JP2018142057A - Device monitoring apparatus, device monitoring program and control method of device monitoring apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device monitoring apparatus capable of monitoring the state of a device at appropriate timing, a device monitoring program and a control method of the device monitoring apparatus.SOLUTION: A PC 2 applying a device monitoring apparatus of the present invention comprises: a request unit 230 which requests device information indicating the status of a printer 1 to the printer 1; a job status information acquisition unit 250 which acquires job status information indicating the status of a job, from a job management unit 210 which manages the job for transmitting to the printer 1; and a monitoring control unit 260 which determines a timing at which the request unit 230 requires the device information, based on the job status information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a device monitoring apparatus that monitors a device, a device monitoring program, and a device monitoring apparatus control method.

  Conventionally, patent document 1 is known as this kind of technique. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-151561 discloses a technique for determining a polling interval based on status information transmitted from a printer in a monitoring device that performs printer polling monitoring. This monitoring device performs control to shorten the polling interval when a printer abnormality or busy state is detected, and to increase the polling interval when it detects normality of the printer.

JP 2002-297336 A

  By the way, for example, during the process of sending print data from the monitoring device to the printer and causing the printer to execute the printing operation, the monitoring device may not be able to acquire the printer status information. In this case, in order to detect the busy state, the monitoring device of Patent Document 1 shortens the polling interval and frequently repeats the polling. In preparation for this, the monitoring device CPU (Central Processing Unit) resources and communication are used. A lot of line resources will be used. As described above, in the device monitoring performed by the monitoring apparatus, there is a problem that the status information cannot be appropriately acquired from the device.

  In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a device monitoring apparatus, a device monitoring program, and a device monitoring apparatus control method capable of appropriately monitoring a device state.

  The device monitoring apparatus according to the present invention acquires job status information indicating a job status from a request unit requesting device information indicating the device status to the device and a job management unit managing a job transmitted to the device. A job status information acquisition unit and a monitoring control unit that determines the timing at which the request unit requests device information based on the job status information.

  The program of the present invention acquires job status information indicating a job status from a request unit requesting device information indicating the status of the device to a computer and a job management unit managing a job transmitted to the device. A program for functioning as a job status information acquisition unit that performs, and a monitoring control unit that determines the timing at which the request unit requests device information based on the job status information.

  The device monitoring apparatus control method of the present invention is a device monitoring apparatus control method for monitoring a device, and a job for acquiring job status information indicating a job status from a job management unit for managing a job to be transmitted to the device. A status information acquisition step, a monitoring control step for determining timing for requesting device information indicating the status of the device based on the job status information, and a request step for requesting device information to the device at the determined timing And executing.

According to the configuration of the present invention, since the timing for requesting the device information is determined based on the job status information, even when the device information cannot be acquired, such as during the data communication between the device and the device monitoring apparatus, The next device information request can be made at an appropriate timing.
Note that a device refers to an apparatus capable of bidirectional communication with a device monitoring apparatus, such as a printer, a scanner, and a display apparatus (including a projection apparatus).

  In the device monitoring apparatus, the requesting unit performs polling monitoring for periodically requesting device information to the device, and the monitoring control unit determines a polling monitoring polling interval based on the job status information. Features.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to perform device polling monitoring at an appropriate polling interval.

  The device monitoring apparatus includes a device information acquisition unit that acquires device information transmitted from a device in response to a request, and the monitoring control unit sets a polling interval when the device information acquisition unit can acquire the device information. When the device information acquisition unit cannot acquire the device information, the polling interval is determined based on the job status information.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, when device information can be acquired, normal polling is performed, so that a device abnormality can be accurately detected. If device information cannot be acquired, there is a high possibility that data communication is being performed with the device, so an appropriate polling interval can be determined based on the job status information.

  In the device monitoring apparatus, the monitoring control unit determines a polling interval longer than a predetermined time when the device information acquisition unit cannot acquire the device information.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, when device information cannot be acquired, there is a high possibility that data communication is being performed with the device. It is possible to prevent an increase in the CPU resources and communication line resources of the monitoring device in preparation for repetition.

  In the above device monitoring apparatus, if the device information acquisition unit cannot acquire the device information, the monitoring control unit determines a polling interval until a request for the next device information, and a waiting time corresponding to the polling interval has elapsed. After that, the request unit is instructed to request device information.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, an appropriate polling interval (standby time) can be determined for each request for device information.

  In the device monitoring apparatus, the job status information includes at least one of information indicating the processed data amount of the job, information indicating the unprocessed data amount of the job, and information indicating whether or not the job is being transmitted. It is characterized by including.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, considering at least one of information indicating the processed data amount of the job, information indicating the unprocessed data amount of the job, and information indicating whether or not the job is being transmitted, Device information can be requested at an appropriate timing.

  Note that the device monitoring apparatus of the present invention may be physically realized by one apparatus, or may be realized by cooperating a plurality of apparatuses. In addition, the functions of the units described in the present invention are not limited to those realized by physically independent hardware resources, and a plurality of functions may be realized by one hardware resource. One function may be realized by a plurality of hardware resources.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the monitoring system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of a monitoring system. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the polling process by PC. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the monitoring system which concerns on the modification 1.

[First Embodiment]
Hereinafter, a device monitoring apparatus, a device monitoring program, and a device monitoring apparatus control method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the printer 1 is illustrated as an example of “device”, and the personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) 2 is illustrated as an example of “device monitoring apparatus”.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a monitoring system SY according to an embodiment of the present invention. The monitoring system SY includes a printer 1 and a PC 2. The printer 1 and the PC 2 are connected by a communication line 40 and can perform bidirectional communication. In the present embodiment, a USB cable is exemplified as the communication line 40. Note that a wireless USB may be employed instead of the USB cable, and other communication methods are not limited to USB.

  The printer 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as “communication I / F”) 14 and a hardware configuration. A printing mechanism 15 is provided.

  The CPU 11 inputs and outputs signals to and from each unit in the printer 1 and performs various arithmetic processes. The ROM 12 stores the firmware of the printer 1 and the like. The RAM 13 is used as a work area for the CPU 11. The RAM 13 includes a buffer 41 that temporarily stores print data received from the PC 2.

  The communication I / F 14 is a USB interface, and communicates with the PC 2 via the communication line 40 (USB cable). The printing mechanism 15 performs printing based on the print data read from the buffer 41. There is no limitation on the printing method of the printing mechanism 15 (inkjet method, electrophotographic method, thermal transfer method, thermal method, etc.).

  The PC 2 includes a communication I / F 21, a CPU 22, a ROM 23, a RAM 24, and an HDD 25 as a hardware configuration.

  The communication I / F 21 is a USB interface and communicates with the printer 1 via the communication line 40. The CPU 22 inputs and outputs signals to and from each unit in the PC 2 and performs various arithmetic processes. The ROM 23 stores various control programs and various control data. The RAM 24 is used as a work area for the CPU 22.

  The HDD 25 stores programs such as a monitoring application 31, a printing application 32, a printer driver 33, and an OS (Operating System) 34.

  The monitoring application 31 is an application for monitoring the state (status) of the printer 1. Based on the monitoring application 31, the PC 2 (CPU 22) performs polling monitoring that periodically requests device information indicating the status of the printer 1 from the printer 1. The program of the monitoring application 31 is an example of a “device monitoring program”.

  The print application 32 is an application for generating an image file or a document file to be printed and issuing a print command for the print target. The printer driver 33 generates a print job based on the image file and document file generated by the print application 32. The print job includes a control command based on a protocol corresponding to the printer 1.

  The OS 34 is basic software for operating the monitoring application 31, the printing application 32, and the printer driver 33. The OS 34 has a spooler 42. The spooler 42 is utility software for improving the efficiency of the printing process. The spooler 42 stores the print job generated by the printer driver 33 in the temporary storage area (printer queue) as a spooler file, and executes the print processing of the next job as soon as the previous print processing is completed. A print job is an example of a “job”.

  Next, the functional configuration of the printer 1 and the PC 2 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the functional configuration of the PC 2 will be described. The PC 2 (CPU 22) includes a job management unit 210, a communication control unit 220, a request unit 230, a device information acquisition unit 240, a job status information acquisition unit 250, and a monitoring control unit 260 as main functions. Of these, the job management unit 210 and the communication control unit 220 are functions implemented mainly by the OS 34. The request unit 230, the device information acquisition unit 240, the job status information acquisition unit 250, and the monitoring control unit 260 are functions mainly realized by the monitoring application 31.

  The job management unit 210 manages a print job transmitted to the printer 1 and includes the function of the spooler 42. The spooler 42 stores the print job generated by the printer driver 33 in a temporary storage area corresponding to the printer 1. The job management unit 210 manages a print job stored in the temporary storage area and job status information regarding the print job. The job status information is generated by the printer driver 33 or the OS 34.

  The job status information includes attribute information indicating a print job attribute and status information indicating a print job status. The attribute information includes information indicating the print job data amount (data size or number of pages), data type (file format, command format, etc.), and print settings (color settings, image quality settings, etc.). The state information includes processing information and status information. The processing information is information indicating the processed data amount of the print job or the unprocessed data amount of the print job. The “processed data amount” refers to the amount of print data that has already been transmitted from the communication control unit 220 described later, and the “unprocessed data amount” refers to the amount of print data that has not been transmitted from the communication control unit 220 ( Print data amount under the control of the spooler 42). The status information is information indicating whether or not the communication control unit 220 is transmitting print data to the printer 1.

  The communication control unit 220 includes a function of the communication I / F 21 and transmits print data to the printer 1 based on a print job stored in the temporary storage area. In addition, the communication control unit 220 transmits a request command for requesting device information to the printer 1 and receives device information from the printer 1 as a response to the request command.

  The request unit 230 requests device information from the printer 1. That is, the communication control unit 220 is requested to transmit a request command (request step). The request unit 230 periodically requests device information from the printer 1 for polling monitoring. That is, it periodically requests the communication control unit 220 to transmit a request command. The transmission timing (polling interval) of this request command is determined by the monitoring control unit 260 described later. In addition, the monitoring control unit 260 instructs the request unit 230 to transmit a request command at the determined timing.

  The device information acquisition unit 240 acquires device information transmitted from the printer 1 via the communication control unit 220. Note that there may be a case where the device information acquisition unit 240 cannot acquire device information. When the device information cannot be acquired, (1) when the printer 1 is printing (the print data is waiting for print processing in the buffer 41), and when the busy signal is transmitted, (2) the printer 1 While the print data is being transmitted to the printer, the communication line 40 is occupied and the printer 1 cannot accept the request command. (3) The printer 1 transmits the device information but does not reach the PC 2. Can be considered.

  The job status information acquisition unit 250 acquires job status information from the job management unit 210 based on an instruction from the monitoring control unit 260 (job status information acquisition step). When the device information acquisition unit 240 cannot acquire device information (in the cases (1) to (3) above), the monitoring control unit 260 instructs the job status information acquisition unit 250 to acquire job status information.

  When the device information acquisition unit 240 can acquire the device information, the monitoring control unit 260 sets the polling interval to a predetermined time stored in the HDD 25 or the like. On the other hand, if the device information acquisition unit 240 cannot acquire the device information, the monitoring control unit 260 determines the polling interval (the request unit 230 requests the device information based on the job status information acquired by the job status information acquisition unit 250. (Monitoring control step). In this case (when device information cannot be acquired), the polling interval is determined so that the polling interval is longer than when device information can be acquired.

  Here, processing of the monitoring control unit 260 when device information cannot be acquired will be described. If the device information cannot be acquired, the monitoring control unit 260 first acquires job status information, and determines whether printing is in progress based on the status information (processing information and status information) included in the job status information. Determine. Here, “printing” indicates that print data is being transmitted from the PC 2 to the printer 1 or that the printer 1 is waiting for print processing.

  For example, when the presence of unprocessed data of the print job can be detected from the processing information or from the status information, the monitoring control unit 260 determines that printing is in progress. . If it is determined that printing is in progress, the monitoring control unit 260 predicts the time when printing will end based on the status information and attribute information included in the job status information, and determines a polling interval (next request timing of device information). . For example, referring to a table in which the amount of unprocessed data is associated with a polling interval, the polling interval is determined so that the next polling is performed at the timing when printing ends, or immediately before or immediately after that. As a result, polling is not performed while print data is being transmitted, so that unnecessary polling processing and traffic on the communication line 40 can be reduced.

  On the other hand, the printer 1 (CPU 11) includes a communication control unit 110 and a print control unit 120 as main functions.

  The communication control unit 110 performs communication control for receiving print data from the PC 2 via the communication I / F 14. Further, the communication control unit 110 receives a request command from the PC 2 and transmits device information as a response to the request command. Further, when the communication control unit 110 receives the request command, the communication control unit 110 checks the state of the buffer 41 and transmits a busy signal to the PC 2 when the print data is in the print processing waiting state.

  The print control unit 120 performs print control based on the print data transmitted from the PC 2 and causes the printing mechanism 15 to execute printing. The print control unit 120 sequentially reads the print data stored in the buffer 41 and performs printing on a print medium such as paper.

  Next, the flow of polling processing by the PC 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The polling process is an example of a “device monitoring apparatus control method”. The PC 2 (CPU 22) requests device information from the printer 1 with the start of the polling process (S01). In response to this request, it is determined whether or not device information has been acquired within a predetermined response period (S02). When the device information can be acquired (S02: Yes), the polling interval (waiting time until the next device information request) is set to a predetermined time (S03), and the device waits for the set polling interval (S04). Note that “Yes” is determined in S02 when device information that does not require error processing is acquired. If device information requiring error processing is acquired, “No” is determined in S02, and “No” is determined in S06 described later.

  When the standby time corresponding to the set polling interval has elapsed, the PC 2 determines whether or not to continue polling monitoring (S05), and if so (S05: Yes), returns to S01. If the polling monitoring is not continued (S05: No), the polling process is terminated. Note that the case where the polling monitoring is not continued (S05: No) may be a case where an operation for stopping the polling monitoring is performed or a case where the polling process cannot be continued due to a change in the state of the PC2.

  On the other hand, when the PC 2 cannot acquire the device information (S02: No), the PC 2 acquires job status information from the job management unit 210, and determines whether printing is in progress (S06). If it is determined from the job status information that printing is in progress (S06: Yes), a polling interval is calculated based on the job status information (S07). Here, a calculation algorithm is used in which a polling interval longer than the polling interval (predetermined time) set in S03 is calculated. Further, based on the calculation result of S07, a polling interval (waiting time until the next device information request) is set (S08), and the process proceeds to S04.

  As a result of acquiring the job status information, if it is determined that printing is not being performed (S06: No), processing corresponding to the error is performed (S09). For example, when device information that accompanies error processing is acquired from the printer 1, error processing is performed according to the device information. Note that S06: No is determined when device information with error processing is acquired from the printer 1, when there is no response such as a busy signal from the printer 1 and print data is not being transmitted, or when the printer 1 is not busy. When error information indicating the state of the message is received, it is conceivable.

  As described above, according to the monitoring system SY of this embodiment, device information cannot be acquired because the polling interval is determined based on the job status information indicating the status of the print job managed in the PC 2. Even in this case, polling monitoring can be performed at an appropriate polling interval. In other words, while it is considered that device information cannot be acquired, such as while sending print data to the printer 1, polling is not performed, and it is wasted by waiting until the print data transmission is considered to be completed. Problems due to repeated polling (such as an increase in CPU resources and communication line resources of the PC 2 in preparation for repeated polling) can be prevented. In addition, since the polling frequency is lowered, it can be expected to avoid errors due to collisions between multiple processes. On the other hand, when the device information can be acquired, polling monitoring is performed at a normal polling interval, so that a device abnormality can be accurately detected.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the following modification examples can be employed.
[Modification 1]
In the first embodiment, the monitoring system SY is configured by the printer 1 and the PC 2. However, as shown in FIG. 4, the functions of the PC 2 may be realized by a plurality of devices. In the example of FIG. 4, each part 210 to 260 (see FIG. 2) of the PC 2 in the above embodiment is realized by the PC 2 ′ and the monitoring server 5. The PC 2 ′ and the monitoring server 5 are connected via a network NW such as the Internet. The printer 1 is connected to the PC 2 ′ by a USB cable or the like. Although not particularly shown, a print application 32 and a printer driver 33 are installed in the PC 2 ′, and a print command and a print job are generated for the printer 1.

  The PC 2 ′ includes a job management unit 210 and a communication control unit 220 among the functions of the PC 2 in the above embodiment. The monitoring server 5 includes a request unit 230, a device information acquisition unit 240, a job status information acquisition unit 250, and a monitoring control unit 260 among the functions of the PC 2 in the above embodiment. With this configuration, the PC 2 ′ transmits a request command to the printer 1 in response to a device information request from the monitoring server 5. The PC 2 ′ transmits a response (device information or busy signal) to the request command to the monitoring server 5. The monitoring server 5 determines a polling monitoring polling interval based on the job status information managed by the job management unit 210, and transmits a request command to the PC 2 '(communication control unit 220) at the determined polling interval. Instruct. According to this configuration, since the polling process can be controlled by the monitoring server 5, the control load on the PC 2 'can be reduced.

[Modification 2]
In the above embodiment, the PC 2 is configured to include the printer driver 33, but may be configured to be driverless. For example, in the case of the printer 1 capable of interpreting the markup language, by sending print data described in the markup language, command conversion corresponding to the printer 1 becomes unnecessary, and driverlessness can be realized. Further, the PC 2 may use a web application. In this case, a print job may be generated by installing a Web browser on the PC 2 and using a Web page provided from the Web server as a user interface.

[Modification 3]
In the above embodiment, the polling process is performed by the PC 2. However, the device information need not be periodically requested. For example, the PC 2 may be configured to request device information with some state change as a trigger or at a predetermined timing.

[Modification 4]
In the above embodiment, the monitoring control unit 260 determines the polling interval based on the unprocessed data amount of the print job when the device information cannot be acquired and it is determined that printing is in progress. The polling interval may be determined based on a progress rate of print data transmission such as a decrease rate of unprocessed data. For example, even when the amount of unprocessed data is the same, if the progress rate is high, a calculation method such as shortening the polling interval as compared with the case where the progress rate is low can be considered.

[Modification 5]
Alternatively, the polling interval may be determined by measuring the time for processing the divided data obtained by dividing the total amount of print data into a plurality of times and multiplying the time by the number of divisions.

[Modification 6]
Further, not only the job status information of the print job but also the print data transmission status by the communication control unit 220 may be monitored, and the polling interval may be determined based on the monitoring result. For example, when the print data is composed of data of a plurality of pages, it is conceivable to monitor the transmission timing of each page data.

[Modification 7]
In the above embodiment, the printing end time is predicted based on the job status information, and the predicted time is calculated as the polling interval. However, the printing end time may not necessarily be used as a reference. For example, simply, if the unprocessed data amount of the print data exceeds a predetermined threshold, the polling interval is t1, and if it is less than the predetermined threshold, the polling interval is t2 (where t2 <t1), etc. The calculation method of can also be considered. In this case, a plurality of threshold values may be provided. In this case, the device information is requested before the transmission of the print data is completed, but the polling interval (waiting time until the next device information request) is set again based on the job status information at that time. What is necessary is just to calculate.

[Modification 8]
In the above embodiment, the PC 2 is exemplified as the “device monitoring apparatus”, but an information processing terminal other than the PC 2 such as a tablet terminal or a Web server may be employed.

[Modification 9]
In the above embodiment, the printer 1 is exemplified as the “device”, but the present embodiment may be applied to other devices. As other devices, devices capable of bidirectional communication with a “device monitoring device” such as a scanner and a display device (including a projection device) are conceivable.

[Modification 10]
You may provide each component (each function) in each apparatus in the monitoring system SY shown to said embodiment and modification as a program. The program may be provided by being stored in various recording media (CD-ROM, flash memory, etc.). That is, a program for causing a computer to function as each component (each function) of each device in the monitoring system SY and a computer-readable recording medium recording the program are also included in the scope of the present invention. Other modifications can be made as appropriate without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printer, 2 ... PC, 110 ... Communication control part, 120 ... Print control part, 210 ... Job management part, 220 ... Communication control part, 230 ... Request part, 240 ... Device information acquisition part, 250 ... Job status information acquisition Unit, 260 ... monitoring control unit, SY ... monitoring system

Claims (8)

A requesting unit for requesting device information indicating a state of the device to the device;
A job status information acquisition unit that acquires job status information indicating the status of the job from a job management unit that manages jobs to be transmitted to the device;
A device monitoring apparatus comprising: a monitoring control unit that determines a timing at which the request unit requests the device information based on the job status information. The request unit performs polling monitoring for periodically requesting the device information to the device,
The device monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring control unit determines a polling interval for the polling monitoring based on the job status information. A device information acquisition unit that acquires the device information transmitted from the device in response to the request;
When the device information acquisition unit can acquire the device information, the monitoring control unit sets the polling interval as a predetermined time, and when the device information acquisition unit cannot acquire the device information, the job status information The device monitoring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the polling interval is determined based on the device.   The device monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the monitoring control unit determines a polling interval longer than the predetermined time when the device information acquisition unit cannot acquire the device information.   When the device information acquisition unit cannot acquire the device information, the monitoring control unit determines the polling interval until the next request for the device information, and after a standby time corresponding to the polling interval has elapsed The device monitoring apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the device monitoring apparatus instructs the request unit to request the device information.   The job status information includes at least one of information indicating a processed data amount of the job, information indicating an unprocessed data amount of the job, and information indicating whether or not the job is being transmitted. The device monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: Computer
A requesting unit for requesting device information indicating a state of the device to the device;
A job status information acquisition unit that acquires job status information indicating the status of the job from a job management unit that manages jobs to be transmitted to the device;
A device monitoring program for functioning as a monitoring control unit that determines a timing at which the requesting unit requests the device information based on the job status information. A device monitoring apparatus control method for monitoring a device,
A job status information acquisition step for acquiring job status information indicating the status of the job from a job management unit that manages jobs to be transmitted to the device;
A monitoring control step for determining timing for requesting device information indicating the state of the device based on the job status information;
And a requesting step for requesting the device information to the device at the determined timing.

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