JP3480284B2 - Print job processing method in network system, printer server, and network printer - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the technical field of a network system including a network, a printer connected to the network, a printer server connected to the network, and a large number of computers connected to the network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent spread of LANs, it has become common to connect a large number of computers to a relatively small number of printers via a network and share the printers with a large number of users.

Computer users spend a lot of time editing documents, creating drawings, calculating spreadsheets, creating programs, etc., and the frequency of printouts is far less than these times. Can be said to be extremely rational.

Further, it is extremely rational from the viewpoints of saving the printer installation space, easiness of maintenance, printer installation cost and the like.

Such a system is based on the premise that the printer will not be overly occupied by one user and will be used alternately at appropriate times.

However, such a premise is not always met, and it is often found that one user prints out a large number of sheets at a time.

In such a situation, even if another user tries to print out, the printer is monopolized by the printout of this one user, and thus the printout of the other user is executed forever. However, many users will be kept waiting for a long time.

[0008] Printout requests tend to be concentrated on a specific day, a specific day of the week, and a specific time zone. If a large amount of printouts as described above are made especially in the above time zone, the work of other users will be performed. It will cause a great hindrance to.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems.

[0010]

The above problems can be solved by the invention having the following constitution.

[First Invention] A network, a plurality of computers connected to the network, a printer connected to the network, a printer connected to the network, receiving a print job from the computer, and receiving the print job from the computer. In a print job processing method in a network system including a printer server transmitting to the printer, the print server receives a print job from the computer when the print job does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time. A print job processing method in a network system, wherein the print job is transmitted to the printer only.

[Second Invention] A network, a plurality of computers connected to the network, a printer, and a printer connected to the network, receiving a print job from the computer, and transmitting the print job to the printer. In a print job processing method in a network system including a printer server transmitting to a printer connected to this printer server,
In the network system, the printer server sends the print job to the printer only when the print job received from the computer does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time. Print job processing method.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print job processing method in a network system comprising a network, a plurality of computers connected to the network, and a printer connected to the network,
A print job processing method in a network system, wherein the printer executes the print job only when the print job received from the computer does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time. .

[Fourth Invention] A printer server connected to a network, wherein when the print server receives a print job from a computer connected to the network, the print job is executed for each time zone at the current time. A printer server, wherein the print job is transmitted to the printer only when the number of prints set in is not exceeded.

[Fifth Invention] A network printer connected to a network, wherein when the network printer receives a print job from the computer connected to the network, the print job is executed every time zone at the present time. A network printer, which prints out the above print job only when the number of prints set in is not exceeded.

[0016]

According to the present invention, by adopting each of the above-mentioned configurations, the printer server is configured so that the print job received from the computer does not exceed the number of printable sheets set for each time zone at the current time. Send this print job to. Therefore, by making the setting for the number of printable pages reasonable,
Since a large number of printouts are not performed during a busy time, it is possible to avoid a situation where one user occupies the printer and a large number of users cannot print out.

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, the printer outputs the print job received from the computer only when the print job does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time. .
For this reason, by setting the number of printouts to be appropriate, a large number of printouts cannot be performed during a crowded time period, so that one user occupies the printer and many users cannot print out. You can avoid the situation.

The printer in the invention disclosed in this specification may be a multi-function type digital copying machine having a printer function capable of obtaining image information from the outside and printing it. It does not exclude.

[0019]

FIG. 1 shows a network system, a printer server, and a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a state in which a computer 1, a printer server 3, and a printer 2 are connected to a network NW.

When the user of the computer 1 sends a printout command, the print job is received by the printer server 3 via the network NW.
It is transmitted from the printer server 3 to the printer 2. The print jobs received by the printer 2 are sequentially printed out.

The number of sheets that can be printed out at one time depends on the day and the time zone, and is determined based on the table described later.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the main part of the operation of the printer server 3 in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a specific day-pattern name table showing a list of specific days and a printout upper limit number pattern to be applied on that day. This table is prepared in advance in the printer server 3 as a table. There is.

FIG. 4 is a day-of-day-pattern name table showing a day of the week and a printout upper limit number pattern to be applied to the day of the week. The table is prepared in advance in the printer server 3.

The specific day-pattern name table of FIG. 3 takes precedence over the day-of-day pattern name table of FIG. That is, if the day is a specific day, the pattern name of the specific day is applied regardless of the day of the week.

FIGS. 5, 6, and 7 show the specific contents of the pattern names of FIGS. 3 and 4, and in this example, the time shown for pattern A, pattern B, and pattern C is shown. It is a obi-limit number of sheets table.

In step S200, when the printer server 3 starts, the initial process (not shown) is completed and the process goes to step S201. In step S201, it is checked whether a print job is about to be sent.

If a print job is about to be sent, the process proceeds to step S202. In step S202, it is found from the table of FIG. 3 whether the day falls on the specific day, and if it falls on the specific day (S202, YES).
In step S203, a pattern name to which the day should be applied is selected from the specific day-pattern name table of FIG.

The day does not correspond to a specific day (S202,
If NO, then in step S204, the pattern name of the day is selected from the day-pattern name table of FIG.

Since the pattern name has been selected in step S203 or step S204, step S
In 205, the limit number of sheets (printable sheet number) at the current time is read by referring to the time zone-limited number table of FIG. 5, FIG. 6, or FIG. 7 for the pattern corresponding to this pattern name.

In step S206, the number of received print jobs is confirmed, and the confirmed number is compared with the above-mentioned limit number in step S207.

As a result of the comparison, if the number of print jobs is smaller than the limit number, the process proceeds to step S208, and the print job received here is printed out.

As a result of the comparison, if the number of print jobs is larger than the limit number, it is not permitted to print out at present. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S209, and the received print job is stored in the storage device of the printer server 3. (Shown).

When the process of step S208 or step S209 is completed, the process returns to step S201.

When the print job is not about to be sent in step S201, it is checked in step S210 whether or not the print job is stored in the storage device, and there is the print job (YES).
In this case, the process proceeds to step S211, and it is checked here whether the print job can be printed out at the present time.

When this check is "YES", the process proceeds to step S208. Here, the print job is output, and the process returns to step S201 again.

In step S210 and step S211, if "NO", the process similarly returns to step S201, and the above-described operation is repeated.

By operating as described above, in the present embodiment, the computer on the network is restricted from printing a large number of sheets, and the limited number of sheets is set according to a specific day, a day of the week, and a time zone. Since they are different, even if the print jobs are concentrated in a time zone when many print requests are made, many users are not kept waiting.

Since it is possible to print out with almost no limitation during a time period when the printing work is small, a large amount of printouts can be performed by selecting a time period.

[Other Embodiments] In the example of FIG. 1, the print job received by the printer server 3 is sent to the printer 2 via the network NW again.
Are different in that the print job received by the printer server 3 is directly sent to the printer 2. In this example, the print job received by the printer server 3 is sent to the printer 2 without passing through the network again, so that the network NW is not loaded and the hardware and software for network connection are not required. There are merits. It is obvious that the method invention can be applied to this example in the same manner as in the above-mentioned embodiment, and since it overlaps, it will not be described further.

FIG. 9 shows an example in which the printer 2 itself has a printer server function, and it is clear that the method of the present invention can be implemented in this example as well.
Since it overlaps, no further explanation will be given.

[0042]

Only when the print job received from the computer by the printer server does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time,
Send this print job to the printer.

Therefore, by appropriately setting the number of printable sheets, a large number of printouts are not performed in a crowded time zone. Therefore, in the present invention, the printer is occupied by one user. It is possible to avoid a situation in which a large number of users cannot print out.

Further, the printer outputs this print job only when the print job received from the computer does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time.

Therefore, by setting the number of printable sheets to be appropriate, a large number of printouts are not performed during a crowded period, so that the present invention occupies one user's printer. It is possible to avoid a situation in which a large number of users cannot print out.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a printer server and a printer, and a state in which a computer 1, a printer server 3, and a printer 2 are connected to a network NW.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flowchart showing a main part of the operation of the printer server 3 in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a specific day-pattern name table showing a list of specific days and a printout upper limit number pattern to be applied on that day, and is a diagram showing a table prepared in advance in the printer server 3;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a day of the week and a day of the week-pattern name table indicating patterns of upper limit printout numbers to be applied to the day of the week, which table is prepared in advance in the printer server 3;

5 is a time zone-limited number table showing specific contents of pattern A in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a time zone-limited number table showing specific contents of pattern B in FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 7 is a time zone-limited number table showing specific contents of pattern C in FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a network system in which a print job received by the printer server 3 is directly sent to the printer 2.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a network system including printers having a printer server function in the printer 2 itself.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 computer 2 printer 3 Printer server

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-9-163118 (JP, A) JP-A-7-38683 (JP, A) JP-A-7-319651 (JP, A) JP-A-8- 263236 (JP, A) Actual development Sho 62-69252 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/12

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A network, a plurality of computers connected to the network, a printer connected to the network, a printer connected to the network, receiving a print job from the computer, and transmitting the print job to the printer. In the method of processing a print job in a network system including a printer server, the print server receives the print job from the computer only when the print job does not exceed the printable number set for each time zone at the current time. A print job processing method in a network system, characterized in that the print job is transmitted to a printer. 2. A network, a plurality of computers connected to the network, a printer, a printer, which is connected to the network, receives a print job from the computer, and sends the print job to the printer and the printer server. In a print job processing method in a network system including a printer server transmitting to a connected printer, the print server receives a print job exceeding the printable number of sheets set for each time zone at the current time. A print job processing method in a network system, which transmits the print job to the printer only when there is no print job. 3. A print job processing method in a network system comprising a network, a plurality of computers connected to the network, and a printer connected to the network, wherein the printer receives the print job received from the computer. A print job processing method in a network system, which executes this print job only when the number of printable sheets set for each time zone at the current time is not exceeded. 4. A printer server connected to a network, wherein when the print server receives a print job from a computer connected to the network, the print job is set for each time zone at the current time. A printer server, wherein the print job is transmitted to the printer only when the number of prints is not exceeded. 5. A network printer connected to a network, wherein when the network printer receives a print job from a computer connected to the network, the print job is set for each time zone at the current time. A network printer, which prints out the above print job only when the number of prints is not exceeded.