JPH0659834A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently operate the print processing system by the simple control system by reducing the processing time in the printer controller receiving a print request from a work station or the like connecting to a network. CONSTITUTION:A priority output discrimination section 12 refers to the number of priority output limit pages stored in a priority output limit page setting section 15 and discriminates whether or not a total output page number of a print request given from a print request reception section 11 is less than the priority output limit page number. When the total output page number of the print request is an output less than the priority output limit page number, the print request is added to a head in data in a processing wait print queue section 13 and when not, the print request is added to a tail end of the data in the print queue section 13.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer controller which receives a print request from a workstation, a host computer, a personal computer or the like connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of printer control device, print requests sent from a workstation connected to a network are added to a processing waiting queue in the order in which they are received, and the processing is started from the head of the processing waiting queue. The print processing was performed in order. For this reason, even if a print request with a small amount of data is received, if there is a print request with a large amount of data first, there is a drawback that the output of the print request with a large amount of data is waited more than necessary. there were.

To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-121527 discloses a print request including its output class, that is, information indicating the priority of the print request and data of actual data output as a document. If the amount of data of the received print request is larger than the limit value set in advance by the print control device, the output class of the print request is changed to the lowest priority level, A control method has been proposed in which the output of a print request with less number of requests is automatically prioritized.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned control method, since information indicating the output class must be given to all print requests according to the amount of data, the print requests are classified into classes. There is a problem that it takes time and labor and the control method becomes complicated.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device which can reduce the processing time by omitting the trouble of classifying and can efficiently operate the print processing system by a simple control system. .

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in a printer control device according to the present invention, a printer control device which accepts a print request through a network and causes a printer to output a document in accordance with the request, accepts the print request. A page number determination means for comparing the total output page number requested and a preset priority output limited page number to determine whether the output page number is less than or equal to the priority output limited page number, and the page number determination means If the output page number is less than or equal to the priority output limit page number, it is added to the head of the processing queue, and if not, it is added to the tail of the processing queue. It is characterized by having and.

[0007]

When the print request is sent through the network, the printer controller receives and accepts it. When the acceptance is completed, it is checked how many pages of the accepted print request will be output. This process can be implemented by an existing program. In the printer control device, a priority output limit page number is set in advance as a condition of a print request for preferentially printing. The priority output limit page number represents a condition that if the total output page number of the received print request is less than this value, the print request is output with the highest priority. The page number determination means
The total number of output pages of the print request is compared with the limited number of priority output pages, and it is determined whether the received print request is less than or equal to the limited number of priority output pages. The processing waiting queue adding means adds this print request to the head of the processing waiting queue if the received print request has an output of the priority output limit page number or less. vice versa,
If the number of output pages exceeds the priority output limit number of pages, this print request is added to the end of the waiting queue. The print requests thus registered in the processing queue are processed when the turn comes, and the document is output from the printer.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a printer control device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of a print processing system to which the printer control device according to the present invention is applied. In FIG. 2, 1 is a network for transmitting print requests and data, 2 is a workstation that can create a document, and can transmit the created document as a print request, 3 is a network that accepts the print request from the network 1, A printer controller 4 for outputting a document from the printer 4 in accordance with the request is a printer, 5 is a connection cable connecting the printer controller 3 and the printer 4, 6 is a transceiver cable connecting the network 1 to the workstation 2 and the printer controller 3. is there.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the printer control device 3. The printer control device 3 includes a print request acceptance unit 11 and a priority output determination unit 1
2, a print queue unit 13 for processing, an output program unit 14, a priority output restricted page setting unit 15, a command control unit 16, and a user interface control unit 17.

The print request acceptance unit 11 is an input unit that accepts a print request transmitted through the network, and the accepted print request is passed to the priority output determination unit 12.

The priority output determination unit 12 calculates the total number of output pages of the received print request, the total number of output pages calculated by the total number of output pages calculated by the output page number calculation process, and the number of priority output limit pages described later. And the total number of output pages is less than or equal to the priority output limit page, and the print request is less than or equal to the priority output limit page according to the determination result in the page number determination process and the page number determination process. If the print request is output, the print request is added to the head of the print queue for processing 13, and if not, the print queue adding process for processing is added to the end of the print queue for processing 13.

The process waiting print queue unit 13 manages a process waiting queue for registering the print request passed from the priority output judging unit 12. In the following description, the processing waiting queue is the processing waiting print queue unit 13
Shall be pointed out.

The priority output restriction page setting section 15 holds the value of the set priority output restriction page. The priority output restriction page setting unit 15 is connected to the keyboard and the display through the user interface control unit 17 and the command control unit 16, and when the system administrator of the printer control device wants to change the value of the priority output restriction page, it is set to a predetermined value. You can change the value by using the command.

The operation of the above-described print processing system will be briefly described. A print request transmitted through the network is passed from the print request acceptance unit 11 to the priority output determination unit 12. The priority output determination unit 12 calculates the total number of output pages of the received print request, and refers to the value of the priority output limited page number held in the priority output limited page setting unit 15 to refer to the total output of the print request. It is determined whether the number of pages is less than or equal to the priority output limit number of pages. If the result of the determination is that the print request is an output that is less than or equal to the priority output limit page number, the print request is added to the head of the processing queue, and if not, it is added to the tail of the processing queue. The print requests registered in the print queue unit 13 for processing are processed by the output program unit 14 when the turn comes, and the document is output from the printer.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of a print request accepted by the print request accepting section 11 and then passed to the priority output determining section 12. The print request includes the document name, sender, and
It has data such as paper size and number of copies (number of copies). The configuration of the print request registered in the processing queue is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the total output page number checked by the priority output determination unit 12 is newly added.

Next, the processing procedure of the priority output determination unit 12 when a print request is delivered from the print request receiving unit 11 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When a print request is passed from the print request acceptance section 11 to the priority output determination section 12, the actual data of the print request is first taken out, and it is checked how many pages of document are output when the print request is output. (Step 101). Next, based on the result of the check in step 101 and the data indicating the number of copies in the print request, it is checked how many pages the print request will be output in total (step 102). Next, the priority output limit page number set in the priority output limit page setting unit 15 is compared with the result obtained in step 102 (step 10).
3). Then, it is determined whether or not the total output page number of the print request is less than or equal to the priority output limit page number (step 104). If Yes, the print request is added to the head of the processing queue (step 105). If No, the print request is added to the end of the waiting queue (step 1).
06).

Here, a specific example in the case where the priority output limit page number is set to 5 will be described. If the printer control unit receives a print request for a total output page number of 2 with the processing queue as shown in FIG. 6, this print request (document name, patent) is less than the priority output limit page number. , Is added to the head of the processing waiting queue as shown in FIG.

Similarly, assuming that the state of the processing waiting queue is as shown in FIG. 7, and the printer controller accepts a print request for the total output page number of 5, this print request (document name, guidebook) Is also less than or equal to the priority output limit page number, and is therefore added to the head of the processing queue as shown in FIG.

In the above-described embodiment, when a print request for which priority output is permitted is added to the processing queue, a print request for which priority output has already been permitted waits in the processing queue as in the previous embodiment. In this state, the print request to be newly added is added to the head of the waiting queue, but when the print request for which priority output is permitted is added to the waiting queue, priority output has already been permitted. When there is a print request that has been made, it is possible to perform control such that the print request having fewer output pages is placed at the head of the processing queue. In this case, when Yes in step 104 of FIG. 5, the total output page number A of the print request registered at the head of the processing queue and the total output page number B of the print request newly added are set. Compare. And
If A is smaller than B, add it to the second from the beginning, and
If is larger than B, it is added to the beginning. Alternatively, the print requests registered in the processing queue may be taken out in order from the beginning, compared with the total output page number of the print request to be newly added, and the same rearrangement as described above may be performed. Furthermore, even when the result of step 104 in FIG. 5 is No, the same rearrangement as described above may be performed by comparing with the total output page number of the print request registered at the end.

[0022]

As described above, in the printer control apparatus according to the present invention, the total number of output pages of the print request is compared with the number of priority output limited pages, and the total number of output pages of the print request is limited to the priority output. If the output is less than or equal to the number of pages, it is added to the head of the queue waiting for processing, and if it is not, it is added to the end of the queue waiting for processing, so processing to add information such as the output class indicating priority is unnecessary Therefore, the processing time can be shortened as compared with the conventional case. Moreover, since the control method is simplified, an efficient print processing system can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a printer control device.

FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of a print processing system to which the printer control device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a print request.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a print request registered in a processing queue.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a priority output determination unit when a print request is given.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a processing queue.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a processing queue.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a processing queue.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Print request acceptance unit, 12 ... Priority output determination unit,
13 ... Pending print queue section, 14 ... Output program section, 15 ... Priority output restricted page setting section, 16 ... Command control section, 17 ... User interface control section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer controller that receives a print request through a network and outputs a document from a printer in accordance with the request, compares the total number of output pages of the received print request with a preset number of priority output pages. , A page number determination means for determining whether or not the total output page number is less than or equal to the priority output limit page number, and adds the print request to the head or the tail end of the processing waiting queue according to the determination result in the page number determination means. A printer control device comprising: a process queue adding means.