JP2012113592A - Image formation device system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that when no necessary sheet of paper is available on a network A in a multi-home environment comprising the network A and a network B, a sheet request message is displayed on both the network A and the network B, a person of the network B needs to supply sheets of paper when a person of the network A does not supply sheets of paper, and is displeased with sheet replacement for a print job of the different department as well as arising of a problem associated with the security of the job, and when the sheet request message is output to only the network A in this case, the person of the network B cannot print until the person of the network A completes the sheet replacement.SOLUTION: When sheets of paper necessary for printing of the job from the network A are not available in a printer, a replacement request message for sheet of paper is displayed only in a job manager of the network A. When sheets of paper are not prepared within a certain time, the printing of the job is started on condition that a job at the head of the network B is ready for printing.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus system capable of multi-home connection and a job manager for managing and controlling jobs transmitted to and stored in a print control apparatus.

  Conventionally, printing systems connected to a network are known, and such printing systems are responsible for job input / output. For example, printing a job having a network printer function and transmitted from a terminal device, storing a job having a storage function and transmitted from a terminal device, and storing a saved job on a network It is a function to transmit to. Usually, since such a printing system is shared and used by many users, it is necessary to manage the printing system. A person in charge of managing the printing system may perform user management for the purpose of improving the security of the printing system. The security of the printing system is enhanced by limiting the number of users to be used by performing user management or switching the processing by the user. This is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1. Also, a printing system that improves the convenience of the user by providing information for grasping the status of the network printer while maintaining the confidentiality of the print job by changing the display form of the print job according to the authentication information Has also been proposed. This is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 2.

  On the other hand, there are network printers that support multiple network interfaces. With this configuration, it is possible to easily perform printing on different segments. A system that switches processing for each received interface has also been proposed. When this system receives a network packet from a terminal device, the system identifies the terminal device based on network packet transmission source information. After the identification, the function requested by the terminal device is switched according to a rule determined in advance by the terminal device and charged. As an example, color printing is performed when receiving from a specified IP address, but color printing is not performed when receiving from an IP address not specified. This is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 3.

  Recent terminal devices such as PCs have a plurality of network interfaces and can be connected simultaneously with a plurality of networks. As an advantage of such a connection, when one network becomes unable to communicate, communication is possible on the other network. As a further advantage, a single terminal device can be connected to a plurality of independent networks. Such a connection is called a multi-home connection. Currently, network printers are also required to support multi-home connection. As a configuration of the printing system, a configuration of only an image forming apparatus, a configuration of an image forming apparatus attached with a print control apparatus, and the like are known. The print control apparatus is used when the image forming apparatus is provided with a network printer function or for the purpose of expanding and supplementing the network printer function of the image forming apparatus. As an image forming apparatus that can be connected to a network via such a print control apparatus, for example, there is an apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 4.

JP-A-10-93803 JP 2005-352567 A JP 2004-080331 A JP 2002-312140 A

  However, when the multi-home connection is possible in the printing system, there is a problem that it is impossible to efficiently process the print job because it is necessary to ensure the security for the stored job in the above prior art. As a specific example, when security is ensured for the network 1 and the network 2, the users of the respective networks use the network printer without being aware of (or not able to confirm) the use status of the network printer from another network. . For example, when there is no paper in a job from one network, there is a problem that a job in another network remains in a print waiting state.

  The same problem also exists with respect to the finisher, and also occurs when paper remains in the sort bin.

In a multi-home connected image forming apparatus system,
A transmission network attribute setting means (101) for setting a print job transmission source network as a print job attribute;
A print job information transmission determining means (101) for determining whether or not to transmit the print job information from the transmission network attribute of the print job set by the transmission network attribute means and the network information of the client;
Information display means (708, 901) for displaying information transmitted from the print control apparatus,
When printing of a print job cannot be started, the print job can be printed from other than the transmission network of the print job after a predetermined time has elapsed (S1305).

  According to the present invention, in a multi-home printing system that can be connected to a plurality of networks, printing is continued even when printing is stopped due to a print job of another network while maintaining security between the networks. It has the effect of being able to.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating connection of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a print control apparatus in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image forming apparatus in FIG. 1. 6 is a flowchart executed when a job is received by the print control apparatus according to the first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart executed when a job is received by the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of attribute values transmitted from the print control apparatus in FIG. 2 to the image forming apparatus in FIG. 3. 2 is a diagram illustrating a job manager on a print control apparatus. FIG. It is a figure which shows the job manager on the terminal device which transmitted the print job. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a job manager on a terminal device connected to a network different from FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a method for acquiring job information between a job manager and a print control apparatus. It is a flowchart which acquires the information displayed with a job manager. 6 is a flowchart of processing of a print control apparatus related to a job manager connected to the same network as a job in which no paper has occurred. 10 is a flowchart of processing of a print control apparatus related to a job manager connected to a different network from a job in which no paper has occurred.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, the configuration in which the print control apparatus is independent from the image forming apparatus will be described. However, the present embodiment can also be applied to an apparatus in which the print control apparatus and the image forming apparatus are integrated.
[Example 1]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing connection of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The connection of the image forming system according to the present embodiment is particularly characterized in that the print control apparatus has a plurality of network interface cards 102, 103, 113 and can be simultaneously connected to the network 112 and the network 116 through the 102, 113. is there. In this embodiment, a network interface card (Network Interface Card) will be described as a NIC hereinafter. Data communicated with the host 111 on the network 112 is input from the NIC 102 to the print control apparatus 101 through the signal line 110. Data communicated with the host 115 on the network 116 is input from the NIC 113 to the print control apparatus 101 through the signal line 114. In the printing control apparatus 101 and the image forming apparatus 107, the NIC 103 of the printing control apparatus 101 and the NIC 108 of the image forming apparatus 107 are connected by a signal line 105. Further, the dedicated transmission path interface board 104 of the print control apparatus 101 and the dedicated transmission path interface board 109 of the image forming apparatus 107 are also connected by a dedicated transmission line 106.

<Configuration of print control device>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the print control apparatus 101 in FIG.

  The print control apparatus 101 includes a NIC unit 201, and the NIC unit has two NICs 102 and 113. In the present embodiment, the interface that can be connected to the network is described as being limited to NIC, but another interface that can be connected to the network may be used. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the case where only two network interfaces are used will be described. However, the case where three or more interfaces are used is also included in this embodiment.

  The NIC unit 201 has a function as a first network interface that manages connection at a lower layer level with the LAN. An RIP unit 202 and a hard disk drive (HDD) unit 205 are connected to the output side of the NIC unit 201. The RIP processing unit 202 has a function of converting a received print language such as PDL or a specific data format (compressed by JBIG or the like) into a raster image. The HDD unit 205 is a storage unit that temporarily stores (spools) print data received by the NIC unit 201 or temporarily stores compressed data after RIP. The first memory unit 206 is a memory used by the RIP unit 202 for image development processing.

  The data rasterized by the RIP unit 202 is input to the encoding unit 203, and the encoding unit 203 converts the data into print data or a data format that is supported by the image forming apparatus 107.

  The print control apparatus 101 includes a NIC unit 204 and an image interface unit 211. The NIC unit 204 functions as a second network interface that manages connection at a lower layer level. The data output from the encoding unit 203 is output to the image forming apparatus 107 via the image interface board unit 211.

  Further, the print control apparatus 101 includes a CPU 207, a second memory unit 208, an operation unit 209, and a display unit 210. The CPU 207 controls the entire print control apparatus, and the second memory unit 208 is used by the CPU 207 as a data temporary storage area.

  An operation unit 209 has buttons, keys, and the like, and operates the print control apparatus. The display unit 210 notifies the user of information by displaying images and characters on the screen. The display unit 210 includes an operation panel configured integrally with the operation unit 209, for example, a touch panel.

  The print control apparatus 101 transfers data to the dedicated transmission line 106 via the image interface board unit 211 and transmits it to the image forming apparatus 107.

  A data packet from the terminal apparatus 111 (or 115) to the print control apparatus 101 is propagated through the network 112 (or 116) and input to the print control apparatus 101 via the NIC 102 (or 113). In the print control apparatus 101, the NIC unit 201 performs data packet reception processing. When the data packet received by the NIC unit 201 is a data packet conforming to TCP / IP, the destination port number is included in the header information portion of the packet.

  The destination port number is information indicating to which program / process of the device that received the packet the data should be sent, and a different port number is assigned to each communication protocol and program.

  For example, port numbers are allocated as follows.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) = Port21
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) = Port25
SNMP = Port161
Therefore, by examining the port number included in the header of the received data packet and determining whether it is a port number corresponding to the printing process, whether the packet is print data or other data such as control data. It is possible to determine whether it exists.

  If the print data is determined here, the received data is written to the HDD unit 205 as necessary under the control of the CPU 207. This is queuing (spooling) generally performed for the purpose of improving the data transfer rate. Data stored in the HDD unit 205 is read from the RIP unit 202 according to an instruction from the CPU 207. On the other hand, print data that has not been queued is directly transferred from the NIC unit 201 to the RIP unit 202 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 207.

  The print data sent to the RIP unit 202 in this way is subjected to raster image processing in the RIP unit 202. Subsequently, the encoding unit 203 performs encoding into a data format interpretable by the image forming apparatus 107 based on a preset data format interpretable by the image forming apparatus 107 and a received data format. . Instead of the data format set in advance, for example, a data format acquired from the image forming apparatus 107 by communication, a data format specified from the operation unit 209, or the like may be used.

  Since this encoding process is performed as necessary, it may be skipped if encoding is not necessary, such as when the received print data format can be interpreted by the image forming apparatus 107 as it is. The encoded data needs to be in a format that can be interpreted by the image forming apparatus. For example, the format changes depending on the ability of the interpretation means built in the image forming apparatus 107, such as a specific print language format, a data format compressed by a specific method such as JBIG, a document format, or the like.

  In this way, the data encoded as necessary is re-packetized by the NIC unit 204 to be transmitted to the signal line 105, then transmitted from the signal line 105, and transmitted to the image forming apparatus 107.

  The image forming apparatus 107 that has received the data packet performs a printing process on a recording medium such as paper according to the printing process procedure of the image forming apparatus 107 itself. As another data transfer method, the data is transmitted from the encoding unit 203 to the image interface unit 211 and is transmitted to the dedicated transmission path 106 through the dedicated transmission path interface board 104. Finally, the image is sent to the image forming apparatus 107 via the dedicated transmission path interface board 109 connected to the image forming apparatus.

<Configuration of image forming apparatus>
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image forming apparatus 107 in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment includes an image forming apparatus main body 301 and an image input / output control unit 305. The image forming apparatus main body 301 includes an operation unit 302, a reader unit 303, and a printer unit 304. The operation unit 302 is used to operate the image forming apparatus main body 301 and the image input / output control unit 305, and an operation display panel is also integrally attached. A reader unit 303 reads an image of a document and outputs image data corresponding to the document image to the printer unit 304 and the image input / output control unit 305. The printer unit 304 records an image corresponding to the image data from the reader unit 303 or the image input / output control unit 305 on a recording sheet.

  The image input / output control unit 305 is connected to the reader unit 303 and includes an interface unit 306, an image memory 307, a control unit 308, and a hard disk drive (HDD) 309. A network interface 208 and a connector 209 are connected to the interface unit 306. The hard disk drive (HDD) 309 stores setting information of the image forming apparatus 207 such as an address book, operation history, user settings, ID settings, and network settings.

  An interface unit 306 is an interface with the print control apparatus 101. The interface unit 306 receives code data representing an image transferred from the print control apparatus 101 by the dedicated transmission path interface board 109, develops the received data into image data that can be recorded by the printer unit 304, and outputs the image data to the control unit 308. hand over. The interface unit 306 receives code data representing image data transmitted from the print control apparatus 101 via the network interface 108 such as Ethernet (registered trademark). If necessary, the received data is expanded into data that can be recorded by the printer unit 304 and transferred to the control unit 308. Reference numeral 108 denotes a network interface such as Ethernet (registered trademark), which is connected to the print control apparatus 101 via a network. Further, it may be an interface such as a parallel interface or a USB interface, and may be directly connected to the print control apparatus 101 via an interface cable or the like. Moreover, you may use not only one cable but many cables.

  The control unit 308 includes a CPU, ROM, RAM, and the like. The CPU of the control unit 308 loads the program stored in the ROM or other storage medium onto the RAM and executes it, and the data flow among the reader unit 303, the interface unit 306, the image memory 307, etc. Control. Instead of the HDD 309, another nonvolatile memory in which data is not erased even when the power is turned off may be provided, and the data may be stored in the nonvolatile memory.

<Printing flow from terminal device to image forming device>
A flow in which the terminal apparatus 111 (or 115) generates a print job and prints the job on the image forming apparatus 107 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a flow when the print control apparatus 101 receives a print job. FIG. 5 illustrates a flow when the image forming apparatus 107 receives a print job. First, the flow of the print control apparatus 101 will be described with reference to FIG. When a user using the terminal device 111 (or 115) prints a print job from an application or the like, the terminal device transmits the print job to the print control apparatus 101 by a user operation. When the job is transmitted, the process proceeds to S401. When the reception of the job is completed in S401, the process proceeds to S402. In S402, the network that received the job is confirmed. Since the print control apparatus 101 has created a socket to receive a job, it acquires network information from this socket. As another method of acquiring network information, a driver that monitors all data received by the NIC is created, and whether data currently received using this driver is transmitted from the network 112 or 116 is transmitted. The method of confirming may be used.

  When the print control apparatus 101 finishes obtaining the network information, the process proceeds to S403. In S403, the network information acquired in S402 is added to the job. FIG. 6 shows an attribute list in which network information is added to a job. In this embodiment, the network 112 is described as “A network”, and the network 116 is described as “B network”. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 601 denotes job attribute information (paper size, side designation, etc.) transmitted by the print control apparatus 101, and the print control apparatus 101 is information to be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 107. A portion 602 registers network information acquired by the print control apparatus 101 in step S402 as an attribute value, and is used for display of a print job in the job manager and control of the print job. When the network information is registered in the job attribute in S403, the process proceeds to S404 and the generated job is transmitted to the image forming apparatus 107. In the present embodiment, the job attribute addition has been described, but in executing the job, after processing to be processed by the print control apparatus 101 is performed, image data is transmitted to the image forming apparatus 107 (eg, RIP processing).

  Next, the flow of the image forming apparatus 107 will be described with reference to FIG. When the image forming apparatus 107 receives a print job from the print control apparatus 101 in step S501, the process proceeds to step S502. In step S502, the control unit 308 of the image forming apparatus 107 performs image processing on the image data transmitted from the terminal apparatus 111 (or 115). When the image processing ends in S502, the process proceeds to S503. In step S <b> 503, the printer unit 304 forms an image from the image data that has undergone image processing, and performs printing on paper.

<Displaying print jobs in Job Manager>
The display of a print job in the job manager will be described with reference to FIGS. The job manager is an application for managing print jobs of the print control apparatus 101 on the terminal apparatus 111 (or 115). The job manager can be operated on the print control apparatus 101.

  FIG. 7 is a UI display when the job manager is operated on the print control apparatus 101. 701 is a job manager window, 702 is a print tab for displaying information about a print job, 703 is for displaying a print job before printing during printing, 704 is a job log for displaying a pre-printed print job, and 705 is about to print A status 706 displays a status of a job to be transmitted, a transmission job network attribute display 706 displays a network to which the print job is transmitted, and a print button 707 starts printing of the selected job.

  The job manager on the print control apparatus 101 can display and manage all print jobs transmitted to the print control apparatus 101. A state 708 of the image forming apparatus 107 (in this figure, the MFP 104) is displayed, and a job name being printed is displayed 709. FIG. 7 shows that “regular meeting material (March 4)” of print job No. 4 is printing 25 copies and printing the 18th copy.

  FIG. 8 shows a UI display when the job manager is operated on the terminal device 111. Although the transmission job network attribute 801 is displayed in FIG. 7, only the job transmitted from the network A is displayed in the job manager on the network A, so this portion is not displayed. Only the jobs transmitted from the network A are displayed in the print job 802 and the job log 803.

  FIG. 9 is a UI display when the job manager is operated on the terminal device 115. As in FIGS. 7 and 8, the “regular meeting material (March 4)” transmitted from the network A is in the process of printing 25 copies and printing the 18th copy. The status display of the image forming measure 901 displays only “printing”. Nothing is displayed for the print job name 902. Only jobs transmitted from the network B are displayed in the print log 802 and the job log 803 as in the case of the network A.

<Print job and status display processing>
As described above, the job manager changes the contents displayed on the print control apparatus 101, the terminal apparatus 111 on the network A, and the terminal apparatus 115 on the network B. The display mechanism of the job manager will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram for acquiring information necessary for display on the terminal apparatus 111 or 115 and the print control apparatus 101. The job manager on the terminal device transmits a request command to the print control apparatus 101 in order to acquire information necessary for display. Next, the print control apparatus extracts data from the DB that manages the print job, generates XML, and transmits it to the terminal apparatus. The job manager acquires information to be displayed on the job manager from the sent XML.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart of processing of the job manager for obtaining information to be displayed on the UI of the job manager. In step S1101, a job information request for acquiring attribute information about the job is transmitted. In step S1102, a job status request for acquiring the job processing status is transmitted. In S1103, a printer status request for acquiring the status of the image forming apparatus is transmitted. The job manager repeats the above processing until the printer manager is terminated.

  What is important here is not to restrict the display on the job manager side, but to transmit information to be displayed according to the network attribute in which the job manager is activated in the print control apparatus. As a result, it is possible to prevent leakage of print job information due to network packet analysis.

<Controlling print jobs when there is no paper>
In a multi-home environment, the network A and the network B are independent departments while sharing the same network printer. For this reason, a paper replacement message is displayed on the job manager that sent the print job that triggered the paper supply or replacement. For example, when a paper required for printing is not set in the network printer in a print job from the network A, a paper replacement message is displayed on the job manager of the network A. If the paper is not exchanged within a certain time, the order of the print jobs is changed and the first print job on the network B is started. Processing of the print control apparatus 101 of the network printer at this time, the job manager on the network A, and the network B will be described.

  FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of job manager processing on the print control apparatus 101 and the terminal apparatus 111 when a sheet necessary for printing is not set in a print job from the network A. In S1201, a paper request message is displayed on the job manager 708. For example, “Please set A4 thick paper 2 in cassette 1” is displayed as a paper request message. In S1202, it is checked whether the paper has been correctly replaced. If not correctly replaced, the process returns to S1201. If the paper has been replaced with the correct paper, the process advances to step S1203 to print a job in which no paper has occurred. At this time, “Printing (A / B)” is displayed in 708. This indicates that the Ath part of the B part is printed. After the printing is completed, the process proceeds to S1204 to display “Available” and enter an idle state.

Next, FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of job manager processing on the print control apparatus 101 and the terminal apparatus 115 when a sheet necessary for printing is not set in a print job from the network A. In S1301, “printing” is displayed on the job manager 901. Actually, the image forming apparatus 107 is out of paper, but the paper request message is not displayed because the cause of the paper out is a print job from the network A. In S1202, it is checked whether the paper has been correctly replaced. If it has not been correctly replaced, the process proceeds to S1303, and the time from the occurrence of paper out is checked. If it is less than or equal to the preset threshold value T1 (minutes), the process returns to S1301. If the elapsed time is longer than T1 minutes, the process proceeds to S1304, and “available” is displayed. In step S1305, print processing for the next job from the network B is performed. Here, in order to simplify the description, it is assumed that no paper is generated in S1305. Then, it returns to S1302. If it is changed to the correct paper in S1302, the process proceeds to S1307. In step S1307, it is checked whether or not the paper-less job is completed. If printing is in progress, the process advances to step S1308 to display “printing” in the job manager 901. If printing has ended, the process advances to step S1306 to display “available” in 901 and enter an idle state.
[Example 2]
In the first embodiment, the case where there is no paper has been described. However, the same print job control as that of the first embodiment may be performed for accessories such as a stacker and a saddle finisher. In other words, if the finisher error is not resolved within a certain time, the order of the print jobs is changed and the first print job on another network is started. As specific examples, there are a case where a sheet remains in the sorter bin and a case where there is no staple.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Print control apparatus 102 Network interface card 103 Network interface card 104 Dedicated transmission path interface board 105 Signal line 106 Dedicated transmission line 107 Image forming apparatus 108 Network interface card 109 Dedicated transmission path interface board 110 Signal line 111 Terminal apparatus 112 Network 113 Network interface Card 114 Signal line 115 Terminal device 116 Network

Claims (4)

In a multi-home connected image forming apparatus system,
A transmission network attribute setting means (101) for setting a print job transmission source network as a print job attribute;
A print job information transmission determining means (101) for determining whether or not to transmit the print job information from the transmission network attribute of the print job set by the transmission network attribute means and the network information of the client;
Information display means (708, 901) for displaying information transmitted from the print control apparatus,
An image forming apparatus system that enables printing of a print job from other than a transmission network of the print job after a predetermined time elapses when printing of the print job cannot be started (S1305). The image forming apparatus system according to claim 1, wherein the print job information transmission determination unit permits transmission of print job information when the network is the same as the transmission network attribute of the print job. The image forming apparatus system according to claim 1, wherein the information display unit displays information relating to a print job and status information of the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus system according to claim 1, wherein when the printing of the print job cannot be started, information for returning the printing is displayed on the information display unit of the transmission source network of the print job.