METHOD, SYSTEM FOR TRANSMITTING DOCUMENT OVER NETWORK, VIRTUAL PRINTER APPARATUS AND RESTORATION APPARATUS

• US 20100005144A1
• Filed: 12/15/2005
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: Wu, Haijun
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,654 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1512 Print-to a presentation device other than a printer, e.g. e-reader, e-paper, tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/122 with regard to computing resources, e.g. memory, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1245 by conversion to intermediate or common format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method system for transmitting a document over a Network including the steps of a document sender converts a sharing document to be transmitted into a GDI (Graph Device Interface) document by performing virtual printing. The document receiver receives the graph device interface document sent from the document sender through the network The document receiver restores the received GDI document. The contents of the restored GDI document are the same as that of the sharing document. The present invention also provides a system, a virtual printer apparatus and a restoration apparatus, the transmission of the document is not restricted by the application using the method, system and apparatus of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting a sharing document over a Network, comprising the steps of:

converting a sharing document to be transmitted into a GDI (Graph Device Interface) document by performing virtual printing;

receiving, by a document receiver, the GDI document to sent from a document receiver sender through a network; and

restoring, by the document receiver, the received GDI document, wherein contents of the restored GDI document are the same as that of the sharing document in Step A.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

compressing, by the document sender, the GDI document; and

decompressing, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

encrypting, by the document sender, the GDI document; and

decrypting, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method for receiving by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender through a network comprises at least the steps of:

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender with an Instant Messaging tool;

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender through an e-mail;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender by logging on the network terminal to the document sender.

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19. A system for transmitting a document over a Network, comprising a document sender and a document receiver;

and further comprising;

a virtual printer module and a restoration module;

the document sender is used for outputting a sharing document to be sent to the virtual printer module, receiving a GDI document into which the sharing document is converted from the virtual printer module and sending the GDI document to the document receiver;

the virtual printer module is used for receiving the sharing document from the document sender, performing virtual printing to convert the sharing document into the GDI document, and outputting the GDI document to the document sender;

the restoration module is used for receiving the GDI document from the document receiver, restoring the GDI document, wherein contents of the restored GDI document are same as that of the sharing document, and outputting the restored GDI document to the document receiver;

the document receiver is used for receiving the GDI document from the document sender, outputting the GDI document to the restoration module, and receiving the restored GDI document which has the same contents as the sharing document sent from the restoration module.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a compression module and a decompression module;

the compression module is used for receiving a GDI document from the document sender, compressing the GDI document, and outputting the compressed GDI document to the document sender;

the document sender is further used for outputting a GDI document sent from the virtual printer module to the compression module and sending the compressed GDI document sent from the compression module to the document receiver;

the decompression module is used for receiving a compressed GDI document sent from the document receiver, decompressing the GDI document, and outputting the decompressed GDI document to the document receiver; and

the document receiver is further used for sending a compressed GDI document sent from the document sender to the decompression module and outputting the decompressed GDI document sent from the decompression module to the restoration module.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the compression module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender and the decompression module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document receiver.

22. The system of claim 19, further comprising an encryption module and a decryption module;

the encryption module is used for receiving a GDI document from the document sender, encrypting the GDI document, and outputting the encrypted GDI document to the document sender;

the document sender is further used for outputting a GDI document sent from the virtual printer module to the encryption module and sending the encrypted GDI document sent from the encryption module to the document receiver;

the decryption module is used for receiving an encrypted GDI document sent from the document receiver, decrypting the encrypted GDI document, and outputting the decrypted GDI document to the document receiver; and

the document receiver is further used for sending an encrypted GDI document sent from the document sender to the decryption module and outputting the decrypted GDI document sent from the decryption module to the restoration module.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the encryption module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender and the decryption module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document receiver.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the virtual printer module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender, and the restoration module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document receiver.

25. A virtual printer apparatus, comprising a document sender and further comprising:

a virtual printer module;

the document sender is used for outputting a sharing document to be sent to the virtual printer module, receiving a GDI document into which the sharing document is converted from the virtual printer module and sending the GDI document to a document receiver; and

the virtual printer module is used for receiving the sharing document from the document sender, performing virtual printing to convert the sharing document into a GDI document, and outputting the GDI document to the document sender.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:

a compression module;

the compression module is used for receiving a GDI document from the document sender, compressing the GDI document, and outputting the compressed GDI document to the document sender; and

the document sender is further used for outputting a GDI document sent from the virtual printer module to the compression module and sending the compressed GDI document sent from the compression module to a document receiver.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

an encryption module;

the encryption module is used for receiving a GDI document from a document sender, encrypting the GDI document, and outputting the encrypted GDI document to the document sender; and

the document sender is further used for outputting a GDI document sent from the virtual printer module to the encryption module and sending the encrypted GDI document sent from the encryption module to a document receiver.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the compression module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender, the encryption module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender, and the virtual printer module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender.

29. A restoration apparatus comprising a document receiver, and further comprising:

a restoration module;

the restoration module is used for receiving a GDI document from the document receiver, restoring the GDI document, wherein contents of the restored GDI document are same as that of the sharing document, and outputting the restored GDI document to the document receiver; and

the document receiver is used for receiving a GDI document from a document sender, outputting the GDI document to the restoration module, and receiving the restored GDI document which has the same contents as the sharing document sent from the restoration module.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising:

a decompression module;

the decompression module is used for receiving a compressed GDI document sent from the document receiver, decompressing the GDI document, and outputting the decompressed GDI document to the document receiver; and

the document receiver is further used for sending a compressed GDI document sent from a document sender to the decompression module and outputting the decompressed GDI document sent from the decompression module to the restoration module.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, the decompression module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document receiver, the decryption module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document receiver, and the restoration module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document receiver.

32. A method for sending a document over a Network, comprising the steps of:

converting, by a document sender, a sharing document to be transmitted into a GDI document by performing virtual printing; and

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver through a network.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising compressing, by the document sender, the GDI document.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising encrypting, by the document sender, the GDI document.

35. The method of claim 32, further comprising setting a virtual printer module in a network terminal to the document sender wherein the GDI document comprises at least a GDI instruction, and the method for said converting the sharing document into a GDI document by performing virtual printing comprises the steps of:

opening, by a application of the sharing document on the document sender, the interface for interacting with the virtual printer module and starting to perform virtual printing of the sharing document;

determining, by the application of the sharing document, whether the virtual printing should be terminated, if the virtual printing should be terminated, terminating the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating current procedure for generating the GDI document;

otherwise, sending, by the application of the sharing document, based on the contents of the sharing document and by calling print driver GDI transfer interface function, a GDI function to the virtual printer module, and converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into a GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

determining, by the application of the sharing document, based on the result of the conversion returned by the virtual printer module, whether the conversion is successful, and if the conversion is successful, starting, by the application of the sharing document, to deal with the next GDI function and cycling back to the step of determining whether the virtual print should be terminated;

otherwise, terminating, by the application of the sharing document, the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating the procedure for generating the GDI document.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the method for said determining whether the virtual printing should be terminated comprises the steps of determining, by the application of the sharing document, whether the GDI functions called based on the contents of the sharing document have all been sent to the virtual printer module, and if yes, determining that the virtual printing should be terminated, and otherwise, determining that the virtual printing should not be terminated.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the GDI instruction comprises at least:

the name of GDI function, number of GDI function and serial number of GDI performance;

the method for converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into the GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document, comprising the steps of;

calling, by the application of sharing document, the print driver GDI transfer interface function, determining, by the virtual printer module, whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, if yes, acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization;

otherwise determining, based on the initialization variable, whether the initialization has been completed, and if the initialization has been completed, determining whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, if yes, closing the GDI document, and returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating end of the virtual print of the sharing document;

determining whether the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, and if yes, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, encoding the name of GDI function, the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and the GDI function based on the format of GDI instruction stream so as to generate a GDI instruction, and writing the GDI instruction into the GDI document; and

otherwise, returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

if initialization has not been completed, cycling back to the step of acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the GDI instruction comprises at least the total length of current GDI interface instruction, number of parameters, parameter value of each of parameters and length of parameter value.

39. The method of claim 32, the method for sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver through a network comprising the steps of:

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver with an Instant Messaging tool;

or,

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver through an e-mail;

or,

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver by logging on the network terminal to the document receiver.

40. A method for receiving a document over a Network, comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a document receiver, a GDI document sent from a document sender through a network, wherein the GDI document is converted from a sharing document; and

restoring, by the document receiver, the received GDI document, wherein contents of the restored GDI document are same as that of the sharing document.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

decompressing, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

42. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

decrypting, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

43. The method of claim 40, the GDI document comprises at least a GDI instruction;

wherein restoring the received GDI document comprises the steps of performing a graph device function corresponding to the GDI instruction in the GDI document.

44. The method of claim 43, the method for restoring the received GDI document comprising the steps of:

applying, by the network terminal to the document receiver, to its graph device subsystem for a Graph Device Context, reading all the GDI instructions in the received GDI document, sorting all the GDI instructions ascending based on the serial numbers of GDI performance in the GDI instructions, and initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to the minimum of the serial numbers of GDI performance;

determining whether the GDI instruction corresponding to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance is found, if the GDI instruction is found, acquiring the number of the GDI function in the current GDI instruction and the GDI function corresponding to the number of the GDI function, performing the GDI function in the Graph Device Context acquired through the application, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, and cycling back to the step of determining whether the GDI instruction corresponding to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance is found; and

otherwise, determining whether there is a GDI instruction with the serial number of the GDI performance larger than the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, and if yes, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and cycling back to the step of determining whether the GDI instruction corresponding to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance is found;

otherwise, closing the GDI document and terminating the procedure for restoring the GDI document.

45. The method of claim 40, the method for receiving, by the document receiver, a GDI document sent from a document sender through a network comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from a document sender with an Instant Messaging tool;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from a document sender through an e-mail;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from a document sender by logging on the network terminal to the document sender.