JP2006011933A - Image forming apparatus, its control method, and control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus, its control method, and a control program capable of printing analysis error information on a received E-mail while avoiding wasteful use of sheets. <P>SOLUTION: When an error occurs in analyzing the received E-mail, the error information is attached to the analysis data of a text part of the E-mail to create data of a new text page, data on this text page are converted into image data for printing. Thus, the error information and the message in the text part are printed on the same sheet without separately printing the error information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that receives data in an e-mail format and performs print processing, a control method thereof, and a control program.

  In recent years, an electronic mail system has become widespread, and an image forming apparatus that uses this electronic mail system to receive data in an electronic mail format and perform print processing has been realized. For example, the image data to be transmitted is compressed, the compressed image data is converted into an e-mail format and transmitted to a network capable of e-mail, and the image data transmitted in the e-mail format is facsimileed There has been proposed a facsimile-type electronic mail apparatus that converts and decompresses the image data into the above format and prints the decompressed image data (see Patent Document 1).

In this type of image forming apparatus, in general, binary image data is encoded into an e-mail format by encoding the image data using a method such as base64, uencode, or Quoted Printable. Also, various compression methods such as LZ (Lempel-Ziv), JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group), and MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) are used as compression methods for image data and the like.
JP-A-8-242326

  By the way, in the image forming apparatus having the electronic mail function as described above, for example, it does not have a base64 decoder, or does not have software for decompressing received data compressed by a predetermined method. An error may occur while analyzing the received email data. When such an error occurs, in the conventional image forming apparatus having an e-mail function, when the error information is printed on the paper, the error information is printed on the paper alone, so the paper is wasted. There was a problem.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming apparatus, a control method thereof, and a control program that can print analysis error information of a received electronic mail while avoiding paper waste.

  To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in an image forming apparatus having an e-mail receiving function, the received e-mail data is separated into a header part, a body part, and an attached file; Analysis means for analyzing the data of the header part, the text part, and the attached file, and when an analysis error occurs in the analysis by the analysis means, the error information is added to the analysis data of the text part and a new text page is added. Creating means for creating data; and printing means for converting at least the text page data created by the creating means into image data for printing and printing.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus, a control method thereof, and a control program capable of printing the received email analysis error information while avoiding waste of paper.

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

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a communication system to which an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is applied. In this communication system, LAN 2 and LAN 6 are connected to the Internet 9 via network routers 4 and 8. A personal computer 1 and a mail server 3 are connected to the LAN 2, and a printing device 5 and a mail server 7 as image forming apparatuses are connected to the LAN 6, and the personal computer 1 uses image data created by an application. Or data such as image data acquired on the Internet 9 can be transmitted to the printing apparatus 5 in an electronic mail format and printed.

  The printing device 5 is constituted by a laser printer, a digital multi-function peripheral, a facsimile machine, etc., and has an e-mail function. The mail servers 3 and 7 fulfill the functions of a POP3 server (Post Office Protocol Server) and an SMTP server (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Server).

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the personal computer 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the personal computer 1 includes a CPU 101 that controls the overall operation of the personal computer 1, a ROM 102 that stores various programs and data for controlling the operation of the CPU 101, a main memory and a work of the CPU 101, and the like. A RAM 103 that functions as a memory or the like is included. The personal computer 1 also includes a mouse controller 105 that controls instruction input from the mouse 106, a keyboard controller 107 that controls instruction input from the keyboard 108, and a CRT controller 109 that controls display on the CRT display 110.

  Further, the personal computer 1 controls access to the hard disk drive 112 and the floppy (registered trademark) disk drive 113 for storing various programs and data (boot program, various applications, e-mail software, network management program, etc.). Disk controller 111, and network interface card 114 for personal computer 1 to exchange data with other personal computers or mail server 3 via LAN 2 via LAN 2. The buses 104 are connected so that they can communicate with each other.

  Note that the above e-mail software has a function of encoding data to be transmitted created by an application or the like using a method such as base64, uencode, or quoted printable, and converting the data into e-mail format data. In addition, the application includes software for compressing / decompressing data by a method such as LZ (Lempel-Ziv), JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group), MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group).

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the printing apparatus 5. As shown in FIG. 3, the printing apparatus 5 includes a CPU 201 that controls the overall operation of the printing apparatus 5, a ROM 202 that stores various programs and data for operation control in the CPU 201, a main memory and work of the CPU 201 The RAM 203 functions as a memory or the like. The printing apparatus 5 also includes an engine 204 that implements device functions (such as a printer function and a copy function), an engine controller 205 that controls driving of the engine 204, various operation instructions from a user, and displays various information. A panel controller 207 for generating commands corresponding to the operation of the panel 206 and managing display on the panel 206.

  Further, the printing apparatus 5 includes a disk controller 209 that controls access to the hard disk drive 208 for storing various programs and data (a boot program, an address book, electronic mail software, a network management program, etc.), a nonvolatile RAM 210, and a LAN 6 A network interface card 211 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the mail server 7 and an e-mail recognition unit 212. These components can communicate with each other via a system bus 217. So connected.

  Note that the above e-mail software has a function of decoding at least e-mail format data encoded by a method such as base64, uencode, or quoted printable. Further, the above application includes software for at least decompressing data by a method such as LZ (Lempel-Ziv), JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group), MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group). The hard disk drive 208 also stores programs corresponding to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  The e-mail recognition unit 212 determines whether or not image data is attached to the received e-mail, separates the e-mail into a header part, a body part, and an attached file part, analyzes the data of each part, The CPU 201 is notified of the analysis result (whether an error has occurred). When an error occurs, the CPU 201 causes the error information to be printed on the same sheet together with the text part data. Note that RAM, EEPROM, or the like can be used as an alternative storage device for the hard disk drive 208.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the data structure of the e-mail. As shown in FIG. 4, the e-mail data includes a header part, a body part, and an attached file part attached as necessary.

  The header portion includes Data (e-mail transmission date and time), From (e-mail sender), Message-ID (e-mail data ID information), To (e-mail destination), Subject (e-mail title), and the like. And a message from the sender is described in the body part. The attached file part is a file in which binary text data, image data, etc. obtained by an application or the like are stored as e-mail format data. The code data is converted (encoded) and stored. The data in the file part is compressed by a predetermined method as necessary.

  Next, an outline of the printing process of the e-mail data by the printing apparatus 5 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  Whether the network interface card 211 of the printing apparatus 5 periodically receives e-mails addressed to the apparatus under the control of the CPU 201 to the mail server 7 connected to the LAN 6 similarly to the printing apparatus 5. Go to see if no. When an e-mail addressed to the device itself has arrived, the network interface card 211 receives the e-mail and reads it into a transmission / reception data storage area formed on the RAM 203 (step S501).

  As described above, when the e-mail is received, the e-mail recognition unit 212 separates the received e-mail data into a header part, a body part, and an attached file part under the control of the CPU 201. The analyzed data of each part is analyzed, and the analyzed data is stored in the nonvolatile RAM 210 (step S502). Details of the analysis process will be described later.

  Next, the CPU 201 develops the data analyzed by the e-mail recognition unit 212 into raster image data (step S503), and causes the engine controller 205 and the engine 204 to print (step S504). If an analysis error occurs in the analysis processing in step S502, as will be described later, in step S504, the analysis error information is printed together with the analysis data of the header part and the body part. If an error occurs during the analysis of the attached file, the expansion process and the print process are not executed for the analysis data of the attached file related to the analysis error. Although detailed description of the image data development processing and printing processing is omitted, it is basically the same as the processing method of an existing laser printer or digital multi-function peripheral.

  Next, under the control of the CPU 201, the network interface card 211 determines whether or not the e-mail addressed to the own apparatus still remains (step S505), and the e-mail addressed to the own apparatus still remains. For example, the process returns to step S501, and the electronic mail is received from the mail server 7. If there are a plurality of e-mails destined for the own apparatus, the plurality of e-mails may be received at a time in step S501.

[First Embodiment]
Next, details of the analysis processing in the above-described step S502 (first embodiment) will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  In steps S601 and S602, the e-mail recognition unit 212 analyzes the data of the header part and the body part, respectively. In this analysis processing, e-mail format data encoded (encoded) into an alphanumeric code by a method such as base64, uencode, or Quoted Printable is decoded into original binary data, and the compressed data is decompressed (described later). The same applies to step S606 and other embodiments).

  Next, the e-mail recognition unit 212 determines whether or not an error has occurred during the above-described analysis process (step S603). The cause of this error is that the printing device 5 includes a decoder corresponding to the above-described encoding method of e-mail, decompression software corresponding to the data compression method, and character set font data corresponding to the analyzed data. Not to mention.

  When an analysis error occurs in the process of analyzing the header part and the body part, the e-mail recognition unit 212 adds the new body page data in which the error information is added to the analysis data of the body part and the header part. In step S604, the process proceeds to step S605. If no analysis error has occurred during the analysis of the header part and the body part, the process of step S604 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S605.

  In step S605, the e-mail recognition unit 212 determines whether an attached file exists. As a result, if the attached file exists, the e-mail recognition unit 212 analyzes the attached file (step S606), and if an analysis error occurs during the analysis process (step S607), the body part and the header Data of a new body page with the error information added to the analysis data of the copy is created (step S608), and the analysis process is terminated.

  In steps S604 and S608, the cause of the analysis error is added as error information to the analysis data in the body part. Further, since the error information added in steps S604 and S608 is added as data of the body page, the data of the body part and the header part described from the beginning in the printing process in step S504 of FIG. It is printed on the same paper as (analysis data). Therefore, the error information is not printed on the sheet alone, and the waste of the sheet can be avoided.

  The error information may be added to any part of the analysis data in the text part, but it is preferable to add the error information to the end of the analysis data in the text part.

[Second Embodiment]
In the first embodiment, when an analysis error of an attached file occurs, the error information is added to an arbitrary part of the analysis data (text page) of the text part. In the second embodiment, By adding the error information of the attached file near the file name of the attached file on the body page, that is, near the file name of the attached file, and associating the error information with the file name of the attached file related to the error information The user can easily recognize which attached file caused the analysis error (see step S708 in FIG. 7).

  Note that the processing in steps S701 to S707 other than step S708 in the flowchart in FIG. 7 is exactly the same as the processing in steps S601 to S607 in the flowchart in FIG. 6 according to the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted here.

[Third Embodiment]
In the second embodiment, the analysis process and the addition process of the analysis error information to the text part are performed in the order of the header part, the text part, and the attached file part. However, in the third embodiment, from the attached file, Start analysis, and after the analysis of the attached file is completed, start the next process (decompression / printing process) of the attachment file, and perform the analysis process of the body part and header part and the expansion / printing process of the attachment file in parallel. As a result, the printing process of the e-mail is speeded up.

  Next, details of the e-mail analysis processing (substantially corresponding to step S502 in FIG. 5) in the third embodiment will be described based on the flowchart in FIG.

  The e-mail recognition unit 212 first determines whether or not an attached file exists (step S801). If there is no attached file, the e-mail recognition unit 212 proceeds to analysis of a body part (step S806). On the other hand, if the attached file exists, the e-mail recognition unit 212 analyzes the attached file (step S802). In this case, when the analysis of the attached file is completed, the e-mail recognition unit 212 notifies the CPU 201 to that effect. Next, the e-mail recognition unit 212 determines whether or not an analysis error has occurred during the process of analyzing the attached file (step S803). If an analysis error of the attached file has occurred, the error information is stored in the RAM 203. Store (step S804).

  When the CPU 201 receives a notification that the analysis of the attached file is completed from the e-mail recognition unit 212, the CPU 201 starts processing after the attached file expansion processing (step S805). In this case, the expansion process of the attached file by the CPU 201 and the processes of steps S806 to S815 described later by the e-mail recognition unit 212 are performed in parallel. If the attachment file expansion process is completed in a short time, the attachment file printing process by the CPU 201 and the processes of steps S806 to S815 described later by the e-mail recognition unit 212 are performed in parallel.

  When the processing of steps S801 to S804 of the analysis data of the body part is completed, the data of the body part is analyzed (step S806), and it is determined whether or not an error has occurred during the analysis process (step S807). As a result, when an analysis error occurs in the process of analyzing the body part, the e-mail recognition unit 212 stores the error information in the RAM 203 (step S808), and proceeds to analysis of the header part (step S809). . On the other hand, if no analysis error has occurred during the process of analyzing the body part, the e-mail recognition unit 212 skips the process of step S808 and proceeds to the analysis of the header part (step S809).

  Here, since it is assumed that one file is attached to one e-mail, as described above, immediately after the analysis of the attached file, the analysis proceeds to the analysis of the header part and the body part. However, if multiple files are attached to one e-mail, after analyzing one attached file, analyze the remaining unanalyzed attachments and analyze all the attached files. After finishing, it is desirable to move to analysis of the header part and the body part.

  Next, the e-mail recognition unit 212 determines whether an error has occurred during the header part analysis process (step S810). As a result, when an analysis error occurs in the header part analysis process, the e-mail recognition unit 212 stores the error information in the RAM 203 (step S811), and the process proceeds to step S812. On the other hand, if no analysis error has occurred during the header analysis, the e-mail recognition unit 212 skips step S811 and proceeds to step S812.

  In step S812, the e-mail recognition unit 212 determines whether there is error information stored in the RAM 203. As a result, if there is no error information, the e-mail recognition unit 212 creates body page data including the body part and the analysis data of the header part (step S814), and ends the analysis process.

  On the other hand, when the error information stored in the RAM 203 exists, the e-mail recognition unit 212 reads the error information from the RAM 203 (step S813) and adds the error information to the analysis data of the body part and the header part. New body page data is created (step S815), and the analysis process is terminated.

[Fourth embodiment]
In the third embodiment, when an analysis error of an attached file occurs, the error information is added to an arbitrary portion of the data (text page) of the text part. However, in the fourth embodiment, the text is added. By adding error information of the attached file in the vicinity of the file name of the attached file, that is, in the vicinity of the file name of the attached file on the page, and associating the error information with the file name of the attached file related to the error information, The user can easily recognize which attached file caused the analysis error (see step S916 in FIG. 10).

  Note that the processing in steps S901 to S917 other than step S916 in the flowcharts in FIGS. 9 and 10 is exactly the same as the processing in steps S901 to S917 in the flowchart in FIG. 8 according to the third embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted here. To do.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to said embodiment, For example, you may make it not describe the analysis data of a header part in the newly created text page.

  Also, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus. Needless to say, this is also achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the embodiments described above are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code, etc. However, it is needless to say that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion card provided in the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion card or It goes without saying that a case where the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. When the present invention is applied to the above storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the flowcharts described above (shown in FIGS. 5 to 10).

1 is a system configuration diagram of a communication system to which an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the personal computer in the said communication system. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the printing apparatus in the said communication system. It is a figure which shows the example of the data content of an email. It is a flowchart which shows the outline | summary of the printing process of an email. It is a flowchart which shows the analysis process which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the analysis process which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the analysis process which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the analysis process which concerns on 4th Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the analysis process which concerns on 4th Embodiment (continuation of FIG. 9).

Explanation of symbols

1 ... Personal computer 2, 6 ... LAN
3, 7 ... Mail server 5 ... Printing device 9 ... Internet 201 ... CPU
202 ... ROM
303 ... RAM
204 ... Engine 208 ... Hard disk drive 211 ... Network interface card 212 ... E-mail recognition unit

Claims (9)

In an image forming apparatus having an e-mail receiving function,
Separation means for separating received email data into a header part, a body part, and an attached file
Analysis means for analyzing data of the header part, the body part, and the attached file separated by the separation means;
When an analysis error occurs in the analysis by the analysis unit, a creation unit that adds the error information to the analysis data of the body part and creates new body page data;
Printing means for converting at least the text page data created by the creating means into image data for printing and printing;
An image forming apparatus comprising:   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the creating unit adds the error information to a tail end of analysis data of a body part.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the creating unit adds error information of the attached file in the vicinity of the file name of the attached file in the analysis data of the body part.   The analysis means first analyzes the data of the attached file, and the printing means immediately after the analysis processing of the data of the attached file by the analysis means is completed for the attachment file in which no analysis error has occurred. The conversion / printing process of the analysis data of the attached file is started, and the analysis unit performs, in parallel with the conversion / printing process by the printing unit, data of the attachment file related to unanalysis, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein data is analyzed. In a control method of an image forming apparatus having an e-mail receiving function,
A separation step of separating received email data into a header part, a body part, and an attached file;
An analysis step of analyzing data of the header portion, the body portion, and the attached file separated by the separation step;
When an analysis error occurs in the analysis by the analysis step, a creation step of creating data of a new body page by adding the error information to the analysis data of the body portion;
A printing process for converting and printing at least the text page data created by the creating process into image data for printing; and
A control method for an image forming apparatus, comprising: A control program for an image forming apparatus having an e-mail receiving function,
The received email data is separated into the header part, body part, and attached file, and the header part, body part, and attached file data are analyzed, and if an analysis error occurs during the analysis, the error information is sent to the body part. A control program characterized in that a new body page data is created by adding to a part of the analysis data, and at least the created body page data is converted into image data for printing and printed. An analysis means for analyzing the received email;
When an analysis error occurs in the analysis by the analysis means, an addition means for adding error information to the data of the email body;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a printing unit that prints data of an e-mail text to which error information is added by the adding unit. An analysis step for analyzing the received email;
When an analysis error occurs in the analysis in the analysis step, an addition step of adding error information to the data of the email body;
And a printing step for printing the data of the e-mail body text to which the error information is added in the adding step. An analysis step for analyzing the received email;
When an analysis error occurs in the analysis in the analysis step, an addition step of adding error information to the data of the email body;
And a printing step for printing data of an e-mail body text to which error information is added in the adding step.

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