Method and device for configuring an electronic document processing peripheral in a communication network

• US 20020078337A1
• Filed: 08/08/2001
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Finetech Incorporated (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Finetech Incorporated (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Moreau, Jean-Jacques, Delumeau, Francois, Dias, Herve
• Granted Patent: US 7,672,991 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1205 resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1257 by using pre-stored settings, e.g. job templates, presets, print styles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

The invention concerns a method and device for configuring an electronic document processing peripheral. The invention concerns more particularly a method of determining a configuration profile for an electronic document processing peripheral, the configuration profile representing a set of configuration parameters for the peripheral, a set of fixed values of the parameters defining a particular configuration of the peripheral. This method is characterized in that it comprises the following steps: a step of obtaining (504) a user identification data item; a step of determining (506) user characteristics as a function of the user identification data item; a step of determining (508), as a function of the user characteristics, a configuration profile applicable for configuring the peripheral.

Claims

1. A method of determining a configuration profile for an electronic document processing peripheral, said configuration profile representing a set of configuration parameters for said peripheral, a set of fixed values of said parameters defining a particular configuration of said peripheral, the method being characterised in that it comprises the following steps:

obtaining (504) a user identification data item;

determining (506) user characteristics as a function of the user identification data item;

determining (508), as a function of the user characteristics, a configuration profile applicable for configuring said peripheral.

2. A method according to claim 1, implemented in a communication network having at least one client station, one server station, and at least one processing peripheral, in response to a request sent from a client station to the server station, characterised in that it includes, before the step of determining a configuration profile, the following step:

obtaining (504) a peripheral identification data item, the configuration profile applicable then being determined (508) as a function of said user characteristics and said peripheral identification data item.

3. A method according to claim 2, characterised in that the user identification and peripheral identification data are extracted (504) from the request sent by a client station to the server station, said request being able to be a document processing request, or a request to obtain a configuration profile.

4. A method according to either one of claim 2 or 3, characterised in that the steps of determining user characteristics and determining a configuration profile are accomplished by means of a database (44, 46) in which there are stored, associated together, peripheral data each representing the identity of a peripheral, user data representing user characteristics, and configuration data each representing a configuration profile.

5. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterised in that it also includes the following step:

if required by the client station, updating (604, 606) the configuration of said peripheral in the context of the configuration profile applicable.

6. A method according to claim 5, characterised in that the configuration updating step includes the following steps:

receiving (500) from the client station a request for obtaining the configuration profile applicable;

determining and sending (508, 516) to the client station the configuration profile applicable;

receiving (600) from the client station the configuration profile applicable with at least one of the parameters having a modified value.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said user identification data item is a chain of characters identifying a user and a password entered by the user in order to connect himself to the client station.

8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said user characteristics indicate a level of service subscribed to by the user.

9. A method according to claim 8, characterised in that a level of service subscribed to by a user is defined according to a financial sum paid by the user.

10. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 9, characterised in that the peripheral identification data item is a network address of the peripheral.

11. A method according to any one of claims 4 to 10, characterised in that said configuration data each representing a configuration profile indicate the electronic address of a computer object containing a configuration profile.

12. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 11, characterised in that the network is the Internet.

13. A method according to claim 11, characterised in that the client station and server station communicate using the HTTP protocol.

14. A method according to claim 12 or 13, characterised in that the electronic address of a computer object containing a configuration profile is an address of the uniform resource locator (URL) type and said computer object is an object defined in an annotation language of the extended mark-up language (XML) type.

15. A method of obtaining a configuration profile determined according to a method as defined in claims 2 to 14, characterised in that it comprises the following steps, implemented in a client station:

generating and sending (400-410) to the server station a request to configure an electronic document processing peripheral, said request containing a user identification data item and a peripheral identification data item;

receiving (412, 414) a configuration profile of said peripheral from the server station, in response to the configuration request.

16. A method according to claim 15, characterised in that it also comprises the following steps:

displaying (416) said configuration profile;

modifying (420, 422) a current configuration associated with the configuration profile.

17. A method according to claim 16, in which the peripheral configuration uses a peripheral driver, characterised in that it also includes the following step, when the driver of the peripheral is stored in the server station:

sending (434) to the server station the configuration profile containing the modified configuration.

18. A method according to claim 16, in which the configuration of the peripheral uses a peripheral driver, characterised in that it also includes the following step, when the driver of the peripheral is locally stored in the client station:

using (426) the configuration profile for configuring the driver of the peripheral.

19. A method of configuring an electronic document processing peripheral, characterised in that it includes the steps of a method of determining a configuration profile in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 14.

20. A configuration method according to claim 19, characterised in that it also includes the steps of a method of obtaining a configuration profile according to claim 14 or 15.

23. A device according to claim 21, characterised in that it has means for implementing a method of determining a configuration profile in accordance with any one of claims 3 to 14.

24. A device for obtaining a configuration profile determined according to a method as defined in claims 2 to 14, characterised in that it comprises:

means (36) of generating and sending to the server station a request to configure an electronic document processing peripheral, said request containing a user identification data item and a peripheral identification data item;

means (38) for receiving a configuration profile of said peripheral from the server station, in response to the configuration request.

21. A device for determining a configuration profile for an electronic document processing peripheral, said configuration profile representing a set of configuration parameters for said peripheral, a set of fixed values of said parameters defining a particular configuration of said peripheral, the device being characterised in that it comprises:

means (42) for obtaining a user identification data item;

means (42, 46) for determining user characteristics as a function of the user identification data item;

means (42, 44, 46) for determining, as a function of the user characteristics, a configuration profile applicable for configuring said peripheral.

22. A device according to claim 21, used in a communication network having at least one client station, one server station, and at least one processing peripheral, in response to a request sent from a client station to the server station, characterised in that it comprises:

means (42) for obtaining a peripheral identification data item, the configuration profile applicable then being determined as a function of said user characteristics and said peripheral identification data item.

25. A device according to claim 24, characterised in that it also comprises:

means (32) for displaying said configuration profile;

means (38) for modifying a current configuration associated with the configuration profile.

means (38) for sending to the server station the configuration profile containing the modified configuration.

26. A device for configuring an electronic document processing peripheral, characterised in that it includes a device for determining a configuration profile according to any one of claims 21 to 23.

27. A configuration device according to claim 26, characterised in that it also has a device for obtaining a configuration profile in accordance with claim 24 or 25.

28. A server station connected to a communication network, characterised in that it comprises a device for determining a configuration profile for an electronic document processing peripheral, according to any one of claims 21 to 23.

29. A client station connected to a communication network, characterised in that it comprises a device for obtaining a configuration profile, according to claim 24 or 25.

30. A communication network comprising at least one server station according to claim 28, and at least one client station according to claim 29.