Spooling strategies using structured job information

• US 7,526,504 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Foehr, Oliver H., Yue, Feng, Sedky, Khaled S., Trufinescu, Adina M., Singh, Harvinder Pal
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Shahid A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jami; Hares
• Application Number:
  US11/831,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021923A1
• Time in Patent Office: 637 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/103.R, 715/200, 715/243, 358/1.1, 358/1.12, 358/1.13, 358/1.16, 358/1.18
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1514 Sub-job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1203 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1244 Job translation or job parsing, e.g. page banding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1246 by handling markup languages, e.g. XSL, XML, HTML
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1276 within a printer driver, e.g. driver resides either on a server or on a client
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Spooling strategies are described for producing job information that conforms to a hierarchical structure, and then storing the job information in a spool storage. The job information is then retrieved from the spool storage and consumed. The structured job information includes a multi-level hierarchy of nodes, including a job level that represents the entire job, a document level that represents a document to be processed within the job; a rendition level that represents a rendition of the document to be processed; and a page level that represents a page associated with the rendition. The hierarchical structure can also include resource nodes and metadata nodes associated with any level of the hierarchy, respectively representing resources and metadata. The hierarchy can optionally be composed using one or more selection and sequence parts. Program logic implements the production and consumption of the job information by providing a collection of logic modules for selectively adding and retrieving elements to the hierarchically structure. The program logic also provides logic for enumerating the contents of the job information and for signaling the occurrence of various events associated with the processing of the job information.

Claims

1. A system for consuming job information stored on a spool storage by a spooling module, the system comprising:

a processing unit; and

memory accessible to the processing unit, the memory comprising;

logic configured to consume a data structure that specifies the job information from the spool storage, wherein the data structure defines a plurality of nodes organized into a hierarchical arrangement representing different aspects of the job information;

first filter logic configured to process the job information when the job information conforms to the data structure and generate a first output result that conforms to the data structure;

second filter logic configured to process the job information when the job information conforms to the data structure and generate a second output result that partially conforms to the data structure; and

third filter logic configured to process the job information when the job information is arranged according to a non-structured format;

wherein the first filter logic processes the job information while maintaining the data structure specifying the job information to generate the first output result for a first target entity, the first target entity configured to recognize and process the job information when arranged according to the data structure, wherein the second filter logic processes the job information to generate the second output result for a second target entity, the second target entity configured to recognize and process the job information when arranged at least partially according to the data structure, and wherein the third filter logic processes the job information when the job information is arranged according to a non-structured format to generate a third output result for a third target entity, the third target entity configured to recognize and process the job information when arranged according to the non-structured format.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one document node representing a document to be processed by the spooling module.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one rendition node representing a rendition of a document to be processed by the spooling module.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one page node representing a page to be processed by the spooling module.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic for consuming at least one page node consumes a fixed page node that includes markup describing rendering of the page.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one resource node representing a resource to be processed by the spooling module.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising logic configured to determine at least one characteristic of the job information.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising logic configured to provide a notification upon the occurrence of an event associated with the consuming of the job information.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming is configured to consume the job information in a synchronous manner.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming is configured to consume the job information in an asynchronous manner.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises a plurality of modules respectively configured to retrieve different nodes of the data structure.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one selector node that functions to select among at least two aspects of the job information.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one sequence node that functions to bind together at least two aspects of the job information.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for consuming comprises logic configured to consume at least one fixed panel node that functions to bind together at least two pages of the job information.