JP5623465B2 - Image forming system and print server thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming system that notifies a host of an event that has occurred in an image forming apparatus via a print server, and the print server.

  By sharing an image forming apparatus among multiple hosts using a print server connected to a network, when an error occurs in the image forming apparatus, the contents are notified from the print server to each host. Can know the state of the image forming apparatus.

JP 2000-259363 A

  However, since the print server notifies each host of changes in the status of each job, it causes a relatively large amount of communication traffic on the network. Usually, it is sufficient for each user to know the status change of his job.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming system capable of reducing the amount of communication traffic on a network by omitting unnecessary event notification from the print server to each host, and the print server. Is to provide.

In the first aspect of the present invention, a host including a printer driver and a status monitor, a print server, and an image forming apparatus are coupled via a network, and the host converts the document data into print job data via the printer driver. In addition, in the image forming system for printing by including the job ID in the print job data and transmitting the print job data to the image forming apparatus via the print server,
Each of the host and the print server further includes a resident client side notification service and a server side notification service that can communicate with each other via the network, and the print server further includes a table including IP address and job ID fields. The server-side notification service receives the contents of the state change event generated in the image forming apparatus via the network, and the contents include a job ID when the state change is a change in job state. The client-side notification service displays the contents of the event received from the server-side notification service in the status monitor window,
The printer driver sends the job ID of the print job data to the server side notification service via the client side notification service together with the IP address of the host,
The server-side notification service registers a record including the received job ID and the IP address in the table,
When the content is the content of the job state change event, the server-side notification service reads a record having a job ID included in the content from the table, and only to the host having the IP address included in the record , sends the contents of the event to the client notification service, when the event is a job end event, deletes the record including the job ID from the table,
If the event is not a change in job status, the contents of the event are transmitted to the client-side notification service of the host having each IP address registered in the table .

In the second aspect of the present invention, a host having a printer driver and a status monitor, a print server having a language monitor and a port monitor, and an image forming apparatus are coupled via a network, and a document is transmitted to the host via the printer driver. Printing is performed by converting the data into print job data, including the job ID in the print job data, and transmitting the print job data to the image forming apparatus via the language monitor and the port monitor of the print server. In the image forming system to
Each of the host and the print server further includes a resident client side notification service and a server side notification service that can communicate with each other via the network, and the print server further includes a table including IP address and job ID fields. The server-side notification service receives the contents of the state change event generated in the image forming apparatus via the network, and the contents include a job ID when the state change is a change in job state. The client-side notification service displays the contents of the event received from the server-side notification service in the status monitor window,
The printer driver includes the IP address of its own device in the print job data,
The language monitor takes out the job ID and the IP address from the print job data, and sends a registration request to the server side notification service together with the job ID and the IP address.
The server-side notification service registers a record including the job ID and the IP address related to the registration request in the table,
When the content is the content of the job state change event, the server-side notification service reads a record having a job ID included in the content from the table, and only to the host having the IP address included in the record , sends the contents of the event to the client-side notification service, when the event is a job end event, deletes the record including the job ID from the table,
If the event is not a change in job status, the contents of the event are transmitted to the client-side notification service of the host having each IP address registered in the table .

  According to the configuration of the first aspect, the host printer driver transmits the job ID of the print job data to the server side notification service via the client side notification service together with the IP address of the own device, and the server side notification service. However, when a record including these is registered in the table and the state change event generated in the image forming apparatus is a job state change event, the job ID included in the content of the event is the job ID registered in the table. Since only the host having a matching IP address is sent the contents of the event to the client-side notification service, and when the event is a job end event, the record including the job ID is deleted from the table. For job status, the user can only check the status of his / her job. It is possible to display on Sumonita, an effect that it is possible to reduce the amount of communication traffic on the network.

  According to the configuration of the second aspect, the host printer driver includes the IP address of its own device in the print job data, and the language monitor of the printer server extracts the job ID and the IP address from the print job data. When a registration request is made to the server-side notification service with these, the server-side notification service registers a record including these in the table, and the event content received from the image forming apparatus is that of a change in job status, The event content is sent to the client-side notification service only to a host having an IP address that matches the job ID registered in the table, but the event is a job. When it is an end event, the record containing this job ID is deleted from the table Runode, the user is an effect that it is possible to display the status of miso his job status monitor, it is possible to reduce the amount of communication traffic on the network.

  Other objects, characteristic configurations and effects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description read in connection with the appended claims and the drawings.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an image forming system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a print server PC and an image forming apparatus that configure the system of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of subsystems of a print server PC, a client PC, and an image forming apparatus that are part of the system of FIG. 1. (A) is a schematic flowchart showing processing of blocks 40 to 42 constituting the client PC 10-1 in FIG. 3, and (B) is a schematic flowchart showing processing of the client side notification service 44 of this PC 10-1. It is. (A) is a configuration diagram of a job-specific destination table, and (B) is an event table configuration diagram showing a relationship between a status code and its name. It is a schematic flowchart which shows the process of the server side notification service 51 in FIG. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram corresponding to FIG. 3 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an image forming system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  In this system, a PC 10 used as an administrator computer and a print server (hereinafter referred to as a print server PC 10), N client PCs 10-10 to 1N as hosts, and an image forming apparatus 20 are connected via a network 30. Are combined. Two-way communication is possible between the print server PC 10 and the image forming apparatus 20 and between the print server PC 10 and each of the client PCs 10-1 to 10 -N.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the print server PC 10 and the image forming apparatus 20 that constitute the system of FIG.

  In the print server PC 10, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 has a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) 13, a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) 14, a network interface 15, an auxiliary storage device 16, an input device 17, and a display via an interface 12. Coupled to device 18. In FIG. 2, a plurality of types of interfaces are represented by one block 12 for simplification. Each of the client PCs 10-1 to 10-N is configured similarly to the PC 10 as hardware.

  The PROM 13 is a flash memory, for example, and stores a basic input / output system (BIOS). The DRAM 14 is used as a main storage device. The auxiliary storage device 16 stores an OS (Operating System), various drivers, and applications for functioning as an administrator computer and a print server. The input device is, for example, a keyboard and a pointing device.

  In the image forming apparatus 20, a CPU 21 is coupled to a PROM 23, a DRAM 24, a network interface 25, an auxiliary storage device 26, an operation panel 27, a scanner 28, a printer 29, and a fax modem 2A via an interface 22.

  The PROM 23 is, for example, a flash memory, and stores a BIOS, an OS, various drivers, and various applications for functioning as an image forming apparatus. The DRAM 24 is used as a main storage device. The auxiliary storage device 26 stores printing data, image data read by the scanner 28, document data received from the client PCs 10-1 to 10-N via the print server PC 10, and facsimile reception data as document files. The operation panel 27 includes an input unit and a display unit. The scanner 28 is used to digitize an image on a paper medium, and the file is used for printing, facsimile transmission, or file transmission. The printer 29 includes a print engine, a paper feed unit, a conveyance unit, and a paper discharge unit. The bitmap data generated on the DRAM 24 is supplied, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum based on the data. Then, this image is developed with toner, and the toner image is transferred and fixed on a sheet, and discharged.

  Network interfaces 15 and 25 are each coupled to network 30.

  FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the print server PC 10, client PC 10-1, and image forming apparatus 20 that are part of the system of FIG. The client PC 10-1 in this figure is representative of the client PCs 10-2 to 1N, and each of the PCs 10-2 to 10-N is configured similarly to the PC 10-1. Hereinafter, a case where the OS is Windows (registered trademark) will be described.

  Next, according to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 6, the configuration of FIG.

  FIG. 4A is a schematic flowchart showing processing of blocks 40 to 42 configuring the client PC 10-1 of FIG. In the following, the step identification codes in the figure are shown in parentheses.

  (S0) The application 40 converts the document data into print job data by calling a function in the GDI (graphic device interface) library 41 of the OS. At this time, the GDI function converts the GDI drawing data into PDL (page description language) data that can be interpreted by the image forming apparatus 20 via the printer driver 42 and writes it into the spool file 43.

  (S1) When the application 40 calls the EndDoc function in the GDI library 41, the conversion process for one job is completed, and the printer driver 42 generates a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) in response to this, The ID is written in the spool file 43, and the job ID is supplied to the client side notification service 44 to request registration. The client-side notification service 44 is a resident program that is activated by the OS when the client PC 10-1 is turned on, operates in the background, and always receives input.

  FIG. 4B is a schematic flowchart showing processing of the client side notification service 44.

  (S10) If the request from the printer driver 42 is a request from the printer driver 42, the client side notification service 44 proceeds to step S11, otherwise proceeds to step S12 described below.

  (S11) The received job ID is transmitted to the server side notification service 51 via the network communication unit 46, the network 30, and the network communication unit 50 together with the IP address of the client PC 10-1. The server-side notification service 51 is also a resident program, similar to the client-side notification service 44, is activated by the OS when the client PC 10-1 is turned on, operates in the background, and always accepts input.

  Upon receiving the job ID and IP address, the server-side notification service 51 registers these as one record in the job-specific destination table 52 as shown in FIG.

  Communication between the notification service 44 and the notification service 51 is performed based on the SOAP protocol or the SNMP protocol.

  Here, job processing will be described.

  When the spooler 45 completes the writing of data to the spool file 43, the spooler 45 puts the identifier in a queue, and each time the identifier is taken out from the head of the queue, the spooler 45 sends the spool file to the network communication unit 46 and the network communication of the print server 10. It is supplied to the spooler 53 via the unit 50. The spooler 53 usually causes the spool file 53 to be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 20 via the language monitor 55 to the port monitor 56 in the spooled order. In response to this, the port monitor 56 transmits the spool file 43 to the main control unit 61 via the network communication unit 50 and the network communication unit 60 of the image forming apparatus 20.

  In response to this, the main control unit 61 stores the received job data in the buffer area in the work area 62 and then develops the bitmap via the image processing unit 63. The main control unit 61 further supplies the developed bitmap data to the print engine 65 via the engine controller 64 and controls the paper supply / discharge mechanism 67 via the paper supply / discharge mechanism controller 66, thereby An image is formed and discharged.

  When an error occurs in the print engine 65, the paper supply / discharge mechanism 67, and other parts of the image forming apparatus 20, the main control unit 61 outputs the contents as a status change event of the image forming apparatus 20 and the network communication unit 60 and The data is transmitted to the server side notification service 51 via the network communication unit 50 of the print server PC 10.

  The content of the event includes a status code, and further includes a job ID when the status code indicates a job status.

  FIG. 5B is an event table 47 showing the relationship between status codes and their names. In the status code, the upper two digits are the status type code. For example, the code “01” indicates that the status type is a job, and the code “02” indicates that the status type is an image forming apparatus. In FIG. 5B, for example, “Start”, “Stop”, “Pause”, “Resume”, and “Completed” indicate job start, stop, pause, resume, and end, respectively.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart showing processing of the server side notification service 51.

  (S20) If it is a registration request from the client side notification service 44, the process proceeds to step S21, and if it is a notification request from the main control part 61, the process proceeds to step S22.

  (S22) If the status type code indicates a job ("01"), the process proceeds to step S23; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S27.

  (S23) The job-specific destination table 52 is searched using the job ID as a key.

  (S24) If there is a hit, the content of the event is transmitted to the client side notification service 44 via the network communication units 50 and 46 using the IP address included in the record as the address of the destination PC.

  In response to this, the client-side notification service 44 refers to the event table 47 in step S12 of FIG. 4B, converts the status code included in the contents of this event into its name, and, together with the job ID, If other contents such as the toner level are included, these are also supplied to the status monitor 48, thereby updating the display contents of a status display window (not shown). At this time, if the status display window is not displayed, it is popped up.

  (S25) If the status code indicates job end, the process proceeds to step S26; otherwise, the process of FIG. 6 is ended.

  (S26) The record including the job ID is deleted from the job-specific destination table 52, and the processing in FIG.

  (S27) The contents of the event are transmitted to the client-side notification service 44 with each IP address registered in the job-specific destination table 52 as the destination.

  Through the processing as described above, the user can display only the status of his / her job on the status monitor 48 and reduce the amount of communication traffic on the network 30.

  FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram corresponding to FIG. 3 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  When the application 40 calls the EndDoc function in the GDI library 41, the conversion process for one job is completed, and in response, the printer driver 42A sets the IP address of its own device in the spool file 43 in the PJL (print job control language). ) Steps S10 and S11 in FIG. 4B are not necessary.

  When the language monitor 55B receives the spool file from the spooler 53, the language monitor 55B supplies the job ID and the IP address contained therein to the server side notification service 51A to request registration. In response to this, the server-side notification service 51A registers records including these in the job-specific destination table 52 shown in FIG.

  The other points are the same as in the first embodiment.

  In the above, preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, the present invention includes various modifications, and other configurations that realize the functions of the respective components described in the above embodiments are used. However, other configurations that would be conceived by those skilled in the art from these configurations or functions are also included in the present invention.

  For example, even if the application 40 writes data to the spool file 43 in the EMF (extended metafile) format via the function of the GDI library 41 and converts the EMF data into PDL data by the printer driver provided in the spooler 53. Good.

  In the first embodiment, the language monitor 55 may be omitted.

10 Print server PC
10-1 to 10-N Client PC
11 CPU
12 Interface 13 PROM
14 DRAM
15, 25 Network interface 16 Auxiliary storage device 17 Input device 18 Display device 20 Image forming device 21 CPU
22 Interface 23 PROM
24 DRAM
26 Auxiliary storage device 27 Operation panel 28 Scanner 29 Printer 2A Fax modem 30 Network 40 Application 41 GDI library 42, 42A Printer driver 45 Spooler 43, 53 Spool file 44, 44A Client side notification service 46, 50, 60 Network communication unit 47 Event Table 48 Status monitor 51, 51A Server-side notification service 52 Job-specific destination table 55, 55A Language monitor 56 Port monitor 61 Main control unit 62 Work area 63 Image processing unit 64 Engine controller 65 Print engine 66 Feed / discharge mechanism controller 67 Feed / discharge Paper mechanism

Claims (4)

A host having a printer driver and a status monitor, a print server, and an image forming apparatus are connected via a network, and converts document data into print job data via the printer driver in the host, and a job ID in the print job data. In the image forming system for printing by sending the print job data to the image forming apparatus via the print server,
Each of the host and the print server further includes a resident client side notification service and a server side notification service that can communicate with each other via the network, and the print server further includes a table including IP address and job ID fields. The server-side notification service receives the contents of the state change event generated in the image forming apparatus via the network, and if the state change is a job state change, the job ID is the job ID Included, the client-side notification service displays the contents of the event received from the server-side notification service in the status monitor window,
The printer driver sends the job ID of the print job data to the server side notification service via the client side notification service together with the IP address of the host,
The server-side notification service registers a record including the received job ID and the IP address in the table,
When the content is the content of a job state change event, the server-side notification service reads a record having a job ID included in the content from the table, and only for a host having an IP address included in the record. the contents of the event is transmitted to the client side notification service, when the event is a job end event, deletes the record including the job ID from the table,
If the event is not a change in job status, the contents of the event are transmitted to the client-side notification service of the host having each IP address registered in the table.
An image forming system. A host having a printer driver and a status monitor, a print server having a language monitor and a port monitor, and an image forming apparatus are connected via a network, and the host converts document data into print job data via the printer driver. In addition, in the image forming system for printing by including a job ID in the print job data and transmitting the print job data to the image forming apparatus via the language monitor and the port monitor of the print server.
Each of the host and the print server further includes a resident client side notification service and a server side notification service that can communicate with each other via the network, and the print server further includes a table including IP address and job ID fields. The server-side notification service receives the contents of the state change event generated in the image forming apparatus via the network, and the contents include a job ID when the state change is a change in job state. The client-side notification service displays the contents of the event received from the server-side notification service in the status monitor window,
The printer driver includes the IP address of its own device in the print job data,
The language monitor takes out the job ID and the IP address from the print job data, and sends a registration request to the server side notification service together with the job ID and the IP address.
The server-side notification service registers a record including the job ID and the IP address related to the registration request in the table,
When the content is the content of the job state change event, the server-side notification service reads a record having a job ID included in the content from the table, and only to the host having the IP address included in the record , sends the contents of the event to the client notification service, when the event is a job end event, deletes the record including the job ID from the table,
If the event is not a change in job status, the contents of the event are transmitted to the client-side notification service of the host having each IP address registered in the table.
An image forming system. 3. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein communication between the client side notification service and the server side notification service is performed by a SOAP protocol. The print server which comprises the image forming system as described in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3 .

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