JP2004168069A - Printer and printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform a flexible access control and maintenance/management via a network. <P>SOLUTION: A message transmitted from a computer is received via the network, and when the received message is a message for the maintenance, a network address of the computer, which is included in the message, is registered in or deleted from a list. When the received message is a message about a printing request, it is judged whether or not the computer, which transmits the message, has an access right, according to the list of the registered network addresses; when it is judged that the computer has no access right, a message to indicate the nonpermission of printing is transferred to the computer; and when it is judged that the computer has the access right, the printing is done by receiving printing data from the computer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for performing maintenance / management and printing based on a message received from a computer via a network.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printer device outputs data requested to be printed by a computer as it is on paper. However, with the rapid progress of network technology in recent years and the reduction in the price of LSIs, if the printer device itself is directly connected to a network such as a LAN, the print request access to the printer device as in the related art is not possible. Cannot be realized in a form all dependent on the host computer.

  The main task of the printer control software of the printer device is to interpret a drawing function or the like designated by the host computer and output it to paper. The printer control software communicates with a plurality of computers on the LAN, and communicates with each computer. The printer control software itself does not control access to the printer from the computer.

  In the above-mentioned conventional example, in a form independent of the host computer, a printer device that gives access rights only to a limited computer existing on the LAN and outputs print data from the computer (especially, a color printer having a high printing cost) There is no printer device that receives a maintenance message transmitted from a computer via a network and registers or deletes a computer that can make a print request based on the message. Was.

  The present invention relates to a receiving unit that receives a message transmitted from a computer via a network, and when the message received by the receiving unit is a maintenance message, lists a network address of the computer included in the message in a list. A registration unit for registering or deleting from the list, and when the message received by the reception unit is a print request message, accessing the computer that transmitted the print request message based on a list of network addresses registered by the registration unit. A determination unit that determines whether or not the computer has the right to access, and if the determination unit determines that the computer does not have the access right, a message indicating that printing is not permitted is transferred to the computer, and the computer has the access right. If the judgment is made by the judgment means, And having a printing means for printing received print data from the computer.

  The present invention also provides a receiving step of receiving a message transmitted from a computer via a network, and, when the message received in the receiving step is a maintenance message, changing a network address of the computer included in the message. A registration step of registering or deleting from the list, and, if the message received in the receiving step is a print request message, the computer transmitting the print request message based on a list of network addresses registered in the registration step. A determination step of determining whether or not the computer has an access right; and if the determination step determines that the computer does not have an access right, a message indicating printing disapproval is transferred to the computer, and the access right is transmitted to the computer. When there is a judgment in the above judgment step , And having a printing step of printing receives the print data from the computer

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform flexible access control and maintenance / management via a network.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus (printer apparatus) according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a communication control unit which controls communication between the apparatus and a computer on a LAN, interprets various communication protocols flowing on the LAN, receives a message to the apparatus itself, and By cooperating with the access control unit, the print request from the computer not registered in the access permission list is rejected, and the print request from the computer registered in the access permission list is passed to 15 printers. Printing is performed by

  Further, when an event such as running out of paper or running out of toner occurs, a notification of the occurrence of the event is sent from the 15 printers to the 12 access control units, and the print request source on the LAN is transmitted via the 11 communication control units. In addition to being notified to the computer, the computer for maintaining the apparatus is also notified so as to prompt the printer to recover.

  If a problem occurs in the printer and a print request cannot be received, make adjustments with the printer spooling system on the computer that issued the print request via the LAN, and temporarily suspend the transmission of print data to the printer. Let it. Thereafter, when the cause of the problem is removed from the printer device and the printer device becomes ready to print, the computer is notified to that effect and the print processing that has been suspended is resumed.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a print number counting unit that counts the number of prints for each computer and the number of prints for each department to which the computer belongs based on the access permission list. Further, reference numeral 14 denotes software for communicating only with the computer for maintenance after the network address of the computer for managing and maintaining the apparatus is set, and its functions include the following.
1. Register and delete the network address of a computer that can access this device on the LAN, and change the network address (including changes in the network shape)
2. 2. Registration / deletion and change of the department to which the computer belongs 3. Communication of statistical information on the number of print requests to the computer of the computer and the department to which the computer belongs to the maintenance computer. Periodic reporting of the internal state of the printer to the maintenance computer.

  FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a configuration of an access permission list in the access control unit and an example of a print number counting table in the print number counting unit. As shown in the figure, the access permission list and the counting table of the number of printed sheets are linked, and the structure is such that the history of the number of past printed sheets of the computer can be traced from the network address of the computer requesting the printing. In this example, the access permission list of the print request includes the network address of the computer, the name of the department to which the computer belongs, and a pointer to the count table of the number of prints. Items are also conceivable. In addition, the counting table of the number of printed sheets in this example includes the total number of printed sheets of this week, the total number of printed sheets of this month, and the total of annual printed sheets. Can be counted.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing control in each of the parts 12, 13, and 14 in FIG. First, in step S11, data transmitted from the computer through the communication control unit with the computer 11 is analyzed, and if the data is a communication message to the present apparatus, it is received. In the present apparatus, the processing after receiving the message from the normal communication control unit 11 is passed to a predetermined task, and this task performs the subsequent processing independently, and the “end” shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. Means the end of the task.

  Next, in step S12, it is determined whether or not the message is a print request. If the message is a print request, the process proceeds to step S13, where the network address of the print requesting computer included in the message is registered in the printer device. A search is performed to determine whether the print request is on the print request permission list. Then, in step S14, the search result is determined. If there is no corresponding address, the process proceeds to step S19. If necessary, a message indicating that printing is not permitted is returned to the print requesting computer via the communication control unit 11.

  However, if there is the corresponding address, the process proceeds to step S15, where further communication is performed through the communication control unit 11 with the computer to which the print request is permitted, the actual print data is received, sent to the printer 15, and printed on paper. In this apparatus, this processing is executed as a separate task in the printer control program, and thus this task is in a standby state until printing is completed. Thereafter, when printing is completed and control returns to this task again, the process proceeds to step S16, and it is determined whether or not an error has occurred in the printer 15 during execution of the printing task. Proceeding to step S20, an error occurrence message is transmitted to the print requesting computer through the communication control unit 11.

  Further, in step S21, a detailed error occurrence report message is transmitted to the computer that maintains and operates the printer. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S22, in which the task of executing the printer 15 is suspended, and thereafter, an external print request is suspended until the cause of the error is removed.

  If the printing has been completed normally, the flow advances to step S17 to update the counting table of the number of prints for each computer and for each department to which the computer belongs. Send a print success message to the other computer. If this response is unnecessary, a communication method that does not require returning a message in advance can be set at the start of communication.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S12 that the sent message is not a print request, the flow advances to step S23 to check whether the message is for maintenance / operation, and if so, the flow advances to printer maintenance / operation processing to be described later. Details of this processing are shown in FIG. If the message is not a maintenance / operation message, the process proceeds to step S24, this message is discarded, the state becomes the same as the state where no message has arrived, and the process ends.

  FIG. 4 shows processing for maintenance and operation of the present apparatus, and this processing is usually also executed by an independent task. First, in step S31, it is checked whether or not the network address of the transmission source computer included in the transmitted message is the network address of the maintenance computer already set in the printer. If the network address is not correct, the process proceeds to step S41, the message is discarded, and the process ends. If the network address is correct, the process proceeds to step S32, where the content of the message is checked, and the processing is divided for each corresponding message.

  First, in the case of registration / deletion of the designated computer (step S32), in step S33, the print request permission list is updated according to the designation. If the department of the designated computer is to be changed, registered, or deleted (step S34), the print request permission list is updated in step S35 in the same manner as in step S33 described above. When referring to the information on the number of prints of the designated computer and the department to which the computer belongs (step S36), the information of the number of prints is transmitted to the requesting computer through the communication control unit 11 in step S37. This includes a request for clearing the count information. In the case of the notification of the internal state of the printer (step S38), the internal state of the printer is transmitted to the requesting computer through the communication control unit 11 in step S39. If the content of the sent message is not any of the above, in step S40, a message indicating an error in the message content is returned to the requesting computer.

<Modification>
In the present embodiment, the control of each unit shown in FIG. 1 has been described according to the flowchart. However, this utilization method can be considered in other ways. For example, printer control software for realizing a conventional printer is not stored in the printer device, but is stored in a printer management computer. Therefore, the use can be easily realized from the present invention. According to this method, it is possible to easily cope with an upgrade of the printer control software.

  As is clear from the above description, the management and operation of the printer device, which was realized in a mode that relied heavily on the host computer as in the conventional printer device, can be realized in a mode that does not depend on the host computer as much as possible. If only a limited computer can make a print request, it is possible to flexibly control access to the printer device, and the number of papers output for each computer on the LAN and the number of papers output for each department. It is also possible to obtain an excellent effect that the system administrator can easily extract the account information such as the number of sheets from the printer device.

  Further, by having a function of communicating with a computer for maintenance of the printer via a network, the printer can be located at a location physically separated from the printer and can monitor or change the status of the printer. It is possible to provide a more sophisticated printer device management mechanism. In short, the present invention can be implemented in various modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

  The present invention may be applied to a system including a plurality of devices or to an apparatus including a single device.

  Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

It is a block diagram showing the composition of the information output device in this embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an access permission list and a count table of the number of prints. It is a flowchart which shows control of each part in this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows maintenance / operation processing in this embodiment.

Explanation of reference numerals

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 11 communication control unit 12 access control unit 13 printed sheet counting unit 14 maintenance software 15 printer

Claims (4)

Receiving means for receiving a message transmitted from the computer via a network;
When the message received by the receiving unit is a maintenance message, a registration unit that registers or deletes a network address of a computer included in the message in a list or from a list,
When the message received by the receiving unit is a print request message, a determination is made based on a list of network addresses registered by the registration unit whether or not the computer that transmitted the print request message has an access right. Means,
If the determination unit determines that the computer does not have access right, a message indicating printing disapproval is transferred to the computer, and if the determination unit determines that the computer has access right, the computer determines And a printing means for receiving and printing the print data.   2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a change unit configured to change a department to which the computer having the network address registered in the list belongs when the maintenance message is received. A receiving step of receiving a message transmitted from the computer via a network;
When the message received in the receiving step is a message for maintenance, a registration step of registering or deleting a network address of a computer included in the message in a list or a list,
When the message received in the receiving step is a print request message, a determination is made based on the list of network addresses registered in the registration step whether the computer that has transmitted the print request message has an access right. Process and
If it is determined in the determination step that the computer does not have access right, a message indicating printing disapproval is transferred to the computer, and if it is determined in the determination step that the computer has access right, And a printing step of receiving and printing the print data.   4. The printing method according to claim 3, further comprising a change step of changing a department to which a computer having a network address registered in the list belongs when receiving the maintenance message.

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