JP2005258690A - Information processor, method for controlling it, computer program, and computer readable storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow an information processor to obtain information from network devices by means of a common template regardless of the language used by the processor, thus obtaining information that matches the language used by the processor. <P>SOLUTION: In response to a request to obtain device information on a GUI screen, a template parsing part 409 searches a group of templates 410 for a corresponding template, makes analysis, reports to a property converting part 402, and communicates a process implemented upon reception of the device information to an obtained data control part 406. The property converting part 402 causes the request information received from the template parsing part 409 to be sent to the network devices on the network and communicates the device information about the devices that received the results to the data control part 406. In accordance with instructions from the template parsing part 409 and using a localizing part 407 and resource data 408, the data control part 406 converts the device information received from the network devices into data matching the main language used by the information processor, and sends the result back to a GUI screen display process. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for acquiring information related to a peripheral device from a peripheral device connected to the information processing device.

  When acquiring configuration information of a device from a network device, there is a method of transmitting a packet having an attribute indicating information to be acquired to the device and receiving a packet returned from the device as a result. As a protocol used for packet transmission / reception, a standard protocol such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) / MIB (Management Information Base) is known.

  The attributes necessary for creating a packet to be transmitted to the device may be hard-coded as a program, but may be managed as a template file in order to have versatility.

  For example, a technique for describing a command for acquiring device information in an HTML file stored in a network management server is known (Patent Document 1).

In particular, when the network device is a printer, a function of acquiring information of the network printer as a part of printer driver processing executed on the host computer and reflecting the information on a UI (user interface) accordingly is known. (Patent Document 2, Patent Document 3).
JP 2000-132477 A JP 2000-298570 A JP 2002-44344 A

  However, until now, the technology has been such that information is acquired from a network device such as a network printer and the result is directly reflected in a UI (User Interface). For example, there is no particular problem if it is assumed to be used only in Japan. However, when the network device is used not only in Japan but also in other countries, it is necessary to prepare templates for each country and each language even if the hardware is equipped with the same circuit and engine.

  Furthermore, when describing the user interface of the device driver using a predetermined display control language, it may be possible to separate and describe information dependent on the peripheral device and information independent of the peripheral device. However, since importance is placed on the portability of the display control language, information dependent on the peripheral device cannot be sufficiently given to the operating system or device driver, and various information depending on the peripheral device connected to the information processing device, for example, There is also a problem that it cannot be fully reflected in the user interface related to the language support of each country.

  Even with the same hardware, the name (model name) of the network printer and the type of paper size may differ from country to country, and the template may not be able to deal with it. There is a problem that it must be created for each language.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and in an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, information from peripheral devices such as a network device can be obtained using a common template regardless of the language used by the apparatus. It is intended to provide a technology that makes it possible to acquire information in accordance with the language used in the information processing apparatus.

In order to solve this problem, for example, an information processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is,
An information processing apparatus that acquires information about a connected peripheral device via a predetermined communication medium,
Template storage means for storing a template in which a procedure for obtaining device information of a peripheral device is described in a language-independent format used in the information processing device;
Resource data storage means for storing resource data related to resources that can constitute the peripheral device, which is described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device;
In response to an instruction request from a predetermined process, request information creating means for analyzing the description of the template stored in the template storage means and creating device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device;
A communication means for transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
Device information received by the communication means is converted based on the resource data stored in the resource data storage means, and output means for outputting to the instruction request process.

  According to the present invention, since the template describing the device information acquisition procedure is independent of the language used in the information processing apparatus, it can be used in any country, and the received device information Since conversion is performed using resource data that depends on the language used in the apparatus, device information corresponding to the language used in the information processing apparatus can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a network system in the embodiment. In the figure, 101 is a network printer, 102 is a multifunction peripheral (having a copy function, printer function, and scanner function), 200 to 202 are general-purpose information processing apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as PCs) such as personal computers, and 300 is these apparatuses. Is a network that connects As an example of the peripheral device, a network printer that performs a printing process using a laser beam has been disclosed. However, an image forming device such as an ink jet printer, a facsimile, a digital camera, or a combination of these devices may be used.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a network configuration. A configuration in which a plurality of networks are connected by a gateway or the like may be used, and a plurality of devices such as a printer, a multifunction peripheral, and a network image scanner are provided on the network. It may be connected. In addition to the network, USB (Universal Serial Bus), IEEE1284.4 capable of two-way communication, and Centronics (trademark) interface that is a local interface are used as the predetermined communication medium, and the peripheral device and the PC 200 print data. It may be a system that transmits / receives and transmits / receives device information to be described later.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the PC 200. The same applies to the other PCs 201 and 202.

  In the figure, 201 is a CPU that controls the entire apparatus, 202 is a ROM that stores a BIOS and a boot program, and 203 is a RAM that is used as a main storage device of the CPU 201. A keyboard controller (KBC) 205 performs processing related to input of information from a pointing device 209a such as a mouse (registered trademark) and a keyboard 209b. Reference numeral 206 denotes a display control unit (CRTC), which has a video memory therein and draws the bidet in the memory in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 201. The image data drawn in the video memory is supplied to the CRT display device 210 as a video signal. Output. In the figure, a CRT is exemplified as the display device, but the type of the display device such as a liquid crystal display device is not limited. A disk controller (DKC) 207 accesses the hard disk 211 and the floppy (registered trademark) disk 212. A network interface card (NIC) 208 is connected to the network 300 to perform information communication via the network.

  The hard disk 211 includes an OS (in the embodiment, Windows (registered trademark) 2000 provided by Microsoft Corporation in the US as an example), a printer driver program that characterizes this embodiment, document editing, image processing, and the like. Various application programs as well as edited files are stored.

  In the above configuration, when the power of the apparatus is turned on, the CPU 201 reads the OS from the hard disk 211 into the RAM 203 according to the boot program stored in the ROM 202, and functions as an information processing apparatus. When a print instruction is issued on the application designated by the user, the printer driver is loaded into the RAM from the HDD 211, print data (PDL data) corresponding to the multifunction machine 101 is created, and the print data is sent to the multifunction machine 101. Will be processed. In the embodiment, the MFP 101 is taken as an example of the print data transmission destination, but the network printer 100 may of course be used.

  It is assumed that the communication protocol on the network 300 uses TCP / IP. It is assumed that the IP address of the multifunction machine 101 is set in advance in the network driver.

  The character strings such as various messages in the GUI window of the network driver in the embodiment are in Japanese when used in Japan (in the case of Japanese OS), and when used in the United States or the like (in English OS) In the case), although there is a difference in English, the processing content, that is, the processing of the printer driver is the same (because there is a difference in natural language, the type of OS is the same).

  Further, it is assumed that the MFP 101 has the same basic configuration such as an electric circuit, a printer engine, and firmware directly related to print processing regardless of whether it is for the United States or Japan. The difference is that the character strings stamped on the buttons and switches on the operation panel provided in the multifunction machine 101 and the character strings displayed on the display unit of the operation panel correspond to the respective countries. Note that the message language to be displayed is switched by, for example, storing a language selection instruction result on the operation panel or a dip switch in the multifunction peripheral in a nonvolatile memory. Therefore, when manufacturing the multi-function peripheral 101, it is almost the same for any country, and the difference is that a character string or model imprinted on the operation panel such as buttons and various switches of the multi-function peripheral 101 is substantially different. Names etc.

  Here, the identification information of the MFP 101 in the embodiment is “MFP1230”, the model name of the device for Japan (model name recognized by the Japanese) is “MFP1230JP”, and the model name for the United States is It is assumed that “MFP1230US”. Here, only the last character strings “JP” and “US” of the model are different, but this is for easy understanding of the features of this embodiment, and the name is completely different for each country. It can be different.

  Further, although the basic configuration of the multifunction machine 101 is substantially the same regardless of the country in which it is used, the optional parts are not necessarily the same in each country. For example, when using the multifunction machine 101 in Japan, the types of paper cassettes that can be mounted are the type of recording paper (cut sheet (plain paper) or envelope) to be set therein, the cut sheet size A4, It is in accordance with A3, B5, B4, etc. The same is true in the United States, and there are differences in the types of recording paper (envelopes and cut sheets), as well as Legal, letter, ledger (form size), A4, etc. Differences can occur. Also, there are several variations in the paper discharge device (finisher), such as a finisher having a bookbinding function (saddle finisher), a finisher having a stapling function (staple finisher), and a normal finisher that sorts and discharges the same finisher. However, the name may differ from country to country.

  In this embodiment, the processing related to the acquisition of the device status and status in printer drivers for network multifunction devices (including network printers) having the same basic configuration is independent of the basic language of the PC used by the user. While using a simple template, it is possible to set a localized GUI and printing conditions in each country (in the embodiment, Japan and the United States are taken as an example).

  FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the printer driver property GUI window for the MFP 1230 for Japan in the embodiment, the device acquisition process, and the multifunction peripheral. This window 30 is displayed when an instruction to display the properties of the printing apparatus is given on the print setting screen displayed when the printing instruction is given on the application.

  As shown in the figure, in the window 30, various items related to the printer driver for the MFP 1230 can be switched in the tab window 30a format. In the figure, the state of the item “device setting” is displayed.

  In the screen shown in the drawing, the contents of the configuration currently installed in the multifunction machine 101 are displayed in each of the device name column 31, the paper discharge option column 32, the additional memory column 33, and the paper feed unit column 34.

  In FIG. 3, “MFP1230JP”, which is a model name for Japan, is displayed in the device name column 31, “FINISHER100SJP” is connected as a paper discharge option, and 256 MB is installed as an additional memory. As the paper feed unit, a hand tray and an A4 cassette (a paper feed cassette capable of storing A4 size recording paper) are mounted.

  Further, this is an area for displaying an appearance image based on the current configuration of the multi-function peripheral 101, and an image depending on the configuration of the multi-function peripheral 101 is displayed.

  The information regarding the name of the multifunction device 101 for Japan and the installed components is acquired from the multifunction device 101 by a device request process 37 that is executed by clicking the illustrated button 35 with a pointing device. Each column 31 to 34 and the image 36 in FIG. 3 are device information acquisition results.

  The device request process 37 includes the processing units (program module and data unit) shown in FIG.

  In the figure, 401 is a control unit that controls the entire device request process 37, and also performs communication (argument transfer) processing with the GUI process of the window 30. A property conversion unit 402 generates a request information packet that can be interpreted by the device (multifunction device 101 in the embodiment), and converts information received from the device into data that can be interpreted by the acquisition data operation unit 406. A device access control unit 403 controls access to the device, and transmits the packet generated by the property conversion unit 402 to the device and receives the packet transmitted from the device. Reference numerals 404 and 405 denote protocol processing units. In the illustrated example, two protocols (upper layer protocols of the TCP / IP protocol) are implemented, but this number is not limited. The device control unit 403 described above accesses the network 300 using one of the protocol processing units 404 and 405. An example of the protocol processing unit is SNMP or IPP, and any protocol processing unit may be used as long as it can communicate with the device. Therefore, there is no limit on the number of protocol processing units.

  An income data operation unit 406 performs various operations on the device information received from the network device. Under the control of the acquisition data operation unit 406, based on the acquired information, resource data to be referred to in the resource data group 408 (details will be described later) is determined and converted to data requested by the printer driver GUI process. It is. Reference numeral 409 denotes a template parsing unit that performs a process of searching for a template to be referenced from a group of templates 410 (for example, text files described in XML) prepared in advance.

  The reason why there are a plurality of templates and a plurality of resource data is that the printer driver of the embodiment can deal with a plurality of model models.

  The processing in the above configuration will be described as follows.

  When the button 35 is clicked in the display state of FIG. 3, the process of the GUI window 30 activates the device request process 37 and information specifying the device (determined when the printer driver is installed); Issues an information acquisition request regarding the device name, paper discharge option, and paper supply unit. When the control unit 401 of the device request process 37 receives this request, it passes the device specifying information to the template parsing unit 409 to search for a template for the corresponding device. As a result, the template parsing unit 409 passes the search result template to the income data operation unit 406 and notifies the property conversion unit 402 of a device request instruction.

  The property conversion unit 402 transmits the received device request information to the network device (multifunction device in the embodiment) via the device access unit 403.

  The acquired data operation unit 406 interprets the XML description template passed from the template parsing unit 409 line by line, and prepares for device information reception. Since the template includes a description of the protocol to be used, if it is found, the control unit 401 is notified, and the control unit 401 instructs the device access unit 403 to use the protocol.

  Upon receiving a device information acquisition request command from the template parsing unit 409, the property conversion unit 402 generates a packet including the command and issues the packet and a transmission request to the device access unit 403. The device access unit 403 transmits a packet toward the network device using either the protocol processing unit 404 or 405 instructed by the control unit 401.

  As a result, since the requested information is transmitted in packet format from the network device (multifunction device 101), the device access unit 403 receives it via the protocol processing unit that is active at that time, and the result is The property conversion unit 402 is notified.

  The property conversion unit 402 passes the received device information to the acquisition data operation unit 406, so that the acquisition data operation unit 406 executes post-processing after receiving the device information using the localization unit 407.

  The localization unit 407 selects and references one resource data in the resource data group 408 specified by the acquisition data operation unit 406, and performs localization processing according to the received packet contents and information from the acquisition data operation unit 406. The result of the localization process is transferred to the control unit 401, and the result is returned to the requesting printer driver GUI process.

  The above process will be described in more detail with a specific example.

  FIG. 5 shows a template prepared for the MFP 101 of the embodiment. In the figure, line numbers are given, but this is for easy understanding, and no line numbers actually exist. Further, this template is a template for the MFP 101 in the embodiment, that is, the manufacturer product name “MFP 1230”. FIG. 6A shows resource data for Japan of the same model. In the embodiment, the multifunction machine 101 is capable of adding one of the three types shown in the figure to the finisher, and adding either 256 MB or 512 MB capacity for the expansion memory card. Hereinafter, description will be made with reference to these drawings.

  Information acquisition is declared with the tag <getinfo> on the first line of the template, and the protocol name used on the third line is described. The protocol name specified here determines which of the protocol processing units 404 and 405 shown in FIG. 4 is used. In other words, the number of the protocol processing units 404 and 405 in FIG. 4 is two, but the number is not limited, and if a protocol processing unit using a unique protocol is added on, the protocol tag <protocol> ˜ By describing the protocol name in </ protocol>, it is also possible to acquire device information using a free protocol.

  The tag on the fourth line declares that “res.dll” is used as a file containing the resource data group 408.

  The sixth line is a comment tag. In XML, <! It is allowed to describe a comment in the “xxxxxxxx” section by “−xxxxxxxx->”. This comment tag does not affect processing.

  The seventh to eleventh lines describe the acquisition of the product name from the network device (multifunction device) and the processing after the acquisition.

  First, in the seventh line, an argument name of a model name request from the display process of the printer driver GUI window (window 30 in FIG. 3) is described. In other words, when the device information acquisition button 35 is clicked in the printer driver GUI window 30, one of the arguments is “NSPID_PRODUCTNAME”. This “NSPID_PRODUCTNAME” is used between the GUI window 30 and the device information acquisition process 37 and does not match a command that can be interpreted by the network device. Therefore, in the eighth line, a command that can be interpreted by the network device is described. This makes it possible to absorb differences between network device manufacturers. The command on the eighth line is passed from the acquisition data operation unit 406 to the property conversion unit 402, where a final model name acquisition packet is generated and transmitted to the network device.

  The description on the 10th to 12th lines describes the post-processing after receiving the packet returned from the network device when the description on the 8th line is executed (for this purpose, as shown in the figure). AfterGot tag was prepared). When the processing on the eighth line is performed, the model name information is returned from the network device. In the embodiment, the network device is the multifunction peripheral 101, and the model name stored in the network device is “MFP 1230”. Therefore, the character string “MFP1230” is returned in the response packet. This character string is held in a variable for storing acquired data corresponding to “IDS_PRODUCTNAME”, and is used when searching for corresponding resource data in the resource data group 408.

  Here, if the resource data corresponding to “MFP 1230” of the resource identifier “IDS_PRODUCTNAME” is the resource data of FIG. 6A, the character string “MFP 1230JP” of the output name (after localization) is obtained. Therefore, by returning this character string to the printer driver GUI window 30, "MFP 1230JP" as the model name for Japan is successfully displayed in the device name column 32 of FIG. Tags <rep> to </ rep> are used for an instruction to output the localized data thus matched.

  The description on lines 13 to 22 in FIG. 5 is for acquiring what finisher is installed. From the GUI window 30, a finisher name acquisition request “NSPID_OPTIONTABLE” is passed. Then, in line 15, the command is converted into a command that can be interpreted by the multifunction machine and transmitted. The 14th and 15th line processes correspond to the 7th and 8th line processes.

  Here, if the optional device installed in the MFP 101 as the network device has the finisher “FINISHER100SJP” and 256 MB of memory added, a list as shown in FIG. 7A is returned. Will be.

  In the tags <reflist> and </ reflist> in the lines 17 to 21 in FIG. 5, the corresponding character strings “F100”, “F200”, and “F200” in FIG. 6A are added to the resource identifiers IDS_OPTION_FINISHER1 to 3 described therebetween. This tag stores F300 "and searches for a matching character string in the list received from the network. When the list shown in FIG. 7 is received from the network device, the character string “F100” matches, so the finisher name “FINISHER100SJP” for Japan corresponding to the variable IDS_OPTION_FINISHHER1 is acquired from the resource table of FIG. It will be returned to the driver GUI. As a result, “FINISHER100SJP”, which is the finisher name for Japan, is successfully displayed in the paper discharge option field of FIG.

  Lines 24 to 32 in FIG. 5 are descriptions for acquiring whether the additional memory is installed in the multi-function peripheral 101 or how much memory capacity is installed. From the GUI window 30, “NSPID_MEMORY” which is an additional memory capacity acquisition request is passed.

  The description method of the post-processing is substantially the same as the finisher information acquisition. The only difference is that the character string variable names to be searched are only “IDS_MEMORY1” and “IDS_MEMORY2”, and the character string “M1” is found, so that the character string “256MB” is returned to the printer driver GUI. Become.

  Lines 34 to 46 in FIG. 5 are descriptions for acquiring which paper feed unit is installed.

  From the GUI window 30, “NSPID_INPUT TABLE”, which is a paper feed unit name acquisition request, is passed. In line 36, the command is converted into a command that can be interpreted by the multi-function peripheral, and a requested table (id_att_input_table) is requested.

  As a result, list information as shown in FIG. 7B is transmitted from the network device, for example.

  The subsequent processing is almost the same as when the paper discharge option is acquired. That is, between the tags <reflist> and </ reflist>, the variable name (multifunction peripheral MFP 1230) “IDS_FEEDER_NAME1 to 6” is replaced with the corresponding character strings “C000”, “C100”, FIG. “C700” is stored. Then, a matching character string is searched for in the list of FIG. 7 received from the network device. Here, assuming that only the character strings “C00” and “C100” match, the names “hand tray” for Japan corresponding to the variables “IDS_FEEDER_NAME1” and “IDS_FEEDER_NAME2” storing the matched character strings, respectively. Since “A4 cassette” can be obtained, the result is returned to the display process of the GUI window 30. As a result, “hand tray” and “A4 cassette” are successfully displayed in the sheet feed section 34 in the window 30 of FIG.

  As described above, the device information acquisition process 37 performs processing according to the description order of the template. However, when the tag </ getinfo> is found in the template, a series of processing ends.

  Although the case where FIG. 6A is used as the resource data has been described above, when the multifunction machine 101 is used in the United States, for example, the resource data is as shown in FIG.

  When used in the United States, since the B-size recording paper is not normally used, the character string “C700” does not exist in the list from the multifunction peripheral. Instead, a character string “C500” indicating the Legal size or the like will be described.

  Here, assuming that resource data for the United States (FIG. 6B) is used and the list received from the network device is as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, FIG. “MFP1230US” is displayed in the device name column 31, “FINISHER100SUS” is displayed in the paper discharge option column 32, “256 MB” is displayed in the additional memory column 33, “Manual Insertion Tray”, and “Letter Cassete” are displayed in the paper feed unit column 34. In addition, information localized in the United States can be displayed, and the application can perform print processing according to the acquired data.

  Although the description is mixed, in the display process of the printer driver GUI window 30, the character string in each column of the window is updated by receiving information from the device information acquisition process 37 as described above. The display in the image display area 36 is also updated. For example, since the type of the finisher is known, the corresponding image is read from the images related to the finisher stored in the HDD or the like, combined with the basic image of the MFP 1230, and displayed.

  As can be understood from the above description, according to the present embodiment, country-specific resource data is required, but if the basic configuration is the same network device (the same as the manufacturer's model name), each country There is no need to prepare a template, and you can successfully obtain localized information for each country.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the commands (tags <attrs> to </ attrs>) for acquiring data from the network device may be different for each device manufacturer, and the protocol to be used is also for each manufacturer. It does not matter if they are different. In other words, if a template and resource data are prepared, differences between manufacturers and PDL can be absorbed, so that a highly versatile network device acquisition process can be provided.

  Next, an actual processing procedure example of the network device acquisition process in the embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing main processing of the device acquisition process 37.

  First, in step S1-1, the control unit 401 receives an information acquisition request from the GUI display process of the printer driver 301.

  Next, in step S1-2, an information acquisition request is notified to the template parsing unit 409, a template instructed from the GUI display process is searched from the template group 410, and the template obtained by the search is analyzed. In step S <b> 1-3, the property conversion unit 402 is notified of an acquisition information command for a device obtained by analysis. Here, the acquisition information command is a protocol used for acquiring device information and attribute information to be acquired.

  In step S1-4, the acquisition data operation unit 406 is notified of what processing should be performed after data acquisition, which is the result of the analysis in step S1-2, to prepare for actual data acquisition.

  In step S1-5, the property conversion unit 402 sends a device information acquisition request command to the network device (the multifunction peripheral 101 in the embodiment) via the network by using one of the protocol processing units 404 and 405. A process of transmitting and receiving the result is performed. If device information cannot be received after a predetermined time in step S106, communication error information is created in step S1-8, and the created error information is displayed in the GUI window display process of the printer driver in step S12. Reply in a predetermined format.

  If device information is received from the network device, the process advances to step S1-7 to notify the income data operation unit 406 of the data obtained. The device data operation unit 406 receives this notification and determines whether or not to operate the acquired device information according to the description of the template. When a description to operate on the received information exists in the template (meaning that the tag <aftergot> exists in the embodiment), in step S1-10, the description is made using the localization unit 407 and the resource data 408. Data conversion corresponding to the ground is performed, and data to be returned to the requesting GUI display process is created in step S1-11. If it is determined in step S1-9 that no operation is required, the received data is used as it is (no localization process is performed). In step S1-12, the created data is returned to the GUI display process.

  Next, processing contents of the acquisition data operation unit 406 in the embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S2-1, the post-acquisition data operation information obtained by analysis by the template parsing unit 409 is received.

  Next, in step S2-2, the received resource data specified by the <rc> tag is loaded into the localization unit 407. In step S2-3, it is determined whether there is an acquired data conversion tag <rep>. If it is determined that the tag <rep> exists, a variable corresponding to the character string sandwiched between the tags <rep> and </ rep> is secured in step S2-4.

  In the case of the template of FIG. 6, since the character string sandwiched between the tags <rep> and </ rep> is “IDS_PRODUCTNAME”, a variable corresponding to this is secured.

  In step S2-5, it is determined whether there is a list reference tag <reflist>. If it is determined that there is a tag <reflist>, the process proceeds to step S2-6, and the resource data specified at that time is included in each resource variable name sandwiched between the tags <reflist> to </ reflist> in the template. Stores and maintains the manufacturer identification name.

  For example, in the case of the template of FIG. 5 and when the resource data is FIG. 6A, the resource variable “IDS_OPTION_FINISHER1” is secured and the character string “F100” is stored. Also, “F200” is stored in the variable “IDS_OPTION_FINISHER2”, and “F300” is stored in the variable “IDS_OPTION_FINISHER3”.

  In step S2-7, the process shifts to a device information acquisition data notification waiting state.

  The processing contents of the acquisition data operation unit 406 when device information is acquired from the network device via the property conversion unit 402 and the device access unit 403 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S 3-1, the acquired device information data is received from the property conversion unit 402. Next, in step S3-2, it is determined whether the information of the conversion tag <rep> is held.

  When the character string variable by the conversion tag <rep> is secured, the process proceeds to step S3-3 and the conversion process is performed. Details will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S4-1, the character string obtained from the received device information (in the embodiment, the character string “MFP1230” because it is the product name) is stored in the held character string variable “IDS_PRODUCTNAME”. Then, using the character string “MFP1230” indicated by the variable IDS_PRODUCTNAME as a key, the resource data is searched to obtain a localized character string. When the resource data is FIG. 6A, the acquired character string is “MFP1230JP”, and when the resource data is FIG. 6B, the character string is “MFP1230US”.

  In step S4-2, the acquired character string is temporarily stored in the RAM in order to notify the GUI process of the printer driver.

  Returning to the description of FIG. When the process proceeds to step S3-4, it is determined whether or not a character string variable by the list reference tag <reflist> is secured. If it is determined that it is secured, the process proceeds to step S3-5, and processing according to the list reference tag <reflist> is performed. Details will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, one secured variable is selected. In the case of performing processing of 18 lines out of 17 to 21 in FIG. 5, the variable name is “IDS_OPTION_FINISHER1”, and the character string “F100” is stored in the variable.

  In step S5-2, the character string indicated by the variable in the received device information is searched for as a key. In step S5-3, it is determined whether there is a matching character string. If there is a matching character string, it means that the part device indicated by the variable is mounted, so the corresponding localized character string is obtained from the resource data and stored. For example, if the variable name of interest is “IDS_OPTION_FINISHER1”, the character string “F100” is stored in the variable, and “GF100” is also present in the received device information, localization is performed from FIG. The character string “FINISHER100SJP” is temporarily stored in the RAM.

  Then, in step S5-5, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all variables. If not, in order to search for the next variable, for example, “IDS_OPTION_FINISHHER2”, the steps after step S5-1 are performed. Repeat the process.

  Note that since only one finisher is connected to one multi-function peripheral, the result of Step S5-3 is Yes only for one of a plurality of variables.

  Returning to the description of FIG. When the process proceeds to step S3-6, data to be notified to the GUI window process is stored in the RAM in either step S3-3 or step S3-5. Notify

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, localized device information can be acquired using a common template without using different templates for different countries and languages. In addition, the device information acquisition process program, excluding resource data, can be common for each country, and can be highly versatile regardless of the network device manufacturer. The development of the driver program can be made much easier.

  In the above embodiment, in order to simplify the description, the finisher, the memory, and the cassette of each recording paper size are used as an example of the optional parts that can be mounted on the multifunction peripheral. Is not limited. For example, a rendering engine (drawing controller) card for improving the printing speed of a printer may be added as an optional device, or an envelope cassette and a side paper feeding unit for setting a large amount of recording paper may be installed. In the case of a network device in which these can be mounted, such information is acquired and reflected in the GUI window. In addition to the presence / absence of each optional device, not only whether it is operating normally, but also when acquiring error information such as out of paper or paper jam, a description for acquiring such information should be provided. Described in a template, and resource data may be described for each country. In short, the present embodiment is characterized in that it is localized when displayed.

  In addition, there is information that uses a common expression in the information that the device has. For example, “MB (kilobyte)” such as “MB (megabyte)”, “GB (gigabyte)”, etc., which are the units of the installed memory capacity described above, need not be localized. As for the information of simple expression, the resource data is not referred to, and it is passed as it is to the upper processing, and the description for that can be described in the template.

  Although the description is before and after, the GUI window display process of the printer driver when the device information acquisition button 35 in FIG. 3 is clicked may be performed as shown in FIG.

  First, in step S9-1, the device information acquisition process 37 is activated. At this time, the item name (character string described in the 7th, 14th, 25th, and 35th lines in FIG. 5) indicating each column to be displayed is passed to the device information acquisition process 37 as an argument. In step S9-2, an acknowledgment from the device information acquisition process 37 is awaited. If any data is received from the device information acquisition process 37, it is determined in step S9-3 whether it is error information. If it is an error, an error message to that effect is received in step S9-4. Is displayed and the process is completed. If it is determined that the device information is obtained, it is reflected in each of the columns 32, 33, and 34 according to the data received from the device information acquisition process 37 in step S9-5, and based on the received device part information. The GUI image 30 is updated by generating an appearance image of the apparatus by combining the part images (stored in the HDD 211) and displaying the created image in the display area 36.

<Second Embodiment>
According to the above embodiment (hereinafter referred to as the first embodiment), for example, when using the template of FIG. 5, when acquiring paper discharge option information, and when acquiring presence / absence and capacity of an additional memory, a network device The same information acquisition request (id_att_option_table in FIG. 5) is issued twice to the (multifunction peripheral 101).

  This is in order to respond to the requests in the upper GUI window in order, but since the same information request is issued to the same network device within a short time, naturally, the same data is transmitted. Become. Therefore, there is room for improvement in terms of efficiency, and this is not preferable because it contributes to network traffic congestion.

  In view of this, the second embodiment provides a technique for performing this redundant information acquisition with a single information income.

  The network configuration is the same as in FIG. 1, and the device information acquisition process 37 in the PC 200 will also be described in the second embodiment.

  FIG. 14 shows the configuration of the device information acquisition process 37 in the second embodiment. The difference from FIG. 4 is that a cache memory (secured in the RAM 203) 411 accessed by the property conversion unit 402 is provided. Note that the cache memory is provided when cache validity is specified, for example, in the “detailed settings” tab of the GUI window of FIG. When the cache is invalid, the operation is the same as in the first embodiment. FIG. 14 shows a configuration when the cache is set as valid.

  As described in the first embodiment, the property conversion unit 402 receives an information acquisition request from the template parsing unit 409 and generates a packet to be transmitted to the network device. The property conversion unit 402 in the second embodiment has already been obtained in the cache memory 411 with the same information acquisition command using the information acquisition command requested by the template parsing unit 409 as a key before generating the packet. It is determined whether device information is stored. If it is determined that a packet including the same information acquisition command is requested, the corresponding data is notified from the cache memory 411 to the acquisition data operation unit 406. To do. Further, when device information is not stored in the cache memory 411, an information acquisition request packet is transmitted to the network device, and when the device information is returned to the packet, it is registered in the cache memory 411. At the same time, the acquired device information is notified to the acquired data operation unit 406.

  FIG. 15 shows the structure of the cache memory 411 in the second embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, one record in the cache memory 411 is composed of the network device IP address, request information, and acquisition information acquired from the network device. The IP address is stored because the MFP 101 can be changed to the network printer 100 as a network device for printing out by selecting the “Port” tab on the GUI window 30 in FIG.

  As can be seen from the above description, in the second embodiment, the processing units other than the processing of the property conversion unit 402 may be the same as those in the first embodiment. However, it is assumed that the cache memory 411 is reset when the device information acquisition process 37 in the present embodiment is activated. In other words, it is valid only within a very limited period of time within the device information acquisition process using one template. This is because when the valid period of the cache memory becomes long, inconsistency occurs when the configuration of the network device is changed. If the cache valid period is limited to only processing within one template, such inconsistency need not be considered.

  Hereinafter, the processing content of the property conversion unit 402 in the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S6-1, the process waits until there is a device information acquisition request (id_att_productname, id_att_option_table, etc.) from the template parsing unit 409. If there is a device information acquisition request, the process proceeds to step S6-2, and whether or not there is data in the cache memory 411 that matches both the received device information request and the IP address of the network device to be requested. Judging. If it is determined that the corresponding data exists in the cache memory 411, the device information acquired in the past (however, converted into the format for the acquired data operation unit 406 from the cache memory 411 is converted in step S6-3). Is sent to the acquired data operation unit 406, and the process returns to step S6-1.

  If it is determined that the requested device information requested from the template parsing unit 409 does not exist in the cache memory 411, the process proceeds to step S6-4 to generate a packet including a device information acquisition command for the network device. In step S6-5, the instructed protocol processing unit is used to transmit to the network device. If the device information cannot be received even after a predetermined time has elapsed, error data is generated and notified to the control unit 401 in step S6-7. As a result, the control unit 401 gives an instruction to stop the processing of each processing unit, and notifies the printer driver GUI process of an unacceptable message in a predetermined format.

  On the other hand, if the device information can be normally received, in step S6-9, reply data that can be interpreted by the acquisition data operation unit 406 is generated and notified in step S6-9. In step S6-10, the generated reply data, device information acquisition request command, and IP address are registered in the cache memory 411.

  As a result, according to the second embodiment, network device information can be acquired at a high speed in addition to the effects of the first embodiment. When the device information acquisition button 35 is clicked on the GUI screen, the GUI window is updated with a high-speed response.

  The parts and functions added to the network device can be broadly divided into those that do not change much from the time of installation (connected finisher, memory, ADF, add-on function expanded programs, etc.), and asynchronous changes after installation. Dynamic information (no recording paper, remaining ink or toner, errors such as recording paper jam).

  In view of this point, the device information can be divided into two types: static device information and static device information. Therefore, dynamic device information may be stored in the template, and a cache valid period for static device information may be secured for connection with the device.

<Modification of Second Embodiment>
In the second embodiment, the processing of the property conversion unit 402 is main. However, when there are a plurality of types of information to be requested from the network device, the information acquisition is more effective when all the necessary information is requested. Requires less overhead. Therefore, in this modification, this example will be described. The apparatus configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, and hereinafter, processing of the template parsing unit 409 and the property conversion unit 402 in this modification will be described.

  First, the processing of the template parsing unit 409 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S7-1, when a network device acquisition request is received from the GUI window process of the printer driver, a target template is searched and determined in step S7-2. Next, the process proceeds to step S7-3, and the template is analyzed line by line. When the tag <pids> is found in step S7-4, since the request tags <attr> to </ attrs> to the network device exist in the next line, this tag <attr> , </ Attrs> is stored in the RAM 203 as information A. In step S7-6, other tags are processed. In step S7-7, the process from step S7-3 is repeated until </ getinfo> indicating the end of the template is found.

  When the determination in step S7-7 is Yes, the information A stores all requests to the network device corresponding to requests from the GUI window process of the printer driver. Therefore, in step S7-8, information B is created by excluding requests to overlapping devices in information A. In step S7-9, the created information A and B is notified to the property conversion unit 402.

Next, the processing of the property conversion unit 402 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
In step S8-1, information A and B is received from the template parsing unit 409. In step S8-2, device information acquisition requests composed of only information B are collected, and request information for the network device (the multifunction peripheral 101 in the embodiment) is created and transmitted.

  In step S8-3, if no information can be received even after a predetermined time has elapsed, error information is created in step S8-5 and notified to the control unit 401 in step S8-6.

  On the other hand, when device information is received from the network device, reply data corresponding to individual request information constituting the information A is created based on the received device information and notified to the acquired data operation unit 406.

  As described above, according to this modification, it is possible to achieve substantially the same operational effects as those of the second embodiment, and the device request information of each attribute to the network device is performed with a single request. Accordingly, overhead can be reduced by that much, and more efficient device information can be acquired.

  Although the embodiment according to the present invention has been described above, in the present embodiment, a multifunction device has been described as an example of a network device. However, as can be understood from the above description, the present invention is not limited to a multifunction device, and of course a network printer. Obviously, it can be applied to various network devices such as a network scanner.

  Although the main processing of the present invention has been described as a program of one component of a device driver such as a printer driver, a program independent of the device driver may be used. Further, as described in the above embodiment, since the main part is a computer program, such a computer program is naturally included in the scope of the present invention. In general, a computer program can be executed by setting a computer-readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM in a computer and copying or installing the computer program in the system. It will be included in the category.

It is a figure which shows the network structural example in embodiment. It is a block block diagram of the information processing apparatus in FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a GUI window of a printer driver, a multifunction peripheral that is a network device, and a device information acquisition process in the embodiment. FIG. It is a block diagram of the device information acquisition process in 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the template for multifunction machines in embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the resource data for Japan and the resource data for USA in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the data received from a network device. It is a flowchart which shows the whole process sequence of the device information acquisition process in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the acquisition data operation part in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the acquisition data operation part in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process of step S3-3 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process of step S3-5 of FIG. It is a block diagram of the device information acquisition process in 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the cache memory in 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content of the property conversion part in 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content of the template parsing part of the modification of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content of the property conversion part of the modification of 2nd Embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a GUI process of the printer driver in the embodiment.

Claims (15)

An information processing apparatus that acquires information about a connected peripheral device via a predetermined communication medium,
Template storage means for storing a template in which a procedure for obtaining device information of a peripheral device is described in a language-independent format used in the information processing device;
Resource data storage means for storing resource data related to resources that can constitute the peripheral device, which is described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device;
In response to an instruction request from a predetermined process, request information creating means for analyzing the description of the template stored in the template storage means and creating device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device;
A communication means for transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: output means for converting device information received by the communication means based on resource data stored in the resource data storage means and outputting the converted information to the instruction request process.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resource data storage unit is a predetermined exchangeable data file.   The communication means has a plurality of protocols implemented in an upper layer of the TCP / IP protocol, and performs communication using any one protocol based on an analysis result by the request information creation means. Information processing device.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display control means for controlling processing for displaying a graphical user interface using information output by the output means in the instruction request process. Furthermore, an acquisition data storage means for temporarily storing device information received by the communication means,
In the case where the device information of the attribute acquired in the previous request according to the acquired data storage unit is stored, the communication unit stores the stored device information as the device information received as the request result in the output unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus transfers the information.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the acquisition data storage unit is initialized at the start of device information acquisition by one template. The request information creating means includes
First storage means for analyzing the description of the template and storing information composed of all the request information required for the peripheral device;
A second storage means for storing information excluding duplicate information in the information stored in the first storage means;
The communication means transmits device information acquisition request information stored in the second storage means to the peripheral device, and the transmission result and device information received from the peripheral device are stored in the first storage means. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein data corresponding to each request information is generated and transferred to the output unit. A method of controlling an information processing device that acquires information about a connected peripheral device,
A predetermined template storage for storing a template in which a procedure for acquiring device information of a peripheral device is described in a language-independent format when there is an instruction request from a predetermined request process A request information creating step of analyzing the template in the means and creating device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device;
A communication step of transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
Referenced to predetermined resource data storage means storing resource data related to resources that can constitute the peripheral device described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device, and received in the communication step An information processing apparatus control method comprising: an output step of converting device information into a description of the resource data and outputting the device information to the process that is an instruction request source. A computer program that functions as an information processing device that acquires information about a connected peripheral device by being read and executed by a computer,
Template storage means for storing a template in which a procedure for obtaining device information of a peripheral device is described in a language-independent format used in the information processing apparatus;
Resource data storage means for storing resource data related to resources that can constitute the peripheral device, which is described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device;
In response to an instruction request from a predetermined process, request information creating means for analyzing the description of the template stored in the template storage means and creating device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device;
A communication means for transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device, and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
A computer program that functions as output means for converting device information received by the communication means based on resource data stored in the resource data storage means and outputting the information to the instruction request process.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program according to claim 9. An information processing device that acquires information about a connected peripheral device,
Template storage means for storing a template in which a procedure for obtaining device information of a peripheral device is described in a language-independent format used in the information processing device;
Resource data storage means for storing resource data related to resources that can constitute the peripheral device, which is described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device;
Display means for displaying a device configuration status of the peripheral device, and displaying a GUI window having an information acquisition request instruction unit for the peripheral device;
When the information acquisition request instruction unit displayed by the display means is instructed by a predetermined pointing device, the description of the template stored in the template storage means is analyzed, and the device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device is obtained. Request information creation means to create,
A communication means for transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
Conversion means for converting the device information received by the communication means based on the resource data stored in the resource data storage means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: display update means for updating the GUI window based on information obtained by the conversion means. A method of controlling an information processing device that acquires information about a connected peripheral device,
A display step for displaying a device configuration status of the peripheral device, and displaying a GUI window having an information acquisition request instruction unit for the peripheral device;
When the information acquisition request instructing unit displayed in the display step is instructed by a predetermined pointing device, a procedure for acquiring device information of the peripheral device is independent of the language used in the information processing device A request information creating step of analyzing the template in a predetermined template storage means for storing the template described in, and creating device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device;
A communication step of transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
Device information received in the communication step with reference to predetermined resource data storage means for storing resource data relating to resources that can constitute the peripheral device, described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device Converting to a description of the resource data;
A display update step of updating the GUI window based on the information obtained in the conversion step. A computer program that functions as an information processing device that acquires information about a connected peripheral device by being read and executed by a computer,
Template storage means for storing a template in which a procedure for obtaining device information of a peripheral device is described in a language-independent format used in the information processing device;
Resource data storage means for storing resource data related to resources that can constitute the peripheral device, which is described in a language-dependent format used in the information processing device;
Display means for displaying a device configuration status of the peripheral device, and displaying a GUI window having an information acquisition request instruction unit for the peripheral device;
When the information acquisition request instruction unit displayed by the display means is instructed by a predetermined pointing device, the description of the template stored in the template storage means is analyzed, and the device information acquisition request information for the peripheral device is obtained. Request information creation means to create,
A communication means for transmitting the device information acquisition request information created by the request information creating means to the peripheral device and receiving device information from the peripheral device;
Conversion means for converting the device information received by the communication means based on the resource data stored in the resource data storage means;
A computer program that functions as display update means for updating the GUI window based on information obtained by the conversion means.   The computer program according to claim 13, wherein the computer program is a part of a device driver of the peripheral device.   A computer readable storage medium storing the computer program according to claim 13 or 14.

Images