System and method for network-based document delivery

• US 6,615,234 B1
• Filed: 05/11/1999
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Taylor Corporation (Middleby Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Taylor Corporation (Middleby Corporation)
• Inventors: Adamske, Bradley S., Todish, Matthew C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot, Bharat
• Application Number:
  US09/309,757
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200-207, 709/217-229, 709/232, 709/237-239, 709/244, 707/10, 715/513, 715/523-524, 715/526-527
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00238 using an image reproducing device as a local output from a computer output via network, e.g. network printing H04N1/00233
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00416 Multi-level menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00424 using a list of graphical elements, e.g. icons or icon bar
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00466 displaying finishing information, e.g. position of punch holes or staple or orientation references
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00472 using a pop-up window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00474 outputting a plurality of functional options, e.g. scan, copy or print
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00482 outputting a plurality of job set-up options, e.g. number of copies, paper size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0018 via a non-image communication channel, e.g. via a computer network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0067 Converting to still picture data

Abstract

A system and method for delivering an electronic document over a network, printing in hard copy form at a remote destination, and delivery of the hard copy document to a recipient. A user sends the electronic document to a server over a client-server network (which can be the Internet) where a conversion software program converts the electronic document from its client application format to a printable format (e.g., a PostScript file). A print preview program then converts printable version of the electronic document to a graphical view format. The user can now preview the document on-line to determine how the hard copy document will look upon delivery. The printable version of the electronic document is then transmitted across a printing network (which can also be the Internet) to a print spooler server. The print spooler server prints a hard copy version of the document on an attached printer. The hard copy document is then either delivered to the recipient or held for pick-up by the recipient.

Claims

1. A system for delivering an electronic document over a network and for printing in hard copy at a destination, comprising:

a client computer on said network for sending the electronic document, wherein the electronic document is in an application format;

a server computer system on said network operable to;

receive the electronic document from the client computer,

convert the electronic document from the application format to a printable format, referred to as a printable electronic document, and

convert the electronic document from the application format or printable format to a graphical view format that replicates in electronic form how the electronic document will print in hard copy form;

a printing system including a print spooler server on said network and a printer, wherein the print spooler server is connected to the printer, and wherein the server computer system is operable to transmit the printable electronic document to the print spooler server, and wherein the print spooler server is operable to print a hard copy of the printable electronic document on said printer; and

a web server configured to generate one or more web pages accessible by the client computer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic document in the graphical view format is presented on at least one of the one or more web pages accessible by the client computer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer system further comprises an application translation server connected to the web server,

wherein the web server is configured to receive the electronic document from the client computer; and

the application translation server is configured to receive the electronic document from the web server, and convert the electronic document from the application format to the printable format.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a centralized file server connected to the web server, wherein the centralized file server is operable to receive from the server computer system and store the printable electronic document and the electronic document in the graphical view format.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a print manager server connected to the web server and the printing system, wherein the server computer system is further configured to send the printable electronic document to the print manager server, and

a mail server connected to the print manager server, wherein the print manager server;

transmits the printable electronic document to the printing system;

polls the printing system at intervals to determine if the electronic document has been printed in hard copy; and

sends an initiation to the mail server indicating the hard copy of the document has been printed.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the mail server sends an e-mail notification to the client computer indicating the hard copy of the document has been printed.

7. A system for delivering an electronic document over a network and for printing in hard copy at a destination, comprising:

a client computer on said network for sending the electronic document, wherein the electronic document is in an application format;

a server computer system on said network operable to;

receive the electronic document from the client computer,

convert the electronic document from the application format to a printable format, referred to as a printable electronic document, and

convert the electronic document from the application format or printable format to a graphical view format that replicates in electronic form how the electronic document will print in hard copy form;

a print spooler server on said network and connected to a printer, wherein the server computer system is operable to transmit the printable electronic document to the print spooler server, and wherein the print spooler server is operable to print a hard copy of the printable electronic document on said printer; and

a database of fonts that is accessible by the server computer system to facilitate the conversion of the electronic document to the printable electronic document.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the server computer system is further operable to arrange for delivery of the hard copy of the document to a recipient.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the server computer system comprises a web server configured to generate one or more web pages accessible by the client computer.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic document in the graphical view format is presented on at least one of the one or more web pages accessible by the client computer.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the server computer system further comprises an application translation server connected to the web server,

wherein the web server is configured to receive the electronic document from the client computer;

the application translation server is configured to receive the electronic document from the web server, and convert the electronic document from the application format to the printable format.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising a centralized file server connected to the web server, wherein the centralized file server is operable to receive from the server computer system and store the printable electronic document and the electronic document in the graphical view format.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a print manager server connected to the web server and the print spooler server, wherein the server computer system is further configured to send the printable electronic document to the print manager server, and

a mail server connected to the print manager server, wherein the print manager server;

transmits the printable electronic document to the print spooler server;

polls the print spooler server at intervals to determine if the electronic document has been printed in hard copy; and

sends an initiation to the mail server indicating the hard copy of the document has been printed.

14. A system for delivering an electronic document over a network and for printing in hard copy at a destination, comprising:

a client computer on said network, wherein the client computer is operable to convert the electronic document to a metafile having a graphical view format, and to send the metafile;

a server computer system on said network operable to;

receive the metafile from the client computer,

convert the metafile to a printable form, referred to as a printable electronic document, and

transmit the printable electronic document to a printing system on said network; and

a print spooler server on said network and connected to a printer, wherein the server computer system is operable to transmit the printable electronic document to the print spooler server, and the print spooler server is operable to print a hard copy of the printable electronic document that corresponds to the graphical view format of said electronic document on said printer; and

a database of fonts that is accessible by the server computer system to facilitate the conversion of the electronic document to the printable electronic document.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the server computer system is further operable to arrange for delivery of the hard copy of the document to a recipient.

16. A system for transmitting an electronic document over a network and delivering a hard copy of the electronic document created in a client computer application to a recipient, comprising a computer program stored in computer-readable form on a server, the computer program comprising:

a conversion program executable by the server to convert the electronic document to a printable format;

a print preview program executable by the server to convert the electronic document from the printable format to a graphical view format; and

a delivery program executable by a processor to transmit the printable version of the electronic document from the server to a printing system.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the electronic document is in a client computer application format:

read in the electronic document in the client computer application format;

open a copy of the corresponding client computer application;

convert the electronic document from a client computer application format to a printable format; and

transmit the electronic document in the printable format to the delivery program.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the print preview program is further executable to:

read in the electronic document in the printable format; and

convert the electronic document from the printable format to a graphical format that can be viewed by a user to see how the document will print in hard copy form at the printer.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the server computer system is further operable to arrange for delivery of the hard copy of the document to a recipient.

20. A method for transmitting an electronic document over a network and delivering a hard copy of the electronic document to a recipient at a remote location, comprising:

sending the electronic document from a client computer to a server computer system over a network;

converting the electronic document to a printable format, referred to as a printable electronic document;

converting the electronic document to a graphical view format that replicates in electronic form how the electronic document will print in hard copy form;

printing a hard copy document of the printable electronic document that corresponds to the graphical view format of said electronic document; and

delivering the hard copy document to the recipient.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of delivering the hard copy document to the recipient comprises scheduling delivery by a delivery service.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of delivering the hard copy document to the recipient comprises printing the hard copy document at a location for recipient pick-up.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the server computer system further comprises a web server and an application translation server connected to the web server, and wherein the method further comprises:

reading the electronic document in the client computer application format from the web server to the application translation server;

opening a copy of the client computer application resident on the application translation server;

converting the electronic document from a client computer application format to a printable format; and

storing the electronic document in the printable format.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

reading the electronic document in a printable format from the application translation server to the web server; and

converting the electronic document from a printable format to a graphical web-viewable format that replicates in electronic form how the document will print in hard copy form at the printer.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

presenting the electronic document in the graphical web-viewable format on at least one web page to allow the document to be previewed electronically using the client computer.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the server computer system further comprises a centralized file server connected to the web server, and wherein the method further comprises storing the printable format of the electronic document in the centralized file server.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the server computer system further comprises a print manager server connected to the web server, a print spooler server connected to the print manager server, and wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting the printable format of the electronic document to the print manager server, the print manager transmitting said printable format of the electronic document to the print spooler server;

polling the print spooler server at intervals to determine if the electronic document has been printed in hard copy; and

sending an electronic notification to the client computer indicating the hard copy of the document has been printed, or has been delivered, or both.