Device control system, service-providing method for a device control system, and a program for the same

• US 9,021,350 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2009
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Hideo, Ono, Shoji, Furuhata, Tadashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Mills, Frank D
• Application Number:
  US12/582,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20100100810A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,016 Days
• Field of Search: 715/239, 715/236
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

A device control system does not require changing the application in conjunction with changes in process content or changes in the type or specifications of a device. A style sheet database stores a plurality of style sheets describing information conversion rules for XML documents. A communication interface acquires output data from an application, and acquires an XML document containing information specifying the target device to which the output data is output and an output style sheet. Based on the output style sheet, an XML document converter converts the XML document acquired from the communication interface to an XML document including device control information for the target device. A device-specific XML document input/output unit outputs the XML document acquired from the XML document converter to the device control service corresponding to the target device.

Claims

1. A point of sale system comprising:

an order terminal that acquires order information including items;

a computer that generates output data including a specific identification (ID) for a first item in the items in conjunction with acquiring the order information from the order terminal and sends the output data as a first markup document;

a server that stores an output style sheet for printing an order content for the first item with the specific ID using a target device and acquires the first markup document and information related to the target device from the computer and converts the first markup document to a second markup document describing a command for printing the order content based on the output style sheet and sends the second markup document; and

a printer that receives the second markup document and prints the order content as the target device;

at least one additional printer;

wherein, the output style sheet type is specified by output style sheet information contained in receiver information of distribution information from the computer;

wherein, if the printer is not operating normally, the server stores at least another output style sheet for printing the order content for the item with at least another specific ID and acquires the second markup document and converts the second markup document to a markup document describing a command for printing the order content based on the at least another output style sheet and sends the markup document describing a command for printing the order content to the at least one additional printer.

2. The point of sale system described in claim 1, further comprising:

a second printer that prints a second order content;

wherein

the computer generates the output data including a second specific identification (ID) for a second item in the items from the order terminal and sends the first markup document including the second specific ID for the second item; and

the server stores a second output style sheet for printing the second order content for the second item with the second specific ID and acquires the first markup document from the computer and converts the first markup document to a markup document describing a command for printing the second order content based on the second output style sheet and sends the markup document describing a command for printing the second order content to the second printer.

3. The point of sale system described in claim 1, wherein

the computer stores a style sheet generating program that generates the style sheets for defining information conversion rules and generates the style sheets using the style sheet generating program and sends the style sheets to the server.

4. The point of sale system described in claim 1,

the second markup document is in XMLPOS format.

5. The point of sale system described in claim 1,

the output style sheet for printing an order content is written in eXtensible Stylesheet Language.

6. The point of sale system described in claim 1, further comprising:

wherein, if the printer is not operating normally, the server is configured to substitute the printer as a target device for a display on which information for the items in the order information can be displayed; and

the server stores a second output style sheet for displaying the information for the items;

wherein

when the target device is the display, the server converts the first markup document to a markup document for displaying the information for the items based on the second output style sheet and sends the markup document for displaying the information for the items to the display.

7. The point of sale system described in claim 1, wherein:

the printer generates a third markup document containing response information to the second markup document and sends the third markup document to the server; and

the server stores an input style sheet contained in a receiver information and converts the third markup document to a fourth markup document based on the input style sheet and sends the fourth markup document to the computer as the receiver.

8. A control method for a point of sale system comprising:

acquiring order information including items;

generating output data including a specific identification (ID) for a first item of the items in conjunction with acquiring the order information;

sending the output data as a first markup document;

receiving the first markup document by a server storing an output style sheet for printing an order content for the first item with the specific ID using a target device;

specifying the output style sheet type by output style sheet information contained in receiver information of distribution information from a computer;

converting the first markup document to a second markup document describing a command for printing the order content based on the output style sheet;

sending the second markup document to a printer as the target device; and

printing the order content

wherein, if the target device s not operating normally, converting the second markup document to another markup document describing a command for printing or displaying the order content on another target device.

9. The control method for a point of sale system in claim 8, further comprising:

generating output data including a second specific number for a second item in the items;

sending the first markup document including a second specific number for the second item;

receiving the first markup document by the server storing a second output style sheet for printing the second order content for the second item with the second specific number;

converting the first markup document to a markup document describing a command for printing the second order content based on the second output style sheet;

sending the markup document describing a command for printing the second order content to a second printer; and

printing the second order content using the second printer.

10. The control method for a point of sale system in claim 8, further comprising:

generating style sheets using a style sheet generating program; and

sending the style sheets to the server.