JP2015111424A - Printing system and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To certainly notify a user of the registration state of a printer in a printing system where the text of an e-mail or a file attached thereto is printed by transmission of the e-mail to an e-mail address associated with a printer.SOLUTION: A server in a printing system receives a registration requirement with HTTP, assigns XMPP connection information for connecting with the transmission source of the registration requirement with XMPP, and the e-mail address for receiving a print request, to the transmission source of the registration requirement, and transmits the e-mail address and the XMPP connection information to the transmission source of the registration requirement with HTTP. Each of a plurality of printers includes: registration requirement means for transmitting to the server the registration requirement containing the identification information of the printer and the XMPP connection information; and registration notification means for printing or displaying the success or unsuccess of connection with the server and the registration to the server on the basis of the information received from the registration information transmission means and the XMPP connection means.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a technique for registering a printer in a cloud computing system that can print the text or attached file of an email by sending an email to an email address associated with the printer.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a cloud computing system having a function of receiving an electronic mail and printing the text and attached file of the electronic mail is known (for example, Patent Document 1). This cloud computing system (hereinafter simply referred to as a printing system) receives a specific e-mail, generates a print data corresponding to the specific printer based on the body of the e-mail and the attached file, and prints from the server. A printer that acquires data and executes printing. Therefore, the user of the printing system can use the printer even when the printer driver is not installed for each client such as a PC (Personal Computer) or a smartphone.

  In this printing system, when a printer registration process is performed on a server, including assigning an email address for receiving a print target to the printer, any user who knows the email address uses the printer. It becomes possible. A registration operation for registering the printer in the printing system is performed on a PC connected to the printer or an operation panel provided in the printer.

JP 2008-71257 A

However, conventionally, when the above-described registration operation is performed, there is a problem that the user cannot surely know whether or not the printer is registered in the printing system.
The present invention was created to solve this problem, and a printer is applied to a cloud computing system capable of printing the body or attached file of an e-mail by sending an e-mail to an e-mail address associated with the printer. The purpose is to reliably notify the user whether or not is registered.

  (1) A printing system for achieving the above object receives a print request for a specific printer by e-mail and generates print data corresponding to the specific printer based on the print request, and the print A plurality of printers for acquiring data from the server and executing printing based on the print data. The server includes a registration request receiving means for receiving a registration request using HTTP, an XMPP connection information for connecting to the transmission source of the registration request using XMPP, and an e-mail address for receiving the print request. Registration means for assigning to the sender of the registration request based on the registration request, registration information sending means for sending the email address and the XMPP connection information to the sender of the registration request using HTTP, XMPP connection means that receives the XMPP connection information and connects to the transmission source of the XMPP connection information based on the XMPP connection information using XMPP, and print data generation means that generates the print data based on the print request When the print data is generated, print waiting information is sent to the XMPP connection information transmission source using XMPP. A print waiting information transmitting means for receiving, a print data transmitting means for receiving the print data acquisition request and transmitting the print data to a transmission source of the print data acquisition request in response to the print data acquisition request; Is provided. Each of the plurality of printers has received the registration request including the identification information of the printer and the XMPP connection information from the registration request unit, the registration information transmission unit, and the XMPP connection unit. Registration notifying means for printing or displaying the connection with the server and the success or failure of registration with the server based on the information.

  According to the present invention, the success or failure of the process of registering the printer in the printing system while being connected to a specific printer using HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) is printed or displayed by the printer. The For this reason, it is ensured to the user whether the printer has been registered in the printing system, which is a cloud computing system that can print the body or attached file of an email by sending an email to the email address associated with the printer. Can be notified. Further, according to the present invention, since print waiting information can be transmitted from the server to the printer using XMPP, the printer need not poll the print waiting information.

(2) In the printing system for achieving the above object, the registration request receiving means or the XMPP connection means acquires language information set in the printer from the printer, and the print data generating means The print data may be generated based on a language corresponding to language information.
This makes it possible to generate print data according to the destination of the printer.

  Note that the function of each means described in the claims is realized by hardware resources whose function is specified by the configuration itself, hardware resources whose function is specified by a program, or a combination thereof. Further, the functions of these means are not limited to those realized by hardware resources that are physically independent of each other. For example, the server recited in the claims is not limited to that realized by a single computer, and the server may be realized as a group of combinations of a plurality of computers each sharing each means. Furthermore, the present invention can be realized as a method, a computer program for causing the server and printer to realize the above functions, and a recording medium for the program. Of course, the recording medium for the computer program may be a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, or any recording medium that will be developed in the future.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a printing system. (2A) is a block diagram showing the configuration of the server, and (2B) is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer. It is a sequence diagram which shows a setup sequence. It is a sequence diagram which shows a login sequence. It is a sequence diagram which shows a printing sequence.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the corresponding component in each figure, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.
1. Configuration FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printing system as an embodiment of the present invention. The printing system is configured as a cloud computing system capable of printing the text and attached file of an email by sending an email to an email address associated with the registered printer 4, 5. Printers 4 and 5.

  The server 1 of this embodiment includes an HTTP server 101, a data conversion service application (AP) server 102, a data conversion server 103, an XMPP server 104, a printer communication AP server 105, a DB server 106, an account management server 107, an HTTP server 108, The content management AP server 109 is configured.

  The SMTP server 101 is a server having a function of receiving an e-mail transmitted to a registered e-mail address.

  The data conversion service AP server 102 as the print data generation means extracts the text and attached file from the email received by the SMTP server as a print request, delivers the text and attached file to the data conversion server 103 as a print target, The server has a function of acquiring print data from the conversion server 103 and generating a print job.

  The data conversion server 103 serving as a print data generation unit is a server having a function of converting a file acquired as a print target from the data conversion AP server 102 into print data. For example, the page conversion language or image specialized for text is used. Print data is generated using the page description language.

  The DB server 106 is a database server that manages various information of the printers 4 and 5 in association with the printer 4 and stores print jobs.

  An XMPP server 104 serving as an XMPP connection unit and a print waiting information transmission unit is a server having a function of transmitting and receiving various parameters by communicating with the printers 4 and 5 using the XMPP.

  The printer communication AP server 105 serving as print waiting information transmission means is an application server that relays between the XMPP server 104 and other servers, and has a function of generating print wait information.

  The account management server 107 as a registration unit is a server having a function of registering the printers 4 and 5 in the printing system.

  An HTTP server 108 serving as a registration request receiving unit, a registration information transmitting unit, and a print data transmitting unit is a server having a function of transmitting and receiving various parameters by communicating with the printers 4 and 5 using HTTP.

  The content management AP server 109 is an application server that relays between the HTTP server 108 and other servers, and has a function of acquiring a print job from the DB server 106 and delivering it to the HTTP server 108.

  Each of the HTTP server 101, data conversion service AP server 102, data conversion server 103, XMPP server 104, printer communication AP server 105, DB server 106, account management server 107, HTTP server 108, and content management AP server 109 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, a CPU 11, a RAM 12, a ROM 13, a hard disk device (HDD) 14, an external interface (I / F) 15 and an internal interface (I / F) 16 for connecting them are provided. The ROM 13 stores a startup program. The HDD 14 stores an operating system (OS) and computer programs for realizing the functions described above. These programs are loaded into the RAM 12 and executed by the CPU 11. The external I / F 15 includes an interface for connecting to other servers and printers 4 and 5 via the Internet, an interface for connecting to peripheral devices, and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 2B, each of the printers 4 and 5 includes a controller 41, an external I / F 42, a user I / F 46, a print engine 43, and an internal I / F 47 that connects them. The controller 41 includes a CPU, a nonvolatile memory, a RAM, an ASIC, and the like, and executes processing for controlling the operation of the print engine 43 by executing a print program. Further, the controller 41 communicates with the administrator terminal 3 and the server 1 by executing a web service program stored in the non-volatile memory, registers the printers 4 and 5 in the printing system, and prints data from the server 1. Execute the process to acquire. That is, the web service program causes the controller 41 to function as a registration request unit and a registration notification unit. The print engine 43 as a registration notification means includes an actuator, a sensor, a drive circuit, and a machine part for executing printing by a known printing method such as an ink jet method or a laser method. The external I / F 42 includes an interface for connecting to the server 1 and the administrator terminal 3 via the Internet. A user I / F 46 is an operation panel including a display, operation keys, and the like as registration notification means.

2. Setup Sequence The printers 4 and 5 are registered in the server 1 so that they can be incorporated into the printing system and execute printing in response to a print request received by the server 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a setup sequence for registering the printers 4 and 5 in the server 1. In the present embodiment, a sequence for registering the printer 4 in the server 1 by operating an administrator terminal 3 composed of a PC (Personal Computer) owned by the owner of the printer 4 will be described.

  First, the administrator terminal 3 that executes a web browser or the like transmits a setup start request to the printer 4 by communicating with the printer 4 using HTTP (S100). For example, as the setup start request, the administrator terminal 3 uses the DNS mode, primary DNS, secondary DNS, proxy mode, proxy server address, and proxy server port number as HTTP in the URL of the printer 4 corresponding to the setup start request. Use to send.

  The printer 4 that has acquired the setup start request activates the registration process, and transmits registration status information to the administrator terminal 3 using HTTP (S102). Registration status information includes success / failure of reception (success / failure), DNS mode, primary DNS, secondary DNS, proxy mode, proxy server address, proxy server port number, web service mode, URL, printer 4 to server 1 Registration status (registered / unregistered), URL of the management page corresponding to the printer 4, login password of the management page corresponding to the printer 4, email address assigned to the printer 4, HTTP server 108 and printer 4 The connection state and the connection state between the XMPP server 104 and the printer 4 are included. At this stage, since the printer 4 is not registered in the server 1, registration status information including the registration status “unregistered” is transmitted to the administrator terminal 3.

  The administrator terminal 3 that has received the registration status information displays a setup status on the screen based on the received registration status information (S104). At this stage, for example, an HTML document including text and images indicating that setup is in progress is displayed on the screen of the administrator terminal 3 by the browser.

  The printer 4 that has transmitted the registration status information in response to the setup start request responds to the registration request with the model unique ID of the printer 4, the serial number of the printer 4, and the deletion flag of the existing information as a registration request corresponding to the printer 4. The URL of the HTTP server 108 is transmitted using HTTP (S106).

The server 1 that has acquired the registration request by the HTTP server 108 registers the printer 4 in the server 1 as an output device of the printing system based on the registration request (S108).
Specifically, the account management server 107 that has acquired the registration request parameter from the HTTP server 108 has an internal ID corresponding to the model ID and serial number of the printer 4, an XMPP login password, a URL of the management page, a management page password, The e-mail address is assigned to the printer 4 so as not to overlap with other printers while referring to registration information of other printers already registered in the DB server 106. By assigning an internal ID based on the model-specific ID and serial number of the printer 4, even if the serial number is assigned to the printer in a different system for each model, an internal ID that is different for each printer body is surely assigned. It can be assigned to the printer 4. The management page is an HTML document for editing these pieces of information stored in the DB server 106 using HTTP.

  Then, the account management server 107 associates the XMPP login password, the management page URL, the management page password, and the e-mail address with the model-specific ID of the printer 4 and the internal ID corresponding to the serial number, and sends the printer to the DB server 106. 4 is stored as registration information.

  Further, the account management server 107 registers the email address assigned to the printer 4 in the SMTP server 101. By registering the email address assigned to the printer 4 in the SMTP server 101, the server 1 can receive an email as a print request with the printer 4 as an output device.

  The account management server 107 registers the internal ID assigned to the printer 4 and the XMPP login password in association with the XMPP server 104. The XMPP JID for the XMPP server 101 to communicate with the printer 4 using XMPP is “internal ID” @ ”XMPP domain name of the XMPP server 101”. By registering the internal ID of the printer 4 and the XMPP login password in the XMPP server 104 as XMPP connection information, the printer 4 and the server 1 can communicate with each other using XMPP. When a plurality of XMPP servers are provided in the server 1 for load distribution, it is necessary to assign an XMPP server corresponding to the printer for each printer and register it in the DB server 106.

  The account management server 107 that registers the printer 4 in the server 1 as an output device of the printing system transmits the registration result information of the printer 4 to the printer 4 that is the transmission source of the registration request via the HTTP server 108 (S110). The registration result information includes an internal ID assigned to the printer 4, an XMPP login password, a management page URL, a management page password and an e-mail address, a domain name of the XMPP server 104, and the success or failure of receipt of the registration request (success / Failure). In addition, when providing a plurality of XMPP servers on the server 1 for load distribution, it is necessary to notify the printer 4 of the domain name of the XMPP server assigned to the printer 4, but all of the information registered in the server 1 is required. When the XMPP servers with which the printers communicate are common, it is not always necessary to notify the printer 4 of the domain name of the XMPP server.

  The printer 4 that acquired the registration result information from the HTTP server 108 is configured to store the internal ID assigned to the printer 4, the XMPP login password, the URL of the management page, the management page password and the e-mail address, and the domain name of the XMPP server 104 in a nonvolatile manner. The XMPP JID is generated from the internal ID and the XMPP domain name and stored in the memory, and the XMPP JID and the XMPP login password are transmitted to the XMPP server 104 as XMPP connection information (S112).

  The XMPP server 104 that has acquired the XMPP JID and the XMPP login password from the printer 4 establishes an XMPP connection with the printer 4 and transmits an XMPP connection result (success / failure) to the printer 4 (S114). If the XMPP connection is successful at this time, the XMPP connection between the printer 4 and the XMPP server 104 is continued until the printer 4 is powered off.

  When the XMPP connection with the server 1 is established, the printer 4 transmits printer information to the HTTP server 108 (S116). Printer information includes internal ID assigned to printer 4, communication specification version, printer menu type information (destination information), printer submenu type information (destination information), printer language information, and corresponds to printer information The URL of the HTTP server 108 to be transmitted is transmitted using HTTP. By transmitting printer information including language information and the like to the server 1, print data such as a registration report and a print report corresponding to the destination of the printer 4 can be generated in the server 1.

  When the HTTP server 101 receives printer information from the printer 4, the content management AP server 109 stores the printer information in the DB server 106 in association with the internal ID, and the reception result (success / failure) is transmitted to the printer 4 that is the transmission source. (S118). The printer information of the printer 4 is stored in the DB server 106 until the XMPP connection with the printer 4 is completed.

  The printer 4 that has received the reception result (success) of the printer information transmits a registration result notification job creation request to the HTTP server 101 (S122). The registration result notification job is a print job for printing the registration contents of the printer 4 to the server 1 by the printer 4. Specifically, the internal ID is transmitted as a registration result notification job creation request to the URL of the HTTP server 101 corresponding to the registration result notification job creation request.

  Receiving the registration result notification job creation request, the HTTP server 101 transmits the reception result (success / failure) to the printer 4 as the transmission source (S124).

  When the reception result (success) of the registration result notification job creation request is transmitted from the HTTP server 101, the server 1 generates a registration result notification job for the printer 4 to print the registration report (S126). Specifically, it is as follows. First, the content management server 107 acquires the internal ID of the printer 4 from the registration result notification job creation request, and manages the management page URL, management page password, e-mail address, etc. stored in association with the acquired internal ID. The information to be notified to the user of the user terminal 3, the model unique ID of the printer 4 stored in association with the internal ID, and the language information of the printer are acquired from the DB server 106. Subsequently, the content management server 107 displays information to be notified to the user of the administrator terminal 3 acquired from the DB server 106 in the language (for example, the printer language information of print data for printing as a registration report by the printer 4 (for example, The data conversion service AP server 102 requests the data conversion service AP server 102 to associate the job ID and model ID with Japanese if the Japanese display is set for the printer and English for the printer. Upon receiving the request, the data conversion service AP server 102 causes the data conversion server 103 to generate print data corresponding to the model-specific ID. Subsequently, the data conversion service AP server 102 acquires the print data from the data conversion server 103 and stores it in the DB server 106 in association with the internal ID and the job ID as a print job of the printer 4, and also in the printer communication AP server 105. The generation of the print job is notified together with the internal ID of the printer 4.

  The server 1 that generated the registration result notification job notifies the occurrence of a new print job to the registration request transmission source printer 4 using XMPP (S128). Specifically, the printer communication AP server 105 notified of the occurrence of a new print job notifies the printer 4 via the XMPP server 104 of print waiting information indicating that a new print job of the printer 4 has occurred. At this time, the XMPP server 104 specifies the partner of the XMPP communication based on the internal ID acquired from the printer communication AP server 105, and transmits print waiting information to the printer 4 using XMPP. The processing from when a print job is generated until print waiting information is transmitted to the printer 4 is transmitted by the server 1 autonomously because the print wait information is transmitted using XMPP. No polling from 4 is required. Therefore, the generation of the print job can be immediately notified to the printer 4, and the generation of the print job can be notified to the printer 4 with a minimum communication amount.

  The printer 4 that has acquired the print waiting information transmits the reception result (success / failure) to the XMPP server 104 using XMPP (S138).

  Subsequently, the printer 4 requests the server 1 for print job information necessary for acquiring print data (S140). Specifically, the printer 4 transmits the internal ID of the printer 4 to the URL of the HTTP server 108 corresponding to the print job information request using HTTP.

  Upon receiving the print job information request, the server 1 prints the received result (success / failure), the job ID, the URL of the HTTP server 108 corresponding to the job ID, and the type of page description language of the print data. To the printer 4 (S142). Specifically, the content management server 107 acquires the internal ID acquired by the HTTP server 108 as a request for print job information, and stores the job ID, print data, and print data page description language associated with the internal ID. Are obtained from the DB server 106 and delivered to the HTTP server 108. The HTTP server 108 generates a URL for receiving a print data acquisition request corresponding to the job ID, a reception result (success / failure), a job ID, a URL for receiving a print data acquisition request, and a page description of the print data. The language type is transmitted as print job information to the printer 4 using HTTP.

  The printer 4 that has acquired the print job information waits for the printer 4 to enter the idle state, and when it enters the idle state, requests the print data (S146). Specifically, the printer transmits the internal ID of the printer 4 via HTTP as the print data acquisition request to the URL of the HTTP server 108 that receives the print data acquisition request.

  The server 1 that has requested the print data transmits the reception result (success / failure) and the requested print data to the printer 4 using HTTP (S148). Specifically, the HTTP server 108 transmits the print data corresponding to the URL for which the print data request has been received and the reception result to the printer 4 using HTTP.

  The printer 4 that has acquired the print data interprets the print data based on the page description language of the print data, and executes printing of the registration report based on the print data (S150).

  The printer 4 that has finished printing transmits execution result information to the HTTP server 108 (S154). Specifically, the printer 4 indicates the internal ID of the printer 4, the job ID that executed printing, the execution result (success / failure) of the print job, and the reason that the execution result occurred (normal, paper jam, out of ink, etc.). , The URL is sent to the URL corresponding to the execution result information of the HTTP server 108 (S152).

  The server 1 that has acquired the execution result information in the HTTP server 108 updates the print job based on the execution result information (S156). Specifically, the HTTP server 108 transmits the reception result (success / failure) of the execution result information to the printer 4, and the content management AP server 109 determines the print job based on the execution result information received by the HTTP server 108. If the execution result indicates success, the print data corresponding to the job ID is deleted from the DB server 106.

  During execution of the above-described setup sequence, the administrator terminal 3 that has transmitted the setup start request periodically requests the printer 4 for a setup status (S130). Specifically, a setup status request is transmitted to the URL of the printer 4 corresponding to the setup status request.

  The printer 4 that has received the request for the setup status transmits registration status information to the administrator terminal 3 using HTTP (S132). The registration status information is the same as the content that the printer 4 transmits to the administrator terminal 3 in S102 immediately after acquiring the setup start request.

  The administrator terminal 3 that has received the registration status information displays the registration status on the screen based on the received registration status information, similarly to S104 (S134). At the stage where the registration of the printer 4 to the server 1 is completed, for example, an HTML document in which the URL of the management page, the management page password, the e-mail address, etc. are described is displayed on the screen of the administrator terminal 3 by the browser. .

  Note that during a series of procedures for registering the printer 4 in the server 1, registration request reception failure, XMPP connection failure, printer information reception failure, print wait information reception failure, print job information request reception Error information is transmitted from the server 1 to the administrator terminal 3 using HTTP, if a failure in receiving a print data request or a failure in receiving print job execution information occurs. For example, an HTML document describing the content of the failed process and the cause of the failure is transmitted from the server 1 to the administrator terminal 3 as error information. As a result, an error notification based on the error information is displayed by the browser on the screen of the administrator terminal 3 that has received the error information.

  In the setup sequence described above, in the process of registering the printer 4 in the server 1 while connected to the printer 4 using HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), the success or failure of receiving the registration request, Registration result information, XMPP connection result, printer information reception result, and registration result notification job creation request reception result are transmitted from the server 1 to the printer 4. These pieces of information indicate whether the HTTP connection and the XMPP connection between the printer 4 and the server 1 are successful, and whether registration necessary for the server 1 to process a print request to the printer 4 has been performed. . Therefore, the printer 4 can print or display the success / failure of the connection between the printer 4 and the server 1 and the success / failure of the registration of the printer 4 with respect to the server 1 on the display of the user I / F 46 based on such information. For this reason, whether or not the printer 4 is registered in the printing system, which is a cloud computing system that can print the text or attached file of an email by sending an email to the email address associated with the printer 4, is determined by the user. Can be surely notified.

3. Login Sequence FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a login sequence. The login sequence starts when the user presses the power button of the printer 4 to shut off the power after the setup sequence ends and then presses the power button again to turn on the power. In the login sequence, the printer 4 initializes each unit, establishes an XMPP connection with the server 1, and confirms the print job.

  Specifically, the printer 4 transmits XMPP connection information to the XMPP server 104 as in S112 of the setup sequence (S200). The XMPP server 104 that has acquired the XMPP connection information establishes an XMPP connection in the same manner as S114 (S202).

  The printer 4 that has established the XMPP connection with the server 1 transmits the printer information to the server 1 using HTTP, similarly to S116 of the setup sequence (S206). That is, the printer information is transmitted every time an XMPP connection is established with the server 1. The server that has acquired the printer information transmits the reception result to the printer 4 using HTTP as in S118, and stores the printer information until the XMPP connection is completed (S208).

  The printer 4 that has transmitted the printer information to the server 1 requests the print job information from the server 1 using HTTP, similarly to S140 of the setup sequence (S212). The server 1 that has acquired the request for the print job information transmits the print job information to the printer 4 using HTTP as in S142 (S214). The printer 4 which has acquired the print job information requests print data and executes printing if there is a print job. As described above, the printer 4 automatically acquires the print job information after the power is turned on, so that the printer 4 can execute the print job generated in the server 1 while the power is turned off immediately after the power is turned on.

4). Printing Sequence FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a printing sequence. The print sequence starts by sending an e-mail as a print request from the administrator terminal 3 or the guest terminal 2 to the registered e-mail address (S300). As will be described later, the server 1 processes the text and attached file of the electronic mail received at the registered electronic mail address as print targets. For this reason, when the user transmits an e-mail with the text to be printed or an attached file, the e-mail is processed by the server 1 as a print request. The destination e-mail address of the print request that differs for each printer is displayed on the screen of the administrator terminal 3 or printed by the printer 4 in the setup sequence as described above. Therefore, the administrative user who registered the printer 4 in the server 1 using the administrator terminal 3 and the guest user who is notified of the e-mail address from the administrative user send a print request to the printer 4 to the server 1 using an arbitrary terminal. can do. Hereinafter, it is assumed that an email as a print request is transmitted from the guest terminal 2 to an email address corresponding to the printer 4.

When an e-mail as a print request is transmitted, the server 1 generates a print job corresponding to the print request (S302). Specifically, it is as follows.
An email as a print request is received by the SMTP server 101. When the SMTP server 101 receives an e-mail addressed to the registered e-mail address, the data conversion service AP server 102 acquires and analyzes the e-mail from the SMTP server 101, and the body and the data conversion server 103 correspond to each other. The attached file is extracted as a print target, and a job ID is assigned to each file for the extracted print target. The data conversion service AP server 102 identifies the internal ID and model ID of the printer 4 corresponding to the e-mail address that is the destination of the e-mail with reference to the DB server 106. Subsequently, the data conversion AP server 102 hands over the print target in association with the job ID and the model ID to the data conversion server 103. The data conversion server 103 converts each acquired print target into print data corresponding to the model of the printer 4 based on the model ID. At this time, the data conversion server 103 generates print data in a text-specific page description language if the print target is text-based, and if the print target is an image-based print data in an image-specific page description language. Is generated. Whether the print object is a text object or an image object is determined based on the extension of the file acquired as the print object. When the print data is generated, the data conversion AP server 102 stores the print data in the DB server 106 as a print job of the printer 4 by associating it with the internal ID and job ID of the printer 4, and the printer communication AP server 105 The generation of the print job is notified together with the internal ID of the printer 4.

  The printer communication AP server 105 notified of the occurrence of the new print job notifies the printer 4 of the print waiting information using XMPP, similarly to S128 of the setup sequence (S304). The processing from receiving the print request to transmitting the print wait information to the printer 4 is transmitted by the server 1 autonomously because the print wait information is transmitted using XMPP. Does not require polling from For this reason, the generation of the print job can be immediately notified to the printer 4, and the generation of the print job can be notified to the printer 4 with the minimum communication amount.

  The printer 4 that has acquired the print waiting information transmits the reception result (success / failure) to the XMPP server 104 using XMPP, similarly to S138 of the setup sequence (S306).

  Subsequently, in the same manner as in S140, the printer 4 requests the server 1 for print job information necessary for acquiring print data using HTTP (S308). The printer 4 transmits the internal ID of the printer 4 to the URL of the HTTP server 108 corresponding to the print job information request using HTTP.

  Upon receiving the print job information request, the server 1 receives the reception result (success / failure), the job ID, the URL of the HTTP server 108 corresponding to the job ID, and the type of page description language of the print job, as in S142. Are transmitted as print job information to the printer 4 using HTTP (S310). When the print target is composed of a plurality of files, the job ID and URL for each file are transmitted to the printer 4 as print job information.

  The printer 4 that has acquired the print job information waits for the printer 4 to be in an idle state, and, when in the idle state, transmits a URL for accepting a print data acquisition request to the HTTP server 108 in the same manner as in S146. Is requested (S312). At this time, if the acquired print job information includes a plurality of job IDs, the printer 4 requests transmission of print data for each job ID.

  The HTTP server 108 requested to send the print job uses the HTTP to send the reception result (success / failure) and the print data associated with the URL for which the print data acquisition request has been received, using HTTP. (S314).

  The printer 4 that has acquired the print data executes printing based on the print data (S316), as in S150.

  The printer 4 that has finished printing transmits the execution result information of the print job to the HTTP server 108 as in S154 (S318).

  The server 1 that has acquired the execution result information in the HTTP server 108 updates the print job based on the execution result information, similarly to S156 (S320).

  Subsequently, the server 1 transmits the execution result (success / failure) of the print request by e-mail to the guest terminal 2 that is the transmission source of the print request (S322). Specifically, the content management server 107 uses the text indicating the completion or failure of printing based on the execution result information and the print target for which printing has been completed or failed as the body, and the destination is the sender of the print request. An e-mail for the guest terminal 2 is generated, and the generated e-mail is transmitted to the guest terminal 2 via the SMTP server 101.

  When the guest terminal 2 receives the e-mail (S324), the user of the guest terminal 2 can know the processing result of the print request.

  The processing from S312 to S324 is executed for each print job in the order stored in the DB server 106. For example, in the printer 4, the acquired print job information includes a job ID corresponding to the e-mail body and a job ID corresponding to the attached file “A”, and the print job corresponding to the e-mail body is preceded by the DB server 106. Is stored in the HTTP server 108, the first URL corresponding to the e-mail body is transmitted to the HTTP server 108 to obtain the print data corresponding to the e-mail body, printing is performed, and the execution result information is sent to the HTTP server 108. Send to. When the HTTP server 108 receives the execution result information, the content management AP server 109 deletes the print job corresponding to the e-mail text from the DB server 106 based on the execution result information acquired from the HTTP server 108. Then, the content management AP server 109 transmits the completion of the print job corresponding to the e-mail text to the guest terminal 2 via the SMTP server 101 by e-mail. Subsequently, the printer 4 acquires the print data corresponding to the attached file “A” by transmitting the second URL corresponding to the attached file “A” to the HTTP server 108, executes printing, and displays the execution result information. It transmits to the HTTP server 108. When the HTTP server 108 receives the execution result information, the content management AP server 109 deletes the print job corresponding to the attached file from the DB server 106 based on the execution result information acquired from the HTTP server 108. Then, the content management AP server 109 transmits the completion of the print job corresponding to the attached file to the guest terminal 2 via the SMTP server 101 by e-mail.

5. Other Embodiments The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
For example, in the above embodiment, the example in which the administrator terminal 3 is operated to register the printer 4 in the server 1 has been described. However, the user operates the user I / F 46 of the printer 4 to register the printer 4 in the server 1. Also good.

  When all the processes up to S320 described above are completed for all print jobs generated in response to the print request received from the guest terminal 2, the server 1 sends a print request to the guest terminal 2 that is the transmission source of the print request. The entire execution result (success / failure) may be transmitted by one e-mail.

  Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the printer 4 automatically executes the print job when receiving the print wait information from the server 1. For example, the printer 4 receives the print wait information from the user I / F 46 of the printer 4 that has received the print wait information. Information indicating the presence may be displayed, and the printer 4 may execute the print job after waiting for an instruction to execute the print job by the user.

  In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the server 1 is configured by a plurality of physically independent server computers has been described. However, the function of the server 1 can be realized by a single server computer.

  As for the communication protocol between the printer 4 and the server 1, the print waiting information is a push-type protocol (a protocol that does not require a request from the client to execute processing from the server to the client) from the server 1 to the printer 4. As long as it can be transmitted, a push-type communication protocol different from XMPP may be used, and a part of communication using HTTP is another pull-type communication protocol (the processing from the server to the client always responds to the request from the client. The protocol can be replaced with an XMPP or other push-type protocol.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Server, 2 ... Guest terminal, 3 ... Administrator terminal, 4 ... Printer, 5 ... Printer, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... RAM, 13 ... ROM, 14 ... HDD, 15 ... External I / F, 16 ... Internal I / F, 41 ... Controller, 42 ... External I / F, 43 ... Print engine, 46 ... User I / F, 101 ... SMTP server, 102 ... Data conversion service AP server, 103 ... Data conversion server, 104 ... XMPP server, 105 ... Printer communication AP server, 106 ... DB server, 107 ... Account management server, 108 ... HTTP server, 109 ... Content management AP server.

Claims (3)

A server that receives a print request for a specific printer by e-mail, generates print data corresponding to the specific printer based on the print request, and acquires the print data from the server and based on the print data A printing system comprising a plurality of printers for performing printing,
The server
Registration request receiving means for receiving a registration request using HTTP;
Registration means for allocating XMPP connection information for connection with the transmission source of the registration request using XMPP and an e-mail address for receiving the print request to the transmission source of the registration request based on the registration request;
Registration information transmitting means for transmitting the e-mail address and the XMPP connection information to the transmission source of the registration request using HTTP;
XMPP connection means for receiving the XMPP connection information, and for connecting to the source of the XMPP connection information based on the XMPP connection information using XMPP;
Print data generating means for generating the print data based on the print request;
Print wait information transmitting means for transmitting print wait information to the transmission source of the XMPP connection information by using XMPP when the print data is generated;
Print data transmission means for receiving the print data acquisition request and transmitting the print data to a transmission source of the print data acquisition request in response to the print data acquisition request;
With
Each of the plurality of printers is
Registration request means for transmitting the registration request including identification information of the printer and the XMPP connection information to the server;
Registration notifying means for printing or displaying the connection with the server and the success or failure of registration with the server based on the information received from the registration information transmitting means and the XMPP connection means;
With
Printing system. The registration request receiving unit or the XMPP connection unit acquires language information set in the printer from the printer,
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the print data generation unit generates the print data based on a language corresponding to the language information. Registration request receiving means for receiving a registration request using HTTP;
Registration means for allocating XMPP connection information for connecting to the registration request transmission source and XMPP and an e-mail address for receiving a print request to the registration request transmission source based on the registration request;
Registration information transmitting means for transmitting the e-mail address and the XMPP connection information to the transmission source of the registration request using HTTP;
XMPP connection means for receiving the XMPP connection information, and for connecting to the source of the XMPP connection information based on the XMPP connection information using XMPP;
Print data generating means for generating print data based on the print request;
Print wait information transmitting means for transmitting print wait information to the transmission source of the XMPP connection information by using XMPP when the print data is generated;
Print data transmission means for receiving the print data acquisition request and transmitting the print data to a transmission source of the print data acquisition request in response to the print data acquisition request;
A printer connected to a server comprising
Registration request means for transmitting the registration request including identification information of the printer and the XMPP connection information to the server;
Registration notifying means for printing or displaying the connection with the server and the success or failure of registration with the server based on the information received from the registration information transmitting means and the XMPP connection means;
Printer with.

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