization of the report is based on the conventional technique, and the description is omitted. Report number 20
“a” is a serial number assigned by the scheduler 22 to identify a report for which a print request has been received from a client computer. The group ID 20b is the group I of the printer to be printed specified for the report.
D is shown. The group ID 20b is given to a report when a print request is received. In the spool system, a group is composed of a plurality of printers, and the output scheduler 22 selects an empty printer from a designated group of printers and prints a report. The form ID 20c specifies the type of form on which the report is to be printed, and is given to the report when a print request is received. Accordingly, the spool system 12 receives a report print request from the client computer together with the group ID 20b and the form ID 20c.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the printer table 21. The printer table 21 is a table for setting definition information for each printer incorporated in the system. The printer table 21 includes definition information of a printer identification name 21a, a group ID 21b, and a form ID 21c. According to this table, the printer specified by the printer identification name 21a is stored in the group I
Belonging to the group specified in D21b and form I
This is defined to be printed on the form of the type specified in D21c. The form ID 21c is updated so that the ID of the form actually set in the printer is set. The operation of this update will be described later. Here, the form type refers to a combination of a type such as a size and a shape of the printing paper and a type such as a form previously printed on the paper. For example, the form type refers to a form in which a specific form α is printed in advance on an A4 size cut sheet, or a form in which a specific form β is printed in advance on a perforated continuous sheet. The application program executed on the client computer designates these types of forms, and prints out predetermined information on the forms to perform output. still,
The form type does not necessarily specify the type of the form that has been printed in advance, but may simply specify the size and shape of the paper.

The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
The description will be made based on the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating main operations of the scheduler 22. In the following description of the operation, the priority control of the reports registered in the report queue 20 may be performed by using a conventional technique, and thus the description thereof will be omitted. In the following description of the operation, the spool system 11 accepts a report print request from a client computer and registers the operation in the report queue 20 for the same reason.

In FIG. 5, the scheduler 22 first checks whether there is an idle printer waiting for a print instruction (step S10). This check can be realized by referring to flag information (not shown) indicating whether each printer held by the scheduler 22 is in a printing state. In response to the scheduler 22 issuing a report printing instruction to each output writer, the flag information is set to "1" so as to indicate that the printer corresponding to the output writer is in a printing state, Further, when a notification of the end of printing arrives from the output writer to the scheduler 22, this flag information is set to "0".

In step S10, if there is an empty printer, the process proceeds to step S11. If not, the check in step S10 is continued. Next, the scheduler 22 searches the report queue 20 (step S11) and checks whether there is a report that can be printed by the printer whose empty state has been confirmed (step S11).
12). If there is a report that can be printed on the printer that has been confirmed to be empty, the scheduler 22 issues a print instruction for the report to the output writer corresponding to the printer that has been confirmed to be empty (step S13). The output writer that has received the print instruction sends the report that received the print instruction to the spool file 12.
And controls the corresponding printer to print. Thereafter, the process returns to step S10, and the same process is performed thereafter.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S12 that there is no printable report, the scheduler 22 has a function of notifying the printer that has been confirmed that the printer is empty, as described above. It is checked whether it is (step S14). This check can be determined by holding in advance information on whether or not each printer installed in the system has the notification function. If the printer has a form change notification function, the process proceeds to step S19. The reason for proceeding to step S19 will be clear in the description of the flowchart of FIG. 6, but if the printer has the above-described notification function, when a new form is set in the printer, the notification is sent to the scheduler 22. So that
This is because the form ID defined in the printer table 21 is updated.

The scheduler 22 presents a report that can be printed by changing the form set in the printer that has been confirmed to be empty to the current status in the report queue 20.
The information is searched for from the reports registered in the printer and waiting for printing, and the information is sent to the printer which is confirmed to be empty, and displayed on the display device (for example, LCD) of the printer (step S19). This display is performed by the scheduler 22 via the output writer. This display may be displayed not on the printer but on a console (client PC) for managing the system or a display device of the server 10 (not shown). The details of the display in step S19 will be described below. For example, the printer confirmed to be idle is the printer C18, and the printer table 21 includes
The definition information is set as shown in FIG.
The description proceeds on the assumption that a report waiting to be printed is registered at 0 as shown in FIG. Referring to the printer table 21, the printer C18 determines that the form ID is “A”.
2 is printed, and it can be determined that a form with the form ID “A2” is actually set in the printer C18. However, the report queue 20
, There is a report that can be printed by setting another type of form in the printer C18. That is, for each report of report number 1, report number 3, and report number 4, "2" is set as the group ID of the printer to be printed.
Printing can be performed by setting the form of D "A1" or "A3". Therefore, the scheduler 22 displays that there is a report that can be printed by setting the form with the form ID “A1” or “A3” in the printer C18.

The information to be displayed includes the type of the form to be set (form ID), the report number, the print amount (the number of pages or the number of bytes of the print data), and the priority. As the display method, priority order, form type (form ID)
It is sufficient to sort and display them in the order of the printing amount and the order of the printing amount. This display is viewed by the printer operator or the administrator, and an appropriate form is set, so that the scheduler 22 issues a print instruction to the printer C18. With such a mechanism, idle printers that are idle are eliminated, and the efficiency of the spool system can be improved. By setting a new type of report on the printer C18 in this way, the scheduler 22 instructs the printer C18 to perform printing according to steps S15, S16, S17, and S18 in FIG. The operation will be clarified in the description of the operation of the flowchart shown in FIG.

If it is determined in step S14 that the printer confirmed to be empty does not have the form change notification function described above, the scheduler 22 polls the printer and Go to get the information of the type (form ID) of the form set by the user (step S15). Scheduler 22
Is the form type (form ID) acquired by polling
The form ID for the printer registered and defined in the printer table 21 is updated based on the information (step S16).

Next, the scheduler 22 searches the report queue 20 (step S17), and based on the updated registration information of the printer table 21, there is a report that can be printed by a printer that has been confirmed to be empty. Is checked (step S18). If there is no printable report, the process proceeds to step S19. If there is a printable report, the scheduler 22 instructs the output writer corresponding to the printer that has been confirmed to be empty to print the report (step S13).

Next, a processing operation when the scheduler 22 receives a message (notification) from the printer based on the form change notification function will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Usually, the scheduler 22
A message sent from the printer is waiting in a receiving state (step S30). When the scheduler 22 receives from the printer a message notifying that the form has been replaced, the scheduler 22 registers the form in the printer table 21 based on the information indicating the type of form (form ID) set in the printer attached to the message. The form ID for the defined printer is updated (step S3).
1). Next, the scheduler 22 sends the report queue 20 based on the updated registration information of the printer table 21.
(Step S32), and checks whether there is a report that can be printed by the printer that has notified the change of the form (step S33).

If there is a report that can be printed on the printer that has notified the change of the form, the scheduler 22 instructs the output writer corresponding to the printer that has notified the change of the form to print the report. (Step S34). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S30, and the same process is repeated thereafter.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, an efficient printing system can be provided without imposing a burden on a printer user or a system administrator.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a relationship between main functions of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a report queue 20;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer table 21.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining main operations of a scheduler 22;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation when the scheduler 22 receives a message from a printer based on a form change notification function.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 print server 11 spool system 12 spool file 13 LAN 14 client computer 15 client computer 16 printer A 17 printer B 18 printer C 19 printer D 20 ‥‥ Report queue 21 ‥‥ Printer table 22 ‥‥ Scheduler 23 ‥‥ Output writer A 24 ‥‥ Output writer B 25 ‥‥ Output writer C 26 ‥‥ Output writer D

Claims (4)

[Claims] A spool for receiving and registering a print request for print data with a plurality of printers, selecting a printer capable of printing the registered print request from the plurality of printers, and printing the selected printer. At least one of the printers includes means for reading identification information of a printing sheet pre-printed on the set sheet, and changing of a sheet indicating that the sheet has been set together with the identification information. Means for outputting a notification, the spool, when receiving a paper change notification output from the printer, the printer that has output the notification from the registered print request based on the identification information Means for selecting a print request that can be printed and causing the selected printer to print the print data based on the print request Printing system characterized by having. 2. A spool for receiving and registering a print request for print data with a plurality of printers, selecting a printer capable of printing the registered print request from the plurality of printers, and printing the selected printer. Wherein at least one of the printers has means for reading identification information of a paper sheet previously printed on a set paper sheet, and the spool has been identified by an idle printer waiting for a print instruction. Means for acquiring identification information of a set sheet; selecting a print request printable by the empty printer from the registered print requests based on the acquired identification information; Printing means for printing print data based on the selected print request. 3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein said spool includes a unit for reading the identification information of the sheet and a unit for outputting a notice of sheet change. 2. A printing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for selecting a print request that can be printed by changing a sheet set by a printer in an empty state while waiting for an instruction, and displaying the selected print request. 4. The spool acquires identification information of a set sheet identified by a printer in an idle state waiting for a print instruction, and, based on the acquired identification information, from among the registered print requests, If a print request that can be printed by the printer in the state is not found, a print request that can be printed by changing the paper set by the printer in the empty state is selected from the registered print requests, and the selected print request is selected. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, further comprising means for displaying a request.