Spooling strategies using structured job information

• US 20050249536A1
• Filed: 09/10/2004
• Published: 11/10/2005
• 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., Yue, Feng, Sedky, Khaled S., Emerson, Daniel F., Singh, Harvinder P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,363,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 400/61
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1514 Sub-job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1203 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1244 Job translation or job parsing, e.g. page banding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1246 by handling markup languages, e.g. XSL, XML, HTML
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1276 within a printer driver, e.g. driver resides either on a server or on a client

Abstract

Spooling strategies are described for producing job information that conforms to a hierarchical structure, and then storing the job information in a spool storage. The job information is then retrieved from the spool storage and consumed. The structured job information includes a multi-level hierarchy of nodes, including a job level that represents the entire job, a document level that represents a document to be processed within the job; a rendition level that represents a rendition of the document to be processed; and a page level that represents a page associated with the rendition. The hierarchical structure can also include resource nodes and metadata nodes associated with any level of the hierarchy, respectively representing resources and metadata. The hierarchy can optionally be composed using one or more selection and sequence parts. Program logic implements the production and consumption of the job information by providing a collection of logic modules for selectively adding and retrieving elements to the hierarchically structure. The program logic also provides logic for enumerating the contents of the job information and for signaling the occurrence of various events associated with the processing of the job information.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium, comprising:

a data structure stored on said computer readable medium, said data structure specifying job information to be processed by a spooling module, the data structure including a plurality of nodes organized into a hierarchical arrangement representing different aspects of the job information.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one document node representing a document to be processed by the spooling module.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one rendition node representing a rendition of a document to be processed by the spooling module.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one page node representing a page to be processed by the spooling module.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein said at least one page node comprises a fixed page node that defines a page subject to prescribed rules.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one resource node representing a resource to be processed by the spooling module.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein at least one node in the hierarchy represents an aspect of the job information that utilizes the resource represented by said least one resource node, and wherein said at least one node that utilizes the resource comprises reference information that links to said at least one resource node.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the reference information comprises Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that is stored as metadata associated with said at least one node that utilizes the resource.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the resource node represents a common resource that can be shared by at least one other node in the data structure.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the resource node represents an image resource to be processed by the spooling module.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the resource node represents a font resource to be processed by the spooling module.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the job information comprises metadata associated with at least one node in the data structure.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the metadata comprises reference information which links said at least one node to another node in the data structure.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein said other node is associated with a resource.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the metadata comprises ticket information which defines a manner in which at least part of the job information is to be processed upon consumption.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one selector node that functions to select among at least two aspects of the job information.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one sequence node that functions to bind together at least two aspects of the job information.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise at least one fixed panel node that functions to bind together at least two pages of the job information in a manner subject to prescribed rules.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise:

at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module;

at least one document node representing a document to be processed, within the job, by the spooling module;

at least one rendition node representing a rendition of the document to be processed by the spooling module; and

at least one page node representing a page associated with the rendition to be processed by the spooling module.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the nodes comprise at least one resource node associated with at least one of:

said at least one job node;

said at least one document node;

said at least one rendition node;

or said at least one page node.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the job information comprises metadata associated with at least one of:

said at least one job node;

said at least one document node;

said at least one rendition node;

or said at least one page node.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the nodes comprise:

at least one selector node that functions to select among at least two aspects of the job information;

at least one sequence node that functions to bind together at least two aspects of the job information;

at least one fixed panel node that functions to bind together at least two pages of the job information in a manner subject to prescribed rules; and

at least one fixed page node that defines a page subject to prescribed rules.

24. A data signal having a data structure carried thereon comprising:

job information to be processed by a spooling module, including a plurality of nodes organized into a hierarchical arrangement representing different aspects of the job information.

25. The data signal of claim 24, wherein the nodes comprise:

at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module;

at least one document node representing a document to be processed, within the job, by the spooling module;

at least one rendition node representing a rendition of the document to be processed by the spooling module;

or

at least one page node representing a page associated with the rendition to be processed by the spooling module.

26. The data signal of claim 25, wherein the nodes comprise all of said at least one job node, said at least one document node, said at least one rendition node, and said at least one page node.

27. The data signal of claim 25, wherein the nodes comprise at least one resource node associated with at least one of:

said at least one job node;

said at least one document node;

said at least one rendition node;

or said at least one page node.

28. The data signal of claim 25, wherein the nodes comprise at least one metadata node associated with at least one of:

said at least one job node;

said at least one document node;

said at least one rendition node;

or said at least one page node.

29. The data signal of claim 24, wherein the nodes comprise:

at least one selector node that functions to select among at least two aspects of the job information;

at least one sequence node that functions to bind together at least two aspects of the job information;

at least one fixed panel node that functions to bind together at least two pages of the job information in a manner subject to prescribed rules;

or

at least one fixed page node that defines a page subject to prescribed rules.

30. The data signal of claim 29, wherein the nodes comprise all of said at least one selector node, said at least one sequence node, said at least one fixed panel node, and said at least one fixed page node.

31. In a system for consuming job information using a spooling entity, a spool storage for storing the job information, wherein the job information stored in the spool storage has a plurality of nodes organized into a hierarchical arrangement representing different aspects of the job information.

32. The spool storage of claim 31, wherein the nodes comprise:

at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module;

at least one document node representing a document to be processed, within the job, by the spooling module;

at least one rendition node representing a rendition of the document to be processed by the spooling module;

or

at least one page node representing a page associated with the rendition to be processed by the spooling module.

33. The spool storage of claim 32, wherein the nodes comprise all of said at least one job node, said at least one document node, said at least one rendition node, and said at least one page node.

34. The spool storage of claim 32, wherein the nodes comprise at least one resource node associated with at least one of:

said at least one job node;

said at least one document node;

said at least one rendition node;

or said at least one page node.

35. The spool storage of claim 32, wherein the nodes comprise at least one metadata node associated with at least one of:

said at least one job node;

said at least one document node;

said at least one rendition node;

or said at least one page node.

36. The spool storage of claim 31, wherein the nodes comprise:

at least one selector node that functions to select among at least two aspects of the job information;

at least one sequence node that functions to bind together at least two aspects of the job information;

at least one fixed panel node that functions to bind together at least two pages of the job information in a manner subject to prescribed rules;

or

at least one fixed page node that defines a page subject to prescribed rules.

37. The spool storage of claim 36, wherein the nodes comprise all of said at least one selector node, said at least one sequence node, said at least one fixed panel node, and said at least one fixed page node.