Image forming apparatus, method for controlling the same, and storage medium

• US 9,083,671 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2011
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Wada, Katsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nirav G
• Application Number:
  US13/189,350
• Publication Number:
  US 20120036570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,453 Days
• Field of Search: 726/11
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud

Abstract

An image forming apparatus to communicate with a service provision system via a firewall may include an identification unit, a determination unit, and a communication unit. The identification unit identifies, out of services provided by the service provision system, a service which provides a substitute function corresponding to a function of the image forming apparatus limited by a failure. The determination unit determines, out of a plurality of communication methods to be used for communication with the service provision system via the firewall, a communication method to be used to perform data communication with the service identified by the identification unit. The communication unit performs data communication with the service identified by the identification unit by using the communication method determined by the determination unit.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus to communicate with a service provision system via a firewall, the image forming apparatus comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory;

an identification unit configured to identify, out of services provided by the service provision system, a service which provides a substitute function corresponding to a function of the image forming apparatus limited by a failure;

a determination unit configured to determine, based on the service identified by the identification unit, a communication method to be used to perform data communication with the service identified by the identification unit, wherein the communication method to be used is determined from a plurality of communication methods to be used for communication with the service provision system via the firewall; and

a communication unit configured to perform data communication with the service identified by the identification unit by using the communication method determined by the determination unit, wherein the plurality of communication methods includes both;

a push method with which the service provision system holds a session with the image forming apparatus, retains a state where the session is held, and returns a response via the held session, and

a pull method with which the image forming apparatus repetitively requests the service provision system for response and, upon reception of a response returned from the service provision system in response to the request, stops the repetitive requests for response,

wherein, in response to the service identified by the identification unit requiring immediacy in communication and immediacy in communication not being feasible with the communication path status, the determination unit determines the pull method, and

wherein the identification unit, the determination unit, and the communication unit are implemented by the processor.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines, based on whether the service identified by the identification unit requires immediacy in communication, the communication method to be used to receive the service identified by the identification unit.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determination unit determines, based on whether immediacy in communication is feasible with a communication path status, the communication method to be used to receive the service identified by the identification unit.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the determination unit determines, based on both whether the service identified by the identification unit requires immediacy in communication and whether immediacy is feasible with the communication path status, the communication method to be used to receive the service identified by the identification unit.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in response to the service identified by the identification unit not requiring immediacy in communication and immediacy in communication not being feasible with the communication path status, the determination unit determines the pull method.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, in response to the service identified by the identification unit requiring immediacy in communication and immediacy in communication being feasible with the communication path status, the determination unit determines the push method.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, in response to the service identified by the identification unit not requiring immediacy in communication and immediacy in communication being feasible with the communication path status, the determination unit determines a communication method based on information about whether the image forming apparatus has received, from a service provision apparatus, an instruction that the service requires immediacy in communication.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, in response to the information received from the service provision apparatus being an instruction that the service requires immediacy, the determination unit determines the push method, and

wherein, in response to the information received from the service provision apparatus being an instruction that the service does not require immediacy, the determination unit determines the pull method.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the function limited by a failure is an image processing function of drawing image data, and

wherein both a service which provides a function equivalent to the image processing function limited by a failure, and a service which provides a function equivalent to a compression/decompression function of applying compression and decompression to the image data drawn by the image processing function are instructed to perform substitute processing to achieve data communication, even though the compression/decompression function of the image forming apparatus is not limited by a failure.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a printing unit; and

a scanner unit,

wherein the communication unit receives data communication from the service that has been processed through distribution and parallel processing.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in response to a detection unit of the image forming apparatus detecting that a function of the image forming apparatus is limited by a failure, the image forming apparatus connects with the service provision system and transmits login request information to the service provision system before the identification unit identifies the service out of the services provided by the service provision system.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, wherein, in response to the detection unit of the image forming apparatus detecting that a function of the image forming apparatus is limited by a failure and before the image forming apparatus connects with the service provision system, a user inquiry is generated to determine whether substitute processing is to be performed.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the failure that limits function of the image forming apparatus is identified in failure information having information about trouble and recovery,

wherein the identification of the service by the identification unit is based on the function of the image forming apparatus limited by the failure, and

wherein the determination unit determines, based on the function of the image forming apparatus limited by the failure, the communication method to be used to perform data communication with the service.

14. A method for controlling an image forming apparatus to communicate with a service provision system via a firewall, the method comprising:

identifying, out of services provided by the service provision system, a service which provides a substitute function corresponding to a function of the image forming apparatus limited by a failure;

determining, using a processor coupled to a memory and based on the identified service, a communication method to be used to perform data communication with the identified service, wherein the communication method to be used is determined from a plurality of communication methods to be used for communication with the service provision system via the firewall; and

performing data communication with the identified service by using the determined communication method, wherein the plurality of communication methods includes both;

a push method with which the service provision system holds a session with the image forming apparatus, retains a state where the session is held, and returns a response via the held session, and

a pull method with which the image forming apparatus repetitively requests the service provision system for response and, upon reception of a response returned from the service provision system in response to the request, stops the repetitive requests for response,

wherein, in response to the identified service requiring immediacy in communication and immediacy in communication not being feasible with the communication path status, determining includes determining the pull method.

15. A non-transitory storage medium storing a program to cause a computer to execute a method for controlling an image forming apparatus to communicate with a service provision system via a firewall, the method comprising:

identifying, out of services provided by the service provision system, a service which provides a substitute function corresponding to a function of the image forming apparatus limited by a failure;

determining, using a processor coupled to a memory and based on the identified service, a communication method to be used to perform data communication with the identified service, wherein the communication method to be used is determined from a plurality of communication methods to be used for communication with the service provision system via the firewall; and

performing data communication with the identified service by using the determined communication method, wherein the plurality of communication methods includes both;

a push method with which the service provision system holds a session with the image forming apparatus, retains a state where the session is held, and returns a response via the held session, and

a pull method with which the image forming apparatus repetitively requests the service provision system for response and, upon reception of a response returned from the service provision system in response to the request, stops the repetitive requests for response,

wherein, in response to the identified service requiring immediacy in communication and immediacy in communication not being feasible with the communication path status, determining includes determining the pull method.