WO2022086695A1

WO2022086695A1 - Controlling an image forming job performed between senders and receivers based on groups

Info

Publication number: WO2022086695A1
Application number: PCT/US2021/053157
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jungnam Bae; Yoonsoo Lee; Jihyun Yoon
Original assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Priority date: 2020-10-22
Filing date: 2021-10-01
Publication date: 2022-04-28
Also published as: KR20220053369A

Abstract

An example method performed by a server includes receiving a request for generation of a group including at least one receiver from a sender, generating and storing a data structure for the group including the at least one receiver in response to the request, receiving an image forming job related to the group from the sender, adding information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group, and allowing the at least one receiver belonging to the group to perform the image forming job using an image forming apparatus.

Description

CONTROLLING AN IMAGE FORMING JOB PERFORMED BETWEEN SENDERS AND RECEIVERS BASED ON GROUPS

BACKGROUND

[0001] There exist many different types of image forming apparatuses, including printers, scanners, photocopiers, facsimile machines, etc., and also multi-function printers (MFPs) that act as all-in-one devices to provide a combination of, e.g., printing, copying, scanning, and faxing functions.

[0002] An image forming apparatus may be operated under direct connection with a host computer, or may be connected to a local network and operated by a plurality of computers as a shared device. According to these operation modes, a user who requests execution of an image forming job should directly take printed matter output from the image forming apparatus and, in order to allow other people to use the printed matter, they should meet face-to-face to deliver the printed matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0003] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system including a server, senders, and receivers according to an example;

[0004] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method according to an example;

[0005] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method according to an example;

[0006] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to an example;

[0007] FIGS. 5A and 5B are a sequence diagram illustrating the operations illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 for each subject performing each operation according to an example;

[0008] FIGS. 6 to 11 are conceptual diagrams illustrating operations of the method illustrated in FIG. 3 according to an example;

[0009] FIGS. 12 to 17 are conceptual diagrams illustrating operations of the method illustrated in FIG. 4 according to an example;

[0010] FIG. 18 illustrates a computer-readable recording medium including instructions to perform a method according to an example; and

[0011] FIG. 19 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating a server according to an example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] Various terms used in the present disclosure are chosen from a terminology of commonly used terms in consideration of their function herein, which may be appreciated differently depending on an intention of a person skilled in the art, a precedent case, or an emerging new technology. In certain instances, some terms are to be construed as set forth in the detailed description. Accordingly, the terms used herein are to be defined consistently with their meanings in the context of the present disclosure, rather than simply by their plain and ordinary meaning.

[0013] The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” “containing,” etc. are used herein when describing the presence of the elements listed thereafter. Unless otherwise indicated, these terms and variations thereof are not meant to exclude the presence or addition of other elements.

[0014] As used herein, the ordinal terms “first,” “second,” and so forth are meant to identify several similar elements. Unless otherwise described, such terms are not intended to impose limitations, e.g., a particular order of these elements or of their use, but rather are used merely for referring to multiple elements separately. For instance, an element may be referred to in an example with the term “first” while the same element may be referred to in another example with a different ordinal number such as “second” or “third.” In such examples, such ordinal terms are not to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Also, the use of the term “and/or” in a list of multiple elements is inclusive of all possible combinations of the listed items, including any one or plurality of the items.

[0015] The term “image forming job” as used herein may encompass any of a variety of image-related jobs, such as a print job, a scan job, a photocopy job, a facsimile job, and the like, that involve an operation of forming an image and/or other processing operation, e.g., creation, generation and/or transfer of an image file. Furthermore, an image forming job performed by an image forming apparatus may comprise various jobs related to printing, photocopying, scanning, faxing, storing, transmitting, coating, etc.

[0016] The term “image forming apparatus” as used herein may encompass any of a variety of apparatuses, such as printers, scanners, photocopiers, facsimile machines, multi-function printers (MFPs), display devices and so on, that carry out an image forming job. Moreover, an image forming apparatus may be a two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) image forming apparatus.

[0017] Certain examples of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present disclosure should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein. Rather, these examples are given in order to provide a better understanding of the scope of the present disclosure.

[0018] Hereinafter, examples will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0019] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system including a server, senders, and receivers according to an example.

[0020] Referring to FIG. 1 , a server 10 receives an image forming job from a sender 20 and relays the received image forming job from the sender 20 to a receiver 30 so that the receiver 30 may perform the received image forming job. For example, even when the sender 20 and the receiver 30 are remotely separated, the sender 20 may transmit the image forming job to the server 10 using a transmitting device 21 , 22, or 23 (e.g., any information processing device that can be used by the sender 20, such as a computer, a laptop computer, a tablet personal computer (PC), a mobile phone terminal, or the like) associated with the sender 20. The server 10 may allow the receiver 30 to perform the image forming job using an image forming apparatus 31 , 32, or 33 associated with the receiver 30. For example, the receiver 30 may perform the image forming job in a pull printing mode using the image forming apparatus 31 , 32, or 33. As a result, it is possible to deliver the output result (e.g., printed matter) of the image forming job without direct contact between the sender 20 and the receiver 30. In a situation having a need for social distancing due to an infectious disease such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the like, the system according to the example illustrated in FIG. 1 may deliver the image forming job in a non-face-to- face manner.

[0021] The server 10 may communicate with the sender 20 according to a first encryption mode and the server 10 may communicate with the receiver 30 according to a second encryption mode. For example, the first encryption mode and the second encryption mode may each be an asymmetric key-based encryption mode, and the pair of public key and private key of the first encryption mode may be different from the pair of public key and private key of the second encryption mode. Examples of the first encryption mode and the second encryption mode will be described in more detail when operations illustrated in FIGS. 3 to 5B are described below.

[0022] The sender 20 may transmit an image forming job to one receiver 30 or transmit the image forming job to a plurality of receivers 30. For example, when several people in a company participate and collaborate on the same project, one of the participants may transmit an image forming job to the remaining participants of the project. As another example, when an online class is conducted at an educational institution, a teacher may have a plurality of students or parents in remote locations print out a document (e.g., home correspondence, homework, etc.). As still another example, a user who intends to conduct a predetermined financial transaction may need to request different financial institutions or different financial transaction managers to output a document such as a resident registration copy.

[0023] In an example, when the sender 20 needs to transmit an image forming job to several receivers 30, the server 10 may allow the sender 20 to preset the receivers 30 as one group and may collectively transmit the image forming job to the receivers 30 belonging to the group. Thus, the work may be processed more efficiently.

[0024] Further, since the generated group may be repeatedly used by the sender 20 (e.g., after a teacher generates a group including students from one class as receivers, the teacher may use the group to transmit different image forming jobs to the receivers belonging to the group), an inconvenience that the sender 20 has to generate the same group again may be relieved.

[0025] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method according to an example.

[0026] Referring to FIG. 2, the server 10 may receive a request for generation of a group including at least one receiver from a sender in operation S11. In operation S12, a data structure for the group including the at least one receiver may be generated and stored in response to the request. In operation S13, an image forming job related to the group may be received from the sender. In operation S14, information about the image forming job may be added to the data structure for the group. In operation S15, at least one receiver belonging to the group may be allowed to perform the image forming job using an image forming apparatus.

[0027] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method according to an example.

[0028] Referring to FIG. 3, when a server 10 receives a request for generation of a group including at least one receiver 30 from a sender 20, the server 10 generates and stores a data structure for the group in response to the request. As described above, when the sender 20 generates the group including the at least one receiver 30, the group may be reused later, and thus the method according to the example illustrated in FIG. 3 may be performed once and there may be no need to repeat the same process. The operations S101 to S106 illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B.

[0029] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to an example.

[0030] Referring to FIG. 4, when a server 10 receives an image forming job related to a predetermined group from a sender 20 after generating and storing a data structure for the group as illustrated in FIG. 3, at least one receiver 30 belonging to the group is allowed to perform the image forming job. As described above, after the sender 20 generates the group, the sender 20 may use the group to transmit another image forming job to the receivers 30 belonging to the group, and thus the method according to the example illustrated in FIG. 3 is performed once, whereas the method according to the example illustrated in FIG. 4 may be performed whenever a new image forming job is requested. The operations S107 to S116 illustrated in FIG. 4 will be described in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B.

[0031] FIGS. 5A and 5B is a sequence diagram illustrating the operations illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 for each subject performing each operation according to an example.

[0032] As described above, the operations (e.g., S101 to S106) included in FIG. 3 may be performed once and need not be repeated, and the operations (e.g., S107 to S116) included in FIG. 4 may be repeatedly performed for each image forming job transmitted by the sender 20. It may be understood that, for conciseness, FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrates an example in which the operations illustrated in FIG. 4 are performed one time after the operations illustrated in FIG. 3 are performed.

[0033] The order of the operations illustrated in FIGS. 3 to 5B is an example, and the order of some operations may be changed.

[0034] Hereinafter, a method according to the example illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 5A to 11 , and a method according to the example illustrated in FIG. 4 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 5A and 12 to 17.

[0035] As illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5B, when a service transaction is established between a server manager 11 and the sender 20, the server manager 11 transmits to the server 10 a request for registering the sender 20. The server 10 receives the request for registering the sender 20 from the server manager 11 and adds the sender 20 to a sender list in operation S101 .

[0036] The server manager 11 may set parameters including the number of groups that the sender 20 is able to generate, the number of receivers, the number of image forming jobs that can be stored, a deadline, and the like. A service fee that the sender 20 pays for using a service provided through the server 10 may be determined based on the set parameters. For example, the server manager 11 may pre-designate three types of price plans of A, B, and C and allow the sender 20 to select any one price plan of A, B, and C so that parameters (e.g., the number of groups that can be generated, the number of receivers, the number of image forming jobs that can be stored, a deadline, and the like) based on the selected price plan may be automatically set. As illustrated in FIG. 6, when the server 10 adds the sender 20 to a sender list 50, a price plan for each sender may also be stored in the sender list.

[0037] After the server 10 registers the sender 20 in the sender list, the sender 20 may request the server 10 to generate a group including at least one receiver 30. The request for generation of the group including the at least one receiver may be performed in a single operation or may be performed in a plurality of operations including a request for generation of the group in operation S103 and a request for addition of the at least one receiver to the group in operation S105 as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5A.

[0038] After the server 10 receives the request for generation of the group including the at least one receiver 30 from the sender 20, the server 10 may generate and store a data structure for the group including the at least one receiver 30 in response to the request. For example, in response to reception of both of the request for generation of the group in operation S103 and the request for addition of the at least one receiver to the group in operation S105, the server 10 may generate and store a data structure for the group. A description of an example of the data structure for the group will be given below with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10.

[0039] Communication between the server 10 and the sender 20 may be performed according to a first encryption mode which may be an asymmetric keybased encryption mode. In an example, the communication process in which the sender 20 transmits the request for generation of the group in operation S103 and the request for addition of the receivers to the group in operation S105 to the server 10 may also be performed according to the first encryption mode. Therefore, a pair of public key and private key of the first encryption mode may be generated by the sender 20 in operation S102, before operation S103 is performed. The first private key used for the first encryption mode may be held by the sender 20, and the first public key used for the first encryption mode may be transmitted to the server 10. For example, the first public key may be transmitted together when the sender 20 transmits the request for generation of the group including the at least one receiver 30 to the server 10 in operation S103. [0040] When the server 10 communicates with the sender 20 according to the first encryption mode, the sender 20 may add into a Page Description Language (PDL) document the data to be transmitted and a checksum (e.g., MessageDigest) for verifying whether an original document has been altered. The sender 20 may transmit the PDL document to the server 10, as illustrated in FIG. 7. The checksum may be generated by encrypting and hashing the corresponding data with the first private key. The server 10 may verify a hash value included in the received PDL document using the first public key.

[0041] Communication between the server 10 and the receivers 30 may be performed according to a second encryption mode which may be an asymmetric key-based encryption mode. In this case, a pair of public key and private key of the second encryption mode may be different for respective groups. Since the pair of second public key and second private key used for the second encryption mode is set identically for one group, the pair of second public key and second private key may be generated after the server 10 receives the request for generation of the group from the sender 20. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5A, after the server 10 receives the request for generation of the group from the sender 20 in operation S103, the pair of the second public key and second private key may be generated by the server 10 in operation S104. In an example, the order of operation S104 and operation S105 may be changed.

[0042] The second private key used for the second encryption mode may be held by the server 10, and the second public key used for the second encryption mode may be transmitted to the receivers 30 belonging to the group. For example, after operation S105, the server 10 may transmit the second public key to the receivers 30 in operation S106.

[0043] When the server 10 communicates with the receivers 30 according to the second encryption mode, the server 10 may add into a PDL document the data included in the PDL document transmitted from the sender 20 and a checksum (e.g., MessageDigest) for verifying whether an original document has been altered, and transmit the PDL document to the receiver 30 as illustrated in FIG. 7. The checksum may be generated by encrypting and hashing the corresponding data with the second private key. The receiver 30 may verify a hash value included in the received PDL document using the second public key. [0044] Hereinafter, an example process in which the server 10 generates and stores a data structure for the group in response to the server 10 receiving the request for generation of the group from the sender 20 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10.

[0045] As illustrated in FIG. 8, the data structure for the group may include a table 70 storing information about a group(s) generated by each sender 20. For example, the table 70 shows that a sender S1 among the senders 20 generates groups named “CLASS A” and “CLASS B,” a sender S2 among the senders 20 generates a group named “CLASS C,” and a sender S3 among the senders 20 generates a group named “Project A.” When one of the senders 20 transmits to the server 10 a request for generation of a new group, the server 10 may add the new group for the corresponding sender into the table 70. The data structure in the form of the table 70 illustrated in FIG. 8 is an example, and the data structure for storing information about a group generated for each sender 20 is not limited to the form of the table.

[0046] As illustrated in FIG. 9, the data structure for the group may include a table 80 storing a pair of second private key and second public key corresponding to each group. As described above, the pair of public key and private key used for the second encryption mode may be different for respective groups. Therefore, as shown in the table 80, the pair of second private key and second public key may be classified and stored for each group. The second private key may be held only by the server 10, and the second public key may be shared with all receivers 30 belonging to the group. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, the receivers 30 belonging to a group named “CLASS A” generated by a sender S1 among the senders 20 may share a public key, “key-CA-PK,” and the receivers 30 belonging to a group named “CLASS B” generated by the sender S1 may share a public key, “key-CB-PK.” Since the server 10 only needs to manage one asymmetric key pair for one group including multiple receivers 30, the data structure may be managed more efficiently as compared to the case of managing a different asymmetric key pair for each receiver 30. The data structure in the form of the table 80 illustrated in FIG. 9 is an example, and the data structure for storing information about the group generated for each sender 20 is not limited to the form of the table.

[0047] As illustrated in FIG. 10, the data structure for the group may include the table 70 for storing information about a group generated for each sender 20, and a table 90 storing a pair of second public/private key and contact information (e.g., an e-mail address, a mobile phone number, etc.) of receivers 30 corresponding to each group. The contact information of the receiver 30 may be used to notify the receiver 30 of a path so that the receiver 30 can access the public key of the second encryption mode via the path. For example, when the contact information stored in the data structure is an e-mail address (e.g., an e- mail address of a receiver R1 , R2, R5, or R7), the receiver 30 may be notified of the path through an e-mail 34 as illustrated in FIG. 11. Alternatively, when the contact information stored in the data structure is a mobile phone number (e.g., a mobile phone number of a receiver R3, R4, R6, or R8), the receiver 30 may be notified of the path through a message service of a mobile phone 35, as illustrated in FIG. 11. The e-mail address and the mobile phone number are examples of the contact information and different types of contact information may also be used. Contact information through which the server 10 will notify the receiver 30 may be selected by the sender 20 in the process of adding the receiver 30 to the group. [0048] The path which is provided by the server 10 to the receiver 30 may allow the receiver 30 to access the public key of the second encryption mode only for a predetermined preset time. Since the path for accessing the public key of the second encryption mode can be accessed by the receiver 30 only for the preset time, security for the key can be enhanced.

[0049] The server 10 may notify the receiver 30 of the path for accessing the public key of the second encryption mode immediately after the group is generated, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5B. Alternatively, the server 10 may notify the receiver 30 of the path when the image forming job is performed for a first time on the corresponding group instead of notifying the receiver 30 immediately after the group is generated. In other examples, a time of the notification may vary depending on an implementation.

[0050] The server 10 may transmit the second public key used in the second encryption mode to the receiver 30 directly. Alternatively, in order to enhance security, the server 10 may transmit the path for accessing the second public key to the receiver 30 such that the receiver 30 can access the second public key through the path. Here, the path may include an address path such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or include a path using a scanning method, such as a Quick Response (QR) code.

[0051] Hereinafter, a series of example processes including a process in which a server 10 receives image forming jobs related to a group from a sender 20, a process in which the server 10 adds information about the image forming job to a data structure for the group, and a process in which the server 10 allows receivers 30 belonging to the group to perform the image forming jobs using an image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 4, 5A, 5B and 12 to 17.

[0052] A process in which the server 10 receives the image forming job related to the group from the sender 20 may be performed as a single operation or may be performed in a plurality of operations (e.g., operations S107 and S108), as illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 5B.

[0053] The sender 20 may select a group so that the receiver 30 belonging to the selected group can perform an image forming job in operation S107. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, the sender 20 may select a remote pull print as the image forming job and select “CLASS A” as a group for performing the image forming job.

[0054] When the sender 20 selects a group so that the receiver 30 belonging to the selected group can perform the image forming job, a terminal driver included in a transmitting device associated with the sender 20 may generate the image forming job and transmit the image forming job to the server 10 in operation S108. In this case, the image forming job may be generated as a PDL document and transmitted to the server 10. The PDL document may include information about the group selected by the sender 20 as information about the receiver 30. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 13, the PDL document may include information indicating a group such as @PJL SET RECEIVER=“CLASS A, CLASS B.” Further, the PDL document may include signature information (e.g., MessageDigest) generated by hashing data to be transmitted with the first private key used by the sender 20. The server 10 may verify the signature information using the first public key.

[0055] The server 10 may perform an operation of managing the image forming job for each group by adding the information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group in operation S109. For example, when the server 10 receives the image forming job from the sender 20, the server 10 may add information including whether the receiver 30 updates a list of image forming jobs, whether each image forming job is performed, etc. to the data structure for each of the receivers 30 belonging to the group. FIG. 14 shows an example in which there are three receivers 30 belonging to the group named “CLASS A” as R1 , R2, and R3 and there are two image forming jobs transmitted by the sender 20 as job1 and job2, the data structure may include a table structure including a data field "list" indicating whether each receiver 30 requests the list of image forming jobs and data fields "job1" and "job2" indicating whether each image forming job has been performed. The data structure in the form of the table illustrated in FIG. 14 is an example, and implementation of the data structure is not limited to the form of the table.

[0056] The server 10 may allow at least one receiver 30 belonging to the group to perform the image forming job using the image forming apparatus. The process in which the server 10 allows at least one receiver 30 belonging to the group to perform the image forming job using the image forming apparatus may be performed as a single operation or may be performed as a plurality of operations (e.g., operations S110 to S116) as illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 5B.

[0057] After the sender 20 transmits to the server 10 a certain image forming job for the group to which the receiver 30 belongs, the second public key may be registered to the image forming apparatus so that the image forming job may be performed through the image forming apparatus associated with the receiver 30 in operation S110. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 15, the receiver 30 may select, through a user interface of the image forming apparatus, “Remote Pull Printing,” “Configuration,” and “Upload Security key,” to register the second public key to the image forming apparatus via a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) method, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) method, or a URL or QR scanning method.

[0058] As illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5B, and 16, an image forming apparatus 36 associated with the receiver 30 may send a request for the list of image forming jobs to the server 10 by encrypting the request on the basis of the second public key in operation S111. In response to the request, the server 10 verifies the request from the image forming apparatus 36 using the second private key, encrypts the requested list of image forming jobs with the second private key, and transmits the encrypted list of image forming jobs to the image forming apparatus 36 in operation S112.

[0059] Through the user interface of the image forming apparatus 36 associated with the receiver 30, the receiver 30 may identify the list of image forming jobs and select a desired job from the jobs included in the list in operation S113.

[0060] In response to the selection of the image forming job by the receiver 30, the image forming apparatus 36 may transmit a request for the selected image forming job to the server 10 through encrypted communication based on the second public key in operation S114.

[0061] After the server 10 verifies the request from the image forming job with the second private key, the server 10 may encrypt the image forming job with the second private key and transmit the encrypted image forming job to the image forming apparatus 36 in operation S115.

[0062] The image forming apparatus 36 may decrypt the received encrypted image forming job with the second public key and perform the decrypted image forming job so that the receiver 30 can take printed matter output from the image forming apparatus 36 in operation S116.

[0063] After a series of operations shown through operations S 111 to S 116 are performed based on a certain receiver 30, the server 10 may update the data structure for the receiver 30. For example, as shown in the data structure in the form of the table illustrated in FIG. 17, the server 10 may update the data structure to indicate that a receiver R1 among receivers 30 does not update a list of image forming jobs, a receiver R2 among the receivers 30 updates the list of image forming jobs and performs both of the image forming jobs corresponding to job1 and job2, and a receiver R3 among the receivers 30 updates the list of image forming jobs but performs only the image forming job corresponding to job2. The sender 20 may request information based on the data structure from the server 10 to check the status of the image forming job(s) associated with each receiver 30 belonging to the group.

[0064] Each example operation included in the above-described method may be implemented through a computer program programmed to execute each operation, where the computer program may be stored in a computer-readable recording medium and may be executed by a processor (e.g., a processor of the server 10).

[0065] FIG. 18 illustrates a computer-readable recording medium including instructions to perform a method according to an example.

[0066] Referring to FIG. 18, a computer-readable recording medium 100 may include a computer program 110 stored thereon. The computer program 110 may include instructions for operations as in the example method described above. For example, the computer program 110 may include instructions S11 to receive a request for generation of a group including at least one receiver from a sender, instructions S12 to generate and store a data structure for the group including the at least one receiver in response to the request, instructions S13 to receive an image forming job related to the group from the sender, instructions S14 to add information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group, and instructions S15 to allow at least one receiver belonging to the group to perform the image forming job using an image forming apparatus.

[0067] FIG. 19 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating a server according to an example.

[0068] Referring to FIG. 19, the server 10 may include a communication unit 12, a memory 13, and a processor 14. The communication unit 12 may communicate with a transmitting device associated with the sender 20, a receiving device associated with the receiver 30, and an image forming apparatus associated with the receiver 30. The memory 13 may store a data structure for a group including at least one receiver 30 generated by the sender 20. When the processor 14 receives an image forming job related to the group from the transmitting device, the processor 14 may add information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group and allow the receiver 30 to perform the image forming job using the image forming apparatus. In various examples, a component contained in the server 10 may cooperate with another component to perform the above-described example operations performed by the server 10. [0069] Referring again to FIG. 18, the computer-readable storage medium 100 may be a non-transitory readable medium. The term “non-transitory readable medium” as used herein refers to a medium that is capable of semi-permanently storing data and is readable by an apparatus, rather than a medium, e.g., a register, a cache, a volatile memory device, etc., that temporarily stores data. For example, the foregoing program instructions may be stored and provided in a CD, a DVD, a hard disk, a Blu-ray disc, a USB, a memory card, a ROM device, or any of other type of non-transitory readable media.

[0070] In an example, the methodology disclosed herein may be incorporated into a computer program product. The computer program product may be available as a product for trading between a seller and a buyer. The computer program product may be distributed in the form of a machine-readable storage medium, e.g., compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), or distributed online through an application store, e.g., PlayStore™. For online distribution, at least a portion of the computer program product may be temporarily stored, or temporarily created, in a storage medium such as a server of the manufacturer, a server of the application store, or a storage medium such as a memory of a relay server.

[0071] The foregoing description has been presented to illustrate and describe some examples. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. In various examples, suitable results may be achieved if the above-described techniques are performed in a different order, and/or if some of the components of the above-described systems, architectures, devices, circuits, and the like are coupled or combined in a different manner, or substituted for or replaced by other components or equivalents thereof. [0072] Therefore, the scope of the disclosure is not to be limited to the precise form disclosed, but rather defined by the following claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1 . A method performed by a server, the method comprising: receiving a request for generation of a group including at least one receiver from a sender; generating and storing a data structure for the group including the at least one receiver in response to the request; receiving an image forming job related to the group from the sender; adding information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group; and allowing the at least one receiver belonging to the group to perform the image forming job using an image forming apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the server communicates with the sender according to a first encryption mode, and wherein the server communicates with the at least one receiver according to a second encryption mode.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second encryption mode is an asymmetric key-based encryption mode, and wherein a pair of public key and private key of the second encryption mode is different for respective groups.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data structure for the group including the at least one receiver includes contact information of the at least one receiver, and wherein the method further comprises, after the generating and storing of the data structure for the group including the at least one receiver, notifying the at least one receiver of a path for accessing the public key of the second encryption mode through the contact information of the at least one receiver.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the path allows the at least one receiver to access the public key of the second encryption mode for a preset time.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data structure for the group includes information indicating whether the image forming job has been performed by each receiver belonging to the group.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data structure for the group includes information indicating whether a list of image forming jobs has been requested by each receiver belonging to the group.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium in which a computer program of a method performed by a server is stored, the non-transitory computer-readable recording medium comprising: instructions to receive a request for generation of a group including at least one receiver from a sender; instructions to generate and store a data structure for the group including the at least one receiver in response to the request; instructions to receive an image forming job related to the group from the sender; instructions to add information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group; and instructions to allow the at least one receiver belonging to the group to perform the image forming job using an image forming apparatus.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 8, further comprising: instructions to communicate with the sender according to a first encryption mode, and instructions to communicate with the at least one receiver according to a second encryption mode. 19

10. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 9, wherein the second encryption mode is an asymmetric key-based encryption mode, and wherein a pair of public key and private key of the second encryption mode is different for respective groups.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim

10, wherein the data structure for the group including the at least one receiver includes contact information of the at least one receiver, and wherein the non-transitory computer-readable recording medium further comprises instructions to, after performing the instructions to generate and store the data structure for the group including the at least one receiver, notify the at least one receiver of a path for accessing the public key of the second encryption mode through the contact information of the at least one receiver.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim

11 , wherein the path allows the at least one receiver to access the public key of the second encryption mode for a preset time.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 8, wherein the data structure for the group includes information indicating whether the image forming job has been performed by each receiver belonging to the group.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 8, wherein the data structure for the group includes information indicating whether a list of image forming jobs has been requested by each receiver belonging to the group.

15. A server comprising: 20 a communication unit to communicate with a transmitting device associated with a sender, a receiving device associated with a receiver, and an image forming apparatus associated with the receiver; a memory to store a data structure for a group including at least one receiver generated by the sender; and a processor to: when receiving an image forming job related to the group from the transmitting device, add information about the image forming job to the data structure for the group, and allow the at least one receiver to perform the image forming job using the image forming apparatus.