JP2004192433A - Network apparatus, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network apparatus which has the state easily found from even a simple web browser by a general user without requiring dedicated software for handling SNMP. <P>SOLUTION: The network apparatus is provided with; an SNMP agent 13 which returns an alert message stored by a functional application 14, in response to a query request from a terminal; a web application 12 which converts the query request from the terminal to SNMP to inquire of the SNMP agent 13 and makes the returned alert message into an HTML text; and a web server 11 which receives the query request for the alert message of the network apparatus 10 from the terminal 20 by HTTP and delivers the request to the web application 12 and replies to the terminal 20 with the returned HTML text. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a network device, a program, and a recording medium for acquiring information on a state of a network device connectable to a network.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, various networks using computers have been constructed in accordance with the advancement of communication technology and computer technology, and digital networks equipped with functions such as printers, facsimile machines, and digital copiers which were conventionally used only by themselves. Multifunction devices and multifunction devices are also shared by a plurality of users via a network. Hereinafter, a device that can be connected to a network in this manner is referred to as a network device.
[0003]
This network device has a function of returning the status and specifications of the device itself using a network management protocol SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) in response to a request from a computer connected via a network.
For this purpose, the network device includes an SNMP agent that reports information included in a MIB (Management Information Base) to the management device in response to a request from the management device that manages the network device including other network devices.
On the other hand, the management device includes an SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP agent and issues a management information collection / change request to the MIB in the network device.
[0004]
For example, when requesting the status of the network device from the management device, the SNMP manager sends a request to the SNMP agent of the network device by SNMP. This request may be, for example, an inquiry to the printer regarding paper supply / discharge, toner status, and the like. The SNMP agent searches the MIB from the received request and returns the requested information to the SNMP manager, and the management device displays this information.
[0005]
In addition, recent SNMP managers can easily display the status of network devices and networks using a GUI (Graphical User Interface) or the like.
For example, a network device is provided with an http server, and a user can access the network device using a Web browser via the Internet or an intranet, and monitor or manage the state of the device.
[0006]
According to the method and apparatus for monitoring a network printer disclosed in Patent Literature 1, an error generated in a network printer is captured by SNMP, converted to HTML content, and output as push-type information to a terminal equipped with a Web browser by http. A server is provided on the network.
[0007]
This allows a plurality of terminals connected to the network to remotely monitor the status of the network printer even under the control of different types of OSs, and requires dedicated monitoring software for each type of OS. And can be realized at low cost.
[0008]
However, according to the technique of Patent Document 1, whether the network printer has run out of consumables such as running out of film, paper, running out of toner, etc., the output progress status, whether the operation is normal or abnormal, etc. This is a dedicated system that only sends information on the type (film size and film base color) from the network printer to the terminal as push-type information to the monitoring terminal.
Therefore, the status of the network printer cannot be known from a general user terminal, and each time a new network printer is installed, the monitoring server needs to be modified, which degrades the development efficiency.
[0009]
Further, in the “network management device, network device, and storage medium” of Patent Document 2, by acquiring a management HTML file indicating the operation state of the device from the network device and displaying the content on a display using a Web browser. This allows the user to manage the status of the network devices.
Further, Trap monitoring software for monitoring Trap of the network device is set up in advance as a plug-in of the Web browser to the user terminal, and Trap from the network device is received by this plug-in, and a predetermined event of the network device is detected. The occurrence can be immediately reflected on the display.
[0010]
However, in the technique of Patent Document 2, this plug-in is used for an administrator for managing network devices, and needs to be set up in advance.
Also, when managing a plurality of network devices from one terminal, all plug-ins corresponding to those devices must be set up.
[0011]
Further, in “Method and Apparatus for Communicating with Network Peripheral Device” in Patent Document 3, a network peripheral device has an SNMP agent and an http server, and when a status of the network peripheral device is inquired from a Web browser of a terminal, Java (register An HTML document including an SNMP manager created as a (Trademark) applet is transferred to the terminal. The terminal acquires the state of the device from the SNMP agent of the device by executing the applet embedded in the transferred HTML document, and displays it on the Web browser.
[0012]
However, there are also Web browsers that cannot execute Java (registered trademark) applets, and it is not possible to see the state of the network peripheral device from such a browser by this method.
[0013]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-11-345106 [Patent Document 2]
JP 2001-282658 A [Patent Document 3]
JP-A-10-164115
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described situation, and does not require dedicated software for handling SNMP, and can be easily executed from a simple Web browser that cannot execute a Java (registered trademark) applet. An object of the present invention is to provide a network device, a program, and a recording medium that allow a general user to know the status of the network device.
[0015]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a first aspect of the present invention provides a network device capable of responding to an SNMP alert message in response to a request from a network-connected terminal, wherein the alert message storage unit stores the alert message. An SNMP agent that obtains an inquiry-requested alert message from the alert message information storage unit and returns it; and converts an inquiry request from the terminal into SNMP and inquires the SNMP agent, and sends the returned alert message in HTML. A web application to be documented and an inquiry request for an alert message of the network device are received from the terminal via http, and the request is passed to the web application to return the returned HTML document. Characterized in that it comprises a Web server that responds to the terminal.
[0016]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in response to a request from a terminal connected to a network, a network device capable of responding to an SNMP alert message, an alert message storage unit that stores the alert message, and an inquiry request from the terminal. A web application for acquiring the alert message from the alert message information storage unit, and converting the alert message into an HTML document, and an inquiry request for an alert message of the network device received from the terminal via http, and receiving the request from the terminal. And a Web server that responds to the terminal with an HTML document returned by being passed to the terminal.
[0017]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the network device according to the second aspect, an identifier is added to an alert message of the network device in advance, and the alert message storage unit stores an identifier instead of a message. Is stored, and the Web application generates an HTML document after replacing the acquired identifier with a message.
A fourth aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute the functions of the network device according to the first, second or third aspect.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium storing the program according to the fourth aspect.
[0018]
Therefore, an alert message of a network device, which could not be displayed unless SNMP dedicated software is used, can be easily displayed by a Web browser on a terminal of a general user.
In addition, by using an SNMP agent that already exists in the network device, an interface for inquiring of an alert message does not need to be mounted again, and the mounting size is reduced, which is advantageous for an embedded device.
[0019]
Also, if a Web application is developed using the interface of the alert message acquisition portion of the SNMP agent already existing in the network device, alert message acquisition software can be easily developed.
[0020]
Further, by registering the alert message as an identification symbol in advance, when one network device has a plurality of functions, duplicate messages are not provided for each of the functions, and the built-in type has a limited memory capacity. The apparatus is advantageous.
[0021]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the network device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
<First embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a use form and an internal configuration of a network device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, an arbitrary number of network devices 10 and terminals 20 are connected together via a network 30. .
Further, the network device 10 includes at least a Web server 11, a Web application 12, an SNMP agent 13, a plurality of function applications 14, and an alert message storage unit 15 corresponding to these function applications 14.
[0022]
Here, the network device 10 is a device that can be connected to a network, such as a copier, a facsimile device, a printer device, a scanner device, a multifunction device, a computer, and a refrigerator that performs a plurality of application functions.
The function application provided in the network device is, for example, a printer function, a scanner function, a copying function, or a facsimile function provided in one multifunction peripheral. In the first embodiment, the multifunction peripheral will be described. I do.
[0023]
Further, the terminal 20 is a computer or a PDA (personal digital assistant) or the like in which the Web browser 21 is installed in advance, and uses the network device 10 connected via the network 30 in order to use the state of the network device 10. Information, in particular, an alert message (no paper, no toner, cover open, etc.) is displayed on the Web browser 21. In the first embodiment, a personal computer is used as a terminal.
[0024]
The network 30 is a transmission path for coupling the network device 10 and the terminal 20, and is generally realized by a cable, and uses a TCP / IP (transmission control protocol / internet protocol) as a communication protocol. However, the transmission path is not limited to cables, but may be wireless or wired as long as the communication protocol between them is the same. For example, LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), the Internet, etc. Can be used.
[0025]
An operation method for checking the state of the network device 10 (multifunction device) in such a configuration will be described.
The user checks the URL (Uniform Resource Locators) of the network device 10 to be operated connected to the network 30 by using a directory system or the like, and accesses the network device 10 using the Web browser 21 of the terminal 20.
The network device 10 accessed from the terminal 20 returns a top page displaying the status of the own device (see FIG. 2).
The returned top page is displayed by the Web browser 21, and a state relating to the function application that the user wants to know is selected from a menu on the top page, and a reply to the request is obtained from the network device 10, so that a more detailed state is obtained. You can know.
[0026]
Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the network device 10 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.
The function application 14 monitors a warning (alert) state (for example, a paper state, a toner state, a cover state, a paper feed state, and the like) regarding resources of the network device 10 used by the function application, and sends a message to the alert. The information is stored in the alert message storage unit 15 provided for each function.
The alert message storage unit 15 holds alert messages in a stack format, as shown in FIG.
When the status changes while monitoring the alert, the functional application 14 clears the message stored before the change and stacks and updates the new status at the end of the alert message storage unit 15.
[0027]
The Web server 11 receives a URL and a parameter from a Web browser 21 operating on the terminal 20 by using a communication protocol http (hypertext transfer protocol), and calls the Web application 12 corresponding to the URL.
Further, it returns an HTML document related to the alert message passed from the Web application 12 to the terminal 20 that has made the request.
As the Web server 11, for example, an HTTP server such as Apache can be used.
[0028]
The SNMP agent 13 extracts an alert message stuck after the designated index value from the alert message storage unit 15 corresponding to the functional application requested by the Web application 12, and compares the alert message and the index value with the Web application. Reply to 12.
At this time, if the alert message is not stacked after the designated index value, the end message is returned.
[0029]
The Web application 12 includes a state of the network device 10 itself specified from the user terminal 20 or a state of the function application provided in the network device 10, and a component in the function application (for example, when the function application is a printer function). , Paper, tray and toner), convert the inquiry into SNMP, and send it to the SNMP agent 13.
The alert message returned from the SNMP agent 13 is not duplicated, all the messages are acquired, converted to an HTML document, and transmitted to the Web server 11.
[0030]
When inquiring about the status of the network device 10 itself, the status is expanded into inquiries to all functional applications of the device itself, and the SNMP agent 13 is inquired.
The inquiry to the SNMP agent 13 uses an alert description to indicate which state is being requested. This alert description is the object ID of the MIB given to the functional application and its components.
The operation of the Web application 12 and the SNMP agent 13 when inquiring about the status of the network device 10 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
[0031]
The Web application 12 converts one of a plurality of functional applications into an alert description (Step S1).
Next, the alert message and the index value in the alert message storage unit 15 are designated, and an alert message is inquired to the SNMP agent 13 by SNMP (step S2).
This index value is set to zero when the inquiry is first made, and is set to the index value stored in the previous alert message for the second and subsequent times.
[0032]
The SNMP agent 13 specifies the function application from the specified alert description, and extracts the alert message stacked after the specified index value from the alert message storage unit 15 corresponding to the function application (step S3).
Next, when the alert message is not stacked (YES in step S4), an end message indicating that there is no alert message, for example, an alert description other than the specified alert description is generated, and the Web is generated. A reply is sent to the application 12 (step S5).
On the other hand, when the alert message can be extracted (NO in step S4), the extracted alert message and the index value where the message was found are returned to the Web application 12 (step S6).
[0033]
The Web application 12 receives a reply from the SNMP agent 13 (Step S7).
If the received message is not the end message (NO in step S8), the received alert message is saved without duplication (step S9), and the alert message that is stacked after the index value of the received alert message is stored. Then, the process returns to step S2 to inquire.
[0034]
On the other hand, if the message is not stacked (YES in step S8), the process returns to step S1 to inquire about the next functional application (NO in step S10). At this time, if the inquiry to all the functional applications has been completed (YES in step S10), an HTML document is created from the previously saved alert message and transmitted to the Web server 11 (step S11).
[0035]
<Embodiment 2>
In the first embodiment, the status of the device is inquired by using the SNMP agent already prepared in the network device 10, but in the second embodiment, the alert message is directly obtained without passing through the SNMP agent. did.
[0036]
FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining a use mode and an internal configuration of the network device 10 according to the second embodiment. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and only the differences will be described.
The Web application 12 has the same function as that of the SNMP agent 13 according to the first embodiment that retrieves an alert message from the alert message storage unit 15, and retrieves an alert message directly from the alert message storage unit 15.
[0037]
A part for extracting an alert message from the alert message storage unit 15 may be a dynamic link library, and may be configured to be dynamically linked and executed by the SNMP agent and the Web application. In this case, the memory capacity can be reduced, but the execution time slightly increases due to the dynamic link.
[0038]
<Modification of Second Embodiment>
In the second embodiment described above, the message as a character string is stacked in the alert message storage unit 15.
In this modified example, these alert messages are coded and an alert message table is created in advance.
The alert message table includes an identifier (ID) for identifying a message and an alert message of a character string corresponding to the identifier, and is used in dedicated software for monitoring network devices and in the present modified example.
[0039]
The function application 14 in the present modification registers the identifier in the alert message storage unit 15 instead of the message.
The Web application 12 extracts an identifier (ID) from the alert message storage unit 15 instead of the message.
The Web application 12 refers to the alert message table, replaces the identifier with a character string message, and creates an HTML document.
As a result, an overlapping character string in an existing SNMP agent or functional application can be replaced with an identifier, which is advantageous for an embedded device having a limited memory capacity.
[0040]
<Embodiment 3>
The present invention is not limited to only the above-described embodiment. Each function of the network device of the above-described embodiment is programmed and written in advance in a recording medium of a ROM. The ROM is mounted on the network device, and these programs are executed by a microprocessor. It goes without saying that the object of the invention is achieved.
In this case, the state read and executed from the recording medium implements the function of the above-described embodiment, and the program and the recording medium on which the program is recorded also constitute the present invention.
[0041]
Note that programs for realizing such functions include semiconductor media (for example, ROM, non-volatile memory, etc.), optical media (for example, DVD, MO, MD, CD, etc.), magnetic media (for example, magnetic tape, flexible disk, etc.). , Etc.).
Alternatively, a program stored in a storage device may be directly supplied from a server computer via a communication network such as the Internet. In this case, the storage device of the server computer is also included in the recording medium of the present invention.
[0042]
When provided on such a recording medium, the program is read from the recording medium, installed in an internal storage device or an external storage device, and the installed program is executed by a microprocessor, whereby the functions of the above-described embodiment are performed. Is realized. Alternatively, the program recorded on the recording medium may be directly executed.
[0043]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, an alert message of a network device, which could not be displayed unless SNMP dedicated software is used, can be easily displayed by a Web browser on a terminal of a general user.
In addition, by using an SNMP agent that already exists in the network device, an interface for inquiring of an alert message does not need to be mounted again, and the mounting size is reduced, which is advantageous for an embedded device.
[0044]
Also, if a Web application is developed using the interface of the alert message acquisition portion of the SNMP agent already existing in the network device, alert message acquisition software can be easily developed.
[0045]
Further, by registering the alert message as an identification symbol in advance, when one network device has a plurality of functions, duplicate messages are not provided for each of the functions, and the built-in type has a limited memory capacity. The apparatus is advantageous.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for describing a usage form and an internal configuration of a network device according to a first embodiment.
FIG. 2 is an example of a top page displaying the status of network devices.
FIG. 3 is an example of a message stored in an alert message storage unit.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a Web application and an SNMP agent when inquiring about the status of the device itself.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining a usage form and an internal configuration of a network device according to a second embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 Network device, 11 Web server, 12 Web application, 13 SNMP agent, 14 Functional application, 15 Alert message storage unit, 20 Terminal, 21 Web browser, 30 Network.

Claims (5)

In a network device capable of responding to an SNMP alert message in response to a request from a terminal connected to a network, an alert message storage unit that stores the alert message and an inquiry message that is requested by the inquiry are acquired from the alert message information storage unit. An SNMP agent that sends an inquiry request from the terminal, a Web application for converting the inquiry request from the terminal into SNMP and inquiring the SNMP agent, and converting the returned alert message into an HTML document, and an inquiry request for an alert message of the network device. A Web server that receives an HTTP document from the terminal via http, passes the request to the Web application, and responds to the terminal with an HTML document returned. Network devices. In a network device capable of responding to an SNMP alert message in response to a request from a network-connected terminal, an alert message storage unit that stores the alert message, and an alert message information storage unit that stores an alert message requested by the terminal. And a Web application for acquiring this alert message in an HTML document, and an inquiry request for an alert message of the network device is received from the terminal by HTTP, and the request is passed to the Web application and the returned HTML document is sent to the Web application. A network device comprising: a Web server that responds to a terminal. 3. The network device according to claim 2, wherein an identifier is previously assigned to an alert message of the network device, and the alert message storage unit stores an identifier instead of a message. A network device that generates an HTML document after replacing the identifier with a message. A program for causing a computer to execute the functions of the network device according to claim 1. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 4 is recorded.

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