Printing management system and printing management method

• US 8,199,356 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Nakata, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, James A
• Assistant Examiner(s): BECKLEY, JONATHAN R
• Application Number:
  US11/555,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20070103715A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,049 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.14, 358/1.15, 358/1.16, 358/1.6, 358/1.13, 358/1.17, 358/1.18, 358/403, 358/444, 358/296, 707/104, 707/103, 707/102, 707/101, 707/100, 707/9, 707/10, 707/8, 707/1, 707/2
• US Class Current: 358/1.16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1203 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1222 Increasing security of the print job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1239 Restricting the usage of resources, e.g. usage or user levels, credit limit, consumables, special fonts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1273 Print job history, e.g. logging, accounting, tracking

Abstract

According to this invention, a printing management system which manages a log of a print job includes a creation unit which creates log information for specifying a print job on the basis of issued print job data, a save unit which saves the log information created by the creation unit in a save location corresponding to the log information in a storage unit, a determination unit which determines, in accordance with a request to access the log information saved in the save unit, whether to permit or reject the access request, and an access unit which reads log information subjected to the access request when the determination unit determines to permit the access request.

Claims

1. A printing management system which manages a log of a print job, comprising:

creation method specification unit which associates a creation method of tracking data for tracking an executed print job with user information and specifies said creation method;

a storage specification unit that associates a storage location for tracking data with user information and specifies the storage location;

a retention unit that retains the creation method for tracking data and storage location for tracking data as tracking setting information;

an acquisition unit which acquires the tracking setting information that corresponds to user information of an issuing source of each print job information of in accordance with information indicating an issuing source of the print job, from the tracking setting information retained by said retention unit;

a creation unit which creates tracking data on the basis of print job data for the print job, following the creation method for tracking data contained in the tracking setting information retrieved by the acquisition unit for specifying a print job on the basis of issued print job data;

a save unit which saves the tracking data created by said creation unit in the storage location for tracking data set in the tracking setting information acquired by said acquisition unit;

a determination unit which determines, in accordance with a request to access the tracking data saved in said save unit, whether to permit or reject the access request; and

an access unit which reads the tracking data subjected to the access request when said determination unit determines to permit the access request,

wherein the tracking data contains print log information and print content information,

wherein said print log information includes at least one of a user ID, computer name, print date, and print file name, and

wherein said print content information includes at least one of a print image, a thumbnail of a print image, and text contained in the print data.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said creation unit extracts a part of print data contained in the print job data as print content information, and associates the print job with the print content information and a print log containing either information indicating the issuing source of the print job or an output device for outputting the print job, thereby generating the tracking data.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein

the tracking data created by said creation unit contains a user ID, a computer name, date and time of printing and/or a print file name as the print log, and an image to be printed, a reduced image of the image to be printed and/or text in the print data as print contents information.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said tracking data is set in correspondence with a user ID of a requesting user of the access request.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein

said save unit encrypts the tracking data and saves the encrypted tracking data in the storage location of the storage unit, and

said determination unit has a decryption unit which reads out and decrypts the encrypted tracking data, and permits the access request when decryption by the decryption unit is successful.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the decryption unit determines whether to encrypt the tracking data in accordance with the storage location corresponding to the tracking data, said save unit encrypts tracking data corresponding to a predetermined storage location, and another tracking data is saved in a corresponding storage location without encrypting the other tracking data.

7. A print control system according to claim 1 wherein said save unit saves print log information and print content information contained in the tracking data in separate storage locations having different access rights, respectively.

8. A print control system according to claim 7, wherein said save unit saves the print content information in a storage location requiring an access right stricter than an access right required by a storage location used to save print log information.

9. A printing management method of managing a log of a print job, comprising:

a creation method specification step of associating a creation method of tracking data for tracking an executed print job with user information and specifying said creation method;

a storage specification step of associating a storage location for tracking data with user information and specifying the storage location;

a retention step of retaining the creation method for tracking data and storage location for tracking data as tracking setting information;

an acquisition step of acquiring the tracking setting information that corresponds to user information of an issuing source of each print job information of in accordance with information indicating an issuing source of the print job, from the tracking setting information retained in the retention step;

a creation step of creating tracking data on the basis of print job data for the print job, following the creation method for tracking data contained in the tracking setting information retrieved in the acquisition step for specifying a print job on the basis of issued print job data;

a save step of saving the tracking data created in the creation step in the storage location for tracking data set in the tracking setting information acquired in the acquiring step;

a determination step of determining, in accordance with a request to access the tracking data saved in the saving step, whether to permit or reject the access request; and

an access step of reading the tracking data subjected to the access request when the access request is determined in the determination step to be permitted,

wherein the tracking data contains print log information and print content information,

wherein said print log information includes at least one of a user ID, computer name, print date, and print file name, and

wherein said print content information includes at least one of a print image, a thumbnail of a print image, and text contained in the print data.

10. A print management method according to claim 9 wherein, in the save step, print log information and print content information contained in the tracking data are saved in separate storage locations having different access rights, respectively.

11. A print management method according to claim 10, wherein, in the save step, the print content information is saved in a storage location requiring an access right stricter than an access right required by a storage location used to save print log information.

12. An information processing apparatus capable of tracking a print job, comprising:

a creation method specification unit configured to associate a creation method of tracking data for tracking an executed print job with user information and specify said creation

a folder specification unit configured to associate a folder for tracking data with user information and specify the folder;

a retention unit configured to retain the creation method for tracking data and the folder for tracking data as tracking setting information;

an acquisition unit configured to acquire the tracking setting information that corresponds to user information of an issuing source of each print job information of the tracking setting information in accordance with information indicating a source of the print job contained in the print job, from the tracking setting information retained by said retention unit;

a creation unit configured to create tracking data on the basis of print job data for the print job, following the creation method for tracking data contained in the tracking setting information retrieved by the acquisition unit for specifying a print job on the basis of issued print job data;

a storage unit configured to store the tracking data created by said creation unit in a folder designated by folder designating information contained in the tracking data.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein

said creation unit extracts a part of print data contained in the print data as print content information, and

the tracking data log created by said creation unit contains a user ID, a computer name, date and time of printing and/or a print file name as the print log, and an image to be printed, a reduced image of the image to be printed and/or text in the print data as the print contents information.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein

the information indicating the source of the print job is user account information that indicates a user ID who has made an instruction to print the print job or a group to which the user belongs;

and

the folder indicated by the folder designating information is any of folders which exist in a storage area of a storage device outside the information processing apparatus.

15. An information processing method of tracking a print job, to be executed by an information processing apparatus, said method comprising:

a creation method specification step of associating a creation method of tracking data for tracking an executed print job with user information and specifying said creation method;

a folder specification step of associating a folder for tracking data with user information and specifying the folder;

a retention step of retaining the creation method for tracking data and the folder for tracking data as tracking setting information;

an acquisition step of acquiring the tracking setting information that corresponds to user information of an issuing source of each print job information of the tracking setting information in accordance with information indicating a source of the print job contained in the print job, from the tracking setting information retained in the retention step;

a creation step creating tracking data on the basis of print job data for the print job, following the creation method for tracking data contained in the tracking setting information retrieved in the acquisition step for specifying a print job on the basis of issued print job data;

a storage step of storing the tracking data created in the creation step in a folder designated by folder designating information contained in the tracking data.