JP3473622B1 - Network-compatible printing apparatus, printing method, and printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a network-compatible printing apparatus, a printing method, and a printing system for easily and efficiently obtaining information resources on a network as printed matter. A host computer specifies address information (URL) of an information resource to be connected to a printer (S1). Thereby, the printer directly connects to the designated information resource without going through the host computer (S
2) The first data is received (S3). As a result of determining the printability based on the leading data (S4), if the printer can print directly, the remaining data is received (S4).
5) Printing is performed (S6, S7). In this way, the printer actively accesses the designated information resource,
By printing the information resource, a printed matter can be obtained, and network resources can be used effectively.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network-compatible printing apparatus, a printing method, and a printing system for printing information resources such as homepages existing on various networks such as the Internet, intranet, and LAN.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a LAN (Local Area Network)
A network printer that is connected to a network such as, and is shared by a plurality of host computers is conventionally known. Such a network printer receives a print job from a plurality of host computers connected to the network and performs printing. On the other hand, the Internet is known as a worldwide network formed by connecting many networks to each other.

A conventional network printer will be described with reference to FIG. The Internet 100 is a world-wide network in which several backbone networks are interconnected, and a multi-vendor compatible communication protocol such as TCP / IP (Transmis) is used to perform data communication between servers 101 of different models.
sion Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) and HTT
P (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is adopted.

Here, each server 101 normally stores a plurality of information resources in the spool 102. Known information resources include home pages provided by WWW (World Wide Web) servers, files provided by FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers, and net news provided by news servers.

A LAN 103 is provided on the Internet 100.
Can be connected. A plurality of host computers 104 serving as clients are connected to the LAN 103. A network printer 105 shared by the host computers 104 is also connected to the LAN 103. LAN 103 is router 10
6 is connected to the Internet 103.

Each host computer 104 is a router 1
By connecting to the server 101 via 06 or the like, various information resources possessed by each server 101 can be used. The various information resources downloaded from each server 101 are reproduced by software such as browsing software and viewer installed in the host computer 104.

Of the downloaded information resources, printable information such as document data and still image files can be printed out on a print recording medium by the network printer 105. In this case, the host computer 104 that performs printing outputs the print data including the LAN address of the network printer 105, print data, control code, etc. on the LAN line. Network printer 1 that received this print data
05 executes printing.

[0008]

In the above-mentioned conventional technique, when the information resource stored in the WWW server or the like on the Internet 100 is to be obtained as a printed matter, the user first activates the host computer 104 to obtain the desired information. Second, the target document data must be downloaded into the host computer 104, and thirdly, the downloaded document data must be transmitted to the network printer 105 for printing.

That is, even if the information resources on the Internet are to be finally obtained as printed matter, printing cannot be done without the intervention of the host computer 104.
It takes a lot of time to obtain the printed matter, and the processing load of the host computer 104 increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a network-compatible printing apparatus, a printing method, and a printing system that can easily and efficiently obtain information resources on a network as printed matter. With the goal.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the network-compatible printing apparatus according to the present invention has at least one of the information resources of the home page provided by the WWW server and the net news provided by the news server. If the specific information necessary to specify one of the information resources to be printed, which is stored in each of the plurality of servers, is input, the specific information is handled. A network-compatible printing device capable of connecting to a server storing the information resource via a network, and directly receiving a part of data of the information resource stored in the server via the network, The print processing is executed in a mode according to some data.

In the invention thus constructed, since the printing apparatus executes the access and the reception of the information resources of the home page and the net news based on the inputted specific information, the printing can be performed only by interposing the host computer. Unlike the conventional technology, a desired homepage or netnews information resource on a network can be easily obtained as a printed matter without intervening a host computer. Moreover, since the print process is not executed after receiving all the data of the information resource, a part of the data of the information resource is received and the print process is executed in a mode according to the part of the data. The printing process can be performed in an appropriate mode, and the printing efficiency can be improved. The reason is as follows.

Although the data in the information resource is described by various print commands, data that is not described by the print command that can be directly interpreted by the network-compatible printing device cannot be printed. Therefore,
If it is possible to know that there is such a situation at the stage where the partial data of the information resource is received, it is possible to execute the processing corresponding thereto. For example, it is possible to determine whether or not the information resource can be printed based on a part of the data of the information resource, and execute the printing process according to the determination result. Here, when it is determined that the information resource can be printed, the subsequent data of a part of the data may be received and printed as a printing process. On the other hand, when it is determined that the printing of the information resource is impossible, the print-notification is notified as the data as the print processing, or a message indicating that the print cannot be performed is printed, so that useless printed matter can be omitted. The printing efficiency can be improved. Further, a conversion program for converting into printable data is searched for on the network, the subsequent data of some data is received, and the data converted into printable data by the searched conversion program is printed. You may do it.

Here, the "partial data" means, for example, the data of the portion that is first read from the server, and more preferably, it is the minimum necessary for determining whether or not the data is printable data. Means quantity data. After receiving the entire information resource, if it is determined whether the data is printable, if it is finally determined that printing is impossible,
All received data must be discarded. Therefore, the communication time can be shortened and the communication resources can be efficiently used by receiving a part of the data of the information resources and determining whether or not the printing is possible.

Further, in the network-compatible printing apparatus according to the present invention, when it is defined that the information resource is at least one of the home page provided by the WWW server and the net news provided by the news server, a plurality of servers are provided. When the specific information necessary to specify one of the information resources to be printed, which is stored in each of the above, is input, the information resource corresponding to the specific information is input via the server and the network that store the information resource. In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a predetermined signal is directly transmitted to a server via a network, and a data segment transmitted from the server in response to the signal is directly received and printed. , The first to a predetermined number of data segments sent from the server are acquired as the start data, and the start data is acquired. It is determined whether or not the printing of information resources by analyzing the.

In the network-compatible printing apparatus configured as described above, the head data is acquired, and the head data is analyzed to determine whether to print the information resource of the homepage or the net news. Similarly, the printing process can be performed in an appropriate manner, and the printing efficiency can be improved.

Further, in the printing method according to the present invention, when the information resource is defined as at least one of a home page provided by the WWW server and net news provided by the news server, each of the plurality of servers is provided. When the specific information necessary to specify one of the accumulated information resources to be printed is input, it is possible to connect to the server that stores the information resource corresponding to the specific information via the network. In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a printing method for a network-compatible printing device is provided, and when specific information is input, a server that stores information resources corresponding to the specific information is connected via a network. Consists of a first step, a second step of directly receiving the head data of the information resource, and data capable of printing the information resource by analyzing the head data. It includes a third step of receiving the subsequent data directly, and a fourth step for executing printing based on the received information resources when being.

In the invention thus configured, the home page or the net news information resource to be printed is accessed via the network, the information resource is directly received, and the printed matter is printed based on the information resource. . In this way, like the network-compatible printing device,
A desired homepage or netnews information resource on the network is printed as a printed matter without the intervention of a host computer. Further, since the subsequent data is received and printed when the information resource is composed of printable data, useless data is not received and a printed matter can be efficiently obtained.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the printing system according to the present invention has a server accumulating information resources, a network connected to the server, and a network-compatible type according to any one of claims 1 to 11. The printer includes a printer having the same configuration as the printer and an input unit for inputting specific information necessary for specifying an information resource to be printed by the printer.

In the invention thus constituted, the printer device directly accesses the home page of the server or the information resource of the net news corresponding to the specific information through the network based on the specific information input by the input means,
Receive the information resource. Then, the information resource is printed by the printer device.

Here, the "network" means, for example,
A network such as the Internet or an intranet that connects a plurality of servers and includes a LAN. Further, in the present specification, the “information resource” means one or both of the home page of the WWW server and the net news of the news server. The “specific information” is information necessary for specifying an information resource such as a homepage or a document file, and corresponds to, for example, a file name (name of information resource), an address, or the like.

Further, the "conversion program for converting into printable data" is used to convert the data of the information resource into the data printable by the printing device when it cannot be directly printed by the network compatible printing device. Means a program. For example, in a network in which different types of computers and peripheral devices are interconnected, information resources described by various types of print commands are often distributed, so data described by a certain print command system may be transferred to other sources. There is a case where a conversion program for converting into the data of the print command system is prepared in a server on the network, another printer shared by the network, or the like. Therefore, in the above invention, the existence of the conversion program is searched for on the network.

When the presence of the conversion program is found as a result of the search, the conversion program converts the data that cannot be printed directly into the printable data. As a result, a printed matter is obtained based on the data converted to be printable. If the conversion program cannot be found on the network, the specified information resource cannot be printed.
The unprintable notification may be notified as data, or a message indicating that printing could not be performed may be printed.

By the way, for example, like a home page provided by a WWW server, HTML (HyperText Mark) is used.
Link information called an anchor is embedded in the information resource expressed in up language). By accessing the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) designated by this anchor, other information resources can be received without being aware of the link relationship. Therefore, when the link information is included, the desired information and related information can be obtained as a printed matter by receiving the other linked information resources. For example, taking a home page as an example, the home page provides a brief introduction of the entire information resource, and the substantial contents are often linked to other information resources. Therefore,
Even if only the home page is received and printed, there is a possibility that valid information cannot be obtained as a printed matter. On the other hand, in the present invention, since the linked information resources can be traced and received up to the set predetermined level, desired information can be effectively printed. Here, the "predetermined level" means a tracking level of a link destination, and is for preventing unlimited printing of linked information resources.

[0025]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, the same elements as those described in the related art will be designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

1. First Embodiment FIGS. 1 to 5 show a network printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network printing system according to this embodiment.

1-1 Functional Configuration on Printer Side A printer 1 as a network-compatible printing apparatus or a "printer apparatus" according to this embodiment is connected to a host computer 2 and also has an Internet 10
It is configured to be connectable to 0. That is, the printer 1
Is on the same level as the host computer 2 with respect to the Internet 100, and actively uses the Internet 10
0 is accessed to download data. In addition to the printer 1 being able to collect information from the Internet 100, the printer 1
Can also be used as a local printer. In FIG. 1, the printer 1 and the host computer 2
Although both are shown to be connectable to the Internet 100, the host computer 2 may be configured to connect locally to the printer 1 via another interface.

The printer 1 is, as will be described later, respectively.
The network connection unit 3, the memory 4, the command interpretation unit 5, the print control unit 6, the print engine 7, the network control unit 8, and the registration unit 9 are provided.

The network connection unit 3 as "network connection means" is provided with, for example, a LAN driver for connecting to the LAN 103, various protocol groups such as TCP / IP and HTTP, and various hardware such as Ethernet. It is configured. The printer 1 can be connected to the host computer 2 and the Internet 100 via the network connection unit 3 and the like.

The memory 4 is for storing data such as an HTML document downloaded from each server 101 and data input from the host computer 2, and is managed by the memory management unit 4A.

The command interpreting section 5 as "data determining means" interprets the format of the data downloaded from each server 101 or the like, and determines whether or not the downloaded data is printable by the print control section 6. To do. Specifically, in the case of data described in a command system other than the print command system implemented by the print control unit 6, since the print control unit 6 cannot directly print the data, the command interpretation unit 5 It is determined that this download data cannot be printed. When the print control unit 6 determines that the data cannot be directly printed, the command interpretation unit 5 notifies the network control unit 8 of the determination result.

Print control unit 6 as "print control means"
Interprets data input from the server 101 or the host computer 2 to generate final print data,
Printing is executed by controlling the print engine 7 based on the control data such as a line feed and page break and the print data. The print control unit 6 is provided with an original print command (control code) system, and also an emulator for covering other command systems.

The print engine 7 includes, for example, a paper feeding mechanism, a print head, etc., and prints on a print recording medium such as paper. As the print engine 7, various engines such as a page printer that prints in page units like a laser printer, a serial printer that prints in character units such as an inkjet printer or a thermal transfer printer, and a line printer that prints in line units are used. be able to.

The network control unit 8 as the “network control unit” controls access to the Internet 100 via the network connection unit 3. The network control unit 8 accesses the server 101 at a predetermined address stored in the registration unit 9 and downloads a desired information resource. Further, as an internal function of the network control unit 8, a search unit 8A for searching for a conversion program to be described later and a conversion unit 8B for performing data conversion by the conversion program are provided. In the figure, the address information necessary for specifying the information resource is expressed as “address”.

1-2 Functional Configuration on Host Computer Side The host computer 2 includes a network connection unit 11 and a printer driver 12 as components related to printing, as will be described later.

The network connection unit 11 is a LAN 103.
For connecting to the network connection unit 11
Also, bidirectional data communication can be performed with the printer 1 via the LAN 103. Also, the host computer 2
Is a network connection unit 11, LAN 103, router 1
It is also possible to connect to the Internet 100 via 06 or the like.

The printer driver 12 is, for example, an application program (abbreviated as "application" in the figure) 1 such as word processing software or drawing software.
By interpreting the source code input from No. 3 with reference to a font memory or the like, print data based on a predetermined print command system is generated. As an internal function of the printer driver 12, a UR is added to the printer 1.
An address designating section 12A as "address information designating means" for designating address information of information resources such as L;
A conversion unit 12B for performing data conversion by the conversion program, an interpretation unit 12C for interpreting the source code from the application program or the converted data from the conversion unit 12B, and a predetermined print command based on the interpretation result of the interpretation unit 12C. And a command generation unit 12D that generates print data according to the system.

1-3 Process Flow Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of a communication sequence when information resources are downloaded from the server 101 to the printer 1.

First, after establishing a connection between the printer 1 and a predetermined server 101 designated in advance, the printer 1 requests the information resource of the server 101 to transmit the head data.

Here, the server 101 may be requested to transmit a preset number of data segments, but the head data can also be received by controlling the transmission timing of the acknowledgment signal. That is,
Every time the printer 1 receives one data segment,
Since the confirmation response signal including the sequence number of the data segment to be received next is transmitted to the server 101 side, unless the printer 1 returns the confirmation response signal, the next data segment is transmitted from the server 101 side. Will never be sent. Therefore, in the printer 1,
It suffices to transmit an acknowledgment signal until the preset number of data segments are received, analyze the leading data obtained thereby, and then request the transmission of subsequent data segments.

Then, when it is determined that the information resource is composed of printable data as a result of analyzing the first data received first, the printer 1 transmits the remaining data to the server 101 side. To request. When the printer 1 receives all the data, the connection is released. Although not shown in FIG. 2, when it is determined that printing cannot be performed at the stage when the first data is received, the connection is released without requesting transmission of subsequent data.

Next, FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the network printing process by this printing system.

First, in step (hereinafter abbreviated as "S") 1, the address specifying unit 12A of the host computer 2 instructs the printer 1 of the address information of the information resource to be accessed. Specifically, the user is an input device (mouse, keyboard, etc.) of the host computer 2.
Input desired address information via. It is also possible to use an address information registration sheet on which a plurality of address information is printed in advance, read the contents of the registration sheet with a scanner, a bar code reader, or the like, and selectively input the address information.

The address information designated in S1 is the LAN
It is registered in the registration unit 9 of the printer 1 via 103 or the like.
Then, the network control unit 8 of the printer 1 refers to the registered address information to connect to a predetermined information resource (S2), and receives the head data of the information resource (S).
3). The specific mode of establishing the connection and receiving the top data is as described above with reference to FIG.

Next, in S4, it is judged whether or not the information resource such as the home page is composed of printable data, based on the head data received as the partial data of the information resource. A specific example of this interpretability determination processing will be described later with reference to FIG. When it is determined in S4 that the data is printable data, the remaining data of the information resource is received (S5). Then, the received information resource is printed by the print control unit 6 (S6). When printing of the received information resource is completed, it is determined to be "YES" in S7, and this program is terminated.

On the other hand, if the head data received from the information resource in S3 is not the data described in the print command system implemented in the printer 1 or the data covered by the emulator, the data is printed by the print control unit 6
Cannot be printed directly by. Therefore, it is determined as "NO" in S4, and the search / conversion processing is executed in S8.

FIG. 4 shows the search / display shown as S8 in FIG.
It is a flowchart showing the content of the conversion process.

When the command interpreter 5 of the printer 1 determines that the data cannot be printed directly (S
4) In S11, a conversion program for converting the data that cannot be directly printed into the printable data is searched.

At least two kinds of methods can be considered as this search method.

The first method is to provide a conversion program database for centrally managing the functions and location addresses of the conversion program in a unified manner, and inquire the location of the desired conversion program from this database.

In the second method, all or part of the information resource can be transferred and converted to a conversion device that may have a conversion program, such as another network printer 105 or host computer 104. Whether or not it is actually interpreted by the conversion device, and the location of the conversion program is discovered based on the response of the interpretation result.

In the first method, it is only necessary to make an inquiry to the database that centrally manages the location of the conversion program, so that the location of the desired conversion program can be retrieved in a short time. However, constructing and maintaining a database that completely manages various types of conversion programs that are improved daily requires cost and effort.

In the second method, a so-called conversion program is searched by directly transferring the information resource to a conversion device that may have the conversion program and executing the conversion whether the conversion device can interpret the information resource. Because of the try-and-error configuration, the search time may be long, but the search can be performed easily.

Although any method may be adopted, in the present embodiment, the dynamic search is performed by the second method. That is, a plurality of conversion devices such as the network printer 105 and the host computer 104 connected to the LAN 103, or the server 101 connected to the Internet 100 are registered in advance, and when data that cannot be printed directly is received, these are registered. When a part of the information resource is transferred to the converting device and a response signal indicating that the information cannot be interpreted is received from the converting device, the part of the information resource is transferred to the next registered converting device. Has become.

Therefore, in S11, as shown in FIG. 4, a table in which addresses of a plurality of conversion devices are registered in advance is referred to, and in S12, a part of the information resources received for the first conversion device is read. The data, that is, all or part of the head data received in S3 is transferred.

The conversion device which receives the data transferred from the printer 1 interprets the data (S1).
3). If the printer 1 can convert the data into printable data, the conversion device receives a response signal indicating that the data can be converted, and thus S13 determines "YES". Therefore, the printer 1 side receives the remaining data of the information resource (S14), transfers this to the conversion device to request data conversion (S15), and discards the received data on the printer 1 side (S16). The conversion device interprets the transferred information resource and converts it into data in a format interpretable by the printer 1 (S17). Then, the data converted to be printable by the conversion device is transferred from the conversion device to the printer 1. Here, in the conversion device, for example, the raster image command that can be interpreted by the printer 1 is converted into data in which raster image data follows.

On the other hand, when a response signal indicating that conversion is impossible is received from the converter called first, S13 is determined to be "NO", and in S19, all the registered converters are searched. Or not. If all the conversion devices have not been tried, the process returns to S11 and the address of the next conversion device is referred to.

If the conversion program cannot be retrieved even if all the conversion devices are checked, it means that the information resource instructed by the host computer 2 cannot be printed. So S
In step 19, it is determined to be "NO", the received data on the printer 1 side is discarded (S20), the print disable process is performed, and the process ends (S21). The unprintable process is, for example, that the host computer 2 indicates that the instructed information resource could not be printed.
Is notified as data. Alternatively, a message indicating that printing could not be performed may be printed out.

Next, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for determining the possibility of interpreting a print command, which is performed by the printer 1 or the conversion device, and S in FIG.
4, used by S13 in FIG.

First, a predetermined amount of data DX is extracted from the received data (S31), and the print command held by itself is set (S32). Then, by interpreting the predetermined amount data DX by the set print command, the command created by the print command is discovered, and the interpretable portion P can be obtained by the set print command.
The total amount DL of 1 to Pn is calculated (S33). For all the print commands installed in the printer 1 or the conversion device, the total amount DL of the interpretable portion by each print command is calculated (S34).

When the total amount DL of the interpretable portion for all print commands is obtained, the total amount D of the interpretable portion in the predetermined amount data DX is calculated for each print command.
The ratio of L (DL / DX) is calculated (S3)
5). Then, by comparing each of these ratios with a preset reference value α, it is determined whether or not there is a print command whose DL / DX is equal to or larger than the reference value α (S36). If there is a print command with the reference value α or more, in S37, it is determined that the received data can be interpreted by the print command, and the print command is selected.
When there are a plurality of print commands with the reference value α or more, the print command with the maximum DX / DL is set. In addition, when there are a plurality of print commands in which DL / DX is close to “1”, the data size of the predetermined amount data DX cut out from the received data is increased, and S31 to S3 are executed again.
8 processes can be performed.

On the other hand, DX / DL of any print command
If the reference value α is also less than the reference value α, it is determined that the received print data cannot be interpreted by the print command held by itself (S38).

According to the present embodiment configured as described above, the user only needs to instruct the printer 1 via the host computer 2 of the address information of the desired information resource.
Since the printer 1 accesses and receives the instructed information resource, the information resource on the network can be easily obtained as a printed matter without the intervention of the host computer 2. Further, after the address information of the information resource is instructed from the host computer 2, the host computer 2 is released from the flow of the printing process of the information resource, so that the host computer 2 can execute another application program, Usability is improved.

If the data received from the information resource is data that cannot be printed directly by the printer 1,
Since a conversion program for converting this non-directly printable data into printable data is actively searched on the network and the data conversion operation is performed, a printer 1 of a large number of types of print commands is issued in advance. It is possible to save the memory resources of the printer 1 without having to install the printer in the printer, and to effectively use the resources distributed on the network.

That is, a conversion program considered necessary can be installed in advance on the printer 1 side, but in order to be compatible with all data formats,
It is necessary to implement various kinds of conversion programs. However, in order to mount many conversion programs on the printer 1, many memory resources must be mounted on the printer 1 side, which increases the cost. From the perspective of the entire distributed printing system using the network, the server 10
1, host computer 2, network printer 10
5. If the same conversion program is mounted on both the printer 1 and the printer 1, the system becomes redundant and inefficient.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the printer 1 side determines whether or not a conversion program is necessary and the conversion program is searched for, and the conversion program is stored in the server 101 or the like. Since the distributed printing system that shares the roles of each other is constructed by using them, the memory resources and communication resources can be effectively used as the entire system.

Further, a plurality of conversion devices (eg, host computer 104, network printer 105,
The address of the server 101) is registered in a registration table, a part of the information resources is transferred to each conversion device in a predetermined order such as a registration order, and the location of the conversion program is determined by a response signal indicating whether or not the conversion device can interpret. Because of the configuration for searching, the conversion program can be easily searched dynamically in a so-called trial and error manner.

Further, instead of determining whether printing is possible after receiving the entire information resource, the head data of the information resource is received, and direct printing is possible based on this partial head data. Since the configuration determines whether or not, communication time can be shortened and communication resources can be used efficiently.

2. Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 6 to 8. In addition, in the present embodiment, the same components as those in the above-described first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. The feature of this embodiment is that, based on the link information in the information resource accessed first,
The point is that other information resources linked to can be printed.

FIG. 6 shows a functional configuration of the network printing system according to the present embodiment. In the registration unit 21 of the printer 1 according to the present embodiment, in addition to the address such as the URL, the link destination is tracked. A tracking level as a "predetermined level" indicating the range is registered. In addition, the printer driver 12 of the host computer 2 according to the present embodiment
Includes a level designation unit 22 for instructing the printer 1 of a tracking level for instructing the tracking range of the link destination.
Is provided. This level designation unit 22 is, for example,
It can also be expressed as a level designation means.

Next, FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the link relationship of information resources. For example, when the address information designated by the printer 1 is the home page HPA of the server A, the printer 1 accesses the designated server A,
The transmission of the source code of the homepage HPA, that is, the source code described in the HTML format is requested.

Homepage HPA received by printer 1
Link information L1 and L2 called anchors are included in the source code of. For example, the link information L1
Indicates another page PA1 on the same server A as a link destination, and the other link information L2 indicates another home page HPB on another server B as a link destination. Therefore, the printer 1 uses the link information L1,
By tracking L2, information distributed across the network can be collected and printed. However, if the link destination is tracked for a long time, there is a possibility that a large amount of information unrelated to the initially desired information content will be included, and the communication time will also increase. Therefore, by setting the tracking level in advance, the collection range of information resources can be narrowed down. For example, if the tracking level is set to "2", server A
Home page HPA to server B home page HP
The home page HPC of the server C can be traced via B.

Next, FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the network printing process according to the present embodiment. Description of the same steps as those according to the first embodiment described above with FIG. 3 will be omitted.

S41, which is characteristic of the present embodiment, is executed when it is determined in S7 that printing has been completed.
That is, when the determination in S7 is "YES", it means that the printing of the information resource which was first accessed and received is completed. Therefore, after the first designated information resource is printed, in S41, it is determined whether or not the information resource includes link information indicating a link relationship with another information resource. If the link information is not included, the determination in S41 is "NO" and the process ends.

If the first designated information resource includes link information, it is determined in S42 whether or not the link tracking level is set. When the tracking level of the link destination is set in advance, the user wants to print not only the initially designated information resource but also another linked information resource. So S
42 determines “YES”, sets address information of another linked information resource based on the link information in S43, and returns to S2. As a result, the processing of S2 to S8 is repeated, and the information resource at the link destination is printed. If all the information resources in the range specified as the tracking level are printed, or if new link information is not embedded in the information resource at the link destination, this processing ends.

According to this embodiment having such a configuration, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained. In addition to this, in the present embodiment, since the linked information resource is also received and printed, desired information can be collected as a printed matter, and usability is improved. In addition, since the tracking level of the link destination can be designated, it is possible to prevent unlimited printing and prevent collection of information different from the originally planned range of information.

3. Third Embodiment Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. A feature of the present embodiment is that, when the retrieved conversion program can be executed on the printer 1, the conversion program is downloaded to the printer 1 and converted by the printer 1.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the search / conversion processing according to the present embodiment. The same steps as those in the flow chart shown in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The characteristic S51 of this embodiment is S11.
The required conversion program is found by → S12 → S13 → S19, and is executed after it is determined “YES” in S13.

In step S51, it is determined whether the conversion program found by the search can be executed on the printer 1 side. That is, for example, when a conversion program is created by an architecture-neutral programming language such as Java language developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc., the conversion program has low dependency on a specific hardware environment or software environment. . Therefore,
For example, when the printer 1 side is provided with a predetermined interpreter, virtual machine, etc., this conversion program can be executed on the printer 1 side.

When it is determined that the conversion program can be executed on the printer 1 side, this conversion program is downloaded from the conversion device (S52). Next, the remaining data of the information resource designated by the host computer 2 is received (S53), and this information resource is converted into printable data by the conversion program (S54).

Also in the present embodiment configured as described above,
The same effect as that of the first embodiment described above can be obtained. In addition to this, in the present embodiment, it is determined whether the retrieved conversion program can be executed on the printer 1 side, and if it is determined that the conversion program can be executed, the conversion program is downloaded to the printer 1, Since the information resource is converted into printable data in the printer 1, the information resource can be printed without increasing the processing load of the conversion device such as the host computer 104 or the network printer 105 that has the conversion program. it can.

Those skilled in the art can make various additions and changes within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in each embodiment. For example, not only the conversion program but also font resources can be searched in the same manner, and software resources and hardware resources can be further shared to construct a highly efficient network printing system. It is also possible to store address information of an information resource that has been registered in the past as history information and specify the address information of the information resource with reference to this history information. Furthermore, in each embodiment, the case where one address information is designated first is illustrated, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The address information of a plurality of information resources can be designated, and when a plurality of information resources are designated, different link destination tracking levels can be set for each designated address information. As the address information, the name,
In addition to the address, an account and password may be registered in advance.

Further, the printer 1 is not limited to a printer-dedicated machine, but may be, for example, a multi-function machine having functions such as a copying machine and a facsimile machine.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a network printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a communication sequence between a printer and a server.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a network printing process for printing by accessing a specified information resource.

FIG. 4 shows a search / conversion process for searching a conversion program for converting the received data into printable data and performing the conversion process when the received data cannot be printed directly by the print control unit. It is a flowchart.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of processing for determining whether or not received data can be interpreted by a conversion program and a print command that are held.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a network printing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a link relationship of information resources.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a network printing process.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing search / conversion processing of network printing processing according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional network printer that passively processes print data input from a host computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 printer 2 Host computer 12A address designation section 100 Internet 101 server

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Claims (15)

(57) [Claims] 1. When the information resource is defined as at least one of a home page provided by a WWW server and net news provided by a news server, the information stored in each of the plurality of servers becomes a print target. When the specific information necessary for specifying one of the information resources is input, it is possible to connect via a network to the server that stores the information resource corresponding to the specific information. Type printing apparatus, wherein a part of the data of the information resource stored in the server is directly received via the network, and a printing process is executed in a mode according to the part of the data. Network compatible printing device. 2. The network-compatible printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the information resource can be printed based on the partial data, and the printing process is executed according to the determination result. 3. The network-compatible printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the information resource can be printed, subsequent data of the partial data is received and printed as the printing process. 4. The network according to claim 2, wherein when it is determined that the information resource cannot be printed, the print processing is performed by notifying a print-disable notification as data or printing a message indicating that the print could not be performed. Compatible printing device. 5. When it is determined that the information resource cannot be printed, as the printing process, a conversion program for converting the printable data is searched on the network, and the conversion program that follows the partial data is searched. The data received and the data converted into the printable data by the searched conversion program are printed.
The network-compatible printing device described. 6. The network support according to claim 1, wherein when the partial data includes link information with another information resource, the information resource corresponding to the link information is directly received and printed. Type printing device. 7. When the information resource is defined as at least one of a home page provided by a WWW server and a net news provided by a news server, the information is a print target accumulated in each of the plurality of servers. When the specific information necessary for specifying one of the information resources is input, the information resource corresponding to the specific information is connected to the server via the network and connected via the network. A network-compatible printing device that directly transmits a predetermined signal to the server and directly receives and prints a data segment transmitted from the server in response to the signal, and is a first network device that transmits the data segment from the server. To a predetermined number of data segments as head data, analyze the head data, and mark the information resource. Network compatible print apparatus characterized by determining the propriety. 8. The network-compatible printing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when it is determined that the information resource can be printed, the predetermined number or more of data segments are received and the information resource is printed. 9. The network-compatible printing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when it is determined that printing of the information resource is impossible, communication of the information resource with the server is stopped. 10. When it is determined that printing of the information resource is impossible, a conversion program for converting to printable data is searched on the network, and subsequent data of the partial data is received. The network-compatible printing device according to claim 7, wherein the data converted into the printable data by the searched conversion program is printed. 11. The network-compatible printing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the print-notification notification is notified as data, or a message indicating that printing could not be performed is printed. 12. When the information resource is defined as at least one of a home page provided by a WWW server and net news provided by a news server,
When the specific information necessary for specifying one of the information resources to be printed, which is stored in each of the plurality of servers, is input, the information resource corresponding to the specific information is stored. A printing method for a network-compatible printing device that is connectable to a server via a network, wherein when the specific information is input, the information resource corresponding to the specific information is accumulated via the server and the network. And a second step of directly receiving the leading data of the information resource, and directly receiving subsequent data when the leading data is analyzed and the information resource is composed of printable data. And a fourth step of performing printing based on the received information resource. 13. A server that stores information resources, a network connected to the server, a printer apparatus having the same configuration as the network-compatible printing apparatus according to claim 1, and the printer apparatus. A printing system comprising: an input unit for inputting specific information necessary for specifying an information resource to be printed. 14. The input device is provided in a host computer connected to the network.
The printing system according to 3. 15. The printing system according to claim 13, wherein the input unit is provided in a host computer locally connected to the printer device.