Patent Application
20220303401
This patent application is based on and claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-047766, filed on Mar. 22, 2021, in the Japan Patent Office, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and an information processing method.
A device that displays a screen for receiving an application execution instruction, such as an application list screen is known. Further, a technique for improving convenience of such a screen has been devised.
For example, a technique for facilitating a user to understand whether the application of an icon displayed on the application list screen is activated is disclosed.
Embodiments of the present disclosure describe an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and an information processing method. The information processing apparatus acquires first information related to a device for displaying a screen that receives an application execution instruction, determines whether an application is executable according to a type of device from which the application execution instruction was received, among a plurality of types of devices classified by function indicated in the first information, and transmits to the device, second information for causing the device to display on a display a screen indicating a determination result of whether the application is executable.
A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages and features thereof can be readily obtained and understood from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The accompanying drawings are intended to depict embodiments of the present invention and should not be interpreted to limit the scope thereof. The accompanying drawings are not to be considered as drawn to scale unless explicitly noted. Also, identical or similar reference numerals designate identical or similar components throughout the several views.
In describing embodiments illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology is employed for the sake of clarity. However, the disclosure of this specification is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected and it is to be understood that each specific element includes all technical equivalents that have a similar function, operate in a similar manner, and achieve a similar result.
Referring now to the drawings, embodiments of the present disclosure are described below. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
Hereinafter, a first embodiment is described with reference to the drawings.
The information processing apparatus 10 is one or more computers that provide various applications that implement a series of processes (hereinafter, referred to as “workflow”) in which one or more of the plurality of processes are combined, through the network N1.
Here, the process is a process related to an electronic file such as a document file or an image file. For example, print, scan, facsimile transmission, data format conversion, mail delivery, optical character recognition (OCR) process, data processing, compression and decompression, storage in a repository, etc. are examples of process.
The device 20 is an electronic device that displays a screen for receiving from a user, an execution instruction of the application provided by the information processing apparatus 10. For example, an image forming apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral (MFP), a personal computer (PC), a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a projector, an electronic whiteboard, a digital camera and the like are examples of the device 20. The user can use various applications provided by the information processing apparatus 10 by using the device 20. In the present embodiment, a case where the device 20 is the image forming apparatus is described.
The external storage system 30 is one or more storage devices that provide a cloud storage. In the present embodiment, the external storage system 30 is a candidate for a storage destination of data generated by the application in the information processing apparatus 10.
The input device 11 includes a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, and the like to enable the user to input various operation signals. The display device 12 includes a display and the like and displays the processing result produced by the information processing apparatus 10. Note that at least one of the input device 11 and the display device 12 may be connected to the information processing apparatus 10 for use when necessary.
The communication I/F 17 is an interface device to connect the information processing apparatus 10 to the network N1. The information processing apparatus 10 performs communication through the communication I/F 17.
The HDD 18 is a nonvolatile storage device that stores programs or data. Examples of the software or data stored in the HDD 18 include an operating system (OS) for controlling an entire operation of the information processing apparatus 10 and an application program providing various functions on the OS.
The information processing apparatus 10 may use a drive device (for example, a solid state drive (SSD)) that uses a flash memory as a storage medium instead of the HDD 18. Further, the HDD 18 manages the stored programs and data by a predetermined file system and/or predetermined database (DB).
The external I/F 13 is an interface with an external device. Examples of the external device include a storage medium 13a. Accordingly, the information processing apparatus 10 can read from and write to the storage medium 13a through the external I/F 13. Examples of the storage medium 13a include a flexible disc, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), a Secure Digital (SD) memory card, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory.
The ROM 15 is a nonvolatile semiconductor memory that can hold programs and data even when the power is turned off. The ROM 15 stores programs and data such as Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), OS settings, network settings, and the like, which are executed at the time of activation of the information processing apparatus 10. The RAM 14 is a volatile semiconductor memory that temporarily stores programs and data.
The CPU 16 reads programs or data from a storage device such as the ROM 15 and the HDD 18 onto the RAM 14 and executes processing to implement entire control and functions of the information processing apparatus 10.
The ROM 33 is a nonvolatile semiconductor memory that stores various programs or data. The RAM 32 is a volatile semiconductor memory, which holds programs or data temporarily. The NVRAM 34 stores, for example, setting information and the like. The HDD 35 is a nonvolatile storage device that stores various programs or data.
The CPU 31 is an arithmetic unit that implements control and functions of the entire device 20 by reading programs, data, setting information, and the like from the ROM 33, NVRAM 34, HDD 35, and the like onto the RAM 32 and executing processing.
The control panel 22 includes an input unit that receives a user input, and a display unit that displays various information. The external I/F 23 is an interface with an external device. An example of the external device is a storage medium 23a. Accordingly, the device 20 can read from and write to the storage medium 23a through the external I/F 23. Examples of the storage medium 23a include an integrated circuit (IC) card, a flexible disc, a CD, a DVD, a SD memory card, and a USB memory.
The communication I/F 24 is an interface for connecting the device 20 to the network. The device 20 performs communication through the communication I/F 24. The printer 25 is a printing device that prints print data. The scanner 26 is a scanning device that reads a document and generates an electronic file (image file).
The acquisition unit 101 receives a generation request of an application list screen from the device 20. The acquisition unit 101 acquires device type information from the device 20 (hereinafter referred to as a “target device 20”) that is a source of the generation request. The device type information is information indicating a classification or type of devices including the same function (hereinafter referred to as “device type”) such as the MFP includes the print function and the scan function, the PC and the smartphone does not include the print function and the scan function but includes a display, and the electronic whiteboard does not include the print function and the scan function but includes a large display. In other words, the device type information is information indicating which type each device 20 belongs to when the device 20 is classified into a plurality of types according to the function of the device 20. The application list screen is an example of a screen for receiving from a user, the execution instruction of application provided by the information processing apparatus 10. For example, the application list screen is a screen that includes each application provided by the information processing apparatus 10 as an option.
The determination unit 102 determines whether each application that is a candidate of the application to be displayed on the application list screen is executable on the target device 20 based on the device type information acquired by the acquisition unit 101 and information stored in the restriction information storage unit 111 (hereinafter referred to as “restriction information”). The application is determined not executable not only when the application cannot be executed actually on the target device 20 but may also include when an application creator does not allow the target device 20 of a specific device type to execute the application for some reason.
The restriction information storage unit 111 stores common information for restricting the executable devices 20 for the candidate application for displaying on the application list screen. Specifically, the restriction information storage unit 111 stores restricted application information for identifying an application subject to restriction, and the device type information indicating the device type that can execute the application or cannot execute the application. The candidate application for display on the application list screen can be identified by referring to the application information storage unit 112.
The application information storage unit 112 stores in advance the application information of each of one or more applications that are display candidates of the application list screen. The application information refers to information including application identification information, application workflow definition, and the like.
The generation unit 103 generates screen data of the application list screen. The generation unit 103 generates the screen data so as to include information for causing the target device 20 to display the application list screen according to the determination result by the determination unit 102. For example, the generation unit 103 includes in the screen data, information for preventing execution of the application that is determined to be not executable. The screen data refers to data including a definition for causing the device 20 to display the application list screen. For example, format of the screen data may be Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format or another format.
The transmission unit 104 transmits the screen data generated by the generation unit 103 to the target device 20.
The server unit 105 controls the execution of the application based on the application information of the application selected on the application list screen displayed by the target device 20 based on the screen data transmitted by the transmission unit 104.
As illustrated in
The display control unit 201 is, for example, a browser. In the present embodiment, the display control unit 201 transmits the generation request for generating the application list screen to the information processing apparatus 10 in response to an instruction from the user. The generation request includes the device type information of the device 20 from which the generation request is transmitted. The display control unit 201 also receives from the information processing apparatus 10, the screen data of the application list screen generated by the information processing apparatus 10 in response to the generation request. The display control unit 201 displays the application list screen based on the screen data.
The client unit 202 transmits an execution request of the application selected by the user to the information processing apparatus 10 through the application list screen. The client unit 202 also controls a process to be executed on the device 20 with respect to the application.
Hereinafter, the process executed by the information processing system 1 is described.
In step S101, the display control unit 201 of the target device 20 receives a display instruction for displaying the application list screen from the user. The display instruction may be, for example, selection of an icon or the like on a screen already displayed by the display control unit 201.
In step S102, the display control unit 201 transmits the generation request for the application list screen to the information processing apparatus 10. The display control unit 201 includes the device type information of the target device 20 in the generation request. For example, when the generation request is transmitted using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the display control unit 201 may include the device type information in a query of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) corresponding to the generation request.
In response to receiving the generation request of the application list screen by the acquisition unit 101 of the information processing apparatus 10, the information processing apparatus 10 executes the generation process of the application list screen in step S103. The application list screen generation process is a process of generating screen data (for example, data such as HTML) of the application list screen.
In step S104, the transmission unit 104 transmits the screen data of the application list screen generated in step S103 to the target device 20.
In response to receiving the screen data, the display control unit 201 of the target device 20 displays the application list screen based on the screen data in step S105. In other words, the screen data causes the target device 20 to display the application list screen.
In response to the selection of the invalidated icon, the display control unit 201 may ignore the selection or may display a warning screen indicating that the application corresponding to the icon cannot be executed. The screen data may include a definition for causing the display control unit 201 to display the warning screen.
Hereinafter, details of step S103 in
In step S201, the acquisition unit 101 acquires device type information from the request received from the target device 20 (request for generating the application list screen 510). For example, when the target device 20 is a PC, the device type information acquired by the acquisition unit 101 is “PERSONAL-DEVICE”.
In step S202, the determination unit 102 acquires the application information of each application of the display candidate of the application list screen 510 from the application information storage unit 112. The application information acquired by the determination unit 102 may be all application information stored in the application information storage unit 112 or may be some application information.
Each element has a form of “element name: value”. The element name is a name of the element. The value is a value of the element.
The highest-level element is appInfo. The value of appInfo is application information. The value of the appInfo element (that is, application information) includes a name element, a type element, and a parameters element as child elements.
The value of the name element is a name unique to each application. The value of the name element may be included in the icon displayed on the application list screen 510, for example.
The value of the type element indicates the type of application. The application type is information that classifies an application group based on a type of workflow executed by the application. In the present embodiment, the application group is classified into either “print” or “scan” application type. In other words, the application type is “print” or “scan” in the present embodiment. An application whose application type is “print” is hereinafter referred to as a “print application”. An application whose application type is “scan” is hereinafter referred to as a “scan application”.
The print application is an application that executes a series of processes (workflow) such as downloading the data to be printed from the external storage system 30, processing the data, and printing the processed data on the device 20. For example, a plurality of print applications are defined according to the difference in the storage of the download source, the difference in the processing process for the downloaded data, and the like.
The scan application is an application that executes a series of processes (workflow) such as receiving from the device 20, data input by the device 20 by scanning or the like, processes the data, and saving the processed data in the external storage system 30. For example, a plurality of scan applications are defined according to the difference in processing process, the difference in the external storage of the storage destination, and the like.
The parameters element includes child elements whose values are setting information related to the program (hereinafter referred to as “component”) that executes the process, in the order of the processes that make up the set of processes performed by the application. That is, in the present embodiment, the application is defined by an ordered combination of one or more components.
The element name of each child element of the parameters element is the identification name of the component. The value of each child element is the setting information for the component. In the example of
The download element corresponds to a process of downloading data from the external storage system 30 (a component that executes the process (hereinafter referred to as “download component”)). The value of the download element includes a name element, a url element, and a file_format element as the setting information for the download component. The value of the name element indicates the name of the external storage system 30 from which the download is made. The value of the url element indicates the URL of the external storage system 30 of the download source. The value of the file_format element indicates the downloadable file format.
The time_stamp element corresponds to a processing process of assigning a time stamp to data (a component that executes the processing process (hereinafter, referred to as “time stamp component”)). The value of the time_stamp element includes a position element as the setting information for the time stamp component. The value of the position element indicates the position to which the time stamp is to be assigned.
According to the above description, the application information in
Note that the workflow definitions illustrated in
However, as illustrated in
As described above, in step S202 of
In step S203, the determination unit 102 acquires the restriction information from the restriction information storage unit 111.
The restriction number is identification information of each restriction information stored in the restriction information storage unit 111.
The restricted application information is information indicating an application having restriction on execution. The restriction information includes a condition for the value of any element in the application information. The execution of application corresponding to the application information that meets the condition is restricted. In the example of
In step S204, the determination unit 102 determines whether each candidate application is executable on the target device 20. Specifically, the determination unit 102 determines that the target device 20 can execute all the candidate applications when there is no restriction information (
Note that
In step S205, the generation unit 103 generates screen data of the application list screen 510 based on the determination result in step S204. The generation unit 103 includes information for causing the target device 20 to display the application list screen 510 based on the determination result in the screen data. For example, the generation unit 103 generates the screen data so that the icon corresponding to the non-executable application is invalidated (inoperable). Alternatively, the generation unit 103 may generate the screen data so as not to include the icon of the non-executable application. Alternatively, the generation unit 103 may generate the screen data so that the target device 20 displays the warning screen 520 as illustrated in
Although the example in which the information processing apparatus 10 includes the determination unit 102 is described above, the determination unit 102 may be included in the device 20. In this case, the generation unit 103 generates the screen data of the application list screen 510 so that all the applications of the display candidates can be executed. The transmission unit 104 transmits the screen data, application information of all applications, and restriction information stored in the restriction information storage unit 111 to the target device 20. The determination unit 102 of the target device 20 determines the executable application based on the application information and the restriction information. The display control unit 201 displays the application list screen 510 based on the determination result by the determination unit 102.
As described above, according to the first embodiment, the screen data of the application list screen 510 is generated so that the executable application and the non-executable application are distinguished based on the function of the device 20 used by the user. Accordingly, the application that can be executed on the application list screen 510 is changed according to the device type. The user is made aware of the executable applications of the device 20. As a result, it is possible to reduce unnecessary operations such as selecting the non-executable application. Further, when the non-executable application is hidden, more executable applications can be displayed on the application list screen 510.
Hereinafter, a description is given of a second embodiment. The differences from the first embodiment is described in the second embodiment. Points that are not particularly mentioned may be the same as described in the first embodiment.
In the first embodiment, the device 20 whose device type information is “PERSONAL-DEVICE” cannot execute all the print applications. The second embodiment describes an example in which the print application that the device 20 cannot execute is limited to a part of the print applications.
For example, suppose that only the data downloaded from a specific external storage system 30 is restricted from being executed by the device 20 whose device type is “PERSONAL-DEVICE”. Specifically, it is assumed that there is a contract stating that the data downloaded from the specific external storage system 30 is to be printed. In this case, in order to comply with the contract, for the print application whose data download source is the specific external storage system 30, execution by the device 20 whose device type is “PERSONAL-DEVICE” may be restricted. In this case, the restriction information may be defined as follows.
In this case, the determination unit 102 determines that the application whose name of the external storage system 30 of the download source of the download component is “hoge_store” is the non-executable application among the print applications.
Further, restriction information as illustrated in
In this way, by associating the target of the restriction not with the type of application but with the components (setting information) included in the application, the determination unit 102 determines whether the application is executable with further detail (that is, in component units). The examples of the component include the component that saves in the external storage, the component that performs OCR, a component that converts a file format, and the like. As illustrated in
The device 20 is not limited to the image forming apparatus as long as the device includes a communication function. The information processing apparatus 10 includes, for example, an output device such as a projector (PJ), an interactive whiteboard (a whiteboard having an electronic whiteboard function capable of mutual communication (IWB)), a digital signage, a head up display (HUD) device, an industrial machine, an imaging device, a sound collecting device, a medical device, a network home appliance, an automobile (connected car), a notebook PC, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a game console, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a digital camera, a wearable PC or a desktop PC.
The apparatuses or devices described in one or more embodiments are just one example of plural computing environments that implement the one or more embodiments disclosed herein.
In some embodiments, the information processing apparatus 10 includes multiple computing devices, such as a server cluster. The plurality of computing devices is configured to communicate with one another through any type of communication link, including a network, shared memory, etc., and perform the processes disclosed herein. Similarly, the device 20 may include multiple computing devices configured to communicate with one another.
In each of the above embodiments, the device type information is an example of first information. The restriction information is an example of third information. The screen data is an example of second information.
The above-described embodiments are illustrative and do not limit the present invention. Thus, numerous additional modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. For example, elements and/or features of different illustrative embodiments may be combined with each other and/or substituted for each other within the scope of the present invention. Any one of the above-described operations may be performed in various other ways, for example, in an order different from the one described above.
Each of the functions of the described embodiments may be implemented by one or more processing circuits or circuitry. Processing circuitry includes a programmed processor, as a processor includes circuitry. A processing circuit also includes devices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and conventional circuit components arranged to perform the recited functions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-047766 | Mar 2021 | JP | national |
