JP3240880B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer connected to a network and managed by a plurality of management stations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Printers connected to a network are:
It may be managed by multiple management stations over the network. In this case, when a situation occurs that requires operator intervention on the printer, the printer must report this to the management station. For this reason, when a situation in which the operator needs to intervene occurs, a management station to report the situation is registered in the printer in advance.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-254530 discloses setting means for setting a higher-level device (management station) to report a situation in which an operator needs to intervene in a printer. A printer having a reporting means for reporting it to a management station is disclosed. According to this printer, the setting of the report destination management station by the setting means is performed by an operator or by a command sent from the management station. Here, the report destination is disclosed in JP-A-2-254.
Although not particularly specified in Japanese Patent Publication No. 530, it is usual that the setting is stored in a memory in the printer by a setting unit and is referred to by a reporting unit. Such a memory is generally a non-volatile memory so that the report destination stored by the setting unit does not disappear even if the power of the printer is turned off and then on again.

[0004]

In a printer in which a report destination is stored in a memory as described above, since the size of the memory is finite, the number of report destinations that can be registered is limited. I have no choice. JP-A-2-
Japanese Patent No. 254530 does not consider that the number of management stations that can be registered as a report destination is finite. Therefore, when the report destination has been registered up to the finite limit, and you want to further register another management station as the report destination,
It is necessary to control not to permit the additional registration or to delete the registration of the already registered management station and then add the registration. Furthermore, when deleting the registration of a management station that has already been registered, it is necessary to perform control so that the management station can recognize that the registration has been deleted.

The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and when a report destination has been registered up to a finite number of the limit, it is possible to additionally register another management station as a report destination. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer capable of performing setting of whether or not to perform the setting and registration based on the setting from a management station side.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of recognizing that a management station attempting to register has accepted, rejected, or deleted the registration.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer connected to a network and managed by a plurality of management stations.
Setting means for registering or deleting a management station as a report destination when a situation requiring operator intervention occurs, and report means for reporting to the registered report destination management station that operator intervention is required A registration limit judging means for judging whether the number of registered report destinations is full when a request for registering a report destination of occurrence of a situation in which an operator needs to intervene is sent from a certain management station; A registration judging means for setting whether or not to accept a new registration request exceeding the registration number limit and referring to the registration request, and when a new registration request is accepted exceeding the registration number limit of the report destination, A deletion target selection means for selecting which of the registered report destination management stations is to be deleted. It is.

[0008]

According to the above-mentioned means, in a state where the registration judging means is set not to accept the registration of another management station in accordance with an instruction from the management station, the setting means receives a registration request of a certain management station. If the registration limit determining means determines that the limit is reached, the management station that has made the registration request is not registered. on the other hand,
When the registration determining means is set to accept registration of another management station by an instruction from the management station, and the setting means receives a registration request of a certain management station, and the registration limit determining means is at the limit. If it is determined, the registration of the management station selected by the deletion target selection unit is deleted, and the management station to be registered is registered instead.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of a printer according to the present invention.

The printer 10 according to the present invention is connected to a network 20, which has a plurality of management stations 31, 32,.
Are connected, and a plurality of computers 41, 42,... That issue print job data are connected.

When a situation occurs in which an operator needs to intervene in the printer 10, the printer 10 specifies a management station to report the situation to by the data transmitted from the management stations 31, 32. The setting means 11 for registering and the setting means 1 when a situation in which an operator needs to intervene occurs in the printer 10.
1 is provided with a reporting means 12 for reporting this situation to the management station registered by 1 and a report destination storage means 13 in which the management station of the report destination is registered by the setting means 11. When the setting unit 11 registers a new management station, the printer 10 further refers to the report destination storage unit 13 to determine whether or not the registration limit has been exceeded. When the limit judging means 14 judges that the number of registrable numbers has been exceeded, the registration judging means 15 judges whether or not to register the new management station in accordance with preset registration acceptance judging information 15a. Registration judgment means 15
When it is determined that a new management station is to be registered, one of the management stations already registered
And a deletion target selection unit 16 for selecting one or a plurality of registration deletion targets. The registration acceptance determination information 15a, which is a criterion for the registration determination unit 15, is set in the registration determination unit 15 or another appropriate storage area by the setting unit 11 based on data sent from the management station.

According to an instruction from a management station,
If the setting means 11 receives a registration request for a certain management station while the registration acceptance judgment information 15a of the registration judgment means 15 is set so as not to accept registration of another management station, first, the registration limit judgment means Reference numeral 14 refers to the report destination storage means 13 to determine whether or not there is any available space for registration. By the registration limit judgment means 14,
If it is determined that the maximum number of registered stations has been registered in the report destination storage unit 13, the management station that has made the registration request is not registered, and the report unit 12 notifies the request source that the registration has been rejected. Report to management station.

On the other hand, in a state where the registration acceptance judgment information 15a of the registration judging means 15 is set to accept the registration of another management station in accordance with an instruction from the management station, the setting request for the registration of the management station by the setting means 11 is made. When the registration limit is received, the registration limit determining means 14 first refers to the report destination storage means 13 to determine whether or not there is any available space for registration. If the registration limit judging means 14 judges that the registration limit has been registered in the report storage means 13, the deletion target selecting means 16 selects the management station to be deleted, and the setting means 11 selects Reported storage of the registered management station 1
3 is deleted, and the management station that has requested the registration is registered in a place vacated by the deletion. At this time, the reporting unit 12 reports the deletion to the management station to be deleted, and reports registration permission to the registered management station.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a network system to which the printer of the present invention is applied. According to the illustrated example, it is assumed that a business establishment 100 has a sales department 110, a general affairs department 120, and an accounting department 130. In the sales department 110, a printer 112, a management station 113, and a computer (PC ) 114,
115, 116 are connected to each other, and another network 121, 131 is included in the general affairs section 120 and the accounting section 130.
And management stations 122 and 132 are respectively connected. Further, the networks 111, 121, and 13 of the sales department 110, the general affairs department 120, and the accounting department 130
1 is a business establishment 1 by routers 117, 123 and 133.
00 is connected to a service company 200 via its gateway 102. In the service company 200,
It has a network 201, is connected to the network 101 of the business establishment 100 via a gateway 202, and further has a management station 203 connected to the network 201.

Here, a printer 112 installed in the sales department 110 of the business office 100 is a printer according to the present invention, and prints print job data from the computers 114, 115, and 116. In the printer 112, the management station 113 of the sales department 110 monitors out-of-paper / jamming faults, and the management station 122 of the general affairs department 120 monitors consumable-related faults such as running out of paper / out of toner for ordering consumables. Information such as the number of prints is acquired by the management station 132 of the accounting unit 130 for billing management.
At the management station 203 of 00, for failure prediction,
Paper jam failures are monitored. Each of the management stations 113, 122, 132, and 203 is required to fulfill each purpose while the printer 112 is operating normally, and as a report destination of occurrence of a situation requiring operator intervention. It is assumed that it is registered in the printer 112.

In the printer 112, for example, four report destinations can be registered, and it is assumed that there is no free space in the registration destination storage unit. In the system configuration in FIG.
It is assumed that another department within 0, for example, the information planning department is considering the necessity of newly introducing a printer, and a new management station is installed in order to obtain an operation rate of the printer 112.
In such a situation, the function of the printer according to the present invention is utilized in a case where the new management station is to be registered as a report destination of the occurrence of a state in which the operator needs to intervene in the printer 112.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the printer of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 301 denotes a control unit that controls the entire printer 300. Reference numeral 302 denotes a printer engine that prints on recording paper. A display unit 303 displays the status of the printer 300. 304
Are operation buttons for the operator to operate the printer 300. Reference numeral 305 denotes a system clock for obtaining the registration time of the report destination as described later. Reference numeral 306 denotes a network interface for transmitting and receiving data between the printer 300 and external devices, such as print job data from a computer connected to the network 307 and report data to a management station connected to the network.

Print job data sent from a computer connected to the network 307 is input to the control unit 301 via the network interface 306. The control unit 301 recognizes that the data is print job data, analyzes the data, and sends the data to the printer engine 302 as print data for actual printing. The printer engine 302 prints this print data on recording paper.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the processing of the control unit. First, in step S1, the control unit 301 receives data received by the network interface 306 and transmitted to the printer 300 as received data. A data configuration example of the received data is shown below.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of transmission / reception data. Data 400 transmitted and received via the network interface 306 is sandwiched between a header H and a tailor T, and a source address field 401 and a destination address (that is, the address of the printer 300) field 402 separated by a delimiter D therebetween. , A data type field 403, and a data content field 404. Here, a source address field 401 and a destination address field 402
Is assumed to include an IP address known in the Internet system, and has a 4-octet (32-bit) field. Also,
The data type field 403 has a field of 1 octet (8 bits), and is assumed to contain one of the following values. In the data content field 404, it is assumed that a value corresponding to the value of the data type field 403 has an indefinite length of 0 or more. Examples of the values included in the data type field 403 are: 0: print job data 1: registration data 2: reception instruction data 240: registration acceptance report data 241: registration rejection report data 242: registration deletion report data 255: operator intervention request data 254 : The operator intervention request release data, the first three are used for data input to the printer 300 from the outside, and the remaining three are used for data output from the printer 300 to the outside.

Returning to FIG. 4, when the control unit 301 receives the received data in step S1, the value of the source address is stored in the source address storage area. As an example, it is assumed that data is received from an external device having an IP address indicated by “129.249.229.180” of 4 octets (32 bits).

Next, in steps S2, S3 and S4,
It is determined whether the received data is print job data, registration data, reception instruction data, or other data. At that time, the value of the data type field 403 of the received data is “0” representing the print job data.
The data type is determined depending on whether the data type is “1” indicating registration data or “2” indicating reception instruction data.

If it is determined in step S2 that the received data is print job data, the process proceeds to a print process in step S5. Details of this printing process will be described below. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of the printing process.

In the printing process, first, in step S2
At 1, it is determined whether or not printing is possible, that is, whether or not operator intervention is necessary. If it is determined in step S21 that operator intervention is necessary, the process proceeds to step S22, where a display notifying the operator intervention request is displayed on the display unit 303, and step S2 is performed.
Proceed to 3.

In step S23, the operator intervention request data is transmitted to the management station of the report destination registered by the processing described later. At this time, the IP address of the printer 300 is set as the transmission source address, each IP address stored in the report destination storage area is set as the transmission destination address, and the data type is a value “25” indicating the operator intervention request data.
5 "to form transmission data with empty data content, and transmit the transmission data to each management station of each IP address stored in the report destination storage area via the network interface 306. . Here, a storage example of the report destination in the report destination storage area is shown below.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of storage of report destinations in the report destination storage area. According to the illustrated example, the report destination storage area 5
00 is a pair of data 501 of the IP address of the management station of the report destination and data 502 of the registration time in which the IP address is registered as the report destination in the report destination storage area.
The configuration is made up of four entries that can be registered up to a maximum of four. The IP address has the same configuration as the source address storage area, and is composed of 4 octets (32 bits). The registration time data consists of 6 octets (48 bits). Each octet contains the year, month,
Values indicating day, hour, minute, and second are entered. It is assumed that the entries in this pair can be accessed with integer indexes “1” to “4”. In addition, the year, month, day,
An entry in which the values indicating hours, minutes, and seconds are all 0 indicates that the report destination is not registered, that is, it is empty. In the example of FIG. 7, the fourth storage area indicated by the index “4” indicates that it is free. In the process of step S23 in FIG. 6, “129.249.229.123” and “129.24” stored in the entries of the indexes “1” to “3”.
9.229.220 "," 129.249.229.1 "
An operator intervention request will be transmitted to each management station having the address of "10".

Thus, the user of the management station can recognize the operator intervention request of the printer 300. Therefore, the user responds to the operator intervention request of the printer 300. With this correspondence, the control unit 301 can perform printing in step S24, and proceeds to step S25 to delete the operator intervention request displayed on the display unit 303.

Next, the process proceeds to step S26,
To the management station that has notified the operator intervention request in step 23, by the same processing as in step S23, the transmission type is set to the transmission data whose data type is the value “254” of the operator intervention request release data, and this is transmitted.
Release the operator intervention request.

Thereafter, the flow advances to step S27 to form print data based on the received print job data, and sends the print data to the printer engine 302 for printing. Finally, the process proceeds to step S28, where it is determined whether the job has been completed. If the job has not ended, the process returns to step S21, and printing is repeated until the job ends, as in the case described above.

If it is determined in step S28 that the job has been completed, the process returns to step S1 and waits for the next received data. At this time, the end of the printing process of the previous print job data may be reported to the management station at the address stored in the source address storage area in step S1.

If it is determined in step S21 that operator intervention is not necessary, that is, if printing is possible, the process proceeds to step S27, and printing is performed in the same manner as described above.

Returning to FIG. 4, if it is determined in step S2 that the received data is not print job data, and if it is determined in step S3 that the received data is registered data, the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S6, it is determined whether there is a free space in the report destination storage area 500 shown in FIG. 7, that is, whether or not the report has been registered up to the limit of registration. This is the processing of the registration limit determining means 14 described in FIG. 1, and a detailed flowchart thereof is shown in FIG. In this embodiment, as described above, the number of report destinations that can be registered in the report destination storage area 500 shown in FIG. 7 is four.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process for determining whether the report destination storage area is at the registration limit. First, in step S31, a variable i is initialized to 1. This variable i
Functions as an index indicating an entry of each pair of the IP address and the registration time of the report destination storage area. Step S3
Proceeding to 2, it is determined whether or not i is larger than the registrable number. Here, the number of registrable is 4 and i is 1, so the process proceeds to step S33.

In step S33, the registration time data of the i-th entry in the report destination storage area is set in the variable t. now,
Since i is 1, the time of the data set to t is
Year, month, day, hour, minute and second are "95" and "0" respectively.
2 "," 11 "," 14 "," 20 ", and" 31 ".

Next, at step S34, the year, month,
It is determined whether the day, hour, minute, and second are all 0. Here, since none of them is 0, the process proceeds to step S35, where the variable i
Is increased by 1 to 2 and the process returns to step S32.

In the processing described above, in step S32, the value of the variable i exceeds the registrable number 4
At 34, the process is repeated until the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second of t are all determined to be 0. In step S32, when the value of the variable i exceeds the number 4 that can be registered, it is determined that there is no free space in the report destination storage area 500, and step S36 is performed.
, The registration limit judging means 14 outputs that the registration limit is full. On the other hand, in step S34, the year of t,
When it is determined that the month, day, hour, minute, and second are all 0, in step S37, it is output that the i-th entry at that time is empty. In the example of the report destination storage area 500 shown in FIG. 7, it is output that the fourth entry is empty.

These outputs are output to step S6 in FIG.
Is determined. That is, when it is determined that the i-th entry is empty, the process proceeds to step S10, and when it is determined that the registration limit is full, the process proceeds to step S7.

When it is determined that the i-th entry is empty and the process proceeds to step S10, the control unit 301 executes a management station registration process. That is, first, the index i of the empty entry is obtained, and the report destination storage area 500
The content of the source address storage area is copied and stored as the IP address data 501 of the i-th entry. Then, as the registration time data 502, the current time data is extracted from the system clock 305, and the current time is set in the i-th entry of the report destination storage area.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a storage example in which there is no empty entry in the report destination storage area. According to the illustrated example, the empty entry at index i = 4 in the report destination storage area 500 has the IP address “12” stored in the source address storage area.
9.249.229.180 ", and when the time of registration is 15:31:20 on February 11, 1995, the registration times" 95 "," 02 "," 11 "," 15 ", "3
1 "and" 20 "are stored. This completes the process of step S10 in FIG. 4, and then proceeds to step S11.

In step S11, the management station is notified that registration has been accepted. This is one function of the reporting means 12 shown in FIG. In this registration acceptance report processing, the source address is the IP address of the printer 300, the destination address is the address stored in the source address storage area, the data type is the value “240” indicating the registration acceptance report data, and the data content is Fig. 5 with as empty data
And the transmission data is assigned to a variable data. Next, the contents of the transmission data “data” are transmitted to the address stored in the transmission source address storage area via the network interface 306. This completes the process of step S11 in FIG. 4, and returns to step S1 to wait for the next received data.

In step S6, the contents of the report destination storage area 500 are, for example, those shown in FIG.
In a situation where the address stored in the source address storage area is, for example, “129.249.229.100”, it is determined that the registration limit is full. At this time, the process proceeds to step S7, where it is determined whether registration of a new management station is accepted. This is a function performed by the registration judging means 15 shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, upon this determination, the registration determining means 15
Is determined according to the value of the registration reception determination flag that can be referred to. If the value of the registration reception determination flag is “0”,
If the registration is not received and the value of the registration reception determination flag is not “0”, it is determined that the registration is to be received. The value of the registration acceptance determination flag is set as a part of the function of the setting unit 11 shown in FIG. 1 described later. However, if this value is “0”, no registration is accepted in step S7. Is determined, and the process proceeds to step S12.

In step S12, a registration refusal is reported to the management station that has attempted to register newly. This is one function of the reporting means 12 shown in FIG. That is,
The source address is the IP address of the printer 300, the destination address is the address “129.249.229.100” stored in the source address storage area, and the data type is the value “241” indicating the registration rejection report data. The transmission data having the format shown in FIG. 5 in which the data content is null data is formed, and this data is substituted for a variable data. Then, the content of the transmission data “data” is transmitted to the address stored in the source address storage area via the network interface 306. Thus, step S1 in FIG.
The process of step 2 is completed, and the process returns to step S1 to wait for the next received data.

In step S7, when the value of the registration acceptance determination flag is not "0", for example, "1", it is determined that registration is accepted. In this case, the process proceeds to step S8 to select a deletion target from those already registered. This corresponds to the deletion target selecting means 16 shown in FIG.
The details of the processing in this embodiment are shown in FIG.
Is shown in the flowchart of FIG. In this embodiment, at the time of this selection, of the pair of the IP address and the registration time stored in the report destination storage area 500, the management station indicated by the IP address in the pair having the oldest time is selected as the deletion target. Shall be.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of the deletion target selection processing. In the deletion target selection process, first, in step S41, a variable i is initialized to 1. The variable i functions as an index indicating an entry of each pair of the IP address and the registration time of the report destination storage area 500. In step S42, time data in which the values of year, month, day, hour, minute, and second are all “255” is formed.
It is substituted for the variable t0. Proceeding to step S43, it is determined whether or not the variable i is larger than the number that can be registered. Here, the number of registrable is 4 and i is 1, so the process proceeds to step S44.

In step S44, the registration time data of the i-th entry in the report destination storage area 500 is set in the variable t. Now, since i is 1, the time of the data set to t is “95”, “0” for year, month, day, hour, minute, and second, respectively.
2 "," 11 "," 14 "," 20 ", and" 31 ".

Next, at step S45, the time of t is changed to t.
It is determined whether or not the time is older than zero. That is, the year of t,
Compare month, day, hour, minute, and second with those of t0 and year,
When the value is found to be small, it can be determined that the time t is older than the time t0. Here, the time of t is t0
Since it is older, the process proceeds to step S46, in which the value of the variable t is substituted for the variable t0, the value of the variable i is substituted for the variable j in step S47, and the value of the variable i is incremented by one in step S48, and "2 And returns to step S43. Here, the variable j is the index of the entry having the oldest registration time for the entries from “1” in the report destination storage area 500 to i at that time. If it is determined in step S45 that the time t is younger than the time t0, the process proceeds to step S45.
Proceeding to 48, a similar process is performed.

The above-described processing is repeated in step S43 until the value of the variable i exceeds the registerable number 4, and as a result, it is shown that the registration time of the entry of the second index shown in FIG. 9 is the oldest. Then, j becomes 2, and the process proceeds to step S49.

In step S49, the report destination storage area 500
, The IP address of the second entry, ie, “12
9.249.229.220 ”is copied to the deletion target address storage area. Then, in step S50, the IP address and registration time of the second entry in the report destination storage area 500 are cleared to zero.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a storage example in which an empty entry is created in the report destination storage area. According to this example, the second entry with the oldest registration time is cleared to 0, and a space for one entry is created in the report destination storage area 500 that has been fully registered.

Then, in step S51 in FIG. 10, the fact that there is a second free space in the report destination storage area 500 is output, and the deletion processing in step S8 in FIG. 4 ends.
After that, in step S9, the management station targeted for deletion in step S8 is notified that the management station has been deleted. This is one of the functions performed by the reporting means 12 shown in FIG.
One. According to the deletion report processing, the transmission source address is the IP address of the printer 300, and the transmission destination address is the address “12” stored in the deletion target address storage area.
9.249.229.220 ", the data type is the value" 242 "indicating the registration deletion report data, and the transmission data having the format shown in FIG. 5 in which the data content is null data is configured and assigned to the variable data.

Next, the contents of the transmission data "data" are transmitted to the address stored in the deletion target address storage area via the network interface 306. With this, the deletion report processing in step S9 is completed, and the process proceeds to the management station registration processing in step S10 with the index “2” of the empty entry in the report destination storage area 500 output in step S8. The processing after step S10 is as described above.

If it is determined in step S3 that the received data is not registered data, and if it is determined in step S4 that the received data is reception instruction data, the process proceeds to step S13. This step S13 is a function of the setting means 11 in FIG. 1 and is a setting of the registration acceptance determination information 15a. In the registration reception determination information processing in step S13, first, the data content of the reception data received in the format of FIG. 5 is substituted for a variable data, and the value of the data is stored in a registration reception determination flag. As described above, this value is used in step S7 in FIG. 4 to determine whether to accept a new registration when the registration limit is full. This completes the process of step S13, returns to step S1, and waits for the next received data. At this time, the acceptance of the preceding instruction data may be reported to the address stored in the source address storage area in step S1.

If the received data is not the reception instruction data in step S4, the process returns to step S1, and
It will wait for new received data. Step S
In the deletion target selection process of No. 8, the management station indicated by the IP address of the entry in which the oldest registration time is recorded is selected as the deletion target, but the selection method is not limited to this. For example,
A method of temporarily deleting all management stations, a method of deleting one or a plurality of inactive management stations by checking the operating status of a management station registered as a report destination, and a method of deleting one or more inactive management stations It is also possible to adopt a method of deleting one or more of the management stations which responded to the confirmation with the management station and responded that they may be deleted, or a method of combining them.

[0055]

As described above, according to the present invention, the registration limit judging means is provided so that, when a registration request is made from the management station, it is judged whether or not the number of registered report destinations is full. When the number of registered report destinations is full, it is possible to set whether or not to accept another management station. When there is, it is configured to select which registered reportee is deleted. In addition, a reporting unit is provided to report registration acceptance, registration rejection, and registration deletion.

Thus, when the report destination has been registered up to the finite number of the limit, an instruction from the management station is used to set whether or not additional registration is possible with another management station as the report destination. , You can choose to give priority to reporting to already registered management stations or to newly registered management stations, giving you more flexibility in managing report destinations It can be carried out.

When the report destination has been registered up to the finite limit, if another management station is set as the report destination and further registration is not permitted, the management station attempting to register can know that the registration is rejected. Therefore, it is possible to alert the user of the management station to that effect. In addition, the rejected management station knows the fact and can obtain the timing of issuing a registration request as a report destination again on the management station side.

Since the management station can also know when the data is deleted, it is possible to alert the user of the management station to that effect. In addition, the management station that has been deleted knows the fact and can obtain the timing of issuing a registration request as a report destination again on the management station side.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a network system to which the printer of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the printer of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of transmission / reception data.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a printing process.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a storage example of report destinations in a report destination storage area;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a process of determining whether a report destination storage area is a registration limit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a storage example in which there is no empty entry in a report destination storage area;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of a deletion target selection process.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a storage example in which a free entry is created in a report destination storage area;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Printer 11 Setting means 12 Reporting means 13 Report storage means 14 Registration limit judging means 15 Registration judging means 15a Registration acceptance judging information 16 Deletion object selecting means 20 Network 31, 32 Management station 41, 42 Computer

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Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printer connected to a network and managed by a plurality of management stations, a setting unit for registering or deleting a management station as a report destination when a situation requiring operator intervention occurs, and A reporting means for reporting to the management station of the reporting destination that operator intervention is required, and when a request is sent from a management station to register a reporting location of occurrence of a situation in which an operator should intervene. Registration limit judging means for judging whether the number of registered report destinations is full, and registration judging means for setting whether to accept a new registration request exceeding the registered number of report destinations and referring to the registration request Management of report destinations that have already been registered when a new registration request is received exceeding the number of registered report destinations Printer, characterized in that it comprises a deletion selection means for selecting whether to delete one of the station, the. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reporting unit is configured to accept a new registration request exceeding the limit of the number of registrations when the registration determining unit is set to not accept a new registration request beyond the limit of the number of registrations. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printer is configured to report the registration refusal to the management station that attempted to register. 3. The report unit reports a registration deletion to the management station selected by the deletion target selection unit, and performs a registration acceptance report to the management station for which the registration request has been accepted. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printer is configured.