Dialog filtering process for a printing system to filter out non-selectable print programming selections

• US 5,450,571 A
• Filed: 08/19/1994
• Issued: 09/12/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Frumusa, Lawrence P., DiProspero, Joseph A., Rosekrans, Steven V., Zingo, Suzanne M., Fuller, David C., Catapano, Sharon A., Sobel, Elliot J., Fedele, Samuel A., Bellucco, Thomas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lall, Parshotam S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, VIET DUY
• Application Number:
  US08/293,521
• Time in Patent Office: 389 Days
• Field of Search: 395/155, 395/112
• US Class Current: 703/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1205 resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1255 Settings incompatibility, e.g. constraints, user requirements vs. device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/123 Storage facilities

Abstract

A network printing system have plural printers for making prints, with some of the printers having different job processing capabilities; plural client inputs providing electronic documents and printing instructions that comprise each print job; and dialog filtering to enable the program selections on a universal job ticket to be edited in accordance with the processing capabilities of each individual printer.

Claims

1. A network printing system, including a first printer and a second printer, for generating a user interface dialog to be used in printing a network print job, the user interface dialog indicating, to a client user, a set of printing options available at a selected one of the first printer and the second printer, comprising:

an interclient job ticket indicating, collectively, the printing options available at each of the first printer and the second printer;

a workstation being associated with said client user and having a display device;

a print server, being disposed remotely of said workstation and communicating with each of said workstation, said first printer and said second printer, said print server including,

a first print queue and a second print queue communicating with said first printer and said second printer, respectively, and

a storage area including a first set of filtering information and a second set of filtering information, said first set of filtering information varying as a function of a first set of printing options with said first set of printing options being mapped to said first print queue, and said second set of filtering information varying as a function of a second set of printing options, with said second set of printing options being mapped to the second print queue; and

a system for automatically modifying said interclient job ticket to provide one of a first modified user interface dialog and a second modified user interface for display on said display device, said automatically modifying system including a filtering subsystem for applying said first set of filtering information to said interclient job ticket for creating said first modified user interface dialog when said first print queue is selected with said workstation, and for applying said second set of filtering information to said interclient job ticket for creating said second modified user interface dialog when said second print queue is selected with said workstation.

2. The printing system of claim 1, in which said selected one of said first print queue and said second print queue comprises said first print queue, wherein, when a conflict exists between a printing option of said interclient job ticket and a printing option of said first set of filtering information, a default printing option is substituted in said first modified user interface dialog.

3. The printing system of claim 2, wherein when a first value, representative of the printing option of said interclient job ticket, and a second value, representative of said printing option of said first set of filtering information, are logically combined to yield a flag value.

4. The printing system of claim 1, in which said selected one of said first print queue and said second print queue comprises said first print queue, wherein said first set of filtering information and said second set of filtering information comprise a first printer user interface mask file and a second user interface mask file, respectively, and selected printing options of said interclient job ticket are masked with said first printer user interface mask file to provide said first modified user interface dialog.

5. The printing system of claim 4, wherein said masked selected printing options are deleted from or dimmed on said first modified user interface dialog.

6. The printing system of claim 4, in which said first and second printers belong to a family of printers, wherein:

a user interface family mask generic to said first printer and said second printer is provided;

a first printer configuration file and a second configuration file, identifying printing options available at said first printer and said second printer, respectively, are provided; and

said family mask is combined with each of said first printer configuration file and said second printer configuration file to obtain said first user interface mask file and said second user interface mask file.

7. The printing system of claim 1, in which an electronic document is stored at said print server, wherein said client user chooses a selected group of printing options, with said first modified user interface dialog, and transmits a representation of said choices to said print server so that said choices are combined with said electronic document to create said network print job.

8. In a network printing system with a print server including a first print queue and a second print queue, the first print queue communicating with a first printer, and a second print queue communicating with a second printer, a method for generating a user interface dialog to be used in printing a network print job, the user interface dialog indicating, to a client user, a set of printing options available at a selected one of the first printer and the second printer, comprising the steps of:

providing an interclient job ticket indicating, collectively, a first set of printing options and a second set of printing options respectively available at the first printer and the second printer;

storing a first set of filtering information, varying as a function of the first set of printing options and a second set of filtering information, varying as a function of the second set of printing options;

mapping the first set of filtering information with the first print queue and the second set of filtering information with the second print queue;

selecting one of the first print queue and the second print queue with a workstation communicating with both the first print queue and the second print queue; and

modifying the interclient job ticket with the first set of filtering information, when the first print queue is selected, to provide a first modified user interface dialog with a first set of printer options, and with the second set of filtering information, when the second print queue is selected, to provide a second modified user interface dialog with a second set of printer options, the first and second modified user interface dialogs being displayed selectively at the display device so that the client user chooses a selected one of the first printer options and the second printer options to develop the network print job.

9. The method of claim 8, in which the first print queue is selected with said selecting step and the first set of filtering information includes printing options, further comprising the step of substituting a default printing option in the first modified user interface dialog when a conflict exists between a printing option of the interclient job ticket and a printing option of the first set of filtering information.

10. The method of claim 8, in which the first print queue is selected with said selecting step and the first set of filtering information and the second set of filtering information comprise a first printer user interface mask file and a second user interface mask file, respectively, wherein said modifying step includes masking selected printing options of the interclient job ticket with the first printer user interface mask to provide the first modified user interface dialog.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of deleting the masked selected printing options from the first modified user interface dialog.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of dimming the masked selected printing options on the first modified user interface dialog.

13. The method of claim 10, in which the first and second printers belong to a family of printers, further comprising the steps of:

providing a user interface family mask generic to the first printer and the second printer;

providing a first printer configuration file and a second configuration file, identifying printing options available at the first printer and the second printer, respectively; and

combining the family mask with each of the first printer configuration file and the second configuration file to obtain the first printer user interface mask file and the second user interface mask file.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

storing an electronic document at the server;

choosing, with the automatically modified user interface dialog, a selected group of printing options;

transmitting a representation of the choices to the server so that the choices are combined with the electronic document to create the network print job.