JP2022131859A - Printing control device, printing control method and program for printing - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a printing control device and method and a program for printing for preventing the occurrence of erroneous printing such as double printing when an application for printing is started while the application for printing exists in the background and activities are destructed.SOLUTION: A printing control device comprises: a destruction assessment unit 103 for assessing, when an activity is generated by onCreate at startup of an application for printing, whether or not the activity of the application for printing is in a destructed state before that; and a printing control unit 104 for performing control not to execute the processing of print data acquired in onCreate when it is assessed that the activity is in a destructed state. Even when the same activity as the destructed activity is regenerated by onCreate, the processing of print data acquired in onCreate in association with that is not executed and processing of only print data acquired by an argument to onNewIntent is executed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a print control device, a print control method, and a print program, and more particularly to technology for controlling execution of printing in a system in which data is sent from a host terminal to a printer for printing.

Conventionally, applications running in the foreground (hereinafter referred to as in-use A technology has been provided in which printing can be performed by sending print data from a host terminal to a printer by activating a printing application (hereinafter referred to as a printing application) from a host terminal. In addition, any smart device that can run a printing application, such as a stationary smart device, can be used as a host terminal.

In a system using this type of technology, an application in use running in the foreground generates print data in a format such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or PDF (Portable Document Format), and uses an application cooperation command. Start the printing application. At that time, the application in use gives the print data or a URL for accessing the print data to the application cooperation command. Subsequently, the printing application activated by the application cooperation command reads the print data given to the application cooperation command by the application in use at the time of activation. Then, the read print data is converted into a printer command and transmitted to the printer to execute printing.

By the way, in an application that runs on the Android (registered trademark) OS (hereinafter referred to as an Android application), the screen is managed in units called activities. An Android application can have multiple activities, one of which is designated as the main activity. This main activity becomes the activity (screen) displayed when the application is started.

As one of the activity management functions of an Android application, when creating an activity, if the same activity already exists, a new activity is not created and the existing activity is reused. For example, when a memory shortage occurs while multiple applications are running, an application that is not in the foreground of the screen may temporarily release the memory. When the memory is released, the activity is internally discarded once, but the same activity is recreated when the screen is restored.

The printing application activated by the application cooperation command is executed as follows depending on whether it exists in the background at the time of activation. That is, when the printing application is not in the background and is started by the application cooperation command, the activity of the printing application is newly created by the callback method onCreate (hereinafter simply referred to as the method). The print data assigned to the application link command is acquired using the Intent held by the activity in onCreate (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as "acquired in onCreate"). On the other hand, if the printing app is already in the background and is launched by the app link command, a new activity will not be created, and the onNewIntent method will be called to reuse the existing activity. The print data given to the application link command is obtained using the Intent given by the argument of onNewIntent (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as "obtained by the argument of onNewIntent"). Note that the above Intent is a container that contains various information, and is used for information transfer and information storage when another activity is started.

Here, in a state where the printing application already exists in the background and the activity has been internally discarded, the printing application may be activated by the application cooperation command. In this case, onNewIntent is called to reuse the existing activity, the print data is obtained as an argument of onNewIntent, and the same activity that was destroyed is recreated. At this time, the intent held by the activity is also regenerated. Therefore, if the print data before being discarded remains as an intent held by the activity, the old print data can be obtained in onCreate of the regenerated activity.

For this reason, double printing is performed based on the old print data obtained from the Intent held by the activity in onCreate of the regenerated activity and the new print data obtained from the Intent given by the onNewIntent argument. There was a problem that it could be done. Also, even when the printing application is not started by the application cooperation command sent from the application in use, if the Android OS may resume the printing application from the background (for example, if the screen is locked) There was also a problem that printing was executed based on the old print data obtained from the Intent held by the activity in onCreate of the regenerated activity.

Conventionally, it is determined whether or not there is a difference between the image information obtained from the server at a certain timing and the image information obtained from the server before that time. There is known a printer that forms an image based on image information acquired in the first step (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-100003). In addition, by determining whether there is an update from the web resource acquired from the website based on the URL information, updating the acquired data, and generating print data from the updated acquired data, wasteful printing is performed. Printers are also known that make it possible to mitigate the possibility (see, for example, US Pat.

Using the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the old print data obtained from the Intent held by the activity in onCreate of the regenerated activity and the new print data obtained from the Intent given by the onNewIntent argument Compare it with the print data to determine if there is a difference or update, and if there is a difference or update, print using only the new print data obtained from the Intent given in the argument of onNewIntent. can be considered. However, in this case, there is a problem that it is necessary to perform a load-intensive process of comparing old print data and new print data. Also, if there is no new print data obtained from the Intent given in the argument of onNewIntent, solve the problem that only the old print data obtained from the Intent held by the activity in onCreate is printed. can't.

Japanese Patent No. 4006121 Japanese Patent No. 5042142

The present invention has been made to solve this problem. Another object of the present invention is to prevent erroneous printing such as double printing based on old print data and new print data, or printing based on old print data.

In order to solve the above-described problem, in the present invention, when an activity is generated when the printing application 30 is activated, it is determined whether or not the activity of the printing application has been discarded before that, When it is determined that the activity is in a discarded state, processing of print data acquired in relation to the regenerated activity is not executed in order to reuse the discarded activity.

According to the present invention configured as described above, when the printing application exists in the background and the activity is internally discarded, and the printing application is started by the application cooperation command, the printing application is discarded. Even if the same activity as the activity that was created is regenerated, the processing of the print data acquired in relation to it will not be executed. This makes it possible to prevent erroneous printing, such as double printing based on old print data and new print data, or printing based on old print data.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a printing system to which a print control device of this embodiment is applied; FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example functional configuration of a print control apparatus according to the embodiment; FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of a mobile terminal including the print control device according to the embodiment; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of a mobile terminal including the print control device according to the embodiment; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of a mobile terminal including the print control device according to the embodiment; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of a mobile terminal including the print control device according to the embodiment; FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the print control apparatus according to the embodiment; FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the print control apparatus according to the embodiment;

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a printing system to which the printing control device of this embodiment is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system of this embodiment includes a mobile terminal 100 and a printer 200 . The mobile terminal 100 is an example of a host terminal having a function of causing the printer 200 to execute printing using an application cooperation command, and is, for example, a smart phone or a tablet terminal. In addition, any smart device that can run a printing application, such as a stationary smart device, can be used as a host terminal. The mobile terminal 100 and the printer 200 have wireless or wired communication functions by Wi-Fi (registered trademark), Bluetooth (registered trademark), Bluetooth Low Energy, or USB, and are capable of two-way communication. It's becoming

The mobile terminal 100 includes an operating system (OS) 10 having an application cooperation function, a print data generation application 20 which is an application having a function of generating print data in a predetermined format such as HTML format, PDF format, etc. A print application 30, which is an application for print control, is installed. The print application 30 converts the print data generated by the print data generation application 20 used in the foreground (hereinafter referred to as the in-use application 20) into printer commands that the printer 200 can understand, and sends them to the printer 200. By sending it, print processing is executed.

The OS 10 is an Android OS, and the screens of the in-use application 20 and the printing application 30 that operate on the OS 10 are managed in units of activities. In this embodiment, when the user is using the application 20 in use in the foreground (when the activity (screen) of the application 20 in use is displayed in the foreground), the printing application 30 is activated by the application cooperation command. Printing is executed by starting up and transferring print data generated by the application 20 in use to the printing application 30 .

That is, when the in-use application 20 running in the foreground generates print data in a format such as HTML or PDF, it activates the printing application 30 using the application cooperation command. At that time, the application 20 in use gives the print data or a URL for accessing the print data to the application cooperation command. Subsequently, the printing application 30 activated by the application cooperation command reads the print data added to the application cooperation command by the in-use application 20 at the time of its activation. Then, the read print data is converted into a printer command and transmitted to the printer 200 to execute printing.

Here, regarding the activation of the printing application 30, the printing application 30 may be activated by the application cooperation command while the printing application 30 does not exist in the background, or may be activated by the application cooperation command while the printing application 30 exists in the background. There are cases where it is done. When the activity of the printing application 30 is activated while existing in the background, it may be activated in a state in which the activity of the printing application 30 has not been discarded, or may be activated in a state in which it has been internally discarded. . An activity may be discarded, for example, due to system restrictions (configuration change, memory load, etc.) while the printing application 30 is in the background. At that time, the OS 10 stores that this activity exists. When the printing application 30 attempts to start this activity, it regenerates the activity using the above-described stored information. The printing application 30 performs different operations as follows depending on which of these three states it is activated.

When the printing application 30 is activated by an application cooperation command while the printing application 30 does not exist in the background, the activity of the printing application 30 is newly generated by the onCreate method called by the OS 10. . The printing application 30 acquires the print data attached to the application cooperation command by using the Intent held by the activity in the onCreate. Then, by converting the acquired print data into a printer command and transmitting the command to the printer 200, printing is executed. Note that the state in which the printing application 30 does not exist in the background is, for example, the state immediately after the printing application 30 is newly installed, or the state in which the printing application 30 is not started at all after the mobile terminal 100 is started. The state includes a state in which the printing application 30 is activated for the first time, a state similar to that in which the printing application 30 is not activated by the OS 10, and the like.

When the printing application 30 exists in the background and the activity of the printing application 30 is not discarded, and the printing application 30 is activated by an application cooperation command, a new activity is generated. is not performed, and the method of onNewIntent is called by the OS 10 to reuse the existing activity. The printing application 30 acquires the print data attached to the application cooperation command by using the Intent attached as the argument of the onNewIntent. Then, by converting the acquired print data into a printer command and transmitting the command to the printer 200, printing is executed.

When the printing application 30 exists in the background and the activity of the printing application 30 is discarded, the existing activity is reused when the printing application 30 is started by an application cooperation command. Therefore, the onNewIntent method is called by the OS 10 . The printing application 30 acquires the print data attached to the application cooperation command by using the Intent attached as the argument of the onNewIntent. Then, by converting the acquired print data into a printer command and transmitting the command to the printer 200, printing is executed.

In a state where the printing application 30 exists in the background and the activity of the printing application 30 is discarded, for example, in a model with a small execution area installed in the mobile terminal 100, many other applications can be used. It is thought that such a phenomenon occurs because the execution area of the application that exists in the background is released when it is running. Furthermore, even in the case of models equipped with energy saving functions, it is assumed that the functions and execution areas of apps that exist in the background will be restricted in order to reduce power consumption. thought to occur.

Also, since the activity is started with the activity destroyed, the same activity as the destroyed activity is recreated by onCreate. At this time, the intent held by the activity is also regenerated. Therefore, if old print data before being discarded remains as an intent held by the activity, the printing application 30 acquires the old print data in onCreate of the regenerated activity and converts it to a printer command. try to. However, in this embodiment, as will be described in detail below, the print data acquired in onCreate of the regenerated activity is not converted into a printer command and controlled so that printing is not executed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of the print control apparatus according to the present embodiment implemented in the mobile terminal 100. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the print control apparatus of the present embodiment includes a print data acquisition unit 101, a command conversion unit 102, a discard determination unit 103, a print control unit 104, and an information A recording unit 105 is provided. Further, the print control apparatus (portable terminal 100) of this embodiment includes an information storage unit 106 as a storage medium.

Each of the functional blocks 101 to 105 can be configured by hardware, DSP (Digital Signal Processor), or software. For example, when configured by software, the functional blocks 101 to 105 are actually configured with a computer CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., and print data stored in a storage medium such as RAM, ROM, hard disk, or semiconductor memory. It is realized by running the program of the application 30 for the application.

The print data acquisition unit 101 acquires print data attached to the application cooperation command issued by the application 20 in use. When onCreate is called by the OS 10, the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires print data using the Intent held by the activity in onCreate. Here, the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires the print data in onCreate regardless of whether the activity is newly generated by onCreate or when the activity is regenerated after being discarded once. On the other hand, when onNewIntent is called by the OS 10, the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires print data using the Intent given as an argument of the onNewIntent. The print data acquisition unit 101 supplies the acquired print data to the command conversion unit 102 .

The command conversion unit 102 converts the print data supplied from the print data acquisition unit 101 into printer commands, and transmits the commands to the printer 200 .

The discard determination unit 103 determines whether an activity is generated when the printing application 30 is activated by an application cooperation command issued by the in-use application 20 (when an activity is newly generated or when an activity is regenerated after being discarded once). ), that is, when the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires the print data using the Intent held by the activity in onCreate, the activity of the print application 30 is discarded before that. It is determined whether or not the The determination result of the discard determination unit 103 is used for printing control by the print control unit 104 . Details of the determination method by the discard determination unit 103 will be described later.

The print control unit 104 controls execution of printing by the printer 200 . Here, the print control unit 104 determines (1) when the printing application 30 is started in a state where the printing application 30 does not exist in the background, and (2) when the printing application 30 exists in the background and the printing (3) the printing application 30 exists in the background and the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded; Execution of printing to the printer 200 is controlled according to three cases. Cases (1) and (3) are cases in which the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires print data using the Intent held by the activity in onCreate. The discard determination unit 103 determines which case (1) or (3) applies. On the other hand, case (2) is a case where the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires print data using an Intent given as an argument of onNewIntent.

That is, when the printing application 30 is activated without being in the background (case (1) above), the print control unit 104 detects this based on the determination result of the discard determination unit 103. do. In this case, the print control unit 104 supplies the print data acquired by the print data acquisition unit 101 using the intent held by the activity in onCreate to the command conversion unit 102, and executes command conversion processing of the print data. to control.

Further, when the printing application 30 exists in the background and is activated in a state where the activity of the printing application 30 has not been discarded (case (2) above), the printing control unit 104 causes the printing The print data acquired by the data acquisition unit 101 using the Intent given by the argument of onNewIntent is supplied to the command conversion unit 102, and the command conversion processing of the print data is executed. In this case, print data is not acquired using the Intent held by the activity in onCreate, so there is no need to use the determination result of the discard determination unit 103 .

Further, when the printing application 30 exists in the background and is started with the activity of the printing application 30 discarded (case (3) above), the printing control unit 104 is detected based on the determination result of the discard determination unit 103 . In this case, the print control unit 104 supplies the print data acquired by the print data acquisition unit 101 with the argument of onNewIntent to the command conversion unit 102, and performs command conversion processing for the print data. The print data acquired in onCreate in relation to the activity regenerated by onCreate in order to reuse the discarded activity is not supplied to the command conversion unit 102, and the command conversion processing of the print data is not executed. to control.

Conventionally, when onCreate was called by the OS 10, was it called because the printing application 30 was not in the background as in case (1)? As in the case of (3), there was no means for determining whether a call was made because the print application 30 existed in the background and was started in a state where the activity was abandoned. As a result, erroneous printing, such as double printing based on old print data and new print data, may occur. On the other hand, in this embodiment, the discard determination unit 103 is provided as means for determining whether onCreate is called in case (1) or whether onCreate is called in case (3). If it is determined that onCreate has been called in the above case, it is controlled not to process the print data acquired in relation to the activity regenerated by onCreate.

The information recording unit 105 temporarily stores in the information storage unit 106 information necessary for regenerating the same activity after the activity has been discarded when the printing application 30 shifts from the foreground to the background. save. For example, an instance called onSavedInstance can be used as this information storage unit 106 . When the printing application 30 is not activated at all (when neither the foreground nor the background exists), the information storage unit 106 stores a Null value. The Null value continues to be stored in the information storage unit 106 even after the printing application 30 is activated from that state and transitions to a state in which it exists in the foreground. After that, when the printing application 30 moves from the foreground to the background, the information recording unit 105 temporarily saves the information in the information storage unit 106 in preparation for regenerating the activity. The contents of the information stored in the information storage unit 106 can be arbitrarily designed by the printing application 30 .

When onCreate is called by the OS 10, that is, when print data is acquired in onCreate by the print data acquisition unit 101, the discard determination unit 103 refers to the information storage unit 106 and Based on the information storage state, it is determined whether or not the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded. That is, the discard determination unit 103 determines whether or not the information stored in the information storage unit 106 is a null value. 30 activities are not in a discarded state. On the other hand, if the information stored in the information storage unit 106 is not a null value, the discard determination unit 103 determines that the activity of the print application 30 has been discarded. In this case, the print control unit 104 detects that case (3) is the case. Therefore, the print control unit 104 controls not to process the print data acquired by the print data acquisition unit 101 in onCreate.

3 to 6 are flow charts showing an operation example of the portable terminal 100 including the print control device configured as described above. FIG. 3 shows an operation example executed by the application 20 in use and the OS 10 when execution of printing is instructed. 4 shows an example of operation of the printing application 30 in case (1) above, FIG. 5 shows an example of operation of the printing application 30 in case (2) above, and FIG. 6 shows an example of operation of the printing application 30 in case (3) above. 4 shows an operation example of the printing application 30. FIG.

In FIG. 3, when the user inputs a print command by operating the print button or the like in the in-use application 20 running in the foreground, the in-use application 20 issues an application cooperation command including print data to the OS 10 ( step S1). At this time, the OS 10 determines whether or not the printing application 30 exists in the background (step S2). or whether there is no activity (step S3).

Here, when the OS 10 confirms that the printing application 30 does not exist in the background (step S2: No), the OS 10 calls onCreate to activate the printing application 30 (step S4). After that, the processing proceeds to FIG.

In addition, when the OS 10 confirms that the print application 30 exists in the background and that the activity of the print application 30 exists is not stored or the activity exists ( Step S3: No), the OS 10 calls onNewIntent to activate the printing application 30 (step S5). Activation in this case means transitioning the printing application 30 in the background to the foreground. After that, the processing proceeds to FIG.

Further, when the OS 10 confirms that the printing application 30 exists in the background and that the printing application 30 exists is stored or that the activity does not exist (step S3: Yes), the OS 10 calls onCreate to activate the printing application 30 (step S6). Also, since the printing application 30 is activated in the background, the OS 10 also calls onNewIntent (step S7). After that, the processing proceeds to FIG.

4, the printing application 30 activated by the onCreate call (step S4 in FIG. 3) by the OS 10 newly creates an activity (step S11). Then, the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires the print data attached to the application cooperation command using the Intent held by the activity in onCreate (step S12).

After that, the discard determination unit 103 refers to the information storage unit 106, and based on whether the information stored in the information storage unit 106 is a null value, the activity of the printing application 30 is discarded. It is determined whether or not (step S13). In FIG. 4, the discard determination unit 103 determines that the activity of the print application 30 is not discarded. That is, it is determined that it is necessary to newly start the activity of the printing application 30 . Therefore, the print control unit 104 controls the print data acquisition unit 101 to process the print data.

According to the control from the print control unit 104, the print data acquisition unit 101 supplies the print data acquired in step S12 to the command conversion unit 102 (step S14). Upon receiving the print data from the print data acquisition unit 101, the command conversion unit 102 converts the print data into printer commands (step S15), and transmits the commands to the printer 200 (step S16). The printer 200 executes printing according to the received printer command (step S17).

In FIG. 5, in the printing application 30 activated through the onNewIntent call (step S5 in FIG. 3) by the OS 10, the print data acquiring unit 101 acquires the print data attached to the application cooperation command as an onNewIntent argument. obtained using the received Intent (step S21). In this case, the processing of the discard determination unit 103 is not executed, and the print control unit 104 controls the print data acquisition unit 101 to execute print data processing.

According to the control from the print control unit 104, the print data acquisition unit 101 supplies the print data acquired in step S21 to the command conversion unit 102 (step S22). Upon receiving the print data from the print data acquisition unit 101, the command conversion unit 102 converts the print data into printer commands (step S23), and transmits the commands to the printer 200 (step S24). The printer 200 executes printing according to the received printer command (step S25).

In FIG. 6, the printing application 30 activated through the onCreate call (step S6 in FIG. 3) by the OS 10 regenerates the same activity as the discarded activity, and also regenerates the Intent held by the activity. (step S31). Then, when the old print data before being discarded remains as an Intent, the print data acquisition unit 101 acquires the print data restored by regenerating the Intent in onCreate (step S32). If no print data remains in the regenerated Intent, the print data acquisition unit 101 does not acquire print data.

After that, the discard determination unit 103 refers to the information storage unit 106, and based on whether the information stored in the information storage unit 106 is a null value, the activity of the printing application 30 is discarded. It is determined whether or not (step S33). In FIG. 6, the discard determination unit 103 determines that the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded. Therefore, the print control unit 104 controls the print data acquisition unit 101 so as not to process the print data. Accordingly, the print data acquisition unit 101 does not supply the print data acquired in step S32 to the command conversion unit 102. FIG.

Next, the print data acquisition unit 101 receives onNewIntent called by the OS 10 (step S7 in FIG. 3), and converts the print data assigned to the application cooperation command using the Intent assigned as the argument of onNewIntent. Acquire (step S34). Accordingly, the processing of the discard determination unit 103 is not executed, and the print control unit 104 controls the print data acquisition unit 101 to execute print data processing.

According to the control from the print control unit 104, the print data acquisition unit 101 supplies the print data acquired in step S34 to the command conversion unit 102 (step S35). Upon receiving the print data from the print data acquisition unit 101, the command conversion unit 102 converts the print data into printer commands (step S36), and transmits the commands to the printer 200 (step S37). The printer 200 executes printing according to the received printer command (step S38).

As described in detail above, in the present embodiment, when the printing application 30 is activated by the application cooperation command issued from the application 20 in use and the activity is generated by onCreate, the printing application 30 is determined whether or not the activity is in a discarded state, and if it is determined that the activity is in a discarded state, the print data acquired in the onCreate is not processed. there is

According to this embodiment configured as described above, when the printing application 30 is in the background and the activity is internally discarded, when the printing application 30 is activated by the application cooperation command, Even if the same activity that was destroyed is recreated in onCreate, the processing of the print data obtained in onCreate in relation to it is not performed, and the onNewIntent argument that is called in parallel with the onCreate call Only the processing of the acquired print data will be executed. As a result, it is possible to prevent erroneous printing such as double printing based on the old print data acquired in onCreate and the new print data acquired by the argument of onNewIntent.

Also, when the printing application 30 is not activated by the application cooperation command sent from the application 20 in use, but when the OS 10 returns the printing application 30 from the background to the foreground (for example, when the screen lock state is released). ), even if the old print data is obtained using the intent held by the activity in the onCreate of the regenerated activity, printing is performed based on the old print data to prevent printing errors. You can also

In the above embodiment, the method of determining whether the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded is the method of confirming the saved state of information in the information storage unit 106 configured by an instance called onSavedInstance. , the invention is not limited to this. For example, when the printing application 30 terminates (shuts down) (when the onDestroy method is called by the OS 10), a predetermined information storage unit in which information is stored is referenced, and the information storage state for the information storage unit is changed. Based on this, it may be determined whether or not the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of the print control device in this case. In FIG. 7, the parts denoted by the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 2 have the same functions, and redundant description will be omitted here. The print control apparatus shown in FIG. 7 includes a discard determination unit 103A, an information recording unit 105A and an information storage unit 106A instead of the discard determination unit 103, information recording unit 105 and information storage unit 106 shown in FIG. .

Information recording unit 105A temporarily saves predetermined information in information storage unit 106A when printing application 30 ends. When the printing application 30 is activated, the information recording unit 105A rewrites the information stored in the information recording unit 105A from predetermined information to other information.

When onCreate is called by the OS 10 (when an activity is generated by onCreate when the printing application 30 is activated), the discard determination unit 103A refers to the information storage unit 106A, and the information stored in the information storage unit 106A It is determined whether or not the information is predetermined information, and if it is predetermined information, it is determined that the activity of the print application 30 is not in a discarded state because it is considered that the activity is newly generated rather than regenerated. On the other hand, if the information stored in the information storage unit 106A is not predetermined information, the discard determination unit 103A determines that the activity of the print application 30 has been discarded. Note that when the printing application 30 is first started after being installed in the mobile terminal 100, no information is stored in the information storage unit 106A. Even if no information is stored in the information storage unit 106A, the activity is considered to be newly generated rather than regenerated. Therefore, the discard determination unit 103A determines that the activity of the printing application 30 is not discarded. .

As another method for determining whether or not the activity of the print application 30 has been discarded, an information storage unit that stores the execution time each time print processing based on print data is executed is provided. and determines whether or not the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded based on whether or not the elapsed time from the most recent execution time stored in the information storage unit is less than the threshold. can be This method is effective when onCreate is called after onNewIntent, not when onNewIntent is called after onCreate as in steps S6 and S7 in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of the print control device in this case. In FIG. 8, the components denoted by the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 2 have the same functions, and redundant description will be omitted here. The print control apparatus shown in FIG. 8 includes a discard determination unit 103B, an information recording unit 105B, and an information storage unit 106B instead of the discard determination unit 103, information recording unit 105, and information storage unit 106 shown in FIG. .

Information recording unit 105B stores the execution time in information storage unit 106B each time print processing based on print data acquired by print data acquisition unit 101 is executed under the control of print control unit 104 .

When onCreate is called by the OS 10 (when an activity is generated by onCreate when the printing application 30 is started), the discard determination unit 103B performs print processing based on the print data acquired in onCreate by the print data acquisition unit 101. is executed, based on whether the elapsed time from the most recent execution time stored in the information storage unit 106B is less than a threshold, it is determined whether the activity of the printing application 30 has been discarded. judge. Here, the threshold is set to a time that is shorter than the normal time assumed as the processing time when the user executes printing using the application 20 in use.

When the printing application 30 exists in the background and the printing application 30 is started with the previous activity discarded, onNewIntent and onCreate for regenerating the same activity as the discarded activity. are called in parallel. In this case, printing is executed based on the print data acquired by the argument of onNewIntent called before onCreate, and the execution time is stored in the information storage unit 106B. After that, when attempting to execute print processing based on the print data acquired in onCreate called after onNewIntent, the discard determination unit 103B When the elapsed time is measured, the elapsed time is less than the threshold. Therefore, in this case, the discard determination unit 103B determines that the activity of the print application 30 has been discarded.

In addition, the above-described embodiments are merely examples of specific implementations of the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be construed in a limited manner. Thus, the invention may be embodied in various forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics.

10OS
20 App in use (application for generating print data)
30 print application 100 mobile terminal 101 print data acquisition unit 102 command conversion unit 103, 103A, 103B discard determination unit 104 print control unit 105, 105A, 105B information recording unit 106, 106A, 106B information storage unit 200 printer

Claims (6)

A printing application, which is an application for controlling printing, is started from the application in use, which is an application running in the foreground on the host terminal, by an application cooperation command, and the printing application is based on the print data generated by the application in use. in a system configured to execute printing with a printer, a printing control device for controlling execution of printing by the printing application,
a discard determination unit that determines whether or not the activity of the printing application has been discarded before the activity is generated when the printing application is activated;
When the discard determination unit determines that the activity of the printing application is in a discarded state, processing print data acquired in relation to the activity regenerated to reuse the discarded activity and a print control unit that controls not to execute. further comprising an information recording unit for storing, in an information storage unit, information necessary for regenerating the same activity after the activity has been discarded when the printing application transitions from the foreground to the background;
The discard determination unit refers to the information storage unit when an activity is generated when the printing application is activated, and discards the activity of the printing application based on the state of information storage in the information storage unit. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the print control apparatus is in a further comprising an information recording unit that saves predetermined information in an information storage unit when the printing application is terminated;
The discard determination unit refers to the information storage unit when an activity is generated when the printing application is activated, and discards the activity of the printing application based on the state of information storage in the information storage unit. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the print control apparatus is in a a print time recording unit that stores an execution time in an information storage unit each time a print process based on the print data is executed;
When the activity is generated when the printing application is started, the discard determination unit determines whether the print processing based on the print data is executed after the elapsed time from the most recent execution time stored in the information storage unit. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein whether or not the activity of the print application has been discarded is determined based on whether or not is less than a threshold. A printing application, which is an application for controlling printing, is started from the application in use, which is an application running in the foreground on the host terminal, by an application cooperation command, and the printing application is based on the print data generated by the application in use. A method for controlling execution of printing by the printing application in a system configured to execute printing with a printer, comprising:
A discard determination unit of a computer included in the host terminal determines whether or not the activity of the print application has been discarded before the activity is generated when the print application is activated. 1 step;
When the discard determination unit determines that the printing application activity is in a discarded state, the print control unit of the computer is associated with the activity regenerated to reuse the discarded activity. and a second step of performing control so as not to process the print data acquired by the second step. A printing application, which is an application for controlling printing, is started from the application in use, which is an application running in the foreground on the host terminal, by an application cooperation command, and the printing application is based on the print data generated by the application in use. A printing program implemented as the printing application in a system configured to execute printing on a printer,
Discard determination means for determining whether or not the activity of the printing application has been discarded before the activity is generated when the printing application is activated, and the activity of the printing application is discarded. printing that controls not to execute processing of print data acquired in relation to an activity regenerated in order to reuse the discarded activity when the discard determination means determines that the discarded activity A printing program that allows a computer to function as a control means.

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