JPH0519986A - Interruption printing system by monitoring print output data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To output another preferential printing job every time unit data is print-outputted by providing a unit data output monitoring part, and monitoring data at the time of printer output by the unit data, and making a printing job determining part generate interruption. CONSTITUTION:In the case of the print output, printing is started through the unit data output monitoring part 7. When the unit data output monitoring part 7 finds the break of the unit data, it makes the printing job determining part 8 generate the interruption. The printing job determining part 8 referes to an output state designating part 6 for the printing job, and when there is an interrupt priority job, it informs the unit data output monitoring part 7 so as to print output this job. The unit data output monitoring part 7 saves temporarily the output pointer of the printing job being outputted at present to a job pointer preserving part 9, and starts the print out of the printing job the printing job determining part 8 designates.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print output of a computer, and more particularly to a print output system for spooling a print job which is data output to a plurality of printer units.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a computer printout, in the case of a system that temporarily saves a print job and enables a plurality of printouts, by changing the priority of the saved printout data, For example, it is possible to print out a print job of relatively small data after a certain large print job waiting for print output by changing the priority order. However, the feature of this system is that the print job is the unit for print output, so once a certain large print job has started to print, any print job in the waiting state will be printed as a large print job. There is a drawback that the job is kept waiting until the print output is completed.

Next, a conventional technique will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional print output system with a print spool function.

Referring to FIG. 2, the conventional print output system with a print spool function of the conventional example has output data a1 to d1, a print spool unit 2, a priority storage unit 3, a print job 4, and a printer unit. It is composed of 5 and.

The flow until the print output data in this conventional example is actually printed will be described.

First, the print output data a1 requested by the computer is passed to the print spool section 2 and spooled inside the print spool section 2 as a print job a4. This output data a1
After all of the data of 3 are spooled in the print job a4, the print spool unit 2 starts printing on the printer unit 5. If the next request for print output data b1 is issued while the print job a4 is being output to the printer unit 5, the print job is spooled inside the print spool unit 2 as a print job b4. In this way, the output data a1 to d1 generated while the print job a4 has not finished the print output to the printer unit 5 are spooled as the print job 4 in the print spool unit 2. After the data of the print job a4 is completely output, the print job to be printed next is determined according to the priority order of the priority order storage unit 3, and is output to the printer unit 5.

Generally, the values ~ specified in the priority order storage unit 3 indicate the priority of the output order of the print job 4, and the priority order is output together with the output of the output data a1 to d1 or after being spooled. It is set every time it is changed.

[0009]

As described above, in the case of the conventional system, the priority order can be changed when the print job does not start the print output, but a certain print job starts the print output. Once that happens, other print jobs cannot be output until the print output for that print job is completed. For example, if you start printing a large print job consisting of several tens of pages, you must wait for the completion of printing of several tens of pages even if there is a print job of only one page that you need immediately after that. There is a problem that it must be done.

It is an object of the present invention to have a unit data output monitoring unit, monitor data when a print job is output from a printer by unit data, and generate an interrupt in the print job determination unit, thereby eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks. Each time the unit data is output, other suitable print jobs can be printed out each time the unit data is output to the printer, and other print jobs are output even after one print job has started printing. The purpose is to provide an interrupt printing method by monitoring print output data.

[0011]

An interrupt printout system for monitoring printout data according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises:
A printer unit that has a function to output on paper divided into unit pages or continuous pages, a computer connected to the print unit, print data for each page of unit data output to the printer unit, and printing over multiple pages A print job that is data, a priority save section that saves the priority order of each print job within the print job, an output status specification section that saves the output method specification for each print job, and a print job. A unit data output monitoring unit that monitors the print output for each unit data of the printer unit while monitoring the data in the job, a print spool unit that temporarily stores multiple print jobs, and a priority order and output status designation area While referring, select an appropriate print job from multiple print jobs and select the unit data. A print job determination unit to be passed to the output monitoring unit and a job pointer storage unit for storing the current output of each print job are provided inside the computer or inside the printer, or between the computer and the printer unit, respectively. When data is output by the printer unit according to the data output to the print unit and a request for print output is generated on the computer, the requested output page or a group of output data is converted into a computer file format as a print job. When the print job is temporarily stored in the print spool section and then the print output is requested, the print job determination section determines whether the priority order specified in the priority order storage section and the interrupt priority job in the output status specification section. Which print job is best based on To decide whether to print, when the unit data output monitoring unit has confirmed that finishes outputting unit data is performed print output by the printer unit via the unit data main monitoring unit from the print job priority.

An interrupt print output system for monitoring print output data according to a second aspect of the present invention is the interrupt print output system for monitoring print output data according to the first aspect of the present invention, in which a print consisting of a plurality of pages to be printed out to a printer section. A unit data output monitoring unit that controls the print output order of a plurality of print jobs by setting each page where the print job is actually printed out as one print output unit, not as a unit for printing out the job Data from
It has a function of outputting to a device connected by a transmission medium of a wide area network as well as a local area network.

An interrupt print output system based on print output data monitoring according to a third aspect of the present invention is the interrupt print output system based on print output data monitoring according to the second aspect of the present invention, wherein a plurality of computers are connected to the printer unit by the transmission medium. Even in the established network environment, it has a function of consolidating a plurality of print requests generated from the plurality of computers or the devices.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interrupt print output system for monitoring print output data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an interrupt print output system for monitoring print output data according to the present embodiment includes output data a1 to d1, a print spool unit 2, a priority storage unit 3, print jobs a4 to d4, and a printer. Unit 5, output state designating unit 6, unit data output monitoring unit 7
And a print job determination unit 8 and a job pointer storage unit 9.

The feature of the present embodiment is that the unit data output monitoring section 7 is the center, and the print job 4 which is a defect in the conventional print output with the print spool function is output while another print job 4 is being output. It enables the interrupt print output of.

Next, the flow until the print output data according to the present embodiment is actually printed out will be described.

First, after the output data a1 of the print requested on the computer is spooled in the print spool section 2 as a print job a4 in the same manner as in the conventional system, the print spool section 2 is transferred to the printer section 5.
Then, the printing of the output data a1 is started. At this time, if the print output data is not particularly urgent in the output state designating section 6, it is normally registered as “A = interruptible job”. This "a = interruptible job" means that there is another urgent print job 4 (in this case, "c = interrupt priority job") during the output of this print job a4.
If there is a print job c4), it means a job that can interrupt it. As the status of the output state designating section, there are “a = non-interruptible job” in addition to this, and there are a total of three statuses.

When the spooled print job a4 is to be printed out to the printer section 5, printing is started via the unit data output monitoring section 7. This time,
The unit data output monitoring unit 7 constantly monitors the data of the print job a4, and tries to find the boundary of the unit data in the printer unit 5. When the unit data output monitoring unit 7 finds a unit data break, an interrupt is issued to the print job determination unit 6 to notify that the output of the unit data has ended, but when there is no other print job 4 Instructs to print out the print job a4 currently being printed.

If the next print output data b1 is requested while the print job a4 is being output to the printer unit 5, spooling is performed inside the print spool unit 2 as a print job b4. To be done.

Further, in the above, when the next request for the print output data c1 and d1 is generated, they are spooled in the print spool unit 2 as print jobs c4 and d4, respectively.

Next, in this state, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of print jobs a4 to d4 are printed.
The case where there exists will be described.

According to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the output state designating section 6 has required statuses of output states of "a", "a", and "c", respectively.

First, the unit data output monitoring unit 7 finds a unit data division, interrupts the print job determining unit 8, and notifies the end of the unit data output. The print job determining unit 8 refers to the output state designating unit 6 of the print job c4 in the print spool unit 2 and finds that “C = interrupt priority job” exists, and the print job c4 is displayed in the unit data output unit. To print out. At this time, if there are a plurality of print jobs with "c = interrupt priority job" in the output designation section 6, the print job determination unit 8 compares the values in the priority level storage unit 3 corresponding to the print job. Then (~ in this case), a print job with a high priority level is determined from "c = interrupt priority job", and the print job is notified to be printed out. Since the unit data output monitoring unit 7 is no longer the print job a4 currently being printed out,
A job pointer storage unit 9 in which a pointer indicating how much 4 is currently printed out exists for each print job 4
After being temporarily saved in A, the print job determination unit 8
The print output of the print job c4 designated by is started. Further, since the current job pointers of the print jobs b4 to d4 are stored in B to D of the job pointer storage unit 9, their initial value is 0.

After that, since the status of the print job c4 is "c = interrupt priority job", even if the print job determination unit 8 is interrupted every time the unit data output monitoring unit 7 outputs the unit data, the print job is determined. Deciding part 8
Will notify you to print as it is.
All the print outputs of the print job c4 will end first before any of the print jobs 4. afterwards,
When the unit data output monitoring unit 7 notifies the print job determining unit of the end of the print job c4, the print job c4 has already been erased from the print spool unit 2, and therefore the print output from the output state designating unit 6 is performed next. Search for print job 4 that should be done. If there is another "c = interrupt priority job", the unit data output monitoring unit 7 is requested to continuously print out the interrupt priority job. However, in the case of the present embodiment, since it does not exist, the previous output is canceled. The unit data output monitoring unit 7 is requested to restart the print output of the print job a4 that has been performed. The unit data output monitoring unit 7 restarts printing of the print job a4 based on the pointer of the print job a4 stored in A of the job pointer storage unit 9.

In this way, the interrupt print output of the print job c4 can be realized while the print job a4 is being output to the printer. Normally, by setting the unit data to be one page, the data output from the printer unit 5 can be output in page units as they are when requested. Further, in the case of the output data (output data 1 in the example of FIG. 1) that the continuous printer output is desired to be performed, if “a = uninterruptible job” is designated in the output state designation section 6,
It is also possible that the print job determination unit 8 does not interrupt the print job 4 with other print jobs 4 until the print output is completely completed.

Also in this embodiment, as in the conventional example, normally, the values specified in the priority order storage unit 3 are:
It indicates the priority of the output order of the print job 4, and is set each time the priority order is changed together with the output of the output data a1 to d1 or after spooling.

[0029]

As described above, the interrupt print system for monitoring print output data according to the present invention has the unit data output monitoring unit, and monitors the data when outputting from the print job to the printer and prints the data. By generating an interrupt in the job determination unit, another suitable print job can be printed out each time the unit data is output to the printer, and only after a certain print job starts printing. Can output other print jobs. For example, there is an effect that the print output of a print job of one page which is immediately necessary and immediately after the print output of a large print job of several tens of pages can be printed without waiting for the completion of the print output of several tens of pages. is there.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interrupt print output by monitoring print output data according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a print output configuration diagram with a conventional print spool function.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Output data a to d 2 Print spool section 3 Priority storage section ~ 4 Print jobs ad 5 Printer section 6 Output state specification section 7 Unit data output monitoring unit 8 Print job determination unit 9 Job pointer storage units A to D

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer unit having a function of outputting to a sheet divided into unit pages or having continuous pages, a computer to which the print unit is connected, and unit data of each page output to the printer unit. A print job, which is print data and print data for a plurality of pages, a priority storage unit that saves the priority of each print job among the print jobs, and an output method specification for each print job are specified. A stored output state designation unit, a unit data output monitoring unit that monitors the print output for each unit data of the printer unit while monitoring the data in the print job, and a print spool that temporarily stores a plurality of print jobs. Department,
A print job determination unit that selects an appropriate print job from the plurality of print jobs while referring to the priority order and the output state designation area and passes the print job to the unit data output monitoring unit, and to what extent each print job is currently output. And a job pointer storage unit for storing data stored therein, which is provided inside the computer or inside the printer, or between the computer and the printer unit, respectively, and outputs data from the printer unit according to data output from the computer to the printing unit. Then, when a print output request is generated on the computer, a set of output data of one page or a plurality of pages of the request is converted into a computer file format as a print job, and temporarily stored in the print spool unit, next,
When there is a request for the print output, the print job determination unit gives top priority to which print job based on the priority designated by the priority storage unit and the interrupt priority job value of the output state designation unit. When it is confirmed that the unit data output monitoring unit finishes outputting the unit data, it is determined that the printer unit prints the highest priority print job through the unit data main power monitoring unit. An interrupt print output system that monitors print jobs. 2. The interrupt print output system based on print job monitoring according to claim 1, wherein the printer unit is not a unit for printing out a print job consisting of a plurality of pages to be printed out,
The data sent through the unit data output monitoring unit is controlled to be as wide as a local area network so as to control the print output order of a plurality of print jobs with each page where the print job is actually printed output as one print output unit. An interrupt print output system by monitoring a print job, which has a function of outputting to a device connected by an area network transmission medium. 3. The interrupt print output system based on print job monitoring according to claim 2, wherein even in a network environment in which a plurality of computers are connected to the printer unit by the transmission medium, a plurality of the plurality of computers or the plurality of devices are connected to each other. An interrupt print output system based on print job monitoring, which is equipped with a function to combine print requests that occur.