JP2004122773A - Image forming apparatus and application activation restriction method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to restrict application activation based on the status of resources.
SOLUTION: In an image forming apparatus configured to be able to mount a plurality of applications, information on necessary resources required to execute a certain application and information on available resources that can be used in the image forming apparatus are acquired. An information acquisition unit that compares the information on the required resources with the information on the available resources and performs a start restriction process on the application based on a result of the comparison;
[Selection] Fig. 6

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a start restriction method for restricting the start of an application in accordance with the resource usage of an application that provides a user service for image forming processing such as copying, a printer, a scanner, and a facsimile.

In recent years, an image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “multifunction peripheral”) in which functions of respective apparatuses such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a scanner are housed in one housing is known. This multifunction peripheral includes a display unit, a printing unit, an imaging unit, and the like in a single housing, and three types of software corresponding to a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine, respectively. Is operated as a printer, copier, scanner or facsimile machine.

In such a conventional multifunction peripheral, all application programs are activated in units of functions such as a printer, a copy, a facsimile, and a scanner within a limited range of resources such as a memory. In other words, in the conventional multifunction peripheral, resources are prepared to start all the application programs, and it is not assumed that a situation occurs in which the application programs cannot be started.
JP 2002-82806 A

By the way, in such a conventional multifunction peripheral, software corresponding to a printer, a copier, a scanner, and a facsimile machine is separately provided, and therefore, it takes a lot of time to develop each software. For this reason, the applicant has an application that has hardware resources used in image forming processing such as a display unit, a printing unit, and an imaging unit and performs processing specific to each user service such as a printer, a copy or a facsimile. When providing a user service by interposing between a plurality of applications and hardware resources, management, execution control, and image forming processing of hardware resources required by at least two of the applications in common Invented an image forming apparatus (multifunction peripheral) equipped with a platform composed of various control services for performing the following.

Such a new multifunction peripheral has a configuration in which a control service for providing a service commonly required by at least two of the applications is provided separately from the application. The size of the application program is smaller than that of the application program to be started, and the application is frequently started and terminated.

Therefore, the usage status of resources such as a memory installed in the multifunction peripheral frequently changes, and it may occur that all applications cannot be activated. Even if the application is started in such a situation, there is a problem that the application is terminated improperly and the operation of the multifunction peripheral becomes unstable.

In addition, since such a new multi-function device is provided with an application and a control service separately, a user or a third party as a third party can develop a new application and mount it on the multi-function device after shipment of the multi-function device. It has a configuration. For this reason, in addition to the applications specific to image forming apparatuses such as copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile that are installed at the time of shipment, there are many new applications developed by users or third vendors that are different from conventional MFPs. It can be started. As described above, specific applications provided in advance in a multifunction peripheral, such as a copy machine, a printer, a facsimile, and a scanner, are being developed with limited resources in mind. On the other hand, in the case of a new application developed by a third party, the development is not necessarily performed by the developing vendor in consideration of resources. Therefore, when a new application whose resource usage is unknown is started, the operation of the MFP is likely to be unstable, and the resource used by the application exceeds the remaining resource available in the MFP. In this case, there is a new problem that the operation of the multifunction peripheral is stopped due to a shortage of resources, which is not a problem in the conventional multifunction peripheral.
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is possible to restrict the start of an application based on information on the amount of resources available in the image forming apparatus and the amount of resources required by the application to be started. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that performs

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in an image forming apparatus configured to be able to mount a plurality of applications, information on necessary resources required to execute a certain application and the image forming apparatus Information obtaining means for obtaining information on available resources that can be used in step (a), and starting restriction for comparing the information on the required resources with the information on the available resources and performing a start restriction process on the application based on a result of the comparison. Means.

According to the present invention, the start-restriction process is performed by comparing the required resource information with the available resource information, so that it is possible to prevent the application from being started even though the resources are insufficient, and to perform image formation. The stability of the system of the device can be improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the information acquiring means acquires necessary resource information included in an execution file of the application. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the information acquisition means acquires the necessary resource information by temporarily activating the application.

According to the present invention, required resource information included in an executable file when an application is created can be obtained.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the information acquiring means acquires, as the required resource information, a result value of a resource amount used when the application is executed.
According to the present invention, since the actual value is acquired, it is possible to acquire accurate information on the required resources.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, the information obtaining means obtains the actual value from system information holding information on resources used by the process.

According to the present invention, accurate required resource information can be obtained.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the information acquiring unit acquires a memory area capacity used by the application as the information of the required resource. is there.

According to the present invention, it is possible to check whether the memory area is insufficient.

The invention described in claim 7 is based on claim 6, wherein the memory area capacity is a heap area capacity.

According to the present invention, it is possible to check whether the heap area is insufficient.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the activation restricting means displays a ratio of the required resources to the available resources on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus.

According to the present invention, the user can grasp the ratio of the resource amount used by the application to be activated to the available resource amount.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the activation restriction unit is configured to execute the activation restriction processing when the amount of the required resource exceeds the amount of the available resource. A warning is displayed on the operation panel. ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, a user can know resource shortage.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the ninth aspect, the activation restricting unit is configured to allow the application to use a resource different from the available resource in place of the available resource. Causes the application to use the different resource.

According to the present invention, even when a certain resource is insufficient, an application can be executed by using another resource.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the required resource is a device used by the application, and the activation restricting unit determines whether the device is not provided in the image forming apparatus. , And performs the above-described activation restriction processing.

According to the present invention, for example, when an application using the ADF is to be started on an image forming apparatus without the ADF, the start restriction process can be performed.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the first to eleventh aspects, a hardware resource used in the image forming process, a control service for controlling the hardware resource, and a client process using the control service as a server are provided. A virtual application service that operates and operates as a server process using the application as a client. According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the twelfth aspect, the virtual application service includes the information acquisition unit and the activation restriction unit.

The invention according to claims 14 to 26 is an invention of a method suitable for the image forming apparatus, and the inventions of claims 27 and 28 are inventions of a program and a recording medium suitable for the image forming apparatus. It is. According to these inventions, the same operation and effect as the above-described invention of the image forming apparatus can be obtained.

According to the present invention, the start-restriction process is performed by comparing the required resource information with the available resource information, so that it is possible to prevent the application from being started even though the resources are insufficient, and to perform image formation. The stability of the system of the device can be improved.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an image forming apparatus and an application start restriction method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “multifunction peripheral”) according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the multifunction peripheral 100 includes a monochrome laser printer (B & W LP) 101, a color laser printer (Color LP) 102, and hardware resources 103 such as a scanner, a facsimile, a hard disk, a memory, and a network interface. In addition, a software group 110 including a platform 120, an application (hereinafter, also referred to as an application) 130, and a virtual application service (VAS: Virtual Application Service) 140 is provided.

(4) In the case of a general personal computer, if many applications are sequentially started, there is a possibility that a resource shortage occurs and a stall occurs. On the other hand, in the case of a multifunction peripheral according to the present invention, applications such as a copy, a printer, a scanner, and a facsimile unique to the multifunction peripheral that are installed in the multifunction peripheral in advance are not stalled and cannot be used.

However, in the case of a multifunction device that can install a new application developed by a user or a third-party vendor, if multiple applications are set to start and a new application is set to start, resources may be insufficient. Can be

起動 The startup setting is to set the installed application to start when the MFP is turned on. That is, in the multifunction peripheral of the present embodiment, the application is not activated only by installing the application, but the activation setting must be performed to activate the application. Note that, by setting the activation, information indicating that the application is activated is stored in the storage device of the multifunction peripheral. Then, when the power is turned on, the information is referred to and the application is started.

複合 In addition, it is also possible to configure the multifunction peripheral so that the application can be started at any time without using the method of the start setting.

The virtual application service (VAS) 140 in the multifunction peripheral 100 is arranged between the application 130 and the platform 120. The VAS 140 acquires scheduled resource information (also referred to as required resource information) relating to the amount of resource used by the application from, for example, the application, and generates a resource usage information file on the hard disk (HD) (HD200 in FIG. 2 described later). ). The resource information to be acquired includes a text memory area size secured in the memory, a heap area size, and a stack area size. Here, the text memory area is a memory area in which a program of each application is loaded. The heap area is a memory area dynamically allocated by each application. The stack area is an area reserved for storing arguments used when each application is executed or when each application calls an internal module.

(4) When acquiring the amount of resources to be used from an application, include information on resources used by the application in the application's executable file when developing the application. Then, the VAS 140 obtains information on resources from the application through inter-process communication by temporarily starting the application, which will be described later.

Also, by recording information on resources used by the application in a file separate from the application, the VAS 140 can acquire the scheduled resource amount by referring to the file.

If the application has actually been executed on a multifunction peripheral, the resource amount required by the application can be acquired by acquiring the resource usage result value of the application.

{Circle around (4)} The VAS 140 acquires a resource amount that can be used by the MFP from the resource usage of the application and the system program that has already been set to start and the total resource amount of the MFP. As the resource usage of the application and the system program that have already been set to be activated, for example, an actual value recorded in the multifunction peripheral when these programs are executed by the multifunction peripheral can be used. Alternatively, the resource usage of the application and the system program which have already been set to be started may be recorded in a resource usage information file, and this may be referred to. By subtracting this resource usage amount from the total resource amount of the multifunction peripheral, it is possible to determine the amount of resources that can be used by the multifunction peripheral.

{Circle around (5)} Then, the VAS 140 compares the scheduled resource amount of the application with the resource amount available for the MFP at the time of the activation setting for the application. If the resources are insufficient, the activation is restricted. That is, no activation setting is made. In addition to not setting the activation, if the application has the restricted start mode, the setting is performed so that the application is activated in the restricted start mode. Note that the restricted start mode is, for example, a mode in which, when the memory area is insufficient, the hard disk is used instead of the memory to execute.

{Circle around (4)} As described above, it is also possible that the VAS 140 performs a resource check and restricts startup when the startup-set application starts up, not at startup.

The platform 120 interprets a processing request from an application to generate a hardware resource acquisition request, and a system resource manager that manages one or more hardware resources and arbitrates the acquisition request from the control service. (SRM) 123 and a general-purpose OS 121.

The control service is formed from a plurality of service modules, and includes an SCS (system control service) 122, an ECS (engine control service) 124, an MCS (memory control service) 125, an OCS (operation panel control service) 126, and an FCS. (Fax control service) 127 and NCS (network control service) 128. Note that the platform 120 has an application program interface (API) that enables a processing request from the application 130 to be received by a predefined function.

The general-purpose OS 121 is a general-purpose operating system such as UNIX (registered trademark), and executes each software of the platform 120 and the application 130 in parallel as a process.

The process of the SRM 123 controls the system and manages resources together with the SCS 122. The process of the SRM 123 uses hardware resources such as an engine such as a scanner unit and a printer unit, a memory, an HDD file, and host I / O (centro I / F, network I / F, IEEE 1394 I / F, RS232C I / F, etc.). Arbitration is performed according to a request from the upper layer to be used, and execution is controlled.

Specifically, the SRM 123 determines whether the requested hardware resource is available (whether the requested hardware resource is not used by another request), and if it is available, the requested hardware resource is used. Inform the upper layer that it is possible. The SRM 123 also schedules use of hardware resources in response to a request from an upper layer, and directly implements the contents of the request (for example, paper transport and image forming operation, memory reservation, file generation, and the like by a printer engine). .

The SCS 122 process performs application management, operation unit control, system screen display, LED display, resource management, interrupt application control, and the like.

The process of the ECS 124 controls an engine of a hardware resource 103 including a monochrome laser printer (B & W LP) 101, a color laser printer (Color LP) 102, a scanner, a facsimile, and the like.

The MCS 125 process acquires and releases an image memory, uses a hard disk drive (HDD), and compresses and expands image data.

The process of the FCS 127 includes facsimile transmission / reception using PSTN / ISDN from each application layer of the system controller, registration / quotation of various facsimile data managed by BKM (backup SRAM), facsimile reading, facsimile reception printing, fusion transmission / reception. Provides an API to do so.

The process of the NCS 128 is a process for providing a service that can be used in common to applications requiring network I / O, and distributes data received from the network according to each protocol to each application, or distributes data from the application to the data. Mediation when sending to the network side. Specifically, it has server daemons such as ftpd, httpd, lpd, snmpd, telnetd, and smtpd, and a client function of the same protocol.

The process of the OCS 126 controls an operation panel (operation panel) serving as information transmission means between an operator (user) and main body control. The OCS 126 obtains a key press from the operation panel as a key event, and transmits a key event function corresponding to the obtained key to the SCS 122, and displays various screens on the operation panel in response to a request from the application 130 or the control service. A drawing function for drawing and outputting, a function for controlling the operation panel, and the like are configured from a part of the OCS library registered in advance. This OCS library is implemented by being linked to each module of the application 130 and the control service. Note that all of the OCS 126 may be configured to operate as a process, or all of the OCS 126 may be configured as an OCS library.

The application 130 includes a printer application 111 that is a printer application having a page description language (PDL), PCL, and PostScript (PS), a copy application 112 that is a copy application, and a fax application 113 that is a facsimile application. , A scanner application 114 as a scanner application, a network file application 115 as a network file application, and a process inspection application 116 as a process inspection application. Each of these applications is an application specific to the multifunction peripheral (specific to the image forming apparatus), and transmits an application registration request message together with the process ID of its own process to the VAS 140 at the time of startup. A registration process for the activated application is performed.

Each process of the application 130 and each process of the control service realize user services related to image forming processing such as copy, printer, scanner, and facsimile while performing inter-process communication by transmitting a function call, transmitting a return value thereof, and transmitting and receiving a message. are doing.

As described above, in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, there are a plurality of applications 130 and a plurality of control services, all of which operate as processes. Then, one or a plurality of threads are generated inside each of these processes, and the threads are executed in parallel. Then, the control service provides a common service to the application 130. For this reason, these many processes perform parallel operation and thread parallel operation, perform inter-process communication with each other, and perform cooperative operation. User services related to image forming processes such as copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile are provided. In addition, the MFP 100 allows a third party such as a third vendor to develop and install new applications 117 and 118 in the application layer above the control service layer. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the new applications 117 and 118 are mounted. The new applications 117 and 118 correspond to applications other than the application unique to the multifunction peripheral.

In the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, a plurality of processes of the application 130 and a plurality of processes of the control service are operating, but the application 130 and the control service process each have a single configuration. Is also possible. Further, each application 130 can be added or deleted for each application.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a hardware configuration of the multifunction peripheral 100.

The multifunction peripheral 100 includes a controller 160, an operation panel 175, a fax control unit (FCU) 176, and an engine unit 177 that is a hardware resource specific to image forming processing such as a printer. The controller 160 includes a CPU 161, a system memory 162, a north bridge (NB) 163, a south bridge (SB) 164, an ASIC 166, a local memory 167, a HDD 168, a network interface card (NIC) 169, and an SD card. , A USB device 171, an IEEE 1394 device 172, and a Centronics 173. Note that the memories 162 and 167 include a RAM, a ROM, and the like. The FCU 176 and the engine unit 177 are connected to the ASIC 166 of the controller 160 via a PCI bus 178.

(4) The CPU 161 reads out a program such as an application and a control service installed in the multifunction peripheral 100 from the memory and executes the program.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the VAS 140 of the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment and a relationship between the VAS 140, each application, the control service layer 150, and the general-purpose OS 121.

In the process of the virtual application service (VAS) 140, a dispatcher 144, a control thread 143, a resource use information acquisition thread 141, and an application activation restriction thread 142 as an application activation restriction unit operate.

The dispatcher 144 monitors the reception of a message from the application 130 or the control service, and issues a processing request to the control thread 143, the resource use information acquisition thread 141, and the application start restriction thread 142 according to the received message.

In the case where the application is activated, in the MFP 100 of the first embodiment, when the dispatcher 144 receives the application activation request message from the control service, the dispatcher 144 transmits the received application activation request message to the control thread 143, and the control thread 143 Sends a processing request to the resource use information acquisition thread 141 and the application activation restriction thread 142 from the.

Also, in the start setting scene, for example, the dispatcher 144 sends a processing request message to the control thread 143, and makes a processing request from the control thread 143 to the resource use information acquisition thread 141 and the application start restriction thread 142.

The control thread 143 receives the processing request message from the dispatcher 144, and performs the resource use information acquisition processing and the application start restriction processing. Here, the application start restriction process does not always limit the application start, but also includes a case where the application is started in a limited manner according to the resource usage of the started application.

Further, the control thread 143 refers to the resource usage information file 201 stored in the HD 200 to determine whether or not there is an application in which the resource usage information regarding the resource usage is not recorded in the installed applications. it can. Then, the control thread 143 acquires the resource use information from the resource use information acquisition thread and transmits the resource use information to the application activation restriction thread 142. Note that the application activation restriction thread 142 may refer to the resource usage information file 201. In the application start restriction thread 142, available resource amount information excluding the resources used by the application that has already been set to be started from the total resource amount of the MFP, and the new application to be started or set to be started are Comparing the scheduled use resource amount with the planned use resource amount, if the planned use resource amount exceeds the available resource amount, a start restriction process is performed.

Upon receiving the processing request from the control thread 143, the resource usage information acquisition thread 141 refers to the proc structure 211 (or u area 212) on the RAM 210 managed by the general-purpose OS 121, and executes the text used by the application to be started. The memory area size, the heap area size, and the stack area size are acquired, and are generated in the hard disk (HD) 200 as the resource use information file 201. Such resource usage information is recorded as a record for each application. Further, as described above, the resource use information acquisition thread 141 may acquire the scheduled use resource information of the application included in the execution file of the application and record it in the resource use information file 201.

The resource use information acquisition thread 141 can also acquire from the proc structure 211 the resource amount used by the current process, which is necessary to calculate the available resource amount in the MFP.

Ｖ Instead of each thread performing processing as described above, the VAS 140 may perform processing in one process.

The program of the VAS 140 is a file in a format executable or installable on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM or FD (flexible disk) as a part or all of a software development kit (SDK: Software Development Kit) or the like. Provided. Further, the program file of the VAS 140 in such an executable format or an installable format may be provided by a method that can be obtained via a network.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the content of the resource use information file 201 stored in the HD 200. As shown in FIG. 4, the resource usage information file 201 records a text memory area size, a heap area size, a stack area size, and the like for each application ID (also referred to as a product ID).

機器 Note that the device (such as the ADF) used by the application may be recorded in this file. As a result, it is also possible to limit the activation based on the actual device configuration in the multifunction peripheral.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the proc structure 211 referred to by the resource use information acquisition thread 141. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the proc structure 211 stores, for each process, a process ID (p_pid), a text memory area size, a heap memory area size, a stack area size, and the like. The proc structure 211 is updated by the general-purpose OS 121 at the time of executing the process, at the time of terminating the process, and when the state of the process changes.

Further, the resource use information acquisition thread 141 acquires the resource amount used by the application and the system that has already been started and set from the proc structure 211 by a system call of the general-purpose OS 121 or a service function call provided by the control service. Then, the remaining resource amount (for example, the remaining capacity of the text memory area, the remaining capacity of the heap area, the stack area, etc.) obtained by removing the resource amount from the total resource amount is acquired.

When the control service layer 150 issues a request to launch a new application or a startup setting request, the application launch restriction thread 142 refers to the resource usage information file 201 to determine the resource usage used by the new application. Get information about Further, the application activation restriction thread 142 acquires the above-mentioned remaining resource amount from, for example, the resource use information acquisition thread 141. Then, by comparing the two, it is determined whether it is necessary to restrict the activation of the application.

In the start setting, when the application start restriction thread 142 determines that the application start restriction is necessary, a warning as described later is displayed on the screen.

{Circle around (2)} In an actual start-up scene, the application start-restriction thread 142 transmits a start-restriction request message to the application that has made the application start request, when it is determined that the application start restriction is necessary. On the other hand, when it is determined that the application start restriction should not be performed, a start request message is transmitted to the application that has made the application start request, and the normal start processing of the application is performed.

FIG. 6 is a diagram in which the start restriction level of the user application is displayed as a histogram on the operation panel of the multifunction peripheral. This figure is displayed at the time of start setting. The histogram displayed in FIG. 6 shows only available remaining resource amounts excluding resources used by multifunction device-specific applications such as copy applications and system programs. That is, the user can visually determine how to distribute and use the remaining resources among a plurality of user applications (new applications). The breakdown of the histogram shows the resource usage of the user application 221 set to start first and the resource usage of the user application 222 set to start second, and the third user application to be set to start from now on. The case of 223 indicates the estimated resource usage. In the example of FIG. 6, when the third user application 223 is started, the remaining resource amount reaches the dangerous level, so that the start setting cannot be performed. Here, not only the remaining resource amount is represented by a histogram, but also the activation restriction level is displayed in three levels of safety (blue), caution (yellow), and danger (red) to further enhance the visual recognition effect. It should be noted that, other than this, it is of course also possible to make the display blink when the dangerous level is reached, or to emit a voice guidance or a warning sound.

例 The following is an example of the screen displayed on the operation panel at the time of startup setting, including the histogram as described above. The screen to be described below is displayed by, for example, the VAS 140.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a start setting screen when “simple scanner” and “simple copy” are already set to start. As shown in the figure, the memory consumption used by the “simple scanner” and “simple copy” is displayed in the histogram 251 on the right.

Here, if this is selected next to activate and set “simple print”, the “simple print” portion blinks for several seconds as shown in FIG. And the memory consumption becomes 100%, which also blinks.

(5) Thereafter, the screen shown in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 is displayed. FIG. 9 is a screen for prompting selection of another application. Pressing OK returns to the screen of FIG. FIG. 10 is an example of a screen that enables the startup setting even when the memory is insufficient. When an application to which no key is assigned is selected, a screen shown in FIG. 11 is displayed.

「Select“ simple scanner ”from the state of FIG. 7, and when the startup setting is completed, the screen shown in FIG. 13 is displayed via the screen of FIG. As shown in FIG. 13, the display value of the histogram is increased (252) by the scheduled memory consumption of the “simple scanner”.

画面 When releasing the start setting of a certain application, the screens shown in FIGS. 14 to 18 are displayed.

指定 Specify the “simple scanner” for which the activation setting is to be canceled from the state of FIG. 14 and press OK, and the “simple scanner” blinks as shown in FIG. Pressing OK here displays the screen of FIG. 16, and pressing OK displays the screen of FIG. 18 via the screen of FIG. As shown in FIG. 18, the amount of memory consumption for “simple scanner” is reduced from the histogram.

Next, an application activation restriction process by the VAS 140 of the multifunction peripheral 100 will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. The processing illustrated in FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating processing by the VAS 140 at the time of activation setting.

First, when the VAS 140 receives a startup setting request for an application (step S601), the VAS 140 determines whether a resource use information file for the application has been created with reference to the HD 200 (step S602).

If the resource usage information file has been created, the VAS 140 acquires the resource usage information from the resource usage information file 201 (Step S603). If the resource use information file of the new application has not been created in step S602, the VAS 140 creates a resource use information file (step S604). For example, the resource use information acquisition thread 141 performs the creation by requesting the resource use information acquisition thread 141 to create a resource use information file.

A detailed subroutine of the resource use information file creation process in step S604 will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 21 described later. When the resource use information file is created, the process of step S603 is performed.

Next, the VAS 140 acquires usable resource amount information excluding the resources used by the application and the system program that have already been set to be activated (step S605). The resources used by the applications and system programs that have already been activated can be obtained from the proc structure by using the system call of the general-purpose OS 121 or the service function call provided by the control service layer 150. Note that, among the applications that have already been set to be activated, those having resource information in the resource usage information file may acquire the resource information from the resource usage information file.

Next, the VAS 140 compares the information on the scheduled resource amount to be used by the application to be activated and the available resource amount information (step S606). Here, the application activation restriction thread 142 determines whether the scheduled resource amount exceeds the available resource amount (step S607), and if so, displays a screen as shown in FIG. Then, a warning is issued to the user (step S608). If not, a normal application activation setting process is performed (step S609).

If the application to be activated has a mode that can be executed by using a hard disk instead of a memory, it is determined whether or not to use that mode instead of the warning shown in FIG. A screen asking the user may be displayed. If the user selects to use that mode, the app will be launched in that mode at startup. Note that the presence of the mode can be grasped when the VAS 140 acquires the application information, and that fact can be recorded in the resource usage information file.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart in the case where the application which has been set to be activated is activated and the activation restriction processing is performed.

First, when the dispatcher 144 receives the application start request message from the control service layer 150, the dispatcher 144 transfers the application start request message to the control thread 143 together with the process ID of the application. When the control thread 143 receives the application start request message and the process ID from the dispatcher 144, the control thread 143 determines whether or not the application requested to be started is an application specific to the MFP (step S701). In the case of an application other than an application specific to the multifunction peripheral, that is, when there is a start request for a new application (step S702), the control thread 143 refers to the HD 200 to determine whether a resource usage information file of the application has been created. (Step S703).

If the resource use information file has been created, the control thread 143 sends the resource use information of the new application requested to be started from the resource use information file 201 to the application start restriction thread 142 (step S604). If the resource use information file of the new application has not been created in step S703, the control thread 143 requests the resource use information acquisition thread 141 to create a resource use information file (step S703). Step S705). When the resource use information file is created, the process of step S704 is performed.

Next, the VAS 140 obtains the available remaining resource amount as in FIG. 19 (step S706).

{Circle around (2)} The application start restriction thread 142 compares information on the scheduled resource amount used by the new application requested to be started with the resource amount information available on the MFP (step S707).

Here, the application activation restriction thread 142 determines whether the resource usage exceeds the resource amount (step S708), and if so, displays a warning on the screen to restrict the activation of the application. (Step S709). If the new application has a start-restricted mode, a screen asking the user whether to use the mode is displayed, and the mode is set only when execution in that mode is permitted. The application may be started with. If the scheduled resource amount does not exceed the available resource amount, the application activation restriction process is not performed, and the normal application activation process is performed (step S710). The normal application start processing in step S710 is also performed when a start request for an application specific to the multifunction peripheral is issued in the first step S601 in FIG. In the present invention, in the case of an application specific to a multifunction peripheral, resources to be used are reserved in advance, so that no resource shortage occurs regardless of the start process.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the resource use information file creation process.

First, the VAS 140 provisionally starts an application for which resource use information is to be obtained (step S801). Then, resource information is obtained from the application by inter-process communication (step S802). Based on the resource information obtained by the provisional activation, a resource use information file is created for each application in the resource use information file 201 in the HD 200 (step S803). FIG. 4 shows an example of the created resource use information file. The resource amount is stored as a used resource for each application ID as a text memory area size, a heap area size, and a stack area size. ing.

Also, if the application to be set for activation has already been executed, and the actual value of the resource usage is in the proc structure 211, the actual value is used instead of acquiring the resource information from the application. May be acquired. If the resource use information file is updated each time the application is started up using this actual value, accurate resource use information can always be obtained as in the case where the learning function is provided. If the actual resource amount fluctuates each time it is acquired, the average value or the maximum value (MAX) of the actual values can be used as the resource information to be recorded in the resource usage information file.

When the resource use information file is created using the resource use information of the proc structure 211 of the RAM 210, the resource use information acquisition thread 141 receives an application ID, a process ID, and a resource use information acquisition request message from the control thread 143. Then, with reference to the proc structure 211 of the RAM 210, the position of the block of the process ID of the corresponding application ID is searched. Then, the resource use information of the text memory area size, the heap area size, and the stack area size is obtained from the searched block of the process ID, and is recorded in the resource use information file 201 together with the application ID.

Next, temporary activation of the application will be described. The provisional activation is different from the normal activation of the application that uses the resources of the multifunction peripheral (the activation for performing the original function of the application is called the normal activation). In the provisional activation, the application does not acquire resources such as memory reservation necessary for the original operation of the application, and performs only the process of inter-process communication with the VAS 140. Then, the application provides the resource information to the VAS 140. The process of the provisionally activated application ends when the communication process with the VAS 140 ends. Further, the function related to the provisional activation of the application is a function common to the application operating on the MFP 100 according to the present embodiment, regardless of the original function of the application. Therefore, for example, when a vendor develops an application, the vendor can be provided with a program template including a function of provisional activation, and the vendor can use the program template to develop an application for a multifunction peripheral. In order to include resource information in an application, for example, a vendor creates an include file in which resource information to be used is recorded, and includes the file when compiling the application.

FIG. 22 shows an outline of a program description (main function) of an application including a provisional activation function. This description is provided as the above program template.

As shown in FIG. 22, this program description specifies whether the application is provisionally activated or normally activated by an argument (-v). Thereby, when the VAS starts the application, the normal start and the temporary start can be easily used properly. That is, when the provisional activation is designated using the argument (-v), the provisional activation is executed, and the application information providing process is performed. If provisional activation is not specified, normal activation is performed to perform the original operation of the application.

As described above, in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, the information on the resource usage used by the application is acquired, the resource usage information file 201 is generated, and the resource amount available in the multifunction peripheral and the start setting request If the estimated resource usage exceeds the available resource amount, the startup of the new application is restricted. This eliminates the risk of stalling, and allows users to freely install and launch new applications developed by users and third-party vendors.

Further, in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, it is possible to prevent a situation in which an application specific to the multifunction peripheral cannot be executed due to a resource usage state of a new application, thereby improving the system stability of the multifunction peripheral 100. Can be.

In the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, the VAS 140 performs the resource use information acquisition processing and the application start restriction processing for all the applications 130, but performs the processing for only some applications. You may comprise so that it may be. For example, resource use information acquisition processing and application start restriction processing are performed only for an application developed by a third party such as a third vendor such as new applications 117 and 118, and existing applications such as the printer application 111 and the copy application 112 are performed. Such a service may not be provided.

Also, considering that the resource usage of the new application fluctuates, if the scheduled resource amount does not exceed the available resource amount and is within a certain range, the start of the new application is limited. Is also good.

(Embodiment 2)
In the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, only one VAS 140 exists for all applications. In the multifunction peripheral according to the second embodiment, one VAS is activated for each application. Each VAS performs resource use information acquisition and application activation restriction only for the corresponding application.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the multifunction peripheral 800 according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 23, the MFP 800 differs from the MFP 100 according to the first embodiment in that a plurality of virtual application services (VAS) 841 to 848 operate for each application of the application 130. I have.

The VASs 841 to 848 correspond to the printer application 111, the copy application 112, the fax application 113, the scanner application 114, the net file application 115, the process inspection application 116, the new applications 117 and 118, and perform resource use information acquisition processing and application start restrictions. Perform processing.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the VASs 841 to 848 of the multifunction peripheral 800 according to the second embodiment and a relationship between the VASs 841 to 848 and each application, the control service layer 150, and the general-purpose OS 121.

In the multifunction peripheral 800 according to the second embodiment, unlike the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 24, a VAS control process (daemon) 801 is provided between each VAS 841 to 848 and each application. Is working.

The VAS control process (daemon) 801 generates VASs 841 to 848 corresponding to each application. The VAS control process 801 refers to the resource usage information file 201 stored in the HD 200 and determines whether resource usage information is recorded in the resource usage information file 201 for the application for which the activation request or the activation setting request has been made. It is checked whether or not it is necessary to create a resource usage information file. If the resource use information of the application is not recorded, the resource use information acquisition thread 141 acquires the resource use information, sends it to the application start restriction thread 142, and creates the resource use information file 201. If the resource usage information of the application is recorded, the resource usage information is read from the resource usage information file 201 and sent to the application activation restriction thread 142.

In the processes of the virtual application service (VAS) 841 to 848, a dispatcher 144, a resource use information acquisition thread 141, and an application activation restriction thread 142 are operating. The function of each of these threads is the same as the function of the corresponding thread in the first embodiment.

According to the multifunction peripheral 800 according to the second embodiment, the stability of the system of the multifunction peripheral 800 can be improved as in the multifunction peripheral 100 according to the first embodiment.

In the MFP 800 according to the second embodiment, the VASs 841 to 848 are separately activated for each application 130 to be activated, so that the activation restriction processing for the plurality of applications 130 is performed by the VASs 841 to 848 corresponding to each application 130. Since the processes can be executed in parallel, it is possible to efficiently perform the start restriction process for the start application.

In the multifunction peripheral 800 according to the second embodiment, the VASs 841 to 848 are separately activated for all the applications, but the VAS may be activated only for some applications. For example, VASs 847 and 848 are activated only for applications developed by a third party such as a third vendor such as new applications 117 and 118 to perform resource use information acquisition processing and application activation restriction processing, and the printer application 111 and copy application An existing application such as 112 can be configured not to provide such a service.

Further, in the multifunction peripherals 100 and 800 according to the first and second embodiments, the resource use information acquisition and the application start restriction are performed by using the text memory area, the heap area, the stack area, and the like as resources. Is an example, and of course, a configuration using other resources may be used.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the multifunction peripheral according to the first exemplary embodiment; FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a VAS of the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment and a relationship between the VAS, each application, a control service layer, and a general-purpose OS. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the content of a resource use information file in the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a proc structure referred to by a VAS resource usage information acquisition thread in the multifunction peripheral according to the first embodiment; FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a start restriction level of a user application in a histogram on an operation panel of the multifunction peripheral. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a start setting screen when “simple scanner” and “simple copy” are already set to start. This is a screen when “simple print” is selected. This is a screen for prompting selection of another application. This is an example of a screen that enables a startup setting even when memory is insufficient. This is a screen when an application to which no key is assigned is selected. It is a screen which shows that starting setting was completed. This is a screen after the startup setting of “simple scanner” is completed. 9 is a screen showing an application that has been set to start. This is a screen when “simple scanner” is selected. This is a screen for confirming the release of the startup setting. It is a screen which shows that cancellation was completed. It is a screen after release. It is a flow chart which shows a starting restriction processing procedure at the time of starting setting. It is a flowchart which shows the starting restriction | limiting process procedure at the time of starting. 9 is a flowchart of a resource use information file creation process. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a program description (main function) of an application including a function of provisional activation. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a multifunction peripheral according to a second embodiment. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a VAS of the multifunction peripheral according to the second embodiment and a relationship between the VAS, each application, a control service layer, and a general-purpose OS.

Explanation of reference numerals

100 MFP 101 Black and White Laser Printer 102 Color Laser Printer 103 Hardware Resource 110 Software Group 111 Printer Application 112 Copy Application 113 Fax Application 114 Scanner Application 115 Net File Application 116 Process Inspection Application 117, 118 New Application 120 Platform 121 General-purpose OS
122 SCS
123 SRM
124 ECS
125 MCS
126 OCS
127 FCS
128 NCS
130 Application 140,841-848 Virtual Application Service (VAS)
141 Resource use information acquisition thread 142 Application start restriction thread 143 Control thread 144 Dispatcher 150 Control service layer 200 Hard disk (HD)
201 Resource usage information file 210 RAM
211 proc structure 212 u area 221 user application 222 user application 223 user application 800 MFP 801 VAS control process (daemon)

Claims (28)

In an image forming apparatus configured to be capable of mounting a plurality of applications,
Information acquisition means for acquiring information on necessary resources necessary for executing an application, and information on available resources that can be used in the image forming apparatus;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a starting restriction unit that compares the information on the required resources with the information on the available resources and performs a start restriction process on the application based on a result of the comparison. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information acquisition unit acquires necessary resource information included in an execution file of the application. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information acquisition unit acquires the required resource information by temporarily activating the application. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information acquisition unit acquires, as the required resource information, an actual value of a resource amount used when the application is executed. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the information acquisition unit acquires the performance value from system information that holds information on resources used by a process. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information acquisition unit acquires a memory area capacity used by the application as the information on the required resources. 7. 7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the memory area capacity is a heap area capacity. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the activation restricting unit displays a ratio of the required resources to the available resources on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the activation restriction unit displays a warning on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus when the required resource amount exceeds the available resource amount as the activation restriction process. 3. . The method according to claim 9, wherein the activation restriction unit causes the application to use the different resource when the application can use a resource different from the available resource in place of the available resource. Image forming device. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the required resource is a device used by the application, and the activation restriction unit performs the activation restriction process when the device is not provided in the image forming device. 3. . Hardware resources used in the image forming process,
A control service for controlling hardware resources,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a virtual application service that operates as a client process using the control service as a server and operates as a server process using the application as a client. 13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the virtual application service includes the information acquisition unit and the activation restriction unit. A method for restricting application startup in an image forming apparatus configured to be capable of mounting a plurality of applications,
Information acquisition step of acquiring information on necessary resources necessary for executing a certain application and information on available resources that can be used in the image forming apparatus;
A start restriction step of comparing the information on the necessary resources with the information on the available resources, and performing a start restriction process on the application based on a result of the comparison. The method according to claim 14, wherein in the information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains necessary resource information included in an execution file of the application. 16. The start restriction method according to claim 15, wherein in the information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains the required resource information by temporarily starting the application. The method according to claim 14, wherein in the information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains, as the required resource information, an actual value of a resource amount used when the application is executed. 18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the image forming apparatus acquires the performance value from system information that holds information on resources used by a process. 19. The activation restriction method according to claim 14, wherein, in the information obtaining step, the image forming apparatus obtains a memory area capacity used by the application as the necessary resource information. 20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the memory area capacity is a heap area capacity. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein in the activation restriction step, the image forming apparatus displays, on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, a ratio of the required resource to the available resources. 15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14, wherein, in the activation restriction step, when the amount of the required resource exceeds the amount of available resources, the image forming apparatus displays a warning on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus as the activation restriction processing. Startup restriction method described in. In the activation restriction step, the image forming apparatus causes the application to use the different resource if the application can use a resource different from the available resource instead of the available resource. An activation restriction method according to claim 22. 15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the required resource is a device used by the application, and in the boot restriction step, the image forming apparatus performs the boot restriction process when the device is not provided in the image forming device. Startup restriction method described in. The image forming apparatus includes:
Hardware resources used in the image forming process,
A control service for controlling hardware resources,
25. The activation restriction method according to claim 14, further comprising a virtual application service that operates as a client process using the control service as a server and operates as a server process using the application as a client. 26. The activation restriction method according to claim 25, wherein the information acquisition step and the activation restriction step are executed by the virtual application service. An image forming apparatus configured to be capable of mounting a plurality of applications,
Information acquisition means for acquiring information on necessary resources necessary for executing a certain application and information on available resources that can be used in the image forming apparatus;
A start restriction unit that compares the information on the required resources with the information on the available resources, and performs a start restriction process on the application based on a result of the comparison;
A program to function as A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 27 is recorded.

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