JP2016045575A - Printing system, information processor, control method of information processor, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system that prevents a combination of a plug-in and a printer which has failed in printing from being displayed as an alternative.SOLUTION: This printing system comprises a printer and an information processor communicable with the printer via a network. The printing system further comprises a print module that is managed by the information processor and performs a retrieval requirement for the printer and a print instruction for the printer; notification means for giving notice of a result of print processing performed according to the print instruction; management means for managing, as a history, combinations of printers and print modules and results of print processing given notice of by the notification means; and display means for displaying a result of response to the retrieval requirement, reflecting the history of combinations based on the results of the past print processing managed by the management means.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 11

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, an information processing apparatus, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and a program, and more particularly to a user interface in the printing system.

  In recent years, printing from a mobile terminal such as a smartphone has become popular. The portable terminal searches for a printer on the network at the time of printing, and the user can specify and print a desired printer from the searched printers. A plurality of software (hereinafter referred to as plug-ins) for managing printer search and printing are installed in the mobile terminal. At the time of printing, the operating system of the portable terminal (hereinafter referred to as the OS) makes a search request to all installed plug-ins, and displays a list of printers to the user based on the search results returned from the plug-ins. To specify. Thereby, for example, when one printer is searched by a plurality of plug-ins, it seems that a plurality of printers exist. Also disclosed is a technique for presenting the processing status of a print job and the operating status of a printer to the user by icon display (Patent Document 1).

JP-A-8-305520

  However, since there are a wide variety of plug-ins that can be installed in the mobile terminal, there are some poor-quality plug-ins in some cases. There is also a plug-in that returns the printer as a search result to the OS even though the printer cannot actually print. In these cases, the user may select a plug-in that cannot be printed at the time of printing, and there is a possibility that the user cannot actually print.

  Further, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, there is a technique for displaying a print job processing state, a printer operation state, and the like to a user. However, since it is assumed that the plug-in is operating correctly, for example, it is not effective to apply to a plug-in of poor quality (not operating correctly). In addition, such a plug-in may acquire and display information asynchronously with the user's print instruction, and is appropriate in situations where the search result printer is different each time, such as a search request from a mobile terminal. May not be displayed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing system that prevents a combination of a plug-in and a printer whose printing has failed from being displayed as options.

  In order to solve the above problems, a printing system of the present invention is a printing system including a printing apparatus and an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with the printing apparatus via a network, and is managed by the information processing apparatus. A printing module that issues a search request to the printing device and a printing instruction to the printing device; a notification unit that notifies a result of a printing process performed on the printing command; a combination of the printing device and the printing module; A management unit that manages the result of the printing process notified by the notification unit as a history, and a response result to the search request reflects a combination history based on the result of the past printing process managed by the management unit. Display means for displaying.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing system that prevents a combination of a plug-in that failed to print and a printer from being displayed as choices. When selecting a plug-in during printing, a plug-in that cannot be printed is selected. The convenience for the user is improved.

1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a portable terminal. It is a figure which shows the user interface of a portable terminal. It is a figure which shows the printer selection screen in a portable terminal. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing for displaying a printer selection screen. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing for displaying a printer selection screen. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of a plug-in. It is a flowchart which shows the process at the time of printing. It is a figure which shows the print feedback list which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the user interface of a portable terminal. It is a flowchart which shows the process which displays a list of detection results. It is a figure which shows the printer selection screen which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the print feedback list which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the printer selection screen which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
First, the configuration of the printing system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a printing system according to the present embodiment. The printing system includes a portable terminal 4000, a printer A 8000, a printer B 8500, a printer C 9000, and a printer D 9500 connected to a network 1000. The network 1000 has various forms such as the Internet and an intranet, but any form may be used as long as each is connected so as to be able to communicate. The portable terminal 4000 may be an information processing apparatus such as a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC. Each printer is a printer such as a laser printer, an ink jet printer, or a thermal printer, and may be a printer having other functions. In the present embodiment, four printers have been described. However, the number of printers is not limited to this, and may be four or more or four or less.

  Next, the configuration of the mobile terminal 4000 according to the present embodiment will be described using the block diagram of FIG. First, referring to FIG. 2A, the mobile terminal 4000 is entirely controlled by a control unit 4050 including a CPU 4051 and a memory 4052. The display unit 4010 is an output device such as a display, and the operation unit 4020 is an input device such as a touch panel and various buttons. The network communication unit 4030 is connected to the network 1000 through communication such as a 3G line or Wi-Fi (registered trademark) to input / output data to / from an external device. The short-range wireless communication unit 4040 performs short-range wireless communication by NFC (Near Field Communication) or the like to input / output data to / from an external device. The storage unit 4100 stores programs such as various applications (hereinafter referred to as applications) 4110 and OS 4120. The OS 4120 is software that controls the basic operation of the mobile terminal 4000. In the present embodiment, the processing of the portable terminal 4000 is realized by loading the program stored in the storage unit 4100 into the memory 4052 in the control unit 4050 and executing it by the CPU 4051. The application 4110 is installed on the portable terminal 4000 and has a function of displaying / printing content such as a photo, a document, and a Web page via the printing system 4130. A plug-in X4140, a plug-in Y4150, and a plug-in Z4160 are printing modules having functions such as printer search, print job generation, and printer status acquisition, and communicate information between the printing system 4130 and the target printer. .

  Each plug-in can be installed / uninstalled as necessary, and the plug-in management unit 4134 manages the installation state of the plug-in. Here, the plug-in will be described using the plug-in X4140 as an example with reference to FIG. The printer search unit 4141 searches for a printer on the network 1000 using multicast or broadcast. The protocol uses Service Location Protocol (SLP), Multicast-DNS (Domain Name System) or the like, but is not limited to this, and may be different for each plug-in. The print processing unit 4142 performs rendering on a page description language (PDL) or image that can be printed by the printer A 8000 or the like. The plug-in Y4150 and the plug-in Z4160 have the same configuration.

  The printing system 4130 includes a UI unit 4131, a plug-in control unit 4132, a communication unit 4133, a plug-in management unit 4134, a detection result receiving unit 4135, and a print feedback list 4136, as shown in FIG. Including. The UI unit 4131 displays a user interface in the printing system 4130. The plug-in control unit 4132 controls the operation of the plug-in installed on the mobile terminal 4000. The communication unit 4133 performs network communication with the printer using a network communication unit 4030 (for example, Wi-Fi (registered trademark)). The plug-in management unit 4134 manages information on plug-ins installed on the mobile terminal 4000. The detection result receiving unit 4135 receives a notification of the result of detecting the printer on the network by the plug-in. The print feedback list 4136 will be described later.

  FIG. 3 is a screen example of the application 4110 that implements the function of the printing system 4130. First, referring to FIG. 3A, when the setting button 4201 is pressed on the screen of the application 4110 on which the content to be printed is displayed, a context menu 4202 is displayed. When the user taps “print” from the context menu 4202, the UI unit 4131 of the printing system 4130 is called and a print setting screen 4203 shown in FIG. 3B is displayed.

  Referring to FIG. 3B, the print setting screen 4203 includes a target printer display area 4204, a print setting area 4205, and a print button 4206. The user can print the content data of the application 4110 on the printer displayed in the target printer display area 4204 by tapping a print button 4206 after confirming the desired print settings in the print setting area 4205. In the present embodiment, the printer A8000 with the plug-in X4140 is selected. When the output destination is changed to another printer, the target printer display area 4204 is tapped to display a printer selection screen as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, an operation until the target printer display area 4204 is tapped and a printer selection screen is displayed will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a printer selection screen in the mobile terminal. This selection screen is displayed on the display unit 4010 when the target printer display area 4204 is tapped. On the selection screen, a list of combinations of printers and plug-ins (options 4501 to 4504) is displayed. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an outline of an operation showing processing for displaying a printer selection screen in the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, a process when outputting from the application 4110 to the printer A 8000 will be described as an example.

  First, the application 4110 issues a print instruction (1: step S101). Then, the printing system 4130 instructs all plug-ins (plug-in X4140 to plug-in Z4160) installed in the mobile terminal 4000 to search for a printer (2: step S102). Note that the search instruction (search request) in step S102 is executed by tapping the target printer display area 4204 on the print setting screen 4203. Next, each plug-in makes an inquiry to the printer on the network 1000 (3: step S103). In response to the inquiry from each plug-in (plug-in X4140 to plug-in Z4160), the printer A 8000 returns a response indicating that printing is possible (4: step S104). Each plug-in that has received the response from the printer A 8000 notifies the printing system 4130 of information about the printer A 8000 as a detection result (5: step S105). The printing system 4130 displays the detection result received from each plug-in on the display unit 4010 on the UI of the printer selection screen shown in FIG. 4 (6: step S106).

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing detailed processing of the printing system 4130 from when the target printer display area 4204 is tapped on the print setting screen 4203 to when the printer selection screen is displayed. The processing according to the present embodiment is realized by loading a program recorded in the storage unit 4100 into the memory 4052 and executing it by the CPU 4051.

  First, the target printer display area 4204 is tapped on the print setting screen 4203 (step S201). Next, the plug-in control unit 4132 acquires a list of plug-ins already installed in the portable terminal 4000 via the plug-in management unit 4134 (step S202). Next, the plug-in control unit 4132 calls the printer search unit 4141 for the installed plug-in (step S203).

  Here, the process of step S203 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the search process of the plug-in X4140. In the present embodiment, the process of FIG. 6 and the process of FIG. 7 are executed asynchronously. First, when the plug-in search process is called from the plug-in control unit 4132, the printer search unit 4141 broadcasts a printer inquiry packet (step S301). Next, after transmitting the inquiry packet, the printer search unit 4141 enters a response reception standby state (step S302). Next, the printer search unit 4141 determines whether or not a timeout has been reached (step S303). That is, it is determined whether or not a certain time has passed since the standby state. If it is determined that the timeout has not been reached (No), it is determined whether a response from the printer has been received (step S304). If it is determined that a response from the printer has been received (Yes), the process proceeds to step S305, the detection result is notified to the printing system 4130 together with the printer identifier (step S305), and then the process returns to step S302. Here, the printer identifier is an identifier that can uniquely identify a physical printer, such as an IP address of the printer.

  After step S302 to step S305 are continued until it is determined in step S303 that the timeout has been reached, that is, if it is determined in step S303 that the timeout has been reached (Yes), the plug-in X4140 search process Exit. Although the IP address is taken as an example of the printer identifier, the printer serial number is not limited to this, as long as the printer can be uniquely identified. Alternatively, a MAC address or UUID (Universal Unique ID) may be used.

  Returning to FIG. 6, next, the plug-in control unit 4132 determines whether or not search processing for all plug-ins has been called (step S204). When it is determined that all plug-in search processes have been called (Yes), the process proceeds to step S205, and the detection result receiving unit 4135 enters a reception waiting state for detection result notification from the plug-in (step S205). Next, the detection result receiving unit 4135 determines whether or not a timeout has been reached (step S206). When it is determined that the timeout has not been reached (No), the process proceeds to step S207, and the detection result receiving unit 4135 determines whether or not a notification of the detection result has been received from the plug-in (step S207). Specifically, if the detection result receiving unit 4135 has received the result notified by the plug-in in step S305 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 7, it is determined that the detection result has been received. If the detection result receiving unit 4135 has received the notification of the detection result (Yes), the process proceeds to step S208, and the printer of the detection result is displayed in a list on the printer selection screen shown in FIG. 4 (step S208).

  The printing system 4130 then continues from step S205 to step S208 until it is determined in step S206 that the timeout has been reached, and then ends the printer selection screen display process. That is, if it is determined in step S206 that the timeout has been reached (Yes), the printer selection screen display process is terminated.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing of the printing system 4130 when the print button 4206 is pressed by the user. First, the printing system 4130 instructs the printer displayed in the target printer display area 4204 to perform print processing using the plug-in displayed in the target printer display area 4204 (step S401). Specifically, the plug-in control unit 4132 of the printing system 4130 instructs the plug-in print processing unit 4142 to perform printing. Next, the printing system 4130 determines whether the plug-in has normally printed (step S402). Specifically, the plug-in control unit 4132 determines whether or not printing has been normally performed based on a response from the plug-in print processing unit 4142. If the printing is successful (Yes), the process is terminated. On the other hand, if printing has failed (No), the combination of the used plug-in and the printer identifier is additionally registered in the print feedback list 4136 as a history (step S403). Then, the process ends.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the print feedback list 4136. The print feedback list 4136 is stored in the print system 4130 of the storage unit 4100, and is managed by the plug-in management unit 4134. The print feedback list 4136 includes a printer name 4611, a printer identifier 4612, a plug-in name 4613, and feedback 4614. In the present embodiment, it is registered in line 4601 that printing has failed in the past when printing is performed on the printer A 8000 with the printer identifier 192.168.0.20 using the plug-in Z4160. This is added in step S403. Similarly, it is registered in line 4602 that printing has failed in the past when printing was performed on the printer D9500 with the printer identifier 192.168.0.23 using the plug-in Z4160.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI for notifying the user that printing has failed. In the present embodiment, when printing has not been performed normally, additional registration is immediately performed in the print feedback list 4136. For example, a UI as shown in FIG. 10 may be displayed. In the UI 4700 of FIG. 10, after displaying the name of the printer that failed to print and the plug-in name, the user is inquired whether or not to list this printer at the next printing ("Yes" button 4701). If the user presses a “Yes” button 4701, the printing system 4130 performs additional registration in the print feedback list 4136 in step S403. On the other hand, when the “NO” button 4702 is pressed, the printing system 4130 does not register in the print feedback list 4136.

  Next, processing when the printing system 4130 displays a list of detection results in step S208 of FIG. 6 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the printing system 4130 reads the print feedback list 4136 (step S501). Next, with reference to the read print feedback list 4136 (step S502), it is determined whether or not the combination of the printer and the plug-in found as the detection result this time has already been registered (step S503). If it is not already registered in the print feedback list 4136 (No), it can be determined that printing has not failed in the past, so the detection result is displayed as a list on the printer selection screen as usual (step S504). On the other hand, when the combination of the printer and the plug-in as the detection result of this time has already been registered (Yes), it can be determined that printing has failed in the past, so the detection result is not displayed in a list (step S505). As described above, the history of the print feedback list 4136 is reflected to display the detection result as a list.

  A screen displayed on display unit 4010 of portable terminal 4000 in this case will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 12A, only the combination of the printer A8000 and the plug-in X4140 and the combination of the printer A8000 and the plug-in Y4150 that are not registered in the print feedback list 4136 are displayed as options. As described above, by not displaying the combination of the printer A8000 and the plug-in Z4160 that failed in the previous printing on the printer selection screen at the time of printing, there is an effect that the user does not mistakenly select the same combination option again. . On the other hand, FIG. 12B may show a method of notifying the user that the previous printing failed, although the combination of the printer and the plug-in is displayed as shown in the option 4523. Even in this case, it is possible to prevent the user from selecting a combination of a printer and a plug-in that cannot be printed by mistake.

  In the present embodiment, the print feedback list 4136 is stored in the storage unit 4100 of the mobile terminal 4000. However, the convenience can be improved by enabling download from another mobile terminal other than the mobile terminal 4000. Can do. That is, the mobile terminal 4000 downloads print feedback list data from the outside via the network communication unit 4030 so that information can be added to its own print feedback list 4136. In this way, even when the mobile terminal 4000 is used for the first time, the print feedback of another mobile terminal can be used effectively. Furthermore, the convenience can be further improved by configuring so that it can be downloaded from an external server. Generally, by preparing a combination of a printer name and a plug-in name that cannot be printed in the server, even a user who uses the mobile terminal 4000 for the first time can prevent a printing failure caused by selecting a printer having the above combination in advance. be able to. In this case, only the printer name 4611, the plug-in name 4613, and the feedback 4614 excluding the printer identifier 4612 are downloaded from the print feedback list shown in FIG. At this time, the identifier of the printer may store “arbitrary”, and the corresponding combination may be performed without enumerating it on the printer selection screen regardless of the identifier.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment, the case where only the feedback of “printing failure” is displayed to the user has been described. In the second embodiment, a case where other feedback is also presented to the user will be described. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a print feedback list 4136 according to this embodiment. In the print feedback list 4136, in addition to “printing failure” feedback (line 4803 and line 4806), “printing success” (line 4801 and line 4805) and “color processing problem” (line 4802 and line 4804). ) Is also stored. The printing system 4130 registers feedback in the print feedback list 4136 based on the status after the printing process. Specifically, when printing is normally completed, “printing success” is additionally registered in the print feedback list 4136. Further, when the plug-in control unit 4132 of the printing system 4130 receives a notification from the plug-in print processing unit 4142 that there is a problem with color processing, it is added to the print feedback list 4136 as “There is a problem with color processing”. sign up.

  FIG. 14 shows a printer selection screen according to the present embodiment. Since the processing performed by the printing system 4130 from when the target printer display area 4204 is tapped on the print setting screen 4203 to when the printer selection screen is displayed is the same processing as in the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted. To do. When displaying the list of detection result printers in step S208 of FIG. 6, when the print feedback list 4136 shown in FIG. 13 is read and there is a combination of detection result printers and plug-ins, the detection results are listed. The contents are presented to the user. Specifically, when the plug-in X returns the printer A as a detection result, the line 4801 of the print feedback list 4136 is referred to. Since the feedback is “printing success”, a list is displayed on the printer selection screen together with information “successful printing last time” in option 4531. In this way, when the printing system 4130 stores the feedback and displays the printer selection screen, the user can refer to it when selecting the printer. As a result, it is possible to prevent the user from accidentally printing or selecting a combination of a printer and a plug-in that has a problem in color processing (a printing error has occurred).

  In addition to the types of feedback described in the first and second embodiments, it is possible to improve convenience by displaying various feedbacks. For example, it is conceivable to add feedback when the printing time is very long with respect to the input data amount or evaluation of print quality by the user to the type of feedback.

(Other examples)
The present invention includes an apparatus or system configured by appropriately combining the above-described embodiments and a method thereof. Here, the present invention is an apparatus or system that is a main body that executes one or more software (programs) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments. Further, a method for realizing the above-described embodiment executed by the apparatus or system is also one aspect of the present invention. The program is supplied to the system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and the program is read and executed by one or more computers (CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus. That is, as one aspect of the present invention, the program itself or various storage media readable by a computer storing the program are included. The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Moreover, although preferable embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to these embodiment, A various deformation | transformation and change are possible within the range of the summary.

Claims (8)

A printing system comprising: a printing apparatus; and an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with the printing apparatus via a network,
A printing module that is managed by the information processing apparatus and performs a search request to the printing apparatus and a printing instruction to the printing apparatus;
Notification means for notifying the result of the printing process performed for the print instruction;
A combination of the printing apparatus and the printing module, a management unit that manages a result of the printing process notified by the notification unit as a history;
Display means for displaying a result of a response to the search request by reflecting a history of combinations based on the result of the past print processing managed by the management means;
A printing system comprising: When the display means displays a result of the response to the search request, if there is a combination that is not managed by the management means in the history of the response, the combination is added to the response The printing system according to claim 1, wherein a result is displayed. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the display unit does not display the combination in which the printing has failed when there is a combination in which printing has failed in the past printing process in the history. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the display unit further displays an inquiry as to whether or not to display a combination in which the printing has failed at the next printing. . In the history, when the printing has failed in the past printing process or a printing error has occurred in the history, the display means the printing failure or the content of the printing error, the printing has failed or the printing error has occurred. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing system is displayed together with the combination. An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with a printing apparatus via a network,
A print module for performing a search request to the printing apparatus and a printing instruction to the printing apparatus;
A combination of the printing device and the printing module, a management unit that manages a result of the printing process notified by the printing device as a history;
Display means for displaying a result of a response to the search request notified from the printing apparatus by reflecting a history of combinations based on the result of the past printing process managed by the management means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: A control method of an information processing apparatus comprising a print module for performing a search request to a printing apparatus and a printing instruction to the printing apparatus, and capable of communicating with the printing apparatus via a network,
A management step of managing the combination of the printing apparatus and the printing module, and the result of the printing process notified from the printing apparatus as a history;
A display step of displaying a result of a response to the search request notified from the printing device by reflecting a history of combinations based on the result of the past printing process managed in the management step;
A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising:   The program for functioning a computer as each means of the printing system of any one of Claims 1-5.

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