JP6369273B2 - Print control server and print control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control server and a print control method.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for causing a printer to execute printing by sending an e-mail to an e-mail address assigned to the printer is known. Patent Document 1 discloses a print control server that generates print data corresponding to an e-mail transmitted from a user and causes the printer to execute printing by transmitting the generated print data to the printer.

JP 2012-150752 A

However, in the print control server described in Patent Document 1, when a large number of e-mails are received, the time required from receiving the e-mails to transmitting print data to the printer becomes long. As a result, there arises a problem that it takes a long time to start printing after the user transmits an electronic mail.
An object of the present invention is to provide a print control server that can shorten the time required from the transmission of an e-mail to the start of printing as necessary.

  A print control server for achieving the above object includes an address management unit that registers and manages e-mail addresses in association with priorities, a receiving unit that receives e-mails, and the registered e-mail addresses A job management unit that registers and manages print job data based on the e-mail, a conversion unit that acquires the print job data and converts it to print data, and a printer corresponding to the e-mail based on the e-mail A transmission unit that causes the printer to execute printing by transmitting the print data, and the conversion unit receives the print job data based on the email including the email address having a relatively high priority. The print job corresponding to the email including the email address having a relatively low priority To get ahead over data is converted into the print data.

  Here, the priority may be two or more. That is, the priority rankings of the first and second ranks may be associated with a large number of email addresses, and any priority rank from the first rank to an arbitrary rank may be associated. The order of converting print job data into print data depends on the priority order of the e-mail addresses corresponding to the print job data. What is necessary is just to change from order. In other words, the order in which print job data is converted to print data need not be determined only by the priority order corresponding to the print job data. For example, the order depends on the order of reception of emails and the priority order associated with email addresses. It may be decided. According to the present invention, an e-mail address can be registered in association with a priority order, and print data based on an e-mail having a relatively high priority order is preferentially generated. The required time can be shortened as necessary.

  Note that the function of each means described in the claims is realized by hardware resources whose function is specified by the configuration itself, hardware resources whose function is specified by a program, or a combination thereof. The functions of these means are not limited to those realized by hardware resources that are physically independent of each other. Furthermore, the present invention can also be realized as a print control method, a print system, a print control program, or a recording medium for a print control program. Of course, the recording medium for the program may be a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, or any recording medium developed in the future.

The block diagram concerning embodiment of this invention. The data structure figure concerning embodiment of this invention. The screen block diagram concerning embodiment of this invention. The flowchart concerning embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the corresponding component in each figure, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

1. Outline of Print Control Server FIG. 1 shows a print control server 1 as an embodiment of the present invention. In the print control server 1, e-mail addresses corresponding to the plurality of printers 201 to 205 that receive print data from the print control server 1 and execute printing based on the received print data are registered. The e-mail address corresponding to the printer is registered in the print control server 1 in association with the connection information with the printer and the chargeable or free service type. The service type corresponds to the priority, and the paid service is set to have a higher priority than the free service. When the print control server 1 receives an e-mail including a pre-registered e-mail address as a destination from any of the communication terminals 101 to 105, the print control server 1 registers print job data based on the e-mail. The print control server 1 converts the print job data into print data that can be printed by the printer corresponding to the received e-mail, and transmits the converted print data to the printer, thereby causing the printer to execute printing. The order in which print job data is converted to print data is determined by the corresponding e-mail reception order and the corresponding service type. In other words, print job data based on an e-mail that includes an e-mail address registered in association with a paid service as a destination is print job data based on an e-mail that includes an e-mail address registered in association with a free service as a destination. Rather, it is converted to print data first. The print control server 1 transmits the converted print data to the corresponding printer in the conversion order. Therefore, the user can shorten the time required from the transmission of the e-mail to the start of printing by registering the printer in the print control server 1 in association with the paid service.

2. Configuration of Print Control Server As shown in FIG. 1, the print control server 1 includes a receiving unit 10, an address management unit 11, a job management unit 12, a first conversion unit 13, a second conversion unit 14, and a transmission unit 15. System. The functions of the receiving unit 10, the address management unit 11, the job management unit 12, the first conversion unit 13, the second conversion unit 14, and the transmission unit 15 are such that a processor (not shown) loads a program from an external storage device to the main storage device. It is realized by executing.

  The receiving unit 10 functions as a mail server. Specifically, for example, an electronic mail compliant with SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is transmitted and received, and an electronic mail including a domain assigned to itself is stored as a destination. Here, the destination includes “to” and “cc” but does not include “bcc”. However, “bcc” may be handled as the destination.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the address management unit 11 stores an e-mail address associated with a printer, a service type, and an identifier unique to the printer in association with each other. The e-mail address includes a domain (eprint.com) unique to the print control server 1 and a local part (such as “aaa”) unique to each printer assigned at the time of registration. The user selects and registers either “paid” or “free” as the service type. The identifier only needs to be able to directly or indirectly specify connection information necessary for the print control server 1 to connect to the other printer with which it communicates. For example, an XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) ID, MAC address, and IP address An address complying with a specific communication protocol such as the above may be used as it is, or a separate character string uniquely assigned by the print control server 1 inside the print system may be used separately from these addresses, or the print control server 1 A character string specified by the user within a unique range may be used. In this embodiment, a combination of a printer model name and a manufacturing number is used as an identifier, and the print control server 1 stores the XMPP ID and password separately associated with the identifier.

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration of a screen used for a user to register a printer in the print control server 1. The screen shown in FIG. 3 is configured by a web page generated by the address management unit 11. That is, the print control server 1 acquires information necessary for registration by communicating with the communication terminal of the user who intends to register the printer using HTTP. The "new registration" string contains a link to a web page for entering the printer owner's name, phone number, e-mail address, printer model name, service type, manufacturing number, and payment information (credit number, etc.) Embedded. The screen shown in FIG. 3 is configured as a web page for the printer owner to confirm or change the registered contents after these pieces of information are input. The printer owner 111, model name 112, printer mail address (e-mail address corresponding to the printer) 113, service type 114, and serial number 115 displayed on the screen can be edited by clicking. For example, when the service type 114 is clicked, a drop-down list 114a is displayed, and either pay or free can be selected as the service type. The paid service has a higher priority for converting print job data to print data than the free service.

  The job management unit 12 acquires e-mails received by the receiving unit 10 in the order received. The job management unit 12 analyzes the acquired e-mail to identify the content to be printed, the corresponding service type, and the identifier of the printer that prints the content, and the e-mail content is changed to the service type. , Registered and managed in the order in which the emails are received in association with the printer identifier. Specifically, every time the receiving unit 10 receives an email, the job management unit 12 acquires an email address included in the destination of the received email, and a service type corresponding to the acquired email address and The identifier is acquired from the address management unit 11. Further, the job management unit 12 acquires the text or attached file of the e-mail as content, and stores the acquired content in the queue 12a as print job data in association with the service type and the printer identifier. “Mail (n)” illustrated in FIG. 1 means an email received by the receiving unit 10, “Job (n)” means print job data, and “n” means an email reception order. ing.

  The first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 acquire content to be printed from the job management unit 12 and convert it into print data. The print data may be data in a format that can be processed as a print target by a printer corresponding to the print job data. For example, the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 convert the print job data into print data by performing rasterization and color conversion processing on the content of the print job data. The first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 are configured by hardware independent from each other, and can simultaneously convert two different contents into print data. Specifically, the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 are configured by two different computers that are communicably connected to the computer configuring the job management unit 12. The first conversion unit 13 acquires the content stored in the queue 12a earliest and converts it into print data regardless of the service type “paid” or “free”. The second conversion unit 14 acquires the content stored in the queue 12a earliest from the content associated with the “paid” service type and converts it into print data. The order in which the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 acquire content to be printed from the job management unit 12 will be described in detail later.

  When the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 generate print data, the transmission unit 15 acquires the print data from the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14, and transmits XMPP and HTTP that are real-time communication protocols. To communicate with each printer. When communicating with the printer, the transmission unit 15 acquires connection information based on the identifier associated with the content by the job management unit 12. The transmission unit 15 transmits print data to the printer by communicating with the printer specified by the job management unit 12. As a result, the attached file or text of the specific electronic mail received by the print control server 1 is printed by the printer designated by the electronic mail sender by the sender of the electronic mail.

3. Operation of Print Control Server Next, a processing sequence for converting print job data into print data will be described with reference to FIG. The process shown in FIG. 4 is repeatedly executed for each print job data when the print job data is accumulated in the queue 12a of the job management unit 12.

  First, the job management unit 12 determines whether both the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 are executing conversion processing (S1). Specifically, when each of the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 is in a standby state, the job management unit 12 is notified of the fact that the standby status has been reached. The job management unit 12 determines whether or not both the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 are executing conversion processing based on the standby notification received from the first conversion unit 13 or the second conversion unit 14. judge. When both the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 are executing the conversion process, the process waits until at least one of the statuses of the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 is on standby.

If it is determined that the status of at least one of the first conversion unit 13 and the second conversion unit 14 is standby, the job management unit 12 determines whether print job data associated with the paid service is accumulated in the queue 12a. It is determined whether or not (S2).
When the print job data associated with the paid service is accumulated in the queue 12a, the job management unit 12 determines whether or not the first conversion unit 13 is busy (S3).

  When the print job data associated with the paid service is not stored in the queue 12a, that is, when all the print job data stored in the queue 12a is associated with the free service, the queue 12a supports the paid service. If both the attached print job data and the print job data associated with the free service are accumulated and the first conversion unit 13 is not busy, the job management unit 12 sets the first conversion unit 13. The print job data is converted into print data (S4). The job management unit 12 deletes the print job data converted into the print data from the queue 12a. Specifically, when the print job data associated with the paid service is not accumulated in the queue 12a (when all the print job data accumulated in the queue 12a is associated with the free service), the queue 12a Among the print job data associated with the free service stored in, the first stored print job data is converted into print data by the first conversion unit 13. Also, both the print job data associated with the free service and the print job data associated with the paid service are accumulated in the queue 12a, and even when the first conversion unit 13 is busy, the print job data is accumulated in the queue 12a. Of the print job data associated with the paid service, the first stored print job data is converted into print data by the first conversion unit 13.

  When the print job data associated with the paid service is stored in the queue 12a and the first conversion unit 13 is busy, the job management unit 12 prints the print stored in the queue 12a in association with the paid service. Of the job data, the first accumulated print job data is transferred to the second conversion unit 14, and the second conversion unit 14 converts the print job data associated with the paid service into print data. The job management unit 12 deletes the print job data converted into the print data from the queue 12a.

  When the print job data is converted into the print data, the transmission unit 16 transmits the print data to the corresponding printer (S6). Specifically, the transmission unit 16 acquires the print data from the first conversion unit 13 or the second conversion unit 14 in the converted order. Subsequently, based on the printer identifier associated with the print data, the transmission unit 16 specifies an XMPP ID and password for communicating with the printer that is the transmission destination of the print data. Subsequently, the transmission unit 16 establishes communication with the printer associated with the print data and transmits the print data. As a result, the body of the e-mail or the attached file is printed by the printer corresponding to the e-mail address set as the e-mail destination.

  According to the embodiment described above, when the print job data associated with the paid service is accumulated in the queue 12a, the print control is performed before the e-mail corresponding to the print job data associated with the paid service. Even if the print job data corresponding to the free service is accumulated in the queue 12a based on the email received by the server 1, the print job data associated with the paid service by the first conversion unit 13 or the second conversion unit 14 Is preferentially converted to print data. For this reason, a printer registered in association with a paid service takes less time from when the user transmits an e-mail until printing is started than a printer registered in association with a free service. That is, the user can shorten the time from when the e-mail is transmitted to when printing is started by selecting a paid service and registering the printer in the print control server 1 as necessary.

4). Other Embodiments The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the job management unit acquires the emails received by the receiving unit in the order of reception. However, priority is given to emails including relatively high priority email addresses among the emails received by the receiving unit. The job management unit may acquire the email earlier than the email including the email address having a relatively low rank.

In the above embodiment, both the print job data associated with the pay service and the print job data associated with the free service are stored in the queue 12a, and the first conversion unit 13 is busy. If there is no job, the job management unit 12 causes the first conversion unit 13 to convert the print job data into print data, but the print job data associated with the paid service and the print associated with the free service in the queue 12a. If both the job data are stored and the second conversion unit 14 is not busy, the job management unit 12 may cause the second conversion unit 14 to convert the print job data corresponding to the paid service into the print data. Good.
In the above-described embodiment, the job management unit 12 specifies the print job data and transfers it to either the first conversion unit 13 or the second conversion unit 14. Regardless of the corresponding service type, print job data is acquired and converted into print data in the order in which they are stored in the queue 12a, and the second conversion unit 14 print data corresponding to the paid service every time it enters standby. May be acquired in the order of accumulation in the queue 12a and converted to print data.
Further, the processing capability of the second conversion unit that converts only high-priority print job data into print data may be higher than that of the first conversion unit. As a method of increasing the processing capacity of the second conversion unit than the first conversion unit, the processor that functions as the first conversion unit employs a processor that has a higher processing speed than the processor that functions as the second conversion unit, There is a method of increasing the number of computers used as the second conversion unit as compared with the computer used as the second conversion unit.

  Alternatively, only the print job data corresponding to the free service may be converted into print data by the first conversion unit, and only the print job data corresponding to the paid service may be converted into print data by the second conversion unit. Although it depends on the set fee of the paid service, it is assumed that the number of printers corresponding to the paid service is smaller than the number of printers corresponding to the free service. For this reason, when only the print job data corresponding to the free service is converted into print data by the first conversion unit, and only the print job data corresponding to the paid service is converted into the print data by the second conversion unit, each conversion unit By converting the print job data corresponding to the print data in the order of storage, the print job data stored later in association with the paid service is more than the print job data stored previously in association with the free service, There is a high possibility that it will be converted to print data first. On the other hand, in this case, there is a low possibility that the print job data previously stored in association with the paid service is converted into print data later than the print job data stored in association with the free service. In addition, when the processing capacity of the second conversion unit is higher than that of the first conversion unit, the print job data stored later in association with the paid service is the print job stored in advance in association with the free service. The possibility of being converted to print data before data is further increased.

  In other words, even when the job management unit does not perform the process of changing the processing order for converting the print job data based on the priority order associated with the print job data, the e-mail address having a relatively high priority order. It is possible to convert print job data corresponding to an e-mail including the print data prior to print job data corresponding to an e-mail including an e-mail address having a relatively low priority.

  In addition, it is possible to register priorities directly in advance for each e-mail address without associating any of a plurality of services whose priorities are determined in advance with the e-mail address, regardless of the service type. good. Further, there may be three or more priorities, and the number of conversion units may be increased according to the number of priorities.

  In the above embodiment, an e-mail address is registered for each printer, and a priority order is registered for each printer in order to associate one of a plurality of services for each printer. Priorities may be registered for each mail address. For example, it is also possible to set an e-mail address corresponding to a plurality of printers as a destination and send an e-mail so that only one of the printers executes printing. In this case, information for specifying one printer from a plurality of printers is required in addition to the e-mail address, such as including information specifying a printer for executing printing in the body of the e-mail.

  In addition, when a priority order is registered for an e-mail address that is an e-mail transmission source and the priority order corresponding to the e-mail address of the transmission source is relatively high, a priority order corresponding to the e-mail address of the transmission source is set. The corresponding print job data may be converted into print data before the rank is relatively low. In this case, a user who transmits an e-mail from an e-mail address having a high priority can cause an arbitrary printer to execute printing earlier than other users. Furthermore, priorities are registered for both the e-mail address that becomes the e-mail transmission source and the e-mail address (the e-mail address that becomes the destination) corresponding to the printer, and based on the combination of the respective priorities. The processing order for converting print job data into print data may be controlled.

  In addition to the priority order associated with the e-mail address, an element that changes the processing order of converting print job data into print data may be added. For example, when a predetermined priority ticket is attached to an e-mail address, one or more priorities for conversion to print data may be increased. For example, four priorities for conversion to print data are determined in advance, and the pay service is defined as second and the free service is defined as fourth. When a priority ticket is attached to an e-mail corresponding to a paid service, the priority order for converting to print data is incremented to first, and a priority ticket is attached to an e-mail corresponding to a free service , Raise the priority to 3rd place. The priority ticket is information that allows the print control server that has received the e-mail to which the priority ticket is attached to determine that the conversion processing of the print job data corresponding to the e-mail should be executed in advance. For example, a text file in which a predetermined character string is described or an encrypted file obtained by encrypting the character string data may be used as a priority ticket, or a predetermined character string is described in an e-mail. In addition, the character string may be used as a priority ticket. Such priority tickets can be distributed to users using websites, e-mails, and the like.

  Further, for example, the print control server may be constituted by one computer or may be constituted by three or more computers. For example, the receiving unit 10, the address management unit 11, the job management unit 12, the first conversion unit 13, the second conversion unit 14, and the transmission unit 15 may be configured by different computers and connected to each other. You may comprise with a computer.

101, 102, 103, 104, 105 ... communication terminal, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205 ... printer, 1 ... print control server, 10 ... receiving unit, 11 ... address management unit, 12 ... job management unit, 12a ... Queue, 13 ... first conversion unit, 14 ... second conversion unit, 15 ... transmission unit, 16 ... transmission unit, 111 ... printer owner, 112 ... model name, 113 ... printer mail address, 114 ... service type, 114a ... drop-down list

Claims (7)

An address management unit for registering and managing e-mail addresses in association with priorities;
A receiver for receiving e-mail;
A job management unit for registering and managing print job data based on the email including the registered email address;
A conversion unit that acquires the print job data and converts it into print data;
A transmission unit that causes the printer to execute printing by transmitting the print data based on the email to a printer corresponding to the email including the registered email address;
With
The conversion unit obtains the print job data from the job management unit in the order of registration, and converts the print job data into the print data, and a priority among a plurality of services with predetermined priorities is relatively And a second conversion unit that acquires only the print job data based on the e-mail including an e-mail address corresponding to a high service from the job management unit in the order of registration and converts the print job data into the print data . The address management unit registers and manages an email address in association with any of a plurality of services having a predetermined priority;
The print control server according to claim 1. The address management unit associates and manages any of the plurality of services for each printer;
The print control server according to claim 2. The conversion unit converts the print job data corresponding to an email including a predetermined priority ticket into the print data prior to the print job data corresponding to an email not including the priority ticket;
The print control server according to any one of claims 1 to 3 . The conversion unit corresponds to the print job data based on the e-mail including the e-mail address having a relatively high priority as a destination, and the e-mail including the e-mail address having a relatively low priority as a destination. Converting the print job data before the print job data.
The print control server according to any one of claims 1 to 4 . The conversion unit includes the print job data based on the e-mail including the e-mail address having a relatively high priority as a transmission source, and the e-mail including the e-mail address having a relatively low priority as the transmission source. Converting to the print data prior to the print job data corresponding to
The print control server according to any one of claims 1 to 5 . Processing for registering and managing e-mail addresses in association with priorities ;
Processing to receive e-mail ;
Processing to register and manage print job data based on the e-mail including the registered e-mail address ;
The print job data based on the electronic mail the priority comprises a relatively high e-mail address, prior to the print job data corresponding to the electronic mail including the priority is relatively low email address a process of converting the print data,
A first conversion process for acquiring the print job data in the order of registration and converting the print job data into the print data;
Only the print job data based on the e-mail including an e-mail address corresponding to a service having a relatively high priority among a plurality of services having predetermined priorities is acquired in the order of registration and converted into the print data. A second conversion process,
Wherein the printer corresponding to the electronic mail, the printing control method comprising, a process of Ru to execute the printing on the printer by sending the print data based on the e-mail.

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