JP2000207156A - System and method for printing, and computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control propriety of a job operation and whether or not a printer status is to be reported for each job in a system and a method for executing the printing jobs of plural computer systems by a printer shared in a network and a computer system to be used for the system. SOLUTION: Plural clients 200 and a server 201 share a printer 28 via the network and the printing job prepared by any one of clients 200 is executed by the printer 28. It is set from the setting screen of a printer driver 22 whether or not operation of the printing job from a computer system different from that of the client 200, which prepares the printing job, is to be permitted, and the setting is transmitted to spoolers 23 and 25, together with the printing job. While referring to the transmitted setting, a language monitor 26 inhibits the operation to the printing job corresponding to the referred result.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system, a printing method, and a computer apparatus, and more particularly, to a printing system and method in which a plurality of computers share a printer via a network, and the plurality of computers execute print jobs by the printer. And a computer device used in the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an environment where a plurality of personal computers share a printer via a network, a printing system is known which can display the status of the printer on the computer and operate the printer from each computer. Have been. In this type of printing system, users who can perform operations (such as canceling printing) on a print job are determined by certain rules.

For example, a rule is established that a client who owns a job and a server computer which provides a printer can operate a job, but a client who does not own a job cannot operate a job.

Further, in the above printing system, a certain rule determines which user is to be displayed with information (a document name, a user name, the number of pages, a printing progress, etc.) relating to a print job.

[0005] For example, a rule is established that information is displayed to all users who can use the printer.

[0006]

However, in the conventional printing system, since whether or not an operation on a print job is possible is determined by the above-described rules, an important print job can be executed by another user (executing the job to the printer). (User different from the user who is making the request).

Further, since the method of displaying information about a print job to other users is determined by the above-described rules,
Even for a job that the user wants to print without knowing the contents, information on the print job may be displayed to the other user.

As described above, the conventional printing system has a problem that the processing cannot be flexibly changed depending on the nature of the print job.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and the above-mentioned problem has been solved by making it possible to flexibly change whether a user can perform an operation on a print job for each job. It is an object of the present invention to provide a solved printing system, a method, and a computer device used in the system.

[0010] The present invention also provides a printing system, a method and a computer used in the printing system, which solve the above-mentioned another problem by making it possible to flexibly change the notification of information about a print job to another user for each job. It is another object to provide a device.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of computer devices share a printer via a network, and a print created by one of the plurality of computer devices. In a printing system that causes a job to be executed by the printer, operation permission setting means for setting whether to permit an operation on the print job from another computer device other than the one of the computer devices, and printing the setting. Provided is a printing system comprising: a first transmitting unit that transmits a job together with a job; and an operation prohibiting unit that refers to the transmitted setting and prohibits an operation on the print job in accordance with the reference result.

[0012] In the invention according to claim 2, in claim 1, the operation permission / inhibition setting means displays a setting input screen for inputting the setting, and the operation input / output setting means displays one of the plurality of computer devices by the setting input screen. A printing system that individually inputs the settings to a server device that manages the printer and a client device that creates the print job, and independently according to the type of operation.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, a display unit for acquiring and displaying information on the print job in the printer, and notifying the another computer device of the acquired information. Notification permission / non-permission setting means for setting whether or not to permit, a second transmission means for transmitting the setting together with the print job, and referring to the transmitted setting, to the display means according to the reference result. And an information notification prohibiting unit for prohibiting the transmission of the information.

[0014] In the invention described in claim 4, in claim 3, the notification permission / inhibition setting means displays a setting input screen for inputting the setting, and the setting input screen displays the setting input screen among the plurality of computer devices. A printing system for inputting whether or not to notify the information to a computer device other than the computer device that created the print job.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing method for executing a print job created by any one of the plurality of computer apparatuses by a printer sharing the printer via a network. An operation permission / prohibition setting step of setting whether or not to permit an operation on the print job from another computer apparatus, and a first transmission step of transmitting the setting together with the print job; An operation inhibiting step of referring to the transmitted setting and inhibiting an operation on the print job according to a result of the reference.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect, an obtaining step of obtaining information on the print job in the printer, and notifying the obtained information to the another computer device are permitted. A notification permission / non-permission setting step of setting whether or not, a second transmission step of transmitting the setting together with the print job, and referring to the transmitted setting, transmitting the acquired information according to the reference result. A printing method including a prohibited information notification prohibition step is provided.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer device comprising the operation permission / inhibition setting means, the first transmission means, and the operation prohibition means according to the first or second aspect.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer device comprising the second transmission means, the display means, and the notification permission / inhibition setting means according to the third or fourth aspect.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the operation availability setting means according to any one of the first to fourth aspects and the first aspect,
And a computer device comprising a second transmission unit, an operation prohibition unit, a display unit, and a notification permission / inhibition setting unit.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a computer device used in a printing system according to the present invention. A printing system for achieving the object of the present invention can be configured using the computer device. it can.

In the figure, reference numeral 101 denotes a computer device (PC)
A main body 100 is a computer system. Each component in the computer system 100 is connected by a system bus 5 to exchange data, commands, and the like.

The CPU 1, which is a control unit, executes the following processing according to the present invention. 2 indicates a ROM. The RAM 3 serving as a storage unit is a main memory of the CPU 1 and functions as a work area or the like. Network interface (NI
C) 4 is connected to the network 150 to exchange data with another computer.

A keyboard controller (KBC) 6, which is an input unit, controls key input from a keyboard (KB) 10 or a pointing device (not shown).

Hard disk controller (HD
C) 7 controls access to the hard disk (HDD) 11. External storage hard disk (HD
D) 11 is a boot program, an application
Stores programs, data files, etc.

A CRT controller (CRTC) 8 controls the display on a CRT display (CRT) 12, which is a display unit. The display device is not limited to the CRT type. The bidirectional communication port (PORT) 9 is connected to the printer (PRT) 13 and executes a communication control process with the printer 13.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of software executed in the printing system according to the present invention. The software is executed by a client computer 200 and a server computer 201 in the figure. The hardware configuration of both computers is as shown in FIG. 1, and a printer driver, a language monitor, a status monitor,
Executes processing by the window.

Usually, the client computer 200
Are present in the network (not shown).

The application program 21 creates print data and passes it to the printer driver 22. The printer driver 22 converts the data received from the application program 21 into data that the printer 28 can understand and output in a form intended by the application program 21. The converted data is passed to the spooler 23. Client computer 2
The spooler 23 of 00 sends this data to the spooler 25 of the server computer 201 via the network.

The spooler 25 passes the data to the language monitor 26. The language monitor 26 is a spooler 2
5 is processed as necessary, and sent out to the printer 28 via the bidirectional interface 29. The printer 28 creates a print image based on the transmitted data and prints out the image on a recording sheet or the like.

The language monitor 26 acquires the printer status (document name, user name, number of pages, progress of printing, etc.) from the printer 28 and notifies the status window 27 of the status. Also, the printer status is notified to the status window 24 of the client computer 200 via the network. Status windows 24 and 27 display the received printer status in a user-friendly format.

Status windows 24 and 27
Receives an operation request for a print job from the user and notifies the language monitor 26 of the request. language·
The monitor 26 controls the printer 28 or the spooler 25 in response to the requested operation, and executes an operation on the print job.

The application program 21
Alternatively, when the spooler 23 requests the printer driver 22 to display a setting dialog screen,
The printer driver 22 creates a driver setting dialog screen based on the information stored in the hard disk 11 and displays it on the CRT display 12. When the settings are changed using the keyboard 10 or a pointing device in the driver setting dialog screen,
The printer driver 22 updates the settings in the hard disk 11.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the control flow of the printer driver of this embodiment. First, with reference to FIG. 3, a description will be given of a control flow when the printer driver according to the present embodiment receives a setting screen display request from an application or a spooler.

First, in step S31 (hereinafter, step S is abbreviated as S), the printer driver 22
The current setting value stored in the hard disk 11 is read. Next, in S32, according to the current setting value,
A setting dialog screen of the printer driver 22 is created and displayed.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of a printer driver setting dialog screen according to the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 4, the setting dialog screen 40
After that, when the operation of suspending / resuming the print job is requested from the status window 27 of the server computer 201, the setting of whether to permit or prohibit the server computer 201 and the status of the client computer 200 are made. Whether the operation is permitted or prohibited when the operation is requested from the window 24 can be set individually for both computers. Similarly, when an operation of canceling a print job is requested from the setting dialog screen 40, setting of permission or prohibition can be individually performed for each computer. In this way, it can be set independently according to the type of operation.

Referring back to FIG. 3, after the setting dialog screen 40 is displayed, the process proceeds to S33, where an input from the user is accepted.
If there is an input, the process proceeds to S34. If the setting has been changed by a user input in S34, the process proceeds to S35, and the setting on the setting dialog screen 40 is changed based on the input.

Next, in step S36, if the cancel button 44 is pressed, the process ends without changing the settings in the hard disk 11. If the cancel button 44 has not been pressed, the process proceeds to S37. In S37, O
If the K button 42 is pressed, the process proceeds to S38, where the settings on the setting dialog screen 40 are stored in the hard disk 11, and the process ends. If the OK button 42 has not been pressed, S
Returning to 33, the input is accepted again.

Subsequently, in this embodiment, the printer
The data output by the driver 22 will be described.

The printer driver 22 receives print data from the application program 21, converts the print data into a format that can be understood and output by the printer 28, and outputs the data. At this time, the driver setting dialog screen 40
The data is created in a format including information on the permission / prohibition (permission / inhibition) of the job operation set in step (1).

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a data format of data output by the printer driver according to the present embodiment, and shows how job control information is embedded in the output data.

First, BEGIN indicating the start of a job
Starting with a JOB command 51, job control information 52 to 5
4 follows. Information 52 and 53 set on the driver setting dialog screen 40 are included in the job control information 52 to 54.

That is, setting information 52a as to whether to permit or prohibit the suspension / resumption of the print job when requested by the server computer 201, and to set whether or not to permit or prohibit when the client computer 200 requests it. Information 52b, setting information 53a of whether to permit or prohibit the stop of the print job when requested by the server computer 201, and setting information 53b of whether to permit or prohibit when the client computer 200 requests it. ing.

In the example of FIG. 5, the server computer 20
1 are permitted, and the pause / resume request and the suspension request from the client computer 200 are prohibited.

After the other job control information 54, a BEGIN PAGE command 55 indicating the beginning of a page,
Then, the page control information 56 continues, and the page control information 56
Is followed by an actual print data 57 and an END PAGE command 58 indicating the end of the page, and finally an END JOB command 59 indicating the end of the job.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a control flow when the language monitor according to the present embodiment receives data from the spooler. Referring now to FIG. 6, a description will be given of a control flow of processing in which the language monitor receives data from the spooler.

When the spooler 25 outputs data,
The language monitor 26 is called. First, S61
, The language monitor 26 receives data from the spooler 25. Next, in S62, the contents of the data are checked, and if the data does not include the job control information, the flow proceeds to S64. If the job control information is included, the job control information 52a, 52b, 53a, 53b, 54 is stored in the RAM of the server computer 201 in S63, and then the process proceeds to S6.
Proceed to 4.

Next, in S64, if the data does not include the print data, the processing is terminated. If the print data 57 is included, the print data is output to the printer 28 in S65, and the process ends.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the flow of control when the language monitor of this embodiment receives a job operation request from the status window. Subsequently, a control flow of a process in which the language monitor receives a job operation request from the status window will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in S71, if there is a job operation request from the status windows 24 and 27, S72.
The process proceeds to S76 if there is no job operation request. S7
In step 2, it is determined which user in the network is the request from the parameter of the job operation request.

In step S73, if the request is from the computer of the job owner, the flow advances to step S75.
Otherwise, proceed to S74. In S74, referring to the job control information 52a, 52b, 53a, 53b stored in the RAM of the server computer 201,
It is determined whether the requested operation is permitted for the requesting user.

If not permitted, the flow proceeds to S76 to determine the end, and if permitted, the flow proceeds to S75. S7
At 5, the language monitor 26 controls the printer 28 and the spooler 25 to execute the requested permitted job operation, and then proceeds to S76.

On the other hand, if the permission is not granted, in S76, the language monitor 26 is shut down or the like.
If there is a termination request for, the process ends, otherwise, S7
Return to 1.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, even if there is a job operation request from a person other than the job owner, the job operation is prohibited unless the operation is permitted.

(Embodiment 2) In the present embodiment, the printer driver 22
1 or the control flow when a request for displaying the setting screen is received from the spoolers 23 and 25 is the same as that in the first embodiment shown in FIG.
Is the same as However, the configuration of the driver setting dialog screen is different from that of the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing an example of the configuration of a printer driver setting dialog screen according to the present embodiment.

According to the present embodiment, it is possible to set whether or not to notify the other user of the printer status during printing according to the setting dialogue screen 80.

That is, in the above control, if the cancel button 84 is pressed, the process ends without changing the setting in the hard disk 11. If the OK button 82 is pressed without the cancel button 84 being pressed, the settings on the setting dialog screen 80 are saved in the hard disk 11 and the process ends.

Subsequently, in this embodiment, the printer
The data output by the driver 22 will be described.

The printer driver 22 receives print data from the application program 21, converts the print data into a format that can be understood and output by the printer 28, and outputs the data. At this time, the driver setting dialog screen 80
Whether the notification of job information to other users set in
Data is created in a form that includes the information of (Prohibition).

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the data format of data output by the printer driver according to the present embodiment, and shows how job control information is embedded in the output data.

First, a BEGIN indicating the start of a job
Beginning with a job command 91, job control information 92, 9
3 follows. The job control information 92, 93 includes information 92 set on the driver setting dialog screen 80. That is, it includes information on whether or not to notify another user of the printer status during printing.

After the other job control information 93, a BEGIN PAGE command 95 indicating the beginning of a page,
Then, the page control information 96 continues, and the page control information 96
Is followed by actual print data 97. Print data 97
Is followed by an END PAGE command 98 indicating the end of the page, and ending with an ENDJ command indicating the end of the job.
The OB command becomes 99.

The language monitor 26 is connected to the spooler 23,
The control flow of the process of receiving data from the control unit 25 is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the flow of control of processing for acquiring the printer status of the printer by the language monitor of this embodiment. Then Figure 1
0, the flow of control of the process in which the language monitor 26 acquires the printer status from the printer 28 and notifies the status windows 24 and 27 of the status will be described.

First, in S101, a printer status acquisition interval (for example, 1 second) is set, and a timer is started. Next, when the set time has elapsed in S102, the process proceeds to S103.

In S103, the printer status is obtained from the printer 28 via the bidirectional interface 29. Next, in S104, if the printer status is printing, the process proceeds to S105, and if the printer status is idle, the process proceeds to S106.

If printing is in progress, the job control information 92 stored in the RAM of the server computer 201 is referred to in step S105. If it is set according to the reference result to notify the printer status to other users, the process proceeds to S106, and if not set, the process proceeds to S107.

When printing is not being performed, or when setting is made to permit notification to other users, all status windows 24 (27, 27, 27) installed in the computer devices on the network in S106.
…) To broadcast the printer status
Proceed to 108. The printer driver of the user who has received the printer status can display the status information.

On the other hand, if it is set in S105 that notification to other users is not permitted (prohibited),
In S107, the printer status is transmitted only to the status window 24 of the job owner, and the process proceeds to S108.

In S108, if there is an end request to the language monitor 26 due to shutdown or the like, the process ends, otherwise the process returns to S101.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, a user who is not permitted to notify the status other than the job owner is prohibited from transmitting the printer status.

[0074]

As described above, according to the printing system, method and computer apparatus of the present invention, whether or not another user can perform a job operation can be set for each job and for each computer apparatus. There is an effect that job control can be performed flexibly.

Further, according to the printing system, method and computer apparatus of the present invention, the notification / non-notification of the printer status to other users during printing can be set for each job. There is also an effect that it can be flexibly changed according to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a computer device used in a printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of software executed in the printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the printer driver according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a printer driver setting dialog screen according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a data format according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the language monitor according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of the language monitor according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a setting dialog screen of a printer driver according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a data format according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the language monitor according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 ROM 3 RAM 4 Network Interface 5 System Bus 6 Keyboard Controller 7 Hard Disk Controller 8 CRT Controller 9 Bidirectional Communication Port 10 Keyboard 11 Hard Disk 12 CRT Display 13 Printer 21 Application Program 22 Printer Driver 23 Spooler 24 Status window 25 Spooler 26 Language monitor 27 Status window 28 Printer 100 Computer system 101 Computer body 150 Network 200 Client computer 201 Server computer

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A printing system in which a plurality of computer devices share a printer via a network and a print job created by any of the plurality of computer devices is executed by the printer. Operation permission setting means for setting whether or not to permit an operation on the print job from another computer device; first transmission means for transmitting the setting together with the print job; and referencing the transmitted setting. A print prohibition unit for prohibiting an operation on the print job in accordance with the reference result. 2. The server according to claim 1, wherein the operation permission / non-permission setting unit displays a setting input screen for inputting the setting, and the server input device uses the setting input screen to manage the printer among the plurality of computer devices. A printing system, wherein the setting is input individually to a client device that creates the print job and independently according to the type of operation. 3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein display means for acquiring and displaying information on the print job in the printer, and setting whether or not to permit the acquired information to be notified to the another computer device is set. Notification permission / non-permission setting means; second transmission means for transmitting the setting together with the print job; information for referring to the transmitted setting and prohibiting transmission of the information to the display means in accordance with the reference result A printing system comprising a notification prohibiting unit. 4. The computer device according to claim 3, wherein the notification permission / inhibition setting means displays a setting input screen for inputting the setting, and wherein the setting input screen is used to create the print job among the plurality of computer devices. A printing system characterized by inputting whether or not to notify the information to another computer device. 5. A printing method for causing a plurality of computer devices to execute a print job created by any one of the plurality of computer devices by a printer sharing the printer via a network, wherein the printing method is different from any one of the computer devices. An operation permission / prohibition setting step of setting whether to permit an operation on the print job from the computer device, a first transmission step of transmitting the setting together with the print job, and referring to the transmitted setting, An operation prohibition step of prohibiting an operation on the print job in accordance with the reference result. 6. The acquisition step according to claim 5, wherein an acquisition step of acquiring information on the print job in the printer, and a notification permission / prohibition setting for setting whether or not to allow the notification of the acquired information to the another computer device. A second transmission step of transmitting the setting together with the print job; and an information notification prohibiting step of referring to the transmitted setting and prohibiting transmission of the acquired information according to a result of the reference. A printing method, characterized in that: 7. A computer device comprising: the operation permission / prohibition setting unit according to claim 1; a first transmission unit; and an operation prohibition unit. 8. A computer device comprising: the second transmitting means according to claim 3 or 4; a display means; and a notification permission / inhibition setting means. 9. A computer comprising an operation permission setting means, first and second transmission means, operation prohibition means, display means, and notification permission / prohibition setting means according to any one of claims 1 to 4. apparatus.