Sharing of downloaded resources

• US 20050246710A1
• Filed: 09/10/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Foehr, Oliver H., Stokes, Michael D., Yue, Feng, Sedky, Khaled S., McLuckie, Craig I., Singh, Harvinder P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,634,775 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1211 Improving printing performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1244 Job translation or job parsing, e.g. page banding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1296 Printer job scheduling or printer resource handling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4484 Executing subprograms

Abstract

In a described implementation, a production device, such as a computer, produces a shared resources container that includes shareable resources. Each resource of the shared resources container includes a part name and corresponding data. The production device downloads the shared resources container to a utilization device. The production device also formulates a job container, such as a print job. The production device analyzes resource usage of the job container during processing thereof. If a resource relevant to the job container is included in the shared resources container, the resource is excluded from the job container in lieu of a resource reference that is insert therefor. The production device also downloads the job container to the utilization device. At the utilization device, the job container is processed using the resource reference. Specifically, the resource reference is used to retrieve the associated resource from the shared resources container.

Claims

1. One or more processor-accessible media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a device to perform actions comprising:

ascertaining if a resource for a current job container has been previously downloaded in a shared resources container; and

if the resource for the current job container has been previously downloaded, inserting a resource reference into the current job container, the resource reference pointing to the resource previously downloaded in the shared resources container;

wherein the resource reference points to the resource in a manner that is independent of resource type.

2. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the resource reference comprises a uniform resource identifier (URI).

3. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

excluding the resource from the current job container.

4. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 3, wherein the action of excluding comprises at least one action selected from the group comprising:

omitting an embedding of the resource into the current job container; and

removing the resource from the current job container.

5. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform further actions comprising:

checking if the current job container has additional resources to be analyzed; and

if the current job container does have additional resources to be analyzed, repeating the action of ascertaining with another resource for the current job container.

6. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform further actions comprising:

checking if the current job container has additional resources to be analyzed; and

if the current job container does not have additional resources to be analyzed, managing a memory capacity of a utilization device by instructing the utilization device to discard at least one resource previously downloaded as part of a previous shared resources container.

7. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

downloading the shared resources container to a utilization device.

8. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 7, wherein the action of downloading comprises an action of:

downloading an update to the shared resources container using a job control mechanism involving a shared resources indicator that instructs the utilization device to retain the contents of the update.

9. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

retaining a database of shared resources, which have been sent to a utilization device, for resource usage analysis with subsequent job containers.

10. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the resource for the current job container has not been previously downloaded, determining if the resource is likely to be reused.

11. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform further actions comprising:

ascertaining if another resource for the current job container has been previously downloaded in the shared resources container; and

if the other resource for the current job container has not been previously downloaded, determining if the other resource is likely to be reused.

12. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the other resource is determined to be likely to be reused, adding the other resource to the shared resources container.

13. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the other resource is determined to be likely to be reused, marking the other resource in the current job container as a shareable resource.

14. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 12, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

inserting another resource reference into the current job container, the other resource reference pointing to the other resource added to the shared resources container.

15. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 11, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the other resource is not determined to be likely to be reused, including the other resource in the current job container.

16. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 15, wherein the action of including comprises at least one action selected from the group comprising:

embedding the other resource into the current job container; and

omitting removal of the other resource from the current job container.

17. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the processor-executable instructions comprise at least part of a printer driver program.

18. One or more processor-accessible media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a device to perform actions comprising:

receiving a downloaded container;

determining if the downloaded container comprises a shared resources container; and

if the downloaded container does comprise a shared resources container, storing the shared resources container for subsequent use.

19. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 18, wherein the action of determining comprises an action of:

reviewing any additional job control information included in and/or accompanying the downloaded container to determine if the downloaded container comprises a shared resources container.

20. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 19, wherein the action of reviewing comprises an action of:

inspecting the additional job control information to detect if a shared resources indicator is included as at least a part thereof.

21. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 18, wherein the action of storing comprises at least one action selected from the group comprising:

storing an initial shared resources container;

storing an additional shared resources container along with at least one other previously-received shared resources container; and

adding resources of a just-received shared resources container to those of a preexisting, amalgamated shared resources container.

22. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 18, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the downloaded container is determined to comprise a shared resources container, performing device-specific pre-processing of at least a portion of resources included in the shared resources container to facilitate resource representation.

23. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 18, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the downloaded container is not determined to comprise a shared resources container and instead comprises a job container, processing the job container by displaying, printing, distributing, and/or archiving contents thereof.

24. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 18, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the downloaded container is not determined to comprise a shared resources container and instead comprises a job container, ascertaining if a particular resource is embedded in the job container.

25. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 24, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the particular resource is ascertained to be embedded in the job container, processing the job container with the embedded resource.

26. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 24, wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the device to perform a further action comprising:

if the particular resource is not ascertained to be embedded in the job container, (i) retrieving a resource from a shared resources container using a resource reference included in the job container and (ii) processing the job container with the retrieved resource.

27. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 26, wherein the action of retrieving comprises an action of:

retrieving the resource from the shared resources container, the shared resources container stored by at least one of the device, a network server, or a locally-coupled storage device.

28. The one or more processor-accessible media as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more processor-accessible media comprise at least one of (i) one or more storage media or (ii) one or more transmission media.

29. A device comprising:

a shared resources container including a particular resource of a plurality of resources; and

a job container including a particular resource reference that points to the particular resource of the shared resources container;

wherein the particular resource reference of the job container points to the particular resource of the shared resources container in a manner independent of resource type.

30. The device as recited in claim 29, wherein the plurality of resources comprise one or more of images, color tables, backgrounds, clip art, fonts, letterheads, catalog items, company logos, headers/footers, all or a portion of a graphic, a color separation, an entire page for multi-page documents, watermarks, or some combination thereof.

31. The device as recited in claim 29, wherein the particular resource of the shared resources container includes a part name, content type, and corresponding data.

32. The device as recited in claim 31, wherein the part name of the particular resource and the particular resource reference comprise a uniform resource identifier (URI).

33. The device as recited in claim 29, wherein the job container is organized by pages.

34. The device as recited in claim 29, wherein the job container includes a plurality of embedded resources.

35. The device as recited in claim 29, further comprising:

a database of downloaded shared resources that lists resources that have been sent to a given utilization device.

36. The device as recited in claim 29, wherein the device is adapted to use the particular resource reference of the job container to retrieve the particular resource from the shared resources container when processing the job container.

37. The device as recited in claim 29, wherein the job container includes a given resource that is marked as a shareable resource;

and wherein the device is adapted to extract the given resource from the job container and to add the given resource to the shared resources container responsive to the shareable resource marking.

38. An arrangement comprising:

sharing means for sharing resources among utilization jobs, the sharing means including a plurality of resources; and

requesting means for requesting a utilization job, the requesting means including a plurality of reference means for referencing multiple resources of the plurality of resources;

wherein the plurality of reference means uniformly reference the multiple resources independently of resource type.

39. The arrangement as recited in claim 38, wherein the arrangement comprises at least one of (i) a production device or a utilization device or (ii) one or more processor-accessible media.

40. A method comprising:

downloading toward a utilization device a shared resources container having a plurality of resources of different resource types; and

formulating a job container that includes a plurality of resource references pointing to the plurality of resources of different resource types in a uniform manner.