JP2011065558A - Print control device, method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate operation of a print job designated using a hot folder. <P>SOLUTION: When data to be printed is input to any one of hot folders 103a-103n, a ticket issuing module 104 issues a ticket for processing a print job based on the data. A status display conversion module 111 generates a status display file for displaying a processing condition of the print job corresponding to the ticket. When a user operates the status display file, the corresponding print job is processed according to the operation content. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, method, and program for executing printing using a hot folder.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing system using a hot folder is known as a mechanism for printing under predetermined printing conditions when printing data is transmitted to a printing apparatus and printing is performed. The user drags and drops print data using a mouse or the like to a hot folder in which print conditions are set in advance. This process is detected by software that constantly monitors the hot folder, and print data placed in the hot folder is registered as a print job, processed according to preset print settings, and printed by the printing device. (For example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2007-109021 A

  When printing is performed using a hot folder, the data submitted to the hot folder is deleted from the hot folder when printing processing such as RIP (Raster Image Processing) is started. Therefore, the user determines that the process is proceeding normally when the data submitted by the user is deleted from the hot folder in which the data is submitted.

  However, even if data is deleted from the hot folder, the printing process may actually be delayed due to, for example, an error on the printing apparatus side. In this case, the user notices it when he / she goes to the printing apparatus to pick up the printed matter. If the user knows in advance that there is a delay in the printing process, the user can cancel printing or issue a print instruction again with another printing device or other print settings. The identification is complicated and the operation of the job is difficult.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a print control apparatus, method, and program that can easily operate a print job instructed using a hot folder.

  The print control apparatus of the present invention is a print control apparatus for causing a printing apparatus to execute printing based on data submitted to a hot folder associated with a print setting, and data to be printed is input to the hot folder. And a generating unit that generates status display data including at least information for specifying a print job based on the data and information for specifying a processing status of the print job, and a status display generated by the generating unit. Display control means for displaying information based on the display data on the display device, determination means for determining the operation content performed by the user on the status display data generated by the generation means, and determination by the determination means Based on this, a print job corresponding to the status display data is operated on the status display data. And a processing means for processing in accordance with contents.

  According to the present invention, since the print job can be operated after grasping the processing status of the print job based on the data submitted to the hot folder based on the status display data, it is easy to operate the print job. There is an effect.

It is a figure explaining the process of the printing system 100 which is Example 1 of this invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a network connection form of a printing system 100. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a processing status of a print job in a hot folder 103a. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing according to the first embodiment.

  The mode for carrying out the invention is the following embodiment.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system 100 that is Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  The printing system 100 includes a server PC 101 that is an example of a print control apparatus, and an image recording apparatus 110 that is an example of a printing apparatus.

  The server PC 101 can be realized by a general-purpose PC, and can execute the processing described below by installing a program described in this embodiment. The server PC 101 includes a CPU, a hard disk drive (HDD), a RAM, and the like. The server PC 101 reads out the program of this embodiment from the hard disk included in the HDD, expands it in the RAM, and executes it by the CPU, thereby executing the processing described below. The program of this embodiment includes a status display file copy module 102, a ticket issuing module 104, a hot folder monitoring module 105, and a job management module 106. The server PC 101 includes a central image processing module 107, an image recording device language conversion module 108, an interface unit 109, and a display control unit 20 as programs for print processing. Further, by installing the program of this embodiment on the server PC 101, hot folders 103a, 103b,..., 103n are generated on the hard disk directory in the HDD. Various print settings can be associated with each hot folder, print data received from the client can be stored in the hot folder, and printing can be executed according to the print settings.

  The hot folder monitoring module 105 monitors whether data has been submitted to the hot folder in a predetermined cycle. The job management module 106 manages the status of a print job that is executed when data is submitted to the hot folders 103a to 103n. When notified from the hot folder monitoring module 105 that the data to be printed has been submitted to one of the hot folders, the job management module 106 assigns an ID for specifying a print job for the data and prints the data. Register the job. Then, the job management module 106 performs processing such as passing the submitted data to the central image processing module 107 to convert it into a printable format. The central image processing module 107 processes the data submitted to the hot folder according to the print setting associated with the hot folder.

  The ticket issuing module 104 issues a ticket in which the printing conditions, processing status, and the like of the job registered by the job management module 106 are written. The ticket issuing module 104 acquires the print setting associated with the hot folder to which the data has been submitted and writes it in the ticket as a print condition. Further, the ticket issuing module 104 acquires the progress status of the job from the job management module 106, and writes this in the ticket as the processing status. Based on this ticket, the processing content of the corresponding job is determined. The status display file conversion module 111 converts the contents of the ticket issued by the ticket issuing module 104 into a status display file that can be displayed as a list. The status display file copy module 102 copies the file converted into the status display file to a predetermined directory on the hard disk in the HDD.

  The language conversion module 108 for the image recording apparatus adds a language (command) that can be interpreted by the designated image recording apparatus to the print data processed by the central image processing module 107. The interface unit 109 sends the print data generated by the image recording device language conversion module 108 to the image recording device 110. In addition, the interface unit 109 receives information such as a processing status from the image recording apparatus 110. The image recording apparatus 110 records (prints) an image according to the print data by applying a recording agent such as ink on the recording medium according to the received print data.

  The status display file conversion module 111 generates status display data when data to be printed is submitted to the hot folder. The status display data includes at least information for specifying a print job based on the data and information for specifying the processing status of the print job.

  The display control unit 20 causes the display device to display information based on the status display data generated by the status display file conversion module 111.

  The job management module 106 determines the operation content performed by the user on the status display data generated by the status display file conversion module 111. The job management module 106 cancels the execution of the print job corresponding to the status display data according to the determination result. Further, the job management module 106 changes the contents of the print job corresponding to the status display data according to the determination result.

  Based on the determination, the job management module 106 processes the print job corresponding to the status display data according to the operation content for the status display data.

  When the job management module 106 processes a print job, the status display file conversion module 111 generates status display data corresponding to the processing result. Then, the display control unit causes the display device to perform display based on the status display data.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration when the server PC 101 and the image recording apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 are connected via a network. In the following, the case where the server PC 101 is connected via the network will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the processing performed by the server PC 101 is performed by the client PC, and the printing process can be performed without using the server. You may do it. In this case, the client PC becomes the print control apparatus.

  In the example of FIG. 2, clients 301 to 304 (the number is not limited) are connected to the network, and data is submitted from each client to the hot folder of the server PC 101, whereby a print job is registered. The Each client can be realized by a general-purpose PC like the server PC 101. Each client accesses the server PC 101 via the network to display the hot folders 103a to 103n on its own display (display device), and submits a data file to be printed to one of the hot folders. . Then, the submitted data and information specifying the submitted hot folder are sent to the server PC 101, and the hot folder monitoring module 105 detects it.

  In the example of FIG. 2, only one image recording apparatus is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of image recording apparatuses can be connected to a network and printing can be instructed to any one of them. In this case, the hot folder is associated with information for specifying the image recording apparatus together with the print setting, and the image recording apparatus for executing printing is selected according to the hot folder to which the data is submitted.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a list of status display files stored in the hot folder. Here, a list of files stored in the hot folder 103a is shown as an example, but files are stored in the same form in each hot folder and displayed on the display of the client. Further, instead of storing in each hot folder, it may be stored in another folder for storing the status file.

  The status display file conversion module 111 adds a tik representing a ticket to the file name prefix (excluding the extension) of the status display file set in the data submitted to the hot folder as the file name. Append as an extension. In addition, the date when the data is submitted to the hot folder is added. Furthermore, the processing status of the data submitted to the hot folder is added as a comment. The processing status includes “printing” in which printing by the image recording apparatus 110 is being executed. In addition, as other processing status, “processing in progress” indicating that processing (such as RIP) in the server PC 101 is being performed is included. Furthermore, as another processing status, “printing completed” indicating that printing by the image recording apparatus 110 is completed is included. In addition, the other processing status includes “Canceled” indicating that the execution of the print job is canceled according to a user instruction and the processing for cancellation is being executed. In addition, “cancelled” indicating that the cancel processing of the print job is completed is included as another processing status. The processing status is not limited to these, and various changes can be made such as adding or omitting various statuses or changing names.

  In addition to these pieces of information, various information that can be provided to the user may be further added to the status display file. Each status display file is associated with a corresponding ticket (issued by the ticket issuing module 104), and when the user operates the status display file, the corresponding ticket is processed according to the operation content. In addition, the status display file is displayed on the client display so that each attribute information such as the file name, date, and comment can be viewed at a glance as shown in FIG. Is displayed. Further, the format of the status display file is not limited, and data in various formats can be used instead of the file format.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first embodiment. This flowchart is a flow of processing performed by the CPU of the server PC 101 shown in FIG. 1 loading a program stored in the hard disk in the HDD into the RAM and executing it. When processing is executed by the client instead of the server PC 101, the CPU of the client loads the program stored in the hard disk in the HDD into the RAM and executes it to execute each processing.

  In step S401, the print data is submitted to one of the hot folders 103a to 103n, and the hot folder monitoring module 105 checks whether the print data exists in a directory corresponding to one of the hot folders. In step S402, the job management module 106 determines whether the file data in the hot folder is data to be printed. If it is determined that the data submitted to the hot folder is not data to be printed, the process returns to S401, and if it is determined that the data is to be printed, the process proceeds to S403. In step S <b> 403, the job management module 106 registers data determined to be printed as a print job in the hard disk in the HDD. A job registered as a print job is added to a queue, and processing is sequentially performed. Here, the following description will be given on the assumption that data to be printed has been submitted to the hot folder 103a. In step S404, the job management module 106 analyzes the job for which job registration has been completed. Here, information such as the file name of the data corresponding to the print job, the registration date, the information specifying the hot folder into which the data is input, and the print settings associated with the hot folder are analyzed.

  In S405, the ticket issuing module 104 issues a ticket according to the contents analyzed in S404, and the status display file conversion module 111 generates a status display file (SampleA.tik). In step S406, the status display file copy module 102 copies the status display file issued in step S405 to the hot folder 103a in which data corresponding to the print job is submitted. In step S407, the data corresponding to the registered print job is processed by the central image processing module 107 in accordance with the print setting associated with the submitted hot folder, and print data is generated. Here, SampleA. The processing status in tik is changed to “processing”. In step S408, the job management module 106 monitors the status display file (SampleA.tik). In S409, SampleA. The job management module 106 determines whether tik remains in the hot folder 103a. Here, SampleA. To determine whether tik remains, the user can select SampleA. This is because it is possible to delete tik from the hot folder 103a, and it is determined here whether or not the operation has been performed. Then, SampleA. If it is determined that tik remains, the central image processing module 107 continues the process of generating print data in S410.

  In S411, it is determined whether or not the generation of print data by the central image processing module 107 is completed. If it is determined that the generation of print data is completed and the print job is at the head of the queue, the process proceeds to S412. Proceed to In step S412, the generated printing data is transferred to the image recording apparatus 110, and printing is started.

  In step S413, the status (processing state) of the display status file (SampleA.tik) of the job that has started printing is changed to “printing”.

  If it is determined in S409 that the status display file (SampleA.tik) in the hot folder 103a has been deleted, the process for canceling the print job is started in S414 in accordance with an instruction from the job management module 106. Specifically, SampleA. A print job is specified using a ticket corresponding to tik, and processing of the print job is interrupted. If the data corresponding to the print job is being processed by the central image processing module 107, the processing is interrupted. If the print job is waiting in the queue, it is deleted from the queue. If printing by the image recording apparatus 110 is in progress, the image recording apparatus 110 is instructed to cancel the printing process, and printing is stopped. In step S415, the status display file conversion module 111 reads SampleA. tik is reissued and this SampleA. Change the processing status of tik to “Canceled”.

  In step S416, the job management module 106 determines whether the cancel process has been completed. If it is determined that the cancel processing is completed, the processing status of the status display file (SampleA.tik) is changed to “cancelled” in S417.

  The subsequent processing is omitted here, but if it is determined that the printing in S412 is completed, SampleA. The processing status of tik is changed to “printing completed”. If tik is deleted, the same processing as S414 and thereafter is executed.

  Also, the process shown in FIG. 4 is executed every time data is submitted to the hot folder, and a plurality of data are processed in parallel.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the processing status of the current print job can be grasped by the status display file stored in the hot folder, and the corresponding print job can be easily operated by operating this file. Can do. In other words, the corresponding print job can be canceled by deleting the status display file from the hot folder. After that, since the status display file indicating that the cancellation has been completed is reissued, the processing status after the cancellation can also be confirmed.

  Further, job operations other than cancellation may be executed by operating the status display file. For example, when it is desired to change the contents of a job, a status display file may be dragged and dropped into a job change folder, and the change may be instructed by a predetermined operation of a pointing device such as a mouse. After the contents of the job are changed, the processing is restarted from S403, and the status display file is reissued (regenerated).

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

100 ... printing system,
101 ... Server PC on which the printing system is installed,
103a, 103b to 103n ... hot folder,
104 ... Ticket issuing module,
106 Job management module.

Claims (6)

A print control device for causing a printing device to execute printing based on data submitted to a hot folder associated with a print setting,
Generating means for generating status display data including at least information for specifying a print job based on the data and information for specifying the processing status of the print job when data to be printed is submitted to the hot folder;
Display control means for causing the display device to display information based on the status display data generated by the generating means;
Determining means for determining the operation content performed by the user on the status display data generated by the generating means;
Processing means for processing a print job corresponding to the status display data according to the operation content for the status display data based on the determination by the determination means;
A printing control apparatus comprising: The print control apparatus according to claim 1,
The print control apparatus, wherein the processing means cancels execution of a print job corresponding to the status display data according to a determination result by the determination means. The print control apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
The print control apparatus, wherein the processing means changes the content of the print job corresponding to the status display data according to the determination result by the determination means. The print control apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
When the processing unit performs a print job process, the generation unit generates status display data corresponding to the processing result, and generates the status display data generated on the display device by the display control unit. The printing control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display is performed. A print control method for causing a printing apparatus to execute printing based on data submitted to a hot folder associated with a print setting,
A generation step of generating status display data including at least information for specifying a print job based on the data and information for specifying a processing status of the print job when data to be printed is submitted to the hot folder;
A display control step for causing the display device to display information based on the status display data generated in the generation step;
A determination step of determining a user's operation content of the status display data generated in the generation step;
A processing step of processing a print job corresponding to the status display data in accordance with the operation content for the status display data based on the determination by the determination step;
A printing control method characterized by comprising:   A program that causes a computer to execute the print control method according to claim 5.

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