JP3012748B2 - Computer system and form editing and output device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer system and a form editing and outputting apparatus, and more particularly to a form editing and outputting apparatus which can be installed between a printer and a computer to improve a programming interface of a printer output and includes the same. Computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When outputting form data from a computer to a printer in a printer network to which a plurality of printers are connected, first, the name of the printer to be used, and then the form data are transmitted to a spool file and the data is transmitted in the order of transmission. Is stored. Next, the received data stored in the spool file is sequentially taken out, converted into a physical control code corresponding to the printer to be used, and the conversion result is transmitted to the printer to output a form.

[0003] In such a form output, (1) data transmission is performed in a form output program on the host computer side in consideration of a printer name and a printing order, and further, a data for forming one form. -Data groups must be transmitted continuously. (2) When a plurality of form output programs on the host computer side issue a form output request, the system waits for output of the form data requested later, or the form output program on the host computer side. Therefore, it is necessary to manage the form output processing on the host computer side so as not to conflict with each other by always considering the form output request issued by another form output program. (3)
Further, in order to avoid having to be aware of the physical control code of the printer output on the host computer side, it is necessary to prepare the above-mentioned conversion modules for the number of printers outputting the form.

In order for the computer to perform all of the above-described operations for printer output, the form output program becomes large, a large amount of memory is required, and the time and effort for creating the output program increases. Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-245
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 221, there is no conflict between form output requests within one computer, and
The data to be transmitted to the server must be converted to data of the same interface before transmission. When exchanging data for the same interface, the data must be sent in the order of printing. The server must have a physical control code storage buffer for each printer, and a server is connected between a printer network to which a plurality of printers are connected and a form output device. The server is provided with a function of generating a physical control code corresponding to the printer, thereby reducing the burden on the user program. Further, as described above, since it is assumed that the form output requests do not conflict within one computer, the server uses the information indicating the status of each printer to prevent only the form output requests from competing between the computers. The user is notified (printer status is displayed on the terminal that requests form output).

In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-36415, a conversion module corresponding to a printer is provided to generate data to be sent to the printer, so that the user program does not need to be aware of the type of the printer. Also, the form output can be performed by logically specifying the output format.

[0006]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention
Although the load of the user program is reduced in the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-264, a conversion module for each printer needs to be provided in each computer, and there is no improvement in memory consumption. In addition, there is no countermeasure against contention when outputting a plurality of forms.

On the other hand, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-245221, the load for memory and code generation can be reduced to some extent.
It is necessary to correspond to one-to-one, it is necessary to convert to the data of the same interface, and when converting the data to be transmitted to the server to the data of the same interface,
It is necessary to be aware of the printing order, to send the data developed into the print image to the server, each server to have a physical control code storage buffer for each printer, and to prevent contention from the server. Insufficient countermeasures, such as responding to data.

The present invention relates to a printer name (model), a transmission order and a transmission method of data forming a form, a form output request issued from another form output program (conflict management), and a computer system configuration (computer and form). (The output requesting terminal realizes an N-to-M correspondence.) A form output to a high-performance printer that is unaware of all five items and that is unaware of the data transmission request order according to the print position. Forms can be output to all printers using the same interface as
It is an object of the present invention to provide a form editing and output apparatus and a computer system for outputting a form with the same performance as when a form output apparatus is provided for each printer.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a computer system which comprises a plurality of computers and a plurality of printer groups, to which a plurality of terminals can be connected, wherein the combination of the computers and the printers is arbitrarily possible. Once the output data of
The image data is converted into print image data, the print image data is converted into data in a physical format for a combination-compatible printer, and the data is sent to the combination-compatible printer for printing.

Further, the present invention receives computer output data including print data output from a computer group comprising a plurality of computers, attribute data thereof, and a print position, which enables connection of a plurality of terminals, and receives the output data from a plurality of printers. In a form editing output device for outputting form output data of a group of printers, receiving data storage means for receiving and storing the computer output data, and analyzing the computer output data stored in the means. Image developing means for developing into image data to be printed in a form, image data storing means for storing the image data developed by the means, and a printer for outputting from the image data stored in the means. Physical data conversion means for generating physical control data consisting of a character code and a control code according to the specification; Achieved by providing physical control data storage means for storing the physical control data generated by the means, and form output control means for controlling transmission of the physical control data stored in the means to the printer. A plurality of the reception data storage means, the image data storage means, and the physical control data storage means, or the reception data storage means is removed, and the image development means, the image data storage means are provided. , And the physical control data conversion means are provided for each computer.

[0011]

Since the physical control data corresponding to the specifications of the printer can be generated by the image expanding means and the physical data converting means, the computer does not need to be aware of the transmission order of the data according to the printer and the printing position. Also, by providing a plurality of storage means for processing data in the middle or providing means for generating physical control data corresponding to the computer, there is no need to be aware of conflicting output requests from the multiple terminals and the multiple computers. .

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a form editing and outputting apparatus according to the present invention. Form editing and output device 2 of the present invention
Reference numeral 00 denotes each information storage unit of the data storage unit 130, the data management unit 140, and the data editing information unit 150, the data reception unit 111, the reception data analysis / image development unit 112,
The terminal 30 includes four processing units: a printer physical data conversion unit 113 and a form output control unit 114.
A computer 10 having a form output program using a terminal group 300 composed of 1, 302, 303, etc. as a form output request source
The form output from the host computer group 100 composed of 1, 102, 103, etc. is processed and the form output printers 121, 12
The print data is output to a form output printer group 120 composed of 2, 123 and the like.

The data storage unit 130 comprises three storage units: a reception data storage unit 131, a print image development data storage unit 132, and a physical control data storage unit 133.
The reception data storage unit 131 accumulates data transmitted from the form output program on the host computer side in host computer units, and the print image development data storage unit 132 stores print image development data in page units for each host computer. The physical control data storage unit 133 stores a physical control code and character data for each device that outputs a form.

The data management unit 140 comprises three management units: a reception data management unit 141, a print image development data management unit 142, and a physical control data management unit 143.
The reception data management unit 141 stores a reception data in the reception data storage unit for each host computer, the number of the stored reception data, and print image development. It manages the request and the printer that outputs the form specified by the host computer, and print image development data management unit 142
Manages an image development panel corresponding to the received data storage unit on a one-to-one basis, completion of the development of the panel, and a printer for outputting the image-developed data, and physical control data. The data management unit 143 includes a physical control data storage unit that stores control codes associated with the physical structure of the printer and data converted to character data, and conversion to physical control data. And storage completion, and a printer for outputting the data.

In the data editing information section 150, there are two pieces of information, that is, received data storage section management information 151 and printer physical control information 152.
The printer physical control information 152 includes information for associating the host computer that transmitted the form data with the reception data storage unit, and reception data storage destination address information for each reception data storage unit. It has physical information of the printer to output.

Using the above-described storage device, management device, and information device, a data receiving unit 111, a received data analyzing / image expanding unit 112, a printer physical data converting unit 11
3, and the form output control unit 114 performs the following processing.

FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart of the data receiving unit 111, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of its operation. First, in step 100, it is checked whether or not the terminal has transmitted data before. If the terminal has not transmitted data before, in step 105, the terminal number of the data transmitting terminal ( For example, 301) is set, in step 110, 0 is set to the reception data storage destination address, and further, in step 115, the reception data storage section name is set (a name not used by another terminal is set). ,
If the data has been transmitted before, nothing is performed, and in the next step 120, the reception data storage destination address (relative address in units of storage units) corresponding to the terminal that transmitted the data is extracted from the reception data storage unit information 151. , Step 125
Then, the data storage unit name corresponding to the terminal that transmitted the data is extracted from the reception data storage unit 151, and the received data in the reception data storage unit 131 is extracted in step 130 based on the name and the address extracted in step 120. Check the storage unit for fullness.

As a result, if there is no free space, the process is terminated (the received data storage unit is cyclically organized so that no free space is basically considered).
In step 5, the received data storage destination address extracted in step 120 and the received data storage unit extracted in step 115 are used to store the corresponding received data storage unit 13
1 to store the received data in the received data storage unit.
After the storage is completed, the received data storage destination address corresponding to the received data storage unit name in the received data storage unit information 151 is updated in step 140, and in step 145, the received data management unit 141 is referred to and the received data is received. If there is a data storage unit name, the reception data counter corresponding to the data storage unit name is counted up by one in step 155, and if there is no reception data storage unit name, the reception data storage unit name is set in the reception data management unit 141 in step 150. , At step 155, the receiving data counter is set to 1. Then, the output printer type is set in step 160, and the development request flag is turned on in step 165.

By performing the above-described processing after step 100 each time data transmitted from a terminal via a host computer is received, data transmitted from a plurality of computers to which a plurality of terminals can be connected is destroyed. This makes it possible to issue a print image development request, which is processing shown in FIG. 4 described below, for each piece of received data. That is, it is not necessary for the computer to output the form in consideration of the printer state (contention management) and the print image.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart of the received data analyzing / printing image developing unit 112, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams of the operation. The reception data analysis / image development unit 112 is provided with a plurality of reception data analysis / image development processes in which a process of analyzing the reception data and a process of developing the analysis data into a print image are provided as one set. This processing does not have to be performed for each reception data storage section in the data storage section 131. This processing always refers to the development request flag of the reception data management section 141 (refers to a cycle of several seconds). The data in the reception data storage unit in the storage 131 is processed as follows.

First, in step 200, as described above, the expansion request flag is turned on or off with reference to the expansion flag of the reception data management unit 141 shown in FIG. In step 210, the name of the received data storage unit whose expansion request flag is ON is extracted from the received data management unit 141, and the received data storage unit
Data is extracted in units of data received from the received data storage unit 31 (between 301 and 302 in FIG. 6), and the data is analyzed in step 220 (302 in FIG. 6).
Next, at step 230, the end code of one page is checked.
Are sequentially developed into print images in the order indicated by 305, and are stored as needed in the image development panels aa, bb,... Provided in the form unit (one page unit) in the print image development data storage unit 132 in step 270. Proceed to step 280.

The print image development here means to analyze received data (this is logical data) of each terminal 301 shown in FIG. 6 to create an image when actually printed. The expansion data storage means that the print image expansion data (for example, even in the case of incomplete form data) is stored in the print image expansion data storage unit 13.
2 is stored as needed in an image development panel provided for each form (one page). For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when the upper frame is first created at 305, then the second stage is created, and finally the character “Aioeo” is put into the name box, and each received data is Upper frame, 2
There are three rows, characters, which are incomplete as a form, but are stored in the image development panel in the print image development data storage unit 132, such as 304. That is, since the print position is clear, the data received at one time (transmitted from the terminal) does not need to be received from the upper frame at all, and even if the second stage is received first,
Or there is no problem if the character is received first. Furthermore, when receiving a frame, only horizontal lines are received first, and then vertical lines are received without any problem. Further, even if characters and frame lines are alternately received, characters can be received. There is no problem even if the data is divided and received in any order such as "O""U""A".

If the end code of one page is detected in step 230, the image development panel name of the print image development data management unit 142 is set in step 240, and the received data development completion flag is turned on. 2
The fact that the output printer has been set at 50 and the development of the print image for one page has been completed is notified to the printer physical data converter 113.
And proceeds to step 280. In step 280, the reception data counter of the reception data management unit 141 is set to 1
It counts down and checks in step 290 whether the received data counter has become zero. Here, if the counter is not 0, the processing of step 210 and subsequent steps is repeated.
Is turned off to notify the data receiving unit 111 that the image development of the received data is completed.

As described above, the form output program on the host computer side can transmit the form data of the same interface and output the form in page units.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart of the printer physical data conversion unit 113 for converting the data obtained by expanding the print image into physical control codes and character data of the printer. FIG. This processing also always refers to the reception data development completion flag in the print image development data management unit 142 in the same manner as the reception data analysis / image development processing. First, in step 300, the print image development data management unit 142 The received data development completion flag of each panel is checked, and if the received data development completion flag is on, data is extracted from the image development panel in step 310 and the information of the printer physical control information 152 is used. In step 320, the data is converted into character data and control codes to be output to a printer, and stored in one of the physical control data storage sections provided for each form output printer in the physical control data storage section 133. However, which physical control data storage unit is to be stored is determined by the output printer of the print image development data management unit 142 and the physical control data management unit 14.
3 is determined from the output printer. In the next step 330, the physical control data storage section name of the physical control data management section 143 is set, the conversion completion flag is turned on, and the output printer is set in step 340, and the print image development data is physically stored in the form output control section 114. Notifies the control code that conversion has been completed. In the next step 350, the transmission data development completion flag of the print image development data management unit 142 is turned off, so that the reception data analysis / image development unit 1
12 is also notified that the conversion of the print image development data for one page into the physical control code has been completed. As described above, the form output program on the host computer side can perform form output without being aware of the physical structure of the printer.

FIG. 9 is a processing flowchart of the form output control unit 114, and FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the operation. Also in this processing, as described above, the conversion completion flag in the physical control data management unit 143 is always referred to.
Checks the conversion completion flag of the physical control data management unit 143, and checks the physical control data management unit 14 in step 410 for the physical data storage unit whose conversion completion flag is ON.
In step 420, the physical control data of the storage unit is output to the printer. Further, after the form is output, the conversion completion flag of the physical control data management unit 143 is turned off in step 430 to notify the physical control code conversion unit 113 that the form output is completed. As described above, even if a plurality of printers of different types as well as the same model are connected, the form output program can output the form without depending on the printer type.

The function of the form output control device may be provided in one of the host computers. In this case, the form output control device may be replaced with a buffer and have only a buffering function.

[0028]

According to the present invention, each form output program does not need to be aware of any conflict with a form output request from a form output program in another computer, and
It is logical form data that is not aware of the physical structure of the printer that outputs the form, and even if the form data is transmitted at random without considering the print order of the form data at all, the form is output. Can be. Further, even when a plurality of printers for outputting forms are connected and the printer types are different from each other, the forms can be output to all the printers using the form data of the same interface independent of the printer type.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a form editing and output apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of a data receiving unit.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a data receiving unit processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a received data analysis / image development processing unit.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a reception data analysis / image data expansion processing unit.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an image development process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a printer physical data conversion unit.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a printer physical data conversion processing unit.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a form output control unit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a form output control processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 111 Data Receiving Unit 112 Received Data Analysis / Image Expansion Unit 113 Printer Physical Data Conversion Unit 114 Form Output Control Unit 131 Received Data Storage Unit 132 Print Image Expansion Data Storage Unit 133 Physical Control Data Storage Unit 141 Received Data Management Unit 142 Print Image Expansion Data management unit 143 Physical control data management unit 151 Received data storage unit management information 152 Printer physical control information

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yasushi Sugiyama 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Within Hitachi Process Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Naoto Komatsu 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture No. Hitachi Process Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takashi Owaki 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture In-house Omika Plant of Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References JP-A-6-19645 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/12

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of computer groups and a plurality of printer groups each having a form processing function and capable of connecting a plurality of terminals as form output request sources, and a combination of a computer and a printer can be arbitrarily set. In the computer system, the combination of each computer and each printer is set according to the instruction of each computer, etc., and the form output data of each computer is converted into print image data classified according to the computer or terminal, and the partner printer associated with the setting. A computer system for converting each print image data into physical format data for a partner printer corresponding to the set combination, and sending the data to a printer automatically selected as the partner corresponding to the combination for printing. 2. A plurality of computer groups having a form processing function and a plurality of printer groups which enable connection of a plurality of terminals as form output request sources, wherein a combination of a computer and a printer can be set arbitrarily. In the computer system, a combination of each computer and each printer is set in accordance with an instruction from each computer and the like, and output control means is provided between the computer group and the printer group. The output data is converted into print image data classified according to the computer or terminal, and the partner printer associated with the setting, and each print image data is converted into data in the physical format for the partner printer corresponding to the setting combination. A computer system characterized by having a function of sending to a printer automatically selected as a partner corresponding to the combination for printing. 3. A plurality of computer groups having a form processing function and a plurality of printer groups, which are capable of connecting a plurality of terminals as form output request sources, and a combination of a computer and a printer can be arbitrarily set. In the computer system, a combination of each computer and each printer is set in accordance with an instruction from each computer or the like, and at least one of the above computers is used to combine the form output data of each computer with a computer or terminal and a setting. The print image data is converted into print image data classified for each partner printer, each print image data is converted into data in a physical format for the partner printer corresponding to the combination, and these are sent to the printer automatically selected as the partner corresponding to the combination and printed. A computer system characterized by having functions. 4. A computer group comprising a plurality of computers capable of connecting a plurality of terminals, and print data output from the computer group, its attribute data, and computer output data including a print position are received, and form output data is received. And a plurality of printers for receiving and printing the form output data, the form editing and output apparatus is configured to receive and store the computer output data. Receiving data storing means, image developing means for analyzing computer output data stored in the means and developing the data into image data to be printed in a form, and storing the image data developed by the means; Image data storage means, and character codes and controls in accordance with the specifications of the printer for outputting the image data stored in the means. Physical data conversion means for generating physical control data comprising control codes, physical control data storage means for storing the physical control data generated by the means, and the printer for storing the physical control data stored in the means. And a form output control means for controlling transmission to the computer. 5. A printer group comprising a plurality of printers, which receives print data output from a computer group comprising a plurality of computers, attribute data thereof, and a print position, which are connectable to a plurality of terminals, and comprises a plurality of printers. In a form editing and outputting device for outputting form output data, receiving data storage means for receiving and storing the computer output data, and analyzing the computer output data stored in the means to form the form output form. Image developing means for developing the image data to be printed, image data storing means for storing the image data developed by the means, and matching the specifications of the printer for outputting from the image data stored in the means. Data conversion means for generating physical control data consisting of a character code and a control code, A physical control data storage means for storing the obtained physical control data, and a form output control means for controlling transmission of the physical control data stored in the means to the printer. Editing output device.