JP2007293513A - Job transmitting device and method, and medium storing job transmitting program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve user's convenience by achieving job management by an arbitrary port monitor. <P>SOLUTION: The job transmitting device comprises a determining means for determining existence of a separate processing executing means for executing processing separated from job transmission, and an executing means for executing the separate processing executing means in response to a determination result determined by the determining means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention transmits a job in a network environment including a client computer and a server computer regarding the use of a peripheral device such as a multifunction device (MFP) integrated with a printer, scanner, copier, etc. connected to a network. It is related with the system which performs. In particular, the present invention relates to a job transmission apparatus that cooperates with a job management system that aggregates output amounts or restricts output based on preset information.

  In order to perform job management, it is necessary to acquire information on jobs executed on peripheral devices and to control job output. The job transmission device acquires various information related to jobs and performs job control. There are implementation examples in which information is transmitted to the management apparatus and job execution control is performed based on the settings of the job management apparatus.

  In the system shown in FIG. 11, printing is performed as follows.

  In the print client, the application generates a drawing image and issues an API (Application Programming Interface) to the OS GDI (subsystem for processing graphic drawing). This call is called a GDI call.

  The printer driver converts the request from the GDI into a form suitable for the printer that performs printing, and transmits the request to the output selector. The output selector sends data to a local or remote spooler.

  The spooler accumulates data received from the host and sequentially sends it to the port monitor. The port monitor receives print data from the spooler, and transmits the job data to the device if the printer is ready according to the job transfer method provided in the device. Known job data transfer methods include the LPD protocol defined by RFC1179 and the Printer Job Language defined by the US Hewlett-Packard Company. In Printer Job Language, the port monitor can acquire the number of pages of the end job, etc., by bidirectional communication with the device. Of course, the protocol may be a protocol unique to the printer provider.

  The port monitor acquires job information via the OS at the time of job transmission. Further, some printers have a function of returning a job completion result such as the number of discharged sheets of a job and the number of discharged sheets to a transmission source based on a transmission protocol, and the port monitor receives information acquired from the OS from the printer. It can be corrected by the completion result. The information generated in this way is sent to the job account client. This information is called a port monitor log.

  The job account client transmits the port monitor log to the job account server.

  The job account server selects a job log in response to a request from a person who wants to view it, and performs output number calculation for each unit period, device, job issuer, etc., output number calculation aggregation processing, and the like.

  As described above, in addition to the same printing by the computer instructing printing and the transmitting computer, a form in which queuing and transmission are unified using a print server is also common.

  The print server receives a job transmission request from the print client, queues it to the spooler, and transmits the job to the printer via the port monitor. The job account client on the print server acquires the port monitor log and transmits it to the job account server.

  In the job account server, an upper limit (upper limit value) of the total number of outputs such as the number of output pages or the number of sheets per unit period for each user or department can be determined in advance.

  The job account client performs upper limit processing such as canceling printing or displaying some warning message if a certain user exceeds a predetermined upper limit when printing is attempted. The warning message is displayed by the job account client.

For example, Patent Document 1 can be cited as a conventional example.
JP 2005-284951 A

  However, the above-described conventional technology has a problem that a port monitor dedicated to the job account system is necessary, and job management cannot be performed if another port monitor is used.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the first invention is a device that transmits a job from an information processing device to a peripheral device, and determines whether or not another processing execution unit that performs processing different from job transmission exists. It is characterized by comprising a determination means and an execution means for executing another process execution means according to the determination result determined by the determination means.

  The second invention is characterized in that, in addition to the first invention, further processing execution means acquires job information.

  The third invention is characterized in that, in addition to the first invention, further processing execution means changes job data.

  The fourth invention is characterized in that, in addition to the first invention, the separate process execution means performs control related to job execution.

A fifth invention is a method for transmitting a job from an information processing device to a peripheral device,
A determination step for determining whether or not there is a separate process execution step for performing processing different from job transmission;
An execution step of executing another process execution step according to the determination result determined by the determination step is provided.

  In addition to the fifth invention, the sixth invention is characterized in that the separate process execution step acquires job information.

  The seventh invention is characterized in that, in addition to the fifth invention, the separate process execution step changes job data.

  The eighth invention is characterized in that, in addition to the fifth invention, the separate process execution step performs control related to job execution.

  A ninth invention is a medium in which a program for transmitting a job from an information processing device to a peripheral device is recorded, and a determination procedure for determining whether or not another process execution procedure for performing processing different from job transmission exists, a determination procedure An execution procedure for executing another process execution procedure according to the determination result determined by

  The tenth invention is characterized in that, in addition to the ninth invention, the separate process execution procedure acquires job information.

  In addition to the ninth invention, the eleventh invention is characterized in that the separate process execution procedure changes job data.

  In addition to the ninth invention, the twelfth invention is characterized in that the separate process execution procedure performs control related to job execution.

  According to the present invention, job management is possible even when a user uses an arbitrary port monitor, and convenience for the user can be improved.

Example 1
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described. The present invention is achieved in a system composed of a plurality of devices. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention is also applied when the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or apparatus.

  FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of an entire job management system to which the present invention is applied.

  Reference numeral 110 denotes a print client 1. The job account client 111 is installed, and prints to 150 printers via the 116 port monitor, or prints to 150 printers via the 130 print server computer. Here, the former printing is called PeerToPeer printing (hereinafter referred to as PTP printing), and the latter printing is called shared printer printing. PTP printing has a high degree of freedom such as specifying a protocol, but also requires a lot of management effort. For shared printer printing, only one print server needs to be set up for connection with the printer, and management effort can be reduced.

  Reference numeral 120 denotes a print client 2. The job account client is the same as the 110 client computer 1 except that it is not installed.

  Reference numeral 130 denotes a print server computer. A print server function, that is, a function of receiving a print job from one or more client computers and sequentially sending it to 150 printers.

  A server computer 140 operates a job account server.

  A printer 150 receives a print job from a computer or the like and performs printing.

  110 Job log acquisition processing during printing in the client computer 1 will be described.

  A job account client 111 performs various processes for realizing a job account such as a job log acquisition process, an upper limit limiting process, and a communication process with a job account server.

  When a print instruction is issued to the 112 application, the 112 application makes a GDI call for drawing. 113 GDI calls the printer driver according to the GDI call.

  The 114 printer driver converts the GDI call into PDL data (print data that can be interpreted by the printer) according to the print settings, and sends it to the 115 output selector. PDL is an abbreviation for PageDescriptionLanguage and is a description language for print data.

  The 115 output selector abstracts the print destination for the printer driver, and provides the same interface for both PTP printing and shared printer printing. If the 115 output selector is PTP printing, it transmits data to the 116 spooler. In the case of shared printer printing, data is transmitted to a spooler of the print server, for example, 137.

  The 116 spooler queues job data and sends the data to the 117 port monitor as appropriate.

  The 117 port monitor communicates with 150 printers and transmits data if the printer can receive the data. The operation of the port monitor will be described later.

  The 111 job account client transmits the port monitor log as a job log to the 151 job account server. However, in the case of shared printer printing, since the job log can be acquired also on the printer server side, transmission is not performed. Alternatively, if the shared printer printing is known, the log acquisition process for the job may be stopped.

  The print processing in the 120 print client 2 is the same as the 110 print client 1 described above except that the “job account client is not installed”.

  The process of the 130 print server will be described. When PTP printing is performed from this computer, the same operation as the 110 print client 1 is performed. Since the computer is a print server, the 136 spooler receives print data from another PC on the network. The 136 spooler performs queuing and sequentially sends data to the 137 port monitor.

  The 137 port monitor communicates with 150 printers and transmits data if the printer can receive the data.

  The job log acquisition process is almost the same as that of the 110 print client 1, and creates a job log together with the job transmission process of the 137 port monitor.

  A server computer 140 operates a 141 job account server. The 141 job account server mainly performs the following processing.

Job log accumulation Aggregation processing such as output amount by referring to accumulated job log Providing user interface to administrator Device, user, other registration processing Output control, other setting processing The above details are described here Absent.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of each of the 110 print client 1, 120 print client 2, 130 print server, and 140 server. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU, that is, a central processing unit, which controls the entire computer device and performs arithmetic processing. Reference numeral 202 denotes a ROM, that is, a read-only memory, which is a storage area for information such as system startup programs. Reference numeral 203 denotes a RAM, that is, a random access memory, which is a data storage area with no usage restrictions, and is an area where programs such as operating system, application, device driver and communication control are loaded and executed. Reference numeral 204 denotes a KBC, that is, a keyboard control unit, which receives input data from the keyboard and transmits it to the CPU. Reference numeral 205 denotes a CRT, that is, a display control unit, which controls display on the display device. 206 is an external storage device such as an FD, a flexible disk device, or an HD, a hard disk device, an SRAM, a nonvolatile storage device, etc., which stores and stores programs and data, and refers to them or loads them into RAM as needed during execution To do. A communication unit 207 performs network communication control, and can communicate with other computers and peripheral devices connected to the network as described with reference to FIG. A system bus 208 is to be a data path between the above-described components.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a 150 printer. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 305 denotes a controller unit that controls the entire printer. As an internal configuration of the controller, reference numeral 301 denotes a CPU, that is, a central processing unit, which controls the controller and performs arithmetic processing. Reference numeral 302 denotes a ROM, that is, a read-only memory, which is a storage area for information such as system startup programs. Reference numeral 303 denotes a RAM, that is, a random access memory, which is a data storage area having no use restriction, and 304 denotes a HD, that is, a nonvolatile storage device such as a hard disk or SRAM.

  The 303 RAM is an area where programs such as an operating system, communication control, and engine control are loaded and executed. Reference numeral 306 denotes an engine unit of this apparatus, which performs a printing operation and an image reading operation under the control of the controller. A communication unit 307 performs network communication control and can communicate with a client computer or a server computer as described with reference to FIG. A user operation input / output unit 308 performs an interactive setting operation with the user. Reference numeral 309 denotes a system bus, which should serve as a data path between the above-described components.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the memory map 40 in the overall processing of the job account apparatus according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. Reference numeral 41 denotes a basic I / O program. Reference numeral 42 denotes a memory map in a state where the operating system is loaded into the RAM 203 and becomes executable. Reference numeral 43 denotes a memory map in a state where the program of the present invention is loaded into the RAM 3 and becomes executable. Reference numeral 44 denotes a memory map in a state where related data is loaded into the RAM 3 and becomes executable. Reference numeral 45 denotes a memory map of work memory used by each program.

  In the case of the first embodiment, the job account program and related data of the present invention are recorded on a flexible disk (FD). FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the recorded contents. In the recording area 50 of the flexible disk (FD), volume information 51, directory information 52, an application execution file 53, and a job account program related data file 54 are recorded.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the job account program and related data recorded on the flexible disk (FD) 60 can be loaded into the computer system 62 via the FD drive (DKC) 61. When the flexible disk (FD) 60 is set in the FD drive (DKC) 61, the job account program and related data are read from the flexible disk (FD) 60 under the control of the operating system 42 and the basic I / O program 41. Is loaded into the RAM 203 and can be used.

  The 117 port monitor process will be described in detail. 117 port monitor receives a request to enumerate existing ports from the OS, returns a port list, receives a new addition request, adds a new port based on it, or starts printing, transfers data, and ends jobs from 116 spooler during printing Is received and processed.

  Here, job start, data transfer, and job end will be described with reference to flowcharts.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing job start processing of the 117 port monitor. The 117 port monitor performs this process when it receives a job start command from the 116 spooler.

  In step S701, the presence / absence of a job account client is acquired. For example, whether there is a default folder or whether there is default setting data is used. As an example of the default setting data, it is conceivable to use a registry to store a value indicating a DLL file that realizes the job account client function in a default registry key.

  In step S702, the presence / absence of a job account client is determined based on the information acquired in step S701. If it does not exist, the process proceeds to S704, and normal print start processing is performed. If it exists, the process advances to step S703 to notify the job account client of the start of the job.

  The job account client that has received the print start notification performs job management processing. For example, if the upper limit of the print amount is specified for each unit period and for each user, the total print amount for the current period is calculated. If the upper limit is reached, a job deletion command is issued to the 116 spooler and the print process is stopped. If necessary, a message notifying the user is displayed.

  In step S704, a transfer start process such as establishing a network connection with 150 printers is performed.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing data transfer processing of the 117 port monitor. The 117 port monitor performs this processing when it receives a data transfer command from the 116 spooler. Since the data size transferred in a single data transfer process is a fixed amount, if the size of the entire job data exceeds this, this process is called repeatedly to transfer the entire data.

  In step S801, the presence / absence of a job account client is determined based on the information acquired in step S701. If it does not exist, the process proceeds to S804, and normal print start processing is performed. When it exists, it progresses to step S802.

  In step S803, the data instructed by the 116 spooler is sent to the 111 job account client. The job account client creates job log data by analyzing the data or corrects job information received from the OS. Further, if necessary, for example, data modification processing is performed to perform job accounting. For example, to assign a job aggregation destination to a user other than the user, the key information is displayed in a dialog with a user interface and is acquired and added to the job data. If it is desired to uniquely identify the document, an identification key for that purpose is embedded in the document name. As a further application, it is conceivable to add PDL data for printing the user name and printing time to the header of the page.

  In step S804, data that has been processed by the job account is received.

  In step S805, data transfer processing to 150 printers is performed.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing job end start processing of the 117 port monitor. The 117 port monitor performs this processing when it receives a job end command from the 116 spooler.

  In step S901, the presence / absence of a job account client is determined based on the information acquired in step S701. If it does not exist, the process advances to step S903 to perform normal print end processing. If it exists, the process advances to step S902 to notify the job account client of the end of the job.

  The job account client that has received the print end notification recognizes the end of job data transfer. If the 150 printer does not have job completion notification processing, job log data is determined and sent to the 141 job account server. If a job completion notification process is provided, the job waits for the notification, corrects the job log with the received information, for example, the actual number of discharged sheets, and sends it to the 141 job account server.

  In step S903, a transfer end process, such as disconnecting the network connection with the 150 printer, is performed.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of the port monitor log transmitted. The job ID is assigned by the spooler in ascending order. The owner name indicates who printed. The data size is the data size transmitted to the printer. The number of pages is counted when printing on one side of the paper, and is counted as 1 when printing on one side of a sheet of paper and 2 when printing on both sides. NUP indicates the number of logical pages allocated to one side of the paper for the page layout. The accuracy of the number of pages depends on the processing capability of 150 printers, and the accuracy is higher if a job completion notification process including the actual number of discharged sheets is provided.

  In this embodiment, the port monitor determines whether or not the job account program exists, but it goes without saying that any other program may be used. For example, it may be a copy detection process in which a watermark that cannot be seen by humans but can be read only by a special reading device is inserted, and a copy prohibition image is displayed when the watermark is copied.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a computer that executes a print client, a print server, and a server of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer of the present invention. It is a figure showing the memory map of the job management system of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure content of FD in which the job management program and related data of this invention are stored. In this invention, it is a figure showing loading the job management program and related data which were recorded on FD into the computer system. It is a flowchart showing the job data transfer start process of this invention. It is a flowchart showing the job data transfer process of this invention. It is a flowchart showing the job data transfer end processing of the present invention. It is a figure showing the example of the job log data of the Example of this invention. It is a figure showing the prior art example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

110 Print client 1
111 Job account client 120 Print client 2
141 Job Account Server

Claims (12)

A device that transmits a job from an information processing device to a peripheral device,
A discriminating unit that discriminates whether or not there is another processing execution unit that performs processing different from job transmission;
An execution means for executing another process execution means according to the determination result determined by the determination means;
A job transmission apparatus comprising:   The job transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the separate processing execution unit acquires job information.   The job transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the separate processing execution unit changes job data.   The job transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the separate processing execution unit performs control related to job execution. A method for transmitting a job from an information processing device to a peripheral device,
A determination step for determining whether or not there is a separate process execution step for performing processing different from job transmission;
An execution step of executing another process execution step according to the determination result determined by the determination step;
A job transmission method comprising:   6. The job transmission method according to claim 5, wherein the separate process execution step acquires job information.   6. The job transmission method according to claim 5, wherein the separate process execution step changes job data.   6. The job transmission method according to claim 5, wherein the separate process execution step performs control related to job execution. A medium storing a program for transmitting a job from an information processing device to a peripheral device,
A determination procedure for determining whether or not there is a separate processing execution procedure that performs processing different from job transmission,
An execution procedure for executing another process execution procedure according to the determination result determined by the determination procedure;
A medium having a program recorded thereon.   10. A medium on which the program according to claim 9 is recorded, wherein the separate process execution procedure acquires job information.   10. A medium on which the program according to claim 9 is recorded, wherein the separate process execution procedure changes job data.   10. A medium on which the program according to claim 9 is recorded, wherein the separate process execution procedure performs control related to job execution.

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