Job scheduling system for print processing Number:7,148,991 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent A user equipment issues a job for a plurality of documents to a printing system by one operation. The user equipment assigns attributes to the job, the attributes including the specification of collation/uncollation, the designation of processing start instruction wait, the designation of exclusive processing, and the designation of password input wait. The printing system effects printing of the plurality of documents corresponding to attributes of the documents under control of a job scheduling device. The job scheduling device carries out the pausing of documents included in the job, the modification of attributes, addressing of document receiving failures, and search of a document whose format is to be converted, thereby making it possible to efficiently print the plurality of documents.<H processing, scheduling, Job, scheduling, , 7148991.html, Patent, pto, 7148991

Title: Job scheduling system for print processing

Abstract: A user equipment issues a job for a plurality of documents to a printing system by one operation. The user equipment assigns attributes to the job, the attributes including the specification of collation/uncollation, the designation of processing start instruction wait, the designation of exclusive processing, and the designation of password input wait. The printing system effects printing of the plurality of documents corresponding to attributes of the documents under control of a job scheduling device. The job scheduling device carries out the pausing of documents included in the job, the modification of attributes, addressing of document receiving failures, and search of a document whose format is to be converted, thereby making it possible to efficiently print the plurality of documents.

Patent Number: 7,148,991 Issued on 12/12/2006 to Suzuki, et al.

Inventors: Suzuki; Akihiro (Kanagawa, JP), Yamada; Kentaro (Kanagawa, JP), Nishiyama; Koji (Kanagawa, JP), Nakatani; Tooru (Kanagawa, JP), Nakamura; Yoh (Kanagawa, JP)
Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, JP)

Appl. No.: 10/373,036

Filed: February 26, 2003

Related U.S. Patent Documents


Application Number	Filing Date	Patent Number	Issue Date
09364120	Jul., 1999	6606163
08544076	Oct., 1995	6213652

Foreign Application Priority Data


Apr 18, 1995 [JP]			7-92615
Apr 19, 1995 [JP]			7-93818
Apr 19, 1995 [JP]			7-93819
Apr 19, 1995 [JP]			7-93820
Apr 19, 1995 [JP]			7-117982
Apr 20, 1995 [JP]			7-95447
Apr 20, 1995 [JP]			7-95448
Apr 20, 1995 [JP]			7-95449

Current U.S. Class: 358/1.5 ; 358/1.14

Current International Class: G06F 15/00 (20060101); G06K 1/00 (20060101); G06K 15/00 (20060101)

Field of Search: 358/1.1,1.5,1.14,1.18,402,403,437,1.15

References Cited [Referenced By]

U.S. Patent Documents


4947345	August 1990	Paradise et al.
5179637	January 1993	Nardozzi
5206735	April 1993	Gauvonski et al.
5287194	February 1994	Lobiondo
5287434	February 1994	Bain et al.
5299296	March 1994	Padalino et al.
5303336	April 1994	Kageyama et al.
5398289	March 1995	Rourke et al.
5422985	June 1995	Tanaka
5467434	November 1995	Hower, Jr. et al.
5535009	July 1996	Hansen
5566278	October 1996	Patel et al.
5608865	March 1997	Midgely et al.
5623675	April 1997	Mizuki
5638511	June 1997	Nezu
6047111	April 2000	Sugiura et al.

Foreign Patent Documents


44 08 355	Oct., 1994	DE
0479 494	Apr., 1992	EP
0 529 808	Mar., 1993	EP
0 588 513	Mar., 1994	EP
61-75463	Apr., 1986	JP
63-276569	Nov., 1988	JP
3-251915	Nov., 1991	JP
06092541	Apr., 1994	JP

Primary Examiner: Tran; Douglas Q.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.

Parent Case Text

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/364,120, filed Jul. 30, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,606,163, which is incorporated herein by reference and which is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 08/544,076, filed Oct. 17, 1995, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,652.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a job request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, and a job scheduling device which sequentially processes jobs by storing the jobs, received from the terminal equipment through a network, in a queue and sending a job execution section a processing request relating to a document specified by the job stored in the, queue, said terminal equipment comprising: attribute information adding means for adding information which specifies a job output method to a job request as attribute information of the job, and said job scheduling device comprising: attribute information setting means for acquiring attribute information included in the received job and sets the attribute information to information which specifies a job and a document; a queue fort storing, as a job, a group of items of the information which specify a job and a document; and output result control means which, upon reference to the information items which specify a job and a document with respect to the job stored in the queue, controls the processing request issued to the job execution section is such a way that a specified number of copies of the job are output using the information which specifies a job output method.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a job scheduling system which schedules job requests issued from a terminal equipment using a queue and requests a job execution section to carry out print processing by passing the jobs to the job execution section.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

In the print processing executed by a conventional print processing system, a job scheduling device receives a job request delivered from a terminal equipment in a network, and this job is sent to a job execution section after the job request has been subjected to a predetermined scheduling operation, whereby print processing and conversion are executed. The job scheduling device sequentially stores print data, which forms the job request, and an aggregate of attribute groups of the print data (hereinafter referred to as a document) in the queue as one operation unit (hereinafter referred to as a job). The scheduling operation is carried out job by job. Hereinafter, such scheduling is called the scheduling of a one-job-multidocument.

When a user attempts to produce a plurality of outputs of jobs having the same contents, a corresponding number of job requests must be issued in a conventional job processing system. These jobs are handled as different jobs, and therefore output results corresponding to these job requests are mixed with output results for job requests from another user. It takes much time for the user to distinguish the user's output results from other results.

Although a plurality of jobs share the same print data, each of the jobs requires the print data when a plurality of job requests are issued. When the volume of data is large, an increased burden is imposed on a memory device such as a disk. Further, when a job includes documents which require conversion, conversion is executed job by job, thereby resulting in poor processing efficiency. Thus, the use of various resources becomes wasteful.

On the other hand, a job processing can be carried out using acceptance completion type sequential processing or non-acceptance completion type sequential processing. In the acceptance completion type sequential processing, a document processing request is not issued until all of the documents which form the job are received. In the non-acceptance completion type sequential processing, processing requests are issued in the order in which the documents are received. The non-acceptance completion type sequential processing is suitable for the case where a high-speed printer is used. The acceptance completion type sequential processing is suitable for the case where the collation and uncollation of a job are controlled. However, in the acceptance completion type sequential processing, it is necessary to wait the issue of a processing request until all of the documents are received, which in turn delays scheduling and renders the overall processing time longer.

The collation (collation is carried out) means that the pages of a document are collated and a specified number of documents are output, and the uncollation (collation is not carried out) means that a specified number of documents are output page by page.

An object of the present invention is to provide a job processing system capable of improving job processing efficiency when a plurality of jobs having the same contents are output.

In the case of the scheduling of the conventional one-job multidocument, the next job processing request is not issued to the job execution section until a job at the head end of a printer queue is completed. So long as a previous job remains in the queue, the next job processing request is not issued. For this reason, it is possible to easily perform a processing start wait operation, or a processing completion wait operation, and a password input wait operation by checking whether or not the job at the head end of the printer queue is designated for a processing start wait, a processing completion wait, or a password input wait.

The job execution section having high throughput can process a plurality of documents at one time. However, the job scheduling device can only issue a job processing request at limited timing, and hence it was sometimes impossible to effectively utilize the throughput of the job execution section.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between the state of a printer queue and a document which is processed by a job execution section. In FIG. 21, a job scheduling device (not shown) is interposed between a printer queue 5 and a job execution section 6, and this job scheduling device schedules jobs. Jobs 1 to 4 are queued in the printer queue 5. Processing request for all documents have already been issued with respect to a job 1 at the head end of the queue. On the other hand, the processing of the job shifts sequentially from step 1 to step 3 in the job execution section 6.

For the jobs in the queue, a large circle at the top of each column represents a queue object of a job, and smaller circles following the large circle in each column represent queue objects of a document.

The job execution section 6 advances the processing of the document to step 2 when the processing at step 1 is completed, and informs the job scheduling device that it can accept a processing request. Upon receipt of the acknowledgement from the job execution section 6, the job scheduling device issues a processing request to the job execution section 6 for a document subsequent to the currently completed job, and executes processing of step 1. After the processing of step 3 has been completed, the job execution section 6 informs the job scheduling device of the completion of the processing of that document. The job scheduling device considers the processing of the document for which the acknowledgement has been issued to have been completed, and the job is moved to a terminate (completion) queue (not shown) after the processing of the final document of the job has been completed. The job scheduling device issues a processing request to the job execution section 6 with respect to the next job 2 at the head end of the printer queue 5.

In some case, the job scheduling device cannot issue a document processing request to the job execution section 6 even when the job execution section 6 is liable to carry out processing, which results in an unprocessed document is in the printer queue 5.

For example, FIG. 21 shows that processing requests for all jobs have already been issued with respect to the job 1, and that a job 1-4, i.e., a document 4 of the job 1, is being processed in the job execution section 6. When the job 1-4 is shifted to step 2 after having been subjected to the processing at step 1, it becomes possible to carry out the processing of step 1. The job execution section 6 informs the job scheduling device that it can accept processing. However, the job scheduling device has not yet received the acknowledgement of the completion of the processing of jobs 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4 from the job execution section 6. Accordingly, the job scheduling device can neither shift the job 1 from the head end of the printer queue 5 nor issue a processing request for a job 2-1. In other words, in spite of the fact that the job execution section 6 informs the job scheduling device that it can accept processing, the job execution section 6 cannot receive a processing request for the job 2-1 from the job scheduling device until the processing of the job 1-4 is finished. Hence, the job execution section 6 is idle for a waiting time, and it takes a long time to execute job processing. As a result of this, even if the job execution section 6 can process a plurality of documents at one time, it becomes impossible to effectively utilize the throughput of the job execution section.

As previously mentioned, the job scheduling device controls jobs by checking whether or not a job at the head end of the printer queue 5 is set to the processing start wait, or the processing completion wait, and the password input wait. If processing requests for documents were issued with respect to jobs other than the job at the head end of the queue when the job scheduling device received the acknowledgement from the job execution section 6, it will become impossible for the job scheduling device to control these jobs.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a job processing system capable of continuously issuing document processing requests without obstructing job control such as a processing start wait.

When print processing is conventionally carried out using a print server connected to a network system, it is necessary to send the print server print data described in a print format which a printer to be connected to the server can interpret. For this reason, a local user in the network system has to send print data after confirming the printer format of a printer which accepts a print processing request. If the print data were sent together with a wrong print format for that printer, the print data might not be printed.

A print server is put forward which converts the print format of received print data to another print format which a printer connected to the print server can interpret when the print data described in a print format which the printer cannot interpret. The print format is a PDL format such as PostScript or Interpress.

Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 3-251915 discloses a print server, wherein a printer name corresponding to a print command is sent to a print server before the transmission of print data, the print server selects print command converter means corresponding to the received print command, and the thus selected print command converter means control a printer connected to the print server.

However, in the case of the above mentioned conventional print server, the print format of the print data is converted immediately before the printer processes the print data. Hence, the printer comes to a standstill during the conversion of the print format, which in turn deteriorates the throughput of the printer. Particularly in the case of a completion type job, the conversion of a print format is not carried out until all documents are received, and hence the printer stops for a longer period of time.

Similarly, the print server disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 3-251915 converts the print format of print data to a data format of a printer connected to the server immediately before print processing is carried out. Therefore, the printer has to stop during the conversion of the print format.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a print processing device designed to reduce the idle time of a printer and improve the throughput of the printer by previously converting a job including documents which need conversion processing.

In the scheduling of a conventional one-job multidocument, when it is necessary to process a plurality of documents as one job, an instruction to that effect is sent from terminal equipment together with a schedule attribute. This schedule attribute basically comprises two types of attribute; namely, an after-complete attribute and a before-complete attribute. The after-complete attribute means that a print processing device carries out scheduling in such a way as to execute a job upon receipt of all print documents related to that job. The before-complete attribute means that a print processing device carries out scheduling in such a way as to execute a job with respect to a received print document every time receiving each of print documents of that job.

By the way, document data to be transmitted might be interrupted as a result of a network failure while print requests for a plurality of print documents are being processed as one job. If such a receiving failure arises, the print processing device has to wait until the last document arrives in the case of the after-complete attribute, so that the print processing is interrupted for a long period of time. On the other hand, in the case of the before-complete attribute, previously received print documents are printed one by one, and therefore the printer is occupied for a long period of time until the current print processing is cancelled.

The present invention is conceived to solve these drawbacks in the conventional system, and the object of the invention is to provide print processing device and method wherein if the next document of a job is not received because of a failure, print processing will not be interrupted for a long period of time and a printer will not be occupied for a long period of time.

Generally, in a conventional network system, each of a number of subscriber workstations (client workstations) in the network issues a job processing request to each type of server, and the server which received that job processing request temporarily puts the job in a queue in the form of FIFO (First-In First-Out) and processes jobs in a stand-by state one by one. For example, in a print system, a print server which accepted print jobs from a client workstation stores the print jobs in a printer queue one after another and outputs the jobs in a stand-by state to a printer one by one every time the printer completes print processing. For this reason, a user who wants to quickly obtain a print output has to issue a print request to the print server as soon as possible, which might cause the user to erroneously specify print attributes such as a paper size and a tray number.

In addition, some of the current print systems can effect the print processing of a one-job multidocument in which a plurality of documents are handled as one job, as well as the print processing of a one-job one-document in which one job simply comprises one document. Therefore, an unwanted document often gets mixed in with a job.

In such a case, according to the conventional technology, it is necessary for the user to delete the job held in a queue which corresponds to the print request and to reissue a print request with modified attributes

However, as a result of the deletion of and re-registration of the job retained in the queue, it takes a long time to obtain a print result, and an increased burden is imposed on the user. Further, the reissue of the print request results in increased network traffic, and might bring about competition for the print server by print requests from a plurality of clients. For this reason, it becomes more important to develop a technology of temporarily interrupting the processing of a job and resuming the job processing after the modification of attributes of a job retained in a queue of a print server and the cancellation of a specific document included in a one-job multidocument have been effected. On the assumption that a job is processed in the order in which the print server accepts a job, if a job which takes a massive amount of time is being processed, it will become impossible to start to process a subsequent job so long as the processing of the current job continues.

Therefore, the manner of implementing a technique for temporarily interrupting the processing of a job and resuming the job processing after the modification of attributes of a job retained in a queue of a print server and the cancellation of a specific document included in a one-job multidocument have been effected, becomes important.

According to the conventional technology, job processing is neither interrupted nor resumed on a job-by-job basis, and only the operation of the print server is interrupted and resumed. For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Sho. 63-276569 discloses an off-line printer, wherein information relating to a print position when printing is terminated during the course of the printing operation is output to a permanent recording medium such as print paper or a non-volatile storing medium such as a magnetic disk, so that printing can be reliably and easily resumed from an accurate print position. Even in this printer, print processing is not interrupted and resumed on a job-by-job basis, but only the printer is interrupted and resumed.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above drawbacks in the conventional technology and to provide a job processor capable of improving processing efficiency by effecting the interruption and resumption of print processing on a job-by-job basis as well as easily modifying attributes of a job retained in a queue and cancelling a specific document included in a one-job multidocument.

There is a technology conventionally known as a remedy for a network system failure, wherein information relating to failures occurred with respect to subscribers on the network is temporarily stored in a log file, and causes of the failures are identified based on the information relating to the failures stored in the log file. For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Sho. 61-75463 discloses an information processing system configured in such a way that each information processor collects status information, representing an internal state of the processor itself, under control of an abnormal processing program which is executed in response to the occurrence of an external interruption or the detection of an abnormality, and sends the collected status information to each of the information processors having a display, whereby status information for each information processor is displayed. In other words, this conventional technology makes it easy to increase the speed of identification of failures by collecting status information using the detection of abnormality as a trigger, and displaying the status information on a display.

However, according to this conventional technology, it is necessary to collect information about failures and store the information in a log file. Further, a system manager has to analyze and restore the information held in the log file, and hence it takes a long time to restore the information to its original state immediately before the occurrence of the failure. For example, on the assumption that a plurality of print jobs are received from a plurality of terminals through a network, and that a job scheduling device which prints the plurality of print jobs one after another using a job execution section (a printer) is used, if any failures occurred in the job scheduling device or the printer, the state of the job scheduling device or the printer will be temporarily stored in a log file, and thereafter attempts to recover the job scheduling device or the printer from the failure will be made based on an analysis of the failures by a system manager.

In other words, once such failures have occurred, the failures affect each of the jobs held in the job scheduling device, and therefore it often takes a long time to recover the jobs from the influence of the failures. For example, if a failure arises during the course of deletion of a job held in the job scheduling device, print data relating to that job will be deleted, but attributes of that print data will remain undeleted. For this reason, the system manager has to delete the attributes later.

For these reasons, a degree of improvement in an operating efficiency attained as a result of reducing the influence of failures exerted on a job if the above mentioned failures arise, becomes important. Particularly, in a system which carries out parallel processing such as multiprocessing, one failure affects all other portions in the system.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above mentioned drawbacks in the conventional technology and to provide a job scheduling device capable of reducing the influence of system failures if they arise in a system and executing job processing according to an instruction from a user.

A conventional printing system, such as a so-called print system and a copying system, employs a known technology in which print attributes (hereinafter referred to as attribute information) consisting of a paper size, a tray number, and the availability of double-sided printing are added to print data, and printing is carried out based on the attribute information. For example, when print data or copying data are output, attribute information consisting of, for example, a paper size, the number of pages, and the availability of double-sided printing, necessary for printing is set. As a result of sending the attribute information to an output device together with document data or copying data, the print data or the copying data are output in a desired format. In this way, when a print request is issued, printing is carried out based on the attribute information, and therefore the handling of the attribute information becomes important.

However, according to such a conventional technology, the user who issues a print request or a terminal equipment which the user uses, added the attribute information to print data. For this reason, if a print server, or the like, accepted the print request as a print job, it would not have been allowed to change the attribute information. Hence, if the user erroneously specified the attribute information or if the terminal added the attribute information to the print data because the user had forgot to specify the attribute information, it would have become necessary to temporarily cancel the print job once and to issue a new print request given desired attribute information. This imposes an increased burden on the user, as a result of the re-registration of a print request, and brings about a drop in the efficiency of use of a network. Further, a time lag arises before a print output is obtained. Namely, the increased burden on the user, a drop in the efficiency of use of the network, and a print waiting time becomes important.

The present invention is conceived to solve the above mentioned drawbacks in the conventional technology, and the object of the invention is to provide a job scheduling device capable of easily modifying attribute information by reducing a user's burden, a drop in the efficiency of the use of a network, and a print waiting time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A first object of the present invention is to provide a job processing system capable of improving the processing efficiency of a job when a plurality of jobs having the same contents are output.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a job processing system designed so as to be able to continuously output document processing requests without obstructing job control such as a processing start wait.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a print processing equipment designed so as to reduce idle time of a printer and to improve a throughput of the printer by previously converting a job including documents which need conversion.

A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a job processing system which prevents the interruption of processing for a long period of time and the occupying of a printer for a long period of time even if the processing system cannot accept the next document of a job for reasons of failures.

A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a job processing equipment capable of solving the previously mentioned drawbacks in the conventional technology, modifying attributes of a job retained in a queue, easily cancelling a specific document included in a one-job multidocument, and improving processing efficiency by effecting the interruption and resumption of processing on a job-by-job basis.

A sixth object of the present invention is to provide a job scheduling device capable of reducing the influence of system failures and carrying out job processing according to a user's instruction even when failures arise in a system.

A seventh object of the present invention is to provide a job scheduling device capable of easily modifying attribute information by reducing a user's burden, a drop in the efficiency of use of a network, and print waiting time even if the attribute information is erroneously specified.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a job request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, and a job scheduling device which sequentially processes jobs by storing the jobs, received from the terminal equipment through a network, in a queue and sending a job execution section a processing request relating to a document specified by the job stored in the queue, the terminal equipment comprising: attribute information adding means for adding information which specifies a job output method to a job request as attribute information of the job, and the job scheduling device comprising: attribute information setting means for acquiring attribute information included in the received job and sets the attribute information to information which specifies a job and a document; a queue for storing, as a job, a group of items of the information which specify a job and a document; and output result control means which, upon reference to the information items which specify a job and a document with respect to the job stored in the queue, controls the processing request issued to the job execution section in such a way that a specified number of copies of the job are output using the information which specifies a job output method.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a job request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, and a job scheduling device which sequentially processes jobs by storing the jobs, received from the terminal equipment through a network, in a queue and sending a job execution section a processing request relating to a document specified by the job stored in the queue, the terminal equipment comprising: attribute information adding means for adding information relating to the number of copies of the job and information relating to a job output result to the job request as job attribute information, and the job scheduling device comprising: attribute information setting means for acquiring attribute information included in the received job and sets the attribute information to information which specifies a job and a document; a queue for storing, as a job, a group of items of the information for specifying a job and a document; and output result control means which, upon reference to the information for specifying a job and a document with respect to the job stored in the queue, controls the processing request issued to the job execution section in such a way that a specified number of copies of the job are only output in a collated manner if collation processing is specified in the information relating to a job output result using the information which specifies a job and a document, or in such a way that a specified number of copies of the job are only output in an uncollated manner if uncollation processing is specified in the information relating to the job output result using the information which specifies a job and a document.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, a job execution section for printing the documents, and a job scheduling device which accepts a document input from the terminal equipment through a network and issues a processing request relating to that document to the job execution section, the terminal equipment comprising: control information specifying means for specifying a processing start wait for a leading document among the plurality of documents, and the job scheduling device comprising: preparation means for preparing information which specifies a received document; queuing means for storing the prepared information which specifies the document by associating the information on a job-by-job basis; control information setting means which, if a processing start wait is specified for the leading document among a plurality of received documents, sets the processing start wait to information for specifying this leading document; and control state setting means which, if the processing start wait is set to information which specifies the leading document of the job stored in the queuing means, renders that job in a processing start wait state, and wherein the job scheduling device sequentially retrieves jobs stored in the queuing means when the job execution section becomes enabled to accept processing, issues a processing request for a corresponding document when there is information specifying a document to which a processing request can be issued, and when a job is placed in the processing start wait state, prevents the issue of processing requests with respect to a document for that job and documents for subsequent jobs until that job is released from the processing start wait state by a user's instruction or a timeout.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, a job execution section for printing the documents, and a job scheduling device which accepts a document input from the terminal equipment through a network and issues a processing request relating to that document to the job execution section, the terminal equipment comprising: control information specifying means for specifying a processing completion wait for a leading document among the plurality of documents, and the job scheduling device comprising: preparation means for preparing information which specifies a received document; queuing means for storing the prepared information which specifies the document by associating the information on a job-by-job basis; control information setting means which, if a processing completion wait is specified for the leading document among a plurality of received documents, sets the processing completion wait to information for specifying this leading document; and control state setting means which, if the processing completion wait is set to information which specifies the leading document of the job stored in the queuing means, renders that job in a processing completion wait state, and wherein the job scheduling device sequentially retrieves jobs stored in the queuing means when the job execution section becomes enabled to accept processing, issues a processing request for a corresponding document when there is information specifying a document to which a processing request can be issued, and when a job is placed in the processing completion wait state, prevents the issue of processing requests with respect to a document for that job and documents for subsequent jobs until that job is released from the processing completion wait state by a user's instruction or a timeout.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, a job execution section for printing the documents, and a job scheduling device which accepts a document input from the terminal equipment through a network and issues a processing request relating to that document to the job execution section, the terminal equipment comprising: control information setting means for specifying a password input wait for a leading document among the plurality of documents, and the job scheduling device comprising: preparation means for preparing information which specifies a received document; queuing means for storing the information which specifies the document by associating the information on a job-by-job basis; control information setting means which, if a password input wait is set for the leading document among a plurality of received documents, sets the password input wait to information which specifies that leading document; and control state setting means which, if the password input wait state is set to information which specifies the leading document of the job stored in the queuing means, renders that job in a password input wait state, wherein the job scheduling device sequentially retrieves jobs stored in the queuing means when the job execution section becomes enabled to accept processing, issues a processing request for a corresponding document when there is information specifying a document to which a processing request can be issued, and when a job is placed in the password input wait state, prevents the issue of processing requests with respect to a document of that job and documents of subsequent jobs until that job is released from the password input wait state by a user's instruction or a timeout.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request, and a job scheduling device which sequentially processes jobs by storing the jobs received from the terminal equipment in a queue and issuing a processing request, relating to a document specified by the job stored in the queue, to a job execution section, the terminal equipment comprising: attribute information adding means for adding information relating to job wait control and message information relating to the wait control to the job request as attribute information, and the scheduling device comprising: job information preparing means for preparing job information which specifies a received job; attribute information setting means for setting attribute information included in the received job in the job information; a queue for storing the prepared job information in order; control state setting means which, if wait control is set to the job information stored in the queue, renders a job associated with that job information in a wait control state when processing of that job is started or completed; and message information informing means which, when the job enters the wait control state, informs the terminal equipment of message information set with respect to that job.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processor which prints a document in response to a job request received through a network, the print processor comprising: job accepting means for accepting the job request; queuing means for storing the accepted jobs in sequential order; output means for printing a document specified by the job stored in the queuing means; converting means for converting the document into a format which the output means can interpret; and conversion control means for causing the converting means to convert a document which needs to be converted when being printed by the output means, wherein the converting means informs the conversion control means that it can carry out conversion when conversion processing becomes available, and wherein the conversion control means retrieves a document in a format which the output means cannot interpret from among the documents specified by the job stored in the queuing means, and causes the converting means to convert the format of that document.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processor which carries out printing upon receipt of a job processing request, including an instruction for processing print requests for a plurality of documents as one job and scheduling attributes, from a plurality of terminals through a network, the print processor comprising: timer means which, upon receipt of a job processing request from the terminal, checks whether or not a next print document was received within a predetermined period of time by monitoring a series of documents included in the job processing request; scheduling attribute judging means which, upon receipt of the job processing request, judges whether the scheduling attributes are after-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that the execution of a job is started upon receipt of all print documents related to the job or before-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that a job is executed with respect to a received print document every time each print document is received; final document processing means which, when the timer means has judged that the next print document could not be received within a predetermined period of time during-the reception of the job processing request, handles a print document which was received immediately before this judgement as a final document of the current job, if the scheduling attributes are the after-complete attributes; and job completion processing means which, when the timer means has judged that the next print document could not be received within a predetermined period of time during the reception of the job processing request, completes the job by handling a print document which was received immediately before the judgement as the final document of the current job, if the scheduling attributes are the before-complete attributes.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processing method for use in a print processor in the case where a receiving failure arises during receipt of a job processing request, which includes an instruction for processing print requests for a plurality of documents as one job and scheduling attributes, from a plurality of terminals through a network, the print processing method comprising the steps of: judging whether or not a next print document was received within a predetermined period of time by monitoring the time at which the next print document is received while a series of print documents included in the job processing request from the terminal are received; judging, from the received job processing request, whether the scheduling attributes are after-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that the execution of a received job is started upon receipt of all print documents related to this job or before-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that a job is executed with respect to a received print document every time a print document is received; executing a job by handling a print document received immediately before the judgement of the reception of the next print document as a final print document of this job when the next print document is not received within a predetermined period of time, if the scheduling attributes are the after-complete attributes; and completing the job by dealing a print document received immediately before the judgement of the reception of the next print document as the final document of this job when the next print document is not received within a predetermined period of time, if the scheduling attributes are the before-complete attributes.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job processing device which sequentially executes jobs for which processing requests were accepted, the job processing device comprising: first queuing means for sequentially storing jobs for which processing requests were accepted; second queuing means for sequentially storing jobs whose processing is to be interrupted from among the jobs stored in the first queuing means; queue control means which moves the job stored in the first queuing means from the first queuing means to the second queuing means in response to a job processing interruption request and moves the jobs stored in the second queuing means from the second queuing means to the first queuing means in response to a job resumption request; and job execution means for sequentially executing the jobs stored in the first queuing means.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job scheduling device which sequentially stores jobs, for which processing requests were received from terminals, in a queue and sequentially processes the jobs held in the queue using a job execution section, the job scheduling device comprising: a plurality of queues provided corresponding to states of the jobs; scheduling means for scheduling the jobs using the plurality of queues; and recovery means for recovering previous state of each of the jobs being held in the plurality of queues, at the time of recovery from a failure, if any failure occurred while the jobs are being scheduled by the scheduling means.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job scheduling device for storing, in a queue, print jobs which include print data and attribute information and for which processing requests were received from terminals, and for sequentially printing the print jobs held in the queue based on the attribute information using a job execution section, the job scheduling device comprising: a plurality of queues provided corresponding to print job states; scheduling means for scheduling the print jobs using the plurality of queues; and attribute modifying means for modifying the attribute information only when a print job can be changed at the time that an instruction for modifying the attribute information of the print job is received, and when instruction is free from errors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a job processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation showing a queue object prepared in a request control section of the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the overall flow of job processing in the job processing system of the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing procedures for issue of a processing request when a job is output in a collated or uncollated manner in the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing procedures for completion of processing when a job is output in a collated or uncollated manner in the first embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation showing queue objects stored in a printer queue and information retained within the queue objects (collated) in the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing output results when a job is output in a collated manner in the first embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic representation showing queue objects stored in a printer queue and information retained therein (uncollated);

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing output results when a job is output in an uncollated manner in the first embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a schematic representation showing queue objects in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is flowchart showing processing procedures when a document is accepted in the second embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing processing procedures when document processing requests are continuously issued in the second embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the continuous issue of document processing procedures, and processing procedures when a job processing start wait is controlled in the second embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the continuous issue of document processing procedures, and processing procedures when a job processing completion wait is controlled in the second embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the flow of acceptance of a processing completion acknowledgement from a job execution section in the second embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the continuous issue of document processing procedures, and processing procedures when a password input wait is controlled in the second embodiment;

FIG. 17 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between a printer queue and a terminate queue in which jobs waiting for processing start are queued in the second embodiment;

FIG. 18 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between a printer queue and a terminate queue in which jobs waiting for processing completion are queued in the second embodiment (part 1);

FIG. 19 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between a printer queue and a terminate queue in which jobs waiting for processing completion are queued according to the second embodiment (part 2);

FIG. 20 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between a printer queue, a terminate queue, and a wait queue in which jobs waiting for password input are queued in the second embodiment;

FIG. 21 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between the state of a printer queue and a document to be processed in a job execution section in the second embodiment;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of a job scheduling section in a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing the overview of a print processing system in the third embodiment;

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing from the receipt of a document to the queuing of the document in a printer queue in the third embodiment;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing the flow of conversion processing when a conversion section becomes possible to process in the third embodiment;

FIG. 26 is a functional block diagram showing one example of configuration of a job scheduling section used in a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing one example of the configuration of a print processing device of the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing one example of a job control elementary section in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram showing one example of a queuing management section in the fourth embodiment;

FIGS. 30a to 30c are schematic representations showing one example of data structure of a document printing request in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 31 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of a job scheduling section in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 32 is a flowchart showing the flow of timeout processing at the time of after-complete processing in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing the flow of timeout processing at the time of before-complete processing in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 34 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a job control elementary section in a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 35 is a schematic representation showing the configuration of a job processing system of the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a pausing section shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing processing procedures carried out by the pausing section shown in FIG. 36;

FIG. 38 is a schematic representation showing the configuration of a resuming section shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing processing procedures executed by the resuming section shown in FIG. 38;

FIGS. 40a to 40c are schematic representations showing one example of the states of a printer queue and a pause queue when pausing processing and resuming processing are executed in the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 41 is a view showing a processing sequence between the job scheduling section and the job execution section shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 42 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a job processing system and the detailed configuration of a job scheduling device according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a flowchart showing processing procedures the moment when the job scheduling device shown in FIG. 42 received a job and the moment when printing is carried out;

FIG. 44 is an explanatory view showing the configuration of job information queued in each of the queues shown in FIG. 42;

FIG. 45 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a job processing system and the detailed configuration of a job scheduling device used in a seventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 46 is a flowchart showing procedures for confirmation of a job status which is carried out by an attribution modification section shown in FIG. 45;

FIG. 47 is a flowchart showing procedures for confirmation of attribute information which is carried out by the attribute modification section shown in FIG. 45;

FIG. 48 is a flowchart showing processing procedures when the attribute modification section shown in FIG. 45 modifies attribute information;

FIG. 49 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a job processing system used in a modified example of the seventh embodiment;

FIGS. 50a and 50b are schematic representations showing one example of the case where the attribute modification section shown in FIG. 49 modifies attributes without the use of default attribute information and the case where the attribute modification section modifies attributes using the default attribute information; and

FIG. 51 is a flow chart showing attribute modification processing carried out by the attribute modification section shown in FIG. 49.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to FIGS. 1 to 9, a job processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will now be described. The job processing system of the first embodiment efficiently carries out job processing when a plurality of jobs having the same contents are output.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a job processing system used in this embodiment. A job processing system 10 is made up of a terminal 11, a job scheduling device 12, and a job execution section 13.

The terminal 11 is a user device and is connected to the job scheduling device 12 through a network (not shown). This terminal 11 generates one job as a plurality of documents, and issues a job request and various types of control request including these documents to the job scheduling device 12.

In compliance with an instruction input from a user, the terminal 11 adds various types of attribute values, which include those relating to the number of job outputs and information relating to a job output result, to the job request as job attribute information of the job.

The job scheduling device 12 is a module which sequentially stores job requests delivered from the terminal 11 in a queue, schedules the job requests allowing for an assignment and processing conditions of the job execution section 13, and prints the job by transferring a job stored in the queue to the job execution section 13.

This job scheduling device 12 is made up of a request control section 14, a job scheduling section 15, a job execution section control section 16, and a queue management section 17.

Upon receipt of a job request from the terminal 11, the request control section 14 issues a request for scheduling such as print processing to the job scheduling section 15 by preparing a queue object corresponding to that job, and delivering this queue object to the job scheduling section 15.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of the queue object prepared by the request control section 14. Upon receipt of the leading job request, the request control section 14 prepares a queue object for that job (which retains information common to all documents) and sets a job information section. In this job information section, information which specifies that job (hereinafter referred to as job information) is prepared on the basis of the attribute information set for the leading job request.

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