METHOD AND APPARATUS TO DEVELOP AN APPLICATION OF AN IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• US 20120311548A1
• Filed: 05/31/2012
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HP Printing Korea Co., Ltd. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KO, Chang-gun, LEE, Nam-su
• Granted Patent: US 9,632,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

A solution providing tools for developing an application of an image forming apparatus is stored in the image forming apparatus, and functions of the image forming apparatus are displayed according to execution of the solution. An application corresponding to input information of a user is generated by combining functions of the image forming apparatus based on the input information of the user and is stored in the image forming apparatus.

Claims

1. A method of developing an application of an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

executing a solution that is stored in the image forming apparatus, the solution providing tools to develop the application of the image forming apparatus;

displaying functions of the image forming apparatus according to the execution of the solution;

generating an application corresponding to input information of a user by combining the functions based on the input information; and

storing the generated application in the image forming apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying comprises displaying modules describing the functions of the image forming apparatus corresponding to combinations of some application programming interface (API) functions of the image forming apparatus, and

the generating comprises generating the application corresponding to the input information by combining some of the displayed modules based on the input information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the modules describes a function of the image forming apparatus corresponding to a combination of some API functions of the image forming apparatus with codes executable in the image forming apparatus by using the combination.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying comprises displaying API functions describing the functions of the image forming apparatus, and

the generating comprises generating the application corresponding to the input information by combining some of the displayed API functions based on the input information.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising generating an application having codes executable in the image forming apparatus by cross compiling the generated application.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising recognizing, by a host connected to the image forming apparatus, a storage of the image forming apparatus,

wherein the executing comprises reading, by the host, the solution from the storage of the image forming apparatus and executing the solution.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the storage of the image forming apparatus and the host are connected to each other via a universal serial bus (USB), and

the recognizing comprises recognizing the storage of the image forming apparatus through a Mass Storage Class (MSC) protocol of the USB.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the storage of the image forming apparatus and the host are connected to each other via a network, and

the recognizing comprises recognizing the storage of the image forming apparatus through a Server Message Block (SMB) protocol of the network.

9. An image forming apparatus comprising:

hardware elements having a plurality of functions including at least an image forming function;

a storage to store a solution, the solution providing tools to develop an application of the image forming apparatus and at least one application developed by using the solution; and

a processor to control operations of the hardware elements according to the solution by executing the solution stored in the storage,

the at least one application being generated by combining functions of the image forming apparatus displayed according to the execution of the solution.

10. The image forming apparatus of claim 9, wherein the storage further stores application programming interface (API) functions of the image forming apparatus and modules describing the functions of the image forming apparatus with codes executable in the image forming apparatus by using combinations of some of the API functions, and

the processor executes an application generated from a combination of some of the modules.

11. The image forming apparatus of claim 9, wherein the storage further stores API functions of the image forming apparatus and a cross compiler to translate an application of the image forming apparatus into codes executable in the image forming apparatus, and

the processor compiles an application generated from a combination of some of the API functions by executing the cross compiler and executes the compiled application.

12. The image forming apparatus of claim 9, wherein the hardware elements comprises a communication unit having a function of connecting the storage to a host so that the storage can be recognized by the host, and

the solution stored in the storage is read by the host via the communication unit and executed by the host.

13. The image forming apparatus of claim 12, wherein the communication unit connects the storage to the host by using a Mass Storage Class (MSC) protocol of a universal serial bus (USB), and

the storage is recognized by the host through the MSC protocol.

14. The image forming apparatus of claim 12, wherein the communication unit connects the storage to the host by using a Server Message Block (SMB) protocol of a network, and

the storage is recognized by the host through the SMB protocol.

15. A recording medium of an image forming apparatus on which data blocks in a hierarchical structure are recorded, the data blocks comprising:

a firmware block corresponding to firmware including native functions of the image forming apparatus;

a wrapper block corresponding to a set of wrapper functions connecting the native functions to application programming interface (API) functions of the image forming apparatus;

an API block corresponding to a set of the API functions of the image forming apparatus; and

a solution block corresponding to a solution providing tools for developing an application of the image forming apparatus.

16. The recording medium of claim 15, wherein the data blocks further comprise modules describing functions of the image forming apparatus with codes executable in the image forming apparatus by using sets of some of the API functions of the image forming apparatus.

17. A method of developing an application of an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

executing a solution stored in the image forming apparatus, the solution providing tools to develop an application of the image forming apparatus;

displaying functions of the image forming apparatus;

combining functions in accordance with information input by a user; and

generating an application in accordance with the input information.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

setting an environment of the image forming apparatus required to develop an application by securing a memory space of a storage of the image forming apparatus; and

storing the generated application in the storage.

19. An image forming apparatus comprising:

hardware elements including functions of an image forming apparatus;

a storage to store a solution, the solution providing tools to develop an application; and

a processor to control operations of the hardware elements according to the solution stored in the storage, an application being generated by combining functions arranged in accordance with information input by a user, the generated application being stored in the storage.

20. The image forming apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the tools can be described with binary codes executable in an operating system of a host, and the solution being executed by any one of the host or the image forming apparatus.