JP2003122539A - Network printer and network printer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network printer capable of continuing the print processing by re-obtaining the print data in failing in receiving the print data transmitted to the network printer apparatus. SOLUTION: On receiving the print data from a client, the printer starts printing normally (S400). In failing in receiving some of print data due to a communication trouble such as buffer overrun (S401; Y), however, some of the data failed in receiving is specified, the specified print data is requested to be re-transmitted to a data storage server (S401). The requested print data is received from the data re-transmit service (S403), and the print processing is continued by the received print data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
Regarding data communication for transmitting and receiving data via a network such as AN (Local Area Network),
In particular, the present invention relates to a network printer device and a network printer system that transfer print data to a printer directly connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a network printer has become popular which is directly connected to a small-scale computer network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) and prints print data transmitted through this network. By using the network printer device, it becomes possible to share one printer with a plurality of service users (clients) at remote locations. In such a system, a single printer is used by a plurality of users, and thus confusion may occur when an error occurs. Therefore, various methods have been proposed for improving the reliability of the printing operation of these network printer devices. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-179898 discloses a method in which a single printer device is equipped with a plurality of network interfaces so as to multiplex the networks and improve the reliability of the printing operation. Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-331104, in order to prevent erroneous detection due to external noise or the like, data is transferred from the host machine side a plurality of times and the data is compared to pursue the accuracy of communication to perform a printing operation. Have been proposed to improve the reliability of the.

[0003]

However, in the above-described method for network multiplexing, since a plurality of network interface units for controlling the interfaces between the networks are mounted, the number of interface hardware components is reduced. It is necessary to increase the cost and the printer system cost is inevitable. Also,
In the method of transferring data described above multiple times, the same data must be transferred multiple times in order to perform error detection, and the amount of transfer data from the host machine side increases, resulting in a delay in printing. Such a drawback occurs.

Therefore, a first object of the present invention is to receive print data sent to another network printer device, save the data, and request a print data transfer from another network printer device. answer me,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a network printer device capable of confirming an operation after providing a service and confirming communication contents by increasing the number of hardware by transferring the stored print data. A second object of the present invention is to re-acquire data without imposing a burden on the client instead of causing a communication error when reception of print data sent to a network printer device fails.
An object of the present invention is to provide a network printer device capable of continuing processing. A third object of the present invention is to provide a network printer system capable of reacquiring print data without burdening the client without causing a communication error when print data is missed.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a network printer device connectable to one or more clients and another network printer device via a network, another client from the client to another network printer device can be used. Receiving means for detecting that print data has been sent to the printer device and receiving the print data separately, storage means for saving the print data received by the receiving means, and a request from the other network printer device. And a transfer unit that transfers the print data stored in the storage unit to the printer device via the network, thereby achieving the first object.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a network printer device connectable to one or a plurality of clients and other network printer devices via the network, the print data sent from the client via the network is stored. Receiving means for receiving, error detecting means for detecting a receiving error of the print data received by the receiving means, and when the receiving error of the print data is detected by the error detecting means, the receiving error occurs in which part of the print data And a transmission requesting unit for issuing a transmission request to the network printer device according to claim 1 for transmitting the portion of the print data specified by the specifying unit. To receive the requested print data portion by the receiving means. Ri, to achieve the second object.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a single or a plurality of clients, a single or a plurality of network printer devices according to the first aspect, and a single or a plurality of the second aspects.
The third object is achieved by connecting the above described network printer device via a network.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printer system which is an embodiment of the present invention. This printer system comprises a print client 12, a print server 14, a print server 16 and a print server 18, which are connected by a bus 24. The print server 16 is
The printer of the same model as the print server 14 is equipped with an optional hard disk 20. The print server 18 is a printer of a different model from the print server 14 and the print server 16 and is equipped with an optional hard disk 22.

First, application software running on the print client 12 creates text data to be printed. Then, the printer driver operating in the print client 12 converts the created text data into data that can be interpreted by each printer. The print data converted by the printer driver is sent as a print request via the bus 24 to the printer server 1
The printer, which is transmitted to the printer 4, 16, or 18, and receives the print request, prints the print data.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment when starting the print server will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure when the print server is activated. First, when the print server is activated, it acquires the information of the printer group to which it belongs from a predetermined network directory service (step 100), and includes the network address information of each printer from the acquired information of the printer group. Get a list of printers. Next, in the printer group to which the user belongs, a print server equipped with a hard disk and having a data storage function is detected. The detected print server, as a request destination for data transfer when data loss occurs,
It is stored in the "data storage service providing device list" (step 101).

Next, it is determined whether the print server itself can provide the data storage service (step 102). Usually this is determined by the presence or absence of a hard disk. When the hard disk that enables the data storage service is installed (step 102; Y), the data storage service and the data resend service described below are started (step 103). After that, it waits for the next request such as a print request. On the other hand, when the hard disk that enables the data storage service is not installed (step 102; N), the process waits for a print request.

Next, the operation of the data storage service of the print server shown in step 103 of FIG. 2 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the data storage service of the print server. A print server equipped with a hard disk capable of providing a data storage service constantly receives print data transmitted on the network (step 200) and monitors the network. Then, when a print request to a printer belonging to the same group is detected (step 201;
Y), and record the communication data (step 202).
The recorded communication data is stored until the printer that prints the data finishes the printing operation.

After the print request data is received by the printer server (step 203; Y), the print data is printed by the printer. Printing is completed (step 204;
Y) After the set time has elapsed, the stored communication data can be discarded (step 205; Y), and the stored communication data is discarded (step 206). The time from the end of the printing operation until the stored communication data is discarded depends on the setting for each printer server, and this time can be set from the printer panel or the like.

Next, the operation of the data resend service of the print server shown in step 103 of FIG. 2 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the data resend service of the print server. First, from the printer executing printing to the print server, as shown in FIG.
When a "data resend request" of the form shown in is sent,
According to the request, the print server searches the stored data for a necessary print data portion. When the requested data is stored (step 300; Y), the print server reads the stored data according to the data start position and the data resend amount information included in the “data resend request”, The data is transferred to the request source in the format shown in FIG. 7 (step 301). When the requested data is not stored (step 300; N), "no request data" is returned to the data request source (step 302).

Next, the data printing operation of the printer in this embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of data printing of the printer. When the printer receives the print request from the client, it normally starts printing (step 400). However, when a part of the data fails to be received due to a communication trouble such as a buffer overrun or a momentary disconnection of the network line (step 401; Y), the part of the data is requested to be retransmitted to the data archiving server ( Step 402). For this, one is selected from the data storage service providing device list created in advance, and the device is requested to retransmit the data in the format of the data retransmission request content shown in FIG. 6 as described above. Received from data resend service (step 4
03), the print processing is continued using this data. With such a data printing operation, the problem of data loss can be solved without imposing a load on the print client.

[0016]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the print data from the client is stored in the storage means, if the print data is required again after the print data is transmitted from the client, the print data from the client can be output. Without the printer device, it can be transmitted via the network. According to the second and third aspects of the invention, when the print data reception fails due to communication trouble, a communication error does not occur, the print data is reacquired without burdening the client, and the process is continued. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a print system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure when a network print server is activated.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of a data storage service of a network print server.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of a data resend service of the network print server.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of data printing of a printer which has received print data via a network.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of data retransmission request contents.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of response contents in response to a data retransmission request.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 Print client 14, 16, 18 print server 20, 22 hard disk

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A network printer capable of connecting to one or a plurality of clients and another network printer via a network, and detecting that print data has been sent from the client to another printer via the network. Receiving means for separately receiving the print data, the storing means for storing the print data received by the receiving means, and the print data stored in the storing means in response to a request from the other network printer device. A transfer means for transferring to the printer device via the network, and a network printer device. 2. A network printer device capable of connecting to one or more clients and other network printer devices via the network, and receiving means for receiving print data sent from the client via the network, An error detection unit that detects a reception error of the print data received by the reception unit, and a specification that identifies which part of the print data has the reception error when the reception error of the print data is detected by the error detection unit A means and a portion of the print data specified by the specifying means are claimed.
A network printer device, comprising: a transmission request means for issuing a transmission request to the network printer device described above, wherein the portion of the print data for which the transmission request is issued by the transmission request means is received by the receiving means. 3. A single or a plurality of clients, a single or a plurality of network printer devices according to claim 1, and a single or a plurality of network printer devices according to claim 2 are connected via a network. And network printer system.