JP2013145502A - Information processing apparatus, control method and program thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that, when checking the operation of an application of an image forming apparatus, a developer generally uses a simulator; the developer finds a difference in the operation between the image forming apparatus and the simulator for the first time when an operation of a function which is not supported by the simulator is executed on the simulator; and thus the developer has to repeat the operation on the image forming apparatus to check the operation.SOLUTION: While developing application on an integrated development environment system, any function of the operation having a difference between the image forming apparatus and the simulator is indicated as needed. When the application is intended to operate on plural image forming apparatuses, any operation different from that of the corresponding simulator is also indicated. Also, immediately before checking the operation of the application, a piece of operational difference information limited to the relevant simulator is indicated.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of editing a source file of an application, a control method, and a program thereof.

  As a conventional technique, an execution environment (for example, Java (registered trademark)) for another embedded system is constructed on the real-time OS of the image forming apparatus, and an application capable of controlling the image forming apparatus is downloaded from the outside. It is known to have an application platform that can be added. When developing an application on such an application platform, it is common to use a simulator that operates on a PC from the viewpoint of test man-hours and development cost reduction for operation confirmation. Further, in an embedded device having a unique function that varies from device to device such as an image forming apparatus, it is necessary to use a simulator corresponding to the embedded device. On the other hand, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for dynamically determining and controlling a function that can be used during execution of an application when the application uses a function specialized for the device.

JP2008-109416

  If an application implements device-specific functions, the simulator may not be able to support it. For example, hardware-dependent functions (such as an event that occurs based on a temperature sensor or an event that occurs when a document is detected) are difficult to reproduce on a simulator that runs on a PC.

  The following issues can be considered as other issues. In general, an application provider creates one application to operate on a plurality of devices in order to increase sales opportunities. At this time, the developer confirms the operation using a simulator corresponding to the image forming apparatus. However, the accuracy of the simulator varies for each corresponding image forming apparatus. For example, even functions that have not been supported in the past may become available in a new simulator for an image forming apparatus, depending on a developer's request and importance. For this reason, while the application operates correctly on the simulator for the new image forming apparatus, the application may not operate correctly on the simulator for the old image forming apparatus.

  However, it is difficult to determine whether the cause of the malfunction is due to an application mounting error or due to a difference in simulator accuracy. In other words, the developer needs to grasp whether the operation check of the function specialized for the device should be performed by the actual image forming apparatus or if there is no problem even if it is performed by the simulator.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus including a development environment that solves at least one of the above-described problems.

  An information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is an information processing apparatus capable of editing a source file of an application that provides a service using an image processing unit, and tests an application prepared for each image forming apparatus When an application programming interface (hereinafter referred to as API) is added to a source file corresponding to the application via a simulator for operating and a source file editing screen for editing the source file, settings are made for each simulator. Based on the reading means for reading the supported level for the API and the support level for the API of each simulator read by the reading means, an operation difference between the image forming apparatus and the simulator for the API is recognized. Characterized in that it displays the source file editing screen to kill.

  According to the present invention, a developer can determine whether or not a corresponding function can be operated by a simulator during application development.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a software structure diagram stored in the HDD 104 of the image forming apparatus and the HDD 304 of the development PC 300. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a development PC 300 connected to an image forming apparatus via a network. FIG. It is a figure showing the software structure in connection with the integrated development environment system 400 It is a figure showing the operation screen of the integrated development environment system 400 It is a figure showing the component of the manifest file 601 It is a figure showing the component of the operation | movement difference information table 408. It is a figure showing the component of the API utilization condition information table 409. It is a figure regarding operation difference information indication setting. It is a figure related to the change of the source file 418 It is a figure related to the display control table 1100 FIG. 10 is a diagram related to a source file editing screen 501 and an API operation difference information property screen 505 when a source file 418 is changed. It is a figure related to the startup of the simulator It is a figure showing the notes confirmation screen 1400 and the notes confirmation screen 1401 displayed before starting of a simulator.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the scope of claims, and all combinations of features described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the invention.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 includes, as a basic configuration, a controller unit 100 that controls each unit in the image forming apparatus, an operation unit 112, a scanner unit 123 that is an image processing unit, and a printer unit 125. . The operation unit 112 includes, for example, hard keys such as a numeric keypad for inputting numbers and a start key for executing processing, and a liquid crystal touch panel, and provides a user interface for a user to operate the image forming apparatus. . By touching (pressing down) an icon or button (or hard key) representing each setting item displayed on the touch panel of the operation unit 112, settings and information can be input to the image forming apparatus.

  The scanner unit 123 reads an image such as a document as image data. The printer unit 125 conveys the recording paper and prints the image data as a visible image on the recording paper. The controller unit 100 is connected to the scanner unit 123 via the bus 122 and connected to the printer unit 125 via the bus 124. The controller unit 100 is connected to other devices via a LAN 113, a WAN (public line) 114, or a WIRELESS (wireless) 115, and performs input / output control of image information and device information.

  The CPU 101 is a controller that controls the entire system. A RAM 102 is a system work memory for the CPU 101 to operate, and is also an image memory for temporarily storing image data. The ROM 103 is a boot ROM. The ROM 103 stores a system boot program. The HDD 104 is a hard disk drive, and stores system software, image data, and all wireless communication information (wireless communication specifications) of the communication unit 111 described later.

  The image forming apparatus can increase the functions using the image processing unit by installing an application (hereinafter referred to as “application”) in which a function to be used is installed. By installing the application, an application program for operating various functions on the image forming apparatus is stored in the RAM 102 or the HDD 104.

  The operation unit I / F 106 is an interface unit with the operation unit 112 that is a user interface (UI), and outputs data to be displayed on the operation unit 112 to the operation unit 112. Also, it plays a role of transmitting information input by the user from the operation unit 112 to the CPU 101. A network unit 109 is connected to the LAN 113 and inputs / outputs information. The modem 110 is connected to the WAN 114 and inputs / outputs information.

  The communication unit 111 is connected to the WIRELESS 115 via an antenna (not shown) and inputs / outputs information. The communication unit 111 can perform a plurality of types of wireless communication. Each of the above devices is arranged on the system bus 107. The image bus I / F 105 is a bus bridge that connects the system bus 107 and an image bus 108 that transfers image data at high speed and converts the data structure. The image bus 108 is a bus defined by a PCI bus or IEEE1394. In each device arranged on the image bus 108, a RIP (raster image processor) 116 expands the PDL code into a bitmap image. The device I / F unit 117 connects the scanner unit 123 or the printer unit 125 to the controller unit 100, and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data.

  The scanner image processing unit 118 corrects, processes, or edits input image data. The printer image processing unit 119 performs correction, resolution conversion, and the like suitable for the printer unit 125 on the print output image data. The image rotation unit 120 rotates image data. The image processing unit 121 performs compression / decompression processing such as JPEG, JBIG, MMR, and MH, and format conversion processing such as PDF, TIFF, OCR, and encryption on the image data.

  2A and 2B are examples of software structure diagrams of the image forming apparatus of the present invention and a corresponding simulator. The software for the image forming apparatus is stored in the HDD 104, and the software for the simulator is stored in the HDD 304 of the development PC 300 described later. Further, the image forming apparatus and the simulator having the same reference sign indicate that they are completely identical or functionally identical. Therefore, a simulator for causing the application to perform a test operation is prepared for each image forming apparatus.

  Although a real-time OS is generally used as the OS 201, a general-purpose OS such as Linux (registered trademark) may be used recently. The native library 202 is performed via the image bus I / F 105 and provides functions unique to the image forming apparatus such as image forming processing and encryption processing.

  Reference numeral 203 denotes a virtual machine represented by Java (registered trademark), which provides an application execution environment. It can be said that the device on which the virtual machine 203 is mounted has an execution environment for other applications, apart from the OS. The application framework 204 provides a function for managing the life cycle of the application. The system service 205 is an application registered in advance in the image forming apparatus, and there are an application that provides a function to another application and an application that functions independently. Examples of functions that provide functions to other applications include an error recovery service (ERS 206) that replaces processing when an error occurs, and an applet viewer service (AVS 207) that controls the operation unit 112. Further, as a single function, there is a service management service (SMS208) that is accessed from a PC using a browser and receives a predetermined application file. Application A 209 and application B 210 are applications installed by SMS 208 and provide various functions on the image forming apparatus. In other words, the application A 209 and the application B can be said to be applications that provide services using the image processing unit. The application A 209 and the application B 210 can refer to the AVS 206 at the time of execution and exchange with the user via the operation unit 112. In addition, the application A 209 and the application B 210 can refer to a system library 212 provided by the image forming apparatus via an application program interface (API) 211 that is an application programming interface. The system library 212 includes, for example, a job control library 213 such as print processing, copy processing, and scan processing. The application A 209 and the application B 210 can also receive data from a PC or the like via the network unit 109 of the image forming apparatus by using the job control system library 213, and can print using the printer unit 125. . In practice, the system library 212 is an interface that links a program written in Java (registered trademark) called JNI (Java Native Interface) and a code written in another language and operating on an actual CPU. The native library 202 is used via Thus, the system library 212 provides the functions of the image forming apparatus to the application. On the other hand, the dummy library 220 operating on the simulator has a function of reproducing the native library 202 in a pseudo manner. For example, in the image forming apparatus, when a print job is input, the state of the image forming apparatus transitions to “preparing”, “waiting to execute”, “executing”, and the image is normally formed. This state transition is actually determined based on the state of the printer unit 125 or the scanner unit 123 (whether printing is possible, paper is present, etc.). However, since the simulator does not have hardware resources such as the printer unit 125 and the scanner unit 123, the state transition of the image forming apparatus cannot be reproduced in the same way as the real one. Therefore, the dummy library 220 expresses such a state transition of the image forming apparatus so as to change over time, and imitates a typical process among functions unique to the image forming apparatus. On the other hand, abnormal processing, hardware-dependent functions, low-importance functions, etc. are not supported, or some of them are supported but have low reproducibility. Such reproducibility is referred to as “support level”. In other words, the operation of the API 211 may be different between the image forming apparatus and the simulator, and each API has a different support level. The smaller the difference between the image forming apparatus and the simulator, the higher the support level, and the greater the difference, the lower the support level.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a development PC 300 that is an information processing apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus via a network. When developing an application for an image forming apparatus, an integrated development environment is usually operated on the development PC 300 to create a program, test, debug, and the like. When testing an application, the application is installed from the development PC 300 to the image forming apparatus via the network unit 109, and the application is operated on the image forming apparatus.

  The CPU 301 is a central processing unit that controls each process on this apparatus. The ROM 302 stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus. A RAM 303 stores temporary data related to each process of the apparatus. The HDD 304 stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus, temporary data, and program modules related to the present invention. The input device 305 is a keyboard or a pointing device that receives an instruction input to the apparatus. A display unit 306 displays the operation status of the apparatus and information output by each program operating on the apparatus. A network I / F 307 is connected to a LAN and the Internet via a network and exchanges information with the outside. The USBH I / F 308 is a USB host interface and connects various USB devices. These elements are connected by a system bus 309 and exchange data.

  FIG. 4 is a software configuration diagram of an integrated development environment system 400 which is an example of the integrated development system of the present invention. Software for realizing the integrated development environment system 400 is stored in the HDD 304 of the development PC 300, and the software is loaded into the RAM 303 and executed by the CPU 301 to realize the integrated development environment system 400. The user can edit the source file of the application by using the integrated development environment system 400.

  The integrated development environment system 400 includes an integrated development platform 401, an internal tool A403 used in the integrated development platform 401, an internal tool B403 linked to the external tool B404, and an embedded application development support tool 405 in the same position as these internal tools. And having.

  As the integrated development environment system 400, for example, Eclipse (Eclipse is a registered trademark) can be used, but is not limited thereto. Note that Eclipse is an open source integrated software development environment and a common platform for software development. Eclipse has two types of tools: internal tools registered and provided as plug-ins and external tools that do not exist in Eclipse such as debuggers and compilers provided by Windows (registered trademark), UNIX (registered trademark), etc. Various functions are provided by using it.

  The integrated development infrastructure 401 includes an application for managing the application being developed and an interface for linking each tool. An example of the external tool is JDK (Java Development Kit) used for compiling and debugging Java (registered trademark). The internal tool can also use the function of the external tool via the interface provided by the integrated development platform 401. In this embodiment, JDK is already set as an external tool in the integrated development environment system 400 by the developer, and can be used from the internal tool via the integrated development platform 401. The configuration of the internal tool and the external tool included in the integrated development environment system 400 illustrated in FIG. 4 is merely an example, and is not limited thereto. Here, the embedded application development support tool 405 has a function of developing an application that can be operated by an embedded device such as an image forming apparatus and a test support function. The operation difference analysis unit 406 has a function of determining the support level in the simulator among the APIs 211 referred to by the application under development and pointing out the operation difference from the image forming apparatus. The manifest file reference unit 407 reads a manifest file, which is a setting file of the application, into the RAM 303 via the integrated development infrastructure 401. Then, it can be referred to from other components in the embedded application development support tool 405. The operation difference information table 408 holds information related to the support level for each simulator of the API 211. The API usage status information table 409 holds a list of APIs 211 used by the application. The editor update unit 410 displays information related to the support level in the simulator of the API 211 used by the application on the operation unit 306. The simulator launcher activation unit 411 selectively activates a simulator corresponding to the image forming apparatus. The API usage status display unit 412 displays a list of APIs 211 used by the operation check target application corresponding to the support level on the display unit 306 before the simulator is activated. The difference information indication setting unit 413 generates a difference information indication setting file 416 to be referred to when the operation difference analysis unit 406 analyzes the API 211 used by the application.

  The workspace 414 is an area that is referred to by the integrated development environment system 400 and that manages applications in units called projects. The workspace 414 may store a plurality of projects. Here, the project includes a manifest file 417, a source file 418, a class file, a JAR file, and the like. Here, the manifest file 417 is a file in which various information of the application is described, and details thereof will be described later. On the other hand, when an application is developed using the built-in application development support tool 405, a difference information indication setting file 416 is generated in the project. The difference information indication setting file 416 stores the type of image forming apparatus targeted by the operation difference analysis unit 406 and the support level to be indicated.

  FIG. 5 is an example of an operation screen of the integrated development environment system 400 displayed on the display unit 306. On the source file editing screen 501, the source file 418 in the project is displayed. At this time, a line number, a warning mark, an error mark, or the like can be displayed together according to the setting of the integrated development environment system 400. In this embodiment, information related to the support level is displayed as the support level mark 1200, which will be described later in detail. The project explorer 502 displays a list of applications under development in units of projects. When a development target project in the project explorer 502 is selected via the input device 305, a property window is displayed, and a difference information indication setting button 503 and a simulator launcher activation button 504 are displayed. When the difference information indication setting button 503 receives a selection notification from the input device 305, the difference information indication setting unit 413 is called internally, and the difference information indication setting screen 900 is displayed on the display unit 306. When the simulator launcher activation button 504 is selected, the simulator launcher activation means 411 is internally called. The API operation difference information property screen 505 is an area for displaying the support level of the API 211 used by the application, and will be described in detail later.

  FIG. 6 shows the components of the manifest file 417. Each element is a list of attributes and attribute values. An application name 602 representing application information is an element for entering the name of the application. A device specification ID (DID) 603 is an element for entering an identifier assigned to each model. The DID 603 lists DIDs targeted by the application for operation. Note that an application can be installed only when the DID of the image forming apparatus is included in the DID 603. The specification version 604 is a number assigned to a function defined for each image forming apparatus that can be used by an application. For example, 5 for the SSL function and 10 for the image conversion processing function. The developer lists the function numbers used by the application as the specification version. Note that the attribute information included in the manifest file 417 is not limited to the elements described above.

  FIG. 7 shows the structure of the operation difference information table 408. The operation difference information table 408 stores a list of APIs 211 and a support level for each simulator. The support level is divided into four stages, which are expressed as full support, simulation support, partial support, and non-support. Full support represents the same operation as that of the image forming apparatus. Simulation support represents operating based on fixed state transitions. That is, the operation is based on the state transition according to the passage of time, not the state transition according to the state of the hardware resource such as the image forming unit. Therefore, because of the pseudo operation, there is a possibility that a wrinkle occurs when the image forming apparatus performs a simulation. Partial support indicates that it operates except for some processing. For example, in the case of an API that accepts various events based on the state of the image forming apparatus, the simulator cannot support events that do not occur (paper tray open, document detection, etc.). Unsupported means that it does not work in the simulator. Here, for the sake of convenience, full support is indicated by ◎, simulation support is indicated by ○, partial support is indicated by Δ, and non-support is indicated by ×. In FIG. 7, the copy API indicates that simulator A has partial support, simulator B has simulation support, and simulator C and simulator Z have partial support. Simulator A and simulator B indicate simulators corresponding to image forming apparatus A and image forming apparatus B, respectively. Hereinafter, the support level acquired according to the simulator is referred to as operation difference information.

  FIG. 8 shows the structure of the API usage status information table 409. The API usage status information table 409 stores a list of information regarding the API 211 used by the application as application-API correspondence detailed information 800 for each application. In FIG. 8, the application 1 changes the copy API to App1Class1. It is used in the 123rd line of the Java (registered trademark) file, and indicates that it is called from an API defined by an application called getCopyDevice.

  FIG. 9A shows an operation difference information indication setting screen 900 that the integrated development environment system 400 displays on the display unit 306 based on the selection notification of the difference information indication setting button 503. On the operation difference information indication setting screen 900, the indication level setting 901 can indicate which support level API is indicated when the operation difference analysis means 406 points out an operation difference from the simulator. Here, the indication level setting 901 is not supported or only partially supported. For this reason, the simulation support and full support API used by the application are excluded from the indication. In addition, as a standard, the operation difference analysis unit 406 acquires information on the image forming apparatus based on the DID 603 of the manifest file 417 of the application from the operation difference information table 408, and points out according to the support level. On the other hand, on the operation difference information indication setting screen 900, an image forming device to be indicated can be selected in the target image forming device setting 902. This makes it possible to suppress indications for the old image forming apparatus when the developer intends to mount an application for the new image forming apparatus. Here, there are a plurality of designated simulators. Specifically, the image forming apparatus A, the image forming apparatus B, and the image forming apparatus C are selected and designated, and the operation difference of the image forming apparatus D is not pointed out. Further, the operation difference analysis unit 406 improves the accuracy of indication by utilizing the fact that the specification version is determined and the execution scope of the application is determined when the simulator for operating the application is determined as described later. There is a dynamic analysis function 903. However, the dynamic analysis function 903 takes time to process depending on the scale of the application, and may cause the developer to wait. For this reason, on the operation difference information indication setting screen 900, the validity / invalidity of the dynamic analysis function can be set. These indication setting information is stored in the difference information indication setting file 416 in a structure as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing when the source file 418 is changed on the source file editing screen 501. The embedded application development support tool 405 is initialized when the integrated development environment system 400 is activated. At that time, the embedded application development support tool 405 requests the integrated development platform 401 to notify the change information when the source file 418 is changed.

  In step 1001, the operation difference analysis unit 406 acquires information regarding the project 415 to which the changed source file 418 belongs from the integrated development infrastructure 401. In step 1002, the operation difference analysis unit 406 reads the difference information indication setting file 416 from the acquired project information into the RAM 303. At this time, the RAM 303 reads setting information regarding the indication level setting 901, the target image forming apparatus setting 902, and the dynamic analysis function 903. In step 1003, the operation difference analysis unit 406 acquires operation difference information related to the API 211 from the operation difference information table 408 based on the information of the target image forming apparatus setting 902 read into the RAM 303 and reads it into the RAM 303. In step 1004, the operation difference analysis unit 406 confirms whether the change information of the source file 418 acquired from the integrated development infrastructure 401 includes the API 211 present in the operation difference information read into the RAM 303. If the API 211 is not included, the source file editing screen 501 does not need to be updated, and the process ends. If the API 211 is included, the process proceeds to step 1005. In step 1005, the operation difference analysis unit 406 registers various information related to the corresponding API 211 in the API usage status information table 409 and writes the contents of the API usage status information table 409 in the HDD 304. In this embodiment, API information, file name, API call line number, API 211 caller API are listed as various information related to the API 211 to be registered, but it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to these. I want.

  In step 1006, the motion difference analysis means 406 generates the display control table 1100 shown in FIG. 11 from the indication level setting 901 and the motion difference information read into the RAM 303. The display control table 1100 stores the support level for each simulator and display availability information 1101 indicating whether the support level mark 1200 is displayed on the source file editing screen 501 or not. The generation of the display control table 1100 in FIG. 11 will be described. The motion difference analysis means 406 identifies the support level for the simulator API specified via the motion difference information indication setting screen 900 from the support level for each simulator API read into the RAM 303. FIG. 11 shows a control state when an API for converting a scanned image into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file having a high compression rate, called imagingToCompressedPDF included in the API 211, is added to the source file 418. In this example, non-support and partial support are set in the indication level setting 901, and simulator A, simulator B, and simulator C are set in the target image forming apparatus setting 902. Here, in Simulator A, imagingToCompressedPDF is unsupported and is within the range of the indication level setting 901, so that this API is determined to be displayed as a support level mark 1200. Similarly, in simulator C, imagingToCompressedPDF is partially supported and is within the indication level setting 901, so that this API is determined to be displayed as a support level mark 1200. On the other hand, in Simulator B, imagingToCompressedPDF is a simulation support and is outside the range of the indication level setting 901. Therefore, it is determined that this API is not displayed as the support level mark 1200. In step 1007, the motion difference analysis unit 406 notifies the editor update unit 410 of information on the display control table 1100. In step 1008, the editor update means 410 confirms whether the support levels are the same among the target simulators whose display enable / disable information 1101 is “display”. At this time, if all the support levels are the same, the process proceeds to step 1009. Conversely, for example, in FIG. 11, simulator A and simulator C are displayed, but the support levels are different. In such a case, the process proceeds to step 1010. In step 1009, the editor update unit 410 converts the support level information into icon information, and requests the integrated development platform 401 to display the support level mark 1200 on the source file editing screen 501. In step 1010, the editor update unit 410 converts the lowest support level information into icon information, attaches additional information, and requests to display the support level mark on the source file editing screen 501.

  FIG. 12 shows a source file editing screen 501 and an API operation difference information property screen 505, which are excerpts of locations where the application uses the API 211. In this example, imagingToPDF, imagingToCompressedPDF, and imagingToCompressedSearchablePDF correspond to the API 211. Note that the indication level setting 901 is not supported, only a part is supported, and the target image forming apparatus setting 902 is valid for the image forming apparatus A, the image forming apparatus B, and the image forming apparatus Y. Here, the reason why the support level mark 1200 is not displayed for imagingToPDF is that this API has simulation support. On the other hand, the imagingToCompressed PDF has a support level corresponding to the indication level setting 901 in the simulator A and the simulator C, and the support level mark 1200 is displayed horizontally. That is, the simulator A and the simulator C are specified simulators, and the support level mark is displayed when the specified support level is included in the support level for the simulator API specified via the operation difference information indication setting screen 900. Is displayed. In addition, since simulator A and simulator C have different support levels, “!” Is written as additional information in the support level mark. Thereby, it can be recognized that the corresponding level of the source file has a different support level for each image forming apparatus. Although “!” Is displayed as the display, a support level mark corresponding to each support level may be displayed at the same time.

  Further, since imagingToCompressedSearchablePDF is not supported in simulator A and simulator C, a support level mark 1200 is displayed. At this time, since the support levels of simulator A and simulator C are the same, only a mark indicating non-support is displayed. The API operation difference information property screen 505 displays such information regarding the support level for each API. It should be noted that information relating to the line currently selected on the source file editing screen 501 (in FIG. 12, imagingToCompressedPDF (stream);) is displayed in an inverted manner. In the first embodiment, the support level mark is displayed. However, such a display is not necessarily required. For example, the form corresponding to the API may be displayed by changing the color according to the support level. In this way, any display form may be used as long as it can be displayed so that the operation difference between the image forming apparatus and the simulator for the API can be recognized.

  FIG. 13A shows a situation in which the simulator launcher activation unit 411 is output to the operation unit 306 based on the selection notification of the simulator launcher activation button 504. The selected simulator becomes the simulator to be activated.

  FIG. 13B is a flowchart up to outputting the caution confirmation screen 1400 and the caution confirmation screen 1401 to the operation unit 306 when starting the simulator from the simulator launcher starting means 411. In step 1300, the simulator launcher activation unit 411 notifies the API usage status display unit 412 of the selected image forming apparatus name. In step 1301, the API usage status display unit 412 requests the operation difference analysis unit 406 to generate an API usage status corresponding to the selected image forming apparatus. In step 1302, the operation difference analysis unit 406 acquires operation difference information related to the simulator corresponding to the selected image forming apparatus from the operation difference information table 408 and reads it into the RAM 303. In step 1303, the operation difference analysis unit 406 reads the difference information indication setting file 416 into the RAM 303 and confirms whether the dynamic analysis function 903 is invalid. If invalid, the process proceeds to step 1304. If valid, the process proceeds to step 1308. In step 1304, the operation difference analysis unit 406 acquires information related to the project 415 selected by the project explorer 502 from the integrated development platform 401. Then, the operation difference analysis unit 406 acquires the corresponding application-API corresponding detailed information 800 from the API usage status information table 409 based on the acquired information of the application project 415. In step 1305, the operation difference analysis unit 406 extracts the application-API corresponding detailed information 800 other than the full support by comparing the API acquired from the application-API corresponding detailed information 800 corresponding to the application with the operation difference information. Then, the motion difference analysis unit 406 returns the extracted information to the API usage status display unit 412. In step 1306, the API usage status display unit 412 requests the integrated development platform 401 to display the result received from the operation difference analysis unit 406. As a result, the notice confirmation screen 1400 in FIG. 14A is displayed. The precautions confirmation screen 1400 displays various information related to APIs that are not fully supported on the simulator to be started (simulator A in FIG. 14A). On the other hand, in step X1308, since the dynamic analysis function 903 is valid, the operation difference analysis unit 406 considers branch control according to the specification version 604 for all sources of the selected project, and the application-API. The correspondence detailed information 800 is generated again. Specifically, when the specification version 604 defined in the image forming apparatus A is only 10, the processing within the scope based on the following control statement is executed on the image forming apparatus A on the source file 418 in FIG. There is nothing to do.

if (System.getProperty (“SpecID”). indexOf (“10”)) {
imagingToPDF (stream);
}
Note that System. getProperty (“SpecID”) is a description for acquiring a specification version 604 defined in the image forming apparatus. And System. getProperty (“SpecID”). indexOf (“10”) returns a true / false value indicating whether or not 10 is included in the acquired specification version 604. With this dynamic analysis function 903, imagingToCompressedPDF and imagingToCompressedSearchablePDF are present on the same source file 418, but are not processed on the image forming apparatus A. .

  As described above, the application developer of the image forming apparatus uses the embedded application development support tool 405 registered in the integrated development environment system 400, so that the API 211 used by the application under development is a simulator whose operation is to be confirmed. Can be used before execution. For example, when an application that operates on the image forming apparatus A adds an API 211 that cannot be used in the simulator A on the source file editing screen 501, the developer is displayed as a support level mark 1200. For this reason, the developer can easily determine whether the operation confirmation regarding the corresponding part is sufficient even with the simulator or should be performed with the actual image forming apparatus. As a result, the operation confirmation work on the image forming apparatus can be reduced. In addition, when it is assumed that the application operates on a plurality of image forming apparatuses, the embedded application development support tool 405 displays the difference in support level for each simulator. For this reason, for example, when the same operation check is performed in the simulator A and the simulator B, since the simulator A moved, an erroneous operation check operation due to the developer's assumption that the simulator B also moves can be prevented. In addition, before starting the simulator, information related to an API whose operation is not guaranteed on the simulator is displayed as a precaution check screen 1400. Thereby, the developer can confirm the information regarding the API 211 used by the application according to the support level in the simulator immediately before the actual operation confirmation work. In addition, when the dynamic analysis function 903 is enabled, the scope pointed out on the source file 418 can be limited based on the simulator that performs the operation check when the application branches and controls the use of the API 211 by the specification version. As a result, unnecessary indications on the precautions confirmation screen 1401 can be reduced, so that the visibility of the developer is improved.

406 Operation difference analysis means 408 Operation difference information table 409 API usage status information table 410 Editor update means 412 API usage status display means

Claims (8)

An information processing apparatus capable of editing a source file of an application that provides a service using an image processing unit,
A simulator prepared for each image forming apparatus to test the application;
When an application programming interface (hereinafter referred to as API) is added to the source file corresponding to the application via the source file editing screen for editing the source file, the support level for the API set for each simulator Means to read
Display control means for displaying the source file editing screen so that an operation difference between the image forming apparatus and the simulator for the API can be recognized based on the support level for the API of each simulator read by the reading means. Information processing device. Accepting means for accepting designation of a support level for displaying a support level mark on the source file editing screen and designation of a simulator for performing the test operation of the application;
Specifying means for specifying a support level for the API of the simulator received by the receiving means from a support level for the API of each simulator read by the reading means;
The display control means displays a support level mark corresponding to the specified support when the specified support level is included in the specification of the support level received by the receiving means. Item 4. The information processing apparatus according to Item 1. When there are a plurality of simulator designations received by the receiving means, and there are a plurality of support levels specified by the specifying means,
The display control unit corresponds to the plurality of support levels specified by the specifying unit when the plurality of support levels specified by the specifying unit are included in the designation of the plurality of simulators received by the receiving unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each support level mark is displayed simultaneously. Starting means for starting a simulator designated by the user from among the simulators;
The display control means displays a precaution check screen for recognizing that an operation difference exists between the image forming apparatus and the simulator for the API before the activation target simulator is activated by the activation means. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. Having an acquisition means for acquiring a specification version of the virtual machine included in an image forming apparatus equipped with a virtual machine that operates the application;
The image forming apparatus corresponding to the simulator designated by the user from among the simulators, and the specification version acquired when the specification version of the virtual machine mounted on the image forming apparatus is acquired by the acquisition unit If it is confirmed that the API included in the source file corresponding to the application is not executed in consideration of the branch control by the 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein control is performed so as not to display the presence.   The support level means a full support indicating that the simulator performs the same operation as the image forming apparatus, a simulation support indicating that the simulator operates based on a fixed state transition, and a part of processing in the API. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a partial support indicating that the operation is performed and a non-support indicating that the operation is not performed in the simulator. A control method for controlling an information processing apparatus capable of editing a source file of an application that provides a service using an image processing unit,
The simulator prepared for each image forming device runs the application as a test,
When an application programming interface (hereinafter referred to as API) is added to the source file corresponding to the application via the source file editing screen for editing the source file, the reading unit is configured to Read the support level for the API,
The display control means displays the source file editing screen so that an operation difference between the image forming apparatus and the simulator for the API can be recognized based on the support level for the API of each simulator read by the reading means. A control method for controlling a characteristic information processing apparatus.   A program for causing an information processing apparatus to execute the control method according to claim 7.

Images