JP2014235497A - Server device, control method thereof, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manage, as a print history, a print result printed in accordance with print setting information set by a printer.SOLUTION: A server device which communicates with a printer for processing print information acquires print information printed by a printer, history information associated with the print information, and print setting information which the printer has applied to the print information. Then, when determining that the history information acquired from the printer has specific print processing set therein, the server generates image information from the print setting information and the print information acquired, and stores the generated image information in association with the history information.

Description

  The present invention relates to a server apparatus that manages history information of a printing apparatus, a server apparatus control method, and a program.

  With the widespread use of image processing apparatuses, anyone can easily copy and transmit a document using the image processing apparatus. However, these improve convenience for the user, but they are a new problem from the viewpoint of information leakage such as copying and transmission of confidential documents.

  As a countermeasure against such problems, image data input during image processing such as copying, transmission, and printing is stored in the image processing apparatus, and it is confirmed later what kind of image data has been processed. An image processing system that can do this is known (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  In addition, in an image processing system including an image processing apparatus that does not hold a relatively large-capacity storage such as a printer, a configuration is proposed in which PDL data is transmitted from a host computer that generates a print job to an image processing server.

JP 2006-330939 A

  In the conventional image processing system, when the print image is changed by the setting of the image processing apparatus, the image data stored in the image processing server may be different from the actually printed image information. Since the image processing server stores the image data before being changed by the setting of the image processing apparatus, the image processing server stores image data representing an image different from the image output by printing or the like from the image processing apparatus. Will do. Therefore, the image processing server cannot manage the image data reflecting the print settings of the image processing apparatus.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism capable of managing a print result printed according to print setting information set in a printing apparatus as a print history. That is.

The server device of the present invention that achieves the above object has the following configuration.
A server device that communicates with a printing device that processes printing information, the printing information processed by the printing device, history information relating to processing of the printing information in the printing device, and the printing device processing the printing information Acquisition means for acquiring print setting information applied to the print information; generation means for generating image information from the print information according to the print setting information; and storage means for storing the generated image information in association with the history information; It is characterized by providing.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to manage, as a print history, a print result printed in conformity with print setting information set in the printing apparatus.

It is a figure which shows the structure of an image processing system. It is a block diagram explaining the structure of the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and a server apparatus. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the printer illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration of the image forming system illustrated in FIG. 1. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the printing apparatus. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of print setting information generated by the printer illustrated in FIG. 4. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of job history information generated by a printer. FIG. It is a flowchart explaining the control method of a server apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the image data preserve | saved at a data server. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the printing apparatus. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of page history information generated by a printer. FIG. It is a flowchart explaining the control method of a server apparatus. It is a flowchart explaining the data processing method of information processing apparatus. It is a flowchart explaining the control method of a server apparatus. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling the printing apparatus. It is a flowchart explaining the data processing method of a server apparatus.

Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First Embodiment]
<System configuration>

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing system to which a server device according to the present embodiment is applied. Here, an image processing server 1001, a data server 1002, a search server 1003, a host computer 1004, and a printer 1005 are connected to the network 1006. Instead of the printer 1005 in this embodiment, an image processing apparatus having a printing function, for example, an MFP (Multi Function Printer) may be connected to the network 1006. A plurality of host computers similar to the host computer 1004 may be connected to the network 1006, or a plurality of printers similar to the printer 1005 may be connected to the network 1006.

  The printer 1005 has a function of printing print data (PDL data) transmitted from the host computer 1004 and printing image data stored in a removable external storage device. In the present embodiment, printing executed by the printer 1005 is referred to as a “job”. The printer 1005 temporarily records, in the printer 1005, print data and image data used in the job and job history information regarding the job executed on the device. The printer 1005 transmits the data temporarily recorded in the printer 1005 to the image processing server 1001 at a predetermined timing.

The image processing server 1001 performs data conversion processing on print data or image data transmitted from the printer 1005. Data conversion processing is processing that performs OCR processing on image data to extract text information or convert the format of image data. Alternatively, when the data transmitted from the printer 1005 is PDL data, processing for converting PDL data into image data is also included in the data conversion processing. The information obtained by the data conversion process is transmitted to the data server 1002 in association with the job history information. The data server 1002 stores information transmitted from the image processing server.
Here, the job history information includes information such as user information for executing the job, date and time information for executing the job, information for specifying the executed printer (IP address and serial number), and the type of job executed. The job history information may include data used in the above-described job or data obtained by data conversion processing.

The data server 1002 stores image data transmitted from the image processing server 1001, text information associated with job history information, and a log. In this embodiment, it is assumed that a database exists in the data server 1002. However, any storage means that can store job history information and hold it in a searchable state can be stored in a file system, even if it is a database. It does not matter.
In the present embodiment, information stored in the data server 1002 can be searched from the search server 1003. The job history information stored in the data server 1002 is deleted when a predetermined condition is satisfied. For example, the predetermined condition is a retention period of job history information, and job history information after a certain period has been deleted from the data server 1002. The deletion process is executed at a predetermined timing, for example, once a day.

  The search server 1003 receives a search condition from the user, acquires information that matches the search condition from the job history information stored in the data server 1002, and presents it to the user. Search conditions include job attributes such as job executor, execution date and time, and character strings included in text information. The job history information stored in the data server 1002 is searched using the specified search condition as a keyword.

In FIG. 1, each server has been described as a separate device, but a configuration in which these functions are included in one server may be used. These functions may be included in any number of servers in any combination.
<Hardware configuration>

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the information processing apparatus and the server apparatus illustrated in FIG. This example is a hardware configuration example of each server and host computer 1004 configuring each of the search server 1003, the image processing server 1001, and the data server 1002 shown in FIG. The hardware configuration diagram shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the hardware configuration diagram of a general information processing apparatus, and the hardware configuration of a general information processing apparatus can be applied to the server and the host computer of this embodiment. .

  2, a ROM 2002, a CPU 2003, a RAM 2004, a storage 2005, an operation unit interface (operation unit I / F) 2006, a display unit interface (display unit I / F) 2008, and a network interface (network I / F) 2010 are a bus 2011. It is connected to the. The CPU 2003 executes programs such as an operation system (OS) and application programs stored in the ROM 2002 or loaded from the storage 2005 to the RAM 2004. Hereinafter, the same applies to any processing flow. The processing of each flowchart to be described later can be realized by executing this program. A RAM 2004 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 2003. An operation unit I / F 2006 controls key input from the operation unit 2007. A display unit I / F 2008 controls display on the display unit 2009. A network I / F 2010 is connected to a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) and executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network. The storage 2005 is configured by a hard disk (HDD) or an SSD (Solid State Drive) using a flash memory, and stores programs such as application programs.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer 1005 shown in FIG. The controller unit 3001 is connected to a printer engine 3011 that is an image output device. The printer engine 3011 prints out an image by an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or other methods.

In the controller unit 3001, a CPU 3003 is a controller that controls the entire system. A RAM 3004 is a system work memory for the CPU 3003 to operate, and is also an image memory for temporarily storing input image data.
The ROM 3002 stores programs (such as OS and application programs) executed by the CPU 3003. The storage 3006 stores programs (such as application programs) executed by the CPU 3003, job history information, image data, and the like. The storage 3006 is configured by a hard disk (HDD) or an SSD (Solid State Drive) using a flash memory, and stores programs such as application programs, data such as image data, print data, and setting information indicating print settings. . The storage 3006 stores job history information in the printer 1005 and transmits job history information to the server, which will be described later, by the CPU 3003 executing a program stored in the storage 3006. Is done.
An operation unit I / F 3008 is an interface unit with the operation unit 3009 and outputs screen data to be displayed on the operation unit 3009 to the operation unit 3009. The operation unit I / F 3008 serves to transmit information input by the operator from the operation unit 3009 to the CPU 3003.
Note that the operation unit 3009 may be a screen installed in the printer, or a screen provided by a program in the printer remotely from an external device such as a host computer. A network I / F 3012 is connected to a network (LAN) and inputs / outputs information. The above devices are arranged on the system bus 3007.

The image processing unit 3005 has various image processing functions such as a RIP (Raster Image Processing), an image compression unit, a color space conversion unit, an image rotation unit, a resolution conversion unit, a gradation conversion unit, and a printer image processing unit. RIP expands PDL data into a bitmap image.
The image compression unit performs JPEG compression / expansion processing for multi-valued image data and JBIG for binary image data. The resolution conversion unit performs resolution conversion processing on the image data on the memory and saves it in the RAM 3004. The color space conversion unit converts, for example, YUV image data in the RAM 3004 into Lab image data by matrix calculation, and stores it in the RAM 3004.
The gradation converter 220 converts, for example, 8-bit, 256-gradation image data in the RAM 3004 into 1-bit, 2-gradation by a technique such as error diffusion processing, and stores the converted data in the RAM 3004. The printer image processing unit corrects, processes, and edits the output image data. The image rotation unit rotates image data and stores it in the RAM 3004. These can be connected and operated. For example, when image rotation and resolution conversion are performed on image data stored in the RAM 3004, both processes can be performed without using a memory.
<Software configuration>

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the information processing apparatus, the printing apparatus, and the server apparatus illustrated in FIG. This example is an example of the software configuration of the printer 1005, the search server 1003, the image processing server 1001, and the data server 1002 shown in FIG.
In FIG. 4, a main control unit 4011, UI control unit 4012, job control unit 4013, setting control unit 4014, file operation unit 4015, and transmission / reception unit 4016 included in the printer 1005 are software executed by the CPU 3003. A main control unit 4011 controls the entire printer 1005 and instructs and manages each unit described below. In addition, a job execution instruction is issued to the job control unit 4013 according to the print data from the host computer transmitted to the transmission / reception unit 4016 and the user instruction content from the UI control unit 4012. A UI control unit 4012 generally controls processing related to user operations in the printer 1005.
Specifically, an operation screen is displayed on the operation unit 3009 of the printer 1005, and the instruction content received from the user is passed to the main control unit 4011. The job control unit 4013 receives a user instruction via the main control unit 4011 and executes a designated job.
At this time, setting information, image data, and job history information in the storage 3006 are referred to or updated via the main control unit 4011 and the file operation unit 4015. The file operation unit 4015 is a control unit for inputting and outputting setting information, image data, and job history information in the storage 3006, and executes processing in response to processing requests from each unit.
The transmission / reception unit 4016 receives print data from the host computer 1004. Also, setting information relating to generation of job history information and transmission of job history information is received from the image processing server 1001 and stored via the file operation unit 4015. A setting control unit 4014 sets operating conditions related to the printer 1005. The setting control unit 4014 receives an operation condition setting instruction via the main control unit 4011, and stores setting information via the file operation unit 4015.

In the image processing server 1001, a main control unit 4021, an image processing unit 4022, a UI control unit 4023, and a setting control unit 4024 are software executed by the CPU 2003 of the image processing server 1001. The main control unit 4021 controls the entire image processing server 1001 and gives instructions and management to each unit described later. The image processing unit 4022 performs OCR processing or image format conversion on image data in accordance with an instruction from the main control unit 4021.
The UI control unit 4023 displays an operation screen on the display unit 2009 of the image processing server 1001 and accepts an instruction from the user using the operation unit 2007. The setting information designated by the user is stored in the data server 1002 via the main control unit 4021. A setting control unit 4024 sets operating conditions related to the image processing server 1001. The setting control unit 4024 receives an operation condition setting instruction via the main control unit 4021 and stores setting information in the data server 1002. Also, the main control unit 4021 print information used in printing with the printer 1005, job history information associated with the print information, and print applied when the printer 1005 performs printing based on the print information. Get configuration information. If the main control unit 4021 determines that specific print processing is set in the job history information acquired, the image processing unit 4022 performs processing to generate image information from the print setting information and print information acquired. . Here, the print information includes print data (PDL data) and electronic data (PDF data) according to a predetermined page description language. Further, the print setting information includes layout information and image adjustment information shown in FIG.

In the data server 1002, the job history information control unit 4031, the setting control unit 4032, the search control unit 4033, and the file operation unit 4034 are software executed by the CPU 2003 of the data server 1002. The job history information control unit 4031 receives an instruction to reference or save job history information via the main control unit 4021 of the image processing server 1001, and controls job history information according to the instruction.
The setting control unit 4032 receives a reference or storage instruction regarding the setting information of each component via the main control unit 4021 of the image processing server 1001, and controls the setting information according to the instruction. The search control unit 4033 receives search conditions and search execution instructions from the search server 1003 and returns search results. The file operation unit 4034 receives an instruction from each control unit, and refers to and saves setting information and job history information in the storage 2005.

In the search server 1003, a search main control unit 4041, a search control unit 4042, and a UI control unit 4043 are software executed by the CPU 2003 of the search server 1003. The search main control unit 4041 controls the entire search server 1003 and instructs and manages each unit described later. The search control unit 4042 controls search processing.
Based on the search condition received from the search main control unit 4041, the search is instructed to the search control unit 4042 of the data server 1002 and the search result is received. Further, the search results are sorted as necessary, and the search results are transferred to the search main control unit 4041.
In order to set a search condition, the UI control unit 4043 displays an operation screen on the display unit 2009 of the search server 1003 and receives a search condition from a user using the operation unit 2007. The received search condition is passed to the search control unit 4042 via the search main control unit 4041. In addition, the UI control unit 4043 presents the search result received from the search control unit 4042 via the search main control unit 4041 to the user via the operation screen.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a control method of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of print processing in the operation related to the printer 1005 shown in FIG. Each step is realized by the CPU 3003 of the printer 1005 shown in FIG. 3 executing a control program stored in the ROM 3002 or the like. In the following description, the module shown in FIG. 4 executed by the CPU 3003 will be mainly described.
When print data, for example, PDL data transmitted from the host computer 1004 is received, the transmission / reception unit 4016 shown in FIG. 4 stores the PDL data in the RAM 3004 (S101). After receiving the PDL data, the setting control unit 4014 reads the current print setting information stored in the storage 3006 and stores it in the RAM 3004 (S102).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of print setting information generated by the printer 1005 shown in FIG. The print setting information is not limited to the items shown here, and may include other items.
After reading the current print setting information from the storage 3006, the job control unit 4013 refers to the current print setting information and uses the image processing unit 3005 to generate image data (bitmap image) from the PDL data. (S103). After generating the image data, the job control unit 4013 transfers the image data to the printer engine 3011 via the device I / F 3010 and performs printing (S104). After the printing is completed, the job control unit 4013 generates job history information based on the printing result and stores it in the storage 3006 (S105).

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of job history information generated by the printer 1005 illustrated in FIG. Here, the history of the PDL print job executed by the client on October 22, 2011 is stored. The job history information is not limited to the items shown here, and may include other items. Here, the job type includes information indicating PDL printing.
After the job history information is generated, the transmission / reception unit 4016 transmits the PDL data, print setting information, and job history information stored in the storage 3006 to the image processing server 1001 (S106).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a control method of the server apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of image storage in the operation related to the image processing server 1001 and the data server 1002 shown in FIG. Each step is realized by the CPU 2003 of the server device executing a control program. Hereinafter, the control subject will be described with reference to the module shown in FIG.
The main control unit 4021 of the image processing server 1001 receives from the printer 1005 a set of data including PDL data, current print setting information, and job history information (S201). The main control unit 4021 refers to the received job history information (S202) and determines whether or not the job type is PDL printing (S203). If the main control unit 4021 determines that the job type is PDL printing, the image processing unit 4022 is instructed to generate an image. The image processing unit 4022 generates image data from the current print setting information and PDL data (S204). After generating the image data, the main control unit 4021 transmits the image data and the job history information to the job history information control unit 4031 of the data server 1002, and stores them in the storage 2005 via the file operation unit 4034 (S205). This process ends.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of image data stored in the data server 1002 shown in FIG.
FIG. 9A shows the result when the image processing unit 4022 generates image data from PDL data without the print setting information of the printer 1005 in FIG. When the image processing unit 4022 generates image data from the PDL data in accordance with the print setting information of the printer 1005 shown in FIG. 6, since the reduced layout is set in the print setting information, the result of image generation Is as shown in FIG.

  As described above, when the image processing server generates image data from the current print setting information of the printer and the PDL data, the image processing server can generate image data equivalent to the image data generated by the printer. Therefore, the administrator of the image processing system according to the present embodiment can confirm the image data having the same appearance as the image processed (printed) by the printer by confirming the image stored in the data server. Become.

[Second Embodiment]
Hereinafter, a second embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The main difference between this embodiment and 1st Embodiment is as follows. In the first embodiment, even if there are pages that could not be printed by the printer, the image processing server generates images for all pages. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, page history information describing whether or not to print in units of pages is generated by the printer, and the image processing server refers to the above-described page history information and cannot perform printing. The image generation is omitted. Details will be described below. The image processing system in the second embodiment is as shown in FIG. 1, the configuration of the information processing apparatus and the server apparatus is as shown in FIG. 2, and the configuration of the printer 1005 is as shown in FIG. The software configurations of the information processing apparatus, printing apparatus, and server apparatus are as shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining a control method of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of print processing in the operation related to the printer 1005. Each step is realized by the CPU 3003 of the printer 1005 shown in FIG. 3 executing a control program stored in the ROM 3002 or the like. In the following description, the module shown in FIG. 4 executed by the CPU 3003 will be mainly described.

When the PDL data transmitted from the host computer 1004 is received, the transmission / reception unit 4016 stores the PDL data in the RAM 3004 (S301). After receiving the PDL data, the setting control unit 4014 reads the current print setting information stored in the storage 3006 and stores it in the RAM 3004 (S302). Then, according to the print setting information, PDL interpretation of the first page is performed from the PDL data (S303).
After the PDL interpretation of the first page, the job control unit 4013 generates image data of the corresponding page using the image processing unit 3005 according to the PDL interpretation result and the current print setting information (S304). After generating the image data, the job control unit 4013 transfers the image data to the printer engine 3011 via the device I / F 3010 and performs printing (S305). After printing is completed, the job control unit 4013 generates page history information based on the printing result. If the page history information of the job has already been generated, the aforementioned page history information is updated (S306).

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of page history information generated by the printer 1005 shown in FIG. Here, the job ID and the IP address of the printer 1005 are stored so as to be associated with the job history information. Further, the number of pages that could not be printed and the page ID are stored in a list format. Note that the page history information is not limited to the items shown here, and may include other items.

  Next, the job control unit 4013 refers to the current setting information and performs PDL interpretation of the next page from the PDL data (S307). If the job is not completed as a result of the PDL interpretation, the process returns to S304 and the flow proceeds. If the job is completed, the flow proceeds to S309 (S308). After the job is completed, the job control unit 4013 generates job history information based on the print result and stores it in the storage 3006 (S309). Then, the transmission / reception unit 4016 transmits the PDL data, print setting information, job history information, and page history information to the image processing server 1001 (S310), and ends this processing.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining a control method of the server apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of image storage in the operation related to the image processing server 1001 and the data server 1002 shown in FIG. Each step is realized by the CPU 2003 of the server device executing a control program. Hereinafter, the control subject will be described with reference to the module shown in FIG.
The main control unit 4021 of the image processing server 1001 receives PDL data, print setting information, job history information, and page history information from the printer 1005 (S401). When the job type is PDL printing for the received job history information, the main control unit 4021 issues an image generation instruction to the image processing unit 4022 (S402). After the image generation instruction, the image processing unit 4022 refers to the page history information of the first page (S403). If the corresponding page is not a canceled page with reference to the page history information, the image processing unit 4022 generates image data from the current setting information and PDL data (S405).
On the other hand, if it is determined in S404 that the corresponding page is a canceled page with reference to the page history information, the image processing unit 4022 proceeds to the next flow without generating the image data of the corresponding page, and proceeds to the next flow. The page is processed (S406).
Then, it is determined whether the job is not completed (S407). If it is determined that the job has been completed, the main control unit 4021 transmits the image data and job history information to the job history information control unit 4031 of the data server 1002, and stores the data via the file operation unit 4034. It is stored in 2005 (S408).

  As described above, the image processing server generates image only for the printed page by referring to the page history information describing the presence / absence of printing for each page generated by the printer, thereby obtaining image data equal to the printing result of the printer. It can be stored in the data server.

[Third Embodiment]
Hereinafter, a third embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. The main difference between this embodiment and 1st Embodiment is as follows. In the first embodiment, PDL data generated by the host computer is transmitted from the printer to the image processing server. On the other hand, in the third embodiment, PDL data is directly transmitted from the host computer to the image processing server and history information. Then, setting information and history information are transmitted from the printer, and the image processing server performs image recording in combination with the information transmitted from the host computer. Details will be described below. The image processing system according to the third embodiment is as shown in FIG. 1, the configuration of the information processing device and the server device is shown in FIG. 2, and the configuration of the printer 1005 is shown in FIG. The software configurations of the information processing apparatus, printing apparatus, and server apparatus are as shown in FIG.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining a data processing method of the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of print processing in the operation related to the host computer 1004 shown in FIG. Each step is realized by the CPU 2003 of the host computer 1004 shown in FIG. 1 executing the module shown in FIG.
When receiving a print instruction from the operation unit 3009 from the user, the CPU 2003 generates PDL data (S501). After generating the PDL data, the CPU 2003 transmits the PDL data to the printer 1005 (S502). After transmitting the PDL data to the printer, the CPU 2003 generates job history information based on the PDL data transmission result (S503). After generating job history information, the CPU 3003 transmits PDL data and job history information to the image processing server 1001 (S504).
FIG. 14 is a flowchart for explaining a control method of the server apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of PDL data recording processing in the operation relating to the image processing server 1001 and the data server 1002 shown in FIG. Each step is realized by the CPU 2003 of the server device executing a control program. Hereinafter, the control subject will be described with reference to the module shown in FIG.

  The main control unit 4021 of the image processing server 1001 receives PDL data and job history information from the host computer 1004 (S601). The main control unit 4021 transmits the PDL data and the job history information to the job history information control unit 4031 of the data server 1002 and stores them in the storage 2005 via the file operation unit 4034 (S602, S603).

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining a control method of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of print processing in the operation related to the printer 1005 shown in FIG. Each step is realized by the CPU 3003 of the printer 1005 shown in FIG. 3 executing a control program stored in the ROM 3002 or the like. In the following description, the module shown in FIG. 4 executed by the CPU 3003 will be mainly described.
When receiving the PDL data transmitted from the host computer, the transmission / reception unit 4016 stores the PDL data in the RAM 3004 (S701). After receiving the PDL data, the setting control unit 4014 reads the stored current print setting information and stores it in the RAM 3004 (S702). After reading the print setting information, the job control unit 4013 generates image data from the PDL data using the image processing unit 3005 according to the print setting information (S703). After generating the image data, the job control unit 4013 transfers the image data to the printer engine 3011 via the device I / F 3010 and performs printing (S704). After printing, the job control unit 4013 generates job history information based on the printing result. After the job history information is generated, the transmission / reception unit 4016 transmits the print setting information and job history information stored in the RAM 3004 to the image processing server 1001 (S706), and ends this processing.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart for explaining a data processing method of the server apparatus according to the present embodiment. This example is an example of data processing at the time of image storage in an operation related to the image processing server 1001 and the data server 1002. Each step is realized by the CPU 2003 of the server device executing a control program. Hereinafter, the control subject will be described with reference to the module shown in FIG.
The main control unit 4021 of the image processing server 1001 receives print setting information and job history information from the printer 1005 (S801). When the job type is PDL printing for the received job history information, the main control unit 4021 instructs the job control information search execution instruction to be the same as the job ID and IP address of the received job history information. Send to data server. The job history information control unit 4031 of the data server 1002 accepts search conditions and search execution instructions, and returns search results (S803). If the job type is not PDL printing, the flow proceeds to S806. The main control unit 4021 transmits the received job history information to the job history information control unit 4031 of the data server 1002, and overwrites and saves the job history information searched for in the storage 2005 via the file operation unit 4034. (S804). The image processing unit 4022 generates image data from the print setting information and the PDL data (S805). After generating the image data, the main control unit 4021 transmits the image data and the job history information to the job history information control unit 4031 of the data server 1002, and stores them in the storage 2005 via the file operation unit 4034 (S806). This process ends.

As described above, the PDL data is directly transmitted from the host computer to the image processing server, and the image information is generated by using the setting information transmitted from the printer later. It can be generated on the server.
[Other Embodiments]

In the present embodiment, for print processing in the operation related to the printer 1005, job history information and current print setting information are transmitted from the printer to the image processing server in synchronization. However, since the frequency of setting information update is low compared to the frequency of print processing in the normal usage method, the above information transmission processing is performed asynchronously. For example, the setting information is transmitted only when the setting information is updated. The composition to be taken.
In this embodiment, only PDL data generated by the host computer has been described. However, the present invention can also be applied to image data such as JPEG and TIFF.

  In this embodiment, the description is made only when the print job is transmitted from the host computer. However, the present embodiment is also applicable to a print job received from an external device or a removable storage device or a print job generated inside the printer. Is possible.

  Each process of the present invention can also be realized by executing software (program) acquired via a network or various storage media by a processing device (CPU, processor) such as a personal computer (computer).

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications (including organic combinations of the embodiments) are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are excluded from the scope of the present invention. is not.

1001 Image processing server 1002 Data server 1003 Search server 1004 Host computer 1005 Printer

Claims (11)

A server device that communicates with a printing device that processes print information,
Acquisition means for acquiring print information processed by the printing apparatus, history information regarding the processing of the printing information in the printing apparatus, and print setting information applied by the printing apparatus to the processing of the printing information;
Generating means for generating image information from the print information according to the print setting information;
Storage means for storing the generated image information in association with the history information;
A server device comprising: A server device that communicates with a printing device that processes print information,
Acquisition means for acquiring print information processed by the printing apparatus, history information regarding the processing of the printing information in the printing apparatus, and print setting information applied by the printing apparatus to the processing of the printing information;
Generation for generating image information of a page processed in the printing apparatus from the print information according to information for specifying a page in which the printing information is processed in the printing apparatus and print setting information included in the history information Means,
Storage means for storing the generated image information in association with the history information;
A server device comprising: A server device that communicates with an information processing device and a printing device that processes print information generated by the information processing device;
Receiving means for receiving, from the information processing apparatus, print information transmitted from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus;
Acquisition means for acquiring history information relating to processing of print information transmitted from the information processing device to the printing device in the printing device and print setting information applied by the printing device to processing of the print information from the printing device. When,
Generating means for generating image information from the print information received from the information processing device according to the print setting information acquired by the acquisition means;
Storage means for storing the generated image information in association with the history information;
A server device comprising:   The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit asynchronously acquires the print information and the print setting information.   4. The server device according to claim 1, further comprising: a transfer unit that transfers image data associated with history information to be stored in the storage unit to another server device. 5.   The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print setting information includes layout information and image adjustment information.   The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print information is print data based on a predetermined page description language. A method of controlling a server device that communicates with a printing device that processes print information,
An acquisition step of acquiring print information processed by the printing apparatus, history information regarding the processing of the printing information in the printing apparatus, and print setting information applied by the printing apparatus to the processing of the printing information;
Generating the image information from the print information according to the print setting information;
A storing step of storing the generated image information in association with the history information;
A control method for a server device, comprising: A method of controlling a server device that communicates with a printing device that processes print information,
An acquisition step of acquiring print information processed by the printing apparatus, history information regarding the processing of the printing information in the printing apparatus, and print setting information applied by the printing apparatus to the processing of the printing information;
Generation for generating image information of a page processed in the printing apparatus from the print information according to information for specifying a page in which the printing information is processed in the printing apparatus and print setting information included in the history information Process,
Storage means for storing the generated image information in association with the history information;
A control method for a server device, comprising: A method for controlling an information processing apparatus and a server apparatus that communicates with a printing apparatus that processes print information generated by the information processing apparatus,
A receiving step of receiving, from the information processing apparatus, print information transmitted from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus;
Acquiring history information related to processing of print information transmitted from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus in the printing apparatus and print setting information applied by the printing apparatus to processing of the print information from the printing apparatus When,
A generation step of generating image information from the print information received from the information processing apparatus according to the print setting information acquired in the acquisition step;
A storing step of storing the generated image information in association with the history information;
A control method for a server device, comprising:   A program for causing a computer to execute the method for controlling a server device according to any one of claims 8 to 10.

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