JP2697905B2 - Virtual printer control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] In a computer system, a virtual printer control system capable of performing print control focusing only on functions actually used by a printer device. The purpose of this application is to provide a printing function that matches the user's operating environment by providing it, inquire about the functions of the printer device, and perform print control within the range of the notified functions. A processing unit, a printer information control unit that manages printer information related to the maximum function of each printer device provided by the system, and a printer information control unit that manages the printer information based on the printer information managed by the printer information control unit. According to external environment settings, select only a certain function and manage it as virtual printer information. And a virtual printer information control unit for notifying the managed virtual printer information in response to an inquiry from the application processing unit.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a virtual printer control method which enables a computer system to perform print control focusing only on functions actually used by a printer device.

When printing is performed using a computer, various functions are required for a computer system including a printer device. For this reason, as a system that provides services, the largest functions in the system are provided, but as distributed processing advances, individual users do not need the maximum functions, and some Providing functionality is often sufficient. For that purpose, it is necessary to provide a function that can be customized by the user as a system.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 5 shows an example of control related to printing according to the related art.

In the prior art, when printing is performed on the printer device 19A, the application processing unit 11 inquires the printer information control unit 14A of information regarding the function of the printer device 19A. On the other hand, the printer information control unit 14A makes an inquiry about the device function to the printer device 19A, and notifies the maximum function notified from the device side to the application processing unit 11 as it is, or the printer device which holds in advance as an implicit value in advance. The maximum function of 19A is notified to the application processing unit 11.

The application processing unit 11 performs print control in consideration of the maximum function of the printer device 19A based on the notified result, and issues a print instruction to the printer device 19A.

Even when a print instruction is issued to a device connected to another processing device 10B, such as the printer device 19B, an inquiry is made to the printer information control unit 14B which manages the device information, and based on the notified maximum function. Then, printing is performed via the processing device 10B. The processing means is a printer information control unit.
14A and the printer information control unit 14B can be shared.

In the prior art, the information notified from the printer information control unit 14A or the printer information control unit 14B to the application processing unit 11 is information on the maximum function of the printer device 19A or the printer device 19B, respectively. I couldn't limit myself.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In the printing using the conventional technology, there has been a problem that the operation limited to a part of the function of the system for providing the service cannot be performed.

For example, when the distributed processing of the computer system advances and the operation in which the printer device is shared by the respective processing devices becomes more and more popular, the burden on the operator increases.
Also, an improvement in throughput is required.

In such a case, to minimize the intervention of the operator, the size of the paper to be printed is limited. To improve the throughput, the color printing is actually performed even if the printing is actually possible. If it is possible to limit the functions, such as not performing the operation, it may be convenient.

Also, if the maximum function of the printer device is always provided to the user who does not need the maximum function as a printing environment, even if the user is instructed to prevent erroneous operation and erroneous instruction by using a manual or operation guide, May not be enough.

As described above, according to the conventional technology, it is not possible to easily adopt an operation mode in which the maximum functions of the printer device are partially limited. If such an operation mode is adopted, individual application processing The part 11 must include a process in which a part of the maximum function is limited, and there is a problem that it is practically difficult to realize it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide information that can be individually customized by a user as a system so that a printing function suitable for the operating environment of the user to use can be provided.

[Means for solving the problem]

 FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a processing device including a CPU and a memory, 11 denotes an application processing unit that provides various services for performing print control, 12 denotes a virtual printer information control unit, and 13 denotes virtual printer information set by a user. Virtual printer information table, 14 is a printer information control unit, 15 is a printer information table with the maximum function information of each printer device, 16 is a printer control unit that prints to the printer device, and 17 is access control to the operating environment file. The operating environment file access unit that performs the operation, 18 is an input / output device such as a display and a keyboard,
Reference numeral 19 denotes a printer device, and reference numeral 20 denotes an operation environment file for storing definition information on the operation environment of various processing units in the system.

The printer information control unit 14 manages printer information relating to the maximum function of each printer device 19 provided by the system using a printer information table 15. The printer information table 15 is created by an inquiry command to the printer device 19 at the time of initial setting or by an implicit value set in advance.

The application processing unit 11 inquires about the functions of the printer device 19 and executes a program for performing print control within the range of the notified functions. In the present invention, this inquiry is made to the virtual printer information control unit 12.

The virtual printer information control unit 12 sets and manages only the functions that the user wants to use among the functions of the system for providing services and the printer device 19. That is, the virtual printer information control unit 12 uses the printer information managed by the printer information control unit
Within the range of 19 maximum functions, only certain functions are selected by external environment setting via the input / output device 18 etc.
It is managed in the virtual printer information table 13 as virtual printer information. Further, in response to the inquiry from the application processing unit 11, the virtual printer information managed in the virtual printer information table 13 is notified to the application processing unit 11.

Accordingly, the application processing unit 11 issues a print instruction to the printer device 19 via the printer control unit 16 based on the content notified from the virtual printer information control unit 12.

The contents of the virtual printer information table 13 can be saved in the operation environment file 20 by the operation environment file access unit 17 as necessary, and used as IPL takeover information.

[Action]

As shown in FIG. 1, based on printer information provided by the system and implicitly indicating the maximum function of each printer device 19, only the function desired by the user is selected, and the selected function is used as virtual printer information. It can be set in the printer information table 13. In response to an inquiry from the application processing unit 11, the use function set by the user managed by the virtual printer information control unit 12 is notified.

This allows the application processing unit to execute the print request.
At 11, the user can give a print instruction in accordance with the information customized by the user, so that each user can freely adopt a printing operation mode suitable for each user's business.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 shows a processing flow of the virtual printer information control unit according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 shows an example of a printer environment setting menu according to the embodiment of the present invention.

As an example of the function of the printer device, the size of the printing paper is assumed, and this is the target of user customization.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

The printer device 19A shown in FIG. 2 is capable of printing on any paper size of A3 / A4 / B4 / B5. In response to an inquiry from the printer information control unit 14A, the printer device 19A
Notifies that the device can print on A3 / A4 / B4 / B5 paper size.

For some users, for example, due to the paper cassette to the printer device 19A, there may be a case where the user wants to operate without using paper other than A4 / B5. For example, if a B4 size paper feed cassette is not prepared and a B4 size print request is erroneously received, operator intervention is required and printing processing is stagnated.

In order to resolve such inconvenience, the printer environment setting by the virtual printer information
Restricts paper size functions to A4 / B5.

In this way, in response to an inquiry from the application processing unit 11 to the virtual printer information control unit 12A, the virtual printer information control unit 1
Since 2A notifies that only the size of A4 / B5 is possible as the set function to be used, the application processing unit 11 issues a print instruction of A4 or B5 size, and requests for other sizes are
An error can be processed without issuing a print instruction.

The same applies when the device is connected to another processing device 10B, such as the printer device 19B.

In this example, it is assumed that the maximum function information of the printer device 19B is set as an implicit value in the printer information table 15B instead of inquiring the device function of the printer device 19B from the printer information control unit 14B.

If there is no user setting of the function to be used for the virtual printer information control unit 12B, the virtual printer information control unit 12B responds to the inquiry from the application processing unit 11 by the maximum function managed by the printer information control unit 14B. To the application processing section 11
Notify. When the application processing unit 11 issues a print instruction to the printer device 19B, the maximum function notified from the virtual printer information control unit 12B, that is, a print instruction for all paper sizes of A3 / A4 / B4 / B5 is issued. It can be carried out.

The virtual printer information control unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 executes, for example, the processing shown in FIG.

At the start of the process, first, an initial setting process is performed. In this initial setting, it is determined whether the virtual printer information has already been registered in the operating environment file 20 shown in FIG. 1, and if it has been registered, the information is stored in the virtual printer information table.
Read and set to 13. If it is not registered, it inquires the printer information controller 14 about the maximum function of the printer device 19 and sets the information in the virtual printer information table 13.

 Wait for processing request.

When a processing request event comes, it is determined whether the request is a user setting request or a function inquiry request from the application processing unit 11. In the case of an inquiry, the processing shifts to processing.

In the case of a request for setting a function to be used, a printer environment setting menu in which functions can be selected within a range of the maximum function of the printer to be set is displayed.

Enter the environment setting information based on the displayed printer environment setting menu.

The virtual printer information table 13 is created or updated based on the input environment setting information.

The contents of the created / updated virtual printer information table 13 are written to the operating environment file 20.

 Thereafter, control is returned to the processing, and the next processing request is waited for.

When there is an inquiry request from the application processing unit 11,
It refers to the virtual printer information table 13 and notifies its contents to the application processing unit 11. Then, control is returned to the processing, and the next processing request is waited for.

The printer environment setting menu displayed in the processing shown in FIG. 3 is, for example, a menu as shown in FIG.

Paper size, color, media,
Various attribute information on printer functions such as character font and character size can be selected. Functions that are not physically supported by the printer are excluded from the menu items and cannot be selected. For the function selected as the function to be used, the item is highlighted.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, A4 and B
5, color and black-and-white printing, medium as character data and image data, character font as Mincho, character size as 9 points,.

The function information thus selected is set in the virtual printer information table 13 shown in FIG. 1, and when there is an inquiry from the application processing unit 11, the function information limited by the environment setting is notified.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, not only can the functions of the system for providing services be used to the fullest extent, but also the user can limit the paper size or the colors and media. The function can be narrowed down as a system to suit the tasks actually required. Therefore, erroneous operations and erroneous instructions by the user can be prevented beforehand, which greatly contributes to improving the service of the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is a configuration example of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a processing flow of a virtual printer information control unit according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 shows an example of such a printer environment setting menu, and FIG. In the figure, 10 is a processing device, 11 is an application processing unit, 12 is a virtual printer information control unit, 13 is a virtual printer information table, 14 is a printer information control unit, 15 is a printer information table, 16 is a printer control unit, and 17 is a printer control unit. An operation environment file access unit, 18 is an input / output device, 19 is a printer device, and 20 is an operation environment file.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An application processing unit (11) for inquiring about a function of a printer device and performing print control within a range of the notified function, in a computer system having a printer device (19), and a system. Printer information control unit (14) that manages printer information on the maximum functions of each printer device
Based on the printer information managed by the printer information control unit, only a certain function is selected by external environment setting within the range of the maximum function of the printer device, and the selected function is managed as virtual printer information. And a virtual printer information control section (12) for notifying the virtual printer information managed in response to an inquiry from the application processing section.