Network printing system

• US 6,219,151 B1
• Filed: 08/24/1998
• Issued: 04/17/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Koki Imaging Solutions, Inc. (Koki Holdings Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Koki Imaging Solutions, Inc. (Koki Holdings Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Uchenik, Igor, Zia, Susan, Murphy, Mark Patrick, Egan, Alistair Michael, Sorkin, Maxim Ariel, Manglapus, Levi Lloyd Garcia
• Primary Examiner(s): Popovici, Dov
• Application Number:
  US09/138,962
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.13, 358/1.1, 358/407, 358/468, 358/1.14, 358/1.11, 358/1.6, 358/1.9, 358/1.16, 358/1.17, 358/1.18, 358/434, 358/435, 358/436, 358/437, 358/438, 358/439, 709/203, 709/222, 709/218, 709/245, 709/246, 709/250, 709/249, 709/305, 710/3-5, 710/8-9, 710/11, 710/14-19, 710/21, 710/26, 710/62, 710/64, 710/72, 395/500.44, 395/500.45, 395/500.46, 395/500.47, 395/500.48, 395/500.49
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1207 resulting in the user being informed about print result after a job submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1236 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1293 Printer information exchange with computer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]

Abstract

A printing network including at least one user workstation and a printer is described. The user workstation transmits print jobs with image controller commands having data which is representative of a network address of the user workstation. An image controller at the printer receiving the print job executes the image controller commands in the print jobs to extract the network address of the user workstation. Processes in the printer store the extracted network address of the user workstation in association with data representative of the print job. The printer transmits messages to the user workstation concerning the status of the print job using the network address extracted from the print job.

Claims

1. In a printing network including one or more user workstations and a printer, the printer having an image controller, the network being capable of transmitting print jobs originating at a user workstation to the printer and transmitting messages from the printer to the user workstation, the print jobs including data representative of commands according to a syntax which are interpretable by the image controller, performing a method of:

at the user workstation, inserting at least one command into a print job, the at least one command being interpretable by a printer language emulation circuit at the image controller, the at least one command including data representative of a network address of the user workstation;

receiving the print job at the printer;

interpreting the inserted at least one command at the emulation circuit to extract the network address of the user workstation; and

transmitting a message from the printer to the user workstation based upon the extracted network address of the user workstation.

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

following the step of inserting the at least one command into the print job, transmitting the print job to a print server;

maintaining the print job in a queue at the print server;

releasing the print job from the queue; and

transmitting the released print job to the printer.

3. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising transmitting the message from the printer to the user workstation to report status information regarding the print job.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is capable of transmitting the messages from the printer to the user workstation according to a simple network management protocol (SNMP), the method further including transmitting the message from the printer to the user workstation as an SNMP trap.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further including generating the at least one command in the syntax according to a printer language which includes at least one of a Page Description Language and a Printer Job Language.

6. A network printing system, the system comprising:

at least one user workstation for generating a print job, the print job including data representative of an image and image controller commands according to a syntax;

a printer, the printer including an image controller, coupled to the at least one user workstation by a network, the network being capable of transmitting the print job to the printer and transmitting messages from the printer to the user workstation,

wherein the user workstation executes a process for inserting data into the print job which is representative of at least one command which is interpretable by a printer language emulation circuit at the image controller according to the syntax, the at least one inserted command including data representative of a network address of the user workstation, and wherein the printer includes logic for transmitting a message to the user workstation based upon the network address of the user workstation extracted from an interpretation of the at least one inserted command at the emulation circuit.

7. The network printing system of claim 6, the network printing system further including a print server for receiving a transmission of data representative of the print job, the print server including:

a memory for maintaining the received print job in a queue;

logic for releasing the print job from the queue; and

circuitry for transmitting data representative of the released print job to the printer.

8. The network printing system of claim 6, wherein the printer further includes logic for transmitting the message from the printer to the user workstation to report status information regarding the print job.

9. The network printing system of claim 6, wherein the network is capable of transmitting the messages from the printer to the user workstation according to a simple network management protocol (SNMP), and wherein the network further includes circuitry for transmitting the message from the printer to the user workstation as an SNMP trap.

10. The network printing system of claim 6, the network printing system further including logic for generating the at least one command according to a printer language which includes at least one of Page Description Language and a Printer Job Language.

11. An image controller adaptable to a network printer for providing control information to a print engine, the image controller comprising:

a print engine interface;

a printer language emulation circuit having logic for interpreting first image controller commands inserted into a print job file, the print job file including image data and data representative of the first image controller commands according to a syntax, for providing control signals to the print engine based upon the image data and the first image controller commands, and logic for interpreting second image controller commands inserted into the print job file, the second image controller commands including data representative of a network address of a user workstation which generated the print job file according to the syntax,

wherein the logic for interpreting the second image controller commands extracts the network address of the user workstation.

12. The image controller of claim 11, wherein the second image controller commands further includes data representative of a request to process print data stored in a memory location associated with the printer and the logic for interpreting the second image controller commands extracts the request to process the print data stored in the memory location from the second image controller commands.

13. The image controller of claim 11, wherein the second image controller commands further include data representative of a request to send a status message to an accounting host indicating that a quantity of media has been interpreted by the image controller, and wherein the logic for interpreting the second image controller commands extracts the request to send the status message from the second image controller commands.

14. The image controller of claim 11, wherein the second image controller commands further include data representative of a second network address other than the network address, and wherein the logic for interpreting the second image controller commands extracts the second network address from the second image controller commands.

15. The image controller of claim 11, wherein the first and second image controller commands are encoded in a printer language including at least one of Page Description Language and a Printer Job Language.

16. A computer workstation including a network connection for transmitting data representative of a print job, the print job including image data and data representative of commands according to a syntax which are interpretable by an image controller at a network printer, the computer workstation comprising:

logic for creating the print job, the print job including data representative of an image which is capable of being interpreted by a printer language emulation circuit of the image controller at the network printer; and

logic for inserting commands interpretable by the emulation circuit into the print job, the inserted commands including data representative of a network address of the computer workstation.

17. The computer workstation of claim 16, wherein the inserted commands further include data representative of a request to process print data stored in a memory location associated with a network.

18. The computer workstation of claim 16, wherein the inserted commands further include data representative of a request to send a status message to an accounting host indicating that a quantity of media has been interpreted by the image controller.

19. The computer workstation of claim 16, wherein the inserted commands further include data representative of a network address other than the network address of the computer workstation.

20. The computer workstation of claim 16, wherein the inserted commands are encoded in a printer language including at least one of Page Description Language and a Printer Job Language.

21. In a printing network including one or more user workstations and a printer, the printer having an image controller, the network being capable of transmitting print jobs originating at a user workstation to the printer and transmitting messages from the printer to the user workstation, the print jobs including data representative of commands according to a syntax which are interpretable by the image controller, performing a method of:

at the user workstation, inserting a first image controller command into a print job at a first location in the print job, the first image command controller being interpretable by a printer language emulation circuit of the image controller, the first image controller command including data representative of a network address of a location on the network for receiving messages from the printer, and inserting a second image controller command into the print job at a second location in the print job, the second image controller command being interpretable by the emulation circuit, the second image controller command including data representative of a request for a status message to be transmitted to the network address;

receiving the print job at the printer;

interpreting the second image controller command at the emulation circuit to extract the request for transmission of the status message; and

transmitting a message from the printer to the network address upon interpreting the second image controller command.

22. The method of claim 21, the method further including transmitting the message to the network address to indicate that the print job has been processed up to the second location in the print job.

23. The method of claim 21, the method further including:

inserting the first image controller command as having data representative of a request to process print data stored in a memory location at the printer; and

inserting the second image controller command into the print job including data representative of the request for the status message to the network address indicating that printing of the stored print data has been completed.

24. The method of claim 21, the method further including inserting the second image controller command as having data representative of the request to send the status message to an accounting host indicating that a quantity of media has been interpreted by the image controller.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein before the steps of inserting the first and second image controller commands the method further comprises:

providing data representative of a network address of the user workstation in the first image controller command; and

providing data representative of a network address other than the network address of the user workstation in the second image controller command.

26. The method of claim 21, the method further including inserting the second image controller command into the print job including data representative of the request for the status message to the network address indicating that the image controller has processed a portion of the print job including at least one specific command defined in a Page Description Language.