Patent Application
20130182277
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for causing a printer to execute print processing in response to a print instruction sent from a mobile terminal device using an e-mail system, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-220606 proposes a technique of attaching a file to be printed to e-mail and then transmitting the e-mail from the e-mail software of a mobile terminal device to a printer in a print system. In this technique, an e-mail address is assigned to the printer in advance, e-mail with an attached file is transmitted to the e-mail address, and the printer performs printing according to the image data of the attached file. More specifically, the printer requests an e-mail address of a server in printer initial setting, and acquires and holds a unique e-mail address. The mobile terminal device used by the user transmits a file to be printed to the e-mail address by attaching it to e-mail. The server holds a table for associating a printer with an e-mail address. Upon receiving e-mail destined to an e-mail address, the server looks up the table to specify a printer as a print output destination. As described above, in the conventional print system, the server side and printer side need to have the above arrangement.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-312392 proposes a technique in which a dedicated adaptor is arranged between a server and a printer to print a file attached to e-mail sent from a mobile terminal device. In a print system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-312392, therefore, it is necessary to add a dedicated device other than a server and printer. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-323456 proposes a technique in which various print settings (to be referred to as print option settings hereinafter) from a mobile terminal device are described in e-mail, and analyzed by an image processing apparatus, thereby executing printing.
The above conventional techniques, however, have the following problems. In, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-220606, it is necessary to provide a printer with an arrangement for requesting an e-mail address of a server. Furthermore, the server needs to have an arrangement for managing a table for asssociating an e-mail address with an output destination printer. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-312392, a device other than a server and printer is required. That is, it is necessary to add an arrangement for implementing the above conventional technique to both the printer side and server side, or another device. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-323456, if print option settings are described in mail, and the mail is transmitted, there are many setting items, thereby considerably deteriorating the user operability.
The present invention enables realization of an information processing apparatus which enables a mobile terminal device to send a print instruction to a printer without adding a dedicated arrangement to the printer, a control method for the information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
One aspect of the present invention provides an information processing apparatus communicable with a mobile terminal device and an image forming apparatus, comprising: a reception unit configured to receive e-mail from the mobile terminal device; an analysis unit configured to analyze the e-mail received by the reception unit; and a control unit configured to, if the e-mail has an attached file and a print instruction is described in a body field of the e-mail in accordance with an analysis result of the analysis unit, transmit image data attached to the e-mail with transmitting a print instruction, to an image forming apparatus designated in a subject field or the body field of the e-mail.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a control method for an information processing apparatus communicable with a mobile terminal device and an image forming apparatus, comprising: receiving, by a reception unit, e-mail from the mobile terminal device; analyzing, by an analysis unit, the e-mail received in the receiving; and transmitting, by a control unit, if the e-mail has an attached file and a print instruction is described in a body field of the e-mail in accordance with an analysis result in the analyzing, image data attached to the e-mail with transmitting a print instruction, to an image forming apparatus designated in a subject field or the body field of the e-mail.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the relative arrangement of the components, the numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention unless it is specifically stated otherwise.
<Configuration of Print System>
An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to
The mobile terminal device 101 is portable, and incorporates an operating system (to be referred to as an “OS” hereinafter) on which various application software programs can operate. In the present invention, the mobile terminal device 101 can transmit e-mail to the printer 105 through wireless communication using e-mail software as one application software program.
The access point (to be referred to as an “AP” hereinafter) 102 is wirelessly connected with the mobile terminal device 101, and enables the mobile terminal device 101 to connect the wired LAN through wireless communication. Details of an internal arrangement will be described later with reference to
The mail server 103 has the same internal arrangement as that of a general personal computer (to be referred to as a “PC” hereinafter). The function of the mail server is implemented by installing mail server software onto the mail server 103 and operating it. Details of the internal arrangement will be described later with reference to
<Arrangement of Access Point>
An example of the hardware arrangement of the access point 102 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to
The AP 102 includes an electronic circuit unit 201, an operation/display unit 204, and a wired LAN port 205. The wired LAN port 205 has a connector connectable with an Ethernet® cable for connecting to the wired LAN 106. The operation/display unit 204 is mainly formed by, for example, an LED and switch. The operation/display unit 204 displays the state of the main body of the AP 102 and that of each port. The operation/display unit 204 also includes a switch for readily connecting to a wireless LAN. The AP 102 also has a security function for secure wireless LAN connection.
The electronic circuit unit 201 includes a CPU/MAC unit 202 and a radio frequency transmission/reception unit (to be referred to as an “RF (Radio Frequency)” hereinafter) 203. The CPU/MAC unit 202 includes a CPU (not shown) and a MAC (Media Access Control) (not shown). The CPU includes devices such as a processor and memory. The above devices are interconnected by a bus (not shown). The MAC includes a wireless communication part and a wired communication part. An antenna 206 for transmitting/receiving a radio wave is attached to the RF unit 203. The CPU/MAC unit 202 is connected with the operation/display unit 204, RF unit 203, and wired LAN port 205.
<Arrangement of Mail Server and Print Server>
The internal hardware arrangement of the mail server 103 or print server 104 will be described with reference to
An Ethernet® cable indicated by the wired LAN 106 shown in
The hard disk (HD) 310 of the print server 104 stores a mobile terminal print application and various application programs of the present invention, a printer driver, and a print option table for each printer used when a terminal instructs e-mail printing. Furthermore, the HD 310 stores a table for associating, with each other, mail with an attached file for which a print option setting request has been made, mail from the print server as a reply to the request, and mail for which the user has designated settings. The print server 104 has a mail client function and a printer control function, and uses them to implement a function of printing a file attached to mail. The mail server function of the mail server 103 will be described later with reference to
<Arrangement of Printer>
An example of the hardware arrangement of the printer 105 as an example of an image forming apparatus will be described with reference to
The controller unit 401 processes print data received via the network I/F unit 403 and local I/F unit 406. The ASIC 402 incorporates a CPU, and mainly executes processing of passing print data to the engine unit 411. The operation unit 408 notifies the user of the status of the printer, and accepts an operation input from the user. The ROM 409 stores a control program. The RAM 410 serves as a work area for the control program, or an image expansion area when the print data is processed. The network I/F unit 403 and local I/F unit 406 transmit/receive data to/from a PC via an external interface. Examples of the external interface are Ethernet® and USB interfaces. The engine I/F unit 407 sends processed print data to the engine unit 411. The engine unit 411 prints, onto a paper sheet, the print data from the controller unit 401.
<E-Mail>
Transmission/reception of e-mail with respect to the mail server 103 will be described with reference to
The mobile terminal device 101 uses the internal e-mail software to transmit e-mail. The mail server 103 connected with the wired LAN receives the transmitted e-mail via the AP 102. At this time, the e-mail software of the mobile terminal device 101 designates the predetermined mail address (destination) of the mail server 103. For example, USER@mailprint.xx.jp is designated. Upon receiving the e-mail, the mail server 103 stores the e-mail in its own hard disk 503, and terminates the operation.
After that, according to an instruction from a mobile cooperative print application according to the embodiment, the print server 104 regularly polls the POP server 502 of the mail server 103 to check whether e-mail has been received. At this time, the print server 104 designates the predefined mail address (destination). The mobile cooperative print application according to the embodiment can arbitrarily set a polling interval.
The POP server 502 of the mail server 103 requests a user name and password for access from the print server 104. When the user name and password are verified, the POP server 502 checks accumulated received mail messages, and returns information about the presence/absence of e-mail destined to the print server 104. If the POP server 502 holds received e-mail destined to the print server 104, it passes it to the print server 104, and terminates the operation. Note that the polling operation of the mobile terminal device 101 is the same as that of the print server 104.
<Print Processing in Print System>
The processing procedure of the whole print system 100 from when the mobile terminal device 101 transmits e-mail to set print options until the printer 105 prints an attached file will be described with reference to
In step S601, the e-mail software of the mobile terminal device 101 held by the user attaches a file to be printed, and describes a print option setting request in a body field, thereby transmitting the thus obtained e-mail.
Referring back to
In step S621, the mail server 103 receives the e-mail, and stores it in the hard disk 310 of
In step S632, the print server 104 determines whether e-mail has been received. If e-mail has been received, the process advances to step S633, in which it is determined based on the analysis result of analysis of the e-mail whether there is an attached file. If there is an attached file, the process advances to step S634, in which the print server 104 analyzes the attached file, and determines whether the attached file of the received e-mail is print data. If the attached file is print data, the process advances to step S635; otherwise, the process returns to step S631.
In step S635, the print server 104 performs analysis to determine whether the body field of the e-mail contains a print option setting request. If the request is contained, the process advances to step S636, in which the print server 104 reads out, from a table (to be described later), setting data which are registered in the table in association with the printer described in the subject field of the e-mail. The print server 104 then describes the readout setting data in the body field of e-mail, and replies with it as a response to the e-mail from the mobile terminal device 101, thereby returning to step S631. That is, the print server 104 transmits reply mail to the e-mail from the mobile terminal device 101. The print server 104 holds, in advance, in the HD (setting storage unit) 310, the settings of each of a plurality of printers connected via the network (wired LAN 106) as a table shown in
The mail server 103 receives the mail in step S621, saves it in step S622, and stands by for reception of a polling signal from the mobile terminal device 101 in step S623. In step S602, the mobile terminal device 101 performs polling, and accesses the mail server 103 via the access point 102. Upon receiving a polling signal from the mobile terminal device 101, the mail server 103 transmits new mail destined to the mobile terminal device 101 within itself in step S624. Upon receiving the new mail, the access point 102 determines in step S613 that wireless data has been received, and transfers the wireless data to the mobile terminal device 101 in step S614.
In steps S611 and S612, the access point 102 transfers the mail to the mail server 103. In response to the polling operation of the print server 104 in steps S631 and S632, the mail server 103 transmits the mail to the print server 104. The print server 104 determines in step S635 whether the mail contains a setting request. Since there is no attached file or setting request in the mail, the process advances to step S637. In step S637, the print server 104 determines whether the mail is a reply to the e-mail transmitted by the print server 104. Since the mail is a reply, the process advances to step S638, in which print options are set in the printer described in the subject field, that is, LBP100 in this example. The process then advances to step S639. If the mail is not a reply to the transmitted e-mail, the process advances to step S639 without executing the processing in step S638.
In step S639, the print server 104 searches the HD 310 within the print server 104 for print data and mail with an attached file associated with the mail, and transmits the print data to the printer (LBP100) set with the print options. The printer 105 receives the print data in step S641, and executes printing according to the settings in step S642.
Note that data to be processed will be referred to as an “attached file” until the print server 104 analyzes the file in step S633. After the print server 104 performs analysis in step S633, data expanded to that to be printed will be referred to as “print data”. The processing in steps S631 to S639 by the print server 104 will be described in detail later with reference to
<Processing of Print Server 104>
The processing in steps S631 to S639 executed by the print server 104 will be described in detail with reference to
In step S701, the CPU 301 receives e-mail from the mail server 103 by polling the POP server 502. In step S702, the CPU 301 determines whether the e-mail has been successfully received. If the e-mail has not been successfully received, the process ends; otherwise, the process advances to step S703, in which the CPU 301 determines whether there is an attached file. If there is an attached file, the process advances to step S704, in which the CPU 301 extracts the attached file. After that, the process advances to step S705, in which the CPU 301 determines whether the extracted file is data to be printed. If the extracted file is not data to be printed, the process returns to step S701 to stand by for next new mail. If the extracted file is printable data, the CPU 301 controls the DKC 306 via the bus 309 to store the data in the HD 310. In step S706, the CPU 301 analyzes the received mail to determine whether the body field contains a print option setting request (for example, a character string “OP”) for the printer 105.
If the body field contains print option settings, the process advances to step S707, in which the CPU 301 extracts the setting file of a printer described in a subject field, which has been saved in the HD 310, creates reply mail, and describes the settings in the body field of the reply mail, as shown in
Referring back to
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S703 that there is no attached file, the process advances to step S711, in which the CPU 301 determines whether a print option setting number is described in the body field. If there is no print option setting number, the process returns to step S701, the CPU 301 stands by for reception of new mail. On the other hand, if there is a setting number, the process advances to step S712, in which the CPU 301 determines whether the HD 310 stores print data associated with the received mail. If there is no associated print data, the process returns to step S701, in which the CPU 301 stands by for new mail. If there is associated print data, the process advances to step S713, in which the CPU 301 reflects settings on the printer described in the subject field according to the print option setting number. For example, settings with setting No. 2 of the printer of LBP 100 shown in
Note that a table for a printer driver and “printer name” in the subject field of e-mail may be, for example, a table shown in
As described above, in the print system according to the embodiment, the mobile terminal device 101 can readily set print options in a printer to print out data by adding the above-described characteristic arrangement to only the printer server side without providing a dedicated arrangement to the printer. Since even the printer name of a printer newly added to the print system can be readily recognized, a decrease in load to user operations can be expected.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible.
On the other hand, the modification in
Although in the above-described embodiment, the communication unit of the mobile terminal device 101 transmits e-mail via the wireless LAN, e-mail may be transmitted via a mobile telephone network. Furthermore, the mobile terminal device 101 may attach a plurality of files to e-mail, and the present invention is not limited to the description of the above embodiment.
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 (for example, 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. 2012-006556 filed on Jan. 16, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-006556 | Jan 2012 | JP | national |
