1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that has, for example, a user authentication function, and stores an executed job in a reexecutable format, a method for controlling the same, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, some printers provided with a memory device such as a high-capacity hard disk have a function of storing electronic document data used for a print job that has been executed once and enabling a user to select the electronic document data later so as to perform reprinting. This function makes it possible to reuse and, for example, to print an electronic document that has been printed once, thereby improving user convenience (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-058522 (Patent Document 2) and the like).
At the time of performing such reprinting of an electronic document, in order to protect confidentiality of the document, user access is generally restricted so that only the user who first executed printing can reexecute printing.
Also, there has been proposed a digital multi-function peripheral (hereinafter referred to merely as an “MFP”) in which restriction of use of the device is set for each user, and that has a user authentication/identification function for identifying a user who has executed a job (see, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-172398 (Patent Document 1), for example). A user authentication method performed in this user authentication/identification function and a timing at which user authentication is performed vary according to the environment in which the MFP is used.
In Patent Document 1, for example, when an application selected among a plurality of applications provided in the device is used, it is determined according to a security level associated with this application whether or not authentication is necessary, and if it is determined to be necessary, user authentication is performed. Also, in Patent Document 2, it is determined based on predetermined information included in a print job whether or not to handle the print job as a guest job with respect to which printing and storage authority is restricted, and the job is executed on the basis of the determination result. It is also disclosed that, at the time of reprinting a stored document, stored documents of a logged-in user and stored documents of a guest user are displayed as reprintable stored documents, and a document selected from among these stored documents is subjected to reprinting.
In the case where it is determined whether or not user authentication is necessary with respect to a specific function or application, as in Patent Document 1, there are jobs that are executed without user authentication. Since the history of jobs that have been executed without user authentication does not include user identification information, jobs stored for reprinting include both jobs having user identification information and jobs having no user identification information. A user who is authenticated at the time of execution of a job and recorded in the job history is referred to as the owner of the job. With respect to a job having no such user identification information, the owner of the job cannot be specified, so it cannot correctly be determined whether or not reexecution is possible on the basis of the access authority of the user. Also, if user authentication is executed when referencing a job history in order to determine whether or not reexecution is possible, in the case where there is a guest job as in Patent Document 2, user authentication is also requested with respect to this guest job, and user convenience may be reduced as a result.
The present invention was made in view of the above-described conventional examples, and provides an image forming apparatus that prevents unauthorized access to electronic document data recorded as a job history when reexecuting a job relating to the electronic document data, and improves user convenience, and a method for the same.
The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes the following configurations. One aspect of the present invention provides an image forming apparatus comprising: an execution unit which executes a job; a storage unit which stores a history of the job executed by the execution unit; a receiving unit which receives an instruction from a user to reexecute the job according to the history; a display unit which displays an authentication screen for authentication unit to authenticate a user; and a control unit which controls the execution unit to reexecute the job if the user who gave the instruction is a user who has been authenticated by the authentication unit, and performing control to display the authentication screen if the user who gave the instruction is a user who has not been authenticated by the authentication unit.
According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent unauthorized access to electronic document data when reexecuting a job. In addition, user convenience is improved.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Hereinafter, a mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to drawings.
Overall Configuration of a System
Hardware Configuration of the Image Forming Apparatuses 3001 and 3002
A CPU 3301 performs overall control of access to various types of connected devices in accordance with a control program or the like that is stored in a ROM 3303, and also performs overall control of various types of processing performed within the controller 3300. A RAM 3302 is a system work memory on which the CPU 3301 operates, and serves also as a memory for temporarily storing image data. The ROM 3303 has stored therein a boot program and the like for the apparatus. An HDD 3304 is a hard disk drive and can store image data, later-described user information, and data relating to various types of jobs. The HDD 3304 stores a job history of a send job, a print job, or the like, data (image data or PDL data) of the corresponding job stored in the job history, and print setting data if there is any. Also, information relating to user authentication is stored.
An operation unit I/F 3305 is an interface unit for connecting a system bus 3307 to the operation unit 3201. This operation unit I/F 3305 receives image data to be displayed on the operation unit 3201 from the system bus 3307, and outputs the received image data to the operation unit 3201 and information input from the operation unit 3201 to the system bus 3307.
A network I/F 3306 is connected to a LAN or a WAN, and to the system bus 3307, so as to input and output information. An image bus 3319 serves as a transmission path through which image data is communicated, and is constituted by a PCI bus or an IEEE 1394 bus.
A scanner image processing unit 3312 subjects the image data received from the scanner unit 3202 via a scanner I/F 3311 to correction, processing, and editing.
A scanner image compression unit 3313 receives the image data from the scanner image processing unit 3312 and compresses the received image data. A decompression unit 3315 decompresses the data, and then subjects the data to raster deployment, sending the deployed data to a printer image processing unit 3317.
The printer image processing unit 3317 receives the image data from the decompression unit 3315, and subjects the image data to image processing with reference to attribute data attached to this image data. The image data subjected to image processing is transmitted to a printer I/F 3318 and printed on paper by the printer unit 3203.
An image conversion unit 3314 subjects the image data to predetermined conversion processing, such as rotation, color space conversion, binary to multi-valued conversion, image composition, and thinning.
A RIP unit 3308 receives intermediate data generated based on PDL code data that has been transmitted from, for example, the client PC 1001 or 1002, and generates (multi-valued) bitmap data. The generated bitmap data is compressed by a compression unit 3309, and is sent to the image bus 3319.
The User Authentication/Identification Function of the Image Forming Apparatus 3001
Before job execution processing performed by the image forming apparatus 3001 of the present embodiment is described, the user authentication/identification function of the image forming apparatus 3001 will briefly be described with reference to
In order to perform user authentication, the image forming apparatus 3001 manages information, such as a user name and a password, as user information. The image forming apparatus 3001 also manages role information for implementing access restrictions for each user with respect to each function provided in the apparatus, in which one role is assigned to each user. The user information 301 and the role information 302 are stored, as a user DB, in the HDD 3304 of the image forming apparatus 3001.
The role information 302 shown in
Job Execution Processing in the Image Forming Apparatus 3001
Hereinafter, processing performed when the functions of the image forming apparatus 3001 are used will be described with reference to a flowchart of
First, in step S401, an instruction of a function that the user wants to use is received, the function having been selected by the user on the operation unit 3201 of the image forming apparatus 3001. On the operation unit 3201, buttons (not shown) for respective functions such as “Copy” and “Send” are displayed, and the user presses a corresponding button of a function that he or she wants to use so as to select the function. Next, in step S402, it is determined whether or not the role of the user who gave the instruction is permitted to use the instructed function. Here, as described above, the “Guest User” role is used for comparison when user authentication has not been performed, and the role associated with the authenticated user is used for comparison when user authentication has already been performed. For example, assuming that user authentication has not been performed and the “Guest User” role is used for comparison, since the “Guest User” role is permitted to use the “Copy” function in the role information shown in
In step S403, it is determined whether or not the role of the user is the “Guest User” role. If it is determined that the role of the user is the “Guest User” role, user authentication is assumed to have not been performed, and the processing advances to step S404 to perform user authentication. If it is determined that the role of the user is not the “Guest User” role, it is assumed that user authentication has been performed and that a function that is not available to the authenticated user has been selected, and a message indicating that use of the function is not permitted is displayed on the operation unit 3201, after which the processing returns to step S401.
In step S404, the image forming apparatus 3001 displays the user authentication screen (not shown) on the operation unit 3201. In step S405, a user name and a password input by the user on the operation unit 3201 are received. In step S406, the user name and the password received in step S405 are compared with user information of the user DB managed by the image forming apparatus 3001, and it is determined whether or not there is a matching user. If there is a matching user, user authentication is assumed to have succeeded, and the processing advances to step S407. The authenticated user name (user identification information) is stored as a logged-in user name. If there is no matching user, user authentication is assumed to have failed, an error message indicating the failure is displayed on the operation unit 3201, and the processing returns to step S404. In step S407, role information of a role associated with the authenticated user is read from the user DB, and it is determined whether or not the function instructed in step S401 is permitted. If the function is determined to be permitted, the processing advances to step S408, and if the function is determined to be prohibited, a message indicating that this function is not available is displayed on the operation unit 3201, and the processing returns to step S401.
In step S408, various types of settings for executing a job are received, and upon receipt of an instruction to start the job in step S409, the settings of the job received in step S408 are reflected on the job and the job is executed (S410). For example, if the function instructed in step S401 is the “Copy” function, the image forming apparatus 3001 controls the scanner unit 3202 so as to start to read a paper document. Then, the scanned image data is subjected to correction, processing, and editing according to the settings received in step S408, and the printer unit 3203 is controlled so as to output the image data as the paper document. Also, after execution of the job, “print time”, “job name”, “executing user name”, and the like are recorded in the job history as a log of the job execution. “Executing user name” is the user name of the user who is currently logged-in when the function is executed by an operation of the image forming apparatus 3001. The job history is stored in the HDD 3304. When execution of the job has been completed, the image forming apparatus 3001 determines, in step S411, whether or not the job has a user name, that is, user identification information. If it is determined that user identification information is included, the processing shifts to step S413, and if it is determined that user identification information is not included, the processing shifts to step S412. Here, in step S411, the image forming apparatus 3001 determines whether or not there is user identification information by determining whether or not the job has been executed by a Guest user. That is, it is determined that there is no user identification information if a logged-in user cannot be specified, and it is determined that there is user identification information if a logged-in user can be specified. Assuming that there is a user to whom the “Guest user” role is assigned, when the user is logged-in it is determined that there is user identification information, even though the role of the user is “Guest user”. In step S412, it is determined whether or not the job having no user identification information is to be stored for reuse. This determination may be performed according to settings configured in advance in the image forming apparatus 3001, or by displaying on the operation unit 3201 a dialogue for confirming whether or not the image data and settings of the executed job are to be stored, and thereby receiving an instruction from the user. If it is determined that the job having no user identification information is to be stored, the processing advances to step S413. In step S413, setting data and image data of the job are stored in the HDD 3304 for reuse of the job in association with the above-described job history. The setting data and the image data of the job to be stored may be in a format that is reexecutable by the image forming apparatus 3001. Also, information items to be stored as a job history include at least “executing user name” (that is, user identification information) and the presence or absence of associated image data, and the associated information. In addition, “execution time”, “job name”, “number of print sets”, or the like may be stored. The image data is, for example, bitmap data (or compressed data thereof) that was read from the scanner. If it is determined in step S412 that the image data is not to be stored, the job data is deleted and the job processing ends.
A configuration is also possible such that step S412 is omitted and, with respect to the job that is determined in step S411 to include no user identification information, neither the job attribute nor the image data of this job is stored.
The above is the job processing executed by the image forming apparatus 3001, but when a received job like a PDL print job is executed, instructions of the user in steps S401 and S405 cannot be received by the operation unit 3201. The processing in the case of such a PDL print job will be described with reference to a flowchart of
First, in step S501, the image forming apparatus 3001 receives a PDL print job via a network I/F 3306. Next, in step S502, the received PDL job is analyzed, and various types of setting information set for the job are acquired. In step S503, execution of the job, that is, printing of the received job is performed. After the execution of the job, “print time”, “job name”, “executing user name”, and the like are recorded in the job history, as a log of job execution. “Executing user name” is the user name included in the received PDL data. If a user name is not included, no user name is recorded. In step S504, it is determined whether or not the executed job has a user name (user identification information). If the setting information of the job acquired in step S502 includes user identification information of the user who instructed printing, the processing advances to step S506, and if the setting information of the job does not have such identification information, the processing shifts to step S505. In step S505, similarly to the procedure in step S412, it is determined whether or not the job having no user identification information is to be stored. Here, since an instruction of the user cannot be received using the operation unit 3201 in the case of a PDL print job, the determination of whether or not the job data is to be stored is made according to the settings that have been configured in advance for the image forming apparatus 3001 or to setting information that has been set in advance for the job. If it is determined that the job is to be stored, the processing advances to step S506 to store for reuse the settings and the image data of the job in the HDD 3304 in association with the above-described job history. If it is determined in step S505 that the job is not to be stored, the job data is deleted and the job processing ends.
Job Reexecution Processing According to the First Embodiment
Processing for reexecuting a job from a job history performed by the image forming apparatus 3001 of the first embodiment will be described with reference to
The processing shown in this flowchart is executed by a program being read from the ROM 3303 of the image forming apparatus 3001, deployed on the RAM 3302, and executed by the CPU 3301.
First, in step S701, a job type to be displayed on a job history screen is received by an instruction of a user. As shown in
If, in step S702, it has been determined that a reexecutable job is stored, the processing advances to step S703. In step S703, as with in step S403 of
As described above, when a “reexecution” instruction is received from the user (S708), the executing user name of the selected job and the logged-in user name are compared in step S709. If it is determined in step S710 that the users are the same user, the job is assumed to be reexecutable and in step S711, various types of settings to be set for the job are received, and the job is executed according to the received setting contents (S713). In step S714, setting contents set when the job has been reexecuted, and document data thereof are stored in the HDD 3304, and the job processing ends. If it is determined in step S710 that the users are not the same user, an error message indicating that the job is not reexecutable is displayed on the operation unit 3201 (S712), and the processing returns to step S708. Note here that although, in the present embodiment, user names are used in step S709 for comparison between the executing user and the logged-in user, domain names may additionally be used for the comparison.
The above is the reexecution processing performed when a job having no user identification information is set to not be reexecutable. According to the present embodiment, user authentication is only performed when the job history includes a reexecutable job, so user authentication processing is limited in the case where reexecution is permitted, thereby improving user convenience.
Procedures for which a Job Having No User Identification Information is Set to be Reexecutable
The following will describe the case for which a job having no user identification information is set to be reexecutable, with reference to a flowchart of
If, in step S703, it has been determined that the user is a Guest user, a user authentication screen is displayed, and in step S801, a cancellation instruction to cancel the user authentication is received. If the cancellation instruction is received in step S801, the processing shifts to step S706 and continues to reference the job history as a Guest user.
If, in step S708, a reexecution instruction is received, in step S809, the job executing user of the job history is compared with the logged-in user.
The above is the processing in step S809. The procedures in step S710 in
As described above, according to the present embodiment, a configuration is possible in which, at the stage of storing a job history, the entity data of a job whose user cannot be specified, e.g., its image data, is not stored as an option. This enables reexecution of a job whose owner cannot be specified to not be permitted, and enables all reexecutable jobs to be reexecuted after performing user authentication.
Meanwhile, if reexecution of a job having no user identification information is permitted, a job of a Guest user that includes no user identification information can also be reexecuted based on the job history, so that flexible access restriction is possible according to the usage method of the user.
Job Reexecution Processing According to the Second Embodiment
In the first embodiment, it is determined whether or not to perform user authentication processing, depending on whether or not a reexecutable job is included in the job history when the job history is displayed. In the second embodiment, a method for determining whether or not to perform user authentication processing when the user instructs reexecution after the job history is displayed will be described.
A flowchart of reexecution processing performed by an image forming apparatus 3001 of the second embodiment will be shown in
In the second embodiment, user authentication processing is performed, by determining whether or not user authentication needs to be performed when a reexecution instruction is received in a job history, so that it is possible to omit unnecessary user authentication processing when the job history is referenced.
Aspects of the present invention can also be realized by a computer of a system or apparatus (or devices such as a CPU or MPU) that reads out and executes a program recorded on a memory device to perform the functions of the above-described embodiment(s), and by a method, the steps of which are performed by a computer of a system or apparatus by, for example, reading out and executing a program recorded on a memory device to perform the functions of the above-described embodiment(s). For this purpose, the program is provided to the computer for example via a network or from a recording medium of various types serving as the memory device (e.g., computer-readable medium).
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-138192, filed Jun. 19, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2012-138192 | Jun 2012 | JP | national |