JPH08314653A - Print server device provided with automatic selecting function for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To shorten the time required for printing by automatically selecting the printer which has the earliest print end time out of plural printers which are connected to a print server connected to network. CONSTITUTION: A printer monitor means 22 in the print server 2 stores the states of respective print queues 26, 27, and 28 in a printer information table 21 by referring to the print queues 26, 27, and 28 at constant intervals of time. When a work station 1 sends printing data to the print server 2, a communication control means 20 receives the printing data and passes them to a printing data control means 23. The printing data control means 23 having received the printing data stores the printing data in a temporary queue 24. Then the printer monitor means 22 is made to judges a print queue which has early print end time by referring to the printer information table 21, and a printing data sending means 25 sends the printing data in the temporary queue 24 to the print queue.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer server device, and more particularly to a print server device having an automatic selection function of a printer having the shortest print waiting time among printers connected to the print server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a print server device in which a plurality of printers of this type are connected to a network is
A print queue for storing print data until the printer is ready to print is created for each connected printer. When a printer user prints, one of the printers that is connected to the print server is selected in advance, and the workstation to send print data to the print queue corresponding to that printer is selected. I was making settings. When changing a printer for printing to a printer connected to another print server, it is necessary for the workstation to change so that the print data is sent to the print queue corresponding to the printer changed by the user.

[0003]

In this conventional print server device, since the user is not notified of the status of each print queue created in the print server, many print data are stored in the print queue of the printer being used. When there is, the time until the end of printing unexpectedly takes a long time for the user.

Further, when the user wants to perform printing with a printer that takes a short time to finish printing, the user checks the status of each print queue created in the print server before printing, and the user himself / herself. It was necessary to reconfigure the workstation after determining which printer had the shortest time to finish printing.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a print server device having a printer automatic selection function, wherein each printer is connected to a plurality of printers and to which a print queue for temporarily storing print data is connected. A print server provided correspondingly and a workstation connected to the print server by a network send print data to a print queue of the print server, and printing is executed by a printer connected to the print server. A printer information table for registering print queue information for temporarily storing data, a status of a plurality of print queues is monitored, the print queue information is stored in the printer information table, and stored from the printer information table. Print queue that refers to the status of the print queue Monitoring means, a temporary queue for temporarily storing print data sent from the workstation, print data sending means for sending the print data stored in the temporary queue to the print queue, and storing print data in the temporary queue Further, the printer monitor means refers to the printer information table, and the print data sending means sends print data from the temporary queue to the print queue.

According to the method of automatically selecting a printer of the print server device of the present invention, the first step of sending print data from the workstation to the print server, and the communication control means receiving the print data and transmitting the print data to the print data control means. The second step of passing the print data, the third step of storing the print data in the temporary queue by the print data control means to which the print data is passed, and the print data control means causing the printer monitoring means to calculate the total print data size. A fourth step of issuing a request and causing the printer monitoring unit to calculate a total print data size for each print queue of the printer information table in response to a print data size total calculation request from the print data control unit; The fifth step of comparing the calculation results of the fourth step and each calculation result If the total of all the print data sizes in the print queues is equal to the sixth step, and if the totals are equal in the determination of the sixth step, the number of print data stored in each print queue is compared. The seventh step, and the fifth or seventh step
As a result of the step comparison, the printer of the print queue having the smallest numerical value is determined to be the printer having the shortest print end time, and the print data control means issues a print data sending request to the print data sending means. A ninth step in which the print data sending unit sends the print data stored in the temporary queue to the print queue determined in the seventh step in response to a print data sending request from the print data control unit. It is characterized by including.

[0007]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment shown in FIG.
And a print server 2 and a plurality of printers 3, 4, and 5.

The print server 2 has a communication control means 20.
, Printer information table 21, and printer monitoring means 2
2, a print data control unit 23, a temporary queue 24,
Print data sending means 25 and print queues 26, 2
7 and 28 are provided.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of the printer information table 21. In this example, the print queue name 2a, the number 2b of print data stored in the print queue, and the size 2c of each print data stored in the print queue. In this example, five pieces of print data are stored in the print queue 26, and the size of each print data is 10
0, 50, 200, 70, 30. Also, three print data are stored in the print queue 27, the size of each print data is 200, 60, 100, and the print queue 28 is Stores four print data, and the size of each print data is 80, 12
It is 0, 40, 90.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.

The printer monitoring means 22 refers to the print queues 26, 27, 28 at a fixed time interval and determines the number of print data stored and the size of each print data in each print queue 26, 27, 28. Stored in the printer information table 21. This printer information table 21
Is updated every time the printer monitoring unit 22 stores data.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if the user of the workstation does not select the printer by himself / herself, the print server automatically selects the printer with the short print end time to perform the printing, so that the time required for the printing can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a data configuration diagram of a printer information table in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process performed in the print server in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 workstation 2 print server 3, 4, 5 printer 20 communication control means 21 printer information table 22 printer monitoring means 23 print data control means 24 temporary queue 25 print data sending means 26, 27, 28 print queue

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A print server having a plurality of printers connected thereto, the print server having a print queue for temporarily storing print data corresponding to each printer, and a workstation connected to the print server by a network. A printer information table that registers print queue information for temporarily storing print data in a printer that sends print data to the print queue of the print server and printing is executed by a printer connected to the print server; Sent from the workstation and the printer monitoring means for monitoring the status of the print queue, storing the print queue information in the printer information table, and referring to the status of the print queue stored in the printer information table. Temporarily store print data A temporary queue, print data sending means for sending the print data stored in the temporary queue to the print queue, print data stored in the temporary queue, and the printer monitoring means referencing the printer information table to print the print data. A print server device having a printer automatic selection function, comprising print data control means for causing the data sending means to send print data from the temporary queue to the print queue. 2. A first step of sending print data from a workstation to a print server, a second step in which the communication control means receives the print data and passes the print data to the print data control means, and the print data is passed. The third step in which the print data control means stores the print data in the temporary queue, the print data control means issues a total calculation request for the print data size to the printer monitoring means, and the printer monitoring means causes the printer to print the print data. In response to a total print data size calculation request from the data control means, the fourth step of calculating the total print data size for each print queue of the printer information table is compared with the calculation results of the fourth step. If the sum of the print data size in each print queue is the same as the result of the calculation in the fifth step A sixth step of determining whether the print data is stored in each print queue if the sums are all equal in the determination of the sixth step, and the fifth or fifth step. 7
As a result of comparing the steps, an eighth step of determining the printer of the print queue having the smallest numerical value as the printer having the shortest print end time, and the print data control means issues a print data sending request to the print data sending means, A ninth step in which the print data sending unit sends the print data stored in the temporary queue to the print queue determined in the seventh step in response to a print data sending request from the print data control unit. A method for automatically selecting a printer of a print server device, comprising: