JP2000200170A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide a print system capable of performing printing on a network reliably and easily. SOLUTION: A plurality of print apparatuses 3, a print client apparatus 1 for creating print data, a user name, and a print apparatus name registered for each user name are recorded, and print data from the print client apparatus 1 is recorded. And a print server device 2 for transferring print data to a printer device registered with the user name specified by the user.
Registered the user name set in the paper discharge bin provided in the printer device, and the printing device to which the print data was transferred from the printer server device was registered with the user name specified by the print client device. By discharging the printed paper to the discharge bin, printing on the network can be reliably performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system for connecting an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine to a network, and for efficiently, simply and reliably printing on these apparatuses.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, networking has been carried out as a matter of course, and many printers are connected to a network and commonly used as one of network resources. However, in such an environment, it is necessary to know the configuration of the printers connected to the network, and it is difficult to determine which printer is appropriate at the time of printing. And so on. In addition, there is a problem that the print result is mixed with another person's print result and lost, or confidentiality is completely lost.

As a first conventional example having a technical field similar to that of the present invention, there is a network control apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H08-123641. The network control device transmits a document to a plurality of destinations, prints the document on a device designated as a printing device of the transmission destination, and distributes the document. And a notifying unit for notifying the transmission destination of the document delivery information in synchronization with the printing unit and the printed matter unit.

Further, as a second conventional example having a technical field similar to that of the present invention, there is a print data transfer method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-224837. This print data transfer method includes a name service device that performs at least a name service by registering management attribute information for each user, a printer device that can receive and print out data, and a data that can transmit and process data to be printed. In a system in which a processing device is connected to a network, a name service device registers information on a printer device for each user name as management attribute information,
The data processing device is characterized in that a printer device designated by the user name is inquired of the name service device in response to a data transmission instruction by the user name, and the data is transmitted to the printer device of the inquiry result.

[0005]

However, since printing is performed by directly specifying an output printer from a client device, it is appropriate to output to any printer in consideration of a case where a plurality of printers are connected to a network. It is not clear which printer was used when printing, or the output printer is shared by multiple users, and the print results are mixed. There was the problem of going somewhere with the thing.

In the apparatuses of the first and second prior arts described above, it is not necessary to keep track of the information of each output printer by performing printing by designating a printing destination user name. However, the designation of the output destination is a printer to the last, and in a situation where the printer is shared by a plurality of users, various problems due to the mixed print results cannot be solved.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a print system capable of discharging paper to a paper discharge bin desired by a printing destination user and also ensuring simple confidentiality. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a printing system according to the present invention comprises a plurality of printing apparatuses, a printing client apparatus for creating print data, a user name, and registration for each user name. And a print server device having first storage means for storing the registered printing device name and transferring the print data to a printer device registered with a user name designated by the print data from the print client device. A printing system connected to a network, wherein the plurality of printing apparatuses have a second storage unit in which a user name set in an output bin provided in the printing apparatus is registered, and a plurality of printing apparatuses print from a print server apparatus. The printing device to which the data was transferred requires the printed client to discharge the printed paper to the output bin registered with the user name specified by the print client device. And butterflies.

The above-mentioned second storage means discharges the paper when the output cannot be made to the paper discharge bin registered with the user name specified by the print data from the print client device. The setting of the next candidate discharge bin provided in the same printing apparatus as the discharge bin is registered.

In the above-described print system, a desired discharge priority of a discharge bin is set for each user name from the discharge bins of all printers on the network, and the priority can be assigned. The storage bins of the printer device having the output bins in which the priority order is set and the priority order are stored in the second storage means, and the print server device is connected to all the printing devices connected to the network. With reference to the output bin priority information included in the print bin, the output bin set with the highest priority is selected from the output bins registered with the user name specified in the print data from the print client device. The print data is transferred to a printer device having the same.

The above-mentioned second storage means stores the output of another printer device when the paper cannot be discharged to the paper discharge bin registered with the user name specified by the print data from the print client device. The printer device stores discharge bin information, and transfers print data from a print server device to another printer device when printing cannot be continued.

The above print server device has input means for setting the priority order of the discharge bins, and refers to the priority order information set for the discharge bins of all the printing devices connected to the network, When the same priority is input with the same user name by the input means, this input is not accepted.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the printing system according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG.
FIG. 13 to FIG. 13 show an embodiment of the printing system of the present invention.

First, the configuration of an embodiment according to the print system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment according to the present invention includes a print client device 1, a print server device 2, and a plurality of printer devices 3 including a front-end PC 4 and a printer 5 on a network. Be composed.

Next, the functional units provided in the print client device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the print client device 1 includes a print destination user name list acquisition unit 6, a print data creation unit 7, a print destination user name designation unit 8, and a print data transfer unit 9. ing.

The print destination user name list obtaining unit 6 obtains a print destination user name list from the print server device 2.
The print data creation unit 7 creates print data to be output by the printer device 3. The print destination user name designation unit 8 displays a dialog for allowing the printer to select a print destination user name based on the print destination user name list acquired by the print destination user name acquisition unit 6. The print data transfer unit transfers the print data created by the print data creation unit 7 to the print server device 2.

Next, functional units provided in the print server device 2 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the print server device 2 includes a print destination user name management unit 10, a print data reception unit 11, a printer status inquiry unit 12, and a print destination user name list transmission unit 13.
, A print data storage unit 14, and a discharge bin information inquiry unit 15
And a target printer addition / deletion unit 16, a print data transfer unit 17, and a discharge bin information setting request unit 18.

The printing destination user name management unit 10 manages printing destination user name information. Printing destination user name list transmission unit 13
Transfers the print destination user name information managed by the print destination user name management unit 10 to the print client device. The print data receiving unit 11 receives print data sent from the print client device 1. Print data storage unit 14
Accumulates the print data received by the print data receiving unit 11. The print data transfer unit 17 transfers the print data to the printer device set in the print destination user name information in the print data. The printer status inquiry unit 12 acquires the operating status of the printer device set to the specified user name. The discharge bin information inquiry unit 15 acquires discharge bin information for all printers set in the print destination user name management information. The discharge bin information setting request unit 18 outputs a request to change the discharge bin information to the printer device.

Next, referring to FIG.
A description will be given of the functional units provided in. As shown in FIG. 4, the printer device 3 includes a discharge bin information management unit 19.
And a response unit 20 for a paper output bin information inquiry, a printer status inquiry response unit 21, and a printer status inquiry unit 22.
, Print data receiving unit 23, print data storage unit 24
And a print data transfer unit 25.

The paper discharge bin information management unit 19 stores which print destination user the paper discharge bin provided in the printer device is assigned to. When the response unit 20 for the output bin information inquiry receives the output bin information inquiry request, the response unit 20 transmits the output bin information managed by the output bin information management unit 19 to the request source. When print data is received by the print server device 2 but printing cannot be performed, the printer status inquiry unit 22 acquires the operation status of another printer device. The printer status inquiry response unit 21 transmits the operation status of its own printer to the request output source in response to the printer status inquiry request. The print data receiving unit 23 receives the print data sent from the print server device 2. The print data storage unit 24 stores the print data received by the print data receiving unit 23. The print data transfer unit 25 transfers the print data stored in the print data storage unit 24 to another printer.

The printing system having the above configuration automatically outputs to the next candidate discharge bin of the same printer when the output cannot be continuously performed to the specified discharge bin due to an error such as a discharge bin full. It is characterized by.

Further, even when the designated printing destination user uses the discharge bins of a plurality of printers on the network, the output is automatically performed to the discharge bin having the highest priority among the bins. It is characterized by.

Further, when the printer during printing cannot continue printing due to a paper jam or the like, the print data is transferred to another printer to complete the printing normally. I have.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that control is performed such that the same priority is not set to the discharge bin of the printer device on the network under the same user name.

The processing operation up to printing by the printing system having the above configuration will be described with reference to the sequence diagram shown in FIG. First, a print operation is started in the print client device 1. The print destination user name list acquisition unit 6 of the print client device 1 requests the print destination user name list from the print server device.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a print destination user name list created by the print server device. As shown in FIG. 12, the print destination user name list includes a print destination user name, a printer name used for each user name, and an address of the printer device used.

The print server device 2 creates a list of users a, b and c shown in FIG. 12 from the print destination user name management information by the print destination user name management unit. Then, the print destination user name list transmission unit 13 transmits the print destination user name list to the print client device.

The print client device that has obtained the print destination user name list displays a dialog for prompting the print user to select a print destination user name. The printer selects the user a and sends the print data to the print server device.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the print data. The print data shown in FIG. 11 includes the format of the print data, the paper size to be printed, the number of copies, the resolution of the print data, the size of the print data,
It consists of a print destination user name and print data.

The print server device 2 receives and accumulates print data, and obtains information of the user a set in the print destination user name information in the print data. This print destination user: user a is set to use the printer A in the print destination user name management information.

The print server device 2 acquires the operation status of the printer device A by the printer status inquiry unit 22. If printing is possible, the print data is transferred to the printer A. The printer device A receives the print data, and detects a discharge bin used by the user a from the discharge bin management information.

FIG. 13 shows an example of the discharge bin management information. As shown in FIG. 13, the output bin management information includes the user name set for each output bin of the printer, the priority of the output bin for the user, the printer name of the link destination, and the like. , The output bin of the link destination is registered.

The printer A detects that the discharge bin used by the user a is the first from the discharge bin management information, and outputs it to the discharge bin NO1.

Next, a processing flow in the case where an error occurs during printing and printing is continued by using an alternative discharge bin on the same printer will be described with reference to the sequence diagram shown in FIG.

The print client device designates the user name c as the print destination user name and issues a print request to the print server device. The print server performs the above-described processing and transfers print data to the printer A. As illustrated in FIG. 13, when two discharge bins used by the user b are set in the discharge bin management information of the printer device A,
The printer A is set to the output bin N for which a high priority is set.
Output to O2.

During output to the discharge bin NO2, if the output bin cannot continue to be output to the discharge bin NO2 due to paper full or the like, the printer A refers to the discharge bin management information, It is detected that the name of the printer at the link destination of the discharge bin NO2 is the printer device A and that the discharge bin at the link destination is the third. The printer A outputs to the discharge bin NO3.

Next, a processing flow in the case where an error occurs during printing and printing is continued using an alternative discharge bin on another printer will be described with reference to the sequence diagram shown in FIG. .

The print client device designates the user c as the print destination user name and makes a print request to the print server device. The print server device performs the above-described processing and sends print data to the printer device A. The printer device A receives the print data, detects that the discharge bin used by the user c is the fourth from the discharge bin management information, and outputs it to the discharge bin NO4. If a paper jam or the like occurs during the discharge to the discharge bin NO4 and printing cannot be continued, the printer A sets the discharge bin N in the discharge bin management information.
It is detected that the link destination printer name of O4 is the printer apparatus B, and the link destination discharge bin is No. 3. Printer A
Obtains the operation status of the printer B by the printer status inquiry unit. If printing is possible, the print data is transferred to the printer B, and printing is continued in the discharge bin NO3 of the printer B.

Next, a processing flow for setting the paper discharge bin information of the printer will be described with reference to a sequence diagram shown in FIG.

The print server device 2 acquires discharge bin information for all printers, printers A and B set in the print destination user name management information by the discharge bin information acquisition section. The output bin information (user name, output bin priority, etc.) for each printer is displayed on the print server device. For example, when the operator selects the discharge bin N of the printer A,
When the user name of O4 is changed to the user b and the priority is set to 2, the same user is set with a plurality of the same priorities, so the user is re-entered. This time, when the user name of the discharge bin NO4 of the printer A is changed to the user b and the priority is changed to 3, the same priority is not set for the same user name. For A, the discharge bin information is changed.

Next, the processing flow of the print client device will be described with reference to FIG.

The print client device 1 obtains a print destination user name list from the print server device by the print destination user name list obtaining unit 6 (step S1). Next, the acquired print destination user name list is displayed on the screen (step S2). Next, an input of a print destination user name is received from the operator, and a print instruction is issued (step S3). Then, print data is created (step S4), and the created print data is transferred to the print server device (step S4).
5).

Next, the processing flow of the print server device will be described with reference to FIG.

Upon receiving the print destination user name list acquisition request (step S10), the print server device 2 creates a print destination user name list and transfers it to the print client device (step S11).

When a print request is received from the print client device (step S12), print data is received.
The data is stored (step S13), and the target printer is determined from the print destination user name (step S14). Next, the output bin information of all target printers is acquired (step S15). A printer device having a discharge bin with the highest priority set based on the acquired discharge bin information is selected (step S16). Then, the operation status of the determined printer device is acquired (step S17), and it is determined whether the printer device is in a printable state (step S19). If the selected printer is in a printable state (step S19 / YES), the print data is transferred to the printer (step S20). If the selected printer is not in a printable state (step S19 / NO), the printer having the second highest priority output bin is selected based on the output bin information acquired in step S15. (Step S18).
Then, the operation status of the selected printer device is acquired (step S17). If the printer is in a printable state (step S19), the print data is transferred to the printer device (step S20).

When the print server device receives the discharge bin information setting request (step S21), it acquires the discharge bin information of all the target printers and displays the acquired discharge bin information on the screen. (Step S22). Then, the selection of the discharge bin to be changed, the input of the user name, and the input of the priority are received from the operator (step S2).
3). Then, it is determined whether or not the input priorities are the same for the same printing destination user name (step S2).
4). When the priorities overlap, the selection of the discharge bin, the user name, and the re-input of the priority from the operator are received (step S23). If the same printing destination user name does not have the same priority, the user name and priority are changed for the printer (step S25).

Next, the processing flow of the printer will be described with reference to FIG.

Upon receiving the printer status inquiry request (step S30), the printer device transmits the operating status of the printer device to the request source (step S31).

When a print request is received (step S
32), and print data is received and stored (step S3).
3) Printing is started (step S34). If the printing operation has been completed normally (step S35 / YES),
Exit this process. If the printing operation cannot be completed normally (step S35 / NO), an alternative discharge bin having the next highest priority is selected (step S3).
6). It is determined whether or not the selected alternative discharge bin belongs to the same printer (step S37). If they are of the same printer (step S37 /
YES), the output bin is changed, and reprinting is performed (step S38). If the alternative discharge bins are not from the same printer (step S37 / N).
O), the operation status of the printer having the alternative discharge bin is acquired (step S39). If the printer having the alternative discharge bin is in a printable state (step S40 / YES), the print data is transferred to the printer (step S41). If the printer having the alternative output bin is not in a printable state (step S40 / NO), the next higher priority alternative output bin is selected (step S36).

When the request for the paper discharge bin information is received (step S42), the paper discharge bin information is transmitted to the print server device (step S43).

If a paper discharge bin information setting request is received (step S44), paper discharge bottle information is set (step S45).

In the above-described embodiment, since the printing destination is specified on the print client device by the user name, it is not necessary to recognize the printer configuration on the network.
Printing can be performed reliably. In addition, the printer name displayed on the print client device does not know which printer device on the network, or when trying to print to a certain printer device, it does not know which printer name to print. Can be prevented, and wasted time for checking the printer configuration when printing can be saved.

Further, since an alternative output bin is set, even if printing cannot be performed by one printer, it is possible to automatically output to another output bin. Printing can be reliably performed without interruption of printing.

When a plurality of discharge bins used by the user are set on the network, printing can be performed on the discharge bin having the highest use priority among these. For the user, if priorities are assigned in the order of higher print speed or higher print quality, even if one of the printers is out of order, printing is performed to the optimal printer among them. Can be performed, and printing can be performed efficiently.

Further, when a plurality of paper discharge bins exist for one user on the network, if the priorities overlap, there is a possibility that print processing as expected by the user may not be performed. These troubles can be avoided by preventing the setting of the same priority.

The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, it is not limited to this.
Various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the printer device is configured by the front-end PC and the printer, but may be configured by a single printer having the function of the front-end PC in the printer.

[0057]

As is clear from the above description, in the print system of the present invention, since the designation of the print destination on the print client device is performed by the user name, it is not necessary to know the printer configuration on the network, and the print system is simple. -Printing can be performed reliably. It is possible to solve the problem that the printer name displayed on the print client device does not know which printer on the network, or when trying to print to a certain printer, it does not know which printer name to print. In this case, it is possible to save unnecessary time for checking the configuration of the printer.

Further, since an alternative output bin is set, even if printing cannot be performed by one printer, it can be output to another output bin.
Printing is prevented from being interrupted, and printing can be performed reliably.

When a plurality of output bins registered under the same user name are set on the network, printing can be performed on the output bin having the highest priority among these. Becomes For the user, if priorities are assigned in order of printing speed or printing quality, even if one of the printers is out of order,
Among them, printing can be performed on an optimal printer device, and printing can be performed efficiently.

In the case where a plurality of output bins are set for one user name on the network, if the priorities are duplicated, the printing process as expected by the user may not be performed. There is. By making it impossible to set the same priority, these troubles can be avoided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an embodiment according to a print system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print client device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print server device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the print client device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the print server device.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the printer device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a sequence example during normal printing.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a sequence example when an error occurs during printing and printing is continued by another printer.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a sequence example at the time of changing the priority of a discharge bin.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print data format.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a management information format.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a management information format.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 print client device 2 print server device 3 printer device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising: a plurality of printing apparatuses; a print client apparatus for creating print data; and first storage means for storing user names and printing apparatus names registered for each of the user names. A print server device that transfers print data to a printer device registered with a user name specified by print data from the print client device, and a print server device connected to a network, Has a second storage unit in which a user name set in a paper discharge bin provided in a printer device is registered, and a printing device to which print data is transferred from the print server device is transmitted to the print client device. A print system that discharges printed paper to a paper discharge bin registered with a designated user name. 2. The registration device according to claim 2, wherein the second storage unit discharges the paper when output to a paper discharge bin registered with a user name specified by print data from the print client device cannot be performed. 2. The print system according to claim 1, wherein the setting of the next candidate discharge bin provided in the same printing apparatus as the selected discharge bin is registered. 3. The print system sets a desired discharge bin priority of a discharge bin for each user name from the discharge bins of all printer devices existing on a network, and assigns the priority. The priority-ordered output bins and their priorities are stored in the second storage unit of the printer device having the output bins assigned thereto, and the print server device is connected to a network. By referring to the priority information of the discharge bins provided in all the printing devices, the highest priority is set among the discharge bins registered with the user name specified in the print data from the print client device. 3. The print system according to claim 1, wherein the print data is transferred to a printer having a discharged paper bin. 4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the second storage unit is configured to output another printer when the paper cannot be discharged to a paper discharge bin registered with a user name specified by print data from the print client device. The printer device stores discharge bin information of the device, wherein the printer device transfers print data from the print server device to the other printer device when print processing cannot be continued. Item 4. The print system according to any one of Items 1 to 3. 5. The print server device has input means for setting a priority order of a paper discharge bin, and refers to priority information set for the paper discharge bins of all the printing devices connected to the network. 5. The print system according to claim 3, wherein when the same priority is input with the same user name by the input unit, the input is not accepted.