Method, system for transmitting document over network, virtual printer apparatus and restoration apparatus

• US 9,037,654 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2005
• Issued: 05/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wu, Haijun
• Primary Examiner(s): SISON, JUNE Y
• Application Number:
  US11/793,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20100005144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,442 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/228, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1512 Print-to a presentation device other than a printer, e.g. e-reader, e-paper, tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/122 with regard to computing resources, e.g. memory, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1245 by conversion to intermediate or common format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method system for transmitting a document over a Network including the steps of a document sender converts a sharing document to be transmitted into a GDI (Graph Device Interface) document by performing virtual printing. The document receiver receives the graph device interface document sent from the document sender through the network The document receiver restores the received GDI document. The contents of the restored GDI document are the same as that of the sharing document. The present invention also provides a system, a virtual printer apparatus and a restoration apparatus, the transmission of the document is not restricted by the application using the method, system and apparatus of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting a sharing document containing only text and pictures over a network, comprising the steps of:

converting, by a virtual printer module in a first client device, GDI (Graph Device Interface) functions corresponding to a sharing document to be transmitted into GDI instructions, forming a GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions, and sending the GDI document to a document sender in the first client device;

receiving, by a document receiver in a second client device, the GDI document sent from the document sender through a network; and

restoring, by the document receiver, the received GDI document, and contents of the restored GDI document being the same as that of the sharing document;

the method for said converting the GDI functions corresponding to the sharing document into GDI instruction, wherein forming the GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions comprises the steps of;

opening, by an application of the sharing document on the document sender, the interface for interacting with the virtual printer module and starting to perform virtual printing of the sharing document;

determining, by the application of the sharing document, whether the virtual printing should be terminated, if the virtual printing should be terminated, terminating the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating current procedure for generating the GDI document;

if the virtual printing should not be terminated, sending, by the application of the sharing document, based on the contents of the sharing document and by calling print driver GDI transfer interface function, a GDI function to the virtual printer module, and converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into a GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

determining, by the application of the sharing document, based on the result of the conversion returned by the virtual printer module, whether the conversion is successful, and if the conversion is successful, starting, by the application of the sharing document, to deal with the next GDI function and cycling back to the step of determining whether the virtual print should be terminated;

if the conversion is unsuccessful, terminating, by the application of the sharing document, the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating the procedure for generating the GDI document;

the GDI instruction comprises at least;

the name of GDI function, number of GDI function and serial number of GDI performance;

the method for converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into the GDI instruction and retuning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document, comprising the steps of;

calling, by the application of sharing document, the print driver GDI transfer interface function, determining, by the virtual printer module, whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, acquiring, by the virtual printed module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization;

if the received GDI function is nota GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, determining, based on the initialization variable, whether the initialization has been completed, and if the initialization has been completed, determining whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, closing the GDI document, and returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating end of the virtual print of the sharing document, determining whether the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, and if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, encoding the name of GDI function, the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and the GDI function based on the format of GDI instruction stream so as to generate GDI instruction, and writing the GDI instruction into the GDI document; and

if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is not found, returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

if initialization has not been completed, cycling back to the step of acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization.

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

compressing, by the document sender, the GDI document; and

decompressing, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

encrypting, by the document sender, the GDI document; and

decrypting, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method for receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender, through a network comprises at least the steps of:

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender with an Instant Messaging tool;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender through an e-mail;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from the document sender by logging on the network terminal to the document sender.

5. A system for transmitting a sharing document containing only text and pictures over a network, comprising:

a first network computer including a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions for execution by the processor, to convert GDI (Graph Device Interface) functions corresponding to a sharing document to be transmitted into GDI instructions, form a GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions, and send the GDI document to the second network computer over the network;

a second network computer including a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions for execution by the processor, to receive the GDI document from the first network computer, restore the GDI document, and contents of the restored GDI document being same as that of the sharing document;

the first network computer comprises a document sender and a virtual printing module, and

an application sharing document on the document sender is to;

open the interface for interacting with the virtual printer module and start to perform virtual printing of the sharing document;

determine whether the virtual printing should be terminated, if the virtual printing should be terminated, terminate the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminate current procedure for generating the GDI document;

if the virtual printing should not be terminated, send, based on the contents of the sharing document and b calling print driver GDI transfer interface function, a GDI function to the virtual printer module;

receive a result of converting the received GDI function into a GDI instruction from the virtual printer module;

determine, based on the result received from the virtual printer module, whether the conversion is successful, and if the conversion is successful, start to deal with the next GDI function and cycle back to the step of determining whether the virtual print should be terminated;

if the conversion is unsuccessful, terminate the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminate the procedure for generating the GDI document; and

the virtual printer module is to convert the received GDI function into a GDI instruction and return the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

the GDI instruction comprises at least;

the name of GDI function, number of GDI function and serial number of GDI performance;

the virtual module is to;

after the application of sharing document calls the print driver GDI transfer interface function, determine, whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, acquire a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initialize the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establish and open an empty GDI document, and generate an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, determine, based on the initialization variable, whether the initialization has been completed, and if the initialization has been completed, determine whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, close the GDI document, and return the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating end of the virtual print of the sharing document, determine whether the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, and if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, add 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, encode the name of GDI function, the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and the GDI function based on the format of GDI instruction stream so as to venerate a GDI instruction, and write the GDI instruction into the GDI document; and

if the number of GDS function correspond to the current GDI function is not found, return the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

if initialization has not been completed, cycle back to the step of acquiring the corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from the GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening the empty GDI document, and generating the initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein

the first network computer is further to compress the GDI document, and outputting the compressed GDI document to the second network computer;

the second network computer is further to receive the compressed GDI document sent from the first network computer and decompress the GDI document.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein

the first network computer is further to encrypt the GDI document and send the encrypted GDI document to the second network computer;

the second network computer is further to receive the encrypted GDI document sent from the first network computer and decrypt the encrypted GDI document.

8. A network computer for transmitting a sharing document containing only text and pictures to another network computer over a network, including a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions for execution by the processor, and comprising a document sender and a virtual printer module;

the virtual printer module being stored on a memory;

the document sender is to output a sharing document containing only text and pictures to be sent to the virtual printer module, receive a GDI document into which the sharing document is converted from the virtual printer module and send the GDI document to the another network computer over the network; and

the virtual printer module is to receive the sharing document from the document sender, convert GDI functions corresponding to the sharing document into GDI instructions, form a GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions, and output the GDI document to the document sender;

an application of the sharing document on the document sender is to

open the interface for interacting with the virtual printer module and start to perform virtual printing of the sharing document;

determine whether the virtual printing should be terminated, if the virtual printing should be terminated, terminate to virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminate current procedure for generating the GDI document;

if the virtual printing should not be terminated, send, based on the contents of the sharing document and by calling print driver GDI transfer interface function, a GDI function to the virtual printer module;

receive a result of converting the received GDI function into a GDI instruction from the virtual printer module;

determine, based on the result received from the virtual printer module, whether the conversion is successful, and if the conversion is successful, start to deal with the next GDI function and cycle back to the step of determining whether the virtual print should be terminated;

if the conversion is unsuccessful, terminate the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminate the procedure for generating the GDI document; and

the virtual printer module is to convert the received GDI function into a GDI instruction and return the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

the GDI instruction comprises at least;

the name of GDI function, number of GDI function and serial number of GDI performance;

the virtual printer module is to;

after the application of sharing document calls the print driver GDI transfer interface function, determine, whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, acquire a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initialize the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establish and open an empty GDI document, and generate an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, determine, based on the initialization variable, whether the initialization has been completed, and if the initialization has been completed, determine whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, close the GDI document, and return the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating end of the virtual print of the sharing document, determine whether the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, and if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, add 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, encode the name of GDI function, the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and the GDI function based on the format of GDI instruction stream so as to generate a GDI instruction, and write the GDI instruction into the GDI document; and

if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is not found, return the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

if initialization has not been completed, cycle back to the step of acquiring the corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from the GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening the empty GDI document, and generating the initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization.

9. The network computer of claim 8, further comprising:

a compression module stored on the memory;

the compression module is to receive a GDI document from the document sender, compress the GDI document, and output the compressed GDI document to the document sender; and

the document sender is further to output a GDI document sent from the virtual printer module to the compression module and send the compressed GDI document sent from the compression module to a document receiver.

10. The network computer of claim 9, further comprising:

an encryption module stored on the memory;

the encryption module is to receive a GDI document from a document sender, encrypt the GDI document, and output the encrypted GDI document to the document sender; and

the document sender is further to output a GDI document sent from the virtual printer module to the encryption module and send the encrypted GDI document sent from the encryption module to a document receiver.

11. The network computer of claim 10, wherein the compression module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender, the encryption module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender, and the virtual printer module is an entity set independently or integrated into the document sender.

12. A method for sending a sharing document containing only text and pictures over a network, comprising the steps of:

converting, by a virtual printer module in a first client device, GDI (Graph Device Interface) functions corresponding to a sharing document to be transmitted into GDI instructions, forming a GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions, and sending the GDI document to a document sender in the first client device; and

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver in a second client device through a network;

the method for said converting the GDI functions corresponding to the sharing document into GDI instruction, forming the GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions comprises the steps of;

opening, by an application of the sharing document on the document sender, the interface for interacting with the virtual printer module and starting to perform virtual printing of the sharing document;

determining, by the application of sharing document, whether the virtual printing should be terminated, if the virtual printing should be terminated, terminating the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating current procedure for generating the GDI document;

if the virtual printing should not be terminated, sending, by the application of the sharing document, based on the contents of the sharing document and by calling print driver GDI transfer interface function, a GDI function to the virtual printer module, and converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into a GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

determining, by the application of the sharing document, based on the result of the conversion returned by the virtual printer module, whether the conversion is successful, and if the conversion is successful, starting, by the application of the sharing document, to deal with the next GDI function and cycling back to the step of determining whether the virtual print should be terminated;

if the conversion is unsuccessful, terminating, by the application of the sharing document, the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terrninating the procedure for generating the GDI document,

the GDI instruction comprises at least;

the name of GDI function, number of GDI function and serial number of GDI performance;

the method for converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into the GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document, comprising the steps of;

calling, by the application of sharing document, the print driver GDI transfer interface function, determining, by the virtual printer module, whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received a GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing the sharing document, acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, determining, based on the initialization variable, whether the initialization has been completed, and if the initialization has been completed, determining whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, closing the GDI document, and returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating end of the virtual print of the sharing document, determining whether the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, and if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, encoding the name of GDI function, the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and the GDI function based on the format of GDI instruction stream so as to generate a GDI instruction, and writing the GDI instruction into the GDI document; and

if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is not found, returning, by the virtual printer module, the results of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

if initialization has not been completed, cycling back to the step of acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising compressing, by the document sender, the GDI document.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising encrypting, by the document sender, the GDI document.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the method for said determining whether the virtual printing should be terminated comprises the steps of determining, by the application of the sharing document, whether the GDI functions called based on the contents of the sharing document have all been sent to the virtual printer module, and if the GDI functions called based on the contents of the sharing document have all been sent to the virtual printer module, determining that the virtual printing should be terminated, and if the GDI functions called based on the contents of the sharing document have not all been sent to the virtual printer module, determining that the virtual printing should not be terminated.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the GDI instruction comprises at least the total length of current GDI interface instruction, number of parameters, parameter value of each of parameters and length of parameter value.

17. The method of claim 12, the method for sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver through a network comprising the steps of:

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver with an Instant Messaging tool;

or,

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver through an e-mail;

or,

sending, by the document sender, the GDI document to a document receiver by logging on the network terminal to the document receiver.

18. A method for receiving a sharing document containing only text and pictures of format over a network, comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a document receiver in a second client device, a GDI (Graph Device Interface) document sent from a document sender in a first client device through a network, the GDI document being formed by synthesizing GDI instructions into which GDI functions corresponding to a sharing document to be transmitted is converted by a virtual printer module in the first client device; and

restoring, by the document receiver, the received GDI document, contents of the restored GDI document being same as that of the sharing document;

the method for converting the GDI functions corresponding to the sharing document into GDI instructions, forming the GDI document by synthesizing the GDI instructions comprises the steps of;

opening, by an application of the sharing document on the document sender, the interface, for interacting with the virtual printer module and starting to perform virtual printing of the sharing document;

determining, by the application of the sharing document, whether the virtual printing should be terminated, if the virtual printing should be terminated, terminating the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating current procedure for generating the GDI document;

if the virtual printing should not to be terminated, sending, by the application of the sharing document, based on the contents of the sharing document and by calling print driver GDI transfer interface function, a GDI function to the virtual printer module, and converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDIfunction into a GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

determining, by the application of the sharing document, based on the result of the conversion returned by the virtual printer module, whether the conversion is successful, and if the conversion is successful, starting, by the application of the sharing document, to deal with the next GDI function and cycling back to the step of determining whether the virtual print should be terminated;

if the conversion is unsuccessful, terminating, by the application of the sharing document, the virtual printing of the sharing document by sending a GDI function indicating the end of the sharing document to the virtual printer module and terminating the procedure for generating the GDI document;

the GDI instruction comprises at least;

the name of GDI function, number of GDI function and serial number of GDI performance;

the method for converting, by the virtual printer module, the received GDI function into the GDI instruction and returning the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document, comprising the steps of;

calling, by the application of sharing document, the print driver GDI transfer interface function, determining, by the virtual printer, module whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and opening an empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization;

if the received GDI function is nota GDI function indicating start of virtual printing of the sharing document, determining, based on the initialization variable, whether the initialization has been completed and if the initialization has been completed, determining whether the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, if the received GDI function is a GDI function indicating end of the virtual printing of the sharing document, closing the GDI document, and returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document;

if the received GDI function is not a GDI function indicating end of the virtual print of the sharing document, determining whether the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, and if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is found, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, encoding the name of GDI function, the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and the GDI function based on the format of GDI instruction stream so as to generate GDI instruction, and writing the GDI instruction into the GDI document; and

if the number of GDI function corresponding to the current GDI function is not found, returning, by the virtual printer module, the result of the conversion to the application of the sharing document; and

if initialization has not been completed, cycling back to the step of acquiring, by the virtual printer module, a corresponding table of names and numbers of GDI functions from a GDI subsystem, initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to 0, establishing and empty GDI document, and generating an initialization variable indicating the completion situation of the initialization.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

decompressing, by the document receiver, the received GDI document.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

decrypting, by the document receiver, the received GDI document

21. The method of claim 18, the GDI document comprises at least a GDI instruction;

wherein restoring the received GDI document comprises the steps of performing a graph device function corresponding to the GDI instruction in the GDI document.

22. The method of claim 21, the method for restoring the received GDI document comprising the steps of:

applying, by the network terminal to the document receiver, to its graph device subsystem for a Graph Device Context, reading all the GDI instructions in the received GDI document, sorting all the GDI instructions ascending based on the serial numbers of GDI performance in the GDI instructions, and initializing the variable of the serial number of GDI performance to the minimum of the serial numbers of GDI performance;

determining whether the GDI instruction corresponding to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance is found, if the GDI instruction is found, acquiring the number of the GDI function in the current GDI instruction and the GDI function corresponding to the number of the GDI function, performing the GDI function in the Graph Device Context acquired through the application, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, and cycling back to the step of determining whether the GDI instruction corresponding to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance is found; and

if the GDI instruction is not found, determining whether there is a GDI instruction with the serial number of the GDI performance larger than the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, and if there is a GDI instruction with the serial number of the GDI performance larger than the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, adding 1 to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance and cycling back to the step of determining whether the GDI instruction corresponding to the variable of the serial number of GDI performance is found;

if there is no GDI instruction with the serial number of the GDI performance larger than the variable of the serial number of GDI performance, closing the GDI document and terminating the procedure for restoring the GDI document.

23. The method of claim 18, the method for receiving, by the document receiver, a GDI document sent from a document sender through a network comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from a document sender with an Instant Messaging tool;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from a document sender through an e-mail;

or,

receiving, by the document receiver, the GDI document sent from a document sender by logging on the network terminal to the document sender.