JP2004005504A - Image forming device having web service function - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device for developing a plurality of Web services without being conscious of a message form according to transmission-reception control of data between connected apparatuses in the image forming device having a plurality of applications for executing respectively different image forming processing. <P>SOLUTION: The above problem is solved by the image forming device having a Web service processing means for providing a processing result as the Web services by executing processing on the basis of a request message from the apparatuses connected via a network, and a converting means for converting the request message received according to a prescribed message exchange protocol into a processing request processible by the Web service processing means and converting the processing result outputted from the Web service processing means into a response message according to the message exchange protocol. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that provides a Web service, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a plurality of applications that perform different image forming processes, according to data transmission / reception control with connected devices. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of developing the plurality of Web services without being conscious of a message format.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an image forming apparatus in which functions of respective apparatuses such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner are housed in one housing is generally known. Such a composite type image forming apparatus includes a display unit, a printing unit, an imaging unit, and the like in a single housing, and also provides applications corresponding to a printer, a copy, a scanner, and a facsimile device. The device operates as a printer, copier, scanner or facsimile machine.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described conventional composite image forming apparatus, when an individual application provides image forming processing as a Web service via a network, the image forming process is implemented so that the description format of a message exchanged according to the network protocol can be interpreted. The application needed to be improved. When the description format of the message is XML (extensible Markup Language), the application developed by the conventional development method is improved to be compatible with the Web service, and the above-described conventional composite image forming apparatus is newly added to the Web. Adding a service-compatible application also requires the developer to have knowledge of XML, so it has been difficult to develop an application using a conventional development method. .
[0004]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to develop an application that can function as a Web service without depending on a description format of a message exchanged between devices connected to the image forming apparatus that provides a plurality of Web services. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the above.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problem, the present invention executes a process based on a request message from a device connected via a network, and provides the process result as a Web service. Web service processing means for converting the request message received according to a predetermined message exchange protocol into a processing request that can be processed by the Web service processing means, and converting the processing result output from the Web service processing means to the message exchange protocol And a conversion means for converting the response message into a response message according to the above.
[0006]
In such an image forming apparatus, the request message specified by the message exchange protocol is converted into a processing request that can be processed by the Web service processing unit, and the processing result of the Web service processing unit is converted into a response specified by the message exchange protocol. To convert to a message, a Web service processing means can be developed without requiring knowledge of such a message exchange protocol.
[0007]
In addition, the present invention includes a first message conversion unit for converting the request message into a first data format indicating a configuration of the request message, wherein the conversion unit includes the first message conversion unit. It can be configured to include a first data format conversion unit that associates one data format with a second data format that can be processed by the programming language developed by the Web service processing unit.
[0008]
In such an image forming apparatus, a request message from a device connected via a network is converted into a data format that can be processed by a Web service processing unit that executes a Web service. Need not be aware of the description format of the request message.
[0009]
Further, from the viewpoint of converting the request message into a data format, the present invention provides, as set forth in claim 3, the first message conversion means comprising: an element constituting the request message from the request message; An element tree can be generated based on the value set for the element tree, and the element tree can be configured in the first data format. Further, according to the present invention, as set forth in claim 4, the first data format conversion means can process the Web service processing means by tracing the association between the elements of the element tree. It can be configured to set a value to an element of the second data format.
[0010]
In such an image forming apparatus, an element tree that can be easily converted into a data format that can be processed by the Web service processing unit is generated, and the Web service processing unit can process the element tree by tracing the relationship between the elements of the element tree. A value can be easily set to the element of the second data format.
[0011]
Further, from the viewpoint that the processing result of the Web service is converted into a response message that can be received by the device, the present invention provides a method of receiving a response message by the device based on the configuration of the response message. A second message conversion unit that describes the response message in a possible description format, wherein the conversion unit converts a third data format indicating the processing result output by the Web service processing unit into a third data format. There is provided a second data format converting means for converting the configuration of the response message to the fourth data format, and the response message can be configured to be represented by the fourth data format. Further, according to the present invention, as set forth in claim 6, the second data format conversion means includes a value set as the processing result in the element of the third data format and a plurality of values constituting the response message. An element tree can be generated based on the elements, and the element tree can be configured to have the fourth data format.
[0012]
In such an image forming apparatus, the Web service processing means does not need to configure the processing result into a response message that can be received by the device. Therefore, the developer of the Web service processing means uses a conventional predetermined programming language. Can be developed.
[0013]
From the viewpoint of providing a plurality of Web services, the present invention provides, as set forth in claim 7, a plurality of the Web service processing means and a plurality of the conversions respectively corresponding to the plurality of Web service processing means. Means.
[0014]
Further, from the viewpoint that the image forming apparatus provides a Web service to various systems or devices via a network, the present invention provides the above-mentioned request message and the above-mentioned response message as a simple object. It can be configured as described by Extensible Markup Language according to Access Protocol.
[0015]
In view of the fact that the Web service means developed by the program can be universally mounted on the image forming apparatus, according to the present invention, the third data format and the fourth data format are defined by C language. It can be configured to show a processable structure.
[0016]
From the viewpoint of executing a Web service according to a method according to a predetermined communication protocol, according to the present invention, as described in claim 10, a processing request received according to a predetermined communication protocol makes a processing request by the request message. The method may be configured to include a method determining unit that determines whether the method is a method, and a distribution unit that distributes the processing request to the first message conversion unit based on a determination result by the method determining unit. .
[0017]
From the viewpoint of distributing processing based on the analysis result of the processing request transmitted from the device, the present invention provides a Web service that analyzes a header part of the processing request and specifies a Web service. One of the plurality of conversion units corresponding to the first data format converted by the first message conversion unit as an argument based on the analysis result by the header analysis unit for acquiring service designation information; And a distribution unit for distributing the processing by calling the function. Further, according to the present invention, Web service designation information for acquiring a Web service designation information for designating a Web service by analyzing an element name of the body part of the processing request in the predetermined description format A function call is made to one of the plurality of conversion units corresponding to the first data format converted by the first message conversion unit as an argument based on the analysis result by the obtaining unit and the Web service designation information obtaining unit. With this, it is possible to configure so as to have a distributing means for distributing the processing.
[0018]
From the viewpoint of performing predetermined communication control using resources efficiently, the present invention provides a connection management means for managing a connection with a device via a network according to the predetermined communication protocol, according to the present invention. Receiving the notification of the connection from the connection management unit, and causing the Web service processing unit to execute the processing based on the processing request according to the predetermined communication protocol, and providing the processing result to the device as a processing response. And a service providing unit.
[0019]
Further, according to the present invention, the communication control means for controlling communication according to the predetermined communication protocol and the connection management means are notified that a processing request has been received via the network. Thus, the communication control unit and the service providing unit can be configured to have a connection control unit that controls a connection between the communication control unit and the service providing unit.
[0020]
Further, according to the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the twelfth aspect, the predetermined communication protocol may be configured to be a Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
[0021]
In view of being an image forming apparatus, the present invention manages an application having a plurality of the Web service processing units and a plurality of hardware resources used in the image forming processing, as described in claim 16. And a control service that controls use of the plurality of hardware resources in response to a use request from the application, and an operating system that controls the application and the control service. it can.
[0022]
As a means for solving the above problems, the present invention can also be a Web service providing method in the image forming apparatus.
[0023]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0024]
An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as a multi-functional peripheral) that fuses various image forming functions has a functional configuration as shown in FIG. 1, for example. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a multifunction peripheral that fuses various image forming functions according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0025]
In FIG. 1, the MFP 1200 includes a plotter 1201, a scanner 1202, other hardware resources 1203, and the like, and further includes a software group 1210 including a platform 1220 and an application 1230, and a MFP startup unit 1240. ing.
[0026]
The multifunction peripheral activation unit 1240 is executed first when the multifunction peripheral 1200 is powered on, and activates the platform 1220 and the application 1230.
[0027]
The platform 1220 interprets the processing request from the application 1230 and generates a hardware resource acquisition request as described below. The platform 1220 manages one or more hardware resources and obtains the hardware resource acquisition request from the control service 1250. It has a system resource manager (SRM (System Resource Manager) 1223) that arbitrates requests and an OS (Operating System) 1221.
[0028]
The control service 1250 is formed by a plurality of service modules. More specifically, the SCS (System Control Service) 1222, the ECS (Engine Control Service) 1224, the MCS (Memory Control Service) 1225, and the OCS (Operation) There are a panel control service (FAC) 1227, an FCS (FAX Control Service) 1227, a network control service (NCS) 1228, and an imaging memory handler (IMH) 1229. The platform 1220 is defined in advance by the platform function 1220. Can receive processing requests from applications Having an application program interface that.
[0029]
The OS 1221 is an operating system such as UNIX (registered trademark), and executes each software of the platform 1220 and the application 1230 as a process in parallel. By using the open source UNIX (registered trademark), the security of the program can be ensured, the network can be supported, and the source code can be easily obtained. Furthermore, royalties for OS and TCP / IP are not required, and outsourcing is also facilitated.
[0030]
The SRM 1223 controls the system and manages resources together with the SCS 1222. The SRM 1223 includes an engine unit such as a scanner and a plotter, a memory, an HDD file, a host I / O (a Centro I / F, a network I / F, an IEEE 1394 I / F, It performs arbitration in accordance with a request from an upper layer using hardware resources such as RS232CI / F, and controls execution.
[0031]
Specifically, the SRM 1223 determines whether the requested hardware resource is available (whether the requested hardware resource is not used by another request), and if the requested hardware resource is available, the requested hardware resource is Communicate availability to upper layers. In addition, hardware resource use scheduling may be performed in response to a request from an upper layer, and the content of the request (for example, paper conveyance and image forming operation by a printer engine, memory reservation, file generation, etc.) may be directly implemented. .
[0032]
The SCS 1222 includes application management (function 1), operation unit control (function 2), system screen display (job list screen, counter display screen, etc.) (function 3), LED display (function 4), resource management (function 5), It performs a plurality of functions such as interrupt application control (function 6). Specifically, in the application management (function 1), processing for registering an application and notifying the information to another application is performed. In the operation unit control (function 2), exclusive control of the operation unit use right of the application is performed. In the system screen display (function 3), a warning screen corresponding to the state of the engine unit is displayed according to the request content from the application having the operation unit use right. In the LED display (function 4), display control of system LEDs such as a warning LED and an application key is performed. The resource management (function 5) provides a service for exclusive control of engine resources (scanners, staples, etc.) that must be exclusive when an application executes a job using ECS. In the interrupt application control (function 6), control and service for causing a specific application to operate preferentially are performed.
[0033]
The ECS 1224 controls an engine unit such as a plotter 1201, a scanner 1202, and other hardware resources 1203, and performs image reading and printing operation, status notification, jam recovery, and the like.
[0034]
The MCS 1225 performs memory control, and specifically performs acquisition and release of an image memory, use of a hard disk device (HDD), compression and decompression of image data, and the like.
[0035]
The OCS 1226 is a module that controls an operation panel serving as information transmission means between the operator and the main body control. The OCS 1226 provides processing for notifying the main body control of key operation events of the operator, and provides a library function for each application to construct a GUI. Processing, processing for managing the constructed GUI information for each application, processing for reflecting the display on the operation panel, and the like are performed.
[0036]
The FCS 1227 performs facsimile transmission / reception using PSTN / ISDN from each application layer of the system controller, registration / quotation of various facsimile data managed by BKM (backup SRAM), facsimile reading, facsimile reception printing, and fusion transmission / reception. API (Application Program Interface).
[0037]
The NCS 1228 is a group of modules for providing services that can be used in common to applications that require network I / O. The NCS 1228 distributes data received from the network according to each protocol to each application, and distributes data from an application. Mediates transmission to the network side.
[0038]
In the present embodiment, the NCS 1228 controls data communication with a network device connected via the Internet by HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) using an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) daemon among a plurality of protocols, and uses an HTTP request header to control data communication with the HTTP request header. A plurality of Web services required for the specified processing are started by a function call, and the processing results of the plurality of Web services are notified to the network device by an HTTP response. The Web service performs processing according to a message described in, for example, XML (extensible Markup Language).
[0039]
The IMH 1229 maps image data from a virtual memory area (user virtual space) to a physical memory. In response to the start of the process, a system call is made to map a virtual memory area for the process, or to perform processing for releasing the mapped virtual memory area at the end of the process.
[0040]
The application 1230 includes a printer application 1211 that is a printer application having a page description language (PDL), PCL, and PostScript (PS), a copy application 1212 that is a copy application, and a facsimile application 1213 that is a facsimile application. A scanner application 1214 as a scanner application, a net file application 1215 as a net file application, a process inspection application 1216 as a process inspection application, a distribution application 1217 as a distribution application, and the executed processing result. A web service application 1218 provided as a web service. Since each of the applications 1211 to 1218 can execute an operation using each process on the platform 1220, a screen display control program that performs screen control, key operation control, job generation, and the like is mainly performed. Note that a new application can be installed via the network connected by the NCS 1228. Further, each application can be added or deleted for each application.
[0041]
Here, the Web service application 1218 is an application that executes a process corresponding to the HTTP request notified by the NCS 1228, and the processing result is provided as an HTTP response to the network device that made the HTTP request by the NCS 1228.
[0042]
In this way, the multifunction peripheral 1200 unifies the processing commonly required by the applications on the platform 1220.
[0043]
Next, the hardware configuration of the MFP 1200 will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the multifunction peripheral shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the MFP 1200 includes an operation panel 1310, an FCU (fax control unit) 1320, an engine unit 1350 including a plotter 1201, a scanner 1202 and other hardware, and an ASIC 1301 of the controller 1300. Are connected by a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus or the like. The FCU 1320 has a non-volatile memory 1321 for storing received fax data and an RTC (Real Time Clock) 1322 for measuring time in the FCU 1320, and transmits and receives fax data according to the normal G3 standard. . The FCU 1320 may further include the G3 standard and the G4 standard as options.
[0044]
The controller 1300 connects the ASIC 1301 with a MEM-C 1302, a hard disk drive (HDD) 1303, and the like, and connects the ASIC 1301 with the CPU 1304 via the NB 1305 of a CPU chipset. The reason for connection via the NB 1305 is that the interface of the CPU 1304 itself is not disclosed.
[0045]
Here, the ASIC 1301 and the NB 1305 are not simply connected via the PCI, but are connected via the AGP 1308. The reason for the connection via the AGP 1308 is that the MFP 1200 controls the execution of a plurality of processes forming the platform 1220 and the application 1230. Is reduced.
[0046]
The CPU 1304 performs overall control of the MFP 1200. Specifically, the SCS 1222, the SRM 1223, the ECS 1224, the MCS 1225, the OCS 1226, the FCS 1227, and the NCS 1228 which form the platform 1220 on the OS 1221 are started and executed as processes. At the same time, a printer application 1211, a copy application 1212, a fax application 1213, a scanner application 1214, a net file application 1215, a process inspection application 1216, a distribution application 1217, and a web service application 1218 which form the application 1230 are activated and executed.
[0047]
An NB 1305 is a bridge for connecting the CPU 1304 to the MEM-P 1306, the SB 1307, and the ASIC 1301. The MEM-P 1306 is a system memory used as a drawing memory of the multifunction peripheral, and the MEM-C 1302 is a copy image buffer. ASIC 1301 is a local memory used as a code buffer. The ASIC 1301 is an IC for image processing having hardware components for image processing.
[0048]
The NB 1305 connects to the SB 1307 via a PCI bus, and also controls an NIC (Network Interface Card) 1311 for controlling network communication, and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) for connecting to a personal computer and enabling transmission and reception of a large amount of image data. 1312 and IEEE13941313, and a Centronics 1314 connectable by a parallel cable. The SB 1307 is a bridge for connecting the NB 1305 to a ROM, a PCI device, and a peripheral device. The SB 1307 has an RTC (Real Time Clock) 1323 for measuring time in the controller 1300.
[0049]
The HDD 1310 is a storage for storing image data, storing programs, storing font data, and storing forms. The operation panel 1310 receives an input operation from an operator and performs display for the operator. An operation unit.
[0050]
Therefore, the ASIC 1301 is provided with a RAM interface for connecting the MEM-C 1302 and a hard disk interface for connecting the HDD 1310. When inputting and outputting image data to and from these storage units, The destination is switched to the RAM interface or the hard disk interface.
[0051]
The AGP 1308 is a bus interface for a graphics accelerator card proposed to speed up graphics processing, and speeds up the graphics accelerator card by directly accessing the system memory at high throughput.
[0052]
Next, a configuration that enables the MFP 1200 having the above configuration to provide a Web service in accordance with a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) using XML (Extensible Markup Language) will be described in detail. The Web service function is, for example, software (application) written in a programming language such as C language. A processing unit (handler) for handling between XML having a different syntax and a programming language is required so that the Web service function can understand the processing content by XML described according to SOAP as a message. FIG. 3 illustrates a print Web service for printing, a document list acquisition Web service for acquiring a document list, and a document information acquisition Web service for acquiring document information.
[0053]
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example for realizing a Web service. FIG. 3 shows a case where the print Web service, the document list acquisition Web service, and the document information acquisition Web service are provided by the Web service application 1218. These Web services may be configured separately from the Web service application 1218 as another function of the application 1230. In FIG. 3, only the main functional configuration among the functional configurations of the MFP 1200 illustrated in FIG. 1 is illustrated, and other functional configurations are omitted.
[0054]
In FIG. 3, an intermediate layer for controlling transmission and reception of data to and from a connected device is configured between the control service 1250 and the web service application 1218 in order to realize a web service.
[0055]
The control service 1250 has an ECS 1224, an MCS 1225, and an NCS 1228 as components for realizing a Web service by the Web service application 1218. The NCS 1228 includes an HTTP daemon 2 that controls HTTP, and a request mediation daemon 7 that mediates connection processing between the HTTP daemon 2 and the Web service application 1218.
[0056]
The middle layer 1255 includes a sequence control library 100, an XML library 110, a SOAP library 120, a job management unit 310, a file management A part 311. The sequence control library 100 further includes an HTTP connection management unit 101, an HTTP service execution unit 102, and a POST method distribution processing unit 105. The XML library 110 has an XML processing unit 115, an XML processor 116, and an XML serializer 117. The SOAP library 120 has a SOAP action distribution processing unit 121.
[0057]
Further, the web service application 1218 has an element tree analysis / generation handler 200 and a web service function (WSF) 300 as components for realizing a web service. The element tree analysis / generation handler 200 is a processing unit that analyzes a syntax in a data format of a message between devices according to the SOAP and converts the syntax into a data format that can be processed by the Web service function 300. It has an analysis / generation handler, for example, a print handler 201, a document list acquisition handler 202, and a document information acquisition handler 203.
[0058]
The Web service function 300 has a plurality of Web service functions, for example, a print function 301, a document list acquisition function 302, and a document information acquisition function 303. In this case, the print handler 201 parses the data format of the message according to the SOAP indicating the content of the process for the print function 301, converts the data format into a data format that can be processed by the print function 301, and requests the print function 301 to process. I do. The print handler 201 generates a response from the print function 301 as a message in a data format according to SOAP. The document list acquisition handler 202 and the document information acquisition handler 203 perform the same processing on the document list acquisition function 302 and the document information acquisition function 303, respectively.
[0059]
The print function 301 receives the file ID and the number of copies as input parameters, and issues a print request to the job management unit 310 by designating the job management unit file ID and the number of copies. The request ID received from the job management unit 310 is returned as an output parameter. The document list acquisition function 302 requests the file management unit 311 for a file list, and returns the list of IDs received from the file management unit 311 as output parameters. The document information acquisition function 303 receives the file ID as an input parameter, and requests the file information from the file management unit 311 by designating the file ID. The file information received from the file management unit 311 is returned as an output parameter.
[0060]
The job management unit 310 manages job queues and execution results. Further, it communicates with the ECS 1224 and the MCS 1125 to execute the print processing of the stored document. The file management unit 311 communicates with the MCS 1225 to acquire file information.
[0061]
Hereinafter, processing from reception of an HTTP request to transmission of an HTTP response will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are flowcharts illustrating a Web service providing process using SOAP.
[0062]
The HTTP daemon 2 of the NCS 1228 receives a connection request from the network 15 (Step S1100). The connection request is notified to the HTTP connection management unit 101 of the Web service application 1218 via the request mediation daemon 7. After that, the HTTP connection management unit 101 notifies the HTTP service execution unit 102 that provides the service according to HTTP of the connection request. Upon receiving the notification, the HTTP service execution unit 102 connects to the HTTP daemon 2 and acquires an HTTP request. By performing such control by the NCS 1228, communication control by HTTP can be performed only when necessary. Therefore, resources required for communication control can be used more effectively than when HTTP communication control is always performed.
[0063]
The HTTP service execution unit 102 analyzes the HTTP method indicating the data transmission method from the HTTP request received via the network 15 and checks whether the HTTP method is a GET method (step S1101). If it is the GET method, the Web service is provided by the GET method (step S1102). That is, Web services other than the Web services provided by SOAP are provided.
[0064]
If it is not the GET method, it is checked whether it is the POST method (step S1103). If it is not the POST method, the process advances to step S1107 to perform error processing, and ends the SOAP web service providing processing. If it is the POST method, the POST method distribution processing unit 105 is called. The POST method distribution processing unit 105 analyzes the HTTP request header information and confirms that the description format of the HTTP body is XML (step S1104). That is, it is determined whether or not Content-Type of the HTTP response header specifies text / xml. If it is not XML, the process advances to step S1107 to perform error processing. On the other hand, if it is XML, the XML content handler 111 is called.
[0065]
The XML processing unit 115, as a POST method handler, analyzes the syntax of the XML of the HTTP body by the XML processor 116 and creates an element tree of the request indicating the relationship between the tags described in the XML in a tree structure (step S1105). ). It is determined whether the syntax analysis result is an error (step S1106). If the syntax analysis result indicates an error, the process advances to step S1107 to perform error processing. On the other hand, if the syntax analysis result is normal, the process proceeds to step S1109 in FIG.
[0066]
The SOAP action distribution processing unit 121 analyzes the SOAPAction header of the HTTP request, and distributes the HTTP request to different element tree analysis / generation handlers 200 by URI (Uniform Resource Indicator) (step S1109). In this case, a print handler 201 for the URI specifying the print Web service, a document list acquisition handler 202 for the URI specifying the document list acquisition Web service, and a document for the URI specifying the document information acquisition Web service. The HTTP request and the element tree are distributed to the information acquisition handler 203.
[0067]
Each element tree analysis / generation handler 200 analyzes the element tree of the request and converts it into C language structure data (step S1110). Thereafter, the Web service function 300 corresponding to the URI specified by the HTTP request is called using the converted structure data as an argument (step S1111). In this case, the print handler 201 calls the print function 301, the document list acquisition handler 202 calls the document list acquisition function 302, and the document information acquisition handler 203 calls the document information acquisition function 303.
[0068]
The Web service function 300 executes a predetermined Web service logic and returns a result as structure data (step S1112). In this case, the print function 301, the document list acquisition function 302, and the document information acquisition function 303 execute the logic of each Web service and return the result. The returned result is in a data format (for example, a C language structure) that can be processed in a programming language.
[0069]
Each element tree analysis / generation handler 200 generates an element tree of a response from the received structure data (step S1113). The element tree generated by each element tree analysis / generation handler 200 indicates the data structure of the relationship between XML tags, for example, by linking a pointer from tag to tag. After that, the element tree of the response is converted into XML by the XML serializer 117 via the SOAP action distribution processing unit 121. The XML serializer 117 converts the element tree into XML represented by text. The converted XML is configured in an HTTP body according to SOAP, and is transmitted as an HTTP response after a predetermined HTTP header is added (step S1114).
[0070]
As described above, the element tree analysis / generation handler 200 performs data conversion of the element tree according to the structure of the C language. Also, it converts the C language structure data into an element tree. Since each of the functions 301 to 303 does not need to analyze XML according to SOAP, a developer can develop a Web service in a programming language without knowledge of SOAP and XML.
[0071]
In the initialization processing at the time of starting the Web service function 300, connection (shown by a straight line) between modules is performed, and the configuration is as shown in FIG. In the initialization process, the POST method distribution processing unit 105 starts by connecting to the sequence control library 100 as a POST method handler, and the XML processing unit 115 registers with the POST method distribution processing unit 105, and the SOAP action distribution processing unit 121 Is registered in the XML processing unit 115, and the element tree analysis / generation handler 200 is registered in the SOAP action distribution processing unit 121.
[0072]
Next, the analysis process of the element tree in the print handler 201 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7, and 8, taking the print handler 201 of the element tree analysis / generation handler 200 as an example. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a description example of an HTTP request according to SOAP using XML. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an element tree converted by the XML processor. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the element tree analysis processing by the print handler.
[0073]
In the case of an HTTP request as shown in FIG. 6 for requesting a print Web service, the XML processor 112 converts the HTTP body 20 starting with <SOAP-ENV: Envelope> into an element tree. The tag name 21 “Envelope” is used as a root element, and the tag name 22 “Header” and the tag name 23 “Body” are associated as child nodes of the root element. Further, the child node of the tag name 23 "Body" is set to the tag name 24 "print", and the child node of the tag name 24 "print" is associated with the tag name 25 "fileId" and the tag name 26 "count". Then, the text data 27 “123” and the text data 28 “2” are associated with the tag name 25 “fileId” and the tag name 26 “count”, respectively. The element tree structure associated in this manner has, for example, a data structure as shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, tag names 21 to 26 and text data 27 to 28 are indicated by ellipses, and associations are indicated by arrows.
[0074]
In the element tree having the data structure shown in FIG. 7, the print handler 201 generates structure data in a program language that can be processed by the print function 301 in accordance with the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, the print handler 201 acquires a root element (Step S120). In this case, the root element is an Envelope element. A child node list is obtained (step S121). That is, the tag names 22 “Header” and 23 “Body” are acquired. The element whose tag name is Body is searched and acquired from the child node list (step S122). The first child node of the body element is obtained (step S123). In this case, a print element is obtained. The child node list of the print element is obtained (step S124). The tag names are sequentially acquired from the acquired child node list (step S125).
[0075]
It is determined whether the tag name is fileID (step S126). If the tag name is not fileID, the process proceeds to step S129. On the other hand, if the tag name is fileID, the first child node having the tag name fileID is obtained (step S127). That is, a text node is obtained. The acquired text node is extracted and converted into an integer (step S128). That is, the value “123” is set in the predetermined structure as the file ID parameter. Further, it is determined whether the tag name is “count” (step S129). If the tag name is not “count”, the process proceeds to step S132. On the other hand, if the tag name is "count", the first child node having the tag name "count" is obtained (step S130). That is, a text node is obtained. The acquired text node is extracted and converted into an integer (step S131). That is, the value “2” is set in the predetermined structure as the number-of-copies parameter.
[0076]
The print handler 201 determines whether there is a next child node from the child node list acquired in step S125 (step S132). If there is a next child node, the process returns to step S125, acquires the next child node, and performs the same processing as described above. If there is no next child node, the element tree analysis processing ends.
[0077]
The element tree analyzed in this manner is converted by the print handler 201 into a structure 29 (“struct printParam”) in a programming language as shown in FIG. The value “123” is set in the parameter “int fileId” in step S128. The value “2” is set in the parameter “int count” in step S131.
[0078]
When the print function 301 of the Web service function 300 is, for example, a “print” function programmed in the C language, the pointer “in” to the structure 29 is an argument, for example, as “struct printParam * in”. It is set to 30. When the print function 301 (“print” function) is called, the processing result of the print function 301 is, for example, an argument 31 such as “struct printResult * out” indicating a pointer “out” to a structure name “struct printResult”. Return with.
[0079]
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure indicating a processing result in the print handler. In FIG. 10, the print handler 201 acquires a structure 39 in which a processing result is to be set based on the pointer “out” of the argument 31. For example, in the structure 39, a value “100” is set to the parameter “requestId” as a processing result.
[0080]
Next, an element tree generation process for generating an element tree from the structure 39 indicating the processing result will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the element tree generation processing by the print handler. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of the generated element tree.
[0081]
The element tree generation processing by the print handler will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 11, the print handler 201 generates an Envelope element 32 (Step S140). The body element 33 is generated (step S141). Then, the body element 33 is connected to the envelope element 32 (step S142). By the processing in steps S140 to S142, the HTTP body of the HTTP response according to the SOAP is set.
[0082]
Then, the print handler 201 generates the printResponse element 34 (step S143), and connects the printResponse element 34 to the Body element 33 (step S144). Further, a requestId element 35 is generated (step S145), and the requestId element 35 is connected to the printResponse element 34 (step S146).
[0083]
The print handler 201 generates a text node 36 from the obtained request ID (step S147), and connects the text node to the requestId element 35 (step S148). In this case, “100” is set in the text node 36.
[0084]
The element tree generated in this way generates an HTTP body 32 as shown in FIG. 13 by the XML processing unit 115 and the XML serializer 117. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a description example of an HTTP response according to SOAP using XML converted from an element tree. 13, each element 32 to 36 shown in FIG. 12 is described in a tag delimited by <>, and predetermined information is described in XML according to a procedure according to SOAP.
[0085]
According to the above-described embodiment, by providing an element tree analysis / generation handler 200 for converting an element tree indicating an XML data structure into a structure that can be processed by the Web service function 300 and converting the structure into an XML element tree, The developer can develop an application as a Web service function by a development method similar to the conventional one, for example, a development method in C language. In addition, it is possible to easily improve an already installed application to support a Web service.
[0086]
Further, in the MFP 1200 having the element tree analysis / generation handler 200, since the Web service function 300 can interpret a message described in XML according to SOAP, it is possible to provide the Web service function 300 to another system. Become. Therefore, since the system or computer terminal connected to the MFP 1200 is not limited, the usability of the MFP 1200 can be greatly expanded.
[0087]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, since a processing unit for converting a data format of a message according to a message exchange protocol between devices is provided, a Web service developed by a method similar to the conventional method is provided. Even if it is a function, the message can be processed. Therefore, the development of the Web service function in the image forming apparatus can be easily performed without depending on the description format of the message. Further, it is possible to improve an already installed application so that it can easily support a Web service. Further, cooperation with other systems connectable to the image forming apparatus can be expanded.
[0088]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a multifunction peripheral that fuses various image forming functions according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the MFP shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example for realizing a Web service.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a Web service providing process using SOAP.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a Web service providing process using SOAP.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a description example of an HTTP request according to SOAP using XML.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an element tree converted by an XML processor.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an element tree analysis process performed by a print handler.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure generated by an element tree analysis process.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure indicating a processing result in a print handler.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an element tree generation process performed by a print handler.
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a generated element tree.
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a description of an HTTP response according to SOAP using XML converted from an element tree.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 http daemon
7 Request mediation daemon
15 Network
100 sequence control library
101 HTTP connection management unit
102 HTTP service execution unit
105 POST method distribution processing unit
110 XML Library
115 XML processing unit 116 XML processor
117 XML Serializer
120 SOAP library
121 SOAP action distribution processing unit
200 Element tree analysis and generation handler
300 Web service function
1200 fusion machine
1201 plotter, 1202 scanner,
1203 Other hardware resources,
1210 software group,
1230 application, 1220 platform,
1221 OS, 1222 SCS,
1223 SRM, 1224 ECS,
1225 MCS, 1226 OCS,
1227 FCS, 1228 NCS,
1229 IMH, 1240 multifunction machine activation unit,
1300 controller, 1301 ASIC,
1302 MEM-C, 1303 HDD,
1304 CPU, 1305 NB,
1306 MEM-P, 1307 SB,
1308 AGP, 1310 Operation Panel,
1320 Fax control unit
1311 NIC, 1312 USB,
1313 IEEE 1394, 1314 Centronics,
1350 Engine

Claims (22)

Web service processing means for executing processing based on a request message from a device connected via a network and providing the processing result as a Web service;
The request message received according to the predetermined message exchange protocol is converted into a processing request that can be processed by the Web service processing means, and the processing result output from the Web service processing means is converted into a response message according to the message exchange protocol. An image forming apparatus comprising: a conversion unit configured to perform conversion. The first message conversion means for converting the request message into a first data format indicating the configuration of the request message,
2. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conversion unit includes a first data format conversion unit that makes the first data format correspond to a second data format that can be processed by a programming language developed by the Web service processing unit. Image forming apparatus. The first message conversion means generates an element tree from the request message based on elements constituting the request message and values set for the elements, and sets the element tree to the first data format. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: The first data format conversion means sets a value in the element of the second data format that can be processed by the Web service processing means by tracing the association between the elements of the element tree. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3. Based on the configuration of the response message, having a second message conversion means to describe the response message in a description format that can be received by the device,
The conversion unit includes a second data format conversion unit that converts the third data format indicating the processing result output by the Web service processing unit into a fourth data format indicating a configuration of a response message indicating the processing result. Have
The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the response message is indicated by the fourth data format. The second data format conversion means generates an element tree based on the value set as the processing result in the element of the third data format and a plurality of elements constituting the response message, and The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the image forming apparatus has a fourth data format. A plurality of the Web service processing means;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of the conversion units corresponding to the plurality of the Web service processing units. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the request message and the response message are described by Extensible Markup Language according to Simple Object Access Protocol. 9. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second data format and the third data format indicate a structure that can be processed in C language. Method determining means for determining whether the processing request received according to the predetermined communication protocol is a method for performing a processing request by the request message,
10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a distribution unit that distributes the processing request to the first message conversion unit based on a result of the determination by the method determination unit. Header analysis means for analyzing a header part of the processing request and acquiring Web service designation information for designating a Web service;
On the basis of the analysis result by the header analysis unit, one of the plurality of conversion units corresponding to the first data format converted by the first message conversion unit is used as an argument to perform a function call, thereby distributing processing. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising means. Web service designation information acquisition means for analyzing an element name of the body part of the processing request in the predetermined description format to acquire Web service designation information for designating a Web service;
Processing is performed by calling one of the plurality of conversion units corresponding to the first data format converted by the first message conversion unit as an argument based on the analysis result by the Web service designation information acquisition unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a sorting unit that sorts the image. According to the predetermined communication protocol, connection management means for managing the connection with the device via the network,
After receiving the notification of the connection from the connection management means, in accordance with the predetermined communication protocol, the Web service processing means executes the processing based on the processing request, and provides the processing result as a processing response to the device. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising means. Communication control means for controlling communication according to the predetermined communication protocol;
A connection control unit for controlling connection between the communication control unit and the service providing unit by notifying the connection management unit that a processing request has been received via the network. Item 14. The image forming apparatus according to Item 13. 15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined communication protocol is Hypertext @ Transfer @ Protocol. An application having a plurality of the Web service processing means;
A control service that manages a plurality of hardware resources used in the image forming process, and controls use of the plurality of hardware resources in response to a use request from the application;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operating system that controls the application and the control service. Computer
A Web service processing procedure for executing processing based on a request message from a device connected via a network and providing the processing result as a Web service;
The request message received according to the predetermined message exchange protocol is converted into a processing request that can be processed by the Web service processing procedure, and the processing result output from the Web service processing procedure is converted into a response message according to the message exchange protocol. And a conversion procedure for conversion. Having a first message conversion procedure to convert the request message into a first data format indicating the configuration of the request message,
18. The conversion method according to claim 17, wherein the conversion procedure includes a first data format conversion procedure for making the first data format correspond to a second data format that can be processed by a programming language developed for the Web service processing procedure. Web service providing method. The first message conversion procedure generates, from the request message, an element tree based on an element constituting the request message and a value set for the element, and sets the element tree as the first data format. The Web service providing method according to claim 18, wherein: In the first data format conversion procedure, a value is set to an element of the second data format that can be processed by the Web service processing procedure by tracing the association between the elements of the element tree. The web service providing method according to claim 19. A second data format, which can be processed in the predetermined program language and indicates a processing result of the Web service according to the Web service procedure, to a fourth data format indicating a configuration of a response message indicating the processing result; Data format conversion procedure,
19. A second message conversion procedure for describing the response message in a description format receivable by the device based on the configuration of the response message indicated by the fourth data format. Web service providing method according to the description. The second data format conversion procedure generates an element tree based on the value set as the processing result in the element of the third data format and a plurality of elements constituting the response message, and converts the element tree into the element tree. 22. The Web service providing method according to claim 18, wherein the Web service providing method is a fourth data format.

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