JP2019070885A - Printer drive - Google Patents

Abstract

To solve a problem in which an entire installation time becomes redundant due to a processing time of that part if either a driver itself or custom setting have not been updated when updating a custom driver in which data of the driver itself and the custom setting are separated.SOLUTION: Entire install time can be reduced by determining whether to update a driver itself and custom settings respectively, and skipping a processing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

  The present invention relates to update installation of a customized printer driver.

  There is a market demand for the printer driver to fix the setting by double-sided printing or monochrome printing to reduce the cost. For this reason, normally, after installing the printer driver, the IT administrator performs custom settings such as setting for fixed duplex printing and setting for fixed monochrome printing. However, in the case of batch installation of printer drivers for each department or company, it is necessary to individually set and customize department-specific settings for all printer drivers after installation, resulting in extremely long work time.

  For this reason, there is a method of saving the work of customization generated after introduction by creating a custom driver in which the custom setting is reflected in advance and using the custom driver. Further, in Patent Document 1, it is searched whether there is a previously specified setting in a similar installed driver, and if it is searched, the selected value of the setting is used as a default value of the driver to be installed. We have achieved a reduction in time.

Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-114862

  However, in Patent Document 1, the installation of the printer driver is the same as the normal installation, so the processing time for the installation itself can not be shortened.

  In addition, with regard to custom drivers in which the data of the driver itself and custom setting data are separated, it can be said that the processing time for installation of the non-updated part is redundant when upgrading. For example, an upgrade of a custom driver with another customization in the same version or a custom driver with the same customization in another version is applicable. A specific example is the case where the "v2.0 double-sided printing fixed setting" is updated with the "v2.0 monochrome fixed printing" driver in which "the same version and another customization" is made.

  In this case, since both driver bodies are v2.0, it can be said that the "main part fixed in both sides" of the custom part has been substantially updated only by replacing "fixed in monochrome" with "fixed in monochrome", so the driver main body need not be updated. Also, in the case of the update process between drivers that have the same "duplex printing fixed setting" in different versions as well, it is only necessary to upgrade the driver of the main unit, and there is no need to update the custom part.

  As described above, since there is a redundant part when upgrading an existing driver using a custom driver, it has been an issue to shorten the upgrading process.

A printing system comprising an information processing apparatus and a printing apparatus
A means (S803) for determining whether to update the driver from the driver version;
A means for installing a driver (S804),
A means (S903) for determining whether to perform customization from the update result of the driver;
A means (S905) for determining whether to apply the custom setting;
Method to apply custom setting (S 907)
The printing system characterized by having.

  According to the present application, it is determined whether or not the driver main body and custom setting data are separated from each other as to whether the driver main body or the custom setting is to be updated, and processing time is shortened by omitting unnecessary processing. can do.

Diagram showing system configuration Diagram showing the hardware configuration of the client computer Diagram showing the configuration of the driver set and customization tool Example of custom model data Example of custom print setting data Example of custom management data Example of custom control data Flow of basic processing of the present invention Execution flow of customization processing Customized content comparison flow Example of custom setting version information Customization update process flow Example of update rule data of customization

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Example 1
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an outline of a system configuration according to the present invention. This system includes a client computer 101, which is an example of an information processing apparatus, and a printer 102 capable of receiving print data in the page description language (PDL) format and printing. These can communicate with each other through a network 103 including a wide area network (WAN).

  The printer 102 may be a single function printer having only a print function, or a multi-function printer having a print function, a scan function, and a copy function. Also, the number of client computers 101 is not limited to one, and a plurality of clients may be connected to the network 103.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the client computer 101 of FIG. In the client computer 101, a central processing unit (CPU 201) controls each device connected to a system bus according to a program stored in a random access memory (RAM 202). The client computer 101 includes at least one CPU 201. In addition, when the CPU 201 executes processing based on a program stored in the external memory 209, the software configuration of the client computer 101 and the processing of each step of the flowchart to be described later are realized.

  The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, a work area, and the like of the CPU 201. Reference numeral 203 denotes a read only memory (ROM). The ROM 203 stores various programs such as a boot program and a basic input / output system (BIOS). The operation input device interface (I / F) 204 is an interface for controlling the operation input device 205 such as a keyboard or a pointing device (mouse) touch UI (User Interface). The display I / F 206 controls screen display on the display 207.

  An external memory I / F 208 controls access to an external memory 209 such as a hard disk (HD) or solid state disk (SSD). The external memory 209 includes an operating system program (OS) 210, a touch panel, an application 212 corresponding to each desktop, and a driver 3006 including a printer driver. The storage unit stores various files and the like, and functions as a storage medium readable by the client computer 101. A network I / F 213 is connected to the printer 102 via the network 103 and performs communication control processing.

  The configuration of the entire customization tool will be described with reference to FIG. First, the driver set will be described with reference to FIG. 3000 is a driver set. The driver set 3000 is a set of files and modules of the driver 3006 necessary to arrange the driver in the OS 210. Reference numeral 3006 denotes a driver, which has modules necessary for printing, such as rendering, model-dependent files, and the like. Reference numeral 3001 denotes a model dependent file. A model dependent file 3001 contains a group of files such as a list of prohibition rules and functions for each model, print settings for factory default values, and default print settings for each locale.

  Reference numeral 3002 denotes a driver UI module. The driver UI module 3002 is a module that can be called at the time of printing after the driver 3006 is placed in the OS 210 and can easily change the print settings. Also, even before being placed in the OS 210, it is possible to load and call from other applications 212. Reference numeral 3003 denotes a graphics module, which converts a file to be printed into PDL (Page Description Language) when the driver 3006 prints.

  The INF file 3007 is a file in which setting information such as a list of models supported by the driver set 3000 and a list of required modules of printer drivers of supported models is described. An installer 3004 arranges the driver 3006 in the OS 210 when the installer 3004 is activated through the operation input device 205 from the outside. The PowerShell application 3005 is an application capable of calling an API of PowerShell when activated from the operation input device 205 or when activated from another application 212.

  PowerShell is a command line based extensible script language included in Windows (trademark registration), and can call APIs in various OSs 210 on a command line basis. Also, it is possible to generate a PowerShell script as a separate file, or load a generated PowerShell script and execute it.

A custom driver set will be described using FIG. 3 (B). The custom driver set is configured by adding a custom setting file to the driver set 3000 of FIG. 3 (A). Therefore, the numbers described in FIG. 3A will not be described.
3008 is a custom setting file. The custom setting file 3008 is written to a location where the driver 3006 can access at the time of installation, and is used to change the driver 3006 to a customized setting immediately after the installation of the driver 3006.

  The custom setting file 3008 has custom model data 30081, custom model data 30082, and custom control data 30083. Custom model data 30081 is data of a list of printer models to be installed in a custom driver set. Users of custom driver sets can install only printer models that the custom driver set creator arbitrarily selected.

  Custom model data 30082 has data for customizing the driver 3006 such as custom print setting data 300821 and custom management data 300822. Custom print setting data 300821 is information for customizing print settings. The custom management data 300822 is information for customizing device settings, administrator settings, and the like. The custom control data 30083 is information described regarding customization processing at the time of installation. The detailed description of the data in each custom setting file 3008 will be described later.

  The data of the custom setting file 3008 will be exemplified below. Although these data are introduced separately in this description, it does not matter even if they are collectively defined as one file.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the custom model data 30081 described in the markup description language. Custom model data 30081 has a Properties element, and has one or more PrinterModel elements in the Properties element. 400 is a PrinterModel element. A PrinterModel element 400 has a Customized element and a PrefixString element as child elements. Reference numeral 401 denotes a Customized element, which indicates whether the parent element PrinterModel can be installed using a custom driver set.

  If Cusomized element 401 is ON, it indicates that installation is possible. In the case of OFF, it indicates that installation is not possible. Reference numeral 402 denotes printer model identifier information into which information uniquely defining the printer model is input. The printer model identifier information 402 is used as a name when creating custom model data 30083.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of one piece of custom print setting data 300821 of the information stored in the custom model data 30082. The custom print setting data 300821 is created in a markup description language format, and holds difference data when compared with the print setting of the factory default value that the driver set 3000 has. In this example, custom print setting data 300821 is expressed by a combination of Feature and Option, and Feature is the parent of Option in the markup description language.

  Feature indicates the function, Option indicates the setting selected for the function, and the difference setting 501 is an example of changing the default print setting to monochrome for a driver whose print setting of the factory default is color. It is. Specifically, psk: Monochrome is set to psk: PageOutputColor, which is a standard setting provided by the OS 210. The difference setting 502 is also difference data when compared with the print setting of the factory default value, but unlike the difference setting 501 which is the standard setting of the OS 210, the driver 3006 starts with the feature name “nS0000:”. Is a setting that is uniquely defined.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of one piece of custom management data 300822 of information stored in the custom model data 30082. The custom management data 300822 has an element called Property, and each Property element has a Name attribute representing a name of either administrator setting or device setting. In the example of FIG. 6, the management setting 601 is administrator setting, and “Always allocate” (AlwaysNup) is specified for Config: AdminInfoAlwaysNup representing the allocated print (Nup) setting. Further, the management setting 602 represents attachment information of a finisher or the like of the device.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of the custom control data 30083. Data in FIG. 7 is control data 701 for managing rules for applying a custom setting, and it is determined based on this description whether to apply the custom setting. The control data 701 has an element called ExecuteItem, has TargetItem, Condition, and Action as child elements, and describes how to carry out custom setting when “what module” is installed. TargetItem is an element indicating which module, and indicates whether the installation of the driver itself (Installation) or custom settings (CustomSettings) is targeted.

  Condition indicates whether the target module installed is old (old), new (new), the same version (same) or the like. There is a designation to force the extension regardless of whether it is different or a new or old version. In addition, it is possible to specify to execute when answering to either “new case” or “same case” by specifying a plurality of these conditions. Action indicates whether to overwrite what you do when the condition is met (overwrite), delete (delete), or nothing (nothing).

  The definition 702 here indicates the information “overwrite” when “existing driver” is “old or same”. The definition 703 is a definition of "do nothing" when the "existing driver" is "new". The definition 704 is a definition of “overwrite” when “existing custom setting” is “old”. In addition to this, as shown in definition 705, "if custom setting is different" is specified as "overwrite", or as in definition 706, when "custom setting" is not present, "do nothing" It is also possible to specify, for example, those that are not customized, as they are.

  In the following description, in principle, the condition “overwrite if older” or “skip processing if the version is equal to or higher” is used as an example, but “overwrite even upper version” is specified in the definition If there is, it shall be followed.

  The processing flow of this embodiment will be described below. The flow in this embodiment is assumed to be executed by the installer 3004 unless otherwise specified. In the description, the installer 3004 is described for an application dedicated to installation, but a script or a batch file that performs processing equivalent to the installation operation may be used as a control. The respective applications and modules are stored in the external memory 209, loaded into the RAM 202 as necessary, and executed by the CPU 201 on the client computer 101.

  By performing these processes, it is possible to determine whether to update the installation of the main body driver and the custom settings for the driver for each application, and to omit unnecessary processes.

  FIG. 8 is a flow showing the main processing of the present invention. First, it is determined whether the client computer 101 already has a driver installed (S801). If there is an existing driver, the version information is acquired (S802). It is determined whether a new driver is to be installed based on the acquired information (S803). Basically, if the new driver is newer than the existing driver, it will be judged as an upgrade target, and it will not be a target for installation if the same version or an older version has already been installed.

  However, if it has been forced to align to the specified version, even if the new driver is older, it returns the judgment to be installed as downgrade. If the existing installation driver does not exist or is to be overwritten, a new driver is installed (S804). Finally, the customization process is executed (S805). Details of this process will be described later. Also, this process is executed regardless of whether the installation of the driver of the main unit has been executed or skipped. However, this is not the case if the installation of the driver on the main unit ends with an error.

  FIG. 9 is a flow showing an execution process of the customization process. First, a customization definition, such as the control data 701, defining which condition the customization process is to be performed is acquired (S901).

  Next, the update result such as whether the driver of the main body has been updated or whether the update has been skipped is acquired (S902). At this time, not only the skip but also the details of the result such as whether it was skipped because it was the old version or skipped because it was not necessary to overwrite in the same version are acquired. Based on the result, it is determined whether it is necessary to customize the driver (S903). If the driver is overwritten, it means that customization is necessary. However, since it is the same version, only customization may be performed even if the driver is not overwritten. Make a decision.

  Next, the set custom information is acquired from the existing driver (S904). Custom content comparison is performed using the information acquired therefrom to determine whether or not customization updating is necessary (S905). The details of this process will be described later. Based on the result of the determination, a branch is made as to whether the customization needs to be updated (S906). If customization is to be performed, the existing custom information is overwritten with the new driver's custom information (S907).

  The custom information is compared in FIG. 10, and information is returned whether customization is necessary. As a summary, if the new custom information is newer, or if the setting different from the old customization is specified, the judgment that the customization update is necessary is returned, and if not, the customization is not necessary. Return information. Also, the information used here is information such as the version or date embedded in the custom setting as in the example of FIG. 11 or information of the custom setting itself, and acquisition is performed in the process of S904 of the previous flow It shall be. First, it is determined whether there is information that can be compared quantitatively, such as version information 1101 and date information 1102 in the custom setting (S1001).

  If the comparison is possible, new and old comparisons are performed (S1002). Here, version information 1101 and date information 1102 are taken as an example, but even those with notations such as “1.0alpha” and “1.0beta” can be compared by reading a predetermined comparison method or table. If it is a thing, the kind does not matter. Next, it is determined whether the existing custom information is older than the new custom information (S1003).

  If it is determined that the customization does not need to be performed, the result that the customization update is not necessary is returned (S1004). If it is determined that customization is required, the result that customization update is necessary is returned (S1005). If the information embedded in the custom information is information that can not be compared quantitatively as with the hash value 1103, the process transitions to S1007. If the information is not embedded, the process transitions to S1010 (S1006). In the process of S1007, whether or not the embedded hash values 1103 are the same is compared, and if different, it is determined that customization is necessary. If it is determined that the customization is not required, the result that the customization update is not required is returned (S1008).

  If it is determined that customization is required, the result that customization update is necessary is returned (S1009). Next, processing in S1010 and subsequent steps will be described. In S1010 to S1014, although it is determined whether the existing custom setting is the same as the new custom setting, data for the new custom setting exists because there is no information for comparing version information, a hash value, and the like. Make a comparison. First, one of the new custom settings is acquired (S1010).

  Next, a comparison is made as to whether the acquired custom setting is the same as the existing custom setting (S1011). Then, it is determined whether there is an unacquired custom setting, and if there is no unacquired custom setting, it is judged that customization update is not necessary (S1012). If it is determined that there is no unacquired custom setting in the condition of S1012 while there is no difference in settings, a result that customization update is not required is returned (S1013). If a difference in settings is found in the determination of S1011, the result of the need for updating the customization is returned (S1014).

  By performing these processes, it is determined whether the installation of the driver of the main body and the custom settings for the driver are updated for each application, and unnecessary processing is omitted.

Example 2
Although the process of applying the custom setting is omitted by performing the process of the first embodiment, there is a problem that it takes a long time if there are many setting items to overwrite all the custom settings.

  For this reason, in the present embodiment, by designating settings that are not to be customized, by partially applying settings, it is possible to shorten the time for update processing out of the applicable range. In addition, there is also the advantage that it becomes better to define only the parts that apply to new custom settings.

  In explaining the present process, the outline will be described by taking FIG. 6 as an example. First, the existing custom settings set in the installed driver as shown in FIG. 6A and the new custom settings to be overwritten are set as FIG. 6B. Among them, the management setting 601 is a setting for always performing allocation printing (Nup), and is a part where the user arbitrarily sets according to a specific policy. On the other hand, the management setting 602 is a setting relating to options attached to the printer targeted by the driver to be installed, and is basically a setting that does not change unless hardware addition or change is made.

  Normally, if you want to change the driver for the setting to always assign printing (Nup) to the driver for setting to always perform monochrome printing, define custom settings for all items including the settings related to the options of the management setting 602. I needed to. Here, since the Name attribute under the Property element of the management setting 602 starts with “Config: Printer ~”, the setting is reflected by the rule of holding the setting starting with such a name, and thus the setting is partially reflected. It becomes possible to apply the setting. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6 (A), setting as shown in FIG. 6 (C) is performed by applying the setting not including the setting relating to the options of the management setting 602 as shown in FIG. 6 (B). can do.

  In the present embodiment, processing for applying settings while excluding settings that were in accordance with a specific rule as described above will be described using FIGS. 12 and 13. First, as shown in FIG. 13, the definition is for excluding the setting started with a specific name like “Config: Printer ̃” described above. This setting has a rules element, and below that has as many rule elements as the number of rules to be excluded as child elements. Below the rule element is the phrase element, and in this example, the configuration to be excluded is described as a regular expression like "Config: Printer. *". Note that the expression itself may be a simple character string input and the target setting may be specified by a method such as partial matching of character strings, and the method may be a method other than the regular expression.

  Next, the flow of FIG. 12 will be described. First, the update rule as shown in FIG. 13 is read (S1201). Next, a new custom setting is read (S1202). Here, one item setting is acquired from the existing custom setting (S1203). Next, it is determined whether the item acquired in S1203 exists in the new custom setting (S1204).

  If there is no new custom setting, the process proceeds to step S1205 to determine whether to retain the existing custom setting. Next, it is determined whether the existing setting to be processed is an object to be held by the update rule (S1205). If it is determined in the step S1205 that the existing setting to be processed is the setting to be held, the setting is held (S1206). If it is not determined that the existing setting to be processed is the setting to be held, the setting is deleted (S1207).

  When the determination on the existing setting to be processed is completed, it is determined whether there is an unacquired custom setting (S1208). When all determination of whether to retain the existing custom settings is finished, the new custom settings are applied last (S1209).

  By performing the above-described processing, partial settings can be applied by specifying a portion where customization is not performed.

101 Client computer 102 Printer 103 Network

Claims (5)

A printing system comprising an information processing apparatus and a printing apparatus
A means (S803) for determining whether to update the driver from the driver version;
A means for installing a driver (S804),
A means (S903) for determining whether to perform customization from the update result of the driver;
A means (S905) for determining whether to apply the custom setting;
Method to apply custom setting (S 907)
The printing system characterized by having. A means (S 905) for determining whether to apply the custom setting according to claim 1,
Means for determining whether to apply the custom setting according to information indicating the new and old of the custom setting embedded in the custom setting (S1002)
The printing system characterized by having. A means (S 905) for determining whether to apply the custom setting according to claim 1,
Means for determining whether or not the custom setting is applied according to information that can uniquely determine the content of the custom setting embedded in the custom setting (S1007)
The printing system characterized by having. A means (S 905) for determining whether to apply the custom setting according to claim 1,
Means for judging whether the custom setting is applied by comparing all the settings in the custom setting (S1010 to S1014)
The printing system characterized by having. A means (S 907) for applying the custom setting according to claim 1,
A means (S1201) for reading an update rule for holding an existing custom setting, and a means (J1205) for judging whether the existing custom setting is held according to the update rule
The printing system characterized by being.