JP2010211459A - Remote management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote management system of an image forming apparatus improved in maintenance properties and extensibility about collection of management information required by a management device from a device to be managed. <P>SOLUTION: In the remote management system, a central management device 4 manages a plurality of image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 directly or through an intermediate apparatus 2 via a communications network 5. In each of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3, definition information serving as a target of remote management by the central management apparatus 4 is registered previously. Based on the definition information, information of the own apparatus is operated, and management information as the operation result is reshaped by data representation conversion to be transmitted to the central management apparatus 4 or the intermediation apparatus 2. The central control apparatus 4 or the intermediation apparatus 2 carries out registration and deletion of the definition information on the respective image forming apparatuses 1 and 3. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a remote management system in which a management apparatus remotely manages an image forming apparatus including a plurality of scanners, printers, facsimile apparatuses, digital copying machines, and digital multifunction peripherals directly or via an intermediary apparatus via a network.

Managed devices that manage scanners, printers, facsimile machines (FAX), digital copiers (copiers), and image forming apparatuses (also referred to as “image processing apparatuses”) installed in user offices, etc. A remote management system is used in which a central management apparatus installed in a service center (management center) remotely manages the managed apparatus via a communication network including the Internet and a local area network.
In such a remote management system, a command is transmitted as an operation request from the central management device to the managed device, and the operations defined in the managed device in advance within the range of functions in the managed device are performed with respect to the managed device. There is already known a technique for executing and returning an operation execution result as an operation response.
Conventionally, an intermediary device connected to a plurality of copying devices that are managed devices on the network acquires management information necessary for the management from each copying device, and the acquired management information and the latest acquired previously. There is a remote management system (see, for example, Patent Document 1) that compares only management information that is different between the management information and transmits the management information to the central management device.

However, in the conventional remote management system, the operations that can be executed by the managed device are limited to the operations defined in advance in the managed device, so that there is a problem that the maintainability and expandability are low.
More specifically, in the conventional remote management system, when the service center collects various setting items (SP) of the managed device, the central management of the service center from the installation items of the managed device in advance. By selecting the items you want to collect on the device and defining the selected items in the managed device in advance, when the request from the central management device of the service center is received, the item is defined in the managed device Information was collected and returned to the service center.

And the information defined in advance in the managed device is incorporated in the remote management web (WEB) service module at the product shipment stage, so the specification of the setting item is changed, the item is added, If deleted, it is necessary to change the remote management WEB service module accordingly, and there is a problem that the maintainability and expandability are low.
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to improve the maintainability and expandability of operations related to the collection of information necessary for management requested by a management apparatus to a managed apparatus. .

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a remote management system in which a management apparatus remotely manages a plurality of image forming apparatuses directly via a network or via an intermediary apparatus. Management means for holding and managing definition information to be remotely managed, operation means for operating information of the own device based on definition information managed by the management means, and results of operation by the operation means Providing a shaping means for performing data expression conversion and shaping to send information to the management device or the mediation device, and a transmission means for sending the result information shaped by the shaping means to the management device or the mediation device, A remote management system is provided in which a management unit for registering and deleting the definition information for each image forming apparatus is provided in the management apparatus or the mediation apparatus. To.
Further, the definition information includes the identifier of the information to be operated, the management location of the information to be operated, the operation authority of the information to be operated, and the operation result of the information to be operated. It is good to have each information of the data expression conversion method of whether to output to.

Further, the management means of the management apparatus or the mediation apparatus is a means for performing registration and deletion of definition information of each image forming apparatus in units of information having information identifiers held by the image forming apparatuses. Good.
The management means of each image forming apparatus may be a means for holding and managing the definition information in the form of a table.
Furthermore, the definition information may be information described in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.
In addition, the management unit of the management apparatus or the intermediary apparatus performs registration and deletion of the definition information with respect to each of the image forming apparatuses by using a soap (Simple Object Access Protocol: SOAP) or a representational state transfer (Representational State Transfer). It is preferable to use a WEB service using a protocol conforming to (REST).

  The remote management system according to the present invention can change the operation content related to the collection of information necessary for management of the image forming apparatus to be managed via the network, and therefore the management apparatus requests the managed apparatus for the management apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to improve the maintainability and expandability of the operation related to the collection of information necessary for.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram including an internal configuration of the device management module shown in FIG. 4. It is a figure which shows the structure of the remote management system of this Example. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2. It is a figure which shows an example of the table of the definition information stored with the apparatus management module shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram when referring to the counter information of the image forming apparatus from the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a sequence subsequent to FIG. 6. It is a figure which shows the sequence following FIG. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram when definition information is added from the mediation apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2 to the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows the content of the HTTP request transmitted when requesting definition information addition from the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 2 to the definition information management service. It is a figure which shows the table content after adding new definition information to the definition information shown in FIG.

It is a figure which shows the content of the HTTP response of the result of the definition information addition request | requirement returned to a mediation apparatus from the definition information management service shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram when definition information is deleted from the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 2 to the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows the content of the HTTP request transmitted when requesting definition information deletion from the mediation apparatus shown in FIG. 2 to the definition information management service. It is a figure which shows the table content after deleting some definition information from the definition information shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the content of the HTTP response of the result of the definition information deletion request | requirement returned to a mediation apparatus from the definition information management service shown in FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
〔Example〕
First, the configuration of the remote management system of this embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the remote management system of this embodiment.
The remote management system includes a central management device 4 and a plurality of image forming devices 1 that do not include a mediating device of a customer site KS that is a plurality of customers, a mediating device 2 for each image forming device 1, and a mediating device. The image forming apparatus 3 is connected by a communication network 5. The communication network 5 includes a public line, the Internet, and a local area network, and a wired or wireless communication line is used. In the figure, only one customer site KS is shown, and other customer sites are not shown.

The central management device 4 is realized by a microcomputer including a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM and corresponds to a management device that manages the image forming devices 1 and 3. And a management database (not shown) for storing various management data related to the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3.
The management database stores, for each customer, management information such as network device configuration, customer information, and technical information related to the image forming apparatus 1 to be managed at the customer site KS. The network device configuration and management information are stored in the management database. Is composed of information including, for example, the network configuration of each customer site KS and the configuration of the image forming apparatus connected to the network, the model, model number, delivery date, and installation location information of each image forming apparatus. This is information that can identify the target image forming apparatus and the network configuration.

The customer information is composed of information including, for example, customer name, address, telephone number, FAX number, device manager, network administrator, and customer and contact information, particularly contact information to the device manager and network administrator. Information that can be identified.
The technical information is composed of information including, for example, model, machine number, count value including the number of printed sheets and the number of scanners, failure code, and presumed cause, and can identify to some extent the cause and action for the phenomenon of the failed managed device. It is.
Each image forming apparatus 1 as a management target device of the customer site KS is connected to each other via a network including a local area network (LAN) and also connected to the mediation apparatus 2.
The connection of the image forming apparatuses 1 may be configured such that the image forming apparatuses 1 are connected and connected by a daisy chain called a daisy chain, and only the first image forming apparatus 1 is connected to the mediating apparatus 2.

The intermediary device 2 is a computer realized by a microcomputer including a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM, and is connected to the central management device 4 via a communication network 5.
The image forming apparatus 3 with an intermediary device incorporates an intermediary device and is connected to the central management device 4 via the communication network 5.
The central management device 4 remotely manages the image forming apparatus 1 as a plurality of management target devices via the mediation device 2 and directly remotely manages the image forming device 3 with the mediation device as a management target device.

  Since this remote management system realizes remote management of the central management device 4, the mediation device 2, and the image forming devices 1 and 3, these devices are mutually mounted by remote procedure call (Remote Procedure Call: RPC). It has a communication function to send and receive processing requests and responses to application methods, and in order to realize RPC, soap (Simple Object Access Protocol: SOAP), hyper text transfer protocol (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol: Uses various protocols including HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and REST-compliant protocols .

Next, the internal configuration of each of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 will be described.
Note that the functional part of the mediation device is omitted for the image forming apparatus 3.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 shown in FIG.
The image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 are image processing apparatuses including a facsimile machine, a printer, a copying machine, a multifunction machine having a facsimile communication function, a print function, and a copy function, and are managed by a central management device 4. The apparatus includes a controller 10, an operation display unit (operation panel) 11, a fax control unit 12, and an engine unit 13.
The controller 10 connects a RAM 21 and a hard disk drive (HDD) 22 to the ASIC 20 and also connects a CPU 23 and a RAM 25 via an NB 24 of a CPU chip set.
Here, the ASIC 20 and the NB 24 are connected not via the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus but via the AGP bus 28.

  The reason for the connection via the AGP bus 28 is that the image forming apparatus 1 executes and controls a plurality of processes for forming a platform 32 and an application (application program) 34 shown in FIG. This is because the performance deteriorates when a PCI bus having a low data communication speed is connected.

  The CPU 23 is responsible for overall control of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3, and specifically, a device management module 51 that forms the platform 32 on the operating system (OS) 50 of FIG. 4, and a user information component 52, a history information component 53, an in-machine setting activity 54, and an in-machine monitoring component 55 are started and executed as processes, respectively, and a printer application program (hereinafter abbreviated as “printer application”) 40 that forms the application 34, a copy application Program (hereinafter abbreviated as “copy application”) 41, fax application program (hereinafter abbreviated as “fax application”) 42, scanner application program ( Referred to as under "scanner application") 43, WEB services referred to as application program (hereinafter referred to as "WEB service application") 44 to start to be executed.

The NB 24 is a bridge for connecting the CPU 23 to the RAM 25, the serial bus 26, the ASIC 20, and the LAN port 27.
The RAM 25 is a system memory used as a working memory including a drawing memory of the image forming apparatus 1.
The serial bus 26 is a bridge that is connected to the NB 24 via the PCI bus 29 and connects the ASIC 20 and the CPU 23 to the PCI device and peripheral devices (not shown) via the NB 24.
The RAM 21 is a local memory used as a copy image buffer and a code buffer.
The ASIC 20 is an image processing application IC having hardware elements for image processing.

The LAN port 27 is connected to the NB 24 via the PCI bus 29, and the ASIC 20 and the CPU 23 via the NB 24 and another image forming apparatus 1 (via the mediation apparatus 2) via the communication network 5 and the image forming apparatus 3. An interface (I / F) for connecting a LAN cable for communication.
The HDD 22 is a storage for storing image data, programs, font data, and forms.
Therefore, the ASIC 20 is provided with a RAM interface for connecting the RAM 21 and a hard disk interface for connecting the HDD 22. When inputting / outputting image data to / from these storage units, the input / output destination is Switching to a RAM interface or a hard disk interface.
The AGP bus 28 is a bus interface for a graphics accelerator card proposed for speeding up graphics processing. The AGP bus 28 speeds up the graphics accelerator card by directly accessing the system memory with high throughput.

The ASIC 20 connects the operation display unit 11 via the PCI bus 17 and connects the fax control unit 12 and the engine unit 13 via the PCI bus 18.
The operation display unit 11 is an operation panel that receives an input operation from an operator and displays the operation for the operator.
The fax control unit 12 includes a G3 fax communication control unit 12a and a G4 fax communication control unit 12b, and performs G3 or G4 fax transmission / reception between the own apparatus and another image forming apparatus via a communication line including a public line. Take control.
The engine unit 13 includes a plotter 14 serving as a printing unit, a scanner 15 serving as an image reading unit, and other hardware resources 16. The engine unit 13 prints image data using the plotter 14, reads images using the scanner 15, and other hardware resources. 16 control is performed.

Next, the internal software configuration of each of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 will be described.
Note that the functional part of the mediation device is omitted for the image forming apparatus 3.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 shown in FIG. In the figure, functional units having a partial hardware configuration are also shown.
The image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 have a hardware configuration including a plotter 14, a scanner 15, and other hardware resources 16 including hardware related to facsimile communication. A software configuration includes an activation unit 30 and a software group 31. It has.
The software group 31 has a platform 32, and the platform 32 includes a control service 33. The software group 31 further has an application 34.
The activation unit 30 is executed first when the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 are powered on to activate the platform 32. When there is an operation request for each application, each application of the application 34 is activated.

In the platform 32, each application of the operating system (OS) 50 and the application 34 executes processing without being aware of the hardware resources in the image forming apparatus that is the own apparatus, and provides functions commonly used by the application 34. It has the function of the control service 33 for performing.
The control service 33 is formed by a plurality of service modules, and specifically includes a device management module 51, a user information component 52, a history information component 53, an in-flight setting activity 54, and an in-flight monitoring component 55. In the following description, these components and activities are collectively referred to as “modules”.
The platform 32 has an application program interface that can receive a processing request from each application using a predefined function.

The OS 50 is an operating system including UNIX (registered trademark), and executes the software programs of the platform 32 and the application 34 in parallel as processes.
As described above, by using the open source UNIX (registered trademark) for the OS 50, the safety of the program can be secured, the network can be supported, and the source code can be easily obtained.
Furthermore, OS and TCP / IP royalties are unnecessary, and outsourcing becomes easy.

The user information component 52 is a module that manages information on a user who uses the image forming apparatus that is the self apparatus, and manages a user ID and a password for the user to log in to the image forming apparatus that is the self apparatus. It also manages groups attached to users.
The history information component 53 is a module that manages logs and counters. The log includes an access log indicating that the image forming apparatus that is the own apparatus has been logged in or accessed by the network, and an image forming apparatus that is the own apparatus. There is a job log that shows the history of jobs that have occurred. The counter includes a billing counter indicating a billing target counter, a mode counter for counting the use frequency of consumables, and the like.
The in-machine setting activity 54 is a module for referring to and setting various setting values of the image forming apparatus which is its own apparatus.
The in-machine monitoring component 55 is a module that manages the state and configuration of the image forming apparatus that is the self-device.

The device management module 51 hides the interfaces (I / F) of the modules 52 to 55 of the control service 33 so that the applications 40 to 44 of the application 34 use information held by the image forming apparatus that is the own apparatus. It is a module to make it easier to
Each application 40-44 of the application 34 defines information that it wants to use by itself and registers it in the device management module 51, thereby acquiring various information managed by each module 52-55 of the control service 33 in a meaningful unit. It becomes possible to do.
The device management module 51 will be described in detail later with reference to FIG.

The application 34 includes a printer application 40 that is an application program for a printer having page description language (PDL), PCL, and postscript (PS), a copy application 41 that is a copy application program, and a fax that is a facsimile application program. It has an application 42, a scanner application 43 that is a scanner application program, and a WEB service application 44 that is a network file application program.
Note that a new application can also be installed via the network connected to the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3.
Each application program can be added or deleted for each application.

  The WEB service application 44 processes a HTTP request from a client (corresponding to the mediation apparatus 2 in the system configuration in FIG. 2) connected to the image forming apparatus 1 and transmits an HTTP response including HTML. And a client function for transmitting an HTTP request to a server on the network connected to the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 (corresponding to the mediating apparatus 2 and the central management apparatus 4 in the system configuration of FIG. 2) and receiving an HTTP response. Have. The WEB service by the WEB service application 44 includes various services including a SOAP type protocol WEB service and a REST compliant protocol WEB service.

Next, the device management module will be described in detail.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram including the internal configuration of the device management module 51 shown in FIG.
In FIG. 4, the device management module 51 in FIG. 4, the web service application 44, the user information component 52, the history information component 53, the in-flight setting activity 54, and the in-flight monitoring are related to the remote management system. The component 55 is extracted and described.
Further, a permanent information storage unit 56 that is a module for storing data such as user information and a counter in a permanent manner is illustrated.
In this remote management system, the WEB service application 44 receives information on remote operation from the mediation device 2 and the central management device 4 and information such as abnormality of the image forming devices 1 and 3 that are its own devices. A remote management WEB service 45 for notifying the apparatus 4 is included.
The device management module 51 includes a definition information management service 46 for registering and deleting definition information, which is a feature of the present invention.

The device management module 51 includes a facade unit 60, a logic unit 61, an interface (I / F) wrapper 66, a definition information management unit 70, and a definition information storage unit 71.
The facade unit 60 is an I / F with the WEB service application 44 and publishes an I / F for operating (referring, setting, and executing) information in units of various logics that the logic unit 61 has. Also, an I / F for registering definition information of information to be operated by the remote management service 45 is disclosed. Of course, those I / Fs can also be used by applications other than the WEB service application 44 (module group of the application 34 in FIG. 4).
In this remote management system, the logic unit 61 has logic for the mediating apparatus 2 and the central management apparatus 4 to operate information on the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 to be managed.
The counter logic 62 is a logic for referring to a counter (charging counter or the like) included in the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 that are the own apparatus.

The maintenance information logic 63 is a logic for referring to and setting the event notification occurrence status for notifying the toner ID and status, the device abnormality, and the setting items related to the remote management system.
The SP logic 64 is a logic for referring to and setting a setting item (SP) held by the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 as the own apparatus.
The device status logic 65 is a logic for collectively referring to device configuration information, an error occurrence (service call) occurrence status, a jam occurrence status, and the like of the image forming apparatus as its own apparatus.
The logic unit 61 receives a request from the facade unit 60, and logic corresponding to the request performs an operation according to the request.
The definition information management unit 70 acquires which information in the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 as its own device is an operation target, and executes an operation on the operation target information through the I / F wrapper 66.

The I / F wrapper 66 wraps an I / F for operating the modules 51 to 55 of the control service 33 of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 which are the own apparatus.
The info FW wrapper 67 wraps an I / F for acquiring information from the user information component 52 and the history information component 53, respectively.
The in-flight setting activity wrapper 68 wraps an I / F for referring to and setting information from the in-flight setting activity 54.
The in-flight monitoring component wrapper 69 wraps an I / F for referring to information from the in-flight monitoring component 55.
The definition information management unit 70 manages information that defines which information of the image forming apparatuses 1 and 3 that are the respective apparatuses 62 to 65 of the logic unit 61 is an operation target. The definition is managed in a table as shown in FIG. This table is made permanent using the definition information storage unit 71.

Next, the format of definition information defining information that can be used by the remote management service 45 will be described.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a definition information table stored in the device management module 51 shown in FIG.
In this definition information table, as shown in FIG. 5A, an information type indicating the type of information that can be used in the image forming apparatus, an information identifier that can uniquely identify the information in the image forming apparatus, and information Stores information about each item in the data expression format that determines the I / F wrapper name used for reference, update, and execution, the types of operations that can be performed on the information, and the rules for formatting the data of the operation results The Further, the meaning of the specific shaping rule in the data expression format is as shown in (b) of FIG.

Next, reference information counter processing of the image forming apparatus in this remote management system will be described.
6 to 8 are sequence diagrams when referring to the counter information of the image forming apparatus 1 from the mediation apparatus 2 shown in FIG. Circled symbols A to D shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 indicate the output destination and the output source of the data of the same symbols in each figure.
First, as shown in FIG. 6, the mediating apparatus 2 transmits a reference information reference request to the remote management service 45 of the image forming apparatus 1 (1 in the figure).
Next, the remote management service 45 performs a request analysis of the counter information reference request, and transmits the counter information reference request to the facade unit 60 in the device management module 51 based on the calling rule (2 in the figure).

As shown in FIG. 7, the facade unit 60 in the device management module 51 receives the counter information reference request and transmits the counter information reference request to the counter logic 62 of the logic unit 61 based on the calling rule (FIG. 7). 3).
Upon receiving the counter information reference request, the counter logic 62 transmits a counter information reference request, which is all information related to the counter, to the definition information management unit 70 (4 in the figure).
The definition information management unit 70 receives the counter information reference request and requests the definition information storage unit 71 to refer to the counter information (5 in the figure).
In response to the reference information reference request, the definition information storage unit 71 returns a response including all information related to the counter to the definition information management unit 70 (6 in the figure).

The definition information management unit 70 receives the response and returns a response including all information related to the counter to the counter logic 62 (7 in the figure).
The counter logic 61 receives the response, analyzes the counter information, confirms the information identifier of the necessary counter and the type of the I / F wrapper to be used, and refers to the info FW wrapper 67 of the I / F wrapper 66. A reference request is transmitted by passing the information identifier of the desired information (8 in the figure).
In response to the reference request, the info FW wrapper 67 passes the information identifier of the counter to be referred to the history information component 53 and transmits the reference request (9 in the figure).
As shown in FIG. 8, when the history information component 53 receives the reference request, the history information component 53 requests data reference to the permanent information storage unit 56 (10 in the figure).

The permanent information storage unit 56 returns a response including the counter data referred to the history information component 53 based on the information identifier to the history information component 53 (11 in the figure).
In response to the response, the history information component 53 returns a response including counter data to the info FW wrapper as shown in FIG. 7 (12 in the figure).
The info FW wrapper 67 receives the response and returns a response including the counter data to the counter logic 62 (13 in the figure).
In response to the response, the counter logic 62 converts the data representation of the counter data and shapes it for return to the remote management service (14 in the figure).
The counter logic 62 returns to the facade unit 60 a response including the counter data that has been shaped to convert the data representation and return it to the remote management service (15 in the figure).

Upon receiving the response, the facade unit 60 returns a response including the shaped counter data to the remote management service 45 as shown in FIG. 6 (16 in the figure).
In response to the response, the remote management service 45 returns a response including the shaped counter data to the mediating apparatus 2 (17 in the figure).
Then, the intermediary device 2 returns a response including the shaped counter data to the central management device 4.

Next, processing for adding definition information to the image forming apparatus in the remote management system will be described.
FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram when definition information is added to the image forming apparatus 1 from the mediation apparatus 2 shown in FIG.
First, as shown in FIG. 9, the mediating apparatus 2 sends an extensible markup language (“XML Markup Language”, “XML”) to the definition information management service 46 of the WEB service application 44 of the image forming apparatus 1. A definition information addition request described in a format (abbreviated as “)” is transmitted (1 in the figure). XML is one of markup languages for describing the meaning and structure of documents and data.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the content of an HTTP request that is transmitted when the intermediary device 2 requests the definition information management service 46 to add definition information.
The definition information requested to be added in this way is information type, information identifier, I / F wrapper name to be used, possible operation, and data representation type.

Next, the definition information management service 46 performs a request analysis of the definition information addition request and requests the facade unit 60 in the device management module 51 to add definition information based on the calling rule (2 in the figure).
Upon receiving the definition information addition request, the facade unit 60 requests the definition information management unit 70 to add definition information based on the calling rule (3 in the figure).
The definition information management unit 70 requests the definition information storage unit 71 to add definition information (4 in the figure).
The definition information storage unit 71 adds the requested definition information to update the definition information table as shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the table contents after adding new definition information to the definition information shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 11, the definition information shown in FIG. 5 includes new definition information “information type (counter), information identifier (00000004), I / F wrapper name to be used (info FW wrapper), and possible operations ( Reference), data expression format (format 1) "is added to the fourth line.
Returning to FIG. 9, the definition information storage unit 71 returns a response including the success or failure to the definition information management unit 70 (5 in the figure).
In response to the response, the definition information management unit 70 returns a response including the success or failure to the facade unit 60 (6 in the figure).

The facade unit 60 receives the response and returns a response including the success or failure to the definition information management service 46 (7 in the figure).
In response to the response, the definition information management service 46 returns a response including the success or failure of the definition information addition described in the XML format as shown in FIG.
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the contents of the HTTP response as a result of the definition information addition request returned from the definition information management service 46 shown in FIG.

Next, processing for deleting definition information in the image forming apparatus in the remote management system will be described.
FIG. 13 is a sequence diagram when the definition information is deleted from the mediation apparatus 2 shown in FIG. 2 to the image forming apparatus 1.
First, as shown in FIG. 13, the mediating apparatus 2 sends a definition information deletion request described in the XML format as shown in FIG. 14 to the definition information management service 46 of the WEB service application 44 of the image forming apparatus 1. (1 in the figure).
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the contents of an HTTP request transmitted when requesting definition information deletion from the intermediary device 2 shown in FIG. 2 to the definition information management service 46.
In this HTTP request, the definition information management service 46 is requested to delete the definition information in the row with the information identifier “00000001” from the definition information shown in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 13, the definition information management service 46 analyzes the request for the definition information deletion request, and deletes the definition information of the specified information identifier in the facade unit 60 in the device management module 51 based on the call rule. Request (2 in the figure).
In response to the definition information deletion request, the facade unit 60 requests deletion of the definition information of the information identifier designated by the definition information management unit 70 based on the calling rule (3 in the figure).
The definition information management unit 70 requests deletion of the definition information of the information identifier designated in the definition information storage unit 71 (4 in the figure).
The definition information storage unit 71 deletes the requested definition information and updates the definition information table as shown in FIG.
FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the table contents after a part of the definition information is deleted from the definition information shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 15, the definition information in the row of the information identifier “00000001” of the definition information shown in FIG. 5 is deleted.
Returning to FIG. 13, the definition information storage unit 71 returns a response including the success or failure of the deletion to the definition information management unit 70 (5 in the figure).
In response to the response, the definition information management unit 70 returns a response including the success or failure of the deletion to the facade unit 60 (6 in the figure).
The facade unit 60 receives the response and returns a response including the success or failure of the deletion to the definition information management service 46 (7 in the figure).
In response to the response, the definition information management service 46 returns a response including the success or failure of the definition information deletion described in the XML format as shown in FIG.
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the content of the HTTP response as a result of the definition information deletion request returned from the definition information management service 46 shown in FIG.
In this case, an example in which “OK” indicating success is returned is shown.

  The remote management system according to the present invention can be applied to all management systems for managing an image forming apparatus including a scanner, a printer, a facsimile machine, a digital copying machine, and a digital multifunction machine via a network.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,3: Image forming apparatus 2: Mediation apparatus 4: Central management apparatus 5: Communication network 10: Controller 11: Operation display part 12: Fax control part 12a: G3 fax communication control part 12b: G4 fax communication control part 13: Engine Unit 14: Plotter 15: Scanner 16: Other hardware resources 17, 18, 29: PCI bus 19: Engine I / F 20: ASIC 21, 25: RAM 22: HDD 23: CPU 24: NB 26: Serial bus 27 : LAN port 28: AGP bus 30: Startup unit 31: Software group 32: Platform 33: Control service 34: Application 40: Printer application 41: Copy application 42: Fax application 43: Scanner application 44: WEB service application 45: Remote management service 46: Definition information management service 50: OS 51: Device management module 52: User information component 53: History information component 54: In-flight setting activity 55: In-flight monitoring component 56: Permanent information storage unit 60: Facade unit 61: Logic unit 62: Counter logic 63: Maintenance information logic 64: SP logic 65: Device state logic 66: I / F wrapper 67: Info FW wrapper 68: In-machine setting activity wrapper 69: In-flight monitoring component wrapper 70: Definition information management unit 71: Definition information storage unit

JP 2008-015799 A

Claims (6)

In a remote management system in which a management apparatus remotely manages a plurality of image forming apparatuses directly via a network or via an intermediary apparatus,
Management means for holding and managing definition information to be managed by the management device in each image forming device,
Operating means for operating the information of the own device based on the definition information managed by the managing means;
Formatting means for performing data expression conversion and shaping in order to transmit the result information operated by the operation means to the management device or the mediation device;
Providing transmission means for transmitting the result information shaped by the shaping means to the management device or the mediating device;
A remote management system comprising: a management unit that registers and deletes the definition information for each of the image forming apparatuses in the management apparatus or the mediating apparatus.   How the definition information outputs the identifier of the information to be operated, the management location of the information to be operated, the authority to operate the information to be operated, and the operation result of the information to be operated The remote management system according to claim 1, comprising each piece of information of a data expression conversion method of whether or not.   The management means of the management apparatus or the mediating apparatus is means for performing registration and deletion of definition information of each image forming apparatus in units of information having information identifiers held by the respective image forming apparatuses. The remote management system according to claim 1 or 2.   4. The remote management system according to claim 1, wherein the management unit of each of the image forming apparatuses is a unit that holds and manages the definition information in a table format. 5.   The remote management system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the definition information is information described in an XML format.   The management means of the management apparatus or the mediation apparatus is means for performing registration and deletion of the definition information with respect to each image forming apparatus using a WEB service using a protocol conforming to SOAP or REST. The remote management system according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

Images