JP2007013248A - Terminal device, program therefor, and network facsimile system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a terminal device with which a manager can easily back up image data of a plurality of users registered in a plurality of network facsimile machines. <P>SOLUTION: When the manager instructs download of image data, it is determined whether download of all the image data is instructed. If download of one part of the data is instructed, data transmission is instructed to a corresponding network composite machine, and the received image data are stored in a storage destination folder (steps 302-305). On the contrary, if download of the entire image data is instructed, an HTTP/GET command is transmitted to a first network composite machine, all the image data from a corresponding network composite machine are stored in a storage destination folder (steps 306-308), and then, it is determined whether or not the image data have been received from all registered networks (step 309), and the image data from some network composite machines are not received, the process returns to the step 306. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device connected to a network facsimile apparatus via a communication network, which can download image data from the network facsimile apparatus.

  Recently, facsimile systems have spread in offices and the like, and play a useful role in data communication. Such a system is configured, for example, by connecting a network facsimile apparatus or a terminal device so-called client personal computer through a communication network such as a LAN. The network facsimile apparatus transfers the received data to the client personal computer. When the data specifying the transfer destination is received from the client personal computer, the received data is transmitted to the specified transfer destination.

Such a network facsimile apparatus includes a network board having a web server function. When a fax or mail is received, the received document is stored in a personal folder or a shared folder of each user in the network board according to the distribution setting. The user can access the network board storage location from the client personal computer and take out the stored document (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-108466 A

  As described above, in the conventional network facsimile system, the image data stored in the network facsimile apparatus can be downloaded and stored from the terminal device. However, if there are a plurality of network facsimile apparatuses, the image data can be downloaded individually. For example, when a network administrator backs up image data from all network facsimile apparatuses, there is a problem that it takes time and effort.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a terminal device, a program for a terminal device, and a network that allow an administrator to easily back up image data of a plurality of users registered in a plurality of network facsimile devices An object is to provide a facsimile system.

In order to achieve the above object, a terminal device according to claim 1 is a terminal device connected to a plurality of network facsimile apparatuses via a communication network, and when downloading image data from the network facsimile apparatus, Comprising a control means for downloading image data for the plurality of network facsimile apparatuses,
A terminal device according to a second aspect of the invention is characterized in that, in the terminal device according to the first aspect, the control means detects a network device connected to the network by broadcasting to the network.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal device program for causing a terminal device connected to a plurality of network facsimile devices via a communication network to execute functions. When downloading the image data, a function of downloading the image data for the plurality of network facsimile apparatuses is executed.

  Furthermore, a network facsimile system according to a fourth aspect of the invention is characterized in that the terminal device according to the first or second aspect is connected to a plurality of network facsimile apparatuses via a communication network.

According to the network facsimile system of the present invention, when image data of a network facsimile apparatus is downloaded from a terminal device, the image data can be downloaded from a plurality of network facsimile apparatuses by a single operation. When backing up image data of a plurality of users registered in the network facsimile apparatus, the backup can be easily performed.
In addition, when backing up image data of a network facsimile apparatus, it is possible to detect network devices connected to the network, so that it is possible to easily grasp network devices to be managed.

Hereinafter, an embodiment using a network multifunction peripheral as a network facsimile apparatus of the network facsimile system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network configuration example of a system including a personal computer as a terminal device and a network multifunction device. 1, 2 are network multifunction devices, 3, 4, 5,... Are personal computers, and 6 is a public switched telephone. A network (PSTN), 7 is a LAN (Local Area Network), and 8 is an Internet network. The network multifunction peripherals 1 and 2 have functions of a copy mode, a printer mode, and a fax mode, and also have a mail transmission function, and are connected to the PSTN 6 and the LAN 7. A plurality of personal computers 3, 4, 5 ... are connected. The LAN 7 is also connected to the Internet network 8, and the network MFPs 1 and 2 can send and receive mail via the Internet network 8.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of the control system of the network multifunction device 1. As shown in the figure, the network multifunction device 1 has a CPU 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, and a display. An operation unit 14, a reading unit 15, an image memory 16, a recording unit 17, a codec 18, a modem 19, a network control unit NCU 20, a network board 21 and a LAN interface (I / F) 22 are configured. Connected.

The CPU 11 controls each part of the hardware of the network multifunction peripheral 1 via the bus 23 and executes various programs based on the programs stored in the ROM 12. The ROM 12 performs various programs necessary for the operation of the network multifunction peripheral 1. And operation messages are stored in advance.
The RAM 13 is composed of an SRAM or the like, and has a storage area for a distribution setting table 24 that stores temporary data generated when the program is executed and stores a setting of a distribution destination when a fax or mail is received. Yes.

This distribution setting table 24 is a table in which conditions for determining a distribution destination are set based on the fax number of the transmission source and information on the e-mail.
That is, when a fax is received, it is usually difficult to specify a transmission destination user. The e-mail is composed of predetermined header information and body text. The header information includes “Data” indicating the date and time of sending the e-mail, “To” indicating the e-mail destination, and the sender of the e-mail. “Subject” indicating additional information such as “From” indicating the title of the e-mail and the like, but when receiving the e-mail by the network MFPs 1 and 2, the “To” field includes the network MFP Since the dedicated e-mail addresses 1 and 2 are described, it is not possible to specify the user of the transmission destination.
Therefore, in order to determine the delivery destination from the sender number notification and ISDN subaddress sent from the exchange when receiving an incoming call, the source number sent as a TSI signal in the facsimile procedure, the F code subaddress and password, etc. Is set in the distribution setting table 24.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the above distribution setting table 24. In this example, when a fax having a TSI of “03-4567-8999” is received between 9:00 and 17:00, it is set as a distribution destination. In addition to forwarding to a mail address, printing out, and if you receive an Internet fax containing the letters “abc” in the sender mail address between Monday and Friday, save it in the USER2 folder and print Does not output.
The setting of the distribution setting table 24 is set by the user by inputting from the setting registration screen displayed on the display / operation unit 14 or the setting input screen of the monitor of the personal computer 3, 4, 5, etc. It is possible to register in the table 24.

  The display / operation unit 14 includes a display unit that displays an operation state of the network multifunction device 1 and displays operation screens of various functions, and a number of operation keys for operating the network multifunction device 1. ing. The reading unit 15 includes a reading document placing table such as an auto document feeder (ADF) or a flat bed scanner (FBS), reads a document with a scanner using a CCD or the like, and outputs dot image data.

  The image memory 16 is configured by using a DRAM or the like, and stores image data to be transmitted or received image data or image data read by the reading unit 15, and a recording unit 17 is a printer device such as an electrophotographic system. The received data, copy original data, or print data transmitted from an external personal computer is printed out.

  The codec 18 encodes and decodes in accordance with a predetermined protocol. In order to transmit the image data of the read original, the codec 18 is encoded by the MH, MR, or MMR method, and decodes image data received from the outside. Also, encoding and decoding are also performed in correspondence with the TIFF method, which is an image format generally used as a file that can be attached to an e-mail.

  The modem 19 is connected to the bus 23 and has a function as a fax modem capable of facsimile communication. The modem 19 is also connected to the NCU 20 connected to the bus 23. The NCU 20 is hardware that closes and opens an analog line, and connects the modem 19 to the PSTN 6 as necessary.

  As shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 4, the network board 21 includes a TCP / IP protocol control unit 31, an HTTPD control unit 32, a homepage management unit 33, and a document management unit 34. These units are a CPU, a ROM And a memory such as a RAM, a magnetic disk (hard disk) storage device, and the like.

The TCP / IP protocol control unit 31 controls TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) / IP (Internet Protocol), and the HTTPD control unit 32 uses the data stream transfer function of the TCP / IP protocol control unit 31 to perform HTTPD (Hyper Text Transfer). Protocol Deamon) function is executed, and requests from WWW (World Wide Web) browsers such as personal computers 3, 4, 5 are processed.
Note that HTTPPD is a daemon that provides the functions of an HTTP server, and is used when a web server is operated on a UNIX (registered trademark) operating system.

  The homepage management unit 33 outputs a homepage file to the HTTPD control unit 32 in response to a homepage request from the HTTPD control unit 32, and the document management unit 34 scans documents, fax / fax / In addition to storing / saving documents such as mail-received delivery documents, the list information of the saved documents is converted into HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) format files in response to a request from the HTTP PD control unit 32, and the HTTP PD control unit 32 The information output and analyzed from the HTTPD control unit 32 is analyzed to perform processing such as transfer and deletion of a stored document.

  FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of the document management unit 34. As shown in FIG. 5, the document management unit 34 includes a shared folder 41 and folders 42, 43,... For each user. The received document is stored in each folder according to the setting of the table 24.

  On the other hand, the LAN interface 22 is connected to the LAN 7 and receives data from an external personal computer or a signal from the Internet network 8 via the LAN 7, while transmitting signals and data to the LAN 7. Perform interface processing such as protocol conversion.

The network multifunction device 1 has the above-described configuration. During facsimile transmission, document image data is read by the reading unit 15, compressed by the codec 18, and stored in the image memory 16. The compressed image data is read from the image memory 16, modulated by the modem 19, and transmitted from the NCU 20 to the communication partner through the PSTN 6.
When receiving a facsimile or mail, the received image data is stored in each folder of the document management unit 34 based on the setting of the distribution setting table 24 or printed out by the recording unit 17.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, a personal computer 3, 4, 5, etc. connected to the network multifunction device 1 via the LAN 7 has a CPU 51, ROM 52, RAM 53, display unit 54, input unit 55, hard disk drive (HDD). 56 and a LAN interface 57, which are connected via a bus 58.
The CPU 51 controls each part of the hardware of the personal computer 3 via the bus 58 and executes various programs based on the software program stored in the ROM 52. The RAM 53 is configured by an SRAM or the like and is generated when the program is executed. Store temporary data.

  The display unit 54 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a CRT display, and the input unit 55 is a keyboard for operating the personal computer 3. The HDD 56 is a storage device having a built-in storage medium that stores programs of various functions such as a document download program stored in the document management unit 34 of the network multifunction peripherals 1 and 2 and stores various data. The LAN interface 57 is connected to the LAN 7 and functions in the same manner as the LAN interface 22 described above.

  When a document stored in each folder of the document management unit 34 of the network multifunction peripheral 1 or 2 is viewed from the personal computers 3, 4, 5, or the like, the user starts a WWW browser, for example, on the display unit 54 of the personal computer 4. When an access is made by designating the IP address of the network multifunction device 1 on the displayed WWW browser screen, the HTTPPD control unit 32 of the network board 21 of the network multifunction device 1 detects this, and the homepage management unit 33 makes an HTML The described homepage file is read out and transferred to the personal computer 4 via the TCP / IP protocol control unit 31, the LAN interface 22, and the LAN 7.

When the user selects and gives an instruction to display a list of documents from this home page, this list display request is transferred to the network MFP 1 via the LAN 7, and the HTTPD control unit 32 of the network board 21 detects this. As a result, the HTTP PD control unit 32 instructs the document management unit 34 to transfer the document list, and the document management unit 34 converts the list information of the corresponding user's stored documents into an HTML format file and transfers it to the personal computer 4.
As a result, the document list screen shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on the monitor screen of the personal computer 4.

As shown in FIG. 7, at the top of the document list list screen, a scan image, a transmission document, a reception document, a shared reception document, a bulletin board, a circulation document, a processing request document switching tag, “transfer”, “transmission”, Function selection buttons such as “print”, “download”, “delete”, “bulletin board”, “circulation”, and “processing request” are displayed. In the lower part of the document list screen, in the case of a transmission document, a destination name, a transmission result, a document classification, the number of pages, a transmission date and time, and the like are displayed.
By selecting a document switching tag on this screen, a document with a desired document classification can be displayed, and after specifying the displayed document, by clicking one of the function selection buttons, transmission, It is possible to perform processing such as downloading.

On the other hand, the network administrator can back up image documents of a plurality of users registered in a plurality of network multifunction peripherals connected to the LAN 7, and the network administrator is stored in the plurality of network multifunction peripherals hereinafter. The operation when backing up an existing image document will be described.
For example, when the administrator activates a backup utility program stored in the HDD 56 of the personal computer 3, a backup utility console screen shown in FIG. 8 is displayed.

  At the top of this console screen, there is a “Setting” button for setting backup preferences and a “Run Now” button for downloading image data of registered network multifunction devices. The network device, user name, and folder name registered in the backup target are displayed. Select the check box displayed on the left and click the “Run Now” button to select any network. It is possible to download image data of a folder of an arbitrary user of the device.

If the administrator clicks the “Settings” button on this console screen and the administrator settings are set, the password entry screen will be displayed, and if the entered password matches the registered password, 9 is displayed.
In the screen of FIG. 9, the network device registration screen is displayed. When the administrator clicks the “user” index, the user registration screen is displayed. When the “download” index is clicked, the download setting screen is displayed. Is displayed. When the “schedule” index is clicked, a schedule screen for setting the date and time of image data backup is displayed.

  Then, when the administrator clicks the “Network device automatic search” button on the network device registration screen of FIG. 9, the network device connected to the LAN 7 is searched. The operation of the multifunction machines 1 and 2 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  When the network device registration screen of FIG. 9 is displayed, the CPU 51 of the personal computer 3 always executes the search program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10 to determine whether an automatic search instruction for the network device has been issued. When the determination is made (step 101) and the administrator clicks the “automatic network device search” button, the CPU 51 broadcasts a connection confirmation test packet to the LAN 7 by UDP / IP (step 102). Time measurement is started by activating (not shown) (step 103).

On the other hand, the CPUs 11 of the network MFPs 1 and 2 always execute the program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 11 and determine whether or not a UDP / IP packet has been received (step 201). When the UDP / IP packet is received from the personal computer 3, the CPU 11 determines whether or not the received UDP / IP packet is a connection confirmation packet (step 202). If it is not the connection confirmation packet, other processing of the UDP / IP packet is performed. Is executed (step 203).
If it is determined in step 202 that the received UDP / IP packet is a connection confirmation packet, the CPU 11 sends the IP address and host name of each of the network MFPs 1 and 2 to the personal computer 3 that sent the UDP / IP packet. (Step 204).

  Note that HTTP POST Method is one of the methods for transmitting the contents described in the HTML form to the web server, and is specified in the <= "attribute of the <FORM> tag. When POST is specified, the content described in the form does not appear directly in the URL, so it is possible to transmit long data that does not fit within the URL length limit, and the transmitted content is touched by the user or remains in the history. There is nothing to do.

  On the other hand, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10, the CPU 51 of the personal computer 3 determines whether or not the HTTP POST Method has been received after starting the monitoring timer (step 104), and determines that the HTTP POST Method has been received. The CPU 51 stores the received IP address and host name in the RAM 53 (step 105). After storing the IP address and host name in step 105, or if it is determined in step 104 that the HTTP POST Method has not been received, the CPU 51 determines whether or not the monitoring timer has counted up a certain time and counted up. If it is determined that the count has not been increased (step 106), the process returns to step 104 to determine again whether the HTTP POST Method has been received.

If it is determined in step 106 that the monitoring timer has counted up, the CPU 51 reads the IP address and host name of the network device that has received the HTTP POST Method from the RAM 53, and displays a list of IP addresses of the connected network devices. (Step 107).
That is, as shown in the left column of the screen of FIG. 9, a list of IP addresses of devices connected to the network is displayed. By selecting an arbitrary one from these and clicking the “Add” button, 9 is added to the network device column to be backed up on the right side of the screen of FIG. 9, and can be registered as a backup target device by clicking the “OK” button in this state.

By clicking the “Add all” button, all the IP addresses displayed in the list in the left column of the screen of FIG. 9 can be added as target network devices, and the “IP address” column can be added. It is also possible to add as a target network device by inputting an arbitrary IP address and clicking the “input” button.
As described above, by performing automatic network device search from the personal computer 3, the IP address and host name are transmitted from the device connected to the network and displayed on the display unit. Can be registered easily.

On the other hand, when the administrator clicks the “user” index on the network device registration screen of FIG. 9, the user registration screen shown in FIG. 12 is displayed.
On this user registration screen, after selecting an IP address of an arbitrary network multifunction device, for example, the network multifunction device 1 in the “Network Device” field, clicking the “User Search” button transmits user information to the network multifunction device 1. The user name and the file information for each user registered are transmitted from the network multifunction peripheral 1, and a list of users is displayed in the left column of the user registration screen as shown in FIG.

  Similar to the network device registration described above, in this state, by selecting an arbitrary one from the displayed user list and clicking the “Add” button, the backup target on the right side of the screen of FIG. Can be added to the user field. Also, by clicking the “Add All” button, all users displayed in the list in the left column of the screen of FIG. 12 can be added as backup target users, and then the “OK” button is clicked. Thus, the backup target user can be registered.

Further, when the administrator clicks the “download” index on the user registration screen of FIG. 12, a download setting screen shown in FIG. 13 is displayed.
On this download setting screen, the storage folder of the downloaded image data and the file format for backing up the image file, for example, TIFF format, PDF format, etc. can be set. In this screen, it is also possible to set whether or not to delete the document in the network board when the image file is backed up.

Next, after the environment setting is performed, the operation of the personal computer 3 and the network multifunction device 1 when the administrator clicks the “Execute Now” button on the console screen of the backup utility in FIG. This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
When the backup utility console screen is displayed, the CPU 51 of the personal computer 3 always executes the download program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 14 and determines whether or not the “Execute Now” button is clicked. It is determined whether or not download has been instructed (step 301).

  When the administrator clicks the “execute now” button, the CPU 51 determines whether or not downloading of all image data is instructed (step 302), and the administrator checks the “entire network” check box on the screen of FIG. If the check box is not given, the corresponding network multifunction device is instructed to transmit only the image data of the network multifunction device, the user, or the folder whose checkbox is checked (step 303). Next, the CPU 51 determines whether or not image data has been received from the corresponding network multifunction peripheral (step 304). If image data has been received, the received image data is stored in the designated storage folder in the HDD 56. (Step 305).

  If it is determined in step 302 that download of all image data has been instructed, the CPU 51 transmits an HTTP / GET command to the first network multifunction peripheral (step 306). Next, it is determined whether image data has been received from the corresponding network multifunction peripheral (step 307). If image data has been received, the received image data is stored in the designated storage folder of the HDD 56 (step 307). 308).

  Thereafter, the CPU 51 determines whether or not image data has been received from all network multifunction peripherals registered as backup targets (step 309), and when there remains a network multifunction peripheral that has not received image data. Returns to step 306, transmits an HTTP / GET command to the next network multifunction peripheral, and if there is no network multifunction peripheral that has not received image data, the program ends.

  On the other hand, the CPU 11 of the network MFP 1 always executes the image data transmission program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 15. When this program is started, it is first determined whether or not an HTTP / GET command has been received ( If it is determined that the HTTP / GET command has been received (step 401), the CPU 11 transmits all the image data stored in the document management unit 34 of the network board 21 to the personal computer 3 (step 402).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 401 that an HTTP / GET command has not been received, it is determined whether or not a designated document transmission instruction has been received from the personal computer 3 (step 403), and it has been determined that there has been no designated document transmission instruction. Returning to step 401, if it is determined that there is an instruction to send the designated document, the image data in the designated folder of the designated user is sent to the personal computer 3 (step 404).
Next, the CPU 11 determines whether or not there is an instruction to delete the transmission document from the personal computer 3 (step 405). If it is determined that there is no instruction to delete the transmission document, the CPU 11 ends the program and there is an instruction to delete the transmission document. If it is determined that the document has been transmitted, the transmitted document is deleted from the document management unit 34 (step 406).

  As described above, when the administrator backs up image data from multiple network multifunction devices, the image data from multiple network multifunction devices can be downloaded in a single operation, so it is stored in multiple network multifunction devices. The image data of multiple users can be easily backed up.

  In the above embodiment, the operation when the administrator downloads the image data by clicking the “Execute Now” button has been described. However, the date and time is set on the schedule setting screen, and the image data is automatically downloaded. The present invention can also be applied when downloading.

  In the above embodiment, an example in which a network multifunction machine is used as the network facsimile apparatus of the facsimile system of the present invention has been described. It is also possible to use a facsimile server.

It is a figure which shows the network structural example of the system which uses a network multifunction machine as a network facsimile apparatus of the network facsimile system of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of a network multifunction device. It is a figure which shows an example of a delivery setting table. It is a functional block diagram of a network board in the network multifunction peripheral. It is a figure which shows the concept of the document management part in a network board. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of a personal computer. It is a figure which shows an example of a document list list display screen. It is a figure which shows an example of a backup utility console screen. It is a figure which shows an example of a network apparatus registration screen. It is a flowchart which shows the effect | action of the personal computer at the time of network device automatic search. It is a flowchart which shows the effect | action of the network multifunction device at the time of network device automatic search. It is a figure which shows an example of a user registration screen. It is a figure which shows an example of a download setting screen. It is a flowchart which shows the effect | action of the personal computer at the time of backup of image data. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the network multifunction peripheral at the time of image data backup.

Explanation of symbols

1, 2, Network MFP 3, 4, 5 PC 6 PSTN
7 LAN
8 Internet network 11, 51 CPU
12, 52 ROM
13, 53 RAM
14 Display / Operation Unit 15 Reading Unit 16 Image Memory 17 Recording Unit 18 Codec 19 Modem 20 NCU
21 Network board 22, 57 LAN I / F
23, 58 Bus 31 TCP / IP protocol control unit 32 HTTPD control unit 33 Homepage management unit 34 Document management unit 41 Shared folder 42, 43 User folder 54 Display unit 55 Input unit 56 HDD

Claims (4)

A terminal device connected to a plurality of network facsimile apparatuses via a communication network,
A terminal device comprising control means for downloading image data for the plurality of network facsimile devices when downloading image data from the network facsimile device. The terminal device according to claim 1,
A terminal device, wherein the control means detects a network device connected to the network by broadcasting to the network. A terminal device program for causing a terminal device connected to a plurality of network facsimile devices via a communication network to execute a function,
A program for a terminal device, which executes a function of downloading image data for a plurality of network facsimile devices when downloading image data from a network facsimile device.   3. A network facsimile system, wherein the terminal device according to claim 1 or 2 and a plurality of network facsimile apparatuses are connected via a communication network.

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