JP4110021B2 - Print processing program, information processing apparatus, information processing method, and storage medium for performing print processing with department management - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a print processing program, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium that execute print processing with a department management function.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, printer drivers for printing document data created by document creation software or the like with a laser beam printer or the like are known. Patent Document 1 discloses the construction of a distributed printing system using a plurality of such existing printer drivers.
[0003]
On the other hand, resource management technology is spreading as the climate for resource saving increases. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a mechanism in which an authentication module including a function for limiting the number of prints is provided in a printer dry, authentication processing is performed based on an instruction from a printer driver at the time of printing, and as a result, printing is performed when permission is obtained. Is disclosed.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-290622 A
[Patent Document 2]
JP 2001-100960 A
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when a department management function is to be performed in a printing mechanism that uses a plurality of printers or a plurality of printers as disclosed in Patent Document 1, an attempt is made to use a conventionally known authentication function of a printer driver. Then there were the following problems.
(1) When department management is to be implemented in a form in which a plurality of printer drivers or printer drivers are used multiple times, the user sets a department ID and password via each printer driver used for print processing. There was a need to do.
(2) On the other hand, if department management is to be realized in a printing process that uses a plurality of printer drivers or a plurality of printer drivers with the conventional mechanism, the authentication process is performed mainly by each printer driver. However, depending on the printer driver specifications, print job data may be deleted due to an authentication error, resulting in complicated job management or system. There was a problem that construction was required.
[0006]
The present invention is for solving the above-mentioned problems individually or collectively, and realizes a mechanism for efficiently managing departments in a printing process using a plurality of printer drivers or a plurality of printer drivers. For the purpose.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, it is instructed to cancel the authentication based on the processing of the printer driver corresponding to the member printer that can be linked with the group printer, and the member printer is separately authenticated, and the member printer that has failed in authentication is generated. Provides a mechanism to perform proxy print processing for member jobs.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the relative arrangement of components, the display screen, and the like described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those unless otherwise specified.
[0009]
(First embodiment)
<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing system to which a print control program as an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.
[0010]
In FIG. 1, reference numerals 102 to 104 denote information processing apparatuses as client computers (hereinafter referred to as clients), which are connected to the network 106 by a network cable such as Ethernet (registered trademark). Each of the clients 102 to 104 can execute various programs such as an application program, and has a printer driver having a function of converting print data into a printer language. Here, each of the clients 102 to 104 can register a plurality of printer drivers. In FIG. 1, three client computers are exemplarily shown, but the number of client computers connected to the network 106 may be one, or four or more.
[0011]
An information processing apparatus 101 is a print server (denoted as a server in the figure), and is connected to the network 106 by a network cable. The print server 101 accumulates files used on the network and monitors the use state of the network 106. The print server 101 manages a plurality of printers connected to the network 106.
[0012]
The clients 102 to 104 and the print server 101 are configured by executably storing print control programs (network printer control programs) for performing different controls in general information processing apparatuses (so-called personal computers). be able to. The print server 101 can also have a function as a client computer at the same time.
[0013]
Here, the print control program includes a program for instructing the client 102 to 104 to change the print destination of the print job or to instruct to change the print order. The print control program includes a program for controlling the order of print jobs in the print server 101 and notifying the end of printing of a print job, a request for changing the print destination, and the like. Here, the print control program separately includes modules installed in the clients 102 to 104 and modules installed in the print server 101, and installs any one of the modules according to the type of the information processing apparatus. However, the print control program of the present invention is not limited to this, and one print control program may function as a client or a print server depending on the environment in which it is executed. Alternatively, a module having a function for a client and a module functioning for a print server may be installed in one computer, and may be configured to operate in parallel in a pseudo manner in a time division manner.
[0014]
The print server 101 has a function of receiving a print job including drawing data from the clients 102 to 104 and printing it on a printer. Also, the print server 101 receives print jobs that do not include drawing data from the clients 102 to 104, manages the printing order of the clients 102 to 104, and sequentially grants permission to send print jobs including drawing data to each client. It has a function to notify. Further, the print server 101 has a function of acquiring the status of the network printer 105 and various information of the print job and notifying the clients 102 to 104.
[0015]
A network printer 105 as an image forming apparatus is connected to a network 106 via a network interface. The network printer 105 analyzes the print job including the drawing data transmitted from the client computers 102 to 104, converts it into a dot image page by page, and prints it for each page.
[0016]
Further, the network printer 105 has a department management function, and determines whether or not to permit print output of a job issued by the user based on authentication information (ID or password) attached to the job or independently notified. An authentication check function is provided.
[0017]
Further, as the network printer 105, image forming apparatuses of various recording methods such as an electrophotographic laser beam printer, a copying machine, a digital multifunction peripheral, a facsimile, an ink jet printer, and a digital multifunction peripheral can be applied. Although only one network printer 105 is shown in FIG. 1, it goes without saying that a plurality of other network printers are connected.
[0018]
The print server 101 and the clients 102 to 104 can be realized by an information processing apparatus having a similar hardware configuration. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing apparatus that can be used as the print server 101 or the clients 102 to 105.
[0019]
In FIG. 2, a CPU 200 that is a control unit of the information processing apparatus executes an application program, a printer driver program, an OS, a print control program, and the like stored in a hard disk (HD) 205, and is necessary for executing the program in the RAM 202. Control to temporarily store information, files, etc.
[0020]
The ROM 201 stores therein various data such as a program such as a basic I / O program, font data used in document processing, and template data. The RAM 202 as temporary storage means functions as the main memory, work area, etc. of the CPU 200 as described above.
[0021]
A flexible disk (FD) drive 203 can load a program or the like stored in the FD 204 as a storage medium into the computer system. A flexible disk (FD) 204 as a storage medium is a storage medium that stores a computer-readable program. Here, the storage medium is not limited to the FD, and any medium such as a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a CD-RW, a PC card, a DVD, an IC memory card, an MO, and a memory stick can be used. When a storage medium other than the FD is used, a drive suitable for the storage medium may be provided instead of the FD drive 203 or together with the FD drive 203. This arbitrary storage medium stores part or all of the program code for executing the flowcharts of FIGS. 6 to 10 to be described later, and this storage medium and the program code itself stored in the storage medium are the main code. It constitutes the invention.
[0022]
As described above, an HD (hard disk) 205, which is one of external storage devices and functions as a large-capacity memory, stores an application program, a printer driver program, an OS, a print control program, related programs, and the like. Further, a spooler which is a spool means is also secured in this HD 205. Here, the spooler is a client spooler in the clients 102 to 104, and a server spooler in the print server 101. In the print server 101, job information received from the clients 102 to 104 is stored, and a table for performing order control is also generated and stored in the HD 205.
[0023]
A keyboard 206 is used for a user to input a control command or the like to a client computer, or an operator or administrator to a print server. Note that a pointing device (not shown) may be further provided to input an instruction.
[0024]
A display 207 displays a command input from the keyboard 206, a printer status, and the like. A system bus 208 manages the flow of data in the information processing apparatus. Further, the information processing apparatus is connected to the network 106 via the interface 209 and can exchange data with an external apparatus.
[0025]
<Example of software configuration in print processing system>
FIG. 3 shows how a print job including a drawing command issued from a general application such as Microsoft Word (registered trademark) is processed in the print job control system in the client server model of the system. FIG.
[0026]
Normally, when a printing instruction is given, the application program generates a series of drawing commands via the OS. The generated drawing command is converted into a predetermined format via a printer driver, and then passed to a Windows (registered trademark) spooler. The Windows (registered trademark) spooler takes a procedure of transferring print job data to a port monitor selected and instructed by a user via a user interface and transmitting the print job data to a printer device. In the present embodiment, the user designates a print job control system port monitor 621 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control port monitor in this embodiment) in advance for the normal operation just described.
[0027]
The group printer driver 603 that has received the drawing command generated via the OS generates general-purpose document data for generating a general-purpose print file and transmits a print job data to the printer device instead of a conventional port monitor. The print job data is transmitted to the control port monitor 621. At this time, print setting information such as a paper size and a stapling instruction set via the printer driver interface is also transmitted to the job control port monitor 621. General-purpose document data and print setting information transmitted to the job control port monitor 621 are held as an intermediate job file 717. The held intermediate job file is used to create a general-purpose print file 716, which will be described later, and is held in a data-compressed form with respect to the general-purpose print file 716. This is used to generate print job data including PDL data corresponding to a printer device of a type different from the printer device before substitution.
[0028]
The job control port monitor 621 does not transmit general-purpose print document data as print job data to the printer device 105 but transmits it to the print job control system print service 622 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control print service). The job control print service 622 performs print job control processing as described later on print job data.
[0029]
The print job control system print manager 623 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control print manager) allows the user to check the status of the print job in the job control print service 622 and to operate the print job. Is a program that provides a user interface. The job control print manager 623 exchanges information and instructions with the job control print service 622 via a software interface (API: Application Program Interface) of the job control print service 622. More specifically, the print manager 623 issues an event specifying a device to the job control print service 622, and the job control print service 622 monitors the status of the device based on the issued event, The print manager 623 is notified of the result based on the monitoring.
[0030]
The print job control system server 630 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control server) centrally controls (schedules) the timing at which the job control print service 622 on each client 102 to 104 transmits print job data to the printer device 105. ing. The print job control system management console 633 (hereinafter abbreviated as “job control management console”) exchanges information and instructions with the job control server 630 via an API that is accessed by software of the job control server 630. The entire print job control system can be monitored.
[0031]
In addition, the job control server 630 communicates with each printer device 105 using the device information control module 631 to obtain information about a print job and an operation state in each printer and perform an operation. The acquired information can be passed to the job control print service 622 on the clients 102 to 104 side. The device information control module 631 may be included in the job control server 630.
[0032]
The job control server 630 and the device information control module 631 may be provided inside the client, or may be provided in an external information processing apparatus.
[0033]
<Configuration example of general-purpose print file>
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the constructed general-purpose print file.
[0034]
The general-purpose print file used in this embodiment includes a print instruction unit 8a and a document data unit 8b that are used when the job control print service 622 sets DEVMODE. The print instruction unit 8a is a part describing document information and a print instruction. The document data 8b is obtained by converting the document data of the application into data in a general format as described above. The document data 8b has a data format in a format that does not depend on the printer language or the type of the OS or is difficult to depend on. It has become.
[0035]
The converted data (general document data part) after converting the application data is assumed to be data in a format that can be used as print resource data and can be edited again by a word processor application or the like. Among them, for example, the XML format, the EMF format provided by the WINDOWS (registered trademark) system, or the PDF (Portable Document Format) format by Adobe Systems Incorporated or the SVG format can be adopted as the general-purpose print document data. .
[0036]
Although not shown, it is assumed that the general-purpose print file includes DEVMODE corresponding to each member printer. The DEVMODE includes both common setting items and extended setting items. Here, the member printer in the present embodiment refers to a logical printer that can operate in conjunction with the processing of the group printer driver, as shown in FIG. Further, the member printer generates print job data based on the application data without passing through the group printer driver, as indicated by a dotted double arrow connecting the application 601 to the PDL driver 602 in FIG. A function for transmitting job data to a device is provided. From another point of view, the member printers in this embodiment have settings (including printer driver settings) associated with the job control print service 622 or the print job system 700 via the job control port monitor 621. Refers to the printer being performed.
[0037]
More specifically, the print instruction unit 8a includes a header unit 801, a page information unit 802, a document attribute unit 803, a print format instruction unit 804, an output method designation unit 805, a member printer number 806, a member printer driver name 807, and the like. It is configured.
[0038]
The header portion 801 is a portion for storing information such as version identification of this file and file information.
[0039]
The page information portion 802 is a portion that stores information such as the number of pages of document data in the document data portion 8b and the size of each page.
[0040]
A print format instructing unit 803 includes a group printer driver UI, a print page range set via individual UI of a member printer, the number of copies, document data imposition information (N-UP, bookbinding printing, etc.), stapling, etc. This is a part for storing information related to the output format, such as instructions and punch instructions. Note that stapling and punching instructions may be specified in units of pages (subset stapling, etc.). The contents set via the individual UI of each member printer are reflected in the print format instruction unit 803, and the job control print service 622 also sets the setting information according to the DEVMODE structure corresponding to each member printer. Stored in an available form.
[0041]
The output method designating unit 804 is a part that stores information relating to output methods such as distributed printing, broadcast printing, proxy printing, and normal printing (printing without substitution) as an output method. When proxy printing is set in the output method designation unit 804, printer information with priority information (first candidate, second candidate...) Is further included. In this embodiment, printing processing performed using a plurality of member printers, such as distributed printing, broadcast printing, and proxy printing, is called group printing processing or virtual printing processing, and is specified in the virtual printing processing or group printing processing. A job to be executed is called a group job or a virtual job.
[0042]
The group printer driver setting information section 805 includes information specific to the group printer such as a group printer name.
[0043]
An ID 806 and a password 807 are department management information, and an ID and a password input from a group printer driver UI described later are set.
[0044]
The member printer number 808 stores the number of member printers associated with the group printer driver.
[0045]
The member printer driver names 809 and 811 are portions for storing printer driver names of member printers. The member printer driver names 809 and 811 have as many storage areas as the number of member printers 808 described above. For example, it is used when a predetermined instruction is given to a member printer.
[0046]
The member printer driver setting information sections 810 and 812 include setting information specific to the member printer. For example, the distribution ratio information, the distribution type such as the number distribution and the page distribution are recorded. For example, the distribution ratio is calculated by the group printer driver 603, the job control print service 622, and the like. When distributed printing or broadcast printing is performed, a print instruction based on this distribution ratio and distribution type is issued by the De-spooler 701. To each member printer.
[0047]
For example, at the time of broadcast printing, the number of copies is recorded as a distribution type, and a job of the number of copies based on the distribution ratio is instructed to each member printer. If the distribution type is copy number distribution, a group printer is composed of three member printer drivers, the distribution ratio is “1: 1: 1”, and the total number of output copies is nine, all member printers will receive all pages. A page description language and a three-part output instruction are issued.
[0048]
Further, in the case of distributed printing, when page distribution is recorded as a distribution type, a group printer is composed of three member printer drivers, the distribution ratio is “1: 1: 1”, and the total number of output pages is 99 pages, A page description language corresponding to 33 logical pages is transmitted to each member printer. The print instruction to the member printer by the De-spooler 701 corresponds to the print instruction 401 in FIG.
[0049]
As described above, the contents set via the group printer driver UI and the individual member printer driver UI described above are recorded in the print instruction unit 8-a, but the setting information according to the DEVMODE structure is also included. The job control print service 622 may perform print settings for each member printer driver 602 using setting information according to the held DEVMODR structure. Further, each member printer driver 602 may be set in the job control print service 622 using both the setting information according to the DEVMODR structure and the information in the print instruction unit 8-a.
[0050]
Further, the above-described item classification of 801 to 812 in the print instruction unit 8-a is a preferable example in carrying out, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, group printer driver setting information 805, ID 806, and password 807 may be included in the contents of any of the items 801 to 804.
[0051]
<Example of Relationship between Windows (registered trademark) Print System and Print Job Control System>
Next, the outline of processing in the OS Print System and the print job control system provided by Windows (registered trademark) will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the same functions as those in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals, and the functions will not be described in detail.
[0052]
First, an intermediate job file 717 is created by the group printer driver 603.
[0053]
The job control print service 622 receives the intermediate job file created by the group printer driver 603 via the job control port monitor 621. More specifically, data for creating a general-purpose print file generated by the group printer driver 603 is written as an intermediate job file 717 by the job control port monitor 621, and the written intermediate job file 717 is virtually output. Module 710 reads. The virtual output module has a function of creating a general-purpose print file 716 from the intermediate job file 717 in addition to a role as a virtual output port.
[0054]
Then, the virtual output module 710 issues a print instruction to the De-spooler 701 in accordance with the instruction content of the print instruction unit 8a described above.
[0055]
The Despooler 701 processes the document data in the document data part 8b based on the interpretation of the instructed print instruction part 8a and converts it into Windows (registered trademark) GDI, and sends it to a plurality of printer drivers 604 corresponding to “number of member printers” A print instruction is issued and a print job is issued. The printing instruction for each member printer is as described with reference to FIG.
[0056]
For example, when an instruction corresponding to 2-UP is recorded in the “print format designation section” in the print instruction section 8-a, the DEVMODE is used to reduce the layout of two pages of document data on one sheet of paper. To the member printer. Further, when there is a stapling instruction in the print format designation unit 804, a stapling instruction is issued via DEVMODE. When processing a reduced layout such as 2-UP, the Despooler itself performs a reduced layout based on the contents of the print format designation unit 804 so that the member printers are instructed to 1-UP via DEVMODE. May be.
[0057]
The printer driver 602 shown in the figure is also used for independent use other than the printing process for distributed printing or broadcast printing. In this case, when authenticating the device, the printer driver 602 is used. There is a mechanism for performing authentication processing based on the department ID and password set via the UI via the authentication module 720 (or 721). The authentication module may be incorporated in the printer driver 602 in advance, or may be added later as an additional software module. Further, the authentication modules 720 and 721 may be provided separately, or a common module may be used for each member printer driver.
[0058]
The job control print service 622 receives again the print job data of each member job generated by the PDL driver 602 via the job control port monitor 621. More specifically, the job control print service 622 reads the job file 718 (or 719) written by the job control port monitor 621, and print job data of the member job is obtained by the job control print service 622.
[0059]
Turning now to the description of the job management list, registration of jobs corresponding to job files imported by the job control print service 622 is registered in the job management list. As shown in FIG. 4, this job management list is held for each printer and each port (for each proxy output port), and a list of jobs output from each port is held. Based on predetermined management from this job list, print job data corresponding to the job extracted from either the job management list 722 or 724 is transmitted to the device. As the predetermined management, for example, a transmission instruction from a job control server 630 described later can be used.
[0060]
The job file 718 (or 719) captured by the job control print service 622 is captured (read) into the corresponding Proxy Output Port.
[0061]
Information about the job including how the captured print job data is processed is notified to the print server, and the print job data is temporarily stored in its own proxy output queue (Proxy Output Port) 712.
[0062]
Then, after receiving a transmission instruction from the job control server 630 as described above, it is transmitted to the printer device 105. Here, it is assumed that the device information control module 631 described in FIG. 3 is included in the print job control server 630 in FIG. As mentioned in the description of FIG. 3, the functions of the print job control server 630 and the device information control module 631 may be provided in the client, and may be included in the job control print service 622, for example. .
[0063]
Also, before receiving a transmission instruction from the job control server 630 and transmitting print job data to the device, the authentication module 723 performs an authentication process based on department management information included in the print job data. In FIG. 4, the authentication module is shown to be used in common for logical printers corresponding to each Proxy Output Port, but it goes without saying that the authentication modules 720 and 721 may be provided for each Proxy Output Port. You may make it divert. Here, the job control print service 622 is devised in such a form that it can be used in print processing (distributed printing or the like).
[0064]
Next, processing operation examples executed based on the above-described mechanism of FIGS. 3 to 5 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.
[0065]
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing executed by the group printer driver 603, showing processing when setting the department management information such as the department management ID and password from the group printer driver UI.
[0066]
First, FIG. 6 is executed when a group printer is selected as a printer to be used on a 102 client or 101 server in which the present printing system is incorporated. For example, when printing a document created by document creation software running on the OS, the user can select a desired printer registered in the OS. In the flowchart of FIG. This is assumed to be processing that is performed when a group printer corresponding to printing or proxy printing is selected.
[0067]
First, in step S601, a property screen for performing detailed setting of the group printer is displayed. A display state of the property screen is shown in FIG. The property screen of FIG. 11 corresponds to a property screen of a group printer corresponding to a broadcast printing output method in which the same job is output in parallel to a plurality of printers, for example.
[0068]
In step S602, it is determined whether or not an input has been made to the check box 1101 in FIG. 11 via a pointing device such as a mouse.
[0069]
If YES is determined in step S602, display control is effectively performed so that the “SET” button 1201 can be operated by the user as shown in FIG.
[0070]
In step S603, it is determined whether or not there is an input instruction to the setting button 1101 for which display control is effectively performed. If it is determined that there is an input instruction, an ID / password is set in step S604. For this purpose, a UI is displayed. The display state is shown in FIG. The display in FIG. 13 prompts the user to input a department ID and password.
[0071]
In step S605, it is determined whether the ID and password set by the user via the UI of FIG. 13 have been confirmed. This determination is made based on whether or not there is an input instruction to the “OK” button in FIG.
[0072]
If YES is determined in step S605, the ID and password set via the UI of FIG. 13 are stored in step S606. Thereafter, unless there is an instruction to change the ID and / or password via the UI of FIG. 13, the stored ID and password are used for the printing process.
[0073]
In the embodiment of the present invention, an example in which a department ID and a password are input is shown. However, a screen for setting information other than the department ID and password may be used as long as the department management function is set. In the present invention, in particular, the present invention can be applied without specifying the type of setting information.
[0074]
In addition, when it is determined No in Steps S602, 603, and 605, it does not mean that other processing is not accepted, and, of course, it is assumed that other processing is also performed as appropriate.
[0075]
As described above, according to the flowchart of FIG. 6, it is possible to realize a user interface for setting department management information collectively in each printer in a printing form in which a plurality of printers or a plurality of printers are used. .
[0076]
Next, a process for enabling the user to operate the “use department management function” check box 1101 in FIG. 11 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. 7 is executed by the group printer driver 603 cooperating with the OS function.
[0077]
The flowchart of FIG. 7 corresponds to the process of enabling the setting button used for the department management function of the group printer if at least one member printer having the department management function is registered corresponding to the group printer. Further, it corresponds to processing performed when a group printer corresponding to an output method such as distributed printing, broadcast printing, or proxy printing is set as a printer to be used from a plurality of printers registered in the OS.
[0078]
First, in step 701, the group printer driver inquires from the printer driver set for each member printer whether the corresponding model can use the department management function. For this inquiry, for example, an SDK (Software Development Kit) is used. Examples of the SDK include a Windows (registered trademark) SDK prepared by Microsoft for developing a Windows (registered trademark) program. Of course, it is not limited to this.
[0079]
In step S702, if the member printer can use the department management function, the process immediately proceeds to step S703, the setting button is validated, and the process ends.
[0080]
If it is determined in step S702 that the member printer inquired first cannot use the department management function, the process proceeds to step S704, where it is confirmed whether there is another unconfirmed member printer for the selected group printer. In the following embodiments including this embodiment, a description will be given to confirm a predetermined function for each member printer, but this is for ease of understanding, such as multithreading. The authentication check may be performed on a plurality of member printers in parallel.
[0081]
In S704, if there is an unconfirmed member printer for the selected group printer, the process returns to S701, the ability of the next member printer is inquired, and the availability of the department management function is confirmed. Repeat the procedure. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, when the group printer is a printer that performs distributed output using three member printers, the group printer in step S701 is sent to the three member printers via the process in step S704. Inquiries from the driver to the member printer are made via the API (SDK).
[0082]
If it is determined that the department management function cannot be used in all the member printers related to the selected group printer, the check box “Use department management function (J)” 1101 in FIG. 11 is used. Control is done so that it is impossible. For example, it is assumed that “use department management function (J)” is grayed out so that it cannot be used by the user.
[0083]
If one of the plurality of member printers related to the selected group printer supports the department management function is recognized via the SDK, “use department management function” 1101 is used in accordance with the processing in step S703. The (J) "checkbox is enabled so that it can be operated.
[0084]
In the present embodiment, it has been described that the capability of the department management function for each member printer is acquired from the printer driver corresponding to each member printer, but this is related to the department management function of the member printers belonging to the group printer. As long as the capability can be determined, the client may acquire a setting file and capability information indicating the capability of each member printer from the server, and the Proxy Output Port set in the member printer is stored as an output destination. The device address may be acquired, and communication with the device may be performed directly to acquire the availability of the real-time department management function. Furthermore, as a member driver's printer driver information, when a user operation, an inquiry from a group printer, or periodically, the department management function of the device is acquired and department management is performed based on communication with the device. The function setting may be returned to the group printer by the printer driver.
[0085]
Next, using FIG. 8 and the flowchart of FIG. 9, the operation procedure of the virtual print job processing using the department management function that is set to be effective through the flowchart of FIG. 7 will be described.
[0086]
8 and 9, a group printer driver operating a plurality of member printers instructs to cancel authentication based on the processing of the member printer driver, and a predetermined member among the plurality of member printers by the job control print service 622 is used. A description will be given of a printing process that performs an authentication process for a printer and describes a printing process that performs a proxy printing process for a member job generated by a member printer that has failed authentication. First, the flowchart of FIG. 8 will be described.
[0087]
First, in S801, it is monitored whether a print request has been issued via the OS. A case where a print request is issued via the OS is issued when a user gives a print instruction via a print menu using a predetermined application such as document creation software.
[0088]
If it is determined in step S801 that a print request has been issued, the group printer driver 603 that has received print job data including a drawing command issued from the OS generates a general-purpose print file including a department ID and a password in step S802. Data for generation is generated. Here, the generated data corresponds to the intermediate job file 717 in FIG. When the general-purpose print file is composed of a plurality of files of the print instruction unit 8a and the document data unit 8b, the intermediate job file 717 is held in a format in which the plurality of files are compressed as archive files. If this intermediate job file is stored and used for printing, the job file used for reprinting is held in a compressed form, thus saving the storage area. Of course, in order to save time for creating the general-purpose print file 717 from the intermediate job file 717, the general-purpose print file 716 may be stored as a job file used for reprinting.
[0089]
In step S <b> 803, the intermediate job file 717 is read by the job control print service 622. In other words, the intermediate job file 717 is input to the job control print service 622. More specifically, a file is written to a predetermined spool location from the spooler 604 via the job control port monitor 621 and an intermediate job is notified to the job control print service 622 by a method of notifying a path indicating the file name and location. A file is passed.
[0090]
In step S804, the job control print service 622 generates a general-purpose print file based on the passed intermediate job file. In the generated general-purpose print file, the ID (department management information) 806 and password (department management information) 807 shown in FIG. 5 input via the screen shown in FIG. 13 are recorded.
[0091]
In step S802, the group printer driver 603 may directly generate a general-purpose print file, and the generated general-purpose print file may be passed to the job control print service 622 via the job control port monitor 622. In this case, the job control print service 622 need not generate the general-purpose print file 716 from the intermediate job file 717.
[0092]
Next, proceeding to step S805, the member printers that are set in association with the group printer in advance are confirmed, and it is confirmed whether there is a member printer that has not issued an output instruction. Of course, if any member printer has not been instructed to perform printing processing yet, the determination result in step S805 is Yes.
[0093]
If it is determined Yes in step S805, the job control print service 622 generates print data based on the authentication information for the target member printer via the virtual output module 710 and the De-spooler 701 in step S806. Give print instructions. The DEVMODE of each member printer driver is set based on the description of the print instruction section 8-a (print format designation section etc.) in FIG. As already described above, the print setting information held in accordance with the DEVMODE structure held separately from the print instruction unit 8-a is used alone or in combination with the print instruction unit 8-a. May be used.
[0094]
This DEVMODE includes public setting items determined in common for each user and extended setting items that can be customized by the user.
[0095]
In step S806, a job creation instruction based on department management information including a department ID and a password is issued to the printer driver corresponding to each member printer.
[0096]
In step S806, the SDK instructs the printer driver to embed department management information based on ID 806 and password 807 for each printer driver from the De-spooler 701 regardless of whether the member printer has a department management function. Is done through. Since the printer driver that does not support the department management function does not support the designated SDK, the instruction to include the department management information from the De-spooler 701 in the generated print job data is ignored. Further, the processing mode of step S806 is not limited to the above, and whether or not the member management function is supported by each member printer when the De-spooler 701 instructs each printer driver to perform department management. In response to a response to the inquiry, a department management processing instruction may be issued to embed department management function information for a printer driver that has responded to support the department management function. 7, information for identifying a member printer that supports the department management function based on the inquiry in S701 of FIG. 7 is held, and a member member printer (corresponding printer driver) that supports the department management function based on the held information. The department management process may be instructed to embed department management information only.
[0097]
In step S807, the PDL driver is instructed to cancel the authentication check with respect to the external device (printer device or external authentication server). The cancel instruction here may be instructed by a command not to issue a print instruction to each PDL driver, or predetermined identification information (for example, distributed printing is performed to each PDL driver). When the identification information is notified, the PDL driver may be configured so that the authentication process is not performed when the identification information is notified.
[0098]
In the above description, the print processing that handles one type of department management information has been explained. However, a column for inputting department management information corresponding to each printer device is provided in the UI of FIG. It is assumed that the department management information corresponding to the corresponding logical printer is recorded in the print job data. Even in such a case, the department management information setting UI is applied in the processing of S802 to 804 to which the flowchart of FIG. 8 can be applied. The print instructing unit 8-a is created so that the department management information corresponding to each printer input via the printer is recorded in each member printer driver setting information, and based on the created print instructing unit 8-a. An intermediate job file and a general-purpose print file are generated in steps S802 to S804, and based on the generated general-purpose print file. Printing process comprising Ku department management process is executed in step S805 through S809. In particular, the instruction in the process of step S806 is performed based on the print instruction unit 8-a in which department management information corresponding to each printer is recorded.
[0099]
Even in this application mode, when there are overlapping department management information, the department management information can be set for a plurality of printers. As described above, according to the flowchart of FIG. 8, department management information, which is authentication information input via a predetermined user interface, can be collectively recorded in print job data generated in each printer. . In particular, when there is common department management information in a plurality of printers, the department management information input via the flowchart of FIG. 6 can be efficiently recorded in a plurality of jobs. Further, in a printing process in which a plurality of printer drivers or a printer driver is used a plurality of times, the user does not need to set an overlapping department ID or password via each printer driver used in the printing process. It was.
[0100]
An example of the authentication check will be described in detail in the flowchart of FIG. 9 described later.
[0101]
In step S808, the PDL driver generates a member job (print job data) including department management information (ID 806, password 807) necessary for the authentication check based on step S806, other print settings, and a page description language. . A job including a page description language generated by each member printer is referred to as a member job. Also, a job generated by the printer driver 602 (member printer) based on a drawing command directly supplied from the application 601 via the OS without creating the intermediate job file 717 by the group printer driver 603 may be called a member job. is there.
[0102]
Then, the process is returned to step S805, and the member printer is instructed to generate a member job until a print instruction is issued to all the member printers registered in the group printer.
[0103]
When there is no member printer that has not been output, the process advances to step S809 to end the virtual printing process.
[0104]
As described above, according to the flowchart of FIG. 8, for example, some PDL drivers may have an authentication check unit in the case of a model having a department management function. In some cases, there is a specification that deletes a job, there are cases in which a warning is issued or not accompanied by the deletion, and management is complicated. For the purpose of preventing such self and others, authentication processing in a plurality of member printers is executed in an integrated manner in FIG.
[0105]
Also, by preventing the PDL driver 602 from performing an authentication check, it is possible to prevent some jobs for distributed printing from being deleted by the authentication check while the job control service is generating a member job. Since it is held as a unique file such as job file 718 or 719, there is an effect that it is possible to provide the user with the next avoidance means such as proxy printing.
[0106]
Next, the transmission process of the printing method of the present invention will be described using the flowchart of FIG.
[0107]
First, in step S901, the member jobs are scheduled and are sent in the order of transmission. This scheduling is performed for each output port (Proxy Output Port) by the job control print service 622.
[0108]
Before starting the transmission process, in step S902, department management information (department ID 806 and password 807) recorded in the job is read from the member job. As a result of the reading process, if the group management information is included in the member job, the authentication process is performed in step S903. If the department management information is not included, the process in step S903 is omitted. 8 is executed, the job authentication check is performed on the output device based on the department management information corresponding to each member printer recorded in the print instruction unit 8-a. Is done.
[0109]
In step S903, the authentication module 723 performs an authentication check of the member job immediately before transmission on the output device. This authentication check may be any means that can determine whether or not the job can be executed in the department management. Further, the communication means is not specified. Further, the job control service itself may communicate and authenticate as in the authentication module 723, for example, by requesting and executing another authentication service that can be used for the authentication check. Also good.
[0110]
In step S904, if the job can be output as a result of the authentication check, the job is transmitted in step S905, the job is executed in step S906, and the transmission processing according to the embodiment of the present invention is terminated.
[0111]
The job transmission process may be a general transmission protocol such as LPR or RAW mode of Port 9100, or may be an original protocol. In the present invention, any transmission process can be applied as long as the job can be transmitted. it can.
[0112]
As a result of the authentication check, if it is determined in step S904 that a predetermined failure including an authentication error has occurred, the process proceeds to step S907. The failure may be based on a notification from the printer device to the client computer, or may be a failure recognized inside the client at the time of data generation processing.
[0113]
In step S907, the authentication error is displayed on the display unit of the client computer via the print manager 623. This display may be a message as an authentication error display, or a simple error display that makes the job status an error.
[0114]
An example of the warning message is shown in FIG. FIG. 14 shows that an authentication error has occurred in the printer C. Although device C is not shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that device C exists in FIG. 4 as with devices A and B, and Proxy Output PortC exists as in ProxyOutput Port A and B, and Correspondingly, a printer driver is also present.
[0115]
Next, in step S908, the proxy printing screen is displayed to allow the user to select a proxy printer. When the substitute printer is selected, in step S909, the user's operation instruction or automatically transmitted to another selected device is ended. For example, if the job file 719 is a substitute job, and this job is to be printed out on the device A, the substitute job is registered in the job management list 722 and the job file 719 is read into the proxy output port A. A form to be output to A is assumed. At this time, it is necessary that the page description language constituting the job file 719 corresponds to the page description language handled by the device A, or the contents that the department management information recorded in the job file 719 is permitted by the device A Or a restriction such that the device A is not department-managed and does not request department management information. Details of steps S907 to S908 will be described in detail with reference to a separate flowchart of FIG.
[0116]
The flow chart of FIG. 9 is realized as described above, so that even when department management is realized in a printing process using a plurality of printer drivers or a plurality of printer drivers with a conventional mechanism, each printer is realized. Since the authentication process is not performed mainly by the driver, it is not necessary to know the authentication result of each printer driver, and depending on the specifications of the printer driver, the situation that the print job data is deleted due to an authentication error can be prevented. Complex job management and system construction can be avoided.
[0117]
FIG. 10 is based on the processing of the job control print service 622 and the group printer driver 603, and steps S1014 and 1015 are executed mainly by the group printer driver.
[0118]
First, in step S1001, it is determined whether a substitute job has occurred. As proxy conditions, various authentication factors such as an authentication error notified in step S907, out of paper in the device (printer), jam, etc. can be assumed.
[0119]
Note that the cause of the device is realized by causing the print job control server 630 to notify the job control print service 622 of notification based on monitoring.
[0120]
If it is determined in S1001 that a substitution factor has occurred, the process proceeds to step S1002.
[0121]
In step S1002, a queue for scheduling a job scheduled to be transmitted including already transmitted is searched to check whether there is a job to be substituted. If the job to be substituted is not confirmed from the queue, the scheduling processing of other jobs and the processing of steps S1001 and S1002 are continued.
[0122]
If there is a job to be substituted in step S1002, in step S1004, the system searches the information for managing the job such as Windows (registered trademark) JOB_2, and uses the department management function. Check whether the job is set to be used.
[0123]
In step S1005, if the department management function is not set, this job is a normal print job, so the process proceeds to step S1012 to determine a substitute printer.
[0124]
In step S613, the job is moved to the proxy printer queue, and the proxy printing process is executed. The proxy printing process itself may be manual proxy printing that enumerates the display of alternative printer candidates to the user and sends the job to the alternative printer selected by the user. The automatic proxy printing function in which the system automatically selects an alternative printer. It may be. Then, processing of other jobs listed in the queue is continued.
[0125]
On the other hand, if YES is determined in step S1005, proxy printer candidates are listed in step S1006. The proxy printer candidates may be searched for devices from the network each time, or the system It is possible to use only proxy printers that are set as the proxy printer candidates, and information for communicating with proxy printers, such as the type of model or IP address if communicating with TCP / IP, is acquired. If possible, the method of enumerating candidate printers is not particularly dependent on.
[0126]
In step S1007, it is checked whether print output is possible for a plurality of substitute printer candidates based on the department management information set for the job to be substituted. Check whether the device has a department management function that permits print output for a job whose department ID, user ID, and password match to identify the department, and does not allow print output if they do not match. The department ID and password for permitting print output from each device via the network are acquired, and the department ID and password in each acquired device are the department ID set for the job to be substituted, and Check if it matches the password. If the device itself has an authentication function, the department ID and password of the proxy job may be transmitted to the device, and the determination result of whether or not output permission by the device can be obtained via the network.
[0127]
In step S1008, substitution printer candidates that can be output based on the processing in step S1007 are listed, and in step S1009, a list of substitution printer candidates determined to be output is displayed as a UI. Devices (printers) that do not have the department management function are also displayed as candidates in this UI.
[0128]
In step S1010, it is determined whether the setting of the department management information of the proxy job has been changed. If a substitute printer is set without changing the setting, a substitute printer is determined in step S1011. In step S1013, a substitute job is registered in the queue for the substitute printer. If there are no other jobs in the printer queue, they are sent immediately. If another job is scheduled in the queue of the substitute printer, the job is transmitted to the device according to the queue processing procedure. Then, the process returns to step S1001, the job to be substituted is monitored, and the same process as described above is repeated until the job to be substituted disappears from the target queue.
[0129]
On the other hand, after the substitute printer is displayed in step S1009, if the department management information setting for the substitute job is changed according to the user's instruction, the process proceeds to step S1014.
[0130]
If it is determined in step S1014 that the department management function has been released, the process proceeds to step S1012 to perform a substitution process similar to that for a job without the department management function setting. In other words, the substitution candidate is displayed on the UI indicating that the department management information is not restricted, and the substitution job is transmitted from the UI to the selected device (printer).
[0131]
If an instruction to change the department management information is issued in step S1014, new department management information such as a new department ID, password, and user ID is set in step S1015. The setting of the new department management information is realized by displaying a UI similar to that shown in FIG. In accordance with the newly set department management information, the department management information in the job file is updated, and then the processing of step S1006 is repeated. Also, in response to newly input department management information, the group printer driver 603 is internally activated to create an intermediate job file 717 based on the new department management information, and for the substitute printer. A substitute job may be issued. When creating this intermediate job file, the page range, number of copies, distribution ratio, and other information of the print instruction unit 8-a are continuously used.
[0132]
As described above, according to the flowcharts of FIGS. 8 to 10, in the conventional printing method using the department management function, an authentication check is performed after generating a job to be transmitted to the device (in other words, immediately before transmitting the member job). This is performed (step S903). Therefore, when a job is generated, the device setting is changed or the number of printed pages is changed according to the output of another job. The conditions for determining whether printing is possible, such as reaching the upper limit of the number of management, may have been changed immediately before transmission, and such a situation can be avoided as much as possible. In particular, in a printing system in which a plurality of jobs are spooled, it takes time from spooling to job transmission and the frequency of authentication errors is increased, which has an effect of further suppressing the occurrence of authentication errors.
[0133]
In such a case, the user has no avoidance means such as substitute printing such as the device deleting the job. However, according to the present embodiment, avoidance of substitute printing or the like by using the job files 718 and 719 or the like. It is now possible to provide a means.
[0134]
Also, with a printer driver that supports the department management function and is used alone for print processing, an authentication check is performed when the job is generated, and if the authentication check fails, the job must be deleted, and another output can be made. Although the proxy printing with the same or changed authentication information could not be performed on the apparatus, the proxy printing was performed on the predetermined printer with the same or changed authentication information by the processing of the flowcharts of FIGS. Became possible.
[0135]
In addition, since department management information can be changed, department management information can be set in conjunction with the output device at the substitution destination, so that it is possible to prevent a job from being deleted due to an authentication error in the device during substitution printing. Can now.
[0136]
(Second embodiment)
In the first embodiment, distributed printing and proxy printing accompanying distributed printing have been described as printing processing for operating a plurality of member printers 602 by the group printer driver 603, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a form in which print job data is transmitted to a predetermined single device, or if a failure occurs after transmitting print job data to a predetermined single device, the print job data is transferred to another device or the same print job data is The present invention can also be applied to a form in which retransmission is performed.
[0137]
In this case, the mechanism of the printing process is realized by setting the number of distributions described in the first embodiment to 1.
[0138]
In the first embodiment, the application data of the application 601 has been described as temporarily creating the intermediate job file 707 via the group printer driver 603. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
[0139]
More specifically, when the application 601 causes a predetermined printer driver 602 to perform printing via the OS, the application 601 easily instructs the printer driver 602 to cancel the authentication process, and the job control print service 622 performs the authentication process. It is to let you do. The mechanism for instructing the printer driver 602 to cancel the authentication process, the mechanism for the authentication process by the job control print service 622, and the proxy printing process for the temporarily stored job files 718 and 719 are described in the first embodiment. Since it is the same as the mechanism that has been described, detailed description is omitted here.
[0140]
As described above, according to the second embodiment, a form in which print job data is transmitted to a predetermined single device, or if a failure occurs after print job data is transmitted to a predetermined single device, The same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained even in a form in which print job data is substituted and the print job data is retransmitted.
[0141]
(Other embodiments)
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices or may be applied to an apparatus constituted by one device.
[0142]
In the present invention, a software program (in the above embodiment, a program corresponding to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 to 10) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment is directly or remotely supplied to a system or apparatus, and the system Alternatively, it may be achieved by the computer of the apparatus reading and executing the supplied program code. In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, the form does not need to be a program.
[0143]
Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. That is, the claims of the present invention include the computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.
[0144]
In this case, the program may be in any form as long as it has a program function, such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to the OS.
[0145]
As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R) and the like.
[0146]
As another program supply method, a client computer browser is used to connect to an Internet homepage, and the computer program of the present invention itself or a compressed file including an automatic installation function is downloaded from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. Can also be supplied. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the claims of the present invention.
[0147]
In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.
[0148]
In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiments being realized by the computer executing the read program, the OS running on the computer based on the instruction of the program is a part of the actual processing. Alternatively, the functions of the above-described embodiment can be realized by performing all of them and performing the processing.
[0149]
Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or The CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.
[0150]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a mechanism that can efficiently perform department management in a printing system that uses a plurality of printer drivers such as distributed printing, broadcast printing, and distributed printing.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus in the print processing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of the entire printing system in the present embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of the entire printing system in the present embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the contents of a general-purpose print file.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a department ID / password setting process.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of acquiring a department management function of a member printer by a group printer driver.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating job generation processing by a job control print service.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing authentication check processing;
FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating proxy printing processing by a job control print service.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a UI for setting whether to use a department management function;
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a UI for setting whether to use a department management function;
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a UI for inputting an ID and a password.
FIG. 14 is an example of a warning screen displayed when authentication fails.

Claims (10)

A program executed by an information processing apparatus that performs printing using a member printer,
A cancel step for instructing to cancel authentication based on processing of a printer driver corresponding to the member printer;
An authentication step for performing an authentication process on the member printer;
A print processing program comprising: a proxy step of performing a proxy print process of a member job generated by a member printer that has failed authentication in the authentication step. A first instruction step for instructing a member printer to generate print data based on the authentication information based on the input authentication information;
The print processing program according to claim 1, wherein the authentication step is performed based on authentication information recorded in a member job in accordance with the first instruction step. The print processing program according to claim 1, wherein the authentication step is executed after the member job is generated. 4. The print processing program according to claim 1, further comprising a warning step for giving a warning when authentication in the authentication step fails. 5. The print processing program according to claim 1, wherein the member printer includes a plurality of member printers, and the authentication step performs authentication of a predetermined member printer among the plurality of member printers. An inquiry step for inquiring of each of the plurality of member printers for a department management function via an API;
The print processing program according to claim 5, further comprising an enabling step of making a department management function available in response to the inquiry step. A generation step for generating a general-purpose print file based on application data;
The print processing according to claim 5, further comprising: a second instruction step for executing data generation processing for each of the plurality of member printers based on the general-purpose print file generated in the generation step. program. An information processing apparatus that executes a printing process using a member printer,
Instruction means for instructing to cancel authentication based on processing of a printer driver corresponding to the member printer;
Authentication means for performing authentication processing on the member printer;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a proxy unit that performs proxy printing processing of a member job generated by a member printer that has failed authentication in the authentication step. An information processing method using a member printer,
A cancel step for instructing to cancel authentication based on processing of a printer driver corresponding to the member printer;
An authentication step for performing an authentication process on the member printer;
A proxy step for performing proxy printing processing of a member job generated by a member printer that failed authentication in the authentication step. A computer-readable storage medium storing the print processing program according to claim 1.

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