JP2010247499A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer that does not unlimitedly loop print data for asking substitute printing even when all printers connected to a network are not able to perform printing. <P>SOLUTION: This printer includes a printing designation reception section that receives printing designation information for designating printing; a device state determination section that determines possibility of printing by the printing designation information; and a printing designation transmission section that transmits the printing designation information to another printer. When the device state determination section determines that printing is not possible, the printing designation transmission section transmits the printing designation information received by the printing designation reception section to another printer so as to ask substitute printing. The printer further includes a printing designation analysis section that extracts, from the received printing designation information, an effective condition as a condition that the printing designation information effectively exists; an effective condition determination section that determines whether or not the effective condition is satisfied; and a printing designation information discard section that discards the printing designation information when the effective condition determination section determines that the effective condition is not satisfied. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of proxy printing.

  A conventional printing apparatus receives print data for printing from a host device such as a host computer and prints on recording paper based on the print data. However, the received print data cannot be printed due to various factors. In this case, the received print data is transmitted to another printing apparatus connected to the network and the print data is requested to be printed. The printing apparatus requested to print is replaced with a printing apparatus that cannot print based on the received print data. Printing (hereinafter referred to as “proxy printing”) (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2006-88356 A (paragraph “0023” to paragraph “0033”, FIGS. 8 and 15)

  However, in the above-described conventional technique, when print data received by all the printing apparatuses connected to the network cannot be printed, each printing apparatus requests another printing apparatus to perform proxy printing. As described above, there is a problem that the print data transmitted from the host apparatus loops between the printing apparatuses (printing apparatus A to printing apparatus F) infinitely.

  An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, and provides a printing apparatus that does not loop infinitely print data for requesting substitution printing even when all the printing apparatuses connected to the network cannot perform printing. The purpose is to do.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a print instruction receiving unit that receives print instruction information for instructing execution of printing, a device state determination unit that determines whether printing can be performed based on the print instruction information, and the print instruction information as another printing device. A print instruction transmission unit that transmits the print instruction information received by the print instruction reception unit to the other printing apparatus when the apparatus state determination unit determines that printing is not possible. In a printing apparatus that transmits and requests proxy printing, a print instruction analysis unit that extracts a valid condition as a condition for the print instruction information to remain valid from the received print instruction information, and whether the valid condition is satisfied An effective condition determining unit that determines whether or not the print condition information is discarded, and a print instruction information discarding unit that discards the print instruction information when the effective condition determining unit determines that the valid condition is not satisfied. To.

  According to the present invention as described above, even when all the printing apparatuses connected to the network cannot perform printing, there is an effect that the print data for which the proxy printing is requested is not looped indefinitely.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing device and a host device in a first embodiment. Explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the print job data in a 1st Example. The flowchart which shows the process of the high-order apparatus in a 1st Example. Flowchart (1/2) showing processing of printing apparatus in first embodiment Flowchart (2/2) showing processing of printing apparatus in first embodiment Explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the print job data in a 2nd Example. The block diagram which shows the structure of the printing apparatus in a 2nd Example, and a high-order apparatus. The flowchart which shows the process of the high-order apparatus in a 2nd Example. Flowchart (1/3) showing processing of printing apparatus in second embodiment Flowchart (2/3) showing processing of printing apparatus in second embodiment Flowchart (3/3) showing processing of printing apparatus in second embodiment Explanatory drawing showing the flow of print job data in a conventional printing apparatus

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus and a host apparatus in the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, 201 is a host device such as a host computer, and 202 and 203 are printing devices such as a printer.

  Reference numeral 204 denotes a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network), 205, 206, and 207 denote communication lines connected to the network 204. The upper apparatus 201, the printing apparatus 202, and the printing apparatus 203 are communication lines 205, 206, 207, respectively. In addition, communication is possible via the network 204.

  The host apparatus 201 includes a hard disk 208, an application 210, a printer driver 211, a network IF 216, a storage unit such as a memory (not shown), and a control unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and prints data such as a document to be printed The data is transmitted to the printing apparatuses 202 and 203 as data.

  The hard disk 208 is an external storage device for storing and saving the document 209.

  The application 210 is software stored in a storage unit (not shown), and browses and edits the document 209 stored in the hard disk 208.

  The printer driver 211 is software stored in a storage unit (not shown), and includes a print parameter 212, timeout information 213, job creation processing 214, and job transmission / reception processing 215, and prints a document 209 read by the application 210 into the printing apparatus 202. , 203 are converted into interpretable data, and the data is transmitted as print job data to the printing apparatus 202 or the like.

  The print parameter 212 holds information related to printing such as the paper size, the number of printed sheets, and color / monochrome printing of the document 209 read by the application 210.

  The time-out information 213 is information indicating a valid condition indicating when the created print job data is valid until and under what conditions, and in this embodiment, the valid period and the transfer limit number are stored. And

  This expiration date is a designated time indicating the expiration date of the created print job data. For example, one hour after the print start time (when the print start time is 10:22 on October 22, 2008, 2008 October 22, 22:11). It is assumed that the host device 201 includes a calendar (not shown) and a clock as a time measuring means.

  The transfer limit count indicates an upper limit value of the number of transfers of print job data received by the printing apparatus 202 or the like for proxy printing to another printing apparatus. This transfer limit count is initialized to a predetermined upper limit (threshold value).

  Accordingly, the timeout information 213 can prevent the print job data from looping infinitely between the printing apparatuses 202 and the like.

  The job creation process 214 converts the document 209 read by the application 210 into data that can be analyzed by the printing apparatus, and generates print job data.

  The job transmission / reception process 215 requests the network IF 216 to transmit the print job data generated in the job creation process 214.

  The network IF 216 has an IP (Internet Protocol) address 217 as information for identifying the upper apparatus 201 on the network 204, and transmits and receives print job data requested to be transmitted via the communication line 205 to the network 204. It is a control unit.

  Here, the print job data generated by the job creation process 214 of the printer driver 211 and the like will be described based on the explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the print job data in the first embodiment of FIG.

  In FIG. 2, print job data 101 as print instruction information for the host apparatus 201 to instruct the printing apparatus 202 or the like to print a document 209 includes a header part 102 and a data part 103, and the header part 102 further includes a print parameter 104. The transmission source IP address 105, the timeout information 106, and the data portion 103 are composed of a document 107 converted into a language interpretable by the printing apparatus 202 or the like.

  The print parameter 104 is information related to printing such as the paper size, the number of printed sheets, and color / monochrome printing of the document 209 held in the print parameter 212 of the printer driver 211, and the transmission source IP address 105 is held in the network IF 216. The IP address 217, that is, the IP address of the host apparatus 201 that generated the print job data 101, and the timeout information 106 is information held in the timeout information 213 of the printer driver 211.

  The converted document 107 is data obtained by converting the document 209 into a language that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 202 or the like by the job creation processing 214 of the printer driver 211.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 1, the printing apparatus 202 receives the transmitted print job data 101 and prints based on the print job data 101, and includes a controller 218 as a control unit such as a CPU and a storage unit. Memory 225, print processing 227, network IF 228, and the like.

  The controller 218 includes a job transmission / reception process 219, a job analysis process 220, a failure determination process 221, a print determination process 222, a timeout process 223, and a notification process 224. The controller 218 analyzes the received print job data 101 and prints the print job data Processing for printing 101, processing for proxy printing by another printing apparatus, or processing for discarding the print job data 101 is performed.

  The job transmission / reception processing 219 performs transmission / reception processing of the print job data 101 via the network 204 or the like.

  The job analysis process 220 is a print instruction analysis unit that performs a process of extracting and analyzing the header part 102 and the like of the received print job data 101.

  The failure determination process 221 monitors the status of the printing apparatus 202 and collectively determines whether or not a failure that prevents printing (for example, a shortage of remaining toner or a shortage of remaining printing paper) has occurred. Management, that is, it detects that a failure has occurred as a factor that hinders execution of printing.

  The print determination process 222 as the apparatus state determination unit acquires a determination result as to whether or not the current printing apparatus 202 is printable from the failure determination process 221, and if printing is possible, instructs the print process 227 to print. The processing is performed.

  The time-out process 223 updates the time-out information 106 stored in the header part 102 of the print job data 101 received as the valid condition determination unit, and determines whether or not it is time-out (for example, a specified time has passed) Or if it is determined that the specified transfer limit has been exceeded or not, and if it is determined that a time-out has occurred, the print instruction data discarding unit performs processing for discarding the print job data 101. It is assumed that the printing apparatuses 202 and 203 include a calendar (not shown) and a clock as timekeeping means.

  The notification process 224 is a process for notifying the higher-level apparatus 201 of the processing result of how the received print job data 101 has been processed. In such a case, a notification that it has been discarded is given.

  The memory 225 is a main storage unit such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), and stores a substitution destination address 226 as an IP address of a printing apparatus capable of performing substitution printing.

  The print processing 227 prints the document 107 of the print job data 101 processed by the controller 218 on a recording sheet, and performs processing for discharging the recording sheet.

  The network IF 228 has an IP address 229 as information for identifying the printing apparatus 202 on the network 204, and a print instruction receiving unit that transmits and receives the print job data 101 from the communication line 206 via the network 204 and a print instruction transmission It is a transmission / reception control unit as a unit.

  The printing apparatus 202 configured as described above is controlled by the controller 218 based on a control program (software) that controls the entire apparatus stored in the memory 225.

  The printing apparatus 203 is configured in the same manner as the printing apparatus 202, and is connected to the network 204 via the communication line 207 so as to be communicable.

  Steps represented by S in the flowchart of FIG. 3 showing the processing of the host device in the first embodiment of FIG. 3 and the flowcharts showing the processing of the printing device in the first embodiment of FIG. 4 and FIG. It explains according to.

  First, the processing of the host device 201 will be described with reference to FIG.

  S 301: The user activates the application 210 installed in the higher-level device 201.

  S302: The document 209 stored in the hard disk 208 is read by the activated application 210.

  S303: The user activates the printer driver 211 to print the read document 209.

  S304: At this time, in the printer driver 211, in order to create the print job data 101, the print parameter 212 is first acquired.

  S305: Subsequently, the IP address 217 is acquired.

  S306: Next, timeout information 213 for canceling the print job data 101 is acquired.

  S307: The read document 209 is converted into a language that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus.

  S308: The printer driver 211 uses the acquired print parameter 212, IP address 217, and timeout information 213 as the print parameter 104, transmission source IP address 105, and timeout information 106 in the header section 102, and converts the converted document 209 into a document in the data section 103. The print job data 101 107 is created.

  S309: The printer driver 211 requests the network IF 216 to transmit the created print job data 101 to the printing apparatus 202, and the network IF 216 transmits the print job data 101 to the printing apparatus 202 via the network 204.

  Next, processing of the printing apparatus 202 that requests proxy printing will be described with reference to FIG.

  S 401: The printing apparatus 202 receives the print job data 101 created by the upper apparatus 201 from the upper apparatus 201.

  S402: The print job data 101 received by the network IF 228 of the printing apparatus 202 is sent to the job transmission / reception process 219 of the controller 218, and further transferred to the job analysis process 220. The job analysis process 220 is the print job data 101. The print parameter 104 of the header portion 102 of the current page is acquired.

  S403: Next, the print determination process 222 of the controller 218 accesses the failure determination process 221 in order to confirm whether or not a failure has occurred in the printing apparatus 202.

  S404: The print determination process 222 comprehensively determines whether printing is possible based on the received print job data 101.

  S405: As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the printing apparatus 202 cannot execute printing due to a failure, the process proceeds to the timeout process 223, and the process proceeds to S406.

  If it is determined that the printing apparatus 202 can execute printing, the process proceeds to S510 described later in order to execute printing.

  S 406: The timeout process 223 updates the timeout information 106 in the header part 102 of the print job data 101. In this embodiment, “1” is subtracted from the transfer limit number of the timeout information 106.

  S407: When the timeout process 223 is updated, the timeout process 223 determines whether or not a timeout has occurred based on the updated timeout information 106. In this embodiment, the current date and time read from the clock is compared with the expiration date of the timeout information 106, whether or not the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, and the subtracted transfer limit count is “ It is determined whether or not “0” has been reached.

  As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the current date does not pass the expiration date of the timeout information 106 and the transfer limit number is not “0”, the process proceeds to S408.

  On the other hand, when the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”, the process proceeds to S508, which will be described later, in order to discard the print job data 101.

  S <b> 408: If it is determined that the current date does not pass the expiration date of the timeout information 106 and the transfer limit count is not “0”, the controller 218 determines the proxy destination address 226 stored in the memory 225. The network IF 228 requests the network IF 228 to transmit the print job data 101 to the proxy destination address 226, and the network IF 228 transmits the requested print job data 101 to request another printer to perform proxy printing.

  Next, the processing of the printing apparatus 203 requested to perform proxy printing will be described with reference to FIG.

  S501: The printing apparatus 203 receives the print job data 101 transmitted from the printing apparatus 202.

  S502: The print job data 101 received by the network IF 228 of the printing apparatus 203 is sent to the job transmission / reception process 219 of the controller 218, and further transferred to the job analysis process 220. The job analysis process 220 is the print job data 101. The print parameter 104 of the header portion 102 of the current page is acquired.

  S503: Next, the print determination process 222 of the controller 218 accesses the failure determination process 221 in order to confirm whether or not a failure has occurred in the printing apparatus 202.

  S504: The print determination process 222 comprehensively determines whether printing is possible based on the received print job data 101.

  S505: As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the printing apparatus 202 cannot execute printing due to a failure, the process proceeds to the timeout process 223, and the process proceeds to S506.

  If it is determined that the printing apparatus 203 can execute printing, the process proceeds to S510 in order to execute printing.

  S506: The timeout process 223 updates the timeout information 106 in the header part 102 of the print job data 101. In this embodiment, “1” is subtracted from the transfer limit number of the timeout information 106.

  S507: The timeout process 223 determines whether or not a timeout has occurred based on the updated timeout information 106 when the timeout information 106 is updated. In this embodiment, the current date and time read from the clock is compared with the expiration date of the timeout information 106, whether or not the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, and the subtracted transfer limit count is “ It is determined whether or not “0” has been reached.

  As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the current date does not pass the expiration date of the timeout information 106 and the transfer limit number is not “0”, the process proceeds to S408 in FIG. Request proxy printing to the printing device.

  On the other hand, when the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”, the process proceeds to S508 to discard the print job data 101.

  S508: When the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”, the controller 218 deletes the print job data 101 and discards it.

  S509: When the print job data 101 is discarded, the notification process 224 discards the print job data 101 with the transmission source IP address 105 of the header portion 102 of the print job data 101 saved in the memory 225 before the discard as the destination. The network IF 228 requests the network IF 228 to transmit a notification to that effect, and the network IF 228 transmits the requested notification to the network 204.

  In the determination of S407 of FIG. 4, the above-described processing of S508 and S509 is also executed when the current date / time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106 or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”.

  S510: On the other hand, if it is determined in S505 or S405 in FIG. 4 that printing can be executed, the printing process 227 executes printing based on the received print job data 101.

  S509: When printing is executed, the notification process 224 requests the network IF 228 to send a notification that printing has been executed with the transmission source IP address 105 of the header portion 102 of the print job data 101 as the destination, and the network IF 228 is requested. The notification is transmitted to the network 204.

  In this way, the printing apparatuses 202 and 203 discard the print job data 101 when it is detected that the print job data 101 has timed out based on the timeout information 106 of the print job data 101. Even when all the printing apparatuses connected to the network 204 have failed, the print job data 101 does not loop infinitely between the printing apparatuses.

  In this embodiment, the expiration date and the transfer limit number are provided in the timeout information 106 of the print job data 101, but either one may be provided.

  Further, although “1” is subtracted from the transfer limit number of the timeout information 106 of the print job data 101 and updated, “1” is added and updated, and whether or not the threshold value is exceeded compared with the threshold value. You may make it determine. At this time, the initial value set in the host device 201 is “0”.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, timeout information is set in the print job data, and the printing apparatus that detects that the timeout information satisfies a predetermined condition and has timed out discards the print job data. By doing so, even if all the printing apparatuses connected to the network have a failure, the print job data does not loop infinitely between the printing apparatuses. .

  The configuration of the second embodiment is a configuration in which the printing apparatus in the configuration of the first embodiment is provided with a data request process for requesting data of a document to be subjected to proxy printing to the transmission source IP address.

  The configuration of the second embodiment will be described based on the block diagram showing the configurations of the printing apparatus and the host apparatus in the second embodiment of FIG. The same parts as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted.

  In FIG. 7, reference numerals 702, 703, and 704 denote printing apparatuses such as printers, and the upper apparatus 201, printing apparatus 702, printing apparatus 703, and printing apparatus 704 are connected via communication lines 705, 706, 707, 708, and the network 204. It is connected so that it can communicate.

  The printing apparatus 702 receives print job data transmitted in the same manner as in the first embodiment, and prints based on the print job data. The controller 218 serves as a control unit such as a CPU, and the storage unit serves as a storage unit. The memory 225, print processing 227, network IF 228, and the like are included.

  Here, the print job data generated by the job creation process 214 of the printer driver 211 of the host apparatus 201 will be described based on the explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the print job data in the second embodiment of FIG.

  In FIG. 6, the print job data 101 in which the upper apparatus 201 instructs the printing apparatus 702 or the like to print a document 209 includes a header section 102 and a data section 103. The header section 102 further includes a print parameter 104, a transmission source IP address. 105, the time-out information 106, and the data part 103 are composed of a document 107 converted into a language interpretable by the printing apparatus, as in the first embodiment.

  In this embodiment, the header part 102 and the data part 103 are separated from each other at the boundary 108 and can be used independently.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 7, the controller 218 includes a job transmission / reception process 219, a job analysis process 220, a failure determination process 221, a print determination process 222, a timeout process 223, a data request process 230, and a notification process 224. The print job data 101 is analyzed, the print job data 101 is printed, the other print device is substituted, or the print job data 101 is discarded.

  The data request process 230 is executed when the print job data 101 received in the print determination process 222 can be printed. The data request process 230 refers to the transmission source IP address 105 of the header part 102 of the print job data 101 and determines the address. It is a print data request unit that performs processing for transmitting a notification requesting the data unit 103.

  Note that the printing apparatus 703 and the printing apparatus 704 are configured in the same manner as the printing apparatus 702, and are connected to the network 204 via communication lines 707 and 708 so as to be communicable.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing of the host apparatus in the second embodiment of FIG. 8 and the flowchart showing the processing of the printing apparatus in the second embodiment of FIGS. It demonstrates according to the step represented by.

  First, the processing of the host device 201 will be described with reference to FIG.

  S801 to S807: The same as S301 to S307 in FIG.

  S808: The printer driver 211 uses the acquired print parameter 212, IP address 217, and timeout information 213 as the print parameter 104, transmission source IP address 105, and timeout information 106 of the header unit 102, and converts the converted document 209 into the document of the data unit 103. The print job data 101 107 is created and stored in the storage unit.

  S809: The printer driver 211 requests the network IF 216 to transmit the header part 102 of the created print job data 101 to the printing apparatus 702. The network IF 216 prints the header part 102 of the print job data 101 via the network 204. Transmit to device 702. Note that the data portion 103 of the print job data 101 is not transmitted.

  Next, processing of the printing apparatus 702 that requests proxy printing will be described with reference to FIG.

  S <b> 901: The printing apparatus 702 receives the header part 102 of the print job data 101 created by the upper apparatus 201 from the upper apparatus 201.

  S902: The header part 102 of the print job data 101 received by the network IF 228 of the printing apparatus 702 is sent to the job transmission / reception process 219 of the controller 218, and the process is further transferred to the job analysis process 220. The job analysis process 220 is The print parameter 104 of the header part 102 of the print job data 101 is acquired.

  S903: Next, the print determination process 222 of the controller 218 accesses the failure determination process 221 in order to check whether or not a failure has occurred in the printing apparatus 702.

  S904: The print determination process 222 comprehensively determines whether printing is possible.

  S905: As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the printing apparatus 702 cannot execute printing due to a failure, the process proceeds to the timeout process 223, and the process proceeds to S906.

  If it is determined that the printing apparatus 702 can execute printing, the process proceeds to S1110 described later in order to execute printing.

  S906: The timeout process 223 updates the timeout information 106 in the header part 102 of the print job data 101. In this embodiment, “1” is subtracted from the transfer limit number of the timeout information 106.

  S907: The timeout process 223 determines whether or not a timeout has occurred based on the updated timeout information 106 when the timeout information 106 is updated. In this embodiment, the current date and time read from the clock is compared with the expiration date of the timeout information 106, whether or not the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, and the subtracted transfer limit count is “ It is determined whether or not “0” has been reached.

  As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the current date does not pass the expiration date of the time-out information 106 and the transfer limit number is not “0”, the process proceeds to S908.

  On the other hand, when the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the time-out information 106, or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”, the process proceeds to S1108 described later to discard the print job data 101.

  S908: If it is determined that the current date / time does not pass the expiration date of the time-out information 106 and the transfer limit count is not “0”, the controller 218 determines the proxy destination address 226 stored in the memory 225. The network IF 228 is requested to transmit the header portion 102 of the print job data 101 to the proxy address 226, and the network IF 228 transmits the header portion 102 of the requested print job data 101 to another printing apparatus. Request proxy printing.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 10, the printing device 703 that has requested the proxy printing receives the header portion 102 of the print job data 101 from the printing device 702 in step S1001, as shown in FIG. Subsequent S1002 to S1008 are the same as S902 to S908 described above.

  Next, the processing of the printing apparatus 704 requested to perform proxy printing will be described with reference to FIG.

  S1101: The printing apparatus 704 receives the header part 102 of the print job data 101 transmitted from the printing apparatus 703.

  S1102: The print job data 101 received by the network IF 228 of the printing apparatus 704 is sent to the job transmission / reception process 219 of the controller 218, and the process is further transferred to the job analysis process 220. The job analysis process 220 is the print job data 101. The print parameter 104 of the header portion 102 of the current page is acquired.

  S1103: Next, the print determination processing 222 of the controller 218 accesses the failure determination processing 221 in order to confirm whether or not a failure has occurred in the printing apparatus 704.

  S1104: The print determination process 222 comprehensively determines whether printing is possible.

  S1105: As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the printing apparatus 704 cannot execute printing due to a failure, the process proceeds to the timeout process 223, and the process proceeds to S1106.

  When it is determined that the printing apparatus 704 can execute printing, the process proceeds to S1110 to execute printing.

  S 1106: The timeout process 223 updates the timeout information 106 in the header part 102 of the print job data 101. In this embodiment, “1” is subtracted from the transfer limit number of the timeout information 106.

  S1107: The timeout process 223 determines whether or not a timeout has occurred based on the updated timeout information 106 when the timeout information 106 is updated. In this embodiment, the current date and time read from the clock is compared with the expiration date of the timeout information 106, whether or not the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, and the subtracted transfer limit count is “ It is determined whether or not “0” has been reached.

  As a result of the determination, if it is determined that the current date does not pass the expiration date of the timeout information 106 and the transfer limit count is not “0”, the process proceeds to S1008 in FIG. Request proxy printing to the printing device.

  On the other hand, when the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the timeout information 106, or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”, the process proceeds to S1108 to discard the print job data 101.

  S1108: When the current date and time has passed the expiration date of the time-out information 106, or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”, the controller 218 deletes the header portion 102 of the print job data 101 and discards it.

  S1109: When the header part 102 of the print job data 101 is discarded, the notification process 224 uses the transmission source IP address 105 of the header part 102 of the print job data 101 saved in the memory 225 before discarding as the destination. The network IF 228 is requested to transmit a notification to the effect that the header part 102 of 101 is discarded, and the network IF 228 transmits the requested notification to the network 204.

  In the determination of S907 in FIG. 9 or S1007 in FIG. 10, the above-described processing of S1108 and S1109 is also performed when the current date / time has passed the expiration date of the time-out information 106 or when the transfer limit count becomes “0”. Is executed.

  S1110: On the other hand, if it is determined in S1105, S905 in FIG. 9, or S1005 in FIG. 10 that printing can be executed, the data request processing 230 (print data request unit) performs the header part 102 of the received print job data 101. The network IF 228 requests the network IF 228 to send a notification requesting the transmission of the data unit 103 to the source IP address 105 (the host apparatus 201), and the network IF 228 transmits the requested notification to the network 204.

  The host apparatus 201 that has received the notification requesting the transmission of the data part 103 transmits the data part 103 of the print job data 101 stored in the storage part to the printing apparatus 704.

  S1111: The print processing 227 executes printing based on the data part 103 of the print job data 101 received by the network IF 228 as a print data receiving part.

  S1109: When printing is executed, the notification process 224 requests the network IF 228 to send a notification that printing has been executed with the transmission source IP address 105 of the header portion 102 of the print job data 101 as the destination, and the network IF 228 is requested. The notification is transmitted to the network 204.

  In this way, the printing apparatuses 702, 703, and 704 discard the print job data 101 when detecting that the print job data 101 has timed out based on the timeout information 106 of the print job data 101. Thus, even if all printing apparatuses connected to the network 204 have failed, the print job data 101 does not endlessly loop between the printing apparatuses.

  Further, the upper apparatus 201, the printing apparatus 702, and the like send only the header portion 102 including the timeout information 106 of the print job data 101 to request printing or proxy printing, and the printing apparatus 702 that can perform printing is the print target. By requesting the data unit 103 from the higher-level device 201, the traffic load on the network 204 can be reduced.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, the upper apparatus and the printing apparatus transmit only the header portion including the time-out information of the print job data to perform printing and proxy printing. By requesting and allowing the printing device capable of printing to request the data unit to be printed from the higher-level device, it is possible to reduce the network traffic load.

  In the first and second embodiments, the printing apparatus has been described as a printer. However, the printing apparatus is not limited thereto, and may be an apparatus such as a multifunction machine, a copier, or a facsimile machine.

  The job request data has been described as print job data. However, any job data that can be received by a printing device such as job data for requesting only a paper scan job for reading an image of a document, etc. Also good.

  Furthermore, the expiration date as the specified time is set as the time-out information, or the transfer upper limit count as the upper limit count via the printing apparatus is set. However, any condition can be used as long as the print job data can be determined valid or invalid. It is good also as conditions.

  In addition, although the failure determination of the printing apparatus has been described as the toner remaining shortage and the recording paper remaining shortage, what are the factors that cause the printing apparatus such as cover open and paper jam to be unable to execute printing? It may be.

  Furthermore, although the process of adding the valid condition to the print job data is performed by the host apparatus, it may be performed by the printing apparatus side.

  Furthermore, the network and the communication line connected to the network are not limited to a wired line, and may be wireless or the like, and the communication line may be a LAN cable, a USB cable, or the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Print job data 102 Header part 103 Data part 104 Print parameter 105 Transmission source IP address 106 Timeout information 107 Converted document 201 Upper apparatus 202, 203, 702, 703, 704 Printing apparatus 204 Network 208 Hard disk 210 Application 211 Printer driver 216 228 Network IF
218 Controller 225 Memory 227 Print processing

Claims (5)

A print instruction receiving unit that receives print instruction information that instructs execution of printing, a device state determination unit that determines whether printing is possible based on the print instruction information, and a print instruction transmission that transmits the print instruction information to another printing device When the apparatus status determination unit determines that printing is impossible, the print instruction transmission unit transmits the print instruction information received by the print instruction reception unit to another printing apparatus to perform proxy printing. In the printing device you request,
A print instruction analysis unit that extracts a valid condition as a condition for the print instruction information to remain valid from the received print instruction information;
An effective condition determination unit that determines whether or not the effective condition is satisfied;
A printing apparatus comprising: a print instruction information discarding unit configured to discard the print instruction information when the valid condition determination unit determines that the valid condition is not satisfied. The printing apparatus according to claim 1.
The print instruction information is composed of a header part composed of the effective condition and a source address that generated the print instruction information, and a data part composed of print data to be printed.
A print data request unit that transmits a notification requesting transmission of the print data to the transmission source address;
A print data receiving unit that receives the print data requested by the print data request unit from the source address;
When it is determined by the device condition determining unit that printing is possible, and the effective condition determining unit determines that the print condition receiving unit satisfies the valid condition of the header portion received,
The print data request unit transmits a notification requesting the print data, the print data receiving unit receives the print data transmitted in response to the request, and prints based on the print data Printing device to do. The printing apparatus according to claim 2.
The printing apparatus, wherein the print instruction receiving unit receives only a header part of the print instruction information. In the printing apparatus of Claim 1, Claim 2 or Claim 3,
The valid condition is an expiration date of the print instruction information,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the valid condition determination unit determines that the valid condition is not satisfied when detecting that the current date and time has passed the validity period. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The valid condition is a transfer count updated each time the print instruction information is received by the print instruction receiving unit of each printing apparatus,
The valid condition determining unit determines that the valid condition is not satisfied when the number of transfers exceeds a predetermined threshold.

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