JP2007058568A - Information processor, electronic mail processing method, monitoring method for image formation device, and image formation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce labor of a user for monitoring an image formation device by an electronic mail. <P>SOLUTION: A mail proxy part 230 hooks polling of a receipt mail by mail software 223 and a port monitor 225 for polling a mail server. If there is a gravity mail, its subject and contents are referred. When compliance with a fixed format is verified, a mail is determined as a status notification mail from the image formation device, and the mail is transferred to the port monitor. In other cases, the mail is determined as a normal mail and transferred to the mail software. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that is a client that uses an image forming apparatus connected to a network such as a network printer, an image forming apparatus monitoring method, and an image forming system that includes the client and the image forming apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that monitors a print job of an image forming apparatus connected to a network, an image forming apparatus monitoring method, and an image forming system.

A technique using e-mail for monitoring the status of a printer is conventionally known. For example, in Patent Document 1, the printing apparatus receives an e-mail, and if the content conforms to a certain format, and the content requires a print status, the print device creates an e-mail describing the print status. Then, the electronic mail is replied to the sender of the received electronic mail.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-358883 (FIG. 2)

  Such a configuration has problems in the following points.

  Assume that a common mail address is used for the mail address used by the client PC for acquiring the printing status and the mail address used for normal electronic mail transmission / reception. In this case, all e-mails are received by normal e-mail software installed on the client. Therefore, the user must monitor the list of received mails using electronic mail software, and monitor the status of the printing apparatus by selecting and opening a mail from the printing apparatus. If job monitoring is performed by job monitoring software instead of electronic mail software, it is necessary for each software to periodically access the mail server and receive electronic mail. At the same time, both the electronic mail software and the job monitoring software require a filter setting for filtering mail other than the mail processed by the software.

  If this filter setting is not performed correctly, for example, ordinary e-mail software may receive a print status mail before the job monitoring software. In this case, the content of the received mail is described in a format that can be interpreted by the job monitoring software although it is text, and is not always readable by the user. Further, if the received electronic mail is set to be deleted from the mail server, the job monitoring software cannot receive the mail that should be processed originally.

  In order to prevent such a situation, it is necessary to set the normal electronic mail software and the job monitoring software accurately, and it is difficult to use the software easily.

  Further, if the mail address for notifying the printing status is different from the mail address of the normal electronic mail, the above problem can be prevented. However, in this case, it is necessary to manage each mail address and account information. As the number of clients increases, there is a problem that management aspects such as mail address assignment and account information assignment become complicated. It also doubles the consumption of resources such as accounts and email addresses.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional example. In a system for notifying a user of the state of an image forming apparatus using e-mail, an information processing apparatus that can reduce the user's labor for setting e-mail The purpose is to provide.

  It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus monitoring method and an image forming system that do not waste system resources such as e-mail addresses and accounts, and can reduce the user's labor for managing e-mail addresses and accounts. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises the following arrangement.

Mail receiving means for receiving e-mails to the same destination to be received by at least two e-mail processing means;
Determining means for referring to the content of the received mail and determining the e-mail processing means to receive the e-mail;
And means for delivering the received e-mail to the e-mail processing means determined by the determining means.

Alternatively, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus including a monitoring unit that receives an email indicating the state from at least an image forming apparatus, and a mail processing unit that receives other emails.
A mail receiving step for receiving an e-mail to the same destination to be received by the monitoring means or the mail processing means;
A determination step of referring to the content of the received mail and determining means for receiving the e-mail;
And a step of delivering the received electronic mail to the monitoring unit or the mail processing unit based on a determination result of the determination step.

  Job tracking is possible without having to keep the email address and account information of the job issuer's self-use and the job issuer's job tracking email address and account information twice on the client side and device side. Become.

  Moreover, it arrange | positions between the communication ports in which normal electronic mail software as a mail proxy transmits / receives mail. By doing so, it is possible to easily provide a job monitoring mechanism without causing an operation contradiction such that ordinary electronic mail software acquires a job tracking mail before the job monitoring means.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a LAN (Local Area Network) 101 is connected to a device that can be connected to a network. The router device 102 is a communication device for connecting the LAN 101 and the Internet 103. The Internet 103 connects networks to each other. The print client A 104 transmits print data to the image forming apparatus 109. The print client A 104 accesses the server A 106 to send and receive an e-mail in order to track a print job executed by the image forming apparatus. The server A 106 has an SMTP server for transferring the electronic mail received from the client to the destination mail server, and a POP server for distributing the transferred electronic mail to the destination mailbox. The server A 106 is also a DNS server for name resolution. The print client A 104 is a computer to which the present invention is not applied.

  The print client B 105 transmits print data to the image forming apparatus 109. In addition, in order to track the job, the server A 106 is accessed to send and receive an e-mail. The print client B 105 is a computer to which the present invention is applied.

  The server device A106 has a DNS server function, an SMTP server function, and a POP server function. The e-mail is once stored and distributed on this server. The LAN 107 is a remote network connected to the LAN 101 via the Internet. The router device 108 is a communication device for connecting the LAN 107 and the Internet 103. The image forming apparatus 109 is a multi-function copying machine having functions such as printing of print data, facsimile transmission, and image transmission by iFax. The image forming apparatus 109 has a function of generating an e-mail for tracking a print job generated based on the print data after receiving a print instruction from the print client, and transmitting the generated e-mail to the print job issuer. Have. Further, it has a function of generating an e-mail in response to a change in the state of the device (a change in the state of a static device such as a failure) and sending it to the print job issuer. The server apparatus B110 has a DNS server function, an SMTP server function, and a POP server function. The e-mail is once stored and distributed on this server. In the present embodiment, the mail transmitted from the image forming apparatus 109 is temporarily stored and delivered to the server apparatus 106 arranged on the LAN 101.

  All clients and servers are general purpose computers. The general-purpose computer includes a CPU that executes the program of the procedure described in FIGS. 3 and 4, a memory that stores the program, a hard disk device that is a file storage, a network interface, a display device, and an input device.

  FIG. 2 is illustrated for the sake of clarity of the present embodiment, and the internal structure of the software operating on the print client 104 and the print client 105 of FIG. 1 is simplified and shown in the conventional example and the present embodiment. ing.

  In the client 104, reference numeral 203 denotes an operating system that is the basis of the overall operation of the print client. Reference numeral 204 denotes normal mail software operating on the operating system of the print client 104. The normal mail software is a user agent that supports the SMTP and POP protocols, and is, for example, commercially available mail transmission / reception software. Reference numeral 205 denotes a port monitor for receiving an email and notifying the user of job tracking or device status change. The internal structure of the software of the port monitor 205 is roughly classified into, for example, a display unit 206 (pop-up display or the like) and a control unit 207 for receiving electronic mail and controlling the display contents.

  Reference numeral 208 denotes a protocol stack for network communication provided by the operating system. The protocol stack 208 provides a communication procedure for application software running on the operating system 203 to communicate using protocol means such as TCP / IP and SMTP. Reference numeral 209 denotes LAN driver software which physically transmits data generated by the communication protocol stack 208 to the LAN 101 and receives data from the LAN 101. In the print client 104, the e-mail account information 210 used in the mail software 204 and the e-mail account information 210 ′ used in the port monitor 205 are given and stored as separate information. The account information 210 includes an e-mail address, account information for accessing the SMTP server, and the like.

  Reference numeral 221 denotes an example of the internal structure of the print client 105. An operating system 223 is a basic operation of the print client. Reference numeral 224 denotes normal mail software operating on the operating system of the print client 105. A port monitor 225 receives an electronic mail and notifies the user of job tracking or device status change. The internal structure of the software of the port monitor 225 is roughly classified into, for example, a display unit (pop-up display or the like) 206 and a control unit 207 for receiving e-mail and controlling display contents. Each of the mail software 224 and the port monitor 225 constitutes two electronic mail processing units.

  The configuration so far is the same between the client 104 and the client 105. However, the client 105 has a mail proxy unit 230 that the client 104 does not have. The mail proxy unit 230 is a mail proxy unit of port monitoring means. The mail proxy unit 230 monitors the POP server 106 for polling of received mail by the mail software 224 and the port monitor 225. If there is polling, the mail proxy unit 230 polls the received mail instead of the software. Then, the contents of the downloaded received mail are referred to, and the recipient (mail software 224 or port monitor 225) is determined.

  228 is a protocol stack for network communication provided by the operating system. The protocol stack 228 provides a communication procedure for application software running on the operating system to communicate using protocol means such as TCP / IP and SMTP. Reference numeral 229 denotes LAN driver software, which physically transmits data generated by the communication protocol stack 208 to the LAN 101 and receives it from the LAN 101. In the print client 105, the e-mail account information used in the mail software 224 and the e-mail account information used in the port monitor 225 are the same (account information 231). The account information 231 includes an e-mail address, account information for accessing the SMTP server, and the like. The mail software 224 and the port monitor 225 access the server A 106, which is an SMTP server, at an appropriate timing. At that time, the data always passes through the mail proxy unit 230. When receiving an e-mail, the mail proxy unit 203 refers to the content described in the body or subject of the received e-mail. Based on the contents, it is determined whether the e-mail is addressed to the normal e-mail software 224 or the port monitor 225, and the distribution destination of the received e-mail is switched.

<Receiving mail by mail software>
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the processing flow in the print client 105 when this embodiment is used. An outline of a series of processing when a normal electronic mail transmits and receives mail is described.

  First, processing is started in step S301. In step S302, normal mail software 204 is activated. Activation is triggered by an appropriate scheduled event. Of course, the user may explicitly activate it. In step S303, transmission / reception of electronic mail by the normal mail software 204 is started. In step S304, the mail proxy unit 230 is called. Note that the mail proxy unit 230 may be activated in advance in the memory immediately after the operating system is activated when the print client 105 is powered on. Also, when accessing the mail server for the first time in step S303, it may be activated in the main memory of the print client 105.

  Step S310 and subsequent steps are processing by the called mail proxy unit 230. The processing of the mail proxy unit 230 changes depending on whether the application that polls the received mail is from mail software to a port monitor. In the case of mail software, the procedure is as shown in FIG. In step S310, processing of the mail proxy unit is started. The mail proxy unit 230 monitors mail transmission and reception requests. For example, by monitoring the POP and SMTP ports, mail transmission / reception can be monitored. If there is a mail transmission or mail reception request, the mail proxy unit 230 determines whether it is mail transmission or reception in step S311. In the case of mail transmission, it is not necessary to distinguish mail sent from the mail software 224 and mail sent from the port monitor 225 only by sending the mail to the destination. Therefore, the processing transitions to the end of the processing of the mail proxy unit in step S319. When receiving mail according to the POP protocol, the mail proxy 230 may be set so as not to monitor the SMTP port.

  If it is determined in step S311 that mail reception processing has been performed, the mail proxy unit 230 performs the mail reception processing in step S313 as a pre-stage of reception processing by normal mail software (or the port monitor 225). Take it. In the mail receiving process, an e-mail receiving process is performed on the server 106 in FIG. 1 based on the account information set in the mail software 225. For each received e-mail, a determination is made at 314 as to whether it is a normal e-mail. Normal electronic mail refers to mail other than mail addressed to the port monitor 225. Note that the determination criterion in step S314 is, for example, that a predetermined character string is included in the subject part or the mail body part of an e-mail, or that a predetermined combination of character strings is included. . If it is determined in step S314 that the e-mail received by the mail proxy unit 230 is a normal e-mail, the e-mail proxy unit 230 delivers the received e-mail data to the mail software 224 in step S315. . Thereafter, the processing shifts to the end of the processing of the mail proxy unit in step S319.

  If it is determined in step S314 that the received e-mail is not a normal e-mail but a job status / tracking or an e-mail indicating the status of the image forming apparatus, the process proceeds to step S316. In step S316, it is determined whether or not the port monitor 225 is activated. The port monitor 225 may be activated in advance in the memory immediately after the activation of the operating system when the print client 105 is turned on, similarly to the activation of the mail proxy unit. If it is determined in step S316 that the port monitor 225 is activated, the process proceeds to step S317. In step S 317, the mail proxy unit 230 delivers the mail text indicating the job state / tracking or the image forming apparatus state to the port monitor 225. If the port monitor 225 is in an activated state, it can receive mail without polling. Further, when the port monitor 225 polls and downloads received mail, mail other than normal mail is discarded. Whether the software polling the received mail is a port monitor or normal mail software is determined based on, for example, an application name or a process name. These identification information can be delivered to the mail proxy 230 by adding to the polling message.

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S318, and an instruction to delete the mail delivered to the port monitor 225 is issued to the server 106 in which the electronic mail is stored. Then, the process transitions to the end of the process of the mail proxy unit in step S319.

  If the port monitor 225 is not activated in step S316, the processing may transition to the end of processing of the mail proxy unit 230 in step S319 as in the present embodiment. Alternatively, although not shown, the port monitor 225 may be activated, and after the activation is confirmed, the process may be shifted to step S317 to continue the process. Note that data is not deleted from the server 106 for e-mails for which the port monitor 225 is not activated and data transfer has not been completed.

  In step S319, after the processing of the mail proxy unit is completed, the process returns to step S305, and it is determined whether or not a received mail as a normal electronic mail exists. However, when there are a plurality of received mails, steps S311 to S3318 are executed for each mail.

  Now, the mail software 224 that polls the received mail periodically or in response to a user request performs the processing from step S305 onward after the polling. That is, the mail software 224 that has received (or has not received) a mail from the mail proxy 230 in the above procedure first determines whether or not there is a received mail in step S305. If there is a normal e-mail, that is, if the mail text is delivered in step S315, the process proceeds to step S306, and the delivered e-mail is displayed. The process proceeds to 307 and the process ends.

<Reception of mail by port monitor>
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the outline of a series of processing when the port monitor receives mail. First, processing is started in step S401, and the port monitor 225 is activated in step S402. In step S403, the port monitor starts receiving mail. Note that the port monitor 225 may periodically poll the mail. Further, this interval may be changed according to the progress of the print job. For example, the interval from immediately after job execution to the start of job execution is 5 seconds. Then, during the job execution, the interval is changed to be longer step by step, such as 1, 2, 3, and 4. From the end of the job to the start of the next job, the inquiry interval is extended in a geometric series, such as intervals of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 seconds. In this way, the polling interval may be variable.

  After the e-mail transmission / reception by the port monitor is started in step S403, the mail proxy unit 230 is called in step S404. The mail proxy unit 230 may be activated in advance in the memory immediately after the operating system is activated when the print client 105 is powered on. Alternatively, it may be activated in the main memory of the print client 105 for the first time when e-mail reception in step S403 is started.

  Steps S410 to S415 are operations by mail proxy. The mail proxy unit 230 changes processing depending on whether the application that polls the received mail is mail software or a port monitor. In the case of a port monitor, the procedure is as shown in FIG. In step S410, processing of the mail proxy unit 230 is started. In step S411, mail reception processing (mail server polling) by the mail proxy unit 230 is started. In step S412, it is determined whether or not the electronic mail received by the mail proxy unit is a normal electronic mail. If no received mail exists on the server 106 in step S411, the process proceeds to step S407 and ends. As a determination criterion in step S412, for example, a method of determining when a predetermined character string appears in the subject part or the mail body part of an e-mail or by a predetermined combination of character strings is used. To make a decision.

  In step S412, when it is determined that the email received by the mail proxy unit 230 is a normal email, the process proceeds to step S415. Then, the processing of the mail proxy unit 230 is completed. Note that for normal electronic mail, the mail proxy 230 does not instruct the mail server 106 to delete mail. This is because the received mail is downloaded by polling by the mail software 224.

  If it is determined that the e-mail received in step S412 is not a normal e-mail but a mail indicating the job status / tracking or the status of the image forming apparatus, the process proceeds to step S413. The mail proxy unit 230 delivers the mail text data to the port monitor 225. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S414. In step S414, an instruction to delete the mail indicating the job status / tracking or the status of the apparatus of the image forming apparatus is issued to the server 106 in which the electronic mail is stored. Thereafter, the processing transitions to the end of the processing of the mail proxy unit in step S415.

  As a result of the determination in step S412, if there is no mail data to be delivered to the port monitor 225, the process proceeds to step S407 and the process is terminated. Steps S410 to S415 are repeatedly executed for each received mail.

  Steps S405 and after are operations performed by the port monitor 225 after polling of received mail. This procedure is also executed when mail is delivered to the port monitor 225 in step S317 in FIG. In step S405, the contents to be displayed on the display screen of the print client 105 are determined from the contents of the mail text delivered to the port monitor 225. For example, when the job is completed, a pop-up message “Job completed” may be displayed as a text message, or the content of the message may be displayed as an icon. The contents of the mail text are determined in advance according to the status of the job or the printing apparatus. In step S406, display is performed on the display unit of the print client 105 in accordance with the determined display content, and a series of processing ends in step S407.

<Example of email contents>
FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a conventional mail text, that is, a mail received by the mail software 224 and a mail text sent out by the image forming apparatus and delivered to the port monitor 225 for status display on the print client. is doing. Reference numeral 501 is an example of contents exchanged by normal electronic mail. The e-mail describes its destination 502 and subject (subject name) 503. Reference numeral 504 denotes a mail text, which is usually described on the assumption that it is read by a human. Reference numeral 505 denotes an example of an attached file attached to an e-mail.

  Reference numeral 511 denotes an example of a mail text for the image forming apparatus 109 to deliver to the port monitor and display the status on the print client. The destination 511 and subject (subject name) 513 are described in the e-mail. The destination is the same as long as the user is the same. For this reason, the destinations of the mail 501 and the mail 511 are the same. In this example, the subject 513 is “// PrinterABC / JobStatus / Error”. The mail text 514 is a description example of the mail text. Note that the description content of the e-mail for notifying the status of the print job and the image forming apparatus is performed by describing a text string determined according to the status by the image forming apparatus.

  In the example of the mail 511, the subject (subject name) “// PrinterABC / JobStatus / Error” is intentionally matched with the description in the first line of the text. For this reason, if the subject and the first line of the text match, it can be determined in step S314 in FIG. 3 or step S412 in FIG. In order to make a more precise determination, in addition to the match between the subject and the first line of the text, if the description starts with “//”, it is determined as an e-mail for notifying the status of the print job and the image forming apparatus. Can do. In the example of the mail 511, the image forming apparatus 109 does not attach an attached file. However, as a determination condition, the file name of the attached file or the data content of the file is determined in advance and used as the determination condition. Good.

An example of the text of the email in Email 511 is
-----from here-----
// PrinterABC / JobStatus / Error
:: MainStatus
* PaperJam *
:: SubStatus
* NoPaper *
:: Position
* Finisher *
* MainUnit *
-----So far-----
It has become. From the above contents, the port monitor 225 can determine that the job is in an error state, and that paper is jammed (PaperJam) and that there is no remaining paper (NoPaper) as the main causes of the error. Further, it recognizes that the location where the error has occurred is the finishing device (Finisher) and the main unit = image forming apparatus main body (MainUnit).

  Since the content described in the mail body by the image forming apparatus 109 is a format in which a kind of control command is described in a text format, the port monitor interprets the description content and displays it on the display unit of the print client. . The port monitor 225 displays a command that can be recognized by the user (in the above example, MainUnit, etc.) after associating it with a display language for localization, or in an icon format. Display may be performed. If a command format that cannot be interpreted by the port monitor 225 is sent from the image forming apparatus 109, the text in the command format may be displayed as it is.

<Configuration of image forming apparatus>
FIG. 6 is an internal block diagram of the image forming apparatus 121 constituting the image forming system of the present invention. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 5101 denotes a main controller unit that controls the entire image forming apparatus 121, and reference numeral 5102 denotes an operation unit for the operator to operate the image forming apparatus 109. Reference numeral 5103 denotes an I / O unit for the operation unit 5102 to communicate with the main controller unit 5101. An LCD unit 5104 provides information to an operator or displays a virtual switch. A touch panel unit 5105 detects an operation of the virtual switch displayed on the LCD unit 5104. 5106 is a switch unit physically arranged for an operator to operate, 5107 is an HDD unit that stores print data and programs, and is used as a data cache area, and 5108 develops and processes print images. This is an image memory unit used for the purpose. Reference numeral 5109 denotes an expansion bus used for the purpose of extending the functions of the image forming apparatus 109, and reference numeral 5110 denotes a NIC (Network Interface Card) unit added to the image forming apparatus 109 using the expansion bus 5109. A LAN 5111 monitors communication packets flowing on the first LAN 107, takes in only information relevant to the image forming apparatus 109, and performs control for sending packets created by the image forming apparatus 109 to the LAN 107. It is a controller. Reference numeral 5112 denotes a transformer that performs voltage conversion and realizes physical communication between the image forming apparatus 109 and the LAN 107. Reference numeral 5113 denotes a printing unit that prints an image on paper as a recording medium. An output processing unit 5114 performs processing such as gamma conversion, edge enhancement, and smoothing in order to correct image data sent from the main controller unit to data suitable for printing on paper. 5115 is a PWM unit for converting image data after output processing into a signal for driving a laser beam, and 5116 is a printer unit for printing an image on paper based on the signal supplied by the laser beam. is there. Reference numeral 5117 denotes a paper discharge unit for discharging the printed paper created by the printing unit 5113 to the outside of the image forming apparatus 109. Reference numeral 5118 denotes an I / O unit for the paper discharge unit to communicate with the main controller unit 5101. Reference numeral 5119 denotes a controller unit that controls the paper discharge unit 5117. 5120 is a paper sensor unit for monitoring the flow of paper passing through the paper discharge unit 5117, 5121 is a paper feed motor drive unit for driving a motor for delivering paper, and 5122 is for driving a paper discharge tray. A tray motor drive unit. 5123 is a paper path control unit for controlling the flow of paper, 5141 is an authentication reader / writer unit for reading and writing information recorded in the authentication card, and 5140 is an authentication reader / writer unit 5141 and a main controller unit 5101. It is an I / O unit for performing connection with.

  FIG. 7 is an overview diagram showing the mechanical structure of the image forming apparatus 109 capable of monochrome image printing. In FIG. 7, 5213 is a polygon mirror, 5214, 5125 and 5216 are mirrors, 5217 is a photosensitive drum for forming a toner image based on laser light, and 5230 is a developing device for supplying black toner. Reference numerals 5234 and 5235 denote paper cassettes for feeding paper, 5236 denotes a manual feed tray for manually feeding paper, 5237 denotes a registration roller, and 5238 denotes a transfer belt. Reference numeral 5240 denotes a fixing device, 5241 denotes a flapper for controlling the flow of paper, and 5242 denotes a discharge roller for controlling discharge of the paper.

  FIG. 8 is an overview of the paper discharge device showing the mechanical structure of the paper discharge unit 5517. In FIG. 8, 5301 is a sample tray for discharging paper, 5302 is a stack tray for discharging paper, 5303 is an inserter for interposing paper, and 5304 is a device for folding paper. It is a folding machine. 5305 is a stapler for binding paper, 5306 is a puncher for punching filing punch holes, and 5307 is a saddle stitcher for processing paper into a booklet format. Reference numeral 5308 denotes a booklet tray for discharging paper processed into a booklet format.

  When the image forming apparatus configured as described above executes a print job, the image forming apparatus creates an e-mail indicating the state of the job or the state of the image forming apparatus, and transmits it to the issuer of the job. The transmission frequency of this e-mail is, for example, a constant cycle. In addition, regardless of the cycle, if a state change occurs according to the progress of the job, an e-mail may be created and transmitted.

[Modification]
In this embodiment, POP is used as a mail protocol. However, if the IMAP4 protocol is used, it is possible to download only emails that meet the specified conditions. For this reason, after downloading a mail, it is possible to determine whether the mail is a normal mail before downloading, instead of determining whether the mail is a normal mail. For this reason, the mail proxy need not have a mail spool. In this case, if there is polling from the mail software, only the normal mail is downloaded, and if there is polling from the port monitor, only the print job monitoring mail is downloaded.

  According to the client device according to the present embodiment described above, it is not necessary to separately manage the normal mail address and account information of the job issuer and the mail address and account information for job tracking of the job issuer. Even if these pieces of information are not held twice on the client side and the device side, the job can be traced. That is, it is possible to distinguish between a mail indicating the status from the image forming apparatus and a mail received from another mail sender even if the destination is the same. Then, each distinguished mail can be delivered to its original reception. For example, a mail indicating the status from the image forming apparatus is delivered to the port monitor, and a mail from a normal mail sender is delivered to the mail software. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, at least two types of mail can be managed by account information including one mail address and account. Therefore, management of account information can be simplified. In addition, it is not necessary to set mail filters in the mail software or port monitor. For this reason, a user's labor can be reduced.

  Further, job monitoring means is arranged between communication ports through which ordinary e-mail software as a mail proxy transmits and receives mail. As a result, it is possible to easily provide a job monitoring mechanism without causing an operation contradiction such that normal electronic mail software acquires the job tracking mail before the job monitoring means.

[Other Embodiments]
Note that the present invention can be applied to a system (for example, a copier, a facsimile machine, etc.) consisting of a single device even if it is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (eg, a host computer, interface device, reader, printer, etc.). You may apply. Another object of the present invention is to supply a recording medium recording a program code for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and the system or apparatus computer reads out and executes the program code stored in the storage medium. Is also achieved. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the program code itself and the storage medium storing the program code constitute the present invention.

  Further, according to the present invention, the operating system (OS) running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program code, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. This is also included. Furthermore, the present invention is also applied to the case where the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. In that case, based on the instruction of the written program code, the CPU of the function expansion card or 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. .

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram of a software configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention. The processing flowchart concerning embodiment of this invention. The processing flowchart concerning embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of a mail text. 1 is a block diagram of an image forming apparatus. 1 is a schematic view of a black and white image forming apparatus. FIG.

Claims (7)

Mail receiving means for receiving e-mails to the same destination to be received by at least two e-mail processing means;
Determining means for referring to the content of the received mail and determining the e-mail processing means to receive the e-mail;
An information processing apparatus comprising: means for delivering the received electronic mail to the electronic mail processing means determined by the determination means.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines whether or not at least one of a subject field and a body of the received e-mail is in a predetermined format. . The at least two e-mail processing means includes e-mail software for sending and receiving e-mail, and a port monitor for receiving e-mail indicating the status from the image forming apparatus and monitoring the e-mail.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the port monitor displays a state of the image forming apparatus based on the received e-mail. An email creation means for creating an email in which the text indicating the status of the print job or the status of the apparatus is described as the body;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a mail transmission unit configured to transmit the electronic mail to a destination of a transmission source user of the print job;
An image forming system, wherein the information processing apparatus according to claim 1 is connected. A mail receiving step for receiving e-mails to the same destination to be received by at least two e-mail processing means;
A determination step of referring to the content of the received mail and determining the e-mail processing means to receive the e-mail;
An e-mail processing method comprising: delivering the received e-mail to the e-mail processing means determined in the determination step. In an information processing apparatus comprising at least a monitoring unit that receives an e-mail indicating the state from an image forming apparatus and a mail processing unit that receives other e-mails,
A mail receiving step for receiving an e-mail to the same destination to be received by the monitoring means or the mail processing means;
A determination step of referring to the content of the received mail and determining means for receiving the e-mail;
And a step of delivering the received electronic mail to the monitoring unit or the mail processing unit based on a determination result of the determination step.   The program for functioning a computer as an information processing apparatus of any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4.

Images