JP2010271988A - Data processor, print output control method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data processor, a print output control method, a program, and a recording medium. <P>SOLUTION: A data processor 110 includes a virtual printer driver 230, which includes: a means for obtaining information to be output via a network 130 and extracting an output request source identification value from the obtained information; a means for selecting an output destination tied to the output request source identification value; a means for rewriting a default output destination with the output destination; a means for calling a remote driver corresponding to the output destination and performs conversion to output data in a format adapted to the output destination and sends the output data to the output destination; and an SNMP module 250 for monitoring an output status of the output destination after transmission of the output data and informing a monitoring means of the data processor 110 of the occurrence of an output error when the output error occurs. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print output management technique, and more particularly to a data processing apparatus, a print output control method, a program, and a recording medium that control a print output destination in association with an information processing apparatus that has made a print request.

  Information processing devices installed in the office environment are connected to the network due to the improvement of computer performance and the spread of network technology, and access the Internet, SAN (Storage Area Network), servers, network printers, etc. to perform various processes. There are many cases. The fact that the information processing apparatus is connected to the network provides the advantage of extending the access capability of the information processing apparatus as described above. On the other hand, there is also a problem that arises from the expansion of the range that can be accessed by the information processing apparatus. For example, in an information processing device that handles personal information or confidential information, such as companies, hospitals, inspection institutions, and government offices, when printing a document file, the printer to be output is moved according to the level of information. There are many cases where it is necessary to sort out automatically.

  Under such circumstances, in a conventional information processing apparatus, a printer dialog when instructing print output is connected to a network due to progress of plug and play technology such as UPnP and Bonjour, and a plurality of information processing apparatuses are provided. The accessible printers are displayed so that they can be selected. For this reason, when processing such as switching the print output destination for a specific output purpose is required, it is assumed that the conventional printer selection method may cause a print output command by mistakenly specifying the output destination printer. The

  As the print processing capabilities of information processing devices and printers improve, the speed of conversion processing to print data has also increased. Once a print output is instructed, the data remaining in the printer queue can be stored even if a cancel instruction is issued thereafter. Except for this, it is output at an incorrect output destination printer. For this reason, for users who handle personal information and highly confidential document files, it is assumed that the above-mentioned output destination printer designation error may cause a serious problem. In order to eliminate such inconvenience, it is possible to set not to display all the printers available on the network in the print dialog of the client computer (hereinafter simply referred to as a client).

  However, with this method, it is not possible to perform unified print output control in a printer network that is often constructed including printers provided by a plurality of different vendors, and individual settings may be required for clients. It cannot be considered an efficient method.

  Various document file output destination managements have been known so far. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-140867 (Patent Document 1) deals with printer statuses such as printer power off and no paper. There has been proposed a technique for automatically distributing printers that output data.

  The system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 can execute print output without waste by switching the output destination to another printer in response to the printer status. However, the system described in Patent Document 1 automatically switches output destination printers according to the status of the printer, and does not manage output destinations that can be used by a specific information processing apparatus or user. Absent.

  Furthermore, if only another printer is selected in response to the printer status, even if an output command is issued from the client to the wrong printer, the printer is not in an error state. It does not control the print output.

  That is, in the conventional system, it is possible to select an output destination printer according to the printer status and to specify which printer the user outputs to before printing, but on the other hand, If the user issues a print command with the wrong output destination, the document file is output to an unintended output destination printer, and personal information and confidential information are leaked. In the conventional system, an output destination printer is specified in association with a user who accesses the information processing apparatus, and the output destination printer set for the information processing apparatus or the user is selected even when the wrong output destination printer is selected. It is necessary to reliably output and prevent unintentional information leakage of highly confidential document files.

  Furthermore, without worrying about what the default setting of the output destination is, the user can output information to the information processing device or the output printer specific to the user while improving operational efficiency and preventing information leakage. It was needed to minimize the possibility. Even when printers from multiple vendors coexist, it is necessary to efficiently control print output not only for fat clients but also for thin clients without major modifications or integration of programs. It was.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a user who accesses the information processing apparatus regardless of the printer output setting of the information processing apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus, a network print system, a print output control method, a program, and a recording medium that enable output to an output destination set as an output destination printer. Further, according to the present invention, an information processing apparatus, a network print system, a print output control method, and an information processing apparatus capable of controlling an output destination printer even in an environment in which printers from a plurality of vendors are mixed, regardless of the difference of the vendors, The object is to provide a program and a recording medium.

In the present invention, a data processing apparatus that selects an output destination printer via a network includes a virtual printer driver, and the virtual printer driver
Means for acquiring information to be output via the network, and extracting an output request source identification value from the acquired information;
Means for selecting an output destination associated with the output request source identification value;
Means for rewriting the default output destination at the output destination;
Means for calling a remote driver corresponding to the output destination, converting the output data into a format suitable for the output destination, and sending the output data to the output destination;
Monitoring the output status of the output destination after sending the output data, and if an output error has occurred, the monitoring means of the data processing device, and means for notifying the occurrence of the output error, A printer associated with the identification value of the output request source of the document file is selected, output data is sent, and print output is executed.

  The means for selecting the output destination selects the output destination according to the content of the acquired information, appropriately selects a printer associated with label printing, form printing, etc., and performs output. Further, the means for sending to the output destination selects the printer suitable for the purpose of printing by converting the output data as a format suitable for the output destination selected by the means for selecting the output destination, and prints Output.

  Further, when a plurality of output destinations associated with the output request source identification value are set, the output destination is determined in accordance with a command via the network, so that the optimum printer can be selected. Make it possible. Since the data processing device generates the output data using an intermediate file in a bitmap format, both the fat client and the thin client are mixed. Also, print output control is possible.

1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a printer network 100 including a data processing apparatus 110 according to the present invention. The figure which showed the functional block 200 of the data processor 110 of this embodiment. The flowchart of the process which the data processor 110 of this embodiment performs. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing executed by the data processing apparatus 110 of the present embodiment subsequent to FIG. 3. FIG. The figure which showed embodiment of the matching table which the delivery destination control part 238 manages in this embodiment. The detailed flowchart of the monitoring process of step S404 of this embodiment. The figure which showed the flowchart of the process which the output data dispatch part 236 performs in this embodiment. The figure which showed 2nd Embodiment of the printer network 800 of this embodiment. The flowchart of the shipping destination control process which the data processing server 820 of this embodiment performs. The functional block diagram of the data processing apparatus 1000 of other embodiment. The figure which showed embodiment of the printer selection dialog 1100 of the data processor 110 of this embodiment. The figure which showed the print setting dialog displayed when the clients 112-118 are mounted as a thin client by this invention.

  Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated with embodiment, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned later. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a printer network 100 that includes a data processing device 110 of the present invention. The printer network 100 is configured by connecting a plurality of clients 112, 114, 116, and 118 arranged in an office or the like to a network 130. In addition to the data processing device 110, the network 130 is connected to the printer server 120 and, in the exemplary embodiment, remote printers such as the MFP 122, the laser printers 124 and 126, and the inkjet printer 128. In the present embodiment, the above-described MFP 122 and page printers 124 to 128 are hereinafter collectively referred to as remote printers.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the data processing apparatus 110 acquires print requests and print data corresponding to the print requests between the clients 112 to 118 and the printer server 120, and is assigned to the clients 112 to 118. The remote printer is determined, and RAW data corresponding to the print data is created for the remote printer assigned to the client. The created RAW data is subjected to, for example, PDL (Page Description Language) command addition processing and the like as output data, and is sent to the specified remote printers 122 to 128 via the printer server 120. In the remote printers 122 to 128, remote printers corresponding to the clients 112 to 118 execute print processing.

  In this embodiment, when a remote printer is assigned to the clients 112 to 118, an identification value on the hardware of the client, for example, an IP address, a MAC address (Media Access Control Address), and a computer name assigned to the client In this embodiment, these values are collectively referred to as output request source identification values. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the clients 112, 114, and 116 each include an IC card reader, and the user of the clients 112, 114, and 116 is identified and a document can be printed on a remote printer assigned to each user. It is possible.

  In a preferred embodiment, the data processing device 110 is implemented as a server device, and includes a single-core, multi-core CPU, ROM, RAM that provides an execution space, a hard disk device, and the like, and a Windows (registered trademark) 200X server, UNIX (registered). The print data output destination is controlled under the control of an operating system (OS) such as a trademark, LINUX (registered trademark), or Solaris (registered trademark). Further, a transaction can be performed between the data processing apparatus 110 and the clients 112 to 118 using an appropriate remote connection protocol such as RDP.

  Various modes can be considered for the assignment of the clients 112 to 118 and the remote printers 122 to 128. For example, in a specific embodiment, a remote printer can be assigned to an output destination for each output request source identification value that uniquely identifies a client or user. In another embodiment, a mode in which a client group or a user group is set and a specific remote printer is assigned in units of these groups can be employed. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the client 112 and the remote printer 122 constitute a base 140, and the clients 150 and 160 are associated with each other to constitute the bases 150 and 160. A plurality of clients may be present at the sites 140 to 160, and a plurality of remote printers may also be present at each site.

  The printer server 120 manages each remote printer, receives print requests from the clients 112 to 118, sends print data to the remote printers 122 to 128 assigned to the clients 112 to 118, and A print job is being executed. In the preferred embodiment, the printer server 120 can also be implemented as a server device, and the hardware configuration and the OS configuration can be the same as those of the data processing device 110. Note that the printer server 120 is not necessarily implemented as a server device, and can be configured by mounting a printer server application on a personal computer.

  Each of the clients 112 to 118 has the same configuration, and can be configured from a fat client device, for example, a personal computer or a workstation that implements an application program and completes various processes. When the clients 112 to 118 are mounted as fat clients, each of the clients 112 to 118 includes a single core and multi core CPU, includes a RAM, a ROM, a hard disk device, a network interface card (NIC), and Windows (registered trademark). , UNIX (registered trademark), LINUX (registered trademark), Mac OS (registered trademark), and other appropriate OSs are requested to the remote printers 122 to 128 for print processing.

  The clients 112 to 118 implemented as fat clients read application programs and data from a hard disk device or the like into a RAM, and the CPU executes the application programs, whereby documents, images, multimedia, or a combination of these are combined. A document file to be printed is generated as electronic data.

  In another embodiment, the clients 112 to 118 can be implemented as so-called thin clients. The thin client exclusively implements functions such as a network connection module, a user authentication function, and a session generation module that issue a service request to the data processing apparatus 110, receive a processing result, and request a printout. When the clients 112 to 118 are implemented as thin clients, the clients 112 to 118 issue a print request to the data processing apparatus 110 when the processing is completed by the application.

  The data processing apparatus 110 passes the print data created in response to the request from the thin client to the virtual printer driver, and executes print processing. The virtual printer driver will be described in detail later.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the remote printers 122 to 128 are equipped with a network interface card (NIC), receive print data from the printer server 120 via the network 130, and Run a print job. Note that the MFP 122 can be implemented as a remote printer connected to the network 130 by a network board, or can be implemented including the functions of a printer server in addition to the print function.

  The network 130 can be configured to include a wireless network of a standard such as Ethernet (registered trademark) such as 1000Base-TX, an optical network, IEEE802.11, etc., and can communicate with each other by packet communication based on a frame or TPC / IP protocol. I do. The network 130 may include a wide area network such as the Internet in a secure environment such as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) in addition to a LAN.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, for example, the client 112 is assigned an output destination to the remote printer 122, the clients 114 and 116 are assigned to the remote printer 124, and the client 116 is further assigned to the remote printer 126. Is also assigned. Whether the remote printer 124 or 126 is selected as the output destination for the client 116 is selected depending on the contents of the document file to be printed, the use of the printed matter, and the like. These printer assignments are shown as blocks 140, 150 and 160, respectively.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block 200 of the data processing apparatus 110 of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the data processing device 110 is configured to include a plurality of functional means. These functional means read the program into a RAM or the like, and the CPU executes the program on the computer. It has been realized.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the data processing device 110 includes a network interface unit 210 and an application execution unit 220. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, in the data processing apparatus 110, the thin client network interface 210 receives data based on the TCP / IP protocol or the like via the network 130, and the processing result of the application execution unit 220 is sent to the network 130. Via external output. The application execution unit 220 executes processing corresponding to the commands of the clients 112 to 118 using the received processing request and data, and creates an execution result. In response to the print request from the clients 112 to 118, the application execution unit 220 creates print data from the execution result, and prints it out from the specified remote printer.

  The data processing apparatus 110 further includes a virtual printer driver 230 and remote drivers 240 to 246 corresponding to the remote printers 122 to 128 in order to create model-specific data of the remote printer. The virtual printer driver 230 is activated upon receiving a call from the application execution unit 220, and specific information included in the client 112 to 118 that issued the print request, the user name, or the print data itself, such as a price list, a medical receipt, An output request source identification value is acquired from text such as an order slip and image data, and a remote printer assigned to the output request source identification value is identified. Thereafter, the virtual driver calls the remote drivers 240 to 246 corresponding to the identified remote printers 122 to 128 to create RAW data specific to the model of the remote printer to be output.

  The remote drivers 240 to 246 are downloaded from the printer server 120 to the data processing apparatus 110 and called by the virtual printer driver 230 to execute creation of RAW data. A page control language command such as a PDL command or a printer control language command is appropriately added to the created RAW data to generate output data. The generated output data is sent to the printer server 120 via the spooler and port monitor of the remote drivers 240 to 246, sent to the specified remote printer via the network 130, and after the print job, the specified remote data is sent. Print output is executed in the printer.

  In order to execute the processing described above, in the present embodiment, the virtual printer driver 230 is mounted including an intermediate file creation unit 232, an intermediate file management unit 234, and an output data sending unit 236. The intermediate file creation unit 232 processes the execution result created by the application execution unit 220, separates the output request source identification value from the execution result, and then converts the page image from the text data and the image data to a bitmap, GIF, From the viewpoint of TIFF, JPEG, JPEG2000, versatility and image fidelity, an intermediate file of page images is created as a format such as a bitmap. The created intermediate file is stored in the intermediate file management unit 234 in association with the output request source identification value. On the other hand, the intermediate file creation unit 232 repeats the process for all received execution results until an intermediate file is created.

  After the creation of the intermediate file is finished, a unique file name is generated for each intermediate file, integrated as job information together with the output request source identification value that issued the print request, and stored in the intermediate file management unit 234. . The job information can be configured as a list file that refers to the file name of the created page image, the output request source identification value, the job information, and the like. When the intermediate file creation unit 232 finishes creating the intermediate file, the intermediate file creation unit 232 sends job information such as the file name of the created job information to the output data sending unit 236, and the intermediate file management unit 234 manages the intermediate file and The output requester identification value can be read.

  Further, the output data sending unit 236 accesses the intermediate file management unit 234 with reference to the job information, reads the intermediate file and the output request source identification value, and then outputs the output request source identification to the shipping destination control unit 238. A value is sent, and a remote printer assigned to the output request source identification value is looked up by searching the association table. The destination control unit 238 refers to the association table, searches for configuration information for designating a remote printer, and then acquires printer configuration information corresponding to the output request source identification value as output destination printer information. Thereafter, the shipping destination control unit 238 searches the description position of the data specifying the shipping destination of the output data shipping unit 236, and the shipping destination of the searched description position is assigned to the searched output request source identification value. The shipping destination is updated by rewriting the output destination printer information.

  The output data sending unit 236 suspends the processing until the sending destination control unit 238 finishes updating the sending destination. After the sending destination has been updated, the output data sending unit 236 calls one of the corresponding remote drivers 240 to 246. The RAW data is created from the intermediate file and the PDL command addition process is executed, and is sent to the printer server 120 via the network 130 via the spooler and the port monitor. The printer server 120 sends the output data to the remote printer associated with the received output data, causes the print job to be executed, and enables the creation of a printed material from the remote printer assigned to the client. The shipping control unit 238 described above can be implemented as a plug-in program in order to facilitate addition to an existing printer network system.

  The implementation configuration of the virtual printer driver 230 illustrated in FIG. 2 is an exemplary embodiment, and is limited to the module configuration illustrated in FIG. 2 as long as the function of the virtual printer driver 230 of the present embodiment can be provided. Is not to be done. Further, the output data sending unit 236 and the sending destination control unit 238 of the virtual printer driver 230 can be provided as a plug-in program, and the data processing device 110 can be modified by correcting the minimum program resource as an additional function of the existing printer driver. Can be implemented on top.

  In FIG. 2, the monitoring module 250 is implemented using the SNMP protocol. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the status of the remote printer managed by the printer server 120 is monitored. The monitoring module 250 can receive a notification when the printer status is an output error, and can notify the client 112 to 118, the printer server 120, or the administrator terminal of the error.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart of processing executed by the data processing apparatus 110 according to the present embodiment. The process shown in FIG. 3 starts from step S300. In step S301, the virtual printer driver 230 is selected and various settings are registered. This registration is performed by an administrator of the data processing apparatus 110 through a dedicated GUI (Graphical User Interface). In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the execution result is created by the data processing apparatus 110 in response to the request of the clients 112 to 118 and passed to the virtual printer driver 230. In step S302, the virtual printer driver 230 receives a job for outputting a document file from the clients 112 to 118, and starts creating an intermediate file.

  In step S303, it is determined whether or not the creation of the intermediate file has been completed based on whether or not all of the received document files have been converted into intermediate files that are page images. If it is determined in step S303 that the creation of the intermediate file has not ended (no), the data is returned to the intermediate file creation unit 232 in step S306, and the creation of the intermediate file is continued. In step S303, The process is repeated until it is determined that the intermediate file has been created (yes).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S303 that the creation of the intermediate file has been completed (yes), in step S304, the created intermediate file is given a unique file name, and the client or user output request source of the request issuer. The identification value and the job information are sent to the intermediate file management unit 234 managed by the intermediate file creation unit 232 for storage. Then, job information for referencing each stored information is created and buffered. Thereafter, in step S304, the job information is notified to the output data sending unit 236 so that the intermediate file and the output request issuer identification value can be read.

  In step S305, the shipping destination control unit 238 acquires the output request source identification value of the print request source from the output data shipping unit 236, and acquires the local printer name that uniquely designates the remote printer from the association table. Then, the acquired local printer name is searched from the printer information list for registering the configuration information on the network 130 of the remote printer, and the configuration information with the matching local printer name is acquired as output destination printer information. After obtaining the output destination printer information, the control is transferred from the point A to the process of FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of processing subsequent to FIG. 3 executed by the data processing apparatus 110 of this embodiment. In step S400, control is passed from point A in FIG. 3, and it is determined whether or not the corresponding output destination printer information is registered in the association table. As a result of the determination in step S400, if it is determined that it is registered in the association table (yes), control is passed to step S401. In step S401, whether or not the remote driver of the output destination printer exists in the data processing apparatus 110 is searched with reference to the remote printer information included in the job information and the output request source identification value.

  As a result of the search in step S401, if it is determined that there is a remote driver corresponding to the output destination printer (yes), if there is information in step S402, the destination control unit 238 determines that the output data sending unit 236 The sending destination is rewritten with the output destination printer information. In step S403, the processing of the output data sending unit 236 is resumed, the remote driver corresponding to the output destination printer is called, RAW data is created from the intermediate file, and the PDL command Additional processing is executed, and output data created via the spooler and port monitor is sent to a specified remote printer to execute a print job.

  If it is determined in step S400 that the corresponding output destination printer information is not registered (no), in step S406, the IP address of the printer to be output to the network 130, the local printer name, etc. are sent. Then, the printer information is acquired, the output destination printer information is rewritten, step S404 is controlled, and the created RAW data is sent to the output destination printer. In step S406, for example, functions such as UPnP and Bonjour can be used. However, in this embodiment, issuing an inquiry about the output destination printer is triggered by the receipt of a print command from the output request source.

  Further, if it is determined in step S401 that there is no remote driver for the output destination printer (no), in step S405, the remote driver for the output destination printer responds to a print request from the client with a protocol such as UPnP or Bonjour. Run the command and install it on the output printer. For this reason, even if the printer configuration changes from time to time in the printer network, as long as the output destination printer is correctly set in the data processing device 110, it is possible to flexibly cope with the change or addition of the output destination, System stability can be improved.

  The printed material of the document file is output from the designated remote printer according to the present embodiment. However, in this embodiment, the user who has requested printing issues a print command without being conscious of which printer is originally output. For this reason, the user may not be able to cope with the status notification of the printing state directly. Therefore, in this embodiment, in step S404, the data processing apparatus 110 monitors the status of the printer that has sent the RAW data using the SNMP protocol. If the data processing apparatus 110 determines that the printer designated as the output destination has failed to be printed as a result of monitoring, for example, a notification is sent to the printer server 120 or the administrator terminal that manages the printer, Notifying that printing has failed and prompting the recovery of the failure status.

  The printer server 120 or the administrator terminal functions as a monitoring unit that implements an SNMP manager as a service application and monitors a notification from the data processing apparatus 110 registered as an SNMP client. In the case where it can be assumed that the user corresponds to the status for which the status notification is received, the clients 112 to 118 may be monitoring means. For this purpose, the printers 122 to 128 and the data processing apparatus 110 disclose their own statuses using MIB or the like, and can notify the printer server 120 and the administrator terminal of the printing status. By using this embodiment, regardless of the vendor from which the printer of the print output destination is provided, the data processing apparatus 110 is connected to the printer server 120 or the administrator terminal that manages the printer network. It is possible to notify the status and flexibly cope with the diversification of printer network vendors.

  FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the association table 500 managed by the shipping destination control unit 238 in this embodiment. The association table 500A uses the user name read from the IP address or IC card input by the client as the output request source identification value of the clients 112 to 118, and should be assigned to the IP address or the user name and the user name. Register the printer's local printer name in association with each other. The IP address is not a single value as shown in the association table 500A, but can be an IP address range designated by a subnet mask or the like so that it can be associated with a specific group.

  The association table 500B uses a user name as an output request source identification value, and registers a printer name for uniquely identifying a remote printer as a local printer A or the like. In the embodiment in which the output destination is managed in association with the user name, the output destination printer can be fixed in correspondence with the user regardless of the client that the user is accessing. Even if a change is made, it can be sent to a set output destination reliably without inputting a change in printer settings to the client, so that it is possible to improve efficiency in terms of operability and security of document documents. The association table 500 shown in FIG. 5 can be input by an administrator of the data processing apparatus 110 using an appropriate database.

  Further, in this embodiment, a client and a user name assigned with a specific IP address are connected, and when the same user works with different clients, the output can be made to different output destination printers. .

  The association table 500 </ b> C is an embodiment used for controlling the output contents in combination with the output request source identification value such as the user when linking the output destinations. In the association table 500C, a plurality of network printers are further assigned to the user, and the local printer C and local printer D are used as printer names, respectively.

  For example, the output contents have different printer functions for form printing and label printing, and the formats and output functions are different even for form printing, and are used to control the output destination based on these differences. Note that the output content can be passed from the client as job information, or the data processing apparatus can determine using the content of the document file of the job information. When a plurality of remote printers are assigned, the clients 112 to 118 can be inquired and additionally selected so that the registered printer name can be selected as a default setting.

  FIG. 6 is a detailed flowchart of the process for monitoring the status of the output destination printer in step S404 shown in FIG. The process shown in FIG. 6 is started in step S600 when control is passed from step S403 in FIG. In step S601, RAW data is created, a PDL command or the like is added, and then a print output command including RAW data is issued. In step S602, it is determined whether the status of the output destination printer is normal. If it is determined in step S602 that the status is normal (yes), it is determined in step S603 whether a print completion notification has been received from the output destination printer.

  If printing has not been completed (no), the process returns to step S602, the status of the output destination printer is checked until a notification of printing completion is received, and the status of the output destination printer is monitored until printing is completed. The processing of the data processing apparatus 110 can be directly inspected by the data processing apparatus 110 functioning as an SNMP master and the output destination printer functioning as an SNMP slave. For status changes, a trap command is used. The status state is acquired by the data processing apparatus 110 when the output destination printer publishes using the MIB.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S602 that the status of the output destination printer is abnormal (no), in step S605, the data processing apparatus 110 notifies the printer server 120 or the administrator terminal, and the printer server 120 or management is performed. An error dialog is displayed on the user terminal. When detecting an abnormality in the status of the output destination printer, the data processing apparatus 110 identifies the status abnormality of the virtual printer driver 230 and sends a trap command to the printer server 120 or the administrator terminal.

  When the printer server 120 or the administrator terminal starts the SNMP manager service and receives the trap command, the printer server 120 or the administrator terminal inspects the MIB of the data processing device 110, acquires the fault content of the virtual printer driver, and displays a corresponding error dialog. In step S606, a text screen that displays an error countermeasure method is displayed on the error dialog. Thereafter, the process returns to step S602, and the remaining data of the document file is held until the status becomes normal, and the completion of printing is guaranteed.

  When the status of the output destination printer becomes normal and the data processing apparatus 110 receives a print completion notification when the data to be printed ends in step S603, a print completion dialog is displayed on the client desktop screen in step S604. In step S607, the status check is completed.

  FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of processing executed by the output data sending unit 236 in this embodiment. When receiving the notification of the output request source identification value of the print request issuing source from the output data sending unit 236, the shipping destination control unit 238 looks up the association table 500 and acquires the output destination printer information. Thereafter, the shipping destination control unit 238 detects an area in which the remote printer information of the GDI instance, for example, created by the output data sending unit 236 is described, rewrites the acquired output destination printer information, and outputs the end of rewriting as output data shipping. Notification to the unit 236.

  Upon receipt of the notification, the output data sending unit 236 uses the rewritten value to call a remote driver corresponding to one of the remote drivers 240 to 246, and to execute conversion processing of the intermediate file into RAW data. Necessary PDL commands are added, and the spooler / port monitor is called to send print data to the designated remote printer, thereby executing output destination control. Hereinafter, the process of the output data sending unit 236 will be described in more detail.

  The process in FIG. 7 is a process executed by the output data sending unit 236. The process starts from step S700 when the virtual printer driver 230 is called. In step S701, the intermediate file creation unit 232 sends an intermediate file. Receive file job information. The job information includes information enabling reading of a file name unique to the created intermediate file, a print request source identification value that identifies a client or a user, a job identification value, and the like. In step S <b> 702, the intermediate file management unit 234 reads the intermediate file and the output request source identification value with reference to the stored information, and sends the output request source identification value of the read information to the shipping destination control unit 238.

  At this stage, the default output destination printer information is set to a dummy printer value set in advance in a virtual printer driver that does not directly manage the corresponding real printer. The virtual printer driver 230 receives data from the data processing device 110. Is waited until a notification of completion of rewriting of the shipping destination is received by the shipping destination control unit 238. Rewriting completion can be performed using inter-process communication. For this reason, the virtual printer driver 230 continues the print session until a printer to be output is set.

  The DEVMODE structure used when the virtual printer driver 230 generates a specific print instance corresponding to the default setting dummy printer uses the setting corresponding to the top model of the connected remote printer and is connected. It is possible to support from the top model of the remote printer to the lower model. At this time, for functions and settings that the lower model does not have, setting is skipped while referring to the printer information of the remote printer, and model-specific RAW data creation and PDL command addition are executed.

  In step S703, when the output destination printer information is rewritten with the job information of the remote printer corresponding to the output request source identification value, the output data sending unit 236 calls the rewritten remote driver and includes the RAW data, the PDL command, and the like. Create output data. At this time, PDL command addition processing can also be executed. Thereafter, in step S704, the created output data is transferred to the spooler and port monitor, and the created output data is sent to the corresponding remote printer, and the process ends in step S705.

  FIG. 8 shows a second embodiment of the printer network 800 of the present embodiment. The printer network 800 is configured to include an application server 810 connected to the network 880. The application server 810 exclusively processes application service requests from a plurality of clients 812 to 818 connected to the network 880, and performs processing to return processing results to the requesting client.

  In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the clients 812 to 818 can be configured as thin clients, but can also be mounted as fat clients, and are not particularly limited. For example, the application server 810 illustrated in FIG. 8 can be implemented as a business server or a web server. The application server 810 receives print requests from the clients 112 to 118 in FIG.

  Upon receiving the print request, the application server 810 sends the execution result of the application server to the data processing server 820 using, for example, network communication such as FTP protocol, HTTP protocol, and socket. The data processing server 820 implements the function of the data processing apparatus of the present embodiment. When the data processing server 820 receives from the application server 810 the execution result and the user name of the client that issued the print request, the print session Is generated.

  When the print server is generated, the application server 810 obtains an output destination printer name associated with the user name as a key, and returns it as a response to the data processing server 820. As shown in FIG. 5, the identification value can be an IP address or a user name.

  A printer server 870 is connected to the network 880, and controls and manages the connected remote printers 812a, 814a, 816a, and 818a as in the first embodiment. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, the clients 812 to 818 are controlled to output to the remote printers 812a to 818a, respectively, and each client and the remote printer have their own output sites, for example, The medical record output, the medical receipt output, the dispensing instruction output, and the like are configured independently, and the output of the document file from a specific user is output by a specific local printer.

  In another embodiment of the shipping destination control unit 838, the login name is not sent to the application server 810, but the session ID of the generated print session is sent to the application server, and the client or login that requested the print session is sent. The name can be searched using the session ID as a key, and as an application, an IP address, a user name, and the like can be acquired.

  The data processing server 820 illustrated in FIG. 8 functions as the data processing apparatus 110 of the present embodiment, but the application execution unit 220 is separated as the application server 810 as compared to the data processing apparatus 110 illustrated in FIG. The configuration is generally the same except for the function of the destination control unit 838.

  The data processing server 820 receives the print request and execution result from the application server 810, and extracts the login name of the user included in the print request. Thereafter, the virtual printer driver 830 is called to create a page image as an intermediate file from the execution result. After the creation of the intermediate file, the unique file name and login name are stored in the intermediate file management unit 834. Thereafter, the intermediate file creation unit 832 sends job information including the file name and login name of the intermediate file to the output data sending unit 836.

  When the output data sending unit 836 receives the job information including the file name and the login name, the output data sending unit 836 notifies the shipping destination control unit 838 of the login name. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, when receiving the login name, the shipping destination control unit 838 issues an inquiry to the session management module (SMM) 860 of the application server 810, and is identified by the login name. Obtain the IP address, MAC address, information included in the print data, or computer name of the clients 812 to 818. In this embodiment, a dedicated session management module is not implemented for this purpose. For example, the job content currently specified by the session name is downloaded using, for example, the FTP protocol or the SNMP protocol. It can be implemented as a format that is copied to a file, MIB, or the like and published to the data processor 820.

  Thereafter, the shipping destination control unit 838 refers to the acquired output request source identification value, determines a remote printer name using one or more of the association tables 500A to 500C, and further refers to the association table 500. To obtain output destination printer information. Thereafter, the shipping destination control unit 838 rewrites the default output destination printer information managed by the output data sending unit 836 at that time with the acquired output destination printer information, and notifies the output data sending unit 836 of the completion of the rewriting. After receiving the notification, the output data sending unit 836 calls one of the specified remote drivers 840 to 846 to create RAW data from the intermediate file, causes the PDL command to be added, and sends it via the spooler / port monitor. Thus, the output data is sent to the printer server 870, and output by the designated remote printer is possible.

  In FIG. 8, the monitoring module 850 is mounted as an SNMP module, and the monitoring status of the remote printer managed by the printer server 870 is monitored. In such a case, a notification is received and an error can be notified to the clients 812 to 818, the printer server 870, or the administrator terminal.

  FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of the destination control process executed by the data processing server 820 of this embodiment. The process of FIG. 9 starts when a connection request from the application server 810 is received in step S900, and a thin client print request is received from the application server in step S901. In step S902, the output request source identification value is obtained by querying the application server using the login name included in the print request, and in step S903, the IP address or MAC associated with the output request source identification value is acquired. Get output requester identification value such as address.

  Thereafter, in step S904, the association table 500 is looked up using the obtained output request source identification value as a key to obtain output destination printer information. Thereafter, the output destination printer information of the output data sending unit 836 is rewritten with the acquired output destination printer information, and when the rewriting is completed, the output data sending unit 836 is notified. In step S905, a PDL command or the like is added to the RAW data created by the remote driver, the output data is sent to the printer server 870 via the spooler / port monitor, and output by the local driver is performed. In step S906, the process ends, and a subsequent print request is awaited.

  FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of another embodiment of the data processing apparatus 1000 of this embodiment. The data processing apparatus 1000 illustrated in FIG. 10 is different from the virtual printer drivers 230 and 830 illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 8 in that the virtual printer drivers 230 and 830 are functionally separated into a virtual printer driver 1040 and a print execution unit 1050. The function is common to the embodiment described in FIG. 2 and FIG. Therefore, functions of the virtual printer driver 1040 and the print execution unit 1050 will be described in detail.

  In the embodiment of FIG. 10, the virtual printer driver 1040 includes an intermediate file creation unit 1042 and an intermediate file management unit 1044. The virtual printer driver 1040 exclusively creates the intermediate file and job information, and prints the job information. Send to 1050. The print execution unit 1050 includes an output data sending unit 1046 and a sending destination control unit 1048. The output data sending unit 1046 extracts the intermediate file from the intermediate file management unit 1044 according to the job information. The shipping destination control unit 1048 acquires the output request source identification value included in the print request and selects the shipping destination. In an embodiment in which the data processing apparatus 1010 does not include an application execution unit and is configured as an independent information processing apparatus, an output request is sent to a session management module (SMM) included in a remotely installed application server. Queries the original identification value and selects the shipping destination.

  Thereafter, the shipping destination control unit 1048 rewrites the default setting output destination printer information managed by the output data sending unit 1046 at that time with the acquired output destination printer information, and notifies the output data sending unit 1046 of the completion of rewriting. After receiving the notification, the output data sending unit 1046 calls one of the designated remote drivers 1060 to 1066 to create RAW data from the intermediate file, causes the PDL command to be added, and sends it via the spooler / port monitor. Thus, the output data is sent to the printer server 1070 and output by the designated remote printer 1080 is enabled.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, when a plurality of clients send a large number of print jobs to the virtual printer driver 1040, even if a specific remote driver stops due to an error, other jobs may be affected. And the robustness of the printer network system can be improved.

  FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of a printer selection dialog 1100 of the data processing apparatus 110 of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 11, the data processing apparatus 110 according to the present embodiment can control the output destination only by installing only the virtual printer driver. For this reason, the user can select a printer corresponding to a client or a user name or a combination of a client and a user name without a complicated operation of selecting a printer to select an output from a plurality of printers displayed in the printer selection dialog 1100. Select and enable reliable output.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the data processing apparatus 110 shows that a virtual printer driver is installed as a printer agent 1110 in the printer selection dialog 1110. The printer agent 1110 analyzes the content of the output request from the client, refers to the association table 500 managed by the printer agent 1110, selects and activates the remote driver registered by the data processing apparatus 110, and thereby outputs the output destination. Make a selection.

  When the clients 112 to 118 are implemented as fat clients, the clients 112 to 118 install not only printer drivers from various printers but also virtual printer drivers as remote drivers corresponding to protocols such as UPnP. . Therefore, the client may select other printer drivers in addition to the virtual printer driver 230. At this time, on the client 112 to 118 side, for example, by setting the document file to be sent to the data processing apparatus 110 as an intermediate file format, the data processing apparatus 110 creates RAW data suitable for the output destination, and outputs each output It can be sent first. For this reason, in this embodiment, the load added to the virtual printer driver of the data processing apparatus 110 can be reduced, and the effect that processing efficiency can be improved is also acquired.

  However, when the output request sent from the clients 112 to 118 is sent, the virtual printer driver 230 is first called to specify the output destination on the data processing apparatus 110 side, so that the clients 112 to 118 are accessed. Even when the user uses different print output settings, output to an output destination that the user must output can be performed without concern.

  When the clients 112 to 118 are implemented as thin clients, the clients 112 to 118 only need to issue a print request to the data processing apparatus 110. The client terminal, the user name, or the client terminal and the user name The output destination can be selected according to the combination.

  FIG. 12 shows a print setting dialog displayed when the clients 112 to 118 are implemented as thin clients in the present invention. As shown in FIG. 12, the print setting dialog 1200 displayed on the clients 112 to 118 has a simple configuration in which a print format, the number of prints, a print preview, and the like are displayed. However, it is possible to automatically determine an output destination printer designated based on a client terminal, a user name, and the like, and to output to a preset output destination printer.

  In addition, the data processing apparatus 110 uses a plug-and-play protocol such as UPnP or Bonjour instead of the clients 112 to 118 to acquire printer drivers of a plurality of vendors connected to the network as remote drivers. Since the print output of 112 to 118 is controlled, the document file can be output to the set output destination by the operation of the minimum print command regardless of the addition of the printer to the printer network or the printer network in which multiple vendor printers coexist. And

  As described above, according to the present invention, in the current network printing environment in which a personal computer or a thin client can access a plurality of image forming apparatuses, client computers connected through a network are always the same. It is possible to provide a data processing apparatus, a printer network system, a data processing method, a program, and a storage medium that can be output from a printer, can efficiently manage each output job, and can improve information security. Further, according to the present invention, a data processing apparatus, printer network system, data processing method, program, and storage medium capable of controlling an output destination at a minimum cost without adding an application module to the application server Can be provided.

  Furthermore, according to the present invention, it is possible to manage the output destination of the print output while eliminating the additional mounting of the printer driver of the remote printer to be printed to the thin client, and supporting a more flexible network configuration. A data processing apparatus, a printer network system, a data processing method, a program, and a storage medium can be provided.

  The above functions of the present embodiment can be realized by a device executable program described in an object-oriented programming language such as C, C ++, C #, Java (registered trademark), etc. It can be stored and distributed on a device-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM, MO, DVD, flexible disk, EEPROM, EPROM, etc., and can be transmitted via a network in a format that other devices can.

  Although the present embodiment has been described so far, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and other embodiments, additions, changes, deletions, and the like can be conceived by those skilled in the art. As long as the effects of the present invention can be obtained in any aspect, the present invention is included in the scope of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Printer network, 110 ... Data processing apparatus, 112-118 ... Client computer, 120 ... Printer server, 122-128 ... Remote printer (MFP, page printer), 130 ... Network, 140-160 ... Base, 200 ... Functional block (Data processing device) 210 ... Network interface unit 220 ... Application execution unit 230 ... Virtual printer driver 232 ... Intermediate file creation unit 234 ... Intermediate file management unit 236 ... Output data sending unit 238 ... Destination control Part, 240-246 ... Remote driver

JP 2003-140867 A

Claims (12)

A data processing apparatus for selecting an output destination printer via a network, wherein the data processing apparatus
Means for acquiring information to be output via the network, and extracting an output request source identification value from the acquired information;
Means for selecting an output destination associated with the output request source identification value;
Means for rewriting the default output destination at the output destination;
Means for calling a remote driver corresponding to the output destination, converting the output data into a format suitable for the output destination, and sending the output data to the output destination;
A data processing apparatus comprising: a means for monitoring the output status of the output destination after sending the output data and notifying the monitoring means of the data processing apparatus of the occurrence of the output error when an output error occurs. .   The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output destination selecting unit selects the output destination according to the content of the acquired information.   The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for sending to the output destination converts the output data as a format suitable for the output destination selected by the means for selecting the output destination.   4. The device according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of output destinations associated with the output request source identification value are set, the output destination is determined according to a command via the network. Data processing equipment.   The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data processing apparatus generates the output data using an intermediate file in a bitmap format. A print output control method in which a data processing device selects a network-connected output destination printer, wherein the data processing device includes:
Acquiring information to be output via the network, and extracting an output request source identification value from the acquired information;
Selecting an output destination associated with the output request source identification value;
Rewriting a default output destination at the output destination;
Calling a remote driver corresponding to the output destination, converting the output data into a format suitable for the output destination, and sending to the output destination;
After sending the output data, the output status of the output destination is monitored, and when an output error occurs, a step of notifying the monitoring means of the data processing device of the occurrence of the output error is executed. Control method.   The print output control method according to claim 6, wherein the step of selecting the output destination includes a step of selecting the output destination in accordance with the content of the acquired information.   The print output control method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the sending to the output destination converts the output data as a format suitable for the output destination selected in the step of selecting the output destination.   The step of selecting the output destination determines the output destination according to a command via the network when a plurality of output destinations associated with the output request source identification value are set. The print output control method according to claim 1.   The print output control method according to claim 6, wherein the step of sending to the output destination includes a step of generating the output data using an intermediate file in a bitmap format.   An information processing apparatus executable program for causing an information processing apparatus to function as the means according to any one of claims 1 to 5.   A device-readable recording medium on which the device-executable program according to claim 11 is recorded.