JPH11102270A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically select a printer, with which printing desired by a user is performed and efficient printing processing is enabled, and to report its state to the terminal equipment of a processing request. SOLUTION: Corresponding to the printing request of a 1st terminal equipment 2a, print data are transmitted out. The print data contain printing condition information and a printer controller 3 receives these data through a network control part 5 and stores them in a recording medium 7 under the control of a recording medium control part 6. A main control part 4 selects a 1st printer 1a while referring to printer information from the printing condition information and acquires its state information. The printing condition information is stored in the job managing table of the selected printer and the print data are stored in a spool file. The main control part 4 reports the start of printing to the 1st terminal equipment 2a and transmits the print data to the 1st printer 1a. Besides, error occurrence is always monitored and when any error is confirmed, its state is reported to the 1st terminal equipment 2a to wait cancel. When the end of printing is confirmed, it is reported to the 1st terminal equipment 2a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer control device for controlling a printer, and more particularly to a printer control device for controlling print data transmitted to a plurality of printers connected to a network. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printer connected to a network, various conditions (for example, paper size, color / monochrome printing, etc.) adapted from a terminal which issues a print request to the printer to print data to be printed out. , Both sides /
(One side), the user selects a printer having the function from those connected to the network, and performs print output. If the selected printer outputs the print data from another terminal and is in use, the output of the print data requested to be printed is waited until the printing process is completed.

[0003]

However, with a plurality of printers connected to a network as in the prior art,
When performing printing from a terminal, depending on the usage state of the designated printer, the printing process is delayed even though there is another idle printer. Alternatively, when the designated printer is in use, it is necessary to temporarily suspend the waiting print processing and to designate another printer from the terminal again. Also, the printer functions (paper size,
If the user does not know whether it is possible to print in color / black and white, double-sided / single-sided, etc.), the user cannot obtain a desired print output when specifying a printer. .

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problem of the prior art, and it is possible to perform a print output desired by a user and to perform efficient printing from a printer connected to a network. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device capable of automatically selecting a printer capable of performing a process and notifying a terminal requesting a print process of the status of the printer.

[0005]

In order to achieve this object, a printer control apparatus according to the present invention is connected to a network in which a plurality of terminals and a plurality of printers are connected. A network control unit that performs control, a recording medium control unit that controls storage of information obtained from the network via the network control unit in a recording medium, a main control unit that controls the network control unit and the recording medium control unit, Means for selecting a printer by referring to a printer management table in which printer information of a recording medium is registered in advance based on the printing condition information.

Further, the apparatus is provided with means for registering and referring to processing information of data to be printed on a printer in a job management table of a recording medium based on printing condition information of acquired information.

According to the above configuration, based on the print condition information of the acquired information, the printer information of the recording medium is referred to the printer management table registered in advance, and the optimum printer information is selected from the plurality of printers connected to the network. It is possible to automatically select a printer and transmit and output data to be printed of the acquired information.

Further, based on the printing conditions of the acquired information, the processing information of the data to be printed on the printer is registered and referred to in the job management table of the recording medium, so that when the printer is selected, the available state of the printer and the processing amount are taken into account. It is possible to automatically select an optimum printer from a plurality of printers connected to the network and transmit and output data to be printed.

Also, the printer control device can notify the status information (status) of the data transmission destination printer to be printed to the terminal which has issued the print request by e-mail via the connected network.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1a denotes a first printer which is a color printer connected to a network;
Reference numerals b and 1c denote second and third printers which are monochrome printers connected to the network, 2a and 2b denote first and second terminals connected to the network, 3 denotes a printer control unit, and 4 denotes a network control unit to be described later. A main control unit for controlling a recording medium control unit; a network control unit for controlling transmission / reception processing performed via a network, such as receiving data from each terminal and transmitting data to each printer; This is a recording medium control unit that controls writing / reading of transmission / reception data to / from a recording medium 7 such as a magnetic disk by the control unit 5. FIG. 2A shows an example of printer information that differs depending on the model, and FIG. 2B shows an example of print condition information of print data to be printed out.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printer control device 3
It is connected to a network to which multiple printers and terminals are connected. Further, the printer control device 3 stores printer information of all printers connected to the network. These printer information is created by the user when a new printer is connected to the network and registered in a printer management table provided in a part of the recording medium 7. For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, a name and a network address for recognizing a printer connected on a network, and color / monochrome printing, double-sided / single-sided printing, paper size, processing The engine speed and the like.

Also, the print information output from the terminal when a print request is made includes printing conditions indicating printing conditions such as the number of pages, the number of copies, double-sided / single-sided, and color / monochrome as shown in FIG. It is assumed that all the printing requests from each terminal are sent to the printer control device 3 including the condition information.

Now, a print request is made from the first terminal 2a, and print information (for example, print conditions and print data of 5 pages, 1 copy, color, one side, A4 size) is transmitted and output. The print information at this time includes print condition information, which is received by the printer control device 3 via the network control unit 5 and further stored in the recording medium 7 under the control of the recording medium control unit 6. At this time, the main controller 4 selects the first printer 1a (from color printing conditions and the like) to print out with reference to the printer information registered in the printer management table based on the sent printing condition information. Further, the print condition information is stored in a job management table specified by the printer management table of the selected printer, and the print data at this time is stored in a spool file of a part of the recording medium 7, and its address is stored in the job management table. Registered in the table.

Next, the main controller 4 informs the first terminal 2a that the selected first printer 1a will start printing the print data.
Notify. At the same time, the print data in the spool file of the recording medium 7 is called and transmitted to the first printer 1a via the recording medium control unit 6. At this time, it is always checked whether an error such as out of paper has occurred from the first printer 1a. When the occurrence of the error is confirmed, the error status is notified to the first terminal 2a and the error is released. Wait for Then, when it is confirmed that the output of the print data has been completed, it notifies the first terminal 2a of the completion of the printing.

Further, the printer control device 3 receives the print information and refers to the printer management table based on the print condition information contained therein, and when the second printer 1b is selected, if the second printer 1b is printing. If there is any (from the status information referred to when selecting a printer and the processing information in the job management table), the next printer (third printer) that satisfies the printing condition information
When the printer 1c) is selected, the print information is registered and stored in the job management table and the spool file indicated by the printer management table in the same manner as described above, and thereafter the print data can be transmitted to the third printer 1c and printed out. .

FIG. 3A is a flowchart showing the data control operation of the printer control device according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 3B is a flowchart showing the print control operation of the printer control device. FIG.
FIG. 3A is a diagram of a printer management table storing printer information of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 2B is a diagram of a print control file showing a job management table and a spool file of print data based on the print condition information of FIG. Further, the printer management table includes status information of each printer, and indicates, for example, the presence or absence of paper for each size of a paper tray provided in the printer, and the status of printing possible, printing, paper jam, printer error, and the like. I have.

The printer status information stored in the current status of the printer in the printer management table may be requested and confirmed for the printer selected at the time of selecting the printer, or may be confirmed at a periodically set time. You may do it.

FIG. 3 shows data control in this embodiment.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First,
In the flowchart shown in FIG. 3A, when registering printer information that is not a printing process in the printer management table, the first printer 1a, the second printer 1b, and the third printer 1 connected to the network of FIG. The printer information 1c (see FIG. 2A) is created, transmitted to the printer control device 3, and registered. Since the data control at this time is not a print request (No in S1), the process proceeds to step S10. In this process S10, printer information is registered, so that the process proceeds to the next process S11. In the process S11, the printer information data is received, and the printer information is registered in the printer management table shown in FIG. 4 (S12).

Next, when processing print information as data control, the terminal transmits print condition information prior to transmission of print data. In the flowchart shown in FIG. 3A, since the request is a print request, the process proceeds to S2 (Yes in S1)
s). The received print condition information is received (S2), and the printer management table is referred to based on the print condition information to select a printer as a print output destination (S3). Refer to the job management table for the printer selected at this time,
Status (presence or absence of jobs currently being processed and remaining job amount)
Then, it is determined whether or not the job amount is the minimum (S4).

The job amount of the selected printer is the amount of printing to be executed, and is obtained by (Equation 1) based on the printing condition information and the information in the job management table of the printer to be selected.

[0021]

## EQU1 ## Execution amount = (number of pages * number of copies / current output number) / engine speed In this process S4, if the job amount is not the minimum,
Returning to the previous process S3, another printer that matches the printing condition information is selected, and the process of the process S4 is performed again. In the case of the minimum job amount, registration is performed in the job management table of the selected printer as shown in FIG. 4 (S5).

Subsequently, reception of print data is started (S
6) Store the received print data in the spool file (S7). Confirm the end of print data reception (Yes in S8)
s), a process S at the start of notifying to start the print control
It returns to 1 (S9).

Next, in the print control flowchart of FIG. 3B, a print request is determined based on a print start notification.
(S13) The process is started in the order of the job management table, and first, a notification of the start of printing (information display as shown in FIG. 5A) is sent to the terminal of the print request (S14). Further, transmission of the print data of the spool file specified by the job registered in the job management table to the selected printer is started (S15). In accordance with the transmission of the print data to the printer, the status information from the printer is received and the occurrence of an error is monitored (S16). In this process S16,
When the error is confirmed, the information of the error (information display as shown in FIG. 5B) is notified to the terminal of the print request (S1).
7), and wait until the error is cleared (S18).

When the end of the print output from the printer, that is, the end of the transmission of the print data and the end of the job is confirmed (S19), the printing is completed to the print request source (the information display as shown in FIG. 5C). ) (S20), and returns to the initial processing S13 to wait for the next print request.

According to the present embodiment configured as above, a printer having a desired function is automatically selected by a printer management table in which printer information is registered in advance based on print condition information of print information. In addition, when the selected printer is in use or the like, the job management table for registering print processing information is referred to, and the job amount of the selected printer is added to the selection conditions, so that the printer connected to the network can be efficiently used. Can be used Also, by using the e-mail via the network, by notifying the status information of the selected printer to be printed out to the terminal of the print request, it is possible to perform the print output desired by the user, Further, it is possible to eliminate the need to search for a print output from a plurality of printers connected to the network.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The optimal printer is automatically selected based on the printing condition information,
This eliminates the need to select a printer for outputting print data, eliminates the need to know the printer function for selection, and eliminates mistakes in printer selection.

When a printer is selected, an empty printer,
Alternatively, in a printer in use, print data is automatically selected from printers having equivalent functions in consideration of the job amount and print data is output, so that the use efficiency of the printer connected to the network is improved.

Further, since the status information of the printer to which the print data is output can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner to the user by e-mail, the same usability as when the user selects the printer to print out by himself can be obtained. It has the effect of being able to do so.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A shows printer information different for each device in the present embodiment, and FIG. 2B shows print condition information of print data to be printed out.

FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating an operation of data control in the printer control device according to the embodiment, and FIG.
5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of print control in the printer control device.

4A and 4B show a printer management table storing the printer information of FIG. 2A and a job management table of a print process based on the print condition information of FIG. It is a control file.

5A is an information display by e-mail indicating the start of printing, FIG. 5B is an information display by e-mail indicating an error (an example of running out of paper), and FIG. 5C is an information display by e-mail indicating printing completion. It is a figure showing the example of.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a: first printer (color printer), 1b: second printer (black and white printer), 1c: third printer (black and white printer), 2a: first terminal, 2b: second terminal, 3: printer control device, 4: Main control unit, 5: Network control unit, 6: Recording medium control unit, 7: Recording medium.

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a network to which a plurality of terminals and a plurality of printers are connected, a network control unit connected to the network for controlling connection with the network, and information obtained from the network via the network control unit A storage medium control unit that controls storage of the storage medium in a storage medium, a main control unit that controls the network control unit and the storage medium control unit, and printer information of the storage medium is registered in advance based on print condition information of the obtained information. Means for selecting a printer by referring to a printer management table, automatically selecting an optimum printer from the plurality of printers connected to the network by the means,
A printer control device for transmitting and outputting data to be printed of the acquired information. 2. A printer control device comprising: means for registering and referring to processing information of data to be printed on a printer in a job management table of a recording medium based on printing condition information of acquired information; 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an optimum printer is automatically selected from the plurality of printers connected to a network in consideration of an available state of the printer and a processing amount, and the data to be printed is transmitted and output. Printer control device. 3. The printer control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the status information of the destination printer of the data to be printed is notified by electronic mail to the terminal of the print request source via the connected network. The printer control device according to claim 1.