JPH08267878A - Printer and controlling method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily and surely transmit important data to a host computer by adding an identifier indicating that the data is important to the data and sending back the data to a data source when the data as a response to the completion of processing of data per job received from the data source is data for all jobs. CONSTITUTION: A printer linguistic analysis part 4 of a printer 2 receives data from a host computer 1 through a receiving data-managing part 3 and detects contents of a command. If the command requires status responses of various kinds, data of a job management ID to a job requiring the response are added by a status response-processing part 8 to the investigation data and response data of a string of characters in a status response data format or the like are formed. If the status response is related to all jobs and important, data indicating that the data is important are added to the response data and then the response data is sent back from a transmission-managing part 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer apparatus which analyzes data received from a host computer and performs an output process, and a control method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional printer device, in accordance with a command sent from a host computer, it draws characters, figures, images, etc., outputs a document, and controls the device such as printer initialization. Things are known.

Similarly, according to a command sent from the host, the status of the printer device, the setting of the printer environment, the progress of the document output, the information such as the font to be used, etc. are sent to the host through the bidirectional interface. A printer device having a response function is also known.

The function of transmitting such various printer information to the host in accordance with commands is called "status response".

As a bidirectional interface used for status response, RS-232C which is conventionally general
There are various methods such as Bi-Centronics, Ethernet, etc. that have recently appeared.

In recent printers, these bidirectional interfaces are becoming standard instead of the conventional unidirectional interfaces. It is expected that more and more printer systems will utilize the status response by using this bidirectional interface.

By using the function of status response, the host computer can grasp the status of the connected printer.

[0008] For example, if the printer responds with a status indicating that printing is currently possible, or if a failure such as a paper shortage or a paper jam occurs, it is notified that the printer is away from the host computer. Even if a printer device is installed in the computer, it is not necessary to visit the printer device to check the status of the printer device.

If a status response is made to information such as the type of fonts that can be used by the printer device, the type of graphics that can be drawn, and the type of printer language that can be executed, what font will be used when creating the document output data? Is used as a guideline such as which printer language should be used for drawing.

In the conventional unidirectional interface printer, the host computer may have just sent the data after sending it, and the printer may have drawn correctly or may have stopped due to some trouble. , Etc. could not be grasped at all, and at the time of data creation, the drawing data had to be created by guessing that this printer device should have this font and this drawing function.

In the future, it is considered that a system in which the host side acquires and manages the information of the printer device by using the bidirectional interface and the status response function will become common.

When performing a status response using the bidirectional interface, the host first issues a command requesting a status response to the printer.

On the printer side, this is subjected to language analysis, recognized as a command requesting a status response, the information of the corresponding printer is checked, this is described in the transfer data format, and transmitted to the host computer.

The host receives this, analyzes the data, and knows the status of the printer.

However, generally, in the printer apparatus, the emphasis is placed on the data transfer from the host to the printer, and since the handling of the response is low, even if the status response request command is issued, the response is immediately returned. It doesn't always come.

If there is a data buffer such as a receive buffer in the data carrying path, it will take some time from the issuance of the status request to the actual processing of the status request and the arrival of the reply. It will take.

Further, depending on the content of the response, it may take time to obtain the information.

Alternatively, if the status of the printer changes, the status response request for notifying the host side
There may be a large time lag between the issuance of a request command and the return of a response.

As described above, the status response is not always returned immediately after the host issues the status response request command.

When the status response is used infrequently as in the conventional printer, even if there is a slight time difference, it can be processed as an allowable range.

However, the information exchange with the printer device using the status response will become more and more popular in the future, and the frequency of its use will increase.

[0022]

The problems in the conventional printer device will be explained based on the timing difference between the transmission and the response. For example, consider the status response when processing a job with multiple document outputs (FIG. 12).

On the host computer side, the document output jobs to be processed are, for example, job 1, job 2,
Jobs 3 and the like are processed in order.

One job includes a job start declaration, printer environment initialization and environment setting preprocessing (1), actual data description and transfer (2), printer environment restoration, and job. There are respective stages of the end declaration (3).

In the host, each processing step is sequentially performed in each job. At this time, it is necessary to refer to various printer statuses to optimize the job data by knowing the printer environment and capabilities, monitor the progress of output jobs on the printer side, and grasp the printer status on the host side. Is.

However, the processing on the printer side at this time is as follows.
The processing is not necessarily performed simultaneously with the progress of processing on the host side.

In particular, the output process on the printer side takes some time because it takes time to develop characters and figures and the output speed of the printer engine is limited. Therefore, on the host side, even though the output data creation process of (2) and the transfer process to the printer have been completed, the drawing expansion process of (2 ') and
In many cases, page output processing is being performed.

Data creation and transfer processing on the host side usually takes about several seconds per page, whereas drawing output processing on the printer side requires several tens of seconds at the earliest.
Some may take a few minutes if slow.

Recently, in order to cover this difference in processing speed, a large amount of receiving buffer is provided on the printer side, and the data sent from the host side is stored in the buffer anyway, so that the host side can be processed as soon as possible. It is designed to be released from print processing. For this reason, the processing on the host side ends more quickly,
The difference in processing speed from the printer side is widening.

As described above, at the stage of drawing output processing, the processing (2) on the host side and the processing (2 ') on the printer side do not usually proceed at the same timing. The processing on the printer side tends to be delayed.

Therefore, there may be a situation where the host side is already processing the next job, but the printer side is outputting the previous job. Such a timing difference between the processing on the host side and the processing on the printer side causes a big problem in the status response.

For example, it is assumed that when the processing on the host side has already entered the stage of output data creation and transfer processing for job 2, the printer side is in the stage of drawing output processing for job 1.

Each time the printer ejects a page, it sends information such as "currently ejecting the third page" to the host as a status response. This means, in other words, "ejection of page 3" of "job 1", but in the conventional status response, "what page is it?"
I only returned the information. Therefore, there is a possibility that the host side may misunderstand that the “third page” of the “job 2” currently processed by the host side.

In addition to the page discharge state, for example, when the information on the registered font type requested by job 2 is returned from the printer side, job 3 has already been processed on the host side. , Has the potential to be confusing in any status response.

To solve this, each job is given a job management ID for identifying the job,
When returning a status response to the host, there may be a technique of responding in a format in which the information of the job management ID is added (FIG. 13).

For example, the status response at the time of completion of discharging each page is "STATUS JOB-ID: 37 PAGE: 3 FI" shown in (4).
Information indicating the job management ID is added to the conventional page ejection information, such as "NISHED".

As a result, for example, even if the next job 2 has already been processed when the corresponding status response reaches the host when the third page is discharged, the job management ID can be referred to. It is possible to determine that this "third page discharge" is the "third page" of "job 1".

When the status response to which the job management ID information is added is received, the host side performs the following processing. FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the flow of this processing.

First, the added job management ID information is read from the status response information (1).

Then, it is checked whether or not this matches the job management ID currently being processed (2).

If they match, it is judged that the information sent back in this status response is related to the job currently being processed, and that information is used (3).

If they do not match, this is a status response to another job, and it is judged that it is not related to the job currently being processed, and this is ignored (4).

Then, the process proceeds to the next status response process.

In this way, referring to the job management ID information,
By determining whether or not the response is related to the job currently being processed, and ignoring this if it is not, the host computer can prevent misjudgment by receiving information unrelated to the current processing, and It is possible to avoid useless processing due to unnecessary information.

Now, in the printer apparatus, it is assumed that the coloring materials such as toner and ink used for printing are consumed by the printing and reduced to the extent that sufficient drawing cannot be performed. If the printing is continued for a longer time, the toner or the like will run short, the drawing will be faint, and clear printing will not be possible.

In such a case, since the printed matter is wasted, a status response may be sent to the host side to warn of this. For example, a status response such as "STATUS TONER-LOW" is returned ((5) in FIG. 13).

When the host receives this response, a message is displayed on the computer terminal screen or the like so that the printing process is temporarily interrupted and the user is replenished with toner, for example, so that future printing is not wasted. deal with.

Therefore, there is also considered a technique of determining whether or not the status response is related to the current job, and ignoring the response if it is not related, thereby improving the processing efficiency.

Even in the response of this toner shortage, "STATUS JOB-I
"D: 37 TONER-LOW" etc. (Fig. 13 (6)).

This status response is judged to be a response to the job whose job management ID is "37", and is referred to in the processing of the corresponding job 1, but the other jobs 2 and 3 are referred to.
Is ignored in the processing of.

However, the phenomenon such as the lack of toner in this example is important not only affecting the print result of the job currently being printed, but also the subsequent prints.

Therefore, originally, the information has to be transmitted to a job other than the job currently being printed, but it has been ignored.

As described above, all the status responses not related to the current job are uniformly ignored by the judgment of the job management ID information, so that it is important that the subsequent job prints are affected. Even if the information was included in the response, it was not transmitted.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer apparatus and its control method that can surely grasp the state of the host computer side.

[0055]

In order to solve this problem, a printer apparatus according to the present invention is a printer apparatus for performing print processing in accordance with data in units of jobs from a data source, and is provided from a data source. Assigning means for allocating the first identifier to each of the received job-unit data, and determining whether or not the information indicating the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data is information for all jobs And a determining unit that determines that the information is information for all jobs, adds a second identifier indicating that the information is important, and the second identifier and the assigning unit determine that the information is important. A first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit and an information reply means for returning the information to the data source are provided.

Further, the control method of the present invention is a control method of a printer apparatus for performing print processing in accordance with job-unit data from a data source, each job-unit data received from a data source. A step of allocating a first identifier to the job, a step of judging whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for all jobs, and the judgment step. If you judge that the above information is for all jobs,
A second identifier indicating that the information is important is added to the information, and the second identifier and the first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit in the assigning step and the information are used as data sources. And an information reply step of replying to.

Further, the printer control apparatus of the present invention is a printer apparatus for performing print processing according to job-unit data from a data source, and the printer control apparatus is provided for each job-unit data received from a data source. Assigning means for assigning an identifier of 1; judging means for judging whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for each job; When it is determined that the information is for each job, a second identifier indicating that the job is unique is added to the information, and the second identifier and the assigning means add the data to the data for each job. A first identifier assigned to the data and an information reply means for returning the information to the data source are provided.

Further, the control method of the present invention is a control method of a printer apparatus for performing print processing in accordance with job-unit data from a data source, each job-unit data received from a data source. An assigning step for assigning a first identifier to the job, a judging means for judging whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for each job, and the judging means. If the information is judged to be information for each job,
A second identifier indicating that each job is unique is added to the information, and the second identifier and the first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit in the assigning step and the information. And an information reply step of replying to the data source.

Further, the printer device of the present invention is a printer device for performing print processing in accordance with job-unit data from a data source, and a first unit is provided for each job-unit data received from a data source. Assigning means for allocating the identifier of the job and a judgment for judging whether the information which is the completion response of the processing for the received job unit data is the information for each job or the information for all the jobs. Means and the determining means determines that the information is information for each job, a second identifier indicating unique to each job is added to the information, and the second identifier and the assigning means are added. Then, the first identifier assigned to the data in the job unit and the information are returned to the data source, and the information is information for all jobs by the judging means. When judged, the third identifier indicating the importance is added to the information, the third identifier and the first identifier assigned to the job unit data by the assigning means, and the information. And an information reply control means for replying to the data source.

Further, the control method of the present invention is a control method of a printer apparatus for performing print processing in accordance with job-unit data from a data source, each job-unit data received from a data source. A step of allocating a first identifier to the job, a step of judging whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for each job, and the judgment step. If the information is judged to be information for each job,
A second identifier indicating that each job is unique is added to the information, the second identifier, the first identifier assigned to the data of the job in the assigning step, and the information. To the data source, and when it is determined that the information is information for all jobs in the determination step, a third identifier indicating that the information is important is added to the information, and the third identifier and the allocation are added. The process includes a first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit in the process and an information reply control process of returning the information to the data source.

[0061]

With the above configuration, when a status response is generated, it is determined whether the status response needs to be transmitted to all jobs, and if it is not necessary, the status response is added with the job management ID as usual. Is sent, and if necessary, a job management ID and a status response to which information indicating importance is added are sent.

Further, with the above configuration, when a status response is generated, it is determined whether or not the status response needs to be transmitted to all jobs. If not, the job management ID and the individual job specific The status response with the information indicating that is sent is transmitted, and if necessary, the status response with the job management ID is transmitted as usual.

Further, with the above configuration, when a status response is generated, it is determined whether the status response needs to be transmitted to all jobs or individual jobs. When it is necessary to transmit to each of the jobs, a job management ID and a status response to which information indicating that each job is unique are added are transmitted. A status response to which a management ID and information indicating importance is added is transmitted.

[0064]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the printer apparatus according to the embodiment.

In this embodiment, a page printer is described as one embodiment.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a host computer, which generates output data such as characters and figures and various control commands, and also generates a status response request command for knowing various information of the printer device, It is input to the printer device 2 forming a unit.

The host computer 1 and the printer device 2 are connected by a bidirectional interface.
In addition to data transfer from the host 1 to the printer 2, data can be returned from the printer device 2 to the host 1.

In the printer device 2, a data reception management unit 3 receives and manages output data such as characters and figures input from the host computer 1, various control commands, and status response request commands.

The data reception management unit 3 has a reception buffer for receiving data from the host 1 and temporarily storing it.

A printer language analysis unit 4 analyzes the contents of these commands in detail and instructs related control according to the commands.

Here, each command held by the data reception management unit 3 is sequentially received one by one, the contents thereof are examined in accordance with the description rule of the printer language, and what process the command requests is executed. Determine if you are doing.

If the result of this determination is that the command is a command related to job management, such as a start or end declaration of a print job, then a corresponding job management command is issued to the job management section 5.

If the command is for instructing the drawing of characters, figures, images, etc., the drawing output unit 6
To the corresponding drawing output.

If the command is to control the printer device, the printer device controller 7 is instructed to perform the corresponding control.

If the request for any status response is made, a corresponding status response request command is issued to the status response processing section 8.

Reference numeral 5 is a job management unit.

The job management unit 5 processes the print data sent from the host 1 in units of jobs according to the job management command from the printer language analysis unit 4.

The job management section 5 manages each job of the received output data by adding job management ID information.

This management ID is used to distinguish this job from other jobs, and is, for example, a number assigned in the order in which the job start declaration is accepted, or some independent character string. .

However, this management ID must be different for each received job.

This job management ID information is held until the processing of the target job is completely completed.

Reference numeral 6 is a drawing output unit for drawing and developing characters, figures, images, etc. for printer output.

Here, in accordance with the drawing output command from the printer language analysis unit 4, the corresponding character pattern is created, the figure is calculated and drawn, the image data is expanded, and these output expanded data are output to the printer engine. 9 is sent.

The printer engine 9 is a device such as a laser beam printer engine or the like, and is a drawing output unit 6
According to the output expansion data received from, the actual print output process is performed using a mechanism such as an electrophotographic system.

Reference numeral 7 is a printer control unit. Here, according to the printer device control command from the printer language analysis unit 4, control and management of the printer device such as selection of paper to be used and initialization of the printer device are performed.

Reference numeral 8 is a status response processing section according to the present invention.

Here, according to the status response request command received from the printer language analysis unit 4, the contents of the corresponding printer environment are investigated.

The contents to be investigated are various font information, the contents of the drawing function, whether or not the data can be accepted,
There are various things such as the status of the printer device and the progress of the printer output.

The status response processing section 8 investigates these various printer environments, and according to the contents of the result,
Create status response information that expresses this content in the form of a character string.

Further, the job management ID information managed by the job management unit 5 for each job is added to the response information for the job data in which the response request command is described.

At the same time, in the printer apparatus according to the present invention, the status response processing section 8 determines the contents of this status response and transmits the status not only for the currently processed job but for all the jobs. Determine if it is a response.

If the status response is an important one that should be transmitted to all jobs, information indicating that the status is important is further added to the status response.

Then, this status response information is transmitted to the data transmission management section 10.

Upon receipt of the status response information returned from the status response processing unit 8, the data transmission management unit 10 temporarily stores the status response information in a transmission buffer or the like, and checks the timing of the bidirectional interface to manage this status response information. I
Host 1 sends the status response in the format with D information added.
Reply to.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the status response according to the present invention, corresponding to the example of FIG.

Now, assume that the first job 1 is sent from the host computer to the printer (1).

The printer language analysis unit 4 analyzes the received job data for each command unit, and when receiving the job start declaration, transmits it to the job management unit 5.

In accordance with this, the job management section 5 starts the management of the job and manages each job by adding the job management ID information to this job (2).

The job management ID information used at this time may be the one handed over with the job start declaration from the host side, or may be automatically assigned by the printer side.

Anyway, any job can be used as long as it can identify each job, and any job can be used as long as the same job management ID is used for the same job on the printer side and the host side.

For example, the job management ID assigned to the first job 1 is "37", the next job 2 is "38", the next job 3 is "39", and so on.

Subsequently, the host 1 makes a status request for various printer information (3).

This is the type of paper size that can be used,
Information about the prepared fonts, printer status such as paper outages, how many pages the currently output job has been ejected, whether all pages have been output, etc. is there.

As for the status response to these, there are some that can be sent back immediately such as the information of the corresponding paper size, they change momentarily like the state of the printer, and those that must be sent back each time, and page ejection. In some situations, you may have to wait for the printer engine to finish processing before responding.

Therefore, in some cases, the status request may be sent back to the host after a considerable amount of time.

As described above, there are many cases where the processing of the first job 1 on the host side is completed and the processing shifts to the next job 2.

Therefore, the status response processing section 8 sends a reply to the host computer 1 in a format in which the management ID information assigned to each job is added to the status response information (4).

For example, assume that the output data of job 1 is being processed and printing of the third page has been completed. When the status request of the page discharge status is specified by the host, the information indicating the completion of the discharge of the third page must be transmitted to the host in conjunction with this.

At this time, the status response processing section 8 adds the management ID "37" of the job 1 to this page discharge information, and uses a character string such as "STATUS JOB-ID: 37 PAGE: 3 FINISHED" for information. Is transmitted to the host.

On the host computer side, by comparing the JOB management ID added to this conventional status response with the JOB management ID assigned to each job, the status response sent back can be used to determine which job data It is possible to easily judge whether or not the response is generated in step 2.

When issuing this status response, in the status response processing unit 8 according to the present invention, is this "page discharge information" important for jobs other than job 1? To judge.

The page ejection information informs each job of how far the job has completed the output, and is meaningful for each job, but is not so important for other jobs.

Therefore, the status response processing section 8 does not particularly add information indicating that it is important to this status response.

As a result of the above processing of the status response processing section 8, for example, in the case of this example, "STATUS JOB-ID: 37 PAG
A status response such as "E: 3 FINISHED" is sent to the host.

On the host side, this "STATUS
From the information of “JOB-ID: 37 PAGE: 3 FINISHED”, it is understood that this page ejection information is related to the page ejection of the data of job management ID “37”.

This status response indicates that the management ID is "3
It can also be seen that this is a job-specific response of 7 ”.

By the judgment of the host side, the job management ID "37" assigned to the job 1 at the start of the job 1
And the ID added to this status response match.
Therefore, this status response is generated by the data of job 1.

Job 2 currently being processed by the host side
The job management ID “38” does not match. Furthermore, it turns out that this is a response specific to each job.

Therefore, this status response is
Since it is not related to, there is no need to perform content analysis and various corresponding processing based on it, and it can be ignored.

Now, for example, it is assumed that some trouble such as toner shortage is detected during output of page 3.

As described above, when toner shortage occurs,
I can't draw enough prints, and the printouts I've made will be wasted.

In order to avoid this immediately, the printer device sends a status response warning the lack of toner to the host side (5).

When issuing this status response, is the "toner shortage warning information" important for the status response processing unit 8 according to the present invention to be transmitted to jobs other than job 1? To judge.

The toner shortage warning is an important status response related to drawing of other jobs to be processed.

Therefore, the status response processing section 8 adds information indicating that it is important to this status response.

For example, a character string such as “* CAUTION *” is added.

As a result of the above processing of the status response processing section 8, for example, in the case of this example, "STATUS * CAUTION * JOB
-Status response such as "ID: 37 TONER-LOW" is sent to the host.

On the host side, from this status response sent, toner shortage occurred during job processing of job management ID "37", and this is important information related to other jobs. I understand.

According to the judgment of the host side, this status response is analyzed in all jobs processed on the host side, and necessary measures are executed.

By thus adding the information indicating that the status response is important and allowing it to be judged,
This makes it possible to transmit information related to all jobs without being ignored.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a portion of the host computer 1 related to the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a host computer, and 2 is the above-mentioned printer device.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a print output management unit, which manages the overall print output of documents and the like in accordance with designation by the user or the like.

When a user gives an instruction to print a document or the like, the print output management section 11 manages the document output as one print job. Then, the content of the designated document is received from the document file recorded on the hard disk 12 or the like, and is passed to the print data creation unit 13.

Further, a status request command is sent to the print data creating section 13 in order to obtain information on the printer device necessary for performing a print job.

The print data creation unit 13 receives the status request command received from the print output management unit 11,
The actual document content is converted into a printer language format that the printer device 2 can understand, and this is passed to the host-side data transmission unit 14.

The host side data transmitter 14 sends the received job data to the printer device 2.

As described above, the printer device 2 analyzes these job data, performs various print processes, and returns various status responses.

The returned status response is received by the host-side data receiving section 15, which receives it.
Pass to 6.

The response data analysis unit 16 analyzes the received status response and informs the print output management unit 11 of its contents.

The status response exchanged here is
It is processed as follows.

Upon receiving the status response, the response data analysis unit 16 determines whether or not the information indicating that it is an important response related to all jobs is added to the status response.

In the case of this example, it is checked whether a character string such as "* CAUTION *" is added.

When the information indicating the importance is added, it is determined that the status response is not unique to each job and is related to all jobs.

Then, regardless of the job management ID information, the contents of all the jobs are always analyzed and the corresponding various processes are executed.

If the information indicating the importance is not added, the status response is judged to be peculiar to each job.

In this case, the job management ID information is next checked, and when the corresponding job process is being executed, this status information is passed to the process.

In the corresponding job process, the received status information is analyzed and the corresponding various processes are executed.

When the corresponding job is not processed, this status information is ignored.

In a host capable of parallel processing, or in an environment where a plurality of users or hosts are connected, a plurality of jobs may be simultaneously processed on the host side. Even in such a case, it is possible to know whether the status response is unique to each job or the status response related to all the jobs, based on the job management ID and the information indicating that it is important.

In this embodiment, as the job management ID information, the ID in the serial number format has been described as an example, but any ID may be used.

The information indicating importance is not limited to the character string used in this example.

In short, the essence of the present invention is that the job management ID and the important information can be any as long as they can be presented to the host computer.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the present invention. The printer language analysis unit 4 processes data in command units, various job management processes, various drawing processes, various control processes, and various status response processes. Is a representation of how to do.

It should be noted that (1) to (9) indicate each step.

The printer language analysis unit 4 receives the data from the received data management unit 3 (1).

Then, it is determined what kind of processing the command is instructing to execute (2).

When various job control commands are issued,
This command is transmitted to the job management unit 5 and the corresponding job management process is executed.

The job management section 5 manages the jobs by assigning a job management ID to each received print job (3).

When various drawing controls are instructed, these commands are transmitted to the drawing output unit 6 to execute drawing expansion processing of the corresponding characters, figures, images, etc., and actual printer output is performed. . If the command is a command for controlling various printers, the command is transmitted to the printer device controller 7 to execute the corresponding various printer controls (4).

When the command requests various status responses, the command is transmitted to the status response processing section 8. The status response processing section 8 investigates the state of the corresponding printer environment (5).

In this survey, a large amount of information may be searched for, or it may be decided depending on the timing such as some change in the printer state, and it may not be possible to immediately survey. In such a case, instead of interrupting all processing here, use a method such as multitask processing, while performing other data processing that follows, perform this investigation in parallel and complete the investigation. Wait to do.

When the investigation is completed, the result is converted into status response data format information such as a character string.

Then, the status response processing section 8 adds the information of the job management ID for the job which requested the response, to this investigation information, and creates response data in the form of a character string in the status response data format (6).

Next, the status response processing section 8 judges whether or not this status response is not peculiar to each job but important one relating to all jobs (7).

If it is important for all jobs, information indicating that it is more important is added to this status response data (8).

This is, for example, as shown in the above embodiment,
Use a character string such as "* CAUTION *".

Then, the status response data in a format to which the job management ID information and the information indicating that the job management information is important are passed to the data transmission management unit 10 and temporarily stored in the transmission buffer or the like, and the bidirectional It is returned to the host computer 1 according to the interface timing (9).

The printer language analysis section 4 newly receives the next command from the data reception management section 3, analyzes it, and repeats the processing described above.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing on the host side related to the present invention.

Note that (1) to (5) indicate each step.

First, when a status response is received from the printer side, information indicating that it is important is
Check if it is added (1).

If the information indicating that it is important is added, it is judged that this status response is important information related to all jobs, and its contents should be analyzed and dealt with. Perform processing (2).

If the information indicating the importance is not added, it is judged that this status response is the information peculiar to each job.

Then, the added job management ID information is read from the information of the status response (3).

Then, it is checked whether this matches the job management ID currently being processed (4).

If they match, it is judged that the information sent back in this status response is related to the job currently being processed, the content is analyzed, and the processing to be taken is carried out (2). .

If they do not match, this is a status response for another job, and it is judged that it is not related to the job currently being processed, and this is ignored (5).

Then, the process proceeds to the next status response process.

As described above, by referring to the job management ID information and the information indicating that it is important, it is judged whether or not the response is related to the job currently being processed. If it does not exist, by ignoring this, the host computer can easily receive only the necessary information and accurately grasp the status of the printer device,
It becomes possible to perform print processing.

Through the above processing, when the host computer issues a command requesting a status response in a print job and receives a status response to the command, the internal computer of the printer previously allocated to the print job. The job management ID is recognized, and the job management ID information of the job for which the response is requested can be referred to as the information of the status response to be returned, and moreover, important information related to all the jobs. Since it is possible to refer to the information indicating that it is a status response, even if the time elapses before the status response is returned and the timing with the job processing on the host side is off, The status response is a reply to the status response request command in which job It is possible to easily determine whether or not the status response is an important status response related to all jobs, and it is possible to easily determine the status of the printer device. It can be surely grasped on the host computer side.

(Embodiment 2) Another embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In this embodiment, when the status response is not important for all jobs and is unique to each job, information indicating that it is unique to each job is added, Send status response to host.

The process flow will be described below with reference to FIG.

The status response processing section 8 checks the contents of the status response to be sent back, and judges whether the response is peculiar to each job.

For example, the status response informing the page discharge state of each job is information unique to each job and is not important for other jobs.

Therefore, to the status response, the status response processing section 8 adds information indicating that it is unique to each job.

For example, a character string such as "* LOCAL *" is added, and information is expressed by a character string such as "STATUS * LOCAL * JOB-ID: 37 PAGE: 3 FINISHED" and transmitted to the host (4).

The status response such as "toner shortage warning information" is important information related to all jobs.

In this case, information indicating that each job is unique is not added.

A status response such as "STATUS JOB-ID: 37 TONER-LOW" is sent to the host.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the printer device of the second embodiment.

Note that (1) to (9) indicate each step.

Since (1) to (6) are the same as those in the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted.

The status response processing section 8 judges whether this status response is unique to each job (7).

If it is unique to each job, information indicating that it is a response unique to each job is added to this status response data (8).

This is, for example, as shown in the above embodiment,
You can also use a character string such as "* LOCAL *".

The status response data in a format to which the job management ID information and the information indicating that each job is unique are added are passed to the data transmission management unit 10 and temporarily stored in a transmission buffer or the like. , According to the timing of the bidirectional interface, is returned to the host computer 1 (9).

The printer language analysis section 4 newly receives the next command from the data reception management section 3, analyzes it, and repeats the processing described above.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing on the host side related to the present invention.

Note that (1) to (5) indicate each step.

On the host side, when these status responses are received, the information indicating that each job is unique is
It is checked whether it is added (1).

If the information indicating that each job is unique is added, the job management ID information is further checked (2).

Management ID of the job processed on the host side
If they do not match, the contents are analyzed and the corresponding processing is executed (3), and if they do not match, this status response is ignored (4).

If the information indicating the uniqueness of each job is not added, this status response is judged to be important information related to all jobs, the contents thereof are analyzed, and the corresponding action is taken. The process is executed (5).

As described above, by adding the information indicating the status response peculiar to each job and determining it, it is possible to easily skip irrelevant status responses to improve the processing efficiency, or , It is possible to refer to important information related to all jobs without missing it.

(Embodiment 3) Another embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In this embodiment, if the status response is important for all jobs, information indicating that it is important is added, and if it is unique to each job, A status response is sent to the host with information indicating that it is unique to each job.

The processing flow will be described below with reference to FIG.

The status response processing unit 8 checks the contents of the status response to be sent back, and the response is important relating to all jobs, or the response is unique to each job. Determine if

For example, the status response informing the page discharge status of each job is information unique to each job and is not important for other jobs.

Therefore, to the status response, the status response processing section 8 adds information indicating that it is unique to each job.

For example, a character string such as "* LOCAL *" is added, and information is expressed by a character string such as "STATUS * LOCAL * JOB-ID: 37 PAGE: 3 FINISHED" and transmitted to the host (4).

The status response such as "toner shortage warning information" is important information related to all jobs.

Therefore, to the status response, the status response processing section 8 adds information indicating that it is an important response related to all jobs.

For example, a character string such as "* CAUTION *" is added, and a status response such as "STATUS * CAUTION * JOB-ID: 37TONER-LOW" is sent to the host.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the operation of the printer device of the third embodiment.

Note that (1) to (10) indicate each step.

Since (1) to (6) are the same as those in the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted.

The status response processing unit 8 determines whether this status response is important for all jobs.
Alternatively, it is determined whether the job is unique to each job (7).

If it is important for all jobs, information indicating that it is an important response for all jobs is added to this status response data (8).

This is, for example, as shown in the above embodiment,
Use a character string such as "* CAUTION *".

If it is unique to each job, information indicating that the response is unique to each job is added to this status response data (9).

This is, for example, as shown in the above embodiment,
You can also use a character string such as "* LOCAL *".

The job management ID information, the information indicating that it is an important response related to all jobs, and the status response data in the format with the information indicating that it is unique to each job are Data transmission management unit 1
It is passed to 0, temporarily stored in a transmission buffer or the like, and returned to the host computer 1 according to the timing of the bidirectional interface (10).

The printer language analysis unit 4 newly receives the next command from the data reception management unit 3, analyzes it, and repeats the processing described above.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing on the host side related to the present invention.

Note that (1) to (5) indicate each step.

On the host side, when these status responses are received, information indicating that they are related to all jobs,
Alternatively, it is checked whether or not information indicating that each job is unique is added (1).

When the status response is unique to each job, the job management ID information is further checked (2).

Management ID of the job processed on the host side
If they do not match, the contents are analyzed and the corresponding processing is executed (3), and if they do not match, this status response is ignored (4).

If the status response is related to all jobs, the contents are analyzed regardless of the difference from the management ID of the job processed on the host side, and the corresponding processing is executed. Yes (5).

As described above, by adding the information indicating the status response relating to all jobs or the information indicating the status response peculiar to each job and making the judgment, the relation This makes it possible to easily skip the missing status response to improve the efficiency of processing, or to refer to important information related to all jobs without missing it.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when the host computer issues a command requesting a status response in a print job and receives the status response to the command, the host computer sends the status to the print job in advance. In addition to recognizing the job management ID in the printer that has been allocated by the printer, and as the information of the status response to be returned, the job management ID information of the job for which the response is requested can be referred to. Information that indicates an important status response relating to all jobs or information that indicates a status unique to each job can be referred to.

Therefore, even if the time elapses before the status response is returned and the timing with the job processing on the host side deviates, the status response is the status response request command in which job. It is possible to easily discriminate whether or not it is a reply to.

Further, it is possible to easily judge whether the status response is an important status response related to all jobs or a status response which can be skipped because it is unique to each job. Therefore, the state of the printer device can be surely grasped on the host computer side.

[0238]

As described above, according to the present invention, the data
A first identifier is assigned to each job-unit data received from the data source, and it is determined whether the information which is the completion response of the process for the received job-unit data is the information for all jobs. When it is determined that the information is information for all jobs, a second identifier indicating that the information is important is added to the information, and the second identifier and data for each job are assigned. By sending back the first identifier and the information to the data source, important information can be easily and reliably transmitted even if the job currently processed by the printer and the job currently processed by the host are different. It is possible to transmit to the host side.

Further, according to the present invention, the first identifier is assigned to each job-unit data received from the data source, and the information which is the processing completion response to the received job-unit data is provided. When it is determined whether or not the information is for each job and it is determined that the information is for each job, a second identifier indicating that the information is unique to each job is added to the information, and By returning the identifier of No. 2 and the first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit and the information to the data source, even if the job currently processed by the printer and the host process Even if the jobs are different, important information can be easily and surely transmitted to the host side.

Further, according to the present invention, the first identifier is assigned to each job-unit data received from the data source, and the information as the processing completion response to the received job-unit data is provided. If it is determined whether the information is for each job or all jobs, and if the information is for each job, it indicates that the information is unique to each job. The second identifier is added and the second identifier, the first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit, and the information are returned to the data source, and the information is information for all jobs. If it is determined that the information is added, a third identifier indicating that the information is important is added, and the third identifier, the first identifier assigned to the data in the job unit, and the information are data. Reply to original In Rukoto, for example, a job that is currently printer is processing, even with different jobs host is treated, making it possible to communicate important information easily and reliably to the host.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a page printer device as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing status response processing improved by the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a portion of the host computer related to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of various command processes in the printer apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of processing relating to the first embodiment of the host computer.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing status response processing improved by another embodiment 2.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing operations of various command processes in another embodiment 2.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation of processing related to another embodiment 2 of the host computer.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a status response process improved by another third embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing operations of various command processes in another embodiment 3;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an operation of processing relating to another embodiment 3 of the host computer.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of conventional status response processing.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of conventional status response processing.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the operation of processing in the host computer for the conventional status response processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 host computer 2 printer device 3 data reception management unit 4 printer language analysis unit 5 job management unit 6 drawing output unit 7 printer device control unit 8 status response processing unit 9 printer engine 10 data transmission management unit 11 print output management unit 12 document file 13 print data creation unit 14 host side data transmission unit 15 host side data reception unit 16 response data analysis unit

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A printer apparatus for performing print processing according to job-unit data from a data source, and assigning means for assigning a first identifier to each job-unit data received from a data source. Determining means for determining whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for all the jobs, and the information is the information for all the jobs in the determining means. Then, a second identifier indicating that the information is important is added to the information, and the second identifier and the first identifier assigned to the job unit data by the assigning unit and the An information replying means for replying information to a data source, and a printer device. 2. The information returning means determines the type of received data in units of jobs, and returns an identifier together with the status of the printer according to the type of data in units of jobs. The printer device according to claim 1. 3. A method of controlling a printer apparatus for performing print processing according to job-unit data from a data source, wherein a first identifier is assigned to each job-unit data received from a data source. An allocating step, a determining step of determining whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for all jobs, and the determining step includes the information for all jobs. When it is judged that the information is information, a second identifier indicating that it is important is added to the information, and the second identifier and the first identifier assigned to the data of the job unit in the assigning step. A method of controlling a printer device, comprising: an identifier and an information returning step of returning the information to a data source. 4. The information returning step determines the type of received data for each job and returns an identifier together with the status of the printer according to the type of data for each job. The method of controlling a printer device according to claim 3. 5. A printer device for performing print processing in accordance with job-unit data from a data source, and assigning means for assigning a first identifier to each job-unit data received from a data source. Determination means for determining whether or not the information, which is the response to the completion of processing for the received job-unit data, is information for each job, and the information is the information for each job by the determination means. If it is determined that the second identifier that is unique to each job is added to the information, the second identifier and the first identifier assigned to the data in the job unit by the assigning unit. A printer device, comprising: an identifier and an information reply means for replying the information to the data source. 6. The information returning means determines the type of received data for each job and returns the identifier together with the status of the printer according to the type of data for each job. The printer device according to claim 5. 7. A method of controlling a printer apparatus for performing print processing according to job-unit data from a data source, wherein a first identifier is assigned to each job-unit data received from a data source. An allocating step, a judging means for judging whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job unit data, is information for each job, and the judging means for the information for each job. When it is determined that the information is information, a second identifier indicating that the job is unique is added to the information, and the second identifier and the data assigned in the job unit in the assigning step are assigned. A method of controlling a printer device, comprising: a first identifier and an information returning step of returning the information to a data source. 8. The information returning step determines the type of received data for each job and returns an identifier together with the status of the printer according to the type of data for each job. The method for controlling a printer device according to claim 7. 9. A printer device for performing print processing in accordance with job-unit data from a data source, and assigning means for assigning a first identifier to each job-unit data received from a data source. A determining unit that determines whether the information, which is the completion response of the process for the received job-unit data, is information about individual jobs or information about all jobs; When it is determined that the information is information for each job, a second identifier indicating that each job is unique is added to the information, and the second identifier and the assigning unit delete the data for each job. The first identifier assigned to the job and the information are returned to the data source, and when the determining unit determines that the information is information for all jobs, the information is duplicated. And a third identifier added to indicate that the first identifier assigned to the data in the job unit by the assigning means, and information for returning the information to the data source. A printer device comprising: a reply control unit. 10. The information return control means determines the type of received data for each job and returns the identifier together with the status of the printer according to the type of data for each job. The printer device according to claim 9. 11. A method of controlling a printer apparatus for performing print processing according to job-unit data from a data source, wherein a first identifier is assigned to each job-unit data received from a data source. An allocating step, a determining step of determining whether or not the information, which is the completion response of the processing for the received job-unit data, is information for each job, and the information for each job in the determining step. When it is determined that the information is information, a second identifier indicating that it is unique to each job is added to the information, and the second identifier and the data in the job unit are assigned in the assigning step. When the first identifier and the information are returned to the data source and it is determined that the information is information for all jobs in the determination step, it is indicated that the information is important. And a third information identifier, a first identifier assigned to the job unit data in the assigning step, and an information reply control step of returning the information to the data source. A method for controlling a printer device, comprising: 12. The information return control step determines the type of received data for each job, and returns an identifier together with the status of the printer according to the type of data for each job. The method for controlling a printer device according to claim 11.