Method and system for processing files using a printer driver

• US 20020120792A1
• Filed: 09/13/2001
• Published: 08/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ariba Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Free Markets, Inc.
• Inventors: Blair, William R., Tetuan, David J., Turcotte, William E. II, Monroe, Robert T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,084,998 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction

Abstract

The method and system of the present invention provides a single interface to process and upload files to a document management system on a remote computer system. The method includes initiating a print driver, accessing the remote server, acquiring metadata, queuing the files with a spooler for processing and transmitting processed files and the metadata to the document management system on the remote computer system.

Claims

1. A method to process and transmit an electronic file to a document management system on a remote computer system, comprising:

(a) selecting the electronic file;

(b) initiating a print driver;

(c) viewing the document management system on the remote computer system through the print driver; and

(d) providing metadata;

wherein the print driver queues the files with a spooler for processing; and

the spooler transmits the processed file and the metadata to the document 10 management system on the remote computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, whereby the processing performed by the spooler comprises converting the files to RFQ compressed format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises opening the electronic file in an application and step (b) comprises selecting to print to the print driver from the application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises selecting the electronic file in Windows Explorer and step (b) comprises selecting the print driver from Windows Explorer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises opening the electronic file in an application and step (b) comprises selecting to save to the print driver from the application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein print driver accesses the document management system on the remote computer system and presents a view of the document management system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a view of the document management system is transmitted to the print driver from the remote computer system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the view is in Extended Markup Language (XML).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes a destination location in the document management system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the processed files are placed in the destination location included in the metadata.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes information about the electronic file.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said processing print driver displays an interface by which the destination location on the destination system may be selected.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein step (a) comprises:

opening the electronic file in an application; and

selecting to print to the processing print driver in the application.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the print driver converts the electronic file to raster images and queues the raster images with the processing spooler.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the processing spooler compresses the electronic file during the processing.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said first type is PDF.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein said first type is a CAD format.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein said second type is RFQ compressed format.

12. A method of processing and transmitting an electronic file, comprising the steps of:

(a) initiating a processing print driver;

(b) logging onto a destination system; and

(c) selecting a destination location on the destination system;

whereby said processing print driver queues the electronic file and selected destination location with a processing spooler, and said processing spooler processes the electronic file and transmits the processed electronic file to the destination system upon completion of the processing, whereby the destination system stores the processed file at the destination location.

17. A system for processing and transmitting an electronic file, comprising:

a processing print driver;

a processing spooler; and

a communication component;

whereby said processing print driver converts the electronic file from a first type to at least one raster image, said processing spooler converts the at least one raster image to a second type of electronic file; and

said communication component transmits the converted electronic file to a destination system.

21. A conversion device for converting an electronic file and transmitting the converted electronic file to a document management system on a destination computer system using a single user interface, comprising:

(a) displaying the user interface to a user;

(b) accessing the destination computer system and displaying a view of the document management system in the user interface;

(c) acquiring from the user a desired location in the document management system through the user interface; and

(d) queuing the electronic file and the desired location with a conversion spooler;

whereby the conversion spooler converts the electronic file and transmits the converted file to the destination computer system, and the destination computer system stores the converted file at the desired location in the document management system.