JP2004127281A - Image forming apparatus and information display method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus for displaying application information for installability determination on an operation panel. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus with an operation panel for operation information display or input is provided with an information acquisition means for acquiring the application information about an application to be used for the image forming apparatus, and a display means for displaying on the operation panel the application information acquired through the information acquisition means or the information relevant to the application information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that provides a user service related to image forming processing such as a copy, a printer, a scanner, and a facsimile. The image forming apparatus performs display on an operation panel based on application information related to an application. It relates to a method of displaying information.

In recent years, an image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “multifunction peripheral”) in which functions of respective apparatuses such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner are housed in one housing is known. This multifunction peripheral includes a display unit, a printing unit, an imaging unit, and the like in a single housing, and three types of software corresponding to a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine, respectively. Is operated as a printer, copier, scanner or facsimile machine.

In such a conventional multifunction peripheral, all application programs are activated in units of functions such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner. In the case of these existing applications, the version consistency and the amount of resources to be used between the application and the MFP are known in advance when performing the installation process to make it bootable. There was no need to check for such things.
JP-A-11-112701

By the way, in such a conventional multifunction peripheral, software corresponding to a printer, a copier, a scanner, and a facsimile machine is separately provided, and therefore, it takes a lot of time to develop each software. For this reason, the applicant has an application that has hardware resources used in image forming processing such as a display unit, a printing unit, and an imaging unit and performs processing specific to each user service such as a printer, a copy or a facsimile. When providing a user service by interposing between a plurality of applications and hardware resources, management, execution control, and image forming processing of hardware resources required by at least two of the applications in common Invented an image forming apparatus (multifunction peripheral) equipped with a platform composed of various control services for performing the following.

In such a new multifunction peripheral, a control service for providing services commonly required by at least two of the applications is provided separately from the application. The third vendor develops a new application and can be installed in a multifunction device.

In order to execute a new application developed by a user or a third vendor on the MFP in addition to the existing applications such as copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile installed at the time of shipment, the new application must be executed by the MFP. After that, you need to process the installation to make the application bootable. In the case of the existing applications of the above-mentioned MFPs, the consistency of the version and the amount of resources used are known in advance, so even if the application is installed and started, malfunctions due to version inconsistency or insufficient resources may occur. It is not. However, in the case of a new application developed by a third vendor, etc., the operation of the multifunction device will not be performed when the new application is started because the application has not been developed in consideration of the status (version and resource capacity) of the multifunction device to be installed. May be unstable.

Therefore, it is thought that if the software is installed for the time being, and checked before starting, the operation can be prevented from becoming unstable. However, it is meaningless to install an application that may cause the operation of the multifunction peripheral to become unstable when activated. In this way, if a new MFP that can install a new application starts up without checking the version and resource check of the new application, the operation of the conventional MFP may become unstable or the operation may stop halfway. There are new challenges that did not become a problem with machines.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and a display method capable of displaying application information for determining whether or not an application can be installed on an operation panel. I do.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is an image forming apparatus provided with an operation panel for displaying or inputting operation information, wherein information for acquiring application information on an application used in the image forming apparatus is provided. An acquisition unit, and a display unit for displaying the application information acquired by the information acquisition unit or information related to the application information on the operation panel.

According to the present invention, since the display on the operation panel is performed based on the application information, the user can appropriately select an application to be installed and determine whether or not the application can be installed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the information processing apparatus further includes a determination unit configured to determine whether the application can be installed in the image forming apparatus based on the application information acquired by the information acquisition unit. is there.

According to the present invention, it is possible for the image forming apparatus to determine whether installation is possible. Is displayed, the user can select only the applications that can be installed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the display means displays selectable applications on the operation panel based on a result of the determination by the determination means.

According to the present invention, the user can select only the applications that can be installed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect, the information displayed on the operation panel includes an application name of an installable application and an application outline description.

By displaying the application name and the application summary description of the installable application, the user can easily select the application to be used.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the display unit displays a reason for the inability to install the application that cannot be installed, based on a result of the determination by the determining unit.

According to the present invention, the user can know the reason why installation is impossible. For example, if installation is not possible because a certain device is not mounted on the multifunction peripheral, it is possible to take measures such as mounting the device.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, when the same application as the application selected to be installed already exists in the image forming apparatus, the display unit displays a warning. is there. As a result, it is possible to confirm whether or not the user wants re-installation.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the application information or related information displayed on the operation panel includes information necessary for determining whether to install the application.

According to the present invention, it is possible for the user to determine whether or not the installation is possible, based on the data displayed on the operation panel.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect, the information necessary for determining whether the application can be installed includes version information of the application and version information of the image forming apparatus.

(4) An application that cannot be installed due to version mismatch can be determined based on the version information on the application side and the version information on the image forming apparatus side.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect, the information necessary for determining whether to install the application includes a resource to be used by the application and a resource that can be used in the image forming apparatus.

(4) An application that cannot be installed due to a lack of resources can be determined based on resources to be used by the application and resources available in the image forming apparatus.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the display means displays an installation operation screen or an uninstallation operation screen based on the application information, and displays an application according to the operation of the operation screen. It further comprises means for performing an installation process or an uninstallation process.

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily perform the installation process or the uninstallation process of the application according to the operation screen.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to tenth aspects, there is provided means for displaying a screen equivalent to the screen displayed on the operation panel to an external device via a network. Further provisions are made.

According to the present invention, it is possible to operate the image forming apparatus from an external device.

The invention according to claims 12 to 22 is an invention of a display method suitable for the image forming apparatus. According to the inventions of the twelfth to twelfth aspects, the same functions and effects as those of the above-described image forming apparatus can be obtained. The invention according to claims 23 to 24 is an invention of a program suitable for the image forming apparatus. According to the inventions of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth aspects, the same operation and effect as the above-described invention of the image forming apparatus can be obtained.

According to the present invention, since the display on the operation panel is performed based on the application information, the user can appropriately select an application to be installed and confirm whether or not the application can be installed.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an image forming apparatus and an application check method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “multifunction peripheral”) according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the multifunction peripheral 100 includes a monochrome laser printer (B & W LP) 101, a color laser printer (Color LP) 102, and hardware resources 103 such as a scanner, a facsimile, a hard disk, a memory, and a network interface. In addition, the system includes a platform 120, an application (hereinafter, also referred to as an application) 130, and a software group 110 including a virtual application service (VAS: Virtual @ Application @ Service) 140.

In the present embodiment, a virtual application service (VAS) 140 is arranged between the application 130 and the platform 120. The virtual application service (VAS) 140 operates as a client process using a control service as a server, and operates as a server process using an application as a client. The application information obtaining thread serving as application information obtaining means, the screen display means The virtual application service 140 includes a screen display thread as an application check thread, an application check thread as an application check unit, and a control thread as an application control unit. Note that if only an application check is performed, the VAS need not be registered as a client in the service layer.

The VAS 140 acquires application information and generates the application information file on the hard disk (HD) 200 as a storage unit before performing an installation process for enabling a certain application to be activated. As an example of the application information to be acquired, here, the product information is acquired, and the product ID, the vendor name, the application name, the version, the contact information (telephone number), the required resources, the installation judgment, and the related application information are obtained. And so on. This product information is held by the application itself, acquired via a network, or previously acquired product information is stored in the hard disk 200, the NVRAM 104 which is a nonvolatile memory, the application information table 106 dedicated to the application, or the like. If so, the product information can also be used by reading it. At this time, the VAS 140 temporarily performs the inter-process communication only between the VAS 140 and the application by temporarily activating the application before the installation, and can individually acquire the application information.

{Circle over (2)} After the application is copied from various data cards such as a PC card, an IC card, and an SD card to the hard disk 200 of the multifunction peripheral 100, an installation process is performed so that the application can be started. In performing this series of processing, the VAS displays a screen described later on the operation panel.

Note that the screen display on the operation panel and the application check may be configured to be executed by processes other than the VAS, respectively.

In the present embodiment, before performing the installation process, the application information that is information on the application is acquired, and whether or not the application can be installed is determined based on the application information. Whether this installation is possible depends on the operation of the MFP itself due to problems such as lack of resources and version consistency in relation to existing applications and other installed new applications when the application is started. Judgment is made based on whether there is a risk of becoming unstable or stopping the operation. It is meaningless to determine whether or not the installation process is possible, because installing an application that cannot be started does not make sense, and if it is installed, it will hinder the operation of the MFP itself if it is started by mistake. It is.

The platform 120 interprets a processing request from an application to generate a hardware resource acquisition request, and a system resource manager that manages one or more hardware resources and arbitrates the acquisition request from the control service. (SRM) 123 and a general-purpose OS 121.

The control service is formed from a plurality of service modules, and includes an SCS (system control service) 122, an ECS (engine control service) 124, an MCS (memory control service) 125, an OCS (operation panel control service) 126, and an FCS. (Fax control service) 127 and NCS (network control service) 128. Note that the platform 120 has an application program interface (API) that enables a processing request from the application 130 to be received by a predefined function.

The general-purpose OS 121 is a general-purpose operating system such as UNIX (registered trademark), and executes each software of the platform 120 and the application 130 in parallel as a process.

The process of the SRM 123 controls the system and manages resources together with the SCS 122. The process of the SRM 123 uses hardware resources such as an engine such as a scanner unit and a printer unit, a memory, an HDD file, and host I / O (centro I / F, network I / F, IEEE 1394 I / F, RS232C I / F, etc.). Arbitration is performed according to a request from the upper layer to be used, and execution is controlled.

Specifically, the SRM 123 determines whether the requested hardware resource is available (whether it is not used by another request), and if it is available, the requested hardware resource is used. Inform the upper layer that it is possible. The SRM 123 also schedules use of hardware resources in response to a request from an upper layer, and directly implements the contents of the request (for example, paper transport and image forming operation, memory reservation, file generation, and the like by a printer engine). .

The SCS 122 process performs application management, operation unit control, system screen display, LED display, resource management, interrupt application control, and the like.

The process of the ECS 124 controls an engine of hardware resources including a monochrome laser printer (B & W LP) 101, a color laser printer (Color LP) 102, a scanner, a facsimile, and the like.

The MCS 125 process acquires and releases an image memory, uses a hard disk drive (HDD), and compresses and expands image data.

The process of the FCS 127 includes 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, fusion transmission / reception. Provides an API to do so.

The process of the NCS 128 is a process for providing a service that can be used in common to applications requiring network I / O, and distributes data received from the network according to each protocol to each application, or distributes data from the application to the data. Mediation when sending to the network side. Specifically, it has server daemons such as ftpd, httpd, lpd, snmpd, telnetd, and smtpd, and a client function of the same protocol.

The process of the OCS 126 controls an operation panel (operation panel) 105 which is a means for transmitting information between an operator (user) and main body control. The OCS 126 acquires a key press from the operation panel 105 as a key event, and transmits a key event function corresponding to the acquired key to the SCS 122, and various screens on the operation panel in response to a request from the application 130 or the control service. And a function for controlling the operation panel and the like, which are registered in advance in the OCS library. This OCS library is implemented by being linked to each module of the application 130 and the control service. Note that all of the OCS 126 may be configured to operate as a process, or all of the OCS 126 may be configured as an OCS library.

The application 130 includes a printer application 111 that is a printer application having a page description language (PDL), PCL, and PostScript (PS), a copy application 112 that is a copy application, and a fax application 113 that is a facsimile application. , A scanner application 114 as a scanner application, a network file application 115 as a network file application, and a process inspection application 116 as a process inspection application. Each of these applications is an application specific to the multifunction peripheral (specific to the image forming apparatus), and transmits an application registration request message together with the process ID of its own process to the VAS 140 at the time of startup. Registration processing for the activated application is performed.

Each process of the application 130 and each process of the control service realize user services related to image forming processing such as copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile while performing inter-process communication by transmitting a function call, transmitting a return value thereof, and transmitting and receiving a message. are doing.

As described above, in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment, there are a plurality of applications 130 and a plurality of control services, all of which operate as processes. Then, one or a plurality of threads are generated inside each of these processes, and the threads are executed in parallel. Then, the control service provides a common service to the application 130. For this reason, these many processes perform parallel operation and thread parallel operation, perform inter-process communication with each other, and perform cooperative operation. User services related to image forming processes such as copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile are provided. In addition, the MFP 100 allows a third party such as a third vendor to develop and install new applications 117 and 118 in the application layer above the control service layer. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the new applications 117 and 118 are mounted.

In the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment, a plurality of processes of the application 130 and a plurality of processes of the control service are operating. However, the application 130 and the control service process each have a single configuration. Is also possible. Further, each application 130 can be added or deleted for each application.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a hardware configuration of the multifunction peripheral 100.

The multifunction peripheral 100 includes a controller 160, an operation panel 175, a fax control unit (FCU) 176, and an engine unit 177 that is a hardware resource specific to image forming processing such as a printer. The controller 160 includes a CPU 161, a system memory 162, a north bridge (NB) 163, a south bridge (SB) 164, an ASIC 166, a local memory 167, a HDD 168, a network interface card (NIC) 169, and an SD card. , A USB device 171, an IEEE 1394 device 172, and a Centronics 173. Note that the memories 162 and 167 include a RAM, a ROM, and the like. The FCU 176 and the engine unit 177 are connected to the ASIC 166 of the controller 160 via a PCI bus 178.

(4) The CPU 161 reads out a program such as an application and a control service installed in the multifunction peripheral 100 from the memory and executes the program.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the VAS 140 of the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment and the relationship between the VAS 140, each application, the control service layer 150, and the general-purpose OS 121. Although FIG. 2 shows the printer application 111, the copy application 112, and the new applications 117 and 118 as examples of the application 130, other applications have the same configuration.

The processes of the virtual application service (VAS) 140 include a dispatcher 145, a control thread 144, an application information acquisition thread 141 as application information acquisition means, a screen display thread 142 for generating an operation screen for an operation panel, and An application check thread 143 that checks whether or not an application can be installed based on the acquired application information is operating.

The dispatcher 145 monitors reception of a message from the application 130 or the control service, and issues a processing request to the control thread 144, the application information acquisition thread 141, the screen display thread 142, and the application check thread 143 according to the received message. It is.

The control thread 144 receives the message from the dispatcher 145, and performs an application information acquisition process, a screen display process, and an application check process. Here, the application check process is a process of checking whether or not there is a possibility of affecting the multifunction peripheral when the application is activated. For example, by acquiring the application information of the application that requested the installation and the application information of the other installed applications, and performing a version check and resource check, it is possible to determine whether the operation will not be affected even if it is started after installation. to decide. At this time, the screen display thread 142 displays the application information of each application on the operation panel 105 using the application information acquired by the application information acquisition thread 141 and stored in the application information file 201 in the hard disk (HD) 200. Let it. As a result, the status of the application to be installed can be grasped, so that even if it is determined that the application cannot be installed by the application check thread 143, the user understands why the installation could not be performed. be able to. Further, the screen display thread can be configured to display a series of screens from copying of an application to installation and activation setting.

In addition, the control thread 144 performs an installation process of an application determined to be installable by the application check thread 143, or an uninstall process of deleting an installed application when it becomes unnecessary, as described later. Control.

When the application information acquisition thread 141 receives a processing request from the control thread 144, the application information acquisition thread 141 acquires application information in a state where inter-process communication is possible by temporarily starting the application before installation. In addition, by activating the installed application, application information can be obtained by inter-process communication. In this way, the obtained application information of each application is generated on the hard disk (HD) 200 as the application information file 201. Such application information is recorded as a record for each application.

The program of the VAS 140 is a file in a format executable or installable on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM or FD (flexible disk) as a part or all of a software development kit (SDK: Software Development Kit) or the like. Provided. Further, the program file of the VAS 140 in such an executable format or an installable format may be provided by a method that can be obtained via a network.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the VAS 140, the hard disk 200 storing application information, the application information table 106, and the NVRAM 104. As shown in FIG. 4, the product information stored in the hard disk 200 is managed for each application, and if the product ID can be specified, the corresponding application information can also be specified. The hard disk 200 stores data of the application A and the application C before installation copied to the multifunction peripheral, and the application B performs an installation process using data stored in an IC card or the like. Is what you do. F indicated by a broken line in FIG. 4 indicates an executable file group located at a specific path.

The NVRAM 104 is a non-volatile memory that retains the memory contents even when the power is turned off, and stores a product ID, startup information, and additional information for each application, such as an application A and an application B, by performing an installation process. .

The application information table stores information on applications as table data for each application, and is used, for example, when displaying a screen. By inputting the product ID of the application A, application information such as the application name, version, and install attribute of the application A can be extracted.

FIG. 5 is an overall flowchart in the case of performing installation processing or uninstallation processing on an application in the multifunction peripheral of the present embodiment. First, in step S401 in FIG. 4, the dispatcher 145 requests the application information thread 141 via the control thread 144 to perform an application information acquisition process for an application before installation or for an installed application. The application information thread 141 performs an application information acquisition process to generate an application information file 201.

In step S402, the application information is read from the generated application information file 201, an operation screen to be displayed on the operation panel 105 is generated, and the screen is displayed. This display screen displays information such as the application name, version, and resources of the copied application together. Just by the user making a selection along the selection screen, whether or not the installation is possible, a situation when the installation becomes impossible, and the like are displayed on the screen. The user performs a selection process according to the screen display.

(4) After the user selection process is performed for an item, in step S403, after waiting for a user operation (step S403), it is determined whether or not a user request is present (step S404). Here, the user's request is either an application installation request or an application uninstallation request. If the user request is permitted by the installation, the application information is registered in the NVRAM 104 shown in FIG. 4 (step S405). If the user request is uninstallation, the application is deleted by deleting the application information from the NVRAM 104 shown in FIG. 4 (step S406).

FIG. 6 describes in detail the application information acquisition processing operation in FIG. Since application information cannot be acquired as it is for an application before installation or before activation, the VAS 140 temporarily activates the application for which information is to be acquired (step S501), and transmits desired information by inter-process communication. By requesting, application information can be obtained. In the present embodiment, when a product ID that allows unified management of application information is requested and acquired (step S502), it is known by referring to the NVRAM 104 whether the application is a registered application (step S502). S503).

If it is not registered in the NVRAM 104, it is determined whether there is a product information file (step S504). If there is no product information, various kinds of information are obtained from the application using inter-process communication (step S505). Thus, after the product information file is generated (step S506), the installation determination process is performed (step S507). Then, the result of the determination processing is reflected on the product information (step S508). The installation determination is performed, for example, by comparing the used resource information acquired from the application with the resource information of the system.

Then, in step S509, whether or not the installation is possible is determined based on the determination result. If there is a product information file in step S504, application information is obtained from the product information (step S510), and determination information at the time of installation is obtained (step S511). It is determined whether installation is possible.

If it is determined in step S509 that installation is possible, an installable flag is set (step S512), and writing to the application information table is performed (step S516). If installation is not possible, an installation impossible flag is set (step S513), and writing to the application information table is performed (step S516). Further, in the above-mentioned step S503, in the case of an application whose product ID is registered in the NVRAM 104, application information is obtained from the NVRAM 104 (step S514), and an installed flag is set (step S515). Writing to the application information table is performed (step S516). The information in the application information table can be used for screen display.

If the processing for all applications is not completed, the process returns to step S501 again, and the above processing is repeated until the processing for all applications is completed.

Next, the temporary activation of the application will be described in more detail. The provisional activation is different from the normal activation of the application that uses the resources of the multifunction peripheral (the activation for performing the original function of the application is called the normal activation). In the provisional activation, the application does not acquire resources such as memory reservation necessary for the original operation of the application, and performs only the process of inter-process communication with the VAS. Then, the application provides information to the VAS. The provisionally activated application process ends when the communication process with the VAS ends. Further, the function related to the provisional activation of the application is a function common to the application operating in the MFP according to the present embodiment, regardless of the original function of the application. Therefore, for example, when a vendor develops an application, the vendor can be provided with a program template including a function of provisional activation, and the vendor can use the program template to develop an application for a multifunction peripheral. The above-described application information can be included in an application execution file, for example, when a vendor creates an include file in which application information is recorded and includes the file when compiling the application.

(4) Since the application has the function of provisional activation, the application information can be provided to the VAS through communication with the VAS without performing the normal activation, and the VAS can check whether the VAS can be installed.

FIG. 7 shows an outline of a program description (main function) of an application including a function of provisional activation. This description is provided as the above program template.

(7) As shown in FIG. 7, this program description specifies whether the application is provisionally activated or normally activated by an argument (-v). Thereby, when the VAS starts the application, the normal start and the temporary start can be easily used properly. That is, when the provisional activation is designated using the argument (-v), the provisional activation is executed, and the application information providing process is performed. If provisional activation is not specified, normal activation is performed to perform the original operation of the application.

In the above embodiment, the VAS acquires information from the application to determine whether or not to install the application, and registers the application. However, as shown in the sequence of FIG. After the determination, the VAS makes an inquiry to the application as to whether the installation of the application may be started (step S601). When the application returns a notice of the installation permission to the VAS in response to the inquiry ( Step S602), the VAS may register the application (step S603).

Note that the application may acquire system information (resource information or device configuration information, etc.) from the VAS between step S601 and step S602, and the application may determine whether or not installation is possible based on the information. .

Note that the VAS can acquire the application information in addition to the method of acquiring the application information included in the executable file of the application. In this method, for example, the application information is created in a file different from the application, and the contents of the file are read by the VAS. By providing the file on a server external to the multifunction peripheral, application information can be obtained via a network.

Next, FIGS. 9 to 36 are diagrams showing examples of state transition of the operation screen displayed on the operation panel 105 of the multifunction peripheral. First, FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an authentication screen in the initial setting screen, FIGS. 10 to 16 are diagrams illustrating a file copy operation, and FIGS. 17 to 28 are diagrams illustrating an installation operation. 29 to 36 are diagrams showing the uninstall operation.

First, a user ID and a password are input on the authentication screen shown in FIG. By pressing the OK button 210 after inputting both, a desired mode can be selected. Here, a process of copying an application to a multifunction peripheral is performed as a premise of performing a process of installing a new application. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10A, a file copy screen is displayed, and the storage source of the file to be copied is specified. Here, there are three options: a memory card 211, an SD card 212, and via the network 213. As shown in FIG. 10B, when the user selects the via network 213 and presses the OK button 216, the application download screen using the Web shown in FIG. 11A or the LAN shown in FIG. The copy screen of the used application file is displayed. Pressing the CANCEL button 215 in FIG. 10B returns to FIG. 10A, and pressing the EXIT button 214 returns to the screen of FIG. 9 where the authentication screen is not displayed.

FIG. 12A shows a case where the memory card 211 is selected, and FIG. 12B shows a case where the SD card 212 is selected. When the OK button 216 is pressed, the screen transits to the screen in FIG. 13A, and a screen waiting for file list creation is displayed. Here, when the CANCEL button 221 is pressed, the screen returns to the screen of FIG. FIG. 13B is a screen showing the file list 222.

FIG. 14A shows a screen where only simplecopy 225 is selected from the file list, and FIG. 14B shows a screen where simpleprint 223 is also selected. When the OK button 216 is pressed in FIG. 14A, the screen transitions to the standby screen in FIG. If the same file exists, a warning screen of FIG. 15B is displayed, and a confirmation display of overwriting is performed. When the file copying process is completed, the file is displayed as shown in FIG. At this point, the desired application file has been copied to the hard disk or the like.

FIG. 17 shows an example of an installation operation screen. When the install tag is selected, the above-described application information is obtained.

Here, registration possible, registration impossible, and registered information can be displayed on the screen. “Registered” means that the application information has been registered in the NVRAM by the installation process. By referring to the NVRAM, the VAS can determine whether a certain application has been registered.

{Registration not possible} is displayed when the VAS determines that the application cannot be installed in the multifunction peripheral for some reason. For example, when the resource to be used acquired by the VAS from the application is not provided in the MFP, it is determined that the resource cannot be installed in the MFP.

Unregistered (registration possible) means that it has been determined that installation is possible on the MFP, but installation processing has not been performed yet.

17) As shown in FIG. 17B, when the simple copy 235, which is a registerable application, is designated, a blink is displayed. On the other hand, when the registration-impossible application 234 is specified as shown in FIG. 19A, the process transits to FIG. 19B, and a message indicating that the registration cannot be performed and a message that the registration cannot be performed are displayed. The information for displaying this message is stored in the MFP when the VAS determines whether the application can be installed.

When an application to be installed is selected on the screen shown in FIG. 17A, as shown in FIG. 18, the medium of the installation source (the medium on which the application is copied) and the medium of the installation destination (the May be displayed. In this case, the installation destination medium can be selected. For example, as shown in FIG. 18, an application copied to an SD card can be activated (installed) while being copied to the SD card.

When a registered application is selected, the screen changes from FIG. 20A to FIG. 20B, and a warning screen is displayed. When an application that can be registered is selected, an application registration standby screen 240 shown in FIG. 21A is displayed, and then a registration end screen shown in FIG. 21B is displayed. Thereby, application registration (installation in this specification) is completed. As a result, as shown in FIG. 22, the number of registered applications increases.

FIG. 23A shows an example in which “registered” and “non-registerable” are similarly displayed. Returning to the state shown in FIG. 23A, when all of the states are set to the non-selection state. As shown in FIG. 24A, a plurality of applications can be selected as registration targets, or as shown in FIG.

{Circle around (2)} As shown in FIG. 25 (a), when an unregisterable application is selected, a warning screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 25 (b). As shown in FIG. 26 (a), when an attempt is made to select a registered application, a warning screen as shown in FIG. 26 (b) is displayed. Here, a caution is shown that the setting values are initialized. When the registration is in progress as shown in FIG. 27A, the screen changes to a standby screen, a completion result as shown in FIG. 27B is shown, and a specific application name of the registration result is displayed as shown in FIG.

Next, in the case of the uninstallation processing, the screen shown in FIG. (B) is a state in which an application to be specifically deleted is selected. When erasure registration is performed for an application for which erasure is prohibited, a warning screen shown in FIGS. 30A to 30B is displayed. When the deletion registration is permitted, the result is as shown in FIGS. 31A and 31B, and the result of the deletion registration is displayed as shown in FIG. FIGS. 33 and 34 show examples of registration deletion screens when a key is assigned to an application. As shown in FIG. 34A, when SimpleScan is selected, an inquiry screen as to whether to cancel the key assignment and delete the registration is displayed in FIG. 34B. When OK is pressed here, the screen is displayed as shown in FIGS. 35A and 35B, and the result of the deletion registration is displayed as shown in FIG.

As described above, in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the present embodiment, copy processing is performed to install a new application, and installation or uninstallation processing is performed using an operation screen example of an operation panel as illustrated in FIGS. 9 to 36. As shown, it is easy to understand and easy to operate. Since various kinds of application information are displayed on the operation panel, the user only has to sequentially select screens based on the information displayed on the screen, and the operation becomes very simple.

In the examples shown in FIGS. 9 to 36, the multi-function device determines whether the installation is possible and displays the result on the operation panel. However, the multi-function device does not determine whether the installation is possible. May be displayed. In this case, for example, the version information of the API used by the application and the version information of the API in the MFP system are displayed. Further, the resource amount scheduled to be used by the application and the resource amount available in the multifunction peripheral may be displayed in a format in which these can be compared.

Now, it is also possible to display the above-mentioned series of screens on a device such as an external PC connected to the multifunction peripheral via a network, and perform an installation process or the like from there.

In this case, the net file application shown in FIG. 1 has a Web server function, and the Java (registered trademark) program, which is a part of the net file application, creates the above-described series of screens by a so-called servlet method. Performs processing for the MFP, such as installation processing. Also, the PC has a Web browser.

FIG. 37 shows the configuration of the net file application 115 in this case. As shown in FIG. 37, the net file application 115 has a Web server 1151, a JVM (Java (registered trademark) virtual machine) 1152, and a Java (registered trademark) program 1153. The net file application 115 receives a request related to the installation process from the PC, performs an actual process, and then creates an HTML and returns it to the PC.

(4) The screen display on the PC can be performed in parallel with the screen display of the multifunction peripheral, or can be performed independently. When the display is performed in parallel with the screen display of the multifunction peripheral, for example, the net file application 115 acquires the drawing information from the OCS, converts the drawing information into HTML, and transmits the HTML to the PC.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified and applied within the scope of the claims.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the multifunction peripheral 100. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a VAS of the multifunction peripheral according to the present embodiment and a relationship between the VAS, each application, a control service layer, and a general-purpose OS. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a VAS and a hard disk storing application information, an application information table, and NVRAM. 5 is an overall flowchart in a case where an installation process or an uninstallation process is performed on an application in the multifunction peripheral of the present embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram for describing in detail an application information acquisition processing operation in FIG. 5. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a program description (main function) of an application including a function of provisional activation. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating negotiation between a VAS and an application. It is a figure showing an initial setting screen. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing a file copy operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an installation operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing an uninstall operation. It is a figure showing composition of a net file application.

Explanation of reference numerals

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 MFP 101 Black and white laser printer 102 Color laser printer 104 NVRAM
105 operation panel 110 software group 111 printer application 112 copy application 113 fax application 114 scanner application 115 net file application 116 process inspection application 117, 118 new application 120 platform 121 general-purpose OS
122 SCS
123 SRM
124 ECS
125 MCS
126 OCS
127 FCS
128 NCS
130 application 140 virtual application service (VAS)
141 Application information acquisition thread 142 Screen display thread 143 Application check thread 144 Control thread 145 Dispatcher 150 Control service layer 200 Hard disk (HD)
201 Application information file

Claims (24)

An image forming apparatus having an operation panel for displaying or inputting operation information,
Information acquisition means for acquiring application information on an application used in the image forming apparatus;
Display means for displaying on the operation panel the application information acquired by the information acquisition means or information related to the application information. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a determination unit configured to determine whether the application can be installed in the image forming apparatus based on the application information acquired by the information acquisition unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display unit displays an installable application on the operation panel in a selectable manner based on a result of the determination by the determination unit. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information displayed on the operation panel includes an application name of an installable application and an application outline description. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display unit displays a reason why installation is impossible for an application that cannot be installed, based on a result of the determination by the determining unit. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display unit displays a warning when the same application as the application selected to be installed already exists in the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the application information or related information displayed on the operation panel includes information necessary for determining whether the application can be installed. 8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information necessary for determining whether the application can be installed includes version information on the application side and version information on the image forming apparatus side. 8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information necessary for determining whether the application can be installed includes resources to be used by the application and resources available in the image forming apparatus. The display means displays an installation operation screen or an uninstallation operation screen based on the application information,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a unit that performs an installation process or an uninstallation process of the application according to the operation on the operation screen. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, further comprising means for displaying a screen equivalent to a screen displayed on the operation panel to an external device via a network. A method of displaying operation information on the operation panel in an image forming apparatus including an operation panel for displaying or inputting operation information,
An information acquisition step of acquiring application information on an application used in the image forming apparatus;
Displaying the application information acquired in the information acquiring step or information related to the application information on the operation panel. 13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising a determining step of determining whether or not the application can be installed on the image forming apparatus based on the application information acquired in the information acquiring step. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein an installable application is selectably displayed on the operation panel based on a result of the determination in the determining step. The method according to claim 14, wherein the information displayed on the operation panel includes an application name of an installable application and an application brief description. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein a reason for the inability to install the application that cannot be installed is displayed based on a result of the determination in the determining step. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein a warning is displayed if the same application as the application selected to be installed already exists on the image forming apparatus. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the application information or related information displayed on the operation panel includes information necessary for determining whether to install the application. 19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the information necessary for determining whether the application can be installed includes version information on the application side and version information on the image forming apparatus side. 19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the information necessary for determining whether the application can be installed includes resources to be used by the application and resources available in the image forming apparatus. Displaying an installation operation screen or an uninstallation operation screen based on the application information;
13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising: means for performing an application installation process or an application uninstallation process according to the operation of the operation screen. 22. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of displaying a screen equivalent to the screen displayed on the operation panel to an external device via a network. An image forming apparatus having an operation panel for displaying or inputting operation information;
Information acquisition means for acquiring application information on an application used in the image forming apparatus,
A program functioning as display means for displaying, on the operation panel, the application information acquired by the information acquisition means or information related to the application information. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 23 is recorded.

Images