JP2004355185A - Remote analysis system of print data - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote analysis system in which a function for converting a print command transmitted from a computer device into HTML data is added to a printer and the binary dump of a command group can be displayed on the computer device. <P>SOLUTION: The remote analysis system 10 is constituted of the printer 30, the computer device 20 and/or management device 42 or the like, which are connected to a network 12. The printer is provided with a page constituting part 32 converting the print command received from the computer device into the HTML data, an HTML page management part 36 managing the converted HTML data, and an HTML server part 37 supplying the HTML data to the computer device and/or the management device. The print command is transmitted to the computer device and/or management device as the HTML data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a remote analysis system that remotely obtains and displays print data, and more particularly, to a remote analysis system that can cause output failures in a printing device without requiring special tools or devices. The present invention relates to a remote analysis system for print data which can be obtained and displayed in the above.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A plurality of computer devices such as servers, clients, and workstations, and printing devices such as printers and multifunction devices are connected on the network, and print data is transmitted from each of these computer devices to a specific printing device to perform desired printing. The network system that performs is often used.
[0003]
Generally, in order to perform desired printing by a printing device, a printing command consisting of a series of commands necessary for printing based on a certain grammar from a computer device to be printed to the printing device, data to be printed, and the like. Must be transmitted as print data. However, since the specifications of the print command are sequentially changed in accordance with a version upgrade of the printing apparatus, the print command is not necessarily applicable to all printing apparatuses connected on the network. Further, even when the types (grammar) of the commands are different, the printing apparatus does not operate properly and cannot obtain a print result.
[0004]
When a printing failure occurs due to a print command in the printing apparatus due to such a cause, or when a reproduction test is performed in an environment where a failure may occur, a special mode normally provided in the printing device is used. In general, a method of outputting (printing) a binary dump of a print command transmitted from a computer device by using (e.g., failure analysis mode) to confirm a print command actually transmitted to a printing apparatus is common. there were.
[0005]
In addition, a system that performs remote maintenance by a maintenance analysis device installed at a remote place via a network when a failure occurs in a printing apparatus is also known. Is disclosed.
[0006]
The remote maintenance system disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a print system and a maintenance host. When an error occurs in the printer, the printing system causes the printer operating state information extracting unit to extract operating state information corresponding to the error, and transmits the information to the maintenance host. In the maintenance host, referring to the information recorded in the database, the error analysis unit analyzes the cause of the error based on the operation state information, and based on the result of the analysis of the cause, the error handling instruction information creating unit generates the error handling instruction. Generate information. The maintenance host is configured to transmit the error handling instruction information to the print system via a transmission / reception unit and a communication line.
[0007]
On the other hand, the printing apparatus has a WWW server function, analyzes print commands transmitted from the computer, converts the data to be printed into drawing data, and prints the created drawing data in HTML format on the WWW server. A print content confirmation support system which converts the data into a print data and transmits the data to a computer device, and displays drawing data (data in a state printed by a printing device) on a browser of the computer device so that the print state can be checked. Is disclosed in Patent Document 2 below.
[0008]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-342062 (FIG. 1)
[Patent Document 2]
JP 2001-265545 A (FIG. 1)
[0009]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
When a printing failure occurs in the printing apparatus, or when a reproduction test is performed in an environment in which a failure may occur, in order to perform the analysis using the above-described normal method, a transmission from the computer apparatus is performed. It is necessary to confirm the print command actually transmitted to the printing apparatus by outputting (printing) a binary dump of the print command that has been executed. However, since the number of print command commands is enormous, the binary The amount of dump output is enormous, requiring a large amount of printing paper. In addition, there is a problem in that the analysis is performed by visually observing the printed material output as a binary dump, and a great amount of time is required.
[0010]
On the other hand, in the remote maintenance system disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to install a dedicated maintenance system and collect and analyze information related to a failure from the printing apparatus. There is a problem that a function of collecting and storing information related to the system is required, thereby increasing the cost of the system.
[0011]
In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, the printing device can send a print image rasterized by the printing device to a computer device and display the print image on a display of the computer device. However, a binary dump of a print command is sent to the computer device. There was a problem that the data could not be transmitted and displayed on the display, and could not be applied to remote analysis.
[0012]
The inventor of the present application has conducted various studies to solve the above problems, and as a result, provided a page configuration unit, an HTML server mechanism, and an HTML page management mechanism in the printing apparatus, and HTML-converted a command group of print commands to an arbitrary one. The present inventors have found that a binary dump of a print command transmitted to a printing device can be displayed by using a WWW browser of a management computer device by enabling transmission to a computer device, and have completed the present invention. It is.
[0013]
That is, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems, and by adding a function of converting a command group of a print command transmitted from a computer device to HTML data that can be displayed on a WWW browser to a printing device, It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote analysis system of print data in which a binary dump of the command group can be displayed on a computer device and / or a management device.
[0014]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The above object of the present invention can be achieved by the following configurations. That is, a remote analysis system for print data according to the present invention is a remote analysis system for print data comprising a printing device connected to a network and a computer device and / or a management device, wherein the printing device is a computer device. A page composition unit for converting the print command received from the server to HTML data, an HTML page management unit for managing the converted HTML data, and an HTML server unit for providing the computer device and / or the management device with the HTML data. With
A print command transmitted from the computer device to the printing device is transmitted as HTML data to the computer device and / or the management device.
[0015]
With such a configuration, the print command is converted into HTML data, and can be displayed on the display of the management device and / or the computer device, and can be stored as electronic data. Visual and analysis operations can be performed on the above, and the saved HTML data can be introduced into an separately created analysis tool for analysis. Further, the print data can be remotely analyzed by a computer device and a management device having an ordinary browser function without using a dedicated remote analysis device.
[0016]
According to another aspect of the present invention, the HTML page management unit is configured to configure the HTML data HTML-converted by the page configuration unit into pages of a fixed size. With such a configuration, the printing apparatus can provide a memory for storing HTML-converted data with a small-capacity memory.
[0017]
Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the printing device has an authentication function, and performs authentication based on authentication data input to the management page transmitted from the HTML server unit to the computer device and / or the management device. It is characterized by performing. With such a configuration, security against remote analysis of a failure can be ensured.
[0018]
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the HTML page management unit manages a storage term and / or a storage amount of the converted HTML data. Furthermore, according to another aspect of the present invention, a printing device interprets a print command received from a computer device, converts data to be printed into a display list, and converts the display list into bitmap data. And a printing mechanism for performing printing based on the bitmap data.
[0019]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a print data remote analysis system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of a remote print data analysis system according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a print data remote analysis system 10 according to the present invention includes a printing device 30 connected to a network 12, a computer device 20 as a client, and management devices 42 and 44 for managing the remote analysis system. It is composed of
[0020]
The computer device 20 may be a normal client, a server, or a workstation, and a plurality of computer devices may be connected to the network 12. The management devices 42 and 44 may also be ordinary computer devices, and the number of management devices connected to the network may be one.
[0021]
The printing device 30 receives and buffers print data including a print command transmitted from the computer device and data to be printed, and interprets the print data received by the receive buffer 31 to store intermediate data in a display list. , An interpreter 33 for converting the intermediate data into bitmap image data, a page buffer 34 for buffering the bitmap image data created by the interpreter 33, and a bitmap image data buffered in the page buffer 34. And a printing mechanism unit 35 that performs printing based on.
[0022]
The printing device 30 also includes a page configuration unit 32 that converts a print command received from the computer device 20 into HTML data, an HTML page management unit 36 that manages the HTML data converted by the page configuration unit 32 for each page, An HTML server unit 37 for providing HTML data to the device 20 and / or the management devices 42 and 44 is provided.
[0023]
The HTML server unit 37 has the same function as a normal WWW server function, and has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for communicating with the computer device 20 or the management devices 42 and 44 via the network 12. Utilizing the network connection function of the device 20 or the management device 42 or the like, the URL is designated from the computer device 20 or the management device 42 or the like and connected to the HTML server unit 37, and the HTML server unit 37 is provided by a normal browser function An HTML page to be displayed can be displayed on a display (not shown), and information input via the HTML page can be transmitted to the printing apparatus 30.
[0024]
When a printing failure occurs in the printing device 30 or when a reproduction test is performed in an environment where a failure may occur, the HTML of the printing device 30 is transmitted from the computer device 20 or the management devices 42 and 44. It connects to the server unit 37, receives the operation page prepared in the HTML page management unit 36, causes the printing device 30 to perform the HTML conversion of the print command via this operation page, and receives the converted HTML data. Display on the display and analyze.
[0025]
The HTML data can be stored as electronic data in the computer device 20 or the management devices 42 and 44, and an analysis tool is separately prepared and can be analyzed by the analysis tool.
[0026]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the above procedure. The flowchart of FIG. 2 illustrates a procedure for performing remote analysis from the management apparatus 42 when a printing failure occurs in the printing apparatus 30 or when a reproduction test is performed in an environment where a failure may occur. However, this procedure can be performed from another analysis device 44 or another computer device 20 that has transmitted the print data to the printing device 30.
[0027]
First, the management device 42 specifies the URL of the HTML server 37 of the printing device 30 and connects in step S10. The printing device 30 transmits an operation page for operation management prepared in the HTML page management unit 36 to the management device 42 in step S11, and the management device 42 receives this and displays it on the display. Next, in step S12, the management device 42 inputs information for authentication, for example, a user ID and a password into an input unit prepared on the operation page, and transmits the information to the printing device 30. It is assumed that the user ID and password for authentication are registered in the printing device 30 in advance.
[0028]
The printing device 30 performs authentication based on the input authentication information such as the user ID and the password, and when the authentication is obtained, transmits the operation page prepared in the HTML page management unit 36 to the management device 42 in step S13. The management device 42 that has received the operation page performs necessary input, such as the transmission source of the print data and the instruction of the reproduction test, on the operation page, and prints the print data (print command, data to be printed) to the computer 20 in step S14. The computer device 20 transmits a print command and data to be printed to the printing device 30 in step S15. In this case, when the management device 42 itself transmits the print data to be subjected to the reproduction test to the printing device 30, the processes of steps S14 and S15 are performed by the management device 42 itself.
[0029]
Upon receiving the print data transmitted from the computer device 20 into the reception buffer 31, the printing device 30 converts the binary code of the print command into HTML data by the page forming unit 32 in step S16, and converts the converted HTML data for one page. Is reached, an identifier for page identification is added in step S17. In step S18, the HTML server transmits the HTML-converted data in the page composition unit 32 to the management device 42 for each page. Here, the data of the HTML-converted print command is data in which hexadecimal numbers are listed, and this data is essentially equivalent to a printout of HEX dump (binary dump) data conventionally output by the printing apparatus. Become.
[0030]
In addition, the HTML page management unit 36 does not simply add the display format of the HTML-converted data to a single page (a format in which the length of the page is gradually increased), but also has a fixed size as described above. The page is divided into pages, and the HTML server unit 37 can provide the HTML data for each page so that a separate window is opened for each page for a browser such as the management device 42 or the computer device 20 and displayed in the window. As a result, it is possible to avoid using a large amount of the memory area inside the printing apparatus.
[0031]
The timing at which the printing device 30 sends the print data from the reception buffer 31 to the page forming unit 32 is determined by the processing performed by the interpreting unit 33, that is, the process of converting the display data into a display list and the process of expanding the image into a bitmap image, even before sending it to the interpreting unit 33. It may be after finishing. If the processing of the interpretation unit 33 is performed normally, the printing process of the print data is performed by the printing mechanism unit 35 based on the bitmap image data buffered in the page buffer 34.
[0032]
The management device 42 can receive the sequentially converted HTML data by inputting a transmission request for the next page of HTML conversion data in the operation page. In addition, it is possible to request transmission of HTML data at an intermediate stage that does not reach one page. Further, the HTML page management unit 36 manages when and how long the converted HTML data is stored. For example, based on an input from the management device 42 through the operation page, the storage period may be recorded in a table using an identifier assigned to each page of the HTML data as a key, or by an appropriate method.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described in detail above, according to the remote analysis system for print data according to the present invention, the print command is converted into HTML data and can be displayed on the display of the management device and / or the computer device. Because it can be saved as electronic data, it can be visually inspected and analyzed on the display without printing on paper, and the saved HTML data can be introduced into a separately created analysis tool for analysis. You can also. Further, the print data can be remotely analyzed by a computer device and a management device having an ordinary browser function without using a dedicated remote analysis device.
[0034]
Also, according to the present invention, since the HTML data converted by the page forming unit is configured in units of pages of a fixed size, the printing apparatus can cover the memory storing the HTML converted data with a small-capacity memory. In addition, since the printing apparatus has an authentication function, security for remote analysis of a failure can be ensured.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a remote print data analysis system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the remote analysis system of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Remote analysis system 12 ... Network 20 ... Computer device 30 ... Printing device 31 ... Receiving buffer 32 ... Page construction unit 34 ... Page buffer 35 ... Printing mechanism unit 36 ... HTML page management unit 37 ... HTML server units 42 and 44 ... Management apparatus

Claims (5)

A remote analysis system for print data, comprising a printing device and a computer device and / or a management device connected to a network, wherein the printing device converts a print command received from the computer device into HTML data. And an HTML page management unit for managing the converted HTML data, and an HTML server unit for providing the computer device and / or the management device with the HTML data.
A print data remote analysis system, wherein a print command transmitted from the computer device to the printing device is transmitted as HTML data to the computer device and / or the management device. The print data remote analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the HTML page management unit configures the HTML data, which has been subjected to the HTML conversion by the page configuration unit, into pages of a predetermined size. 3. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the printing device has an authentication function, and performs authentication based on authentication data input to a management page transmitted from the HTML server unit to the computer device and / or the management device. Remote analysis system of print data described in 1. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the HTML page management unit manages a storage period and / or a storage amount of the converted HTML data. 3. The printing device interprets a print command received from a computer device, converts data to be printed into a display list, converts the display list into bitmap data, and performs printing based on the bitmap data. 5. The remote analysis system for print data according to claim 1, further comprising a printing mechanism.

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