Hierarchical arrangement for spooling job data

• US 8,243,317 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2005
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sedky, Khaled S., Emerson, Daniel F., Yue, Feng, Singh, Harvinder Pal, Foehr, Oliver H.
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDOLPH, VINCENT M
• Application Number:
  US11/088,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20050243368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,700 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 358/1.16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1203 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1244 Job translation or job parsing, e.g. page banding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1267 Job repository, e.g. non-scheduled jobs, delay printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1284 Local printer device

Abstract

A hierarchical spooling data structure includes a plurality of nodes. In accordance with certain aspects, the plurality of nodes include at least four nodes: a first node representing a fixed page of the job; a second node representing a fixed document of the job, the second node including a reference to the first node; a third node containing data representing a fixed sequence of documents of the job, the third node including a reference to the second node; and a fourth node containing data representing a root of the job, the fourth node including a reference to the third node.

Claims

1. A computer readable memory device, comprising:

a spool storage for storing a fixed page of a job, the fixed page having a fixed layout and static content that are fixed prior to the fixed page being stored by the spool storage;

a spool storage data structure stored on the computer readable memory device, the spool storage data structure including;

a first part containing data representing the fixed page of the job;

a second part containing data representing a fixed document of the job, the second part being generated to include a reference to the first part;

a third part containing data representing a fixed sequence of documents of the job, the third part being generated to include a reference to the second part; and

a fourth part containing data representing a root of the job, the fourth part being generated to include a reference to the third part,

wherein the data includes descriptive properties of at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth parts, persisted in schematized metadata attached to the at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth parts; and

filter logic configured to process the data of at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth parts, the filter logic comprising a filter configuration module and a plurality of filters, the filter configuration module being configured to define which of the plurality of filters are to be invoked to process the data of the at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth parts, and the filter configuration module further configured to chain two or more of the plurality of filters together in different arrangements, summing processes of the two or more filters to produce different net effects on a presentation of the data based on the different arrangements, the processing of the data being controlled by one or more print tickets which include the schematized metadata.

2. A computer readable memory device as recited in claim 1, the data structure further including:

a fifth part containing data representing a shared resource of the job, the shared resource being associated with the fourth part and being referenced by one or more of the first part, the second part, and the third part.

3. A computer readable memory device as recited in claim 2, the data structure further including:

a plurality of additional parts that each include data representing a print ticket of the job, wherein a different one of the plurality of additional parts is associated with each of the first part, the second part, the third part, the fourth part, and the fifth part.

4. A computer readable memory device as recited in claim 1, the data structure further including:

a plurality of additional parts that each include data representing an additional fixed sequence of documents of the job, the fourth part including a reference to each of the plurality of additional parts.

5. A computer readable memory device as recited in claim 1, the data structure further including:

a plurality of additional parts that each include data representing an additional fixed document of the job, the third part including a reference to each of the plurality of additional parts.

6. A computer readable memory device as recited in claim 1, the data structure further including:

a plurality of additional parts that each include data representing an additional fixed page of the job, the second part including a reference to each of the plurality of additional parts.

7. A computer readable memory device as recited in claim 1, the data structure further including:

a plurality of additional parts that each include data representing descriptive metadata, wherein a different one of the plurality of additional parts is associated with each of the first part, the second part, the third part, and the fourth part.

8. A computer readable memory device, comprising:

a data structure stored on the computer readable memory device, the data structure specifying job information to be processed by a spooling module, the data structure including a plurality of nodes organized into a hierarchical arrangement representing different aspects of the job information, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes comprises a resource node containing data representing a shared resource of the job information, the at least one node being associated with only a root node of the plurality of nodes but referenced by other nodes of the plurality of nodes; and

filter logic configured to process the job information, the filter logic comprising a filter configuration module and a plurality of filters, the filter configuration module being configured to chain two or more of the plurality of filters together to produce different net effects on a presentation of the job information, the filter logic configured to convert the job information into a plurality of formats accepted by a plurality of different printers,

wherein processing the job information is controlled by one or more print tickets which include schematized metadata, the metadata comprising descriptive properties of the plurality of nodes, the descriptive properties being organized based on the hierarchical arrangement; and

wherein the plurality of nodes comprises at least one fixed page node representing a fixed page having a fixed layout and static content that are fixed prior to the fixed page being processed by the spooling module.

9. A computer readable memory device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of nodes comprises at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module.

10. A computer readable memory device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of nodes comprises at least one fixed document sequence node representing a fixed document sequence to be processed by the spooling module.

11. A computer readable memory device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of nodes comprises at least one fixed document node representing a document to be processed by the spooling module.

12. A computer readable memory device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of nodes comprises:

at least one job node representing an entire job to be processed by the spooling module;

at least one fixed document sequence node representing a document sequence to be processed by the spooling module; and

at least one fixed page node representing a page to be processed by the spooling module.

13. A computer readable memory device of claim 8, wherein the resource node represents an image resource to be processed by the spooling module.

14. A computer readable memory device of claim 8, wherein the resource node represents a font resource to be processed by the spooling module.

15. A system for consuming job information of a job using a spooling entity, the system comprising:

a processor; and

one or more memories communicatively coupled to the processor, the one or more memories having stored instructions that, when executed at the system, configure the system to implement the spooling entity, wherein the spooling entity is configured to store and arrange the job information, the job information including a fixed page of the job, the fixed page having a fixed layout and static content that are fixed prior to the fixed page being stored in the spooling entity, the job information being arranged to include a plurality of nodes organized into a hierarchical arrangement representing the job information, the plurality of nodes including;

a first node representing the fixed page of the job;

a second node representing a fixed document of the job, the second node including a reference to the first node;

a third node containing data representing a fixed sequence of documents of the job, the third node including a reference to the second node; and

a fourth node containing data representing a root of the job, the fourth node including a reference to the third node,

wherein descriptive properties, persisted in schematized metadata, of each of the first, second, third, and fourth nodes are attached to each of the first, second, third, and fourth nodes respectively, and

wherein the spooling entity further comprises filter logic configured to process the job information of at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth nodes, the filter logic comprising a filter configuration module and a plurality of filters, the filter configuration module being configured to define which of the plurality of filters are to be invoked to process the job information of the at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth nodes,

the processing of the job information being controlled by instructions on a plurality of print tickets which include the schematized metadata, wherein the plurality of print tickets are applied to different ones of the first, second, third, and fourth nodes and wherein the instructions are aggregated at the first, second, third, and fourth nodes based on the respectively applied print tickets and the hierarchical arrangement.

16. A system as recited in claim 15, the plurality of nodes further including:

a fifth node representing a shared resource of the job, the shared resource being associated with the fourth node and being referenced by one or more of the first node, the second node, and the third node.

17. A system as recited in claim 15, the plurality of nodes further including:

a plurality of additional nodes each representing an additional sequence of documents of the job, the fourth node including a reference to each of the plurality of additional parts.

18. A system as recited in claim 15, the plurality of nodes further including:

a plurality of additional nodes each representing an additional fixed document of the job, the third node including a reference to each of the plurality of additional nodes.

19. A system as recited in claim 15, the plurality of nodes further including:

a plurality of additional nodes that each include data representing descriptive metadata, wherein a different one of the plurality of additional nodes is associated with each of the first node, the second node, the third node, and the fourth node.