JP2018112817A - Printer Driver Uninstaller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve visibility of an error massage display, in the case that two or more types of a printer drivers exist and a common module exist among those printer drivers, and a printer driver among those printer drivers is uninstalled.SOLUTION: An uninstaller acquires information on multiple installed printer drivers using a common module, and displays a massage with a representation combining the multiple printer drivers according to the information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 15

Description

  The present invention provides an information processing method and an information processing system for creating print data and deleting a printer driver to be transmitted (hereinafter referred to as “uninstallation”) for a printing apparatus installed in a host computer or the like and connected to the host computer , An information processing apparatus, a setting method thereof, a program, and a storage medium.

  In the printer driver uninstaller that creates print data and uninstalls the printer driver to be sent from the host computer that is installed on the host computer and connected to the host computer. If the printer driver for multiple types of printers is to be deleted (uninstalled), and if a common driver module is installed among those printer drivers, the common driver module will be used unless all the target printer drivers are uninstalled. Processing such as not uninstalling the module was performed.

  Common printer driver that is installed on the host computer when connecting to the host computer for the first time, and that is installed when connecting the host computer with the host computer for the first time and after the first time, and disconnecting from the host computer. The contents that are sometimes uninstalled are provided in Document 1 below.

JP 2006-113968 A

  The printer drivers provided by each printer vendor include a considerable number of printer drivers such as printer languages, versions, and models, but they often have a common module.

  There are at least two types of printer drivers corresponding to a part of the basic software (operating system = hereinafter referred to as OS) installed in the host computer, and there is a common module between these printer drivers. If one of the printer drivers is uninstalled in the existing case, the uninstallation is not completed or an error message is displayed and the process ends.

  To uninstall all modules, including common modules, the user needs to know what other drivers are using this common module. For this reason, it is necessary to display the names of all printer drivers that share a common module in the above error message, but when many are installed, it is difficult to remember the names, and it is necessary to copy and record the names. There's a problem.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, in the present invention, information on the many installed printer drivers is acquired, and the message is displayed in an expression that summarizes a plurality of printer drivers according to the information.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to provide an uninstall that saves the trouble of recording all driver names.

Overall view of the system Block diagram of host computer Printer driver module configuration diagram Printer driver installation flowchart Printer driver print queue registration method flowchart Print queue registration user I / F Print queue addition user I / F System configuration diagram of the printer driver Registration queue file Registered queue file Printer specification file Example of saving the printer specification file in the OS Example of installation instructions Flow chart showing message display when common module exists Error message display example Driver Installer Flowchart Representing the Present Invention Display example 1 of an error message representing the present invention Example of driver information held by dll for printer driver Error message display example 2 representing the present invention

[Example 1]
1 to 14 show an embodiment according to the present invention.
[System configuration]
This embodiment is realized by the printer driver uninstaller installed in the operating system on the host computer (101) executing the program loaded in the RAM (202) by the CPU (201). .

  FIG. 1 is an overall view of a system representing the present invention. It is assumed that a host computer (101) and printing apparatuses (102, 103) are connected to a network (100). FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the host computer (101). In the host computer (101), the CPU (201) comprehensively controls each device connected to the system bus (204) in accordance with a program stored in the RAM (202). The RAM (202) also functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU (201).

  The ROM (203) stores various basic programs and data of the system. A display operation unit I / F (205) controls display of information on the display operation unit (206). The display operation unit (206) has a display function and at the same time is a touch panel, and controls input from the user. The network I / F (207) controls the network module (208) to realize network communication. An external memory I / F (209) controls access to an external memory (211) such as a flash memory or a solid state disk.

  The external memory (211) stores the operating system program (hereinafter referred to as OS) (212) and various applications (216) including the printer driver uninstaller, and can be stored or read by the host computer (101). Functions as a medium. The OS (212) includes an application framework (213) for operating an application, various system programs (214) provided by the OS (212), and a library (215) storing various utility functions. .

  Various settings by the system program (214) are stored in the user setting information system storage area (220). The application (216) includes an application execution code. The application (216) further includes a system setting acquisition unit (218) that acquires values set by the control unit (217) of the user I / F and the system program (214) of the operating system (212). In addition, a user setting information storage area (219) set by the user using the application (216) is provided.

[Printer Driver Installation Basic Flow and Print Queue Registration]
Next, installation of a printer driver to be uninstalled by the printer driver uninstaller will be described.

  The printer driver prepared at the time of installation is composed of a group of modules as shown in FIG. A printer driver 301 includes a graphic rendering module 302, a UI control module 303, a printer specification description file 304, a color processing module 305, and an input / output control module 306. Depending on the function of the printer driver, it may be composed of other modules. There are several ways to create this printer driver.

  For example, in order to support a plurality of printers with one printer driver, the graphic rendering module (302) and the UI control module (303) are created so as to be compatible with a plurality of printers. Also, the printer specification description file (304) is bundled with the printer driver for the corresponding printer. In such a method, the UI control module (303) displays and controls the UI in accordance with the printer specification description file (304). The graphic rendering module (302) is configured to issue a page description language and a printer control command suitable for each printer.

  Next, a basic procedure for installing the printer driver having such a configuration in the host computer (101) will be described. FIG. 4 shows a printer driver installation procedure. Assume that the user prepares a CD-ROM in which the printer driver is stored or obtains a printer driver installer via the network. In step 401 (displayed as “S401” in FIG. 4 and so on), the user activates the obtained printer driver installer.

With this operation as a trigger, in step 402, the printer driver installer stores the printer driver module in a predetermined location in the external memory (211). Although the storage location varies depending on the printing system, as an example, in CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)
/ Library / Printers /
The printer driver module is stored for each printer vendor under the directory.

Furthermore, it is also possible to store the printer driver types separately under the directory for each printer vendor. For example, when there are different printer drivers PDL1 and PDL2 of a printer vendor called ABC, / Library / Printers / ABC / PDL1 /
/ Library / Printers / ABC / PDL2 /
This directory can be created and the printer driver can be stored under that directory.

  In step 402, the printer driver module is stored in the directory of the external memory (211).

This completes the installation of the printer driver, but in order to actually output to the printer, the user needs to register a print queue using the printer driver.
FIG. 5 shows a procedure for registering a print queue. A flow is demonstrated along this procedure, using the same figure.

  In step 501, the user opens a print queue registration dialog. In this step, the OS (212) reads the program code for print queue registration from the external memory (211) to the RAM (202) and executes it. FIG. 6 shows the print queue registration user I / F (601) displayed by the OS (212). In this dialog, a registered print queue list (602) for displaying a list of currently registered print queues (represented as “printers” in the figure), and the selected print queue list (602) are selected. There is a print queue detail display area (603) for displaying detailed information of the print queue being stored.

  Reference numeral 604 denotes a button for registering a print queue, and reference numeral 605 denotes a button for deleting the print queue selected in the currently registered print queue list (602). Reference numeral 606 denotes a button for closing this dialog.

  Next, in step 502, the user clicks a print queue addition button (604) in the print queue registration dialog (601). By this user operation, in step 503, the OS displays a print queue registration dialog. In step 504, the user inputs necessary information to the displayed dialog and adds a print queue.

  FIG. 7 shows a print queue registration dialog displayed by the OS (212). In the print queue registration dialog (601), reference numeral 702 denotes a control for designating the network address (IP address in this example) of the connected printer. In addition, reference numeral 703 denotes a control for inputting a printer name for identifying a print queue, and reference numeral 704 denotes a control for inputting a location where the printer is installed. The printer name (703) and the printer location (704) are character strings used when displayed in the registered print queue list (602) and the printer details (603).

  Reference numeral 705 denotes a control for designating a printer driver to be used when registering a print queue. For the printer drivers listed here, the OS (212) lists printer drivers stored in the printer driver storage directory (/ Library / Printers) of the OS (212) described above. In the example of FIG. 7, the address is 192.168.1.10, the print queue name is “PrinterC”, the location is “2F”, and “ABC PDL1” is selected as the printer driver. When an add button 706 is clicked in this state, the OS (212) adds a print queue. To close this dialog without adding, a dialog close button (707) is clicked.

  In step 505, the OS (212) registers the print queue designated by the user in the system. This step will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 8 is a system block diagram showing a state in which a printer driver has already been installed and a print queue has been registered. In FIG. 8, a graphic rendering module (803) is a graphic rendering module (302) of a printer driver installed in a predetermined directory (/ Library / Printers /) of the OS (212) by the above-described procedure.

  Similarly, the UI control module (805) is the UI control module (303) of the installed printer driver. The color processing module (804) is a color processing control module (305) of the installed printer driver. The input / output control module (808) is an input / output control module (306) of the installed printer driver. The printer specification description file (806) is a printer specification description file (304) of the installed printer driver.

  The back-end module 807 is provided by the OS (212), and is a module for passing the print data generated by the graphic rendering module (803) to the input / output control module (808) for transmitting to the printer. is there. Further, the print queue registration information 809, the printer specification description file 810, and the print queue setting file 811 are generated by the OS (212) in the print queue registration process of FIG. 5, and the details will be described below. .

  In step 505, the OS (212) collects information of the printer addition dialog and performs printer registration. This registration is performed as follows. FIG. 9 shows a file in which information of a print queue to be registered is described, which is described in a markup language. Reference numeral 901 denotes a print queue identifier, which describes a printer address followed by a printer name and an underscore. Reference numeral 902 describes the name of the printer. Reference numeral 903 describes the location. Reference numeral 904 describes an actual print queue. In this example, the print queue is transmitted to an address of 192.168.1.10 by the lpd protocol.

  Reference numeral 905 describes a printer driver name (ABC PDL1 in this case) used by this printer. Reference numeral 906 indicates that the description of the printer is completed. In step 505, the OS (212) creates this description, and adds the printer registration information to a predetermined file in the external memory (211). For example, in the CUPS system, the predetermined file is a printers.file stored in the / etc / cups / directory. Recording is performed in a conf file. This is the print queue registration information (809). If multiple print queues are registered, printers. In conf, the description of FIG. 9 is repeated for each corresponding printer for the print queue.

  In step 505, the OS (212) registers the printer specification description file (806) in the system. In FIG. 5, the OS (212) acquires the printer specification description file (806) of the printer to be registered from the UI control module (805) of the printer driver, and registers it in a predetermined system location 810 prepared for each print queue.

  Before describing the method for registering the printer specification description file (806), the printer specification description file (806) itself will be described. FIG. 10 shows an example of the printer specification description file (806). This file is described according to the printer specification description format.

  The following explanation is based on the format. Reference numeral 1001 describes a comment. The comment starts with “*%”. Reference numeral 1002 describes a printer vendor name. Reference numeral 1003 describes a printer name corresponding to the printer specification description file (806). Reference numeral 1004 describes a page description language corresponding to the printer specification description file (806). Reference numeral 1005 describes the version of the printer driver. After this, the functional specifications of this printer are described. The function specification includes one function from a line of * OpenUI (example: 1006) to a line of * CloseUI (example: 1010).

  * OpenUI is followed by a function name with “*” added to the head, and after the function name is separated by “:” to indicate the type of function to be selected. This type includes “PickOne” and “Boolean”, and “PickOne” represents a function for selecting one of the options. “Boolean” indicates that this function is controlled by On / Off. In 1006, there is a function * PageSize, which indicates that one of the options is selected. The next line after 1006 describes the default value of this function. This line begins with “* Default”, followed by the function name defined in the previous line.

  This line indicates that the default of the function “PageSize” is A4. From the next line up to 1010 * CloseUI, one option is described per line for this function. For example, 1008 indicates that A3 is one of the options of PageSize. This describes a function for selecting a page size, and the page size is omitted because there are many options. The last description of this function is 1010, and the function name described in * OpenUI is described after * CloseUI. This represents a single function. The following 1011 to 1016 are descriptions of another function.

  Although a duplicate description is omitted, this block has a function called Duplex, which selects one of the options, and represents that the option is selected from None, Simplex, and Duplex. Actually, this expresses a function for specifying double-sided printing. Since None is not specified, Simplex means single-sided printing and Duplex means double-sided printing according to the printer default setting.

  Next, a method for registering the printer specification description file (806) by the OS (212) will be described. The OS (212) acquires the printer specification description file (216) corresponding to the printer from the UI control module (805) and stores it in a predetermined location of the system. FIG. 11 shows the storage location and its file. The storage location is the / etc / cups / ppd / directory of the external memory (211), and the file to be stored is a file name in which the printer name is added as the file name, followed by the printer address after the underscore. The added printer specification description file (810) is “PrinterC — 192.168.1.10 — .ppd” of 1004. In FIG. 5, the OS (212) indicates that the printer specification description file (806) is stored in the printer specification description file 810.

Through the above steps, registration of the print queue is completed.
[File structure of installed printer driver]
Next, how the printer driver file described above is managed by the OS (212) will be described.

  First, the printer driver according to the present invention is installed according to the installation instruction (1200) as shown in FIG. 12 according to the functions of the printer driver installer and the OS (212) by using the method shown in FIGS. Is done. Of the related files, in addition to the unique files (1202 to 1210) required for each printer, files used in common with this printer driver and other printer driver sets provided by the same printer vendor There is a common file (1201) that declares to the OS (212). Other printer driver sets of the same printer vendor include “type” in 603 in FIG. 6, “driver” in 705, “PDL1” in 1004, 1005, etc., for example, a printer for “PDL2” It is a driver set.

  PDL represents a page description language (hereinafter referred to as PDL), and is print data that is interpreted by a printer when printing, represented by PostScript and PCL (both are registered trademarks). Generally, each printer vendor provides a printer that can interpret a plurality of PDLs, and also provides a printer driver for each PDL. In such a case, a module that can be used in common by each PDL printer driver is often prepared to increase development efficiency.

  On the other hand, in some OS (212), when the common module exists and the common module is used by a plurality of printer drivers, the previously installed common module of the printer driver is installed later. The installed printer driver is installed in a dependent manner. In such a case, when uninstalling the former (previously installed) printer driver having dependency, the common module cannot be uninstalled.

  The part of the OS (212) is a driver file that is difficult in the conventional OS by installing a printer driver installed on a print server (not shown) as a single package on a client-side host computer. There are advantages such as easy confirmation of reliability, simplified management of common modules, and no need to consider compatibility due to version differences.

[Examples Representing the Present Invention]
FIG. 13 shows an operation flow when uninstalling one of a plurality of printer drivers installed in the OS (212) as described above. Note that, as described above, the printer driver described in this embodiment is assumed to be set to declare to the OS (212) that there is a file that is used in common with other printer driver sets. It becomes.

  Here, for convenience, it will be called a “package management driver”. When the printer driver uninstaller is started, it is checked in step 1301 (indicated by “S1301” in the figure, the same applies hereinafter) whether the printer driver to be uninstalled by the printer driver uninstaller is the package management driver. To do. Next, in step 1302, it is confirmed whether the common module of the printer driver to be uninstalled depends on other printer drivers. If not applicable in step 1301 and step 1302, the printer driver file to be uninstalled is uninstalled.

  On the other hand, if the common module of the printer driver to be uninstalled depends on another printer driver in step 1302, a message (1400) indicating that is displayed, and the uninstallation is performed without deleting the target file. finish.

  Next, FIG. 15 shows a detailed operation flow of step 1303 representing the feature of this embodiment. In step 1501, information on other printer drivers depending on the printer driver to be uninstalled is acquired and listed. The information on the other printer driver can be acquired by referring to the information registered in the system in step 505.

  In step 1502, printer drivers to be displayed in the message (1400) based on the PDL name among the information acquired in step 1501 are collected. The information to be collected is acquired from the installed printer description specification file 1004 or 1005. In step 1503, the printer driver collected in step 1502 is displayed in the message. FIG. 16 is an example of a display in which printer drivers are grouped for each PDL name.

  In Windows (registered trademark), the PDL information to be collected may be a product name (1701) of a printer driver dll (dynamic link library) as shown in FIG.

  Further, the printer driver displayed in the message may be divided not only by name but also by version. FIG. 18 shows a display example.

101 Host computer 201 CPU
202 RAM

Claims (2)

When a printer driver A is treated as a single driver package and installed in the OS, when uninstalling the printer driver A while sharing a part of the driver configuration file with the driver package of another printer driver B, In the printer driver uninstaller that displays a message that the printer driver A cannot be deleted because a part of the driver configuration file shared with the printer driver B exists.
When listing in the message the names of drivers that share a part of the driver configuration file with the other printer driver B, a collection unit that collects information on a part of the printer driver corresponding to the sharing, and is collected by the collection unit A printer driver uninstaller, characterized in that it includes means for collecting printer drivers for each page description language supported by the printer driver based on the received information, and displays the printer drivers displayed for each PDL together in a message. In the printer driver uninstaller according to claim 1,
Having a second collecting means for collecting information of the version of the printer driver corresponding to the sharing;
A printer driver uninstaller, wherein printer drivers to be displayed for each PDL and each version are collectively displayed in a message.